You know Jones soda cap, as a tumblr user i can actually say i think I have.

I support the "fiction isn't real so nothing matters" mindset but tbf at a certain point it can tip over into "the curtains are just blue" territory

like yes actually there is a conversation to be had about how a characters actions are framed and how they thematically fit with the rest of the story and it can in fact reflect the author's beliefs. some authors are even trying to make a point

not all depiction is glorification but sometimes it is and you need to be able to tell the difference. not because your immortal soul will be tainted by reading The Bad One, but because you need to have reading comprehension skills

peer reviewed

A Devil's Minion piece inspired by the SKAM France paint scene (iykyk) and the theory that Armand painted the ceiling on Daniel's NYC apartment. I like to imagine that in the middle of painting the sky mural, the two had a messy makeout session that led to paint getting everywhere.

Latest Fables to Explain Time's Passing (1973-74 DM AU) story, continued:

Return to the Fork in the Road

This new piece is the 6th story in the series beginning with “Trade the Game You Know for Shelter”; thanks so much for your patience, as it took me a little bit of time to get back to this series due to other projects I’ve been working on! Rating: E; Word Count: 7,030 words so far; 3 out of 10 chapters posted (this is that 1973 - 1974 AU with actual San Francisco Bay Area historical figures in the mix as characters). Daniel goes back to finish the couple of college classes he needs to graduate, but that decision comes with some odd consequences.

CHAPTERS:

EXCERPT:

“My s.o. rides,” Daniel explains, deciding that affability with a fellow student might be the way forward. The guy looks like a student, anyway, with a patched rucksack slung over one shoulder. His dark-wash Levi’s are nicer than they’d seemed at first glance, although his lace-up boots are beat to hell like his bag; in fact, they look like they might fall apart at any second. “Got the bug from riding with ’em. I’m no expert, though.”

“It’s just, when I say that’s an antique,” the young man continues, relaxing his expression, “I mean it’s been kept in exceptionally good nick for a set of wheels that was made in the, oh…” He squints at it again, and there’s a flicker of unmistakable jealousy in his glance. “Thirties, forties.”

“Thirties, yeah,” Daniel confirms without hesitation. “My other half collects.”

“Bikes?” asks the young man, beckoning Daniel toward the building. “I’ll be late.”

“Nah, antiques,” Daniel replies, grinning, following him. “What are you in for?”

“Manin’s seminar,” says the young man, his expression pinched again. “You?”

t-shirt with the words “high-functioning corpse” printed on it

This is what having auditory processing issues is like.

The key to understanding history and geopolitics is to remember: just because one side is bad, doesn't mean the other side is good

Just because an official narrative is suspect doesn’t mean the most popular counter narrative is automatically true

Come back alive, Patroclus. (2022)

Gouashe version

Final result: the majority of voters have NEVER HEARD OF this film.

This film is about an ex con who learns his son is gay, making him question his toxic values. Writer/director/producer Peter Bratt (brother of star Benjamin) had a hard time getting it funded because Hollywood was over the "gay thing" after Brokeback and the Latino community wasn't very supportive either. The production made extra efforts to be eco-friendly.

The amount of slavery in Ancient Rome was legitimately terrifying tbh

Y’all know that I’m into ancient Roman history and I do a lot of research on it but even though I should be used to it by now sometimes I read an anecdote about how an individual slave was treated and I’m hit with the realization that like a third of the population was living like that and I just need to put my head in my hands for a second

Emperor Hadrian randomly stabbed a slave in the eye in a fit of rage and he was supposedly unusually sympathetic to slaves.

There’s other instances of people randomly punching slaves that they didn’t even know because they got in their way or something. This was just normal behavior.

And slaves didn’t rebel en masse because if even one slave committed an act of violent rebellion it was common practice to kill every slave and former slave in the household.

People only took notice for posterity when these mass executions got into the hundreds of people. One of the few recorded for the history books is of over 400 people being killed because one guy stabbed his enslaver.

Like how many people throughout history were beaten to death because some rich asshole was angry and there was no legal or social consequences for doing so? We don’t know.

When you study ancient history you’re reminded that slavery has never once been kind or justified. It just takes on different forms of evil in every time and place that it infects.

At times in Rome proper, the population was up to 40% enslaved. That’s how they were able to have cheap and widely available fast food stands on every street corner. Slave staffed plantations, slave staffed bakeries, slave staffed food stalls. Privately owned and state owned.

Slavery pervades the ancient and pre-modern world. Slaves were so ubiquitous and available in medieval Cairo we have records of a baker and a cobbler going halfsies to buy a girl together. Slaves from Russia were available in Spain. Millions of enslaved Black Africans were moved across the Sahara. Slaves made the sails that powered Viking ships; they did the worst parts of Norse farming as well. Slave trading made Italian city-states wealthy.

Slavery is horrible. There is no kind way to own another person as a thing and slavery is about reducing a person to a thing. A commodity.