whimsy wizard

[goth-queen]

[wildgifthorses]

One word that people online really need to learn is "bohemian". Stop getting your understanding of marginal artistic communities from a garbled form of Marxism that reduces everything to economics. Making zines and mooching off of your friends who have jobs is a noble lifestyle with a rich and proud history which should not be reduced to something as sad and ugly as proletarian labor.

[carefreeclown]

Tropic of Cancer, Henry Miller

[tzikeh]

More examples of the WORST mansplaining here.

[useyourblinker]

This might be my favorite

[lotsofcatsandcheapwine]

This is mine

[stockyardsyndrome]

[girlsuggestion]

protect bisexual boys

[targaryenwig]

why is this on a blog literally called girlsuggestion

[froglawnmower]

we are suggesting this to girls

[targaryenwig]

who is we? who are you

[froglawnmower]

italian shadow government

[sometiktoksarevalid]

[rosieandthemoon]

By Katrin Vates

[insanitysilver]

When I was younger I used to be part of the “only-reads-complete-fics crowd” but as I’m getting older I’m realizing how powerful it can be to have consistent things to look forward to…

[insanitysilver]

All the ppl in the tags laughing abt how fic updates aren’t consistent are cowards. I aim to be subbed to at least 365 fics. One for each day of the year. And that’s just my starting point. Your inbox? Empty. Barren. Fallow. Mine? Bountiful. Overflowing. A cornucopia of ripe treats awaiting my tender consumption. I wade through honey-rich excess while you starve of your own volition.

[hrfiction]

“I wade through honey-rich excess while you starve of your own volition”. 

This line is the sexiest way to say “You fucked up” that I have ever read. I have to start using this in my life when pointing out the follies of others.

[yaketysmax]

I love to read fics in progress! I’m getting my fics chapter by chapter like some jaunty Victorian type subscribed to Dickens in the newspaper. I’m cheerleading the author on and supporting by leaving deranged excited comments in the comments section. (a story? for free? for me??!! THANK YOU) We’re all having a great time! We’re wailing and gnashing our teefs in the comments when the diabolical angst hits. The jokes! the oooooooooooooooooo s when things are soft or spicy! It’s a community thing! it’s very fun. The chef is cooking a banquet for us and we are screeching along appreciatively.

♥ ♥ 📓 ♥ ♥ ԅ (👁 ᴗ 👁ԅ) [esteemed fanfic author] have a new chapter

(づᴗ _ᴗ)づ♥️♥️ !!! ♥️♥️ omg thank u

♥ ♥ 📓 ♥ ♥ ԅ (ꈍ ᴗ ꈍԅ) wait till that diabolical angst hits ooooooo

ദ്ദി ༎ຶ‿༎ຶ ) []through wails and gnashing of teefs] ooooooooooo fuckin yes hurts so good

[homunculus-argument]

The finnish language doesn't make a distinction between modern formal "mister", some forms of the title "master", and is also used in some contexts where the english language would say "lord". The guy who runs our local game store has a habit of referring to me and my boyfriend in this way - I don't know if that's what he does to all customers, or if it's just us two specifically - and while I perfectly understand that in context it's simply "gentlemen", it does have a mildly renaissance feel to it.

Like oh yes, we have returned once again to gracefully offer our patronage to your business. Today we are seeking to purchase more warhammer.

[the-writing-goblin]

To be fair, given the subject of many ttrpgs and the vibe of those who play them, it 100% could just be that he greets all his customers as m’lord.

[homunculus-argument]

There's an one-syllable distinction between "sir" in general, and "my lord", so that'd be distinct enough for me to know that he's going for the medieval aesthetic, which would be plausible behaviour for game store type of folk in general, but not really his thing specifically. It remains amusingly ambiguous.

[toastbutteregg]

[random-jot]

Standing directly in the doorway to achieve peak mental health.

[meowtalhead]

[segamascott]

he seems to be doing a pretty good job tbh

[moghedien]

I feel like I need to share this because idk if Europeans are familiar with the presence of Aldi in the US, but at least especially in my area they’ve been growing a lot recently. Like Aldi bought out some local failing grocery chains where I live (Louisiana) and have opened Aldis in all these somewhat rural communities and small towns, which for the record I’m fine with

But as a result of this they are advertising a lot more in my area and also in many cases, the people in these areas have never been confronted with Aldi or any European grocery store. So the ads that Aldi is pushing out to its new US customer base feature a cowboy shopping at Aldi who is explaining to new Aldi customers how Aldi works. Like this cowboy is explaining you gotta put a quarter in the shopping cart and why there are very little name brands. A cowboy is how they want to reach their American customer base. They gave us a cowboy

[moghedien]

Here he is, the Aldi Cowboy

[butch-king-frankenstein]

Putting the term "male gaze" on top of the fridge until everyone remembers that it refers to a cinematographic trend and not the act of looking at things while being a man

[assaultmystic-archive]

reaching up to get it off of the fridge and the big tshirt im wearing as pyjamas rides up and the reader sees my panties

[zestivivi]

The sensei💫✨

[animentality]

[animentality]

[biglawbear]

I finished reading The Lord of the Rings for the first time in my life. With all of *vague gesture at everything* this going on.

I Am Not Okay

[biglawbear]

You have to understand. I watched the movies maybe once as a kid when they came out twenty years ago. I've somehow avoided learning like anything about these books my entire life. Literally everything about these books was a complete unknown and surprise to me. Totally blank slate going on. I barely even knew how it ended.

Holy shit.

[biglawbear]

Frodo didn't complete his task. Sam literally carried him up Mount Doom. And when he got to the end, he couldn't throw the Ring away.

But for Gollum biting it off with his finger, it wouldn't have been destroyed.

So Frodo's journey saved the world nonetheless.

And it broke him.

It was too much for him to bear. He could no longer live in the Shire or live in Middle-Earth. He wasn't of the world anymore. He had to go to the Undying Lands.

He took on the task that no one else would. He saved the world. Everyone got a happy ending. Aragorn became King, Sam rebuilt the Shire, Merry and Pippin became heroes. They all lived in renown.

But Frodo had the hardest task of all. No one else would do it. A simple hobbit who came by the Ring by chance. Not a King, not an immortal. Not a wizard. No power save his will and his friends. And he did it and saved everyone.

And he never got to rest. He never got to remain in peace. The task destroyed him. It was too much.

But there was no other way. Nobody but a simple hobbit could bear the ring all the way to Mount Doom and resist its power so long. Not a man, not an elf, not a wizard; they would have succumbed. Gandalf knew this, which was why he chose the hobbits in all his designs.

It's amazing that one of the precedent setting works in the fantasy genre holds up so well because it subverts what ultimately became the genre's core tropes. The hero was not the King, or a chosen one. In fact, the hero not being the King was a key point that allowed Aragorn to distract Sauron and allow the task in the first place. The hero was someone unassuming but courageous, who did the thing because no one else would, even though it was just by chance he came upon it.

But Frodo couldn't resist the Ring completely. He wasn't superior to anyone else in that way. And in the end it left him broken. The burden crushed him. No one else could do it, and in the end, he couldn't either. He wasn't so special that he was invulnerable.

I'm not okay. Holy fuck you guys.

[biglawbear]

It's been a week and I'm still not over this, I'll never get over this.

Something that I've been thinking about, as I struggle with depression and anxiety and *another vague gesture at everything* is that LOTR does not criticize Frodo for being broken. It does not shame him or deny him what he needs.

The task was too much and it broke him and that's okay. His friends nonetheless take care of him and let him go with understanding. The book doesn't treat it as a bad thing.

This seems to be a theme throughout the books. The characters rest and heal. They spend time recovering in Rivendell, Fangorn, Lorien, Ithilien. It's treated as good and necessary. They don't heroically endure endless torment from the second they set out until they're done.

And in Gondor's march from Minas Tirith to Mordor, Aragorn recognizes that some of the very few men he's taking with him don't have the heart to go to battle against the Enemy. And he says that's okay. He gives them other tasks the they can do. They hold other strategic points. They aren't shamed for not going all the way, or kicked out, or told that they aren't manly or whatever. Their limitations are recognized and respected. The task was too big and it was okay that they couldn't do it.

I don't know man. I've held on through some absolutely crazy shit. White knuckled through mental health crises when my doctors were begging me to take a break, to go to the hospital before I hurt myself. My therapist has tried to slow me down and tell me that I've been going through it and it's understandable that I am feeling some kind of way. Even one of my colleagues remarked that I've had an absolutely fucking wild career and that I've seen more as a lawyer of seven years than she has as a lawyer of forty. But I've gotten it into my head that I have to be strong, I have to be independent.

Fuck me, man, I'm currently white knuckling through life and hanging on by a fucking thread. A few weeks ago I was about an hour away from checking myself in to a mental health facility until my best friends swooped in to help me. And then I went right back to work.

And then I read this book. This fucking brilliant and beautiful book written by a man who had seen the horrors of war and spilled it all over the page. And I read it for the first time as an adult with full understanding and experience of what it all means. And it hits me like a fucking truck.

And it says that you can't endure everything. That at some point you need to rest and heal. That if you take on too much you will break. And that all of that is okay.

How am I supposed to move on with my life after reading this?

[three--rings]

Certainly there are many messages within Lord of the Rings, but you have to think that Tolkien would have been happy that this message in particular was still being conveyed all these years later.

[animentality]