#everyone free to think what they choose

[hl-obsessed]

Whatever you do don’t imagine Harry babysitting Olive and Lucky while the Tomlinsons go out for the twins birthday 🫠😫🥰

.

#ummmm #ok i won't #i didn't #i'm not much of a kids person so it doesn't quite sit with me right #that he would stay home when all of them went out #but who knows #for me he was there out with tomlinsons #but it's the option too #everyone free to think what they choose #sorry anon #wong person here for that kind of ask #nothing fun in imaging staying with kids home #he's not thier fucking nanny #sorry one more time #maybe it's sound appealing for some but surely not for me #as cute as it my seems when larry would do that together with all thier love for kids #it something different when one is left behind with others out like that #and it's wasn't some random party it was family celebration #and with harry being a tomlinson too #what they left him home coz they can't be seen together? #it looked like some private room there #i'm sure there was no need for him to stay behind #other thing all together is either he wanted too #which i don't think he did #sorry #🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️🤷🏽‍♀️ #anon #ask #leaving just with '.' so maybe they will be some people that agree with you

[justaz]

arthur (prince of camelot) still has to study under a tutor bc yknow uther wants him to be very intelligent before becoming king or something bc its super important idk idc anyways merlin is doing chores in his chambers while arthur is squinting at a book and merlin eventually caves and asks him what he’s reading and arthur gruffly explains that its a collection of stories from greece that make absolutely no sense so merlin asks him to read them outloud to him. arthur of course teases him and calls him an idiot and asks how he could possibly help but does as he’s asked and reads the stories to merlin as he does his chores. merlin (being crushed under the weight of destiny and tormented by the prophecies that kilgharrah spews) understands the stories almost immediately and gets all excited and starts rambling about them with arthur. arthur is glad to have someone who understands so he can give something that reflects a hint of understanding to his tutor who accepts it and moves onto the next unit of education.

the thing is, arthur finds more stories in camelot’s library and brings them up to his room to read them aloud to merlin under the guise of completing his studies but really he just wants to watch as merlin’s eyes gleam when he understands whats happening and listen to him ramble on and on about them bc he’s gay. the stories stick with merlin though and he realizes that they’re cautionary tales, that the heroes who were told too much of their future doomed themself to fulfill them - that them fighting the prophecies led to their completion. merlin takes it to heart and gives a big “fuck you” to kilgharrah before forging his own fate and helping morgana with her magic and handing out an olive branch to mordred and now everyone can live happily and peacefully in an albion teeming with magic.

#merlin and arthur are of course at each others side in the end #merlin is curled up with arthur in their bed and says a silent thank you to his king for saving him #arthur returns the sentiment wholeheartedly #bbc merlin #merlin emrys #arthur pendragon #merthur #fic idea #fanfic #fanfiction #headcanon #hc #head canon #merthur prompt #i have my own hc of fate vs destiny in bbc merlin and i like to incorporate that into everything i write #but then i realize that not everyone thinks that way lmao #i like to think that destiny is unavoidable. merlin and arthur are destined to form albion and lead it together #i think fate is like a fragile version of destiny #i think most people are tied to fate and will follow what they are fated to do unless those who arent tied down by fate change course #like i hc that seers are able to see the potential future of what is to happen should they not interfere #and the goddess leaves it up to them to choose. so like seers arent tied down by fate and can change the course of history #since merlin is literally magic incarnate i also think he isnt tied down by fate and can act to change things #kilgharrah told merlin the prophecy that would result in the dragon getting free and ending the pendragon line #and since merlin never got close w like any druids or magic users. no one told him the inner workings of fate vs destiny #so he listened to the dragons warnings dooming him to fulfill the prophecy that brought about one of the worst possible futures #bc the dragon was salty about his whole species being eradicated by uther and vowed to destroy the pendragon line #omg im ranting okay post over thank you and good night

[tibli]

people really act like johndirk murdered their entire family or smth

#homestuck #john egbert #dirk strider #johndirk #dirkjohn #obvs its fine if you dont like it personally #but the amount of VITRIOL i've seen for a ship that is basically harmless is soooooo fucking funny #like oh you're mad? you're mad that the windy boy and the weeaboo boy are holding hands?? that they're kissing??? #that they're having the most homoerotically-charged prank wars known to man??? skill issue tbh #also meat!john needs to come back from the dead and make out sloppy style w ult!dirk. and then kick his ass for being a shithead #tbh tho i prefer like. mostly ignoring hs2 as a whole and choosing to think abt post canon just being like #everyone on earth c finally dealing with all their various emotional issues #and i think dirk and john could actually work rlly well together once their got past their own bullshit #john has a hard time like. understanding people's feelings on anything deeper than surface-level and tends to avoid uncomfortable situation #whereas dirk feels things so strongly and deeply but has problems expressing it in healthy/acceptable ways #john is 'free' to the point that he has unintentionally cut ties w his friends #while trying to deal with the trauma of losing his dad #whereas dirk is grounded but obsessed with keeping everything under control. because control makes things safe #and he had very little safety growing up under the condesce #ok im rambling on what was meant to be a funny post so i'll cut it off there

[brookheimer]

ok not to flex but i absolutely rocked my first suzerain run. passed extreme reformist constitution (abolished MoH, 3% threshold, etc), got soll imprisoned for life, went hardcore malenyevist (read: commie) & aligned with the UCP, got the international community to sanction rumburg aka no war, entered sordish recovery period & ended the recession, defunded the military without getting couped, achieved the bludish dream, founded my own political party, and got reelected. like there are some things i’d do differently to perfect it (wouldn’t do first mega project & would instead use those budget points to increase justice spending so i could investigate & crack down on the oligarchs, would keep decrees to some greater extent to pass nia’s semi-autonomous zone decree, etc) but all in all i kinda fucking killed it. commie anton rayne for the win

#this game is literally just model in crisis committee: the video game #and as an ex head delegate (oh high school…) obviously i’m eating this shit up #suzerain #next run i wanna choose all the weird options. like not the fascist evil ones or even capitalist free market ones i want to rp as Just Some #Guy who really shouldn’t be in a position of power because he doesn’t know what he’s doing nor care to learn #path of least resistance all the way #i think it’d be funny. just nod constantly at everyone & always say the wrong thing & make strange choices #not like ‘bomb the bluds’ strange. i’m talking ‘orders three starch dishes at dinner’ strange #yeah fuck you rich guy i eat all the starch i want

[asyipyip]

hold on everyone shut up im getting super emotional about jonathan sims

#tma #kara stop blogging #thinking about the web. thinking about how it was his first mark #and how that mark how that unaddressed trauma so deeply affected him. #and how befitting that is for the web too- to tie someone up its strands for YEARS #thinkin about how almost every single decision that man makes is made out of fear #that motherfucker has never felt safe in his god damn life you can tell and im EMOTIONAL ABOUT IT #thinking about how so much of his fear response is CONTROL because of it. His ridiculous skepticism was him trying to control it #if he denies it if he refuses to believe in it it cant hurt him #about his paranoia and desperation for knowledge is so rooted in that fear of losing control #about his entire s4 arc and grappling with becoming inhuman. about not feeling like he has any kind of personal autonomy #and how so often thats written off as him making excuses (and dont get me wrong- he makes excuses too. im not saying he doesnt) but also- #like you look at what happened with his first leitner and its like. he couldnt move. couldnt do anything to escape #and then when the other boy got taken he couldnt do anything to save him either #of course he feels like hes never had any control #of course hes desperate for knowledge- if he had only *known* what couldve happened then he couldve prevented it. #the survivors guilt is so deeply part of his character #and thats what makes jonah targeting him so fucking insidious and scary #he took his man who is already so terrified- put him in a situation where he was so out of his depth #knowing that his fear response would be to desperately try and figure out what was happening- to keep asking questions-- #pulling himself deeper into the eyes influence and easily turning it around and making it Jon's fault #as if Jon isn't trapped like everyone else- it's just his fear response is so fucking perfect for the role the eye needs him to play #and then it leads to the ultimate trauma of ripping control away from Jon and forcing him to do something so fucking horrible #something he would never in a million years CHOOSE TO DO #how he's so terrified of being made a pawn and he is. playing a game against elias where he couldn't even see the board #locking him out of his own body...forcing him to open the door. like. FUCK #I MEAN FUCK DUDE. PETER LITERALLY SAYS “HE GOT YOU” WHEN JON ASKED WHAT HIS 'PRIZE' WAS #LIKE SCRATCH THAT!!! FUCKING SCRATCH THAT!! he wasn't even a player he was a fucking PIECE in the game #GOD!!! #GOD!!!! free my boy he did nothing wrong (he did so many things wrong)

[anothermonikan]

Have I told you guys about the fucked up dreams I've been having recently? I've been having some fucked up dreams lately. yeah <3

#sorry this is mostly about a dream I had yesterday and if I just say it it's gonna sound so creepypasta-y #like I have a lot of creepypasta-y dreams it's just how my dreams have always worked hehe #It wasn't fucked up because it was scary or anything it was fucked up because of how I felt in it #how to describe it...like I was like almost too calm and accepting of my fate #like okay previous dream context (whether this was context from another actual dream or just. lore my brain made up idk) #I got sentenced to execution. It's...really hard to describe the context without it sounding really silly. #like it was a part of some sick game that a person planned out and it all ended in a white maze room #I was told I could either choose to go free from a month and then be collected for execution or be trapped in the room forever but alive #and I chose to be executed. everyone knew. we all even had silly inside jokes about it ehe #like my friends were picking music out for it. it was really silly hehe! #but the person who came to collect me for execution was so striking. she was like. almost literally a doll #A big doll!! Like she was so so tall!! she actually shrank to be more my size as the dream went on. she was strikingly pretty #and kind. she was so kind #we walked around and said goodbye to everyone. she made friendly conversation. she guided me through how everything was going to go #god the tenderness of it all makes me sqee a lil aha. a little fucked up I think #it was self-inflicted you see. Rose bushes over a tall fence. that's why she was so tall. to help me over #I caught on pretty quickly that she was a person who decided to stay in the room instead of being executed #that's what becomes of them. they become subservient to the game master. they're made to collect the ones who chose to leave and die later #she told me that deep down she kinda wished that doing this for him would convince him to make her human again and to let her be free #I told her that it was bullshit and that he'd never do that. and she was like. yeah. but a girl can dream right? #another one of those dreams that have lines that stick out in my head as well...okay one of them was just really funny #'Hey guys' 'I'm being executed today :D' 'oh. okay!' #dhdhdh #'It's scary isn't it?' 'yeah. it is' 'Well. It'll all be over soon' #like gwah. gwahhhh #'There is something wrong inside of you' levels of impact on my psyche I reckon #me and the doll girl kissed a few times. it was weirdly quite natural. nothing intensive #but I think we both had an understanding that we weren't seeing eachother again and we cared about eachother #it was so greatly platonic and nice. yearning for something I will never experience aha ^^; #Idk if I even want to be in any sort of QPR but it was definitely nice in this dream

[insert-funny-url-here]

Friendly reminder that it costs $0 to not buy a shitty, poorly-made, antisemitic game that directly funds transphobia!

#it is #in fact #free #I'm about to play an old Layton game that i haven't played in many years that i already own #and I'm going to enjoy it guilt-free knowing I'm not harming anyone by doing so #i do hope everyone who claims to be a trans/Jewish ally and plays the game feels deep shame and understands what they're doing is wrong #it's such a little thing to NOT do something #it baffles me how many ''allies'' choose to play it and even purchase it #like what is your allyship worth if it can't withstand being told to NOT BUY A VIDEO GAME #i know I'm not in any place of authority to say who is/is not an ally but tbh if you play the game I'm giving you the biggest side-eye ever #and i have seen many real trans and Jewish folks (the people harmed here) express this exact sentiment so I don't think I'm off-base #that's my stance and I'm not budging on it #some of y'all choose a few hours of glitchy ''fun'' over real people's lives and it's gross #ap #harry potter #hogwarts legacy #jk rowling

[aroaceleovaldez]

one of the interesting things about having run a pjo askblog for 7 years is because i started it before TOA was even announced but after HoO, when TOA started coming out with each book i then had to start balancing the weird combos of pre-existing blog canon from before TOA, addressing new TOA canon/storylines as they were being published, the weird coincidences of askblog canon lining up perfectly with TOA canon, and the TOA canon decisions that I’m looking at and just saying “no, we’re not doing that”

so it ends up really weird, which i guess is fun because it means i get to tell a new unique story instead of just following TOA verbatim. and it also means i’ve had 6 years to plan out the plot of weird TOA canon-divergence but in a visual format, which is also weird and fun

#pjo #trials of apollo #toa #deadangelos #it also means i get to cut out the parts that i think are stupid /hj #its my askblog and i get to choose the headcanons/plot #everyone in the deadangelos discord squinting at the wip channel trying to figure out how my new bs will fit into the plot. i respect u. #ive been crafting jason's backstory specifically for like 3 years #not an exaggeration at all for the record #and im very excited for how it's gonna pay off #also planning everything out is kinda fun in general cause im writing it all from a p@gan perspective #< (censoring to hopefully avoid crosstagging) #which also if people are interested in hearing about that i will more than happily discuss what that's like #cause i find it really interesting! #given that's. more or less the basis of the entire series despite the series also Not At All Being About It #and putting that back does so much for the series imo #but yeah feel free yall to ask me questions about my askblog here i guess #i love yapping about detail stuff or behind-the-scenes

[minarcana]

#ok guess what fuckers youre going to be on another tag ramble adventure with me #ive been afflicted with the same images in my brain tumbling around and the only way to free my brain is to write them out #and anyways i have been contemplating wol au uri for a bit due to various reasons (he came up and then i got this image and couldnt be free #shb with uri as the wol is. after killing vauthry. he is SO fucked up that raha STILL wont just let him die #he was supposed to have raha send him to the rift with the light and let him die there but now that he cant stop him rahas taking it himsel #and theres the whole. 'no we really cannot have the wol die.' thing. #that makes it infinitely worse to uri. him just yelling through blood to let him die! let him have his turn! he WANTS to die! #the idea of bring told that the wol CANT die makes it so much more unfair to him #'you wouldnt know what to do if i died? i didnt know what to do for years after louisoux died! i still dont know what to do without moenbry #da! papalymo can sacrifice himself and everyone adapts! shtola has thrown herself to the lifestream twice! minfilia died! i had to stay sil #ent and let ryne choose her own path if she died or not! i cant tell people that i would be lost yet everyone gets to tell ME that? #do you think i am better than them do you think them worth less why do they have the right to die and i do not!' #he is SO SO SO much worse as a wol and it falls out in one outburst after hes quizzed as to why he thought he could sacrifice himself #but he also realizes that its really fucked up to say that aloud so yknow. yknow what. yknow. #hell bottle up all his feelings and then one day hell either die or start crying and it looks like he aint allowed to die! #he still takes the aid from ardbert at amaurot with the statement that #'if i dont try and save who i might then ill never be able to face moenbryda' #anyways cannot stop thinking about me giving uri the echo like 'this will be funny!' and hes just 'my life has become infinitely worse' #HEAD IN MY HANDS

[jeysuso]

I love how you're so fair to Jimmy even though he acts goofy sometimes

lmao listen that boy is stupid some of the time and he drives me insane with how oblivious he can be (especially when there's food up for grabs) but he's still my stupid boy and i love him 😭😭

#anon ask #💜 #ask #plus jimmy's been through his own shit w/ roman too #he's a victim too just in a different way #and everyone has different responses to being in abusive situations so i can't judge him too hard #mans is scared of losing his brother and being left to deal w/ roman alone. it's obvious #and the problem is it's making him act a little selfishly because i don't think he had a go at sami #to protect jey #i think he had a go at sami because he's scared jey will actually leave this time and choose sami over them. over Him. #jey was really close to doing it before so jimmy knows it's a possibility #what jimmy doesn't seem to understand is jey handed his soul back over to roman FOR him the dummy #jey LOVES him. and that's exactly why jimmy should be trying to help free them both. not keep them trapped

[revelmaven]

.

#im fucking tired of having to be a perfect example all the time #having to be perfectly behaved and pleasant and kind and reasonable #while everyone else is permitted to do anythign they want to me #im so angry #i am SO angry that im not allowed to show that i'm autistic and i'm not allowed to need accomodations and i dont get to be taken seriously #but entitled rude people can come to my place of work and scream in my face and tell me im worthless and get away with it #ESPECIALLY when they claim to be neurodivergent and so that should excuse it #nothing excuses you being an asshole. you CHOOSE how you act. your conduct is YOUR responsibility not something you can palm off #and accept no responsibility for #sorry man ive been autistic my whole life and it's never caused me to tell someone to fuck themselves bc i didnt want to use manners #ive been autistic my whole life and never demanded to be allowed to do whatever i want with no restrictions because im special #like fun fact its almost like being neurodivergent isnt a catch-all free card to be an abusive asshole #crazy that #im genuinely so angry about this i hate it #i hate that im the only one who has to behave #that i DO that i CAN control myself even to the point where i dont even Raise My Fucking Voice at these assholes #and somehow it's still my fault when they don't want to be told what to do #i can't take people's entitled aggressive dangerous fucking attidues anymore im going to fucking snap #and i swear to god i seem to be the only person in the immediate situation who thinks it's remotely serious #i am NOT okay #im fucking terrified for my safety and im furious and im going to fucking snap #i can't take it anymore #i can't take these customers lying through their fucking teeth and humiliating me for fun #this is fucking insane how is anyone supposed to live with this? #anyway if u know me irl etc etc #trauma files #vent #ignore

[desperatepleasures]

it can be hard to tell who's speaking at any given time in kkm just bc of the formatting so I don't know for sure whether it's yozak or Buff Lady who refers to librarian as a "really disagreeable" person with "bad manners" but I'm choosing to believe it was yozak bc that makes it 10x funnier that he not only tried to set conrad up with librarian but also thought that librarian was exactly conrad's type

#he was like hmmm i need the most grating twink i can find #oh the manager of the library is free tonight? #oh wait he's not? well he's about to be #wrap that fish with legs up in a sopping wet blanket and head to the bar my friend cause you bout to get LAID #genuinely curious what would've happened if the cops hadn't shown up #it looked like connie was about to choose Buff Lady just to get everyone off his back (goodforher.gif) #so what librarian is like okay back to searching for your father tuna-chan sorry for that weird excursion a girl has needs tho yfm #i think about this story a normal amount #kkm tag #drag librarian tag

[heeracha]

robi help idk what to think of what this person i knew said to me...

i asked them their opinion of votebuying bc i got the idea from ur post earlier and theyre like...

"if i could ibebenta ko vote ko, singilin ko sila nang malaki and gagamitin ko yung pera para lumipat ako ng ibang bansa. i want to go back to south korea where my actual office is based."

idk if thats dumb, messed up or somewhat smart 😭😭😭😭

,,,,,,no it's actually smart and funny HAHAHAHAHHA 😭 check tags mahal <3

#mom said i take stuff too seriously about these kinds of stuff so just in case u werent joking (ive been conscious sorry) #tbh uhhh for me and this is only for me ah? why go for that kind of way if you can do something to help change the sh!t g0vt #its like u selling ur soul and can u actually have it in ur conscience that you're actually one of the people who helped to make the country #even worse than it was before just bcs u were given money? i get that everyone needs money #i need it 😭 you need it everyone needs it but isnt it more satisfying if you get the money from something you actually worked on and not #from someone who you basically helped to ruin the country? i get it that other countries are better than ours but thats bcs we keep choosing #incompetent leaders. so if we can help change the country for the better instead of just running away why not do it right? but thats just me #i respect everyone's opinion (unless ofc its vv problematic—ayan na ha sinabi ko na ha i respect everyone's decision) but sometimes it's #better being informed. reading unreliable resources is the cause of the problematic opinions sometimes yk? either way lets hope the #competent leader wins. vote wisely. vote for the most qualified competent leader who will accept criticism. if they dont win at least we #dont have it in our conscience that we are a part of their victory but if they do end up making the country better then lets thank them #thats why stand on it and thats only me okay? you're more than free to tell me what u think #r.asks

[nozomijoestar]

you reblogging so much of shin megami tensei got me back on playing the game i had for a while (smt5) but i'm really curious what the one ur reblogging is about

I want to play four (the one with the samurai) if that's the one you mean but if you mean three then that's Nocturne and I'm playing it now. You play a guy who with his two friends is spared the apocalypse but are left to all fend for themselves in the world after, infested with demons because the people that ended the world wanted to bring about the process of creating a new one. Instead of dying immediately in what's effectively now a waiting room with everyone from Heaven, Hell, and myth, the player is saved because some kid (won't spoil his identity) who's part of these forces likes you and makes you swallow a parasite. You become half human half demon. Because you're now half demon you get excluded from being able to make a Reason ie. come up with an idea for a world to replace the old one, then get sponsored by a demon to fight in the struggle to make your Reason the new world. But being excluded from making your own allows you to choose what Reason you'll sponsor and champion into existence, or you can reject all of them, or you can leave the world to be solely for demons. Among other routes.

It's demonic pokemon just like other mainline SMT in a philosophical thought experiment, because the only way to gain party members is by fighting then talking to demons to collect them. I just really like the different Reason philosophies and how they interact and what happens when you reject them all; I like what the game is trying to say about what defines a human being, even if they get made demonic, really what's the difference between a human being and a demon at all and so on. It's not very character driven, characters are more a representation of the themes, commentary the game is making etc. and implications of where those intersect or what's implied but in this case I think that's fine. The music is bangin and the atmosphere is fantastic. I know it has a reputation for being hard but so far I don't care when it'll get hard for me, the combat is fun; getting absorbed in everything else is the real reward. And I love Demi-Fiend's tattoos that are more like his demonic veins. Really that was the first thing that always made me wanna play, his design.

How do you not find this cool

#Yosuga Reason and Freedom Reason make the most sense to me because either humanity should either take responsibility for our free will #or be exterminated to make room again for all other life on the planet if we can't and devolve into cleaning each other out #all the others are either temporary short sighted parts of humanity's problems or abandon it to death entirely which ig is also ok #there's also the one where you do choose to be a pawn but in the long run what's being a pawn getting you tbh #and by just ok on the others is i mean i think the coin toss between favoring Yosuga or Freedom is more interesting here #'but why like Yosuga at all-' listen if something's not working it's not working that means you do the practical thing & eliminate it #i am not wishy washy kiddie gloves when it comes to humanity as a whole if we can't fix our shit w free will we have earned our destruction #extremely selfish to make everyone suffer living on the off chance something 'good' happens while we cause destruction & horror to ALL life #what is that really in clinging on to good things if not chasing pleasure for your fleeting gain and evil persists around or because of it #all truly is vanity #also I see zero difference between Yosuga social darwinism until we die out from reality as it is- minus the suppression of free will #we're already suffering Yosuga in a sense #if you can't use your free will for good and betterment for others esp those who can't use free will themselves and yourself then you die #sums up how i see getting to try Freedom vs / alongside Yosuga #might makes right is already exactly how the world works and how it always has worked #the entirety of human history to right now is who can kill and surpress the best to take from others- Yosuga just makes it obvious #and the sole principle to exist but it's already existed even in a world with free will and Freedom

[chronicbitchsyndrome]

so: masking: good, unequivocally. please mask and please educate others on why they should mask to make the world safer for immune compromised people to participate in.

however: masking is not my policy focus and it shouldn't be yours, either. masking is a very good mitigation against droplet-born illnesses and a slightly less effective (but still very good) mitigation against airborne illnesses, but its place in the pyramid of mitigation demands is pretty low, for several reasons:

it's an individual mitigation, not a systemic one. the best mitigations to make public life more accessible affect everyone without distributing the majority of the effort among individuals (who may not be able to comply, may not have access to education on how to comply, or may be actively malicious).

it's a post-hoc mitigation, or to put it another way, it's a band-aid over the underlying problem. even if it was possible to enforce, universal masking still wouldn't address the underlying problem that it is dangerous for sick people and immune compromised people to be in the same public locations to begin with. this is a solvable problem! we have created the societal conditions for this problem!

here are my policy focuses:

upgraded air filtration and ventilation systems for all public buildings. appropriate ventilation should be just as bog-standard as appropriately clean running water. an indoor venue without a ventilation system capable of performing 5 complete air changes per hour should be like encountering a public restroom without any sinks or hand sanitizer stations whatsoever.

enforced paid sick leave for all employees until 3-5 days without symptoms. the vast majority of respiratory and food-borne illnesses circulate through industry sectors where employees come into work while experiencing symptoms. a taco bell worker should never be making food while experiencing strep throat symptoms, even without a strep diagnosis.

enforced virtual schooling options for sick students. the other vast majority of respiratory and food-borne illnesses circulate through schools. the proximity of so many kids and teenagers together indoors (with little to no proper ventilation and high levels of physical activity) means that if even one person comes to school sick, hundreds will be infected in the following few days. those students will most likely infect their parents as well. allowing students to complete all readings and coursework through sites like blackboard or compass while sick will cut down massively on disease transmission.

accessible testing for everyone. not just for COVID; if there's a test for any contagious illness capable of being performed outside of lab conditions, there should be a regulated option for performing that test at home (similar to COVID rapid tests). if a test can only be performed under lab conditions, there should be a government-subsidized program to provide free of charge testing to anyone who needs it, through urgent cares and pharmacies.

the last thing to note is that these things stack; upgraded ventilation systems in all public buildings mean that students and employees get sick less often to begin with, making it less burdensome for students and employees to be absent due to sickness, and making it more likely that sick individuals will choose to stay home themselves (since it's not so costly for them).

masking is great! keep masking! please use masking as a rhetorical "this is what we can do as individuals to make public life safer while we're pushing for drastic policy changes," and don't get complacent in either direction--don't assume that masking is all you need to do or an acceptable forever-solution, and equally, don't fall prey to thinking that pushing for policy change "makes up" for not masking in public. it's not a game with scores and sides; masking is a material thing you can do to help the individual people you interact with one by one, and policy changes are what's going to make the entirety of public life safer for all immune compromised people.

#dyspunktional #cripple punk #actually disabled #cripplepunk #a lot of these are major concessions for me personally as i'm an anarchist and loathe to support further concentrations of state power #but if you're gonna be operating within the structure of the system. here you go. handing you a cheat sheet for what you should demand.

[reddpenn]

Here is a potentially silly question: how do you feel about birthstones? Do you think they fit the months (by season or astrological sign)? Do you have other stones you'd rather see as birthstones?

Okay, so, birthstones make absolutely no sense.

I mean, look at this mess. We’re doing beryl and corundum twice! I get that they get Special Different Names for their Special Different Colors, but it's just lazy. And why are we giving some months cheap, common gemstones like garnet and amethyst while the poor June birthdays have to shell out tens of thousands of dollars for FREAKING ALEXANDRITE? That’s incredibly unfair! We should be picking birthstones that are all roughly the same price. And why do some months get multiple gemstones? I’ll tell you why: because nobody can agree on an official list and every attempt to standardize this thing has just added MORE birthstones to every month.

So obviously the answer is to standardize it again, by throwing out everything and starting over. Here are our goals:

Fair pricing. You should be paying roughly the same amount regardless of what month you were born in. We’re getting rid of those ridiculous outliers like diamond and alexandrite.

More customization potential! Nobody should be stuck with a stone they hate. We’re picking gemstones that come in multiple colors or varieties, so that everyone can choose a variant they like.

Wearability. Some birthstones are too fragile to be worn as jewelry. We need to replace them with stronger stuff.

No more duplicate gemstones. Every month gets a stone or family of stones with a unique chemical composition.

Now without further ado, I present to you:

The New And Improved List Of Birthstones With No Problems Or Flaws That Everyone Will Definitely Agree On And We Can Start Using Right Now Immediately

JANUARY: GARNET

I've got no problem with garnet. It's a fine, classic birthstone, so January can keep it. But I would like to see a little more garnet diversity. January birthdays shouldn’t be confined to just red. The garnet family of minerals contains a rainbow of different colors, like orange hessonite, green uvarovite, pink rhodolite, yellow grandite, and many more. They’re all garnet, so we should be wearing them all!

FEBRUARY: QUARTZ

The original birthstone of February was amethyst, which is… kinda boring. Super cheap and common and you only get one color? No, we can do better. February gets ALL the quartzes now. Keep wearing amethyst if you want, but also feel free to branch out into clear quartz, citrine, rose quartz, smoky quartz, rutilated quartz, tiger eye… actually, take all the agates too. If it’s quartz, it’s yours!

MARCH: SPODUMENE

March was originally aquamarine, but I’ll be giving all the beryls to May, so we need a different stone here. Let’s stick with that theme of pale pastels and go with spodumene. For an April birthday, bedeck yourself in green hiddenite, pink kunzite, or yellow triphane. Despite its subtle colors, your birthstone has some amazing fluorescence, with really cool pinks and oranges under a UV light.

APRIL: FELDSPAR

Diamond is too pricy for this list, so we’re replacing it with something less expensive and way more interesting. April will now be represented by the feldspar family. We’re talking labradorite, moonstone, amazonite, aventurine, and sunstone. While you don’t have much variety in color, your stones are full of shimmery schiller which glitters and shifts as it catches the light.

MAY: BERYL

May’s original birthstone was emerald, which is great and can stay, but we’re also adding its siblings! May is now represented by all beryls: Emerald, Aquamarine, Morganite, Bixbite, Heliodor, Goshenite, and whatever other varieties I’m forgetting to list. A bright and saturated rainbow of colors is represented here, so everyone born in May is sure to find something they like.

JUNE: ORGANIC GEMSTONES AND FOSSILS

It’s time to address the alexandrite in the room, and obviously we’re getting rid of alexandrite. A stone worth $15,000 to $70,000 a carat does not belong on the same list as friggin amethyst. Instead we’ll look at the other traditional June birthstone, pearl. The problem with pearl is that it’s a clear outlier in this list. An organic gemstone, by some definitions not even a mineral. Should we replace it? NO. We are OWNING it. All organic gemstones now belong to June. Pearl is joined here by jet, amber, coral, ivory, ammolite, petrified wood… in fact, June can have every fossil ever.

JULY: SPINEL

July was originally represented by ruby, which is a fine stone and won’t be kicked off the birthstone list - we’re just shuffling it down to September. Replacing ruby for July is spinel. (See, it’s funny because historically spinel has often been mistakenly identified as ruby! That's a little gemology humor for you.) Available in any hue you could possibly desire, spinel offers some nice color options to a month that previously only featured red. Of course if you want to keep wearing red, red spinel mimics ruby so well that you’ll barely notice the difference.

AUGUST: PERIDOT

Nope, we’re not changing this one. Peridot is the ideal gemstone and you ungrateful August whiners can die mad about it. HOW ABOUT YOU LEARN TO APPRECIATE PERFECTION

SEPTEMBER: CORUNDUM

Sapphire is a wonderful, classic stone and it deserves its spot on this list. But the corundum family has been separated for far too long, and we’re finally going to reunite them. Joining sapphire in September is its sister ruby. Between the pinks and reds of ruby and the many, many colors of sapphire, these two stones give September a nice variety of colors.

OCTOBER: TOURMALINE

Look, as gorgeous as opal is and as much as I love it, it is both way too pricy for our list and also TERRIBLE in jewelry. This stone is just too brittle to wear around from day to day and can be ruined just by getting it wet, which makes wearing your birthstone a huge hassle. We’ll kick opal out and hang on to October’s other traditional birthstone, tourmaline. Pink tourmaline may be classic, but this stone comes in plenty of other colors. Whether it’s brown dravite, watermelon elbaite, or the rare and beautiful blue indicolite, you can wear them all!

NOVEMBER: TOPAZ

November can keep topaz, but we’re not confining it to the color yellow. This stone comes in a huge variety of colors, and now they can ALL represent November. No further notes; it’s a nice, classic stone.

DECEMBER: ZIRCON

I dunno, I’ve had to come up with 12 of these, I’m burnt out. Sure, zircon, whatever.

“BUT WAIT,” you say. “Now instead of having a single color assigned to each month, almost every month is represented by almost every color, making it impossible to tell anyone’s birthstones apart and removing what made them special and recognizable as symbols!”

Well CLEARLY you didn’t read the title of this list.

#birthstones #talkin' bout rocks