The Only Way In Which Selling Sex Is Exceptional As A Form Of Work Is That It Involves Having Sex.

Portal 2's Turret Opera still hits soooo hard as a closing point for Chell and GLaDOS' story dude. Right after a monologue about how after everything they've been through she realizes she's incapable of killing Chell, GLaDOS has actually.. set up a perfect, inescapable death trap. She could've easily had the turrets shoot through the glass, sent the elevator all the way back down to Old Aperture or simply gassed her without letting the elevator even leave her central chamber. She basically had her. She could've obliterated her while she was still out cold from fighting Wheatley, but she doesn't. Instead, she has them perform an opera about walking as far away from science as possible. An opera that's implied to have been rehearsed even before Chell broke out with Wheatley - was she considering doing this long before Chell went out to try and kill her again?? This is very blatantly me steering into headcanon territory, but I like to think this whole room was the "REAL surprise with tragic consequences" GLaDOS spoke of. I imagine this is exactly what she originally planned to do - give her false hope by having her ride an escape elevator only for it to stop right in the middle of a massive turret ambush. She would literally treat Chell like a fish in a barrel. Quick, easy and delightfully painful. Each instance where she escaped was either due to oversight or third party intervention - so she created a situation where none of that is possible. All that would arrive to the surface and see the sun is a bullet-riddled corpse. But that's not what the elevator brings to that dingy faux shed in the end. I wonder what she's done with this room after the elevator made its ascent. Do the turrets still stand there, waiting on the off-chance the elevator goes back down with a familiar face within? Do they still sing the same song, over and over, hoping she'll hear it up there? Do they think of her, does she think of them, does she think of her? If Chell were to step back in, would GLaDOS even have the heart to let that elevator go back down? Either way, they'd still be down there, gathered for someone that may never ever come back. They'll all be faithfully standing at their usual spots in the chambers, ready to lovingly shoot her again should she be back to test forever.

handsy~

i think "it takes a village" shouldn't be just "to raise a child". we should understand it takes a village to do literally everything we do. all day every day. without our communities we would not have drinking water or electricity or clean streets or food or shelter or anything. we cannot do any thing alone. we just can't. and with that comes the fact that you are not alone. you already have a community, seek to be an active part of it, you will feel better. reach out and thank them, they're happy to have you too. i promise. it takes a village to live.

“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”

— Alexander den Heijer

it fucking sucks how you can do all the therapy and self healing in the world and you still have to wake up living under a capitalist death cult that's killed community and crushes your soul

SOBBING

Always remember: In a pinch you can bypass imposter syndrome by just flipping the script on people. Everyone's making it up as they go along, anyway, and 95% of the time nobody ever questions you like you're scared that they will. But if someone would? With what authority, exactly? Are they really qualified to make that judgement? Okay fine but what clown college gave them those qualifications? Okay fine sure that's a legit university to get a PhD from, but are they sure they didn't just get lucky to stumble in there and then accidentally stumble out with a degree? Who are they to claim you shouldn't be there, if they can't tell for sure if they are supposed to be there?

Physically, you may get wrestled our of there by the facility security. But emotionally, you can take them down with you.

#hopepunk #thank you

Hope, kindness, and compassion are skills. You can get better at them. Some people are naturally better or worse at them and sometimes something happens that makes them hard for you and that's okay. Just like coming back to work or a sport or other activity after an injury, you can slowly work up to it.

If you don't feel like you're a kind person, but you want to be, good news! You can be! It will just take some training just like any other skill.

A lot of people lack hope and you know what that's fair. But hope isn't this ephemeral thing the universe just gives you. It takes work to build a hopeful mindset. It's a skill.

If compassion is hard for you I'll tell you that it was once hard for me and now people tell me I'm the most compassionate person they know. Because I decided I wanted to feel compassion for everyone, even the people who hurt me, and started practicing.

They're skills and they are ESSENTIAL for living a happy life. If you want to be happy you have to be kind. If you want to feel joy without a cloud hanging over your head you need hope. And if you want to hurt less, you need compassion. I know you can do it. Good luck!

DREAM TO MEME

We’re past the point of being able to ignore this now. @pixellecutie​’s sleeping brain dreamed a dream of marine biology, and you’ve all really put in the work to make it a meme in its own right. Who knew there were so many benefits to being a marine biologist?

~

The origins:

The Minecraft axolotl version by @queerbeemc​:

The Animorphs version by @jivs-jam​:

Even @theshitpostcalligrapher​ chimed in. Thank you, @theshitpostcalligrapher​, for services rendered to the community:

This kissy fishy by @cryptidcanary​:

A reality check by @anxiety-plus​:

The tired marine biologist by @hustlerose: 

Above all things, sophisticated (@noneedtofearorhope​):

More cons (oh no!) according to @essential-npc​:

A delightfully different perspective, this time from the forest floor, by @bepisdrink​:

A worthy remix by @charlesoberonn​: