otter

Child Clerics of Fantasy high + Sacrifical Lamb by The Ophelias

i was re-watching ‘maya angelou: still i rise’ & lost my mind & heart during this reading of ‘the mask’ so i decided to record + upload for anyone who would also like to be brought to tears. 

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Reblogging for the very high percentage of people here who haven't received adequate sex education. No shame--this included me until a few years ago, I've participated many times myself, and I'm a nurse.

Choking is always edgeplay (i.e very risky). There is no safe way to choke someone. Even light pressure is not safe.

There is a nerve in the neck whose function is to lower heart rate. If you accidentally stimulate this nerve, it's possible to lower the heart rate to zero very quickly. This can result in sudden cardiac death in seconds. Sometimes symptoms can be minimal and they unfortunately also mimic the symptoms of low oxygenation, which are the sensations you're trying to provoke.

Also, if your partner has cholesterol buildup in the major artery leading to the brain--which there is no way to know except an angiogram--small chunks of cholesterol can break off, travel to the brain, and result in stroke. This too can initially cause minor symptoms the partner may not notice until it's too late to reverse the process.

Breathplay is no kidding my very favorite kink in the world, and I hated giving it up, but please think very, very seriously. This is a Risk Aware Consensual Kink activity, not a safe, sane, consensual one.

Adding my knowledge from the domestic violence realm, because this is a really big deal:

Having your partner wrap their hands around your throat (strangulation) is both imminently dangerous, potentially dangerous for days afterward, and unless it's something you've specifically asked them to do to you, can be a huge warning sign that you should be worried about their willingness to use violence against you.

A lot of people think the big issue is that strangulation compresses the trachea and hinders breathing. That's a thing, but what's even more dangerous is the compression of the blood vessels in your neck, which can directly cut off blood flow to your brain.

Even after the strangulation is over, there are potential lasting effects—brain damage, memory loss, and confusion, which often make strangulation victims very poor reporters of their own level of injury, which means that if, say, police show up following a fight, the victim might honestly say that they don't think they were hurt very much and they feel fine.

About half the time they will have very small visible symptoms, like bruises on their neck, a raspiness to their voice, very small red specks on the skin of their neck or face, or burst vessels in their eyes. Half the time they won't.

Which is not always a great way to tell which of them, in the days afterwards, will have a blood clot travel into their brain and cause a stroke, or will experience seizures and memory issues over the next several months or years. Those things might not be spotted without specialized medical attention and tests. If you've ever been strangled, tell a doctor; it may still be putting you at medical risk.

And aside from the medical risks, there are indicators that someone who has survived being strangled by an intimate partner is at a much higher risk of being a homicide victim. That basically, the willingness to strangle as an act of aggression can signal that they are more willing and able to actually kill you.

Yep. Strangulation is the #1 lethality indicator in an abusive relationship. People who report being strangled by their partners are 11X more likely to murdered than people who do not. That's because once an abusive person feels comfortable doing this behavior, they'll keep doing it but the damage is cumulative. The risk is not stable. The risk gets higher every time.

People often think that they must be strangled to unconsciousness for it to be dangerous, but any amount of grabbing or pressure applied to the neck or throat carries these vascular and neurological risks. That's why I want to highlight the language @star-anise is using again: It's any amount of having someone wrap their hands around your throat that carries these risks. It's any amount of pressure applied to the throat or neck with any object.

So back to a kink context: Being fully Risk Aware about breathplay means understanding that not only are there short and long term risks, but also that the risk carries over and builds up each time you do it.

So embarrassing but I’m having a zukka moment rn

Also Azula + Sokka bffs bcs if she got the therapy she deserves I’m telling u their brains together wud be unbeatable

(Ugh I keep flipping Sokka’s scars forgive me)

I need you to know the logic behind slutting him out, I hope this explains everything. I will be back later.

Another reason I want more Addams Family with the 90s cast is I think it would be so nice to see Morticia uncorseted and aging gracefully. I don't think she'd go full Grandmama but do you really think an Addams is afraid of wrinkles and cellulite?

Look me in the eye and tell me Anjelica Huston doesn't still have it.

Some normie to Morticia: don't do _______, it will give you wrinkles.

Gomez: God, I hope so.

at morticia's 50th birthday party everyone's making Over The Hill jokes with the same envious joy you would celebrate your cousin's hundred million dollar lottery win. the "hill" decorations are various piles of rats, bones, garbage, severed limbs. there's a lot of chains and stolen crucifixes around instead of party streamers. the cake is a graveyard hill and they cut it with a visibly filthy shovel.

'one foot in the grave' gomez tells his wife, actively crying, 'and what a foot!'

morticia has the first slice of cake (it has a little sugar grave on it). when she finishes her delicate spoonful and smiles, the camera zooms in and we see she has spontaneously developed crow's feet. off camera is the sound of her husband really unsubtly orgasming.

after the party they drive off in a hearse with glass bottles of formaldehyde tied to the bumper. it says JUST OLD in the back.

the unsubtle orgasm noises continue.

Every day I feed this cat that isn't mine and every day he crawls onto my shoulder and lacerates my skin while purring directly into my ear and making it impossible to move enough to use the computer properly for like 30 minutes. And then he heads off to hang out on a chair until I go to bed so he can climb directly on top of me and not let me move for another 30 minutes until he's decided we've hugged enough and climbs off me so we can sleep. Fucking inconvenience.

Time to lie down and get smothered by this bastard again. Good night.

HE LOVES YOU DERIN ARE YOU SO STONE HEARTED TO REJECT HIM. ALL HE WANTS IS YOUR LOVE.

Yeah he's always very clear about that

I know it's not the worst thing about capitalism. But I do think there's something really *bad* about the fact that between lack of leisure time, lack of disposable income, and "hustle culture" mindset that for many, many, many people the primary/only way they are able to express their creativity and artistic aesthetics is through consumer culture. Buying stuff and displaying that stuff.

When like...making stuff. Drawing, painting, weaving, crafting, sketching is like, baked deep deep into our bones as humans.

But I know so many adults who haven't like...drawn a picture since they were children.

"Ugh my drawings look like a 10 year old did them."

"When did you stop drawing for fun?"

"...when I was like 10."

Never mind that art doesn't have to be good to be fun.

high school is soo funny in hindsight. the entire time you're there thinking it's the most important period of your life and then the second you're out you're like well that was fucking stupid

yknow a take on morgana pendragon's story i see often is that if merlin had told morgana about his magic in that moment where they were in his chambers alone that she wouldn't have turned to become evil,, i disagree,, i think that morgana as a character would have eventually turned to become evil and bitter even with merlin as a mentor if she'd learned his secret early in season 2.

let's not forget merlin himself is NOT the most stable of mentor options (not that gaius or kilgahrah or ANY of the druids were a great help either) but he didn't know what the fuck he was doing,, just trying his best consulting that outdated spell book and had cryptic messages from a conniving dragon who MIND YOU still wanted morgana dead and was manipulating merlin the whole time and gaius was a traitor to most magic people like,, he literally was pro-gaslight morgana

merlin also loved arthur, however you view that love (romantic, platonic, brotherly, whatever) merlin loved arthur more than he did magic. we see this multiple times with merlin choosing what kept arthur safe and happy over him doing what would be best for the old religion (fuck them too but that's another post),, major example being the episode with the disir where he straight up tells him there is no place for magic in camelot (which is crazy considering he IS magic made flesh but anyways)

morgana HATED. uther, she hated everything about him and for awhile she disgusted that hate as righteous fury, raining down terror and pain onto innocents (even other magic users) and justifying it as payback. she hated arthur as an extension of uther because that's what uther raised them both as (again another post for another time) and tried to kill him without even asking what his stance was on magic (i believe arthur would have immediately done some introspection and realized he was wrong but thats imo)

i think that eventually,, their two stances would have come to blows (merlin's love for arthur above his magic/morgana's hatred for uther above all else) and morgana would still go to immeasurable heights to murder uther once more, merlin would have stopped her (or tried) because he knew the pain it would cause arthur even if he hated uther too, and morgana would've hated merlin for getting in her way,, her anger triumphing her love for arthur (see: s1ep12: to kill the king)

i feel like often times i just see morgana painted as someone who just needed a little love and light,, when in reality she's been heavily abused and pit against arthur since she was like 10/11 (however old she came to Camelot) and is now a grown woman who is realizing she hates her abuser and everything he's done and wants to destroy him and everything he loves !!

likewise merlin was manipulated and gaslit and forced to become a compulsive liar and would've NOT !! been good for morgana and eventually everything would've gone to shit !!

they are worsties for better or much much worse

the thing i feel people don't really take enough into account when it comes to arthur's supposed obliviousness regarding merlin's magic is that merlin is the absolute opposite of what arthur has been raised to believe sorcerers to be. merlin is clumsy and kind and - in the earlier seasons - like walking sunshine. he so obviously has negative desire for actual power, nor any respect for it, and while arthur absolutely knows that merlin isn't stupid, he 100% is an idiot.

and it's not stupid or ignorant on his part! people just do this, whenever they are taught someone who does or believes a certain thing is inherently evil! it's never the friendly guy next door who snacks half of your breakfast and then just grins when you complain, obviously not! arthur trusts merlin even early on, and beyond belief later on. of course merlin can basically do magic in front of him, because there is no part of arthur that actually thinks someone like merlin could have magic. you don't see what you're 100% convinced can't be there. if he ever got there, his already brittle construct of indoctrination and supposed repeated confirmation of said construct would crumble immediately! as it does in dotd after like, a day. it only doesn't in regards to morgana because as far as arthur is concerned, the moment she started using magic she became the cold and ruthless enemy he still couldn't bring himself to actually pursue! like.

it's very easy to think it's startingly oblivious, but one thing i really wish people would keep in mind a little more is that the viewer watches from a different point of view, and operates with a whole other set of information. that arthur operates under a certain worldview in an environment that does not teach to question it at all, and gives little opportunity to do so. it's actually wild arthur questions uther's teachings as often as he does, and considering that every time he does, they, to his knowledge, just get confirmed again (nimueh, morgause, morgana, uther's death, and so on and so forth), it's even wilder that he keeps doing it

Ok I reblogged this with a long talk in tags recently but this is for all you fuckers in the notes, as a librarian whose library has gone fine-free since the last time I reblogged this post:

TL;DR Fine free is great, it's in line with libraries' mission of public service, and it is doable, but only if governments choose to fund it. If they say they can't, look at where their money is coming from and where it's going.

there is so much about modern queer discourse that could be fixed simply by understanding "straightness" to be a socio-political classification & reward for conformity rather than just a personal identity.

The only comment in the notes that understood the assignment.

Very oblivious

I've been trying not to call people mean names when I get into arguments so now my default when I get a lil frustrated is to say "babe" which as u might understand is not particularly conducive to customer service

Had a guy piss me off so badly yesterday I called him babygirl

For reference im a scrawny 19 year old girl weaing top much eyeliner and he was a 40 year old man in an American flag carhartt jacket. We were both so surprised the disagreement just ended right there

the reef guardian 🦈

sketches!

This reminds me. One time when I was like 15 I moderated a minecraft server and this other mod I talked with on teamspeak thought I had an australian accent after hearing me barely say anything (i’m not australian) but for some fucking reason I didn’t say “oh i’m not australian that’s strange”, I just said I was australian and it became this huge thing where I had to stay up insanely late on school nights to moderate the minecraft server so I was in a time zone aligned with australia to keep this pointless bizarre lie going. Everyone on the server thought I was australian. I even changed the way I spelled words. This went on for YEARS. I still can’t comprehend why I would lie about something like that.