always imagining dragons

reader, writer, sometimes photo editor • she/her • my ao3: @sidebysidewithafriend • my writeblr: @akindofmagictoo

[eesirachs]

Thoughts on Lent?

god said he was going out to the desert for a few weeks and i'd hate for him to go alone

[sexuallyfrustratedavocado]

everyone talks about how strong and great Aragorn was for refusing the ring when Frodo offered it to him as if this man has not spent his entire life dodging leadership and responsibilities like bullets in the matrix 🙄

[lesspopped]

[average-smoothie-enjoyer]

My favorite “humans are space orcs” idea is that trope where aliens kidnap some humans for their zoo, except it ends up like Jurassic Park. And the poor Alien Humanologists who were invited to the park are like:

“You mean you locked up a pack of curious, highly competitive persistence predators with NO enrichment in the enclosure? You FOOLS! If you had bothered to throw a basketball or half a box of Legos in there, KE-X9 would still be alive!

“Well of course they climbed the retaining wall! Did you think to study their evolutionary lineage AT ALL?”

[what-even-is-thiss]

The humans would find a way to use the basketball and legos to escape. I mean one time a guy somehow escaped from a prison in Mexico without breaking any laws so his escape would be legal so honestly given enough time the Jurassic park situation is inevitable.

[elidyce]

Jurassic Park would be awesome, but now that I think about it I also kind of love love the idea of humans as the alien zoo equivalent of those octopuses that climb out of their tanks and wander around taste-testing other exhibits or throwing sub-par shrimp at handlers. 

Like they’re totally unable to figure out what’s happening because the cameras keep going out, but every night things get moved, or stolen, exhibits are disappearing, WHAT IS GOING ON, they’ve moved facilities twice and it’s still happening, are they haunted, are the ancestors angry, WHAT IS HAPPENING!?

And then a weary humanologist is all ‘… your humans are getting out’. 

“That is impossible.” 

“They’re getting out.” 

“That enclosure is COMPLETELY SECURE.” 

“And yet somehow they’re getting out.” 

“THE HUMANS ARE NOT GETTING OUT.” 

“Oh yeah? I bet you twenty glarks they’re getting out. Stay after closing time with me and I’ll show you.” 

*next day*

“… the humans were getting out.” 

“… why did they keep going back in, then?!”

(In a deeply embarrassed mumble) “They said they weren’t going to escape until they finished their behavioural experiments. Uh. On us.”

[weaselle]

two things come to mind:

1 - at our own zoos the MOST notorious jail breakers are the orangutans, who exploit all manner of methods, including literal lock picking. One orangutan, Ken Allen escaped several times WHILE THE ZOO WAS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC without getting caught by watching Zoo employees, even when they tried to disguise themselves as tourists to catch him at it. While he was being “secretly” surveilled, he managed to escape AND show the other orangutans how to escape. They finally found out he was doing some thought-to-be-impossible rock climbing to escape. To fix it, they brought in a team of human rock-climbers to locate all possible methods of climbing out. So. Humans would absolutely be the worst to try to keep contained. Like, “escape rooms” are currently seen as a fun date idea. I’m sayin.

2 - animals that escape most often return to their own enclosure (after all that’s where their beds and dinners are, and if the zoo is any good it is the place best suited to their species-specific needs for miles and miles) after they have had sufficient excitement. Ken Allen the orangutan would escape and wander around the zoo looking at the animals like he’d bought a ticket. So if the keepers were nice, and formed a bond, and the set up was comfy, once the human knew they could get out if they really wanted, they’d probably go back, depending on how uncomfortable/dangerous the alien environment was.

I mean if they were raised in captivity. Wild-caught humans, all bets are off; depending on age of capture a return home could be a full blown obsession, the sabotage of engineering from mechanisms up to entire facilities is a strong possibility, and they may go on a murder spree with improvised or stolen weapons if desperate.

[asteroidtroglodyte]

Humans consider an Escape Room to be a Fun Courtship Ritual

[roseapprentice]

The wild humans thing does depend a LOT on how good the zoo is, IMO. If you, as the alien zookeeper:

“Rescued” humans who weren’t thriving in the wild. (Aka dire medical debt.)

Made sure to take an entire social troop instead of lone individuals. (Your closest friends/family members are there.)

Offered VERY good care and enrichment.

Then I think you’d have at least a PARTIAL chance of your wild humans proving to themselves that they can escape and immediately going, “Okay but the zoo is obviously better.”

[cooking-with-hailstones]

"The last time any human touched Ryland Grace was an act of horrific violence"

Well... Yes and no.

The last time Ryland Grace was CONSCIOUS of any human touch was when he was knocked out. Absolutely true.

But the last human contact he would have had was Yao and Ilyukhina. Who were told that he was scared about panicking during launch and asked to be sedated. Who did all the pre flight checks before the Hail Mary launched. Who would have carefully, gently carried Grace to his bed in the dormitory, made sure he was secure, and initiated his coma procedure.

There would have been love there. Remember Ilyukhina throwing her hands high and saying "welcome to crew!" Remember Yao saying how he hoped Grace would say yes. Remember how much the crew trusted Grace, Stratt's First Officer, the guy who helped them so much, and was so kind to them, and was the one who they entrusted their preferred methods of suicide to. Who thought they were wonderful and brave.

They would have tucked him in. Maybe brushed his hair out of his face. Maybe said something kind to him before initiating their own coma procedures.

Ryland Grace doesn't remember, of course he wouldn't. But the last human touch he ever had was full of love.

[tiktoksthataregood-ish]

[carrionthird]

"Stop scrolling and please help me spread the word, because if I've landed on your page you're most likely either a black woman or someone who cares about black women and the simple phrase I'm about to share could help save a black woman's life.

Doctors are to black women what police officers are to black men. That may seem controversial but I believe it to be true and I speak from personal experience.

If you've seen this TikTok you know that a 2016 study showed that 50% of medical students and residents thought that black people couldn't feel pain the same as white people.

And we learned from this video that because of a 1999 study, to this day, there's a black correction factor for the creatinin levels in black people's kidneys, meaning we're less likely to recieve a kidney transplant if needed.

So if you go to a doctor, feel you aren't getting proper treatment or they refuse the treatment you've requested, say to them the following:

I will need you to document on record that you are refusing the treatment (or medicine) I've requested, and the reason you are doing so."

[dovewithscales]

This works. I have used it in other situations. If medical staff have to document and take responsibility and be on the hook legally for doing shady shit they behave much differently.

If you weren’t already going to spread this advice because black women are at risk, then spread it because it’s applicable to everyone else as well, including you reading this.

But particularly women, and especially black women.

[drunkygoesonadventures]

The way I listen to Murder Bot Diaries you'd think they were my Sanctuary Moon.

[rohirric-hunter]

Being into LotR at such a young age has negatively affected my life in the following way:

In the book, Gimli gets a shield in Edoras that Theoden reveals was made for him when he was a child. In the movies, the armor that Pippin is given in Minas Tirith was made for Faramir as a child. Both these items hold up in battle and protect their user as intended, being fully functional versions of the thing simply made to a smaller scale.

This is the standard to which I hold all things made for children. And I am almost always disappointed.

[king-of-kaoss]

Mensah + Murderbot being on the same exact page all the time

my MB's voice project made me really consider just how much Mensah understands about Murderbot from the smallest snippets of information. She is so quick to get exactly what MB is telling her even with minimal dialogue, they both fully understand the situation in a way the others don't. No one else really considers its personhood before the govmod hack reveal, except for HER going to the cubicle to check on it after saving Bharadwaj and Volescu. She sees it from the start like a scientist seeing the tip of an iceberg, seeing the light scatter through the rest of it and extrapolating everything below the surface. She listens to it, she has faith in its intentions, she is considerate of its preferences and boundaries [even though they are never stated]. She is on board with its plans no questions asked. She killed a SecUnit to save it and she doesn't hesitate to grab the mining drill again and run to help it fight ANOTHER SecUnit. And then she makes sure it gets the one thing it ever asked for: to be removed from inventory

[starcut-sand]

the thing about Tangled is that this is a story geared towards little girls (even if it's "fun for the whole family," it's a disney princess movie, it's geared towards little girls), and it says, "here is a girl who is naive and doesn't know anything about the 'Real World' or how to navigate it safely and correctly. now pay close attention: the good guys are the ones who help her grow and explore new things while still respecting her own perspective and feelings, not making her feel stupid. the bad guys are the ones who tell her that she is too weak/immature/naive to do the things she wants to do, because she is fragile and needs protecting." and I watched this when I was nine years old and it resonated deep in a part of me that I couldn't articulate with words yet.

[indigorithmic]

<crawls out of university covered in blood> hey the murderbot diaries are good

[your-turn-to-role]

being very precise with my gif timing here, the captions are exactly where they should be, bc i need to illustrate something i haven't stopped thinking about

which is that alex/occtis (and only him) clocked the exact word that was gonna kill hannan before brennan switched characters to primus

you really do know your dad when he's in a bad mood!

[queenjulia11]

I feel the need to inform you all that Alex said in the cooldown that all Occtis could think about after watching Hannan die was being a little boy terrified that his angry father was going to kill him next.

I thought Primus was just neglectful but Occtis was regularly made to fear for his life in that house, even if the anger wasn’t directed right at him. I know I shouldn’t really be surprised but like. Holy fuck.

[philosophiums]

cr4e16:

occtis - just a heads up when we encounter members of my family im probably going to talk to them to see where alliances lie. that's not going to be me betraying you julien - i understand. but there is a line. make sure you don't cross it

cr4e30:

occtis - (basically) my brother might be on our side. he may be bound bc he's a traitor. i'm not saying... i'm not saying don't kill him, i'm just saying maybe ask first julien, very quietly - of course julien, to koral - your family has taken nearly everything from me, and has definitely taken most everything from your own brother ... do you still consider your family kin?

[filmopen]

[your-fav-fun-gal]

Actually choking thinking about a scenario where somehow Grace returns to earth and arrives minutes after Stratt's death and didn't think he'd be affected by it because he assumes he hates her for forcing him onto the Hail Mary but he ends up FULLY crashing out over her death

[starrose17]

He's literally doing this:

[petrova-line]

Y’know how some schools do a teachers vs students kickball game during the last week of class before finals? Yeah i think Ryland Grace goes fucking crazy during that. The UNESCO rumors get overshadowed by the time weather moved their game into the gymnasium, where Mr Grace punted the ball with so much fucking force that it took out one of the ceiling lights