My good sir I had a mortgage before any of those characters were published 💀

I know who exactly three of these people are. When I was a kid I wanted to be a Herald of Valdemar.

I wanted to be Menolly with her entire Faire of fire lizards.

I wanted to be a Starfleet officer.

I wanted to be Dirk Pitt.

i wanted to be indiana jones

I wanted to be Han Solo.

I wanted to be Vesper Holly most of all.

Sticking with the literary theme: Meg Murry. If we're doing movies/TV, Princess Leia or Laura Holt.

I wanted to be Alanna

Also Meg Murry, and the kid who lived in the tree in My Side of the Mountain.

I wanted to be Emily Byrd Starr, then Morticia Addams

As it is Passover again, it is time for the annual debate as to whether the frog plague, which thanks to a quirk in the Hebrew, is written as a plague of frog, singular, rather than the plural, plague of frogs, was in fact, as generally imagined, a plague of many frogs, or instead a singular giant Kaiju frog. This is an ancient and venerable argument that actually goes back to the Talmud because this is what the Jewish people are. If we can't argue for fun about this sort of thing, what are we even doing.

In that spirit, I would like to submit a third possibility, which is that in fact it was one perfectly normal sized frog, who was absolutely acing Untitled Frog Game: Ancient Egypt Edition. One particularly obnoxious frog, who through sheer hard work, managed to plague all of Egypt.

I think it’s very important that Abigail Pent is a little bit strange and off-putting. Like yes, she’s the oldest non-lyctor necromancer on cast and she’s a maternal figure and she generally makes smart decisions, but also! She’s a spirit magician! She knows everything there is to know about ghosts! She makes overly intense eye contact! She got so caught up in her research she forgot her own anniversary! She’s definitely the best-adjusted compared to the other necros and yeah she looks pretty normal but as soon as she opens her mouth you’re like “oh she’s not all there is she.” I fully believe she clocked Cytherea on some level at the dinner party but she was too distracted telling her about her research to really think about it. And most importantly I think Magnus Quinn is the normalest guy you will ever meet and he loves his weird weird wife with his whole entire heart and soul

[ID: Tags that say: #Abigail cannot be normal after all the ghostly contact she’s had #speaking to her for long enough should trigger the animal fear response in your brain #she’s kind and good and smart but also #crucially #batshit crazy #I think Magnus comes downstairs to her in the kitchen looking not quite Right #and just smiles and takes her back up to bed /End ID.]

Had to screenshot prev because they’re quite possibly my favorite tags I’ve seen anyone put on this post. I think she scares the shit out of most of the people in Canaan House, and the only reason Harrow isn’t also terrified of her is because she was raised on Scary Planet as the Heir to King Freaky and Queen Frightening. The other cavaliers (Marta and Naberius in particular) always have to remind themselves not to draw their swords on her because she’s not dangerous, she just always has a Really Weird look on her face. Also I was picturing Magnus just picking her up and carrying her back to bed bridal style and Abi fully doesn’t notice because her body’s here but her brain is in an unspecified liminal state and she’s not coming back til at least the next morning

The few canonical details we get about her honestly back this up.

Remember Gideon's entire experience of necromancers and librarians up to this point is creepy death cultists who live in a hole on Pluto. And on that comparison, the apron seems to be the one thing tipping her affect to 'harmless eccentric' rather than 'uncanny'.

Some of that uncanny staring is perhaps because Abigail seems to be able to see details that don't seem to be typical for a necromancer to pick up casually:

Abigail has never touched Harrow. This seems to be information she's picked up simply from observing Harrow and being in proximity to her. If this is something that she's able to do, no wonder she's staring at everyone far too intensely: Abigail Pent is examining your aura like bug in a jar.

And while obviously there are complex reasons for Harrow's emotional response to this comment, there's also clearly something specific about Abigail that is profoundly unsettling:

This woman literally triggers Harrow's fight or flight response.

And, while there are obviously some rather specific circumstances at play here, we can't forget:

Which does rather imply that, as suggested above, spirit-talking does absolutely do something to you. That the entire Fifth House affect has in part developed over time to deal with the fact that some of their leaders are just a bit Changed.

While we don't get any details of what their life looked like at more prosaic times, it's notable that we repeatedly see Magnus in carefully practiced routines of bringing Abigail back down to earth: no, darling, you can't bleed out to summon a Lyctor ghost (please stop saying phwoar, you're scaring the Ninth). Dearest, we've been over the whole frank heresy in polite conversation thing. “Here it comes, the ghost agenda.” Between being her seneschal, husband, and cavalier, he probably rather has his hands full keeping her on the straight and narrow for things that aren't spirit talking.

And he is absolutely looking on with a wistful "that's my wife" expression as she stands in the middle of flaming sigils, hands covered in her own blood, communing beyond the veil during the day job.

Magnus Quinn is my favorite kind of guy: the “I love my unhinged terrifying powerful wife” guy

The Beast that Bothers

@maverick-ornithography i felt like i needed to try my hand at the most convincing sales pitch i’ve ever heard

Maybe I’m alone in feeling this way but for me the real sign you’ve made it as a Writer On Tumblr is when somebody loves one of your posts enough to perform and record it. Thank you for this, it has really brightened my day :) (image source [X] , since it got lost in translation so to speak)

I saw someone on Twitter (I’ve sadly lost track of the tweet already) say she accidentally responded to a sext with a screenshot of this post.

Justice 40

Joe Biden is boring and often bad at tooting his own horn, but by god, he is good at process.

Justice 40 is simple but powerful application of that. its a shift in how the executive branch works. 40% of money from a bunch of existing programs should go to census tracts that are overburdened with pollution, at higher risk for climate change, and have been historically underserved.

The shorthand here is basically "communities that don't have enough internal resources to deal with long term problems". So yes, communities that had been redlined for decades, ones that have Superfund sites, ones that have high rates of asthma from air pollution.

and this is by census tract. Not city. census tract. So parts of New York City qualify... but other parts don't. And the city HAS to use the money in the targeted part. it doesn't go into the communal pool. it's for THAT tract specifically.

Also all land federally recognized as belonging to a Native American tribe and all Alaskan Native Villages qualify, specifically.

And again, this is for existing programs that are already running and have existing staff and budgets. They're supposed to prioritize grants and projects for those areas specifically. And that's everything from Department of Agriculture, to FEMA, to Labor, to Environmental Protection.

Does it instantly get rid of all the baked in racism from decades past? No, not even close. But it puts in a countermeasure that has a concrete and measurable goal to aim for rather than a nebulous "suck less." even if the administration changes, many of those changes will stick.

And as things improve, some tracts may come off the list! Some may go on that weren't there before!

You can see a map here. Blue highlighted tracts are "disadvantaged" so qualify for that extra assistance! Check and see if you live in one or part of your town does. Because if you've been hearing constantly "we can't afford to fix X problem..." and you're in that tract.... there's money available. For you. Build that sidewalk, fix those lead pipes, get that brush truck your volunteer fire department has been asking for.

And tell your local officials that! "did you look at Justice 40 for funding". And even if they're doing their best, particularly people in little towns.... being a government official isn't their full time job. They may have missed it. Just asking them about the program may suddenly open a world of possibilities.

#this is fascinating stuff!#the map has SO MUCH INFORMATION about specific risk factors#like i can zoom in and see WHY my census tract is considered 'disadvantaged'#(historic underinvestment#+ high population density/lots of cars#+ minimal green space#+ lots of linguistically isolated communities#+ just literally so much lead paint#but NOT#say#high flooding risk#or serious risk of agricultural losses#fascinating stuff)

Okay, I am reblogging this from myself and copying my own tags, because it's even COOLER than I thought!! it specifically pairs burdens with socioeconomic markers, and in order to qualified as 'disadvantaged', a community has to be BOTH 'more likely than other communities to be dealing with this problem' and 'less likely than other communities to be able to RESPOND to this problem'.

so for an example: my census tract is in the 93rd percentile for the presence of lead paint! because that's what you get in older New England buildings! BUT because our overall poverty level is pretty low, we're not actually considered 'disadvantaged' on that metric - basically, yeah, we have a lot more lead paint than most places, but we also mostly have enough money to be able to deal with that.

On the other hand, we're in the 97th percentile for 'linguistic isolation' (aka having a ton of households where nobody over 14 speaks English well) AND we have a relatively high level of people who don't have any education past high school, and that combination specifically is what has us considered 'disadvantaged'.

You can argue about what metrics should be paired together - and I'm sure people do - but it's just a really interesting way of looking at a lot of complex and intersecting issues.

To move towards a better world you have to be able to hold in your head the contradictory and equally true facts that Joseph Robinette Biden is both the most progressive president America has had since (and quite arguably including) FDR and that he's the commander of a massive imperialist juggernaut that's been directly aiding and abetting a genocide for six months while we all watch. Both things are true.

I will not tell American citizens how to vote, or even insist that they do-- but whoever you are and wherever you live, if you hope for a juster world beyond oppression and genocide and colonialism and systematic disenfranchisement I invite you to see these complexities. There is no perfect compromise free path to that world. It's unclear how much of a possible path there is period, because such a massive transformation requires unprecedented levels of global cooperation and collective action. But inasmuch as it's the only struggle worth committing ourselves to, we must recognize and accept both that incremental progress *is* progress and must be pursued relentless and that we are nowhere near the finish line.

Went looking at the nearest blue area.

I love that the lead paint is juuuuust under the cutoff. We're getting better, I guess.

i watched one (1) video on how to draw hands that changed my life forever. like. i can suddenly draw hands again

these were all drawn without reference btw. i can just. Understand Hands now (for the most part, im sure theres definitely inaccuracies). im a little baffled

for those of u asking for the vid!

It was always funny to me how other companions would just stand there while Gale delivered this rizz lol

Be careful out there. Because, more than usual, you can't be sure who's listening. (Or who may be, later, once your data's been scraped and sold...)

silly werewolf transformation

3d printed start gate

For @madgedothorse

Wait for it...

Oh sweet HOLY SHIT :O

@autie-j

Me at the start: Itd be kinda cool if it actually showed like. a video feed from another portal nearby or something

Me by the end: Nvm, 10/10, no notes.

[ID: youtube comment from Hal Sawyer:

My favorite relic English still used everywhere is the word "the" used in phrases like: "the more I look at this, the stranger it seems, or "the bigger they come, the harder they fall". This "the" is not the article of any noun, it is a different word, a conjunction descended from the old English "þā", pronounced "tha" which means either "when" or "then". Back in early Middle English the structure "if - then" had not taken over and if you wanted to express an if - then relationship you said "þā whatever, þā whatever", meaning "when such-and- such, then such-and-such". "þā" sounds almost the same as "the" and the spelling of the two converged, but the meaning remained totally different. "the more, the merrier" literally means "when more, then merrier" or "if more, then merrier'; same as centuries ago.

end ID]

this is so cool

ngl I keep forgetting that Hobby Lobby is a real store that people go to. That people actually think of it as a craft store and not as a crazy Christian mass artifact smuggler. I google "Hobby Lobby" and get a page full of results that make me go "wtf is this craft supplies and operating hours shit, I thought we all knew this place for smuggling looted cuneiform tablets out of Iraq"

"A handsome younger man with a quick and easy smile" was probably meant as "when compared to Ketheric Thorm, who is old as balls" given the context but ... Gortash probably told the Netherbrain to portray him as Handsome & Young to all the True Souls, and since they are all high on Tadpole Energy, they just all agree that Gortash is, indeed, Handsome & Young and not a greasy guy in his fourties who smells like Diesel.

Been saying this for months but you have a better way with words than i ever will

Keep seeing pronoun positivity posts is about he/they and she/theys. That's cool and all but this one's for the she/hes. If you're a she/he I love you and you can take as much mint as you want from our garden

Is this a positivity post or a secret cry for help? OP, how bad is the mint situation?

It's both the mint situation is fucking severe