happy pride from lyman's dungeon 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

I will never stop talking about how much Nico's queerness mattered back in 2013.

Don't get me wrong, representation is always important. But back in 2013, queer representation in kids media (and remember, HoO is kids media - it's aimed at middle school children) was still extremely taboo. Queer characters were occasionally hinted at, even confirmed by writers off-screen/off-page (mandatory fuck you to JKR), but explicit confirmation was by and large considered inappropriate. And Uncle Rick, bless his Texan soul, just did it.

Yes, I have issues with the fact that he shied away from the word "gay", but he left no room for realistic denial of Nico's queerness. Nico was in love with Percy. He was queer, in one way or another. And to have an important long-term main character who was vital to the plot be openly and explicitly queer... that shit matters.

I remember I was just barely 13, and I read the Cupid scene with a confused little frown. I understood, logically, that they were saying that Nico was gay, but...

I closed the book with a funny little ache in my stomach.

A year later I crushed hard on a boy 2 years older than me. My soul ached for him.

A year after that, I noticed for the first time how the soft, full, rosebud lips of my friend parted slightly when she was thinking. Every inch of my body yearned to kiss them.

I spent years, before and after reading HoH, feeling confused and wrong and weird. Having a character like Nico didn't make it all that much easier, but reading that scene gave me that first pang, an instinctual undefined aching just out of reach that said, you're okay. You're not alone.

It laid the foundation to who I am today, and for that I will always be grateful to Uncle Rick.

the fact that convicted felons can't vote in some us states but they CAN become the president of the united states, even if they are on probation or behind bars says something about the US government system and racism and classism in the country that you couldn't spell out any more clearly lmao

Gays I really need some help.

I'm writing a position paper for uni, advocating for the establishment of a dedicated queer social space in my area. I want to use the word "queer" interchangeably with the term "LGBTQIA+". To me, it represents community, progress, resilience. But I also recognise how painful that word can still be for some people, especially LGBTQIA+ elders. If I use it, I will put a preface with my reasoning at the beginning.

mantis mouthparts source

it’s okay to do things that make your symptoms worse (as long as you’ll stay safe)

every once in a while you need to eat something yummy. or go on a walk. or a trip to the zoo. take a hot shower. cry your eyes out. dance. listen to music. draw for way to long. write. laugh. sit in a cafe with a friend. paint your nails. dye your hair. go on a run. pet a cat

sometimes you need to do things that are cathartic or make yourself feel alive. sometimes you need the reminder of why you’re fighting so hard to stay alive

this is your reminder that just because it makes your symptoms worse, it isn’t always the wrong thing to do. there can be value in these actions

every day i think of the light progressively abandoning the doctor's eyes in season four

i wasn't made to work. i was made to have sex and read books all day every day

happy birthday pinkie pie!!!!!!!!!!!!! :333333333

also the joke that Hades I is about daddy issues and Hades II about granddaddy issues is silly. zagreus has severe mommy issues. however, both melinoë AND her father have daddy issues but in opposite directions.

I'm totally in support of the writers in theory but I'm trying to understand more of what you're fighting for because I've seen some people on twitter claim writers make more money a week than most of us make in a month so I'm trying to understand what the issue is. Also if that info is accurate. This is a genuine question. Not trying to have a "gotcha moment". I really want to hear from a writer.

people have always had wild misconceptions about how much a writer earns because of their lack of understanding of how the industry actually works. there's so many posts about how "you guys make 5k a week. what more do you want?!" yeah...let's do some math on that.

5k a week for 14 weeks (and that's a long room. a lot of rooms these days are 8-10 weeks. those are the dreaded mini-rooms we're trying to kill) is $70,000. for roughly three months of work. you'd think we're cooking with gas...BUT HOLD UP. that's gross! let's see everything that has to come out of that check:

10% to our agent

10% to our manager

5% to our entertainment attorney

5% to our business manager (not everyone has one but a lot of us do. i do, so that's literally 30% immediately off the top of every check)

most of these breakdowns ive seen downplay taxes severely. someone made one that says writers pay 5% in taxes and i would like to ask them "in what universe?". that doesn't even cover state taxes. the way taxes work in the industry is really complicated, but the short of it is most of us have companies for tax reasons so we aren't taxed like people on w2s/1099. if we did we'd be even more fucked. basically every production hires a writer's company instead of the writer as an individual. so they engage our companies for our services and then at the end of the year we (the company) pay taxes as corporations or llcs (depending on what the writer chose to go with). my company is registered as a "corporation" so let's go with those rates. california's corporate rate is 9% and the federal corporate tax rate is 21%. there's other expenses with running a business like fees and other shit so my business managers/accountants/bookkeepers have recommended i save between 35-40% of everything i make for when tax season comes.

you see where the math is at already??? 25-30% in commissions and then 35-40% in taxes. on the lower end you're at THE VERY LEAST looking at 60% of that check gone. 70% worst case scenario. suddenly those $70,000 people claim we make are actually down to $28,000 as the take home pay. and that's if you're only losing 60%. it goes down to $21,000 if it's 70%.

lets pretend you worked a long 14 week room (that's the longest room ive ever worked btw) and let's also be generous and say you only have 60% in expenses so the take home is $28,000. average rent in los angeles is around $2,800-$3,000. if you're paying $2,800 in rent that means you need AT LEAST $4,000 a month to have a semi decent life since you need to also cover groceries, gas, medical expenses, toiletries, phone, internet, utilities, rental and car insurances, car payments, student loan payments, etc etc etc. and again, this is los angeles. everything is more expensive so you're living BARE BONES on 4k. and these are numbers as a single person. im not even taking having children into account. so those $28,000 you take home might cover your life for 6-7 months. 3 of which you're in the room working. the reality is that once that room ends, you might not work in a room again for 6-9-12 months (i have friends whose last jobs were over 18 months ago) and you now only have about 3 months left of savings to hold you over. we have to make that money stretch while we do all the endless free development we do for studios and until we get our next paying job. so...3 months left of enough money to cover your expenses -> possible 9 months of not having a job. this is how writers end up on food stamps or applying to work at target.

this is why we're fighting for better rates and better residuals. residuals were a thing writers used to rely on to get them through the unemployment periods. residual checks have gone down from 20k to $0.03 cents. im not joking.

they've decimated our regular pay and then destroyed residuals. we have nothing left. so don't believe it when they tell you writers are being greedy. writers are simply fighting to be able to make a middle class living. we're not asking them to become poor for our sake. we're asking for raises that amount to 2% of their profit. TWO PERCENT. this is a fight for writing even being a career in five years instead of something you do on the side while you work retail to pay your bills. if you think shows are bad now imagine when your writer has to do it as a hobby because they need a real job to pay their bills and support a family. (which none of us can currently afford to have btw)

support writers. stop being bootlickers for billion dollar corporations. stop caring about fictional people more than you care about the real people that write them. if we don't win this fight it truly is game over. the industry as you know it is gone.

moss balls in da jellyfish tank. source

Moon takes the role of Jack's father after Solar's death

Transparent version under the cut

it's hilarious to me that all the crazy things that are happening in Doctor Who now are caused by Fourteen's brilliant idea of using salt and invoking a superstition at the edge of the universe