@apollyonics
never had a thought and not about to start now
Posts
58996
Last update
2023-06-08 09:15:23

    Once upon a time, there was a city ruled by three sister princesses. They were much-loved in their kingdom- the eldest with eyes of brightest blue, the middle with lips of sweetest pink, and the youngest with hair of deepest red. They were incredibly close, acting as each other’s friends and confidantes. They were just, and kind, able to balance the people and keep the peace in their land.

    For a time, all was well.

    And then it wasn’t.

    Mother?

    Shh.

    A neighboring kingdom, jealous of this city’s prosperity and peace, sought to disrupt it. They dragged to its gates hideous war machines, made of magic and steel and human skin. The king, a man of great magical learning and power, demanded the princesses surrender their city to him, and if they did not, he said, he would raze it to the ground.

    Mother, I’ve never heard of this story.

    Then listen when I tell it to you.

    The youngest daughter, when she heard, did up her deep red hair, put on a delicate crown, and clothed herself in a beautiful dress. “I will offer him an alliance,” she told her sisters. “I will give him my hand in marriage for our kingdom’s safety.”

    The other sisters wept, understanding the sacrifice that their youngest was making, and held her close until dawn. They saw her off at the castle gates, and watched until she disappeared into the still city.

    When the youngest daughter reached the enemy’s camp, she stood tall, and did not show her fear. She spoke kindly to the weary soldiers, curtsied before the cruel sorcerer-king as custom demanded. She was brave, oh, my darling, she was so brave.

    And the king spat at her fine words, and spoke the words that drew all the light from out of her, until she went mad with despair. As the sun set on the day, and on the youngest sister, who lay despondent in the middle of the camp, a soldier came upon her, and killed her in a fit of mercy.

    But you said that she was brave.

    Yes. She was.

    When the other sisters heard, the middle sister donned silver armor, borrowed from the guards in the castle, and took up a crossbow. “I go to kill the king,” she said. “I go to avenge our youngest.”

    And the eldest held her close, and wept, until she let her go and watched her disappear from sight into the streets.

    When the middle sister arrived at the camp, she moved quietly, looking through the tents with eyes and a heart made cold with fury and grief. She reached the king’s tent- asleep, inside was the enemy, and she raised her crossbow to finish the job. And she would have, darling, she would have, had she not seen, hanging from the post of the kings fine bed, her sister’s delicate crown.

    The king awoke when she sobbed at the sight of it, and spoke words that caused her to wither and decay where she stood, crumbling to rotted remains inside a suit of armor.

    Mother, I don’t like this story.

    You must hear it.

    The eldest sister heard the news and she did not weep. She drew her courage about her, and set off into the forest to find her and her sister’s mother, who was a powerful witch.

    Her mother answered the door and bade her come inside, offering her condolences about her sister’s fates. Once the door had closed, her mother hesitated, then spoke.

    “I left you in that castle long ago, and I will give you your answers, and then I will give you your vengeance against the king.”

    And so the daughter listened.

    Mother, I don’t want to hear this.

    Listen, daughter.

    Long ago, there had been a queen with great magickal abilities, but she was never able to find a love, so she used those powers to create three daughters.

    One, she formed from a bottle of light captured at the sun’s violent surrender to night. It woke last, a child with beautiful red hair, and so it was the youngest.

    One, she shaped from a gentle pink anemone, the last in her castle’s courtyard to survive winter’s onslaught. It woke second, a child with curved pink lips, and so it was the middle.

    One, she carved from a piece of sapphire the size of her fist, and as she did, she cut her finger with the blade, so it was made with blood, as well. It woke immediately, with bright blue eyes, so it was the eldest.

    The sun took her first child home, she told the sapphire-girl. Her body turned to light, and then to nothing, what it always was. The body of her second daughter rotted in the encampment like a flower decayed beyond its lifespan. “All the king can do is turn you back to what you were before,” she told her daughter. “He will turn you back to stone if you are unprotected.”

    She gave her daughter a vial full of black liquid. “This will turn your heart forever to sapphire. The king will be unable to change you- but you will never feel again. No blade shall pierce your skin, but no joy or grief will stir within you. You will never be warm, or cold. I offer you not immortality, but a half-life of invincibility.”

    The daughter regarded the vial, and uncorked it. She brought it to her lips, but before she drank, she asked her mother, “Why did you leave us?”

    And then she swallowed, so she would not care about the response, and she left her mother in her home before she found the answer.

    But why did their mother leave them?

    Because she knew, daughter, even then, that her eldest child was capable of committing this act, and she was afraid.

    The eldest daughter marched to the encampment, and to the kings tent. She was attacked, but nothing drew blood, and so she went forward. The king, upon seeing her, spoke the words that would have crumbled her to so many sapphire shards, but nothing happened.

    She pulled out the king’s heart through his armor, and she felt no relief at having killed him.

    She felt nothing.

    The end.

    Mother?

    Mother, that can’t be how the story ends.

    Mother, that is not how the story ends.

    Do you want another ending?

    Yes.

    Very well, then.

    The people saw what their queen had done, and began to fear her. The queen, unable to feel love or even affection, went back to her mother to find a way to make a child that her people would adore, because, without emotion, she saw that that was what they needed.

    The child was made of ice over a pond, and her hair was the orange-white color of the fish, still alive in the cold.

    And the queen raised her daughter to love the kingdom, to rule well, and to one day overthrow her mother.

    Is that better?

    No, mother, it’s- it’s not.

    I am sorry.

    Why did you tell it to me?

    Because you deserved to know, daughter.

    You deserved to know what I did.

    genderpunks

    the point of my masculinity and male positivity posts are to underline that masculinity and manhood are seen as a threat or in direct opposition to queerness, and that often times in order to be seen as queer you have to be partially or wholly feminine or gender neutral, or express your manhood in a feminine or gender neutral way in order to no longer be threatening, invasive, or a problem.

    it is very difficult to exist in queer spaces as a hyper masculine person & a man. you're made to feel like you need to walk a tight rope feeling like you're inherently out of place, as if you existing and being masculine or a man in queer spaces makes others uncomfortable inherently.. just know that when i make positivity posts it is to remind us all that masculinity/manhood and queerness are not opposites and that you do not have to be a feminine man or masc person to be viewed/seen/heard as queer.

    chasing men, masculine people, and masculinity out of queer spaces isn't helping anyone currently and won't help anyone down the line. please accept masc enbies, butches, bears, and masculine trans men with the same kindness, love, and passion that you do neutral and feminine people. that's the point when i make these kinds of posts. thank u

    prismatic-bell

    This is 100% thanks to the “No kink at Pride” people. Because?

    They didn’t want these men at Pride. This is a leather daddy. (A rather covered-up leather daddy, because this addition doesn’t do anyone any good if it’s flagged into invisibility, but best believe that dude has hella abs under there, and a 50/50 chance of heavy tattooing.)

    Here’s another. Again on the modest side for the sake of not triggering the automod thing, but you can see the interplay of queerness and masculinity—particularly a kind of forward, unashamed sexual explicitness, if you take a look at their crotches. That’s a kind of…for lack of a better term, mating display. “I have this and want to use it, or at least know there are men here fantasizing about me using it.” It’s akin to a woman wearing a plunge neck. You’re supposed to look, and if you’re a dude, he’d like you to like it.

    These dudes (well, most of these dudes)? They’re bears. (I said “most” because the guy in the sunhat is technically a cub. He’s too young to be a bear.) The furriness and the beards and the age and the bellies ARE THE POINT. The name “bear” is an affectionate one. Literally “I’m big and hairy!” In the 00s there was a stereotype(?) that bears were also super-cuddly. I don’t know how true it is, but I can confirm every bear I’ve ever met gives amazing hugs. They will readjust your spine, your touch starvation, and your entire outlook on life.

    None of this touches on the rather large queer kink communities around “men in uniform.” Military, police, construction, I can’t tell you how many strip nights I’ve been to at a local gay bar with a guy dressed as a sexy firefighter getting absolutely swamped with dollar bills and lap dance requests.

    You aren’t seeing these men because they’ve been forced out of spaces THEY CREATED. One of the best things you can do is to help bring them back.

    They’re not threatening, they’re not disgusting, they’re not somehow dangerous just by virtue of being open about their sexuality and sexual desire. They’re just human beings who human slightly differently than you.

    But more importantly?

    They’re family. And don’t you forget it.

    homoqueerjewhobbit

    Leather daddies, imho, are fucking around with hypergender performance as much as drag queens. It's two sides of the same coin. Leather daddies literally have beauty pageants.

    Also, there's a solid 50% chance that when you talk to those masc-looking leather daddies and bears are just much femme sissies as more femme presenting gay men.

    Sincerely, a genderqueer amab bear who dresses like a dad half the time

    honordaddy

    Your local leather historian here to add a little bit of context to the "this is the fault of the no kink at pride" thing.

    The leather community has existed formally (in the United States) since the mid 50s. The Satyr Motorcycle Club was founded in San Francisco in 1954, it is still around today making it the oldest continously run gay organization in the country. This is 15 years before Stonewall. The first gay leather bar, the gold coast, opened in 1958 in Chicago. 11 years before Stonewall. Informally the leather community has existed since the end of wwii when men who had spent years wearing leather, riding motorcycles, and having gay sex came back home and kept doing those things.

    Gay men have been arguing about whether or not the leather community belongs at pride since 1970. Since the inception of pride, or more accurately, "Gay Freedom Day." Because the leather community has heavt ties to the SM community. (Whether or not the Leather community is a sub community in the larger SM community, or there's just a lot of overlap is a conversation leathermen have always been having) but there has always been push back because of the tie to radical sex and because of accusations that leathermen are trying to "act straight"

    In an essay in Leatherfolk: Radical Sex, People, Politics, and Practice Leatherman Michale Bronski recalls hearing a lesbian tell a gay man "“Give me a break. You think that someone wearing chaps, a black leather jacket, a motorcycle cap, handcuffs on his belt, two different color hankies, and 36 inch high black boots looks Straight!”*

    Which brings us to their presentation of masculinity. If you'll excuse me for becoming An Academic(tm) for a moment, if you look at these communities, Leathermen and Bears, what you find is that popular theories of masculinitu don't work when describing these men, at least not when they're in the spaces that the audence that their gender performance is for also exist. Queer masculinity is a performance for queer people, framing it in the lense of heterosexuality does not do anyone any good and erases the nuances of what is happening.

    The leather communities are some of the oldest queer communities in America. To push them out of the queer community or suggest that they're toxic, or somehow harming the community as a whole is to ignore history completely, and engage with an argument that's half a century old.

    In 1982 leathermen founded AIDS Emergency Fund in San Francisco. Consistently through the first decade of the AIDS Crisis leathermen (and other radical sex communities) were promoting safer sex, and hosting all kinds of fundraisers to raise money for PWAs and reseach (a lot of leather beauty pagents popped up just for the purpose of rasing money.) All this while they were being told BY OTHER GAY MEN they were the ones killing everyone, they and their weird gross sex were the problem (never mind that a lot of what the leathermen were doing was already safer than monogamous anal sex)

    Leathermen are your family, we're part of your community and have every right to be here, even if you don't understand our masculinity.

    ❤️🖤💙🤍💙🖤

    *none of this even begins touching the surface of the discourse leather lesbians and feminists have been having since the 70s. It's tied to TERF rhetoric and the anti-porn movement.

    Historic note on bears: the origin of the community is shouded in myth, but certainly by the late 70s the beginnings of the community were there. The AIDS Crisis shot the community to popularity. Because AIDS will cause incredible weight loss, the eorticization of fat bodies was the eroticiaztion of safe bodies. If you read porn written by bears in the 80s and early 90s you'll notice the use of condoms where in other erotica that is lacking.

    musingsofaraven

    This works best if you keep windows closed.

    Another design is using 2 20x25x1 filters, taping them to the sides of the box fan and then to each other so they sort of make a triangle, then cutting cardboard to make a top and bottom to the triangle.

    This was discovered as a more effective design during the 2020 US west coast fires.

    https://tombuildsstuff.blogspot.com/2013/06/better-box-fan-air-purifier.html

    myrddin-wylt

    I’m very tired. you probably heard that Russia destroyed the Kakhovka Dam to slow Ukraine’s counter offensive. here’s something I didn’t quite realize: since this February, the Russians operated the dam in juuuuust the right way so that as much water would build up as possible when the snow melted and spring showers started. and then they blew the whole thing up.

    40,000 people may need to be evacuated. I don’t really have the energy to say anything else right now.

    Hospitallers Medical Battalion: actual angels can confirm. they’re combat-zone medical services - you know how humanitarian groups like MFS and Red Cross have to pause operations due to the Russians fucking shooting at humanitarian zones? yeah, these guys don’t pause for bullets, they fucking walk into them and they bring out anyone they can.

    Serhiy Prytula Charity Foundation: you can choose from a number of various fundraiser projects here, if you’re feeling particularly picky. for those of you who balk at the idea of supporting anything military just please remember that things like vehicles and drones aren’t just for military use, they’re also for evacuation and finding the wounded and they’re fucking vital.

    KSE Foundation: similar to the above, KSE has multiple projects you can choose from to donate to. looking at it right now, one of the projects with the lowest amounts of money raised thus far - despite being started in April - is Seeds for Ukraine, which will help Ukraine recover from the ecological devastation Russia has been wreaking (and with Ukraine, the countries that rely on Ukraine’s grain exports that Russia keeps trying to steal).

    Come Back Alive: do these guys even need the introduction? they’re Come Back Alive. I’m kissing all of them.

    United24: Zelenskyy’s brain child, and the official fundraising platform of Ukraine. Mark Hamill recommends the fundraisers for drones in particular.

    UAnimals: Nova Kakhovka’s zoo got… pretty much completely swept away. all zoo residents except the birds have drowned. UAnimals has tried throughout the occupation to keep the animals safe, and they’ve been reporting on the status of the zoo. I don’t really know what to say except that I hope they’re able to save the pets and strays in the towns along the river.

    You can find NGOs specific to evacuation efforts in this post; please signal boost it as well. I’ve listed them but am leaving the links for the op post.

    • Ukrainian FireFighters Foundation
    • Helping To Leave
    • VOSTOK SOS
    thelongestway

    And another good list, every name here will put your money to good use.

    @copperbadge, this is the general “help for Ukraine for ppl that don’t know where to donate outside of Ukraine”.

    copperbadge

    Had a rare request to reblog outside of RFM and the issue seemed urgent enough I wanted to do so. This is post two of two; thanks for notifying me and collecting these resources!

    froody

    no piece of teen media has ever accurately depicted the quiet psychological warfare of bullying. bullies on TV are always dumb brutes and not the evil geniuses of emotional manipulation that they are in real life. being given a wedgie and having your lunch money stolen is nothing in comparison to a classmate quietly creating a taboo against speaking to you that they intend to enforce against all the other kids. it’s nothing like continuous cutting comments from people you thought were being nice to you. that way that the work of one kid can make you feel like every person on earth silently hates you and that you are dirty, disgusting, worthless, creepy and useless. that you can have friends but many of them will not speak to you at school for fear of the social consequences on their end. how that damage lasts in any social setting for the rest of your life

    froody

    you can’t even “tell a trusted adult” because you cannot begin to articulate the thousands of small transgressions you’ve experienced building to the horror of knowing your peers would like you dead. they don’t have to say it or hurt you physically. they have other ways of letting you know they’d prefer if you were worn fuel

    I’m unfamiliar with horses but find this super interesting! Do you mind exposing what ‘Big Walk’ , ‘secure seat’, and ‘sat chilly’ means?

    @ambiguouspersonhood, by big walk, I mean a walk where the horse is really motoring - they are moving forward with purpose, in a brisk march, but not rushing. Their hind legs are “tracking up” or “overtracking”, i.e. the hind hooves step into the prints of the forefeet, or even step further than them. There is a lot of energy in the walk, and a lot of motion for the rider to absorb. When a horse walks, its ribcage swings from side to side, as it moves out of the way of each hind leg as it steps forward. For me, when I ride, I feel this in my hips, with the opposite hip to the horse’s hind leg feeling as though it moves forward as the ribcage swings out to that side, making space for the opposite hind leg to come through. You can also feel it as a side to side motion, or with an element of moving up and down, depends on the rider. Since the horse’s hind legs step further forward in the big walk, the ribcage has to move more, so as a rider you can really feel that swing through their back. 

    A rider’s “seat” is how they sit on the horse. Some people have “hot seats”, where they transmit tension to the horse who acts up, often by getting very fast. Others may be “loose in the tack”, i.e. they bounce and slip and slide around, which is unpleasant for the horse. The ideal is the “independent seat”, where the rider remains balanced no matter what speed or direction the horse is travelling in, and can use their body parts independently of each other to deliver precise cues, or aids. A rider with an independent seat will have a secure seat as a matter of course - they are unlikely to fall unless the horse makes a real effort to dislodge them. Riders with secure seats usually have “quiet” lower legs, which remain still and in the correct place, soft knees which do not grip the saddle, and hands that are unaffected by whatever is happening with their seat. 

    So, when Sahara reared, Taryn was able to move her hands up Sahara’s neck and give her a longer rein, to avoid pulling on her face and pulling her over backwards, even though gravity was beckoning her in the other direction. She folded forward from the hip, so her upper body lay parallel to the top of Sahara’s neck, changing her weight distribution to counteract the fact that most of Sahara’s weight was moving up and backwards. Her lower legs stayed on the girth, or just forward of it, and did not slide backwards, her heels stayed down and her toes stayed up. When Sahara dropped back to all fours, Taryn could resume her regular riding position by simply sitting up again, a motion that once again came from the hip, and not from her back. The hip is the hinge between your upper body and your seat when riding - thinking of moving from the hip makes it easier to keep your chest open and your shoulder blades drawn back, instead of hunching your back and rounding your shoulders, which only leads to you riding like a monkey trying not to fall off a tree branch, with your hands in your crotch, your knees gripping the saddle, your lower legs swinging so far backwards that your heels meet in the middle of the horse’s back, and your toes and face pointing at your inevitable destination: the ground. 

    By “sat chilly”, I mean that Taryn looked as though she wasn’t moving, because she was so balanced and in tune with Sahara, she was moving with her. I also mean that Taryn did not try to interfere with the mare in any way, by pulling her around, or smacking her, or whacking her between the ears, or any one of a dozen other methods people have used on rearing horses. When Sahara committed to a rear, Taryn held her nerve, sat quietly, let Sahara have her say, and did what she could to keep the mare balanced, so there’s also an element of confidence, good sense and bravery to sitting chilly. Think of the expression “a cool head”! 

    I hope that clears up some of my jargon, and some of my, er, freer uses of English idiom!

    literallymechanical

    This is Sprite. He lives at chez @fishteriously and he likes to Ascend. His favorite activities are going Up and being picky about the temperature of his food.

    lepidopsetta-bilineata

    The only dancer I go to see at the strip club

    meepmoopmaap

    @is-the-snake-video-cute

    I don't see anything wrong with Sprite Ascending, I was just wondering what kind of snake he is

    is-the-snake-video-cute

    What a wonderful video of a beautiful snake! Sprite is a very handsome green tree python.

    vet-and-wild

    Instead of dollar bills can we throw some mice?

    thejakeformerlyknownasprince

    Only perfect-temperature ones.

    natalieironside

    People who try to moralize about classical myth are unwittingly acting as a chorus. Discussions are framed and interspersed with rueful cries of "Why is The King so capricious and manipulative? Why is The Queen so vengeful? Why did Death steal that girl away from her mother?"

    cryptotheism

    "You've become part of the Greek chorus! You're taking part in the mythology with your lamentations! Good luck recovering from this one bub!"

    dagny-hashtaggart

    I feel like a lot of people don’t quite get what a butler is. The role tends to get rounded off to ‘male servant’ pretty regularly in some media, whereas actually butlers are typically not just servants but chief servants. The butler was generally in charge of either all male servants or just all servants, period, in the household of an aristocrat or other very wealthy person. This meant that butlers have often been fairly powerful and influential people, and sometimes even had a manservant or two of their own.

    (Also, fun fact: Mary Roberts Rinehart, the early 20th century mystery writer who is widely credited with popularizing the whole ‘the butler did it’ trope was nearly murdered by one of her own servants, a chef whom she had passed over for promotion to butler. He came at her with a pistol, but it jammed, allowing her chauffeur time to wrestle it away and restrain him.)

    voxette-vk

    You didn’t answer the key question things brings up: did she popularize the trope before or after the would-be butler tried to kill her?

    booksandchainmail

    according to wikipedia, before

    decepticonsensual

    There’s something glorious about the fact that the author who popularised “the butler did it” had a servant who a) failed to become the butler and then b) failed to do it.

    stele3

    If he’d been butler material, he’d have finished the job.

    elierlick

    🚨 FAKE TRANS DOCUMENTARY:

    This week someone claiming to be from a trans-supportive film, “It Takes a Village,” reached out. After investigating, I figured out it was a front for far-right director and Robby Starbuck. If they contact you, DO NOT RESPOND. We don't need any more deceptively cut anti-trans films!

    This is how Matt Walsh tried to con me into What Is a Woman last year. Thankfully, exposing him helped other trans people back out of the project. I hope sharing this information will do the same. These bigots can’t get interviews without lying to us.

    To be clear, I knew it was a sham from the start. They’re using Gmail, called drag bans “the drag issue,” and refused to reveal the distributor. I planned on having them book me a hotel so I could ask for the name on their card. I didn’t even have to go that far: they forgot to create a new Calendly account, which still was registered to Robby’s website!

    Based on the questions they sent me, it appears Robby planned to use his connections to arrest me in Tennessee. He's called for my arrest many times before and his tactic probably would have worked had I fallen for his clumsy front. This is full-on fascist behavior.

    A strange part of Robby's fake documentary is that it appears the alleged director Matt Rodgers is a real filmmaker. They sent me his website but claimed he couldn’t speak while filming in Croatia this week (another dead giveaway). Could he be directing the film? Or is he just another front?

    So Robby, just like your congressional campaign, you've failed to achieve your goal. I'd love to hear what you have in store for us now that you’re exposed.

    love-takes-work

    Be safe out there people. As an activist in another arena I have been contacted by underhanded documentary people twice and sometimes it takes a lot of detective work to sniff out what they’re really trying to do. Don’t accidentally help them and don’t put yourself in danger. Real activists making media will have checkable connections with established trustworthy organizations. (And the ones who may be just starting out and have no proof, well, on an issue like this, do you really want to risk your safety to do one of these projects with someone who’s given you no reason to trust them?)

    hellsite-testing-ground

    ˙ʇɐqʇᴉnɹɟ ɐ ǝɯoɔǝq oʇ pǝpᴉɔǝp ǝʌ,I

    perhapsihavesucceeded

    Posts that have 10,000 notes to me

    hellsite-testing-ground

    Then put in the effort: Spend the next 40 days reblogging this the maximum amount of times (250) a day.

    Never stop grinding 💪💯🔥

    perhapsihavesucceeded

    Day 1 completed.

    hellsite-testing-ground

    [villain monologue voice] Even if you reach your goal of 10,000 notes it will still a fraction of my most popular posts on tumblr. You may be expecting me to tell you their value. I will not. I am no fool; I see your tenacity, your drive. If I gave you a new goal surely you would attempt to best me, grow a rebellion, and defeat me with the power of friendship. I will not allow this.

    Perhaps… in the end, if you have succeeded, you will still ultimately fail.

    perhapsihavesucceeded

    [hero “the twist” voice] You don’t know- the username is only the first half of my catchphrase! The whole phrase is:

    “Perhaps I have succeeded only in amusing myself”!!

    It was never about making the post your most popular, or friendship, or even success- but only in bringing myself amusement! I know I’ll succeed- because I already have amused myself!

    Today is day 4!

    perhapsihavesucceeded

    Today is day 5!

    perhapsihavesucceeded

    Today is day 6!

    perhapsihavesucceeded

    Today is day 7!

    perhapsihavesucceeded

    Today is day 8!

    perhapsihavesucceeded

    Today is day 9! The fruit bats are feasting today!

    Id also like to say that based of the last 30 reblogs, 5 of them were reblogs amazed at the feat of endurance of reblogging it 10k times and the other 25 just liked the fruitbat post. It was always going to go big, i just accelerated it a bit

    aethtalon
    perhapsihavesucceeded

    Day 12! Probably only 2 days left!

    perhapsihavesucceeded

    I’m going to sleep, if one of you reblogs it to 10k please take a screenshot and post it!

    hellsite-testing-ground

    I’m gonna stay up 48 hours straight to camp the 10,000th note.

    perhapsihavesucceeded

    Day 14, the last day. The task will be completed soon