Welcome to the Shadows, darlings

30+ . Mostly random stuff. I am a supportive friendo, so here's a clear fucking warning. If you're a racist, homophobic, queer-phobic asshole?? You're not welcome here. GET THE UNHOLY FUCK OFF MY BLOG

[homunculus-argument]

A grand fantasy city-state that has developed a consistent, uniform system of "best by"-dates, not just for food safety reasons and to reduce food waste, but to also significantly reduce crime and conflict between residents. The matter at hand is goblins.

Goblin residents of the city are legal citizens with equal rights just the same as everyone else, but their natural lifestyle differs dramatically from the rest of the peoples living in the city. They are scavengers by nature, having no problems with eating carrion, overripe fruits and plants, and building everything they own from things that other races throw away as junk and trash. As the city produces plenty of waste that goblins would love to take and the city is glad to be rid of, any well-organised city is not just a paradise for goblins, but welcomes them with open arms. They save the city a fortune in waste disposal costs.

Problems mainly arise by differing ideas of what counts as "discarded". Goblins are unfairly labelled as thieves, when they are merely opportunistic and optimistic by nature, and will interpret any unclear situation to their own benefit, and will argue "how was I supposed to know that you still wanted it?" over things that looked lovely and were left unattended. And while yoinked items of clothing and other tools are easily returned or financially reimbursed (paying for what they already took is the only use that goblins have for money, which they do not steal), but foodstuff is gone faster than you can blink.

So, the city needed to determine laws for how to define and clearly label when consumable goods are no longer fit to most peoples' consumption, both to help people keep track on how old their groceries are, and also to mark them for goblins. So even though the food that's past the date on it can still be good to eat, it might also be gone by the next time you reach for it.

[homunculus-argument]

Ok yeah I admit. This is just how me and my boyfriend live.

[ambidisastrous]

People who work within a system: okay so studies show that the normal system works 90% of the time, but because it’s very bad when it doesn’t work, we’ve set up a process to manage those outliers. We need six well-trained workers to run the system 100% of the time without any serious incidents.

CEOs and politicians, every time: Well i just saw it go right twice in a row which means the normal system which you say works 90% of the time actually works 100% of the time. We’re cutting the team down to one person pulling 18 hour shifts without breaks

[pangur-and-grim]

Hey wait where'd Belphie's bald spot go

it's still there, but his skin changed colour! Belphie has a pointed colouration, and pointing is form of temperature dependant albinism, so it basically means that his entire body is a heat map.

in the winter, he camps out by the heating vent and stays warm, so his bald spot turns bright pink (no melanin)

and in the summer, he goes out on the catio where it's chillier, and his bald spot turns dark

[pangur-and-grim]

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[kaity--did]

Sorry to hear people are being weirdos. Can I make your and The Warlock's day better with a picture of my cat in a bumble bee suit?

i love them

[penandinkprincess]

laughing about the idea of shane who has a vasovagal response to needles because i know in my heart that he would believe in his ability to beat it

he would believe so hard

HE is the master of this situation, and he can BEAT IT

he is MIND OVER MATTERING

he is FOCUSED

he is DETERMINED

he is PASSING OUT IN THE PARKING LOT

[penandinkprincess]

shane comes to, sees The Face and just immediately slides the towel on his head down to cover his eyes

[penandinkprincess]

making this worse is that they have lunch plans with shane's parents, which is one of the reasons shane decided to try and out-willpower biology in the first place so they could get through as soon as possible

and now they're going to be late AND shane now has to convince ilya to not get him in trouble

"you canNOT tell my mom"

"i am going to tell your mother"

"do NOT"

"i am telling her as soon as we get there"

"you tell her, and I'm not fucking you for a WEEK"

"oh, so you are still telling lies?"

[my-beautiful-wickedness]

Happy Dracula Day

World Dracula Day is celebrated every year on May 26. The international holiday commemorates the publication date of Bram Stoker’s famous novel “Dracula,” published on May 26, 1897.

[blackbearmagic]

one time I saw a photo of a skinned whale/dolphin flipper on reddit or something and I've just never recovered

there's just. A paw in there.

[gallusrostromegalus]

One of the most spiritually profound moments of my life was when I was sixish and at a natural history museum with my parents that had a whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling.

I remember my dad picking me up to sit on his shoulders (possibly one of the last times he did that because I was getting too big to hold there for long) so I could be close to it's flipper because he wanted to show me something. He had me hold up my arm parallel to the whale's, and explained that we had the same bones, pointing to it's scapula and humerus and radius and ulna and so on while poking the same bones in my skinny little arm, all they way down to the tips of my fingers and it's own.

And in that moment, I could suddenly see how the whale and I were the same animal, just stretched and shrunk into different proportions by nature. There was an entire exhibit with skeletons of different animals and we went through all of them, picking out the hands and faces of all of them on myself.

I had never felt such a profound connection to the world around me before as I realized on a visceral level that not only was I related to all these creatures, they were very literally my distant cousins, and that in a way, they were me from back then and I was them from now, and we all were others still from the future.

Every living thing on earth is your cousin. The most distantly related humans are your 50th cousins. Chimps are your several thousandth cousins. An octopus is your 25 millionth cousin. Trees are your billionth cousins. You and I are surrounded by family. And that makes me feel profoundly loved.

So thanks dad, for pulling your shoulder a bit to show me that I am part of the universe. I love you too.

[dopeeeeeeshxt]

Ayeeee

[lightspeedsound]

Adorable, beautiful magic

Guys, I think I might be gay

[crownofstardustandbone]

[catchymemes]

[autisticlittleguy]

Apparently Eva Stratt at the end of the movie on the ship had a prison tattoo on her neck that meant something along the lines of "life without parole." So, parallel to Grace and Rocky's adventure, there was a whole subplot where Eva Stratt

- Was eventually trialed by governments of the world as a scapegoat and sent to prison

- She somehow BROKE out of said prison and currently commandeers a rogue paramilitary faction of Project Hail Mary loyalists who believe in her over world governments, who presumably are still hunting her down

- She currently is on the run and staying mobile on an ice breaker ship like some kind of james bond villain base (but you know, good) while STILL working on project hail mary the whole time

- Her rogue loyalist faction controlled enough resources they could go to space and collect the beetles Grace had sent. Alternatively, it was the world government that collected the beetles, and Stratt had a whole ass heist movie to steal them, which is why she had the little xenonite figure at the end of the movie. Either ways she was running circles around them.

Absolutely insane. Never piss off a history major

[ltwilliammowett]

The Danish training ship “Georg Stage” (1934) dresses in rainbow colour, 2021 

[dragon-in-a-fez]

not the kind of gay ship I’m used to seeing on tumblr but cool

[dubiousculturalartifact]

ship georg is an outlier but SHOULD be counted

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Visiting family for the weekend, including my seven year old niece, who is obviously the most special and incredible child on the planet

Anyway, she really, really loves it when I tell her stories. She loves stories anyway, and at first this manifested as "stories about Tad-Cu Bryn", aka my father (her grandfather) who died before she was born. This has been a lovely way to keep his memory alive, and she adores every story - she has her favourites, which she will request.

Then it became apparent that she specifically loves me telling her stories. She'll happily ask others for them too, but from me she just wants any anecdote at all; which of course is wonderful and demonstrates that she is a child of impeccable taste and wisdom and brilliance, but also she has ADHD and the energy reserves of a seven year old and so this gets Tiring very quickly

Yesterday, in the car on the way back from the wildlife centre, she asked for one of my longer stories, and I was like hey, how about we try something different?

And she was like, no, tell me a story about Tad-Cu Bryn

And I was like, this will be a brand new story and you get to play it and help me tell it

And she was like, explain

So I gave her three characters to choose from. The first was a warrior with a sword she could name, who was nonetheless dyspraxic. The second was a gymnastic elf who could commune with trees but was afraid of heights. The third was a dyslexic witch whose spells sometimes go wrong when she spells the words wrong.

She picked the witch. I pulled up an online d20 on my phone. I went to start, and she insisted my mother had to play as the elf.

So I told them that the new queen of the kingdom had called for them, because their palace treasury had been robbed - specifically, a single enchanted coin that brings luck and wealth to a ruler's reign had been stolen. And tales of enchanted coins were suddenly emanating from across the land, so each one needed investigating until the right coin was found.

It turns out kids who like stories will absolutely lap this shit up. She was enthralled. It was the simplest story - they had to get into a bank, revive some unconscious gnomes, then enter the vault, find the coin that had been deposited into it, then get back to the queen. Enough to fill a half hour car ride, basically, but she managed to fill it with all the wacky hijinks you get from a ttrpg, particularly when she tried to smash a door down with a hammer but rolled a 1.

We finished with the queen saying it wasn't the right coin, and then my niece demanded we go again, this time with her playing as a sapient reticulated python. That time we made it all the way to the final boss fight, which was a sorcerer who created a big coin monster out of loads of coins; I asked my niece what she wanted to do, and she described graphically how she wanted to constrict and eat the sorcerer and immediately rolled a 19. So, sure! Okay. The sorcerer is now very dead. The coin monster, though, was still there, and as my niece tried to say she would do the same thing, I was like, no, you're a snake and you just ate. You're now immobile.

At this point, my sister advised her to regurgitate the sorcerer.

Great! said my niece. I'm going to do it at the coin monster.

And rolled a 20.

So she projectile vomited a dead sorcerer into the coin monster, and won the day.

Anyway, today she immediately demanded we play "the game with the story where we choose", and my brother in law is now asking me how he can do this with her ("Are you making it all up as you go along??"). But yeah, turns out, this is a fantastic way to entertain a seven year old. Vague ongoing quest, then three steps: get into (place), resolve (minor puzzle), boss fight to finish. Boom. Easy.

So far I've done a bank, a tavern, and an art gallery (it featured an exhibit that was just a room full of slippery banana skins). I'm going to do a pirate ship next

[jedthewolfdog]

the more i learn about the ties between stress and nervous system disregulation and "mental illness" and physical health issues and what things outside talk therapy are therapeutic the more im like. damn many early cultures & indigenous societies had this shit figured out and the modern world is absolutely one big wellbeing shredder

to really boil it down to essentials like ...

childhood trauma is overwhelmingly common

childhood trauma creates long term stress which leads to nervous system disregulation [same source]

nervous system disregulation leads to inflammation in the brain

inflammation in the brain leads to "mental illnesses" like schizophrenia, major depression, and ptsd

these things contribute to stress, ensuring the stress stays chronic as well as the nervous system disregulation, which leads to physical illness and premature death

and then you look at like ...

spending time in green spaces like forests and blue spaces like oceans and rivers are both therapeutic

singing (especially group singing) boosts your immune system, mood, and regulates your nervous system

exercise regulates your nervous system and alleviates "mental illness" symptoms

playing is therapeutic and integrates your emotions and identity even in the face of trauma

and its like. oh okay. as modern cultures we barely have time for and are discouraged from participating in all the things we evolved to thrive with while constantly heaping on the amount of stress we can possibly fit in our day to day lives

and its like well no wonder people love concerts and karaoke and national parks and sports and going to the beach and playing games. these things Literally make us healthier

but also we need to make these things more regular parts of our lives if we're gonna have the endurance to fight rising global capitalism, fascism, and genocide

so my tips for Surviving All This Shit:

go to the park or be around a body of water at least once a week. schedule a time & make it part of your routine

exercise for 20-30 minutes most days, whether its walking around your neighborhood, playing a sport, lifting weights while you watch tv, swimming, etc

sing with your friends. go to local concerts. sing to your pets. sing at religious services. join a choir

play a game at least once a week. obv my recommendation is ttrpgs (anything but d&d 5e, i beg), but this also includes any video game that's not online competitive games against strangers. playing video games for 30 minutes a day but not over 3 hours a day is literally healthy for you

stop looking at traumatic news if youre not going to do anything about it. if you read a news article and then go volunteer, get involved in a community, donate money, or engage in activism, that's awesome!! keep it up. if you read the news regularly and it makes you upset and scared and depressed and then youre too overwhelmed to do anything about it Please Stop For Real you're both not helping the situation and also actively literally killing yourself. find one topic to engage with, find a way to make a difference for that topic, and delete the news app from your phone im being so real right now

read nonfiction by indigenous authors! this is just a general tip but also like. open your mind to other ways of society operating. it was not always like this and does not have to stay this way. if you see a recommendation post on here seriously look at the recs and try to get one from your library. there's a rec list of indigenous nonfiction here and another rec list here for some options that could be good to start with (both very north america focused). you can also search "indigenous nonfiction" in the tumblr search to see what others are reading. i'm currently making my way through braiding sweetgrass and indigenous economics is next on my list

like. we can and will survive this but it's going to be a much harder and longer fight if we're all riddled with so much stress that our bodies and minds break apart. go look at a tree 👍 play a game 👍 sing with your friends 👍 it could literally change your life & the world

[adventures-in-poor-planning]

prayer to whichever dead catholic person is most appropriate: may I not have to run a whole week of surprise camps on crutches. in a knee brace.

[adventures-in-poor-planning]

Im agnostic raised liberal protestant, but absolutely the catholics got saints right. Sometimes your problem is so fucking specific you need Some Guy. If you're listening, Guy of Workers Who Have Strain Injuries,

[adventures-in-poor-planning]

No fucking WAY, there's actually a knee injury Guy? Catholicism accidentally reinventing the medical specialty system......

[youremysunshine8]

I know you're wondering: are there slutty pictures of him revealing his knees?

Saint Roch, by Francesco Ribalta, c. 1625, Museo de Bellas Artes, Valencia

[image id: st. Roch staring soulfully and hiking up his robe to show that his thigh has a bubo on it, also sluttily revealing his knees]

[running-with-toast]

what the dog doin

[sashayed]

has anyone figured out how to turn off the thing where you love your pet so much it slides inexorably into grief-borrowing

[boomstab-papa]

[your-cosmic-creature]

“For me this glass is already broken. I enjoy it; I drink out of it. It holds my water admirably, sometimes even reflecting the sun in beautiful patterns. If I should tap it, it has a lovely ring to it. But when I put this glass on the shelf and the wind knocks it over or my elbow brushes it off the table and it falls to the ground and shatters, I say, ‘Of course.’ When I understand that the glass is already broken, every moment with it is precious.”

[ruby-white-rabbit]

I would have the horrible thought of "what if my cat dies suddenly?" While watching him sleep and be cute "He'll grow old one day and I'll lose him".

I told myself it was silly. That I'd have tons of time still with him. He's young.

I took pictures. To remember the moment and capture how much I loved him then.

He ended up getting sick and dying at 7. And I am so glad I have the picture I do and I took in the time I did have with him.

[discflame]

my live reaction to this moment

[vaspider]

As someone with a Very Misspent Youth, I started cackling, bc I have DEFINITELY pulled bong hits from a bong full of hard liquor before. More than once.

You are very unlikely to light yourself on fire.

You are extremely likely to get So Fucked Up, So Fast.

Talk about committing to the bit.