I needed to move all my tumblr posts because I'm scared parts of my blog would be lost. I'm not sure if I'm going to be deleted so I'm just trying to be safe.
LGBT BRAZILIANS TAKE CARE WITH DATING APPS AND GRINDR, THEY WILL BE USED TO TARGET VICTIMS PLEASE SIGNAL BOOST
ALSO!!!!!!!!!!!!
In Whatsapp (the most used messaging app in Brazil), if you receive a contact from a “juridical support group for LGBT+ people who are being harassed” called “REAJA”, DO NOT INTERACT!!!!!!! Apparently, this is not a real support group but it’s a trap that are targeting LGBT+ people to physically harm them. They people behind “REAJA” have very malicious intentions.
when you can sense a Mood incoming and feel like a farmer standing in a field looking out at the horizon as the storm approaches like “looks like it’s gonna be a bad one, boys”
I introduced a friend to ATLA a few nights ago, and they had only
known two things about the entire show: the cabbage meme, and that Aang
apparently wants to ride every large and dangerous animal he can
possibly find. We got through the first five or so episodes, and my
friend noted that Aang is exactly what a 12-year-old would be like if
given godlike powers, and that this is literally just what he
could do with airbending. He can’t even wield any of the other elements,
and he’s one of the most powerful people on the planet, because he’s an
airbender.
And that got me thinking.
This snippet from Bitter Work is one of the few pieces of concrete information we get about the airbenders, at least in ATLA. Iroh is explaining to Zuko how all four of the elements connect to the world and to each other.
Fire is the element of power, of desire and will, of ambition and the ability to see it through. Power is crucial to the world; without it, there’s no drive, no momentum, no push. But fire can easily grow out of control and become dangerous; it can become unpredictable, unless it is nurtured and watched and structured.
Earth is the element of substance, persistence, and enduring. Earth is strong, consistent, and blunt. It can construct things with a sense of permanence; a house, a town, a walled city. But earth is also stubborn; it’s liable to get stuck, dig in, and stay put even when it’s best to move on.
Water is the element of change, of adaptation, of movement. Water is incredibly powerful both as a liquid and a solid; it will flow and redirect. But it also will change, even when you don’t want it to; ice will melt, liquid will evaporate. A life dedicated to change necessarily involves constant movement, never putting down roots, never letting yourself become too comfortable.
We see only a few flashbacks to Aang’s life in the temples, and we get a sense of who he was and what kind of upbringing he had.
This is a preteen with the power to fucking fly. He’s got no fear of falling, and a much reduced fear of death. There’s a reason why the sages avoid telling the new avatar their status until they turn sixteen; could you imagine a firebender, at twelve years old, learning that they were going to be the most powerful person in the whole world? Depending on that child, that could go so badly.
But the thing about Aang, and the thing about the Air Nomads, is that they were part of the world too. They contributed to the balance, and then they were all but wiped out by Sozin. What was lost, there? Was it freedom? Yes, but I think there’s something else too, and it’s just yet another piece of the utter brilliance of the worldbuilding of ATLA.
To recap: we have power to push us forward; we have stability to keep us strong; we have change to keep us moving.
And then we have this guy.
The air nomads brought fun to the world. They brought a very literal sense of lightheartedness.
Sozin saw this as a weakness. I think a lot of the world did, in ATLA. Why do the Air Nomads bother, right? They’re just up there in their temples, playing games, baking pies in order to throw them as a gag. As Iroh said above, they had pretty great senses of humour, and they didn’t take themselves too seriously.
But that’s a huge part of having a world of balance and peace.
It’s not just about power, or might, or the ability to adapt. You can have all of those, but you also need fun. You need the ability to be vulnerable, to have no ambitions beyond just having a good day. You need to be able to embrace silliness, to nurture play, to have that space where a very specific kind of emotional growth can occur. Fun makes a hard life a little easier. Fun makes your own mortality a little less frightening to grasp. Fun is the spaces in between, that can’t be measured by money or military might. Fun is what nurtures imagination, allows you to see a situation in a whole new light, to find new solutions to problems previously considered impossible.
Fun is what makes a stranger into a friend, rather than an enemy.
Beyond this, consider how these professions might vary depending on who the customers are – nobles, or lower class. Are they good at their job or just scraping by? Do they work with lots of other people or on their own? City or village?
For younger characters:
Apprentice to any of the above
Messenger/runner
Page/squire
Pickpocket
Shop assistant
Student
Looks after younger siblings
(Images all from Wikimedia Commons)
Also consider:
Candlemaker Ferryman Factor (looks after business for an employer in another city) Tiler Cutler Beekeeper Apothecary Interpreter Furrier Moneylender/Banker Winemaker Tinker (small trader who repairs stuff) Nightsoil collector Customs officer
Also a bonus for animal related professions: Fowler (supplies game birds for eating) Warrener (catches rabbits on your land for you to eat) Ostler (looks after your horses) Falconer (looks after your falcons) Cocker (looks after your fighting cocks)
I need more fantasy rpg in my life that isn’t d&d-style. I think it’s time for some Sword & Backpack.
100 Jobs for Fantasy Characters (that aren’t knight or peasant)
You wouldn’t think “sugar-baker”
(pastry-chef) gave much scope for adventure, but Switzerland had a great
reputation for skilled sugar-bakers so a a lot of medieval and Renaissance
sugar-bakers were Swiss.
They were freelance, travelling from place
to place and being hired to make Impressive Stuff for a banquet here or a feast
there, in that Duke’s castle or that Prince’s mansion.
They were also spies. There’s a famously
wrong line in the movie “The Third Man”:
“You know what the fellow said – in Italy,
for thirty years under the Borgias, they had warfare, terror, murder and
bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the
Renaissance. In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had five hundred
years of democracy and peace – and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”
Not only did Switzerland not produce the
cuckoo clock (which came from the Black Forest in Germany) but its principal export during the middle ages and Renaissance was mercenary soldiers,
the most feared in Europe. They were called “the Dirty Swiss” because at a time
when a standard tactic was to outbid and buy the contract of an opponent’s mercenaries, a
contingent of Swiss mercs stayed bought until their job was done.
As for that job, a paraphrase of Kyle Reese’s
speech from “The Terminator” could go something like this:.
“Listen, and understand. Those Swiss are out
there. They have a contract. They’ll keep to that contract, so they can’t be
bargained with and they can’t be reasoned with. They don’t feel pity, or
remorse, or fear. And so they don’t have to fight you again next week, next month,
next year, they’ll take no prisoners, and they absolutely will not stop, ever,
until you break and run or are all dead.”
So where did the sugar-bakers come into
this? They moved around the members of society who might want to hire
mercenaries, so they were in a position to see rivalries and enmities develop
and send back the information that, say, Baron A was about to take a slap at Count
B over a land dispute, and would welcome two companies of
pikemen and one of arquebusiers at a reasonable rate for two months.
They were also able to report back that Marquess
C, currently hiring a company of halberdiers, was throwing lavish parties to
impress the king but was behind on his fees and unlikely to get caught up, so
the expiry-through-non-payment clause of the halberdiers’ contract would come
into effect on the first day of June. Also that Sieur D, the Marquess’s rival, would
be more than happy to sign them up and might pay a large bonus if that signing-up happened while the mercs were still under Marquess C’s roof…
None of these noble gentry would be happy
to know that the man making éclairs in their kitchen was reporting back their
financial and political secrets to a foreign power, but would be happy to learn what else their
sugar-baker knew and about whom they knew it. And when they asked, it wouldn’t start
with “Please…”
The only
reason why the Swiss didn’t conquer large areas of Europe was a lack of unity
and trust. Outside Switzerland they were Swiss, but inside Switzerland their loyalty
was to their cantons – Zürich, Appenzell,
Uri, Bern, Basel etc. – and no fox leaves other foxes to mind their
henhouse while they’re away from home.
Are these a few story seeds, perhaps? If so, you’re welcome…
This is useful! I say as I am reading it. But then…
That is CRIMINAL to send him back!
That judge must be republican
Yo if a child is crying this hard and begging not to go back to their mother’s house, SOMETHING IS CLEARLY WRONG. Protect the kids, man. Smh….
Oh no… my heart aches
Poor baby, hurts me bc this is everyday shit…
This shit fucked me up…..
I always tell myself not to watch these things but always end up watching them & crying & feeling like a horrible person because I want to help so bad but I know I can’t. Ugh I really hope they fix this & help this child
According to this, the dad got in trouble for illegally taking Mikey to Massachusetts without checking with the Illinois judge. They’re trying to terminate the dad’s parental rights because they’re claiming he kidnapped his kid- that he had primary custody of- and instead returning him to his mom who not only demonstrably physically abused him, but it running a fucking meth house. It’s fucking wild.
Tess's Back Up 