As Someone Who Primarily Sees Slugs And Snails As Nuisances (in Some Parts Of My Garden) Or Parts Of

Boss is asleep, cannot stop me from frogposting

i found a baby picture of my cat please please look at him i'm begging you

Solid advice even for folk without ADHD. Especially those who have allowed their attention spans to grow short due to the endless stimulation from our devices.

Not to go "if you have ADHD just go for a run" or anything, but I am so serious if you have ADHD you should regularly go outside, no headphones no phone no nothing and just stand and observe for a while until you've had enough. Not until you get bored, until you've had enough. Drink your coffee without watching tiktok. Have a bath without music. Turn down the volume in your headphones. I cannot overstate how much learning to be bored is cruicial with ADHD. Life is not just about pleasure, no matter what your dysregulated dopamine system thinks, and when you teach your brain to be okay with being bored, then boring tasks stop feeling like torture. By letting yourself be bored you are yoinking your system out of the high/low binary and allow for the highs to feel like actual highs and not just anything that isn't low. I am so serious go literally touch grass. Listen to the sounds in your flat. Stimulate your body the way it was designed. It lowers anxiety and makes you feel like you're real and best of all it's completely free

❤️❤️❤️

“I don’t know. Whenever we try to do stuff, me and Zoey, half the time she starts crying and freaking out, and she says it’s not my fault and she says she likes me, but…” Saintjohn Hadouken sighed through pinched lips, hard enough to make his cheeks puff, and shook his head, “...feels like I’m hurting her.”

Johnny Newsroom looked off into the distance and took a pensive pull of his vape. “She said she likes you?”

“Yeah. I just don’t know what’s going on.”

Johnny turned his head to look him in the eye. “Have you ever dated a trans gal before?”

Saintjohn shook his head. “I’m fuckin figuring out some shit about myself, bro.”

“It’s… she’s… let’s put it this way. Imagine if your dick looked like a scary clown.”

Saintjohn flinched. “I don’t wanna do that. I don’t wanna use my brain powers for evil.”

Johnny continued. “Imagine if every time you took off your pants, a fucked-up evil clown was staring back at you. Imagine trying to get close to someone while you’re like that. Imagine trying to have a sex life. Imagine just trying to love when you’ve got an evil clown under your pants.”

Saintjohn’s frown seemed to stretch beyond the limits of his face. “Can I stop imagining it now?”

Johnny took another pull from his vape. “I don’t think Zoey gets to stop. Everyone’s got a different relationship to their own body, I don’t know Zoey personally, but...” he trailed off, letting Saintjohn fill in the blanks for himself.

Saintjohn leaned against the side of the motorhome and sighed again. “So what am I supposed to do?”

“Do you love her?” Johnny asked.

A pause.

“She makes me happy. When she laughs at my dumbass jokes, I feel like I just cured cancer.”

Saintjohn smiled as soon as he started talking about her. Johnny knew that smile, he felt its residual warmth, the second-hand joy. He wanted the two of them to be happy. He wanted one good thing to happen in the middle of this disaster. The Midwest Autonomous Zone could burn to the ground all over again. As long as he helped two people fall in love, he would have no regrets.

“And, y’know, I wanna get all up in there,” Saintjohn said.

“Okay. Well. To answer your question. Be patient. Let her do things at her pace. Let her figure herself out. Give her space when she needs it, even if you never want to be away from her. If you mess up - and you probably will, we’re only human - swallow your pride, apologize, and try not to do it again. Trust that it will all work out.”

“That sounds really hard.”

Johnny gave him a wry smile. “That’s love.”

[later]

“I’m sorry,” Zoey sniffed, pulling away from Saintjohn, “I just can’t right now. I don’t know if I’ll ever…”

She buried her head in her hands. Her body shuddered with heavy breaths as she began to cry. Saintjohn looked at her. He considered putting a hand on her shoulder, then lowered his arm and simply sat next to her.

“It’s okay,” Saintjohn said, “I understand. You gotta deal with the evil clown.”

Zoey lifted her head. She was too surprised and confused to keep crying. “What?”

"Ready to"

When you think of yourself as a living tool that's just there to perform a function, but then you realize there are people out there who see you as a living being and they'd be upset if you died, and you're like, oh, now I guess I'm literally going to have to fight death haha

I can imagine that the Mintari might come to regret that treaty.

Humans are weird: The Monster Inside

( Please come see me on my new patreon and support me for early access to stories and personal story requests :D https://www.patreon.com/NiqhtLord Every bit helps)

I was an observer at the time sent by the Mintari command to coordinate the war effort alongside humanity against the Tempari Regime. A temperate people, the Tempari were roused into conflict with my people over the destruction of a religious comet that was projected to impact one of our colony worlds. Diplomatic talks were waylaid by feverous religious zealotry and so war was declared not long after.

Humanity interestingly enough had not been drawn into the conflict at first as they were not labeled as a belligerent by the Tempari. They would have remained out of the war entirely were it not for a defensive treaty they had signed some six of their months earlier. A notion they no doubt regretted but they still came and now found themselves facing down a Tempari fleet three times their number.

Admiral Horner was unusually calm about the entire situation; or at least that is how he presented himself. Humans are notoriously difficult to read when they wish to be and the Admiral was showing nothing beyond a calm calculating nature as his ships spread out.

I was wondering what rash move he would take to engage the Tempari. It was another well-known habitual that when humans came up against impossible odds they would always do the unexpected and somehow emerge victorious.

The Admiral opened a direct line of communication to the Tempari flagship. For the first time in recorded history a human admiral spoke directly to a Tempari fleet commander. Their name was Gilyan and they opened dialogue by asking the humans to abandon my people; that this war was not theirs to fight and if the humans departed now they would not be harmed.

It was a tempting offer and I must admit that I felt my hearts beat faster as Horner failed to rebuff the offer. I worried that they would indeed leave us to our fate and when the Admiral finally stood up and straighten their uniform I had all but stopped breathing.

“Did you say goodbye to your son?”

Whatever I had been expecting this certainly was not it, and the Tempari appeared just as caught off-guard as I.

“Excuse me?” Gilyan asked.

“Your son,” Admiral Horner continued as he took out a small wooden pipe and lit the end of it, “did you say goodbye to them before you deployed here?”

“I did not.” Gilyan replied cautiously.

“A pity.” Horner remarked as he took several puffs from his pipe and then looked at the Tempari commander. I watched as quietly a series of targeting vectors began appearing over on ship amongst the Tempari lines. It wasn’t the flagship and as far as I could see it was just another Tempari light cruiser, but every gun in the human fleet was now locked on to it as the Admiral gave his final words before the storm.

“No parent should outlive their child.”

The communication went dead as the entire fleet opened fire as one on the light cruiser. Shields of bright purple flared for a moment, straining to hold off the torrent of firepower before bursting like a popped bubble.

Countless warheads, rail gun rounds, plasma lances, and all other manner of ordinance peppered the hull of the cruiser causing it to buckle and break like a twig in a raging stream before finally the inevitable happened.

What had been a light cruiser just moments before was now a cluster of debris slowly floating amongst the Tempari fleet.

Before I had any time to ponder what had just happened the Admiral began issuing fleet wide orders for a withdrawal. Under a storm of Tempari return fire the allied fleet began turning around and engaging their jump drives to flee out of system. At the head of the fleet was the Tempari flagship recklessly charging ahead of their fleet leaving it dangerously exposed; yet the Admiral refused to turn and engage them. Their cannons claimed three human ships before our own flagship made the jump and left the system. 

“You know they can track our trajectory.” I offhandedly remarked to the Admiral as he reclined into his command throne.

“I am aware.” The Admiral replied dryly. “They will follow us; of that I am sure.”

“And why are you so sure?” I asked.

The human looked at me and with a grin that could make their devil pale they said, “Because we just killed their commander’s son.”

--------------------------- What followed was what came to be known as the “Bloody Quadrant”.

The human fleet led the Tempari fleet on a wild chase throughout the entire Quadrant. Always near but just out of reach of their grasp. A place the humans had carefully crafted them to be in.

Every time the Tempari fleet would exit a jump they would find themselves in a deadly trap.

In the Gameri system the Tempari fleet exited a jump directly into a massive nuclear minefield that took out thirteen of their capital ships.

In the Hulv Nebula they were ambushed by small squadrons of frigates that picked off their supply and repair ships before retreating.

Worse yet was when the human fleet actually appeared to turn and fight above the moon of Y’op only to detonated previously hidden explosives within the orbital body and shatter the moon. They jumped out of system just as the debris field of the former moon showered the Tempari fleet decimating a third of their remaining forces.

I could not help but ponder why the Tempari were so intent for battle even after suffering such terrible losses, but at the same time I had known the answer.

By killing the Tempari commander’s son in the opening battle the humans had driven them into a blind rage. Their thirst for revenge would not allow them the luxury of letting the humans escape, and by remaining so close to them they ensured the blood lust would continue to build and cloud their judgment.

At the end only the Tempari flagship and fifteen escort vessels remained when Admiral Horner had decided the chase had reached its end. They were battered and scoured with the battle damage from a dozen battles and now they faced off against the entire allied navy.

“Will you offer them terms of surrender?” I asked as the Tempari formed up for the final time. The human shook his head.

“I will not insult them anymore than I already have.” He spoke in a stoic voice. “We will let them die well.”

To my surprise I could detect hints of remorse in their voice as the Tempari charged at our ship.

One by one the escorts were picked off until only their flagship remained making a suicidal charge at our ship. I watched as it shrugged off round after round of concentrated rail gun fire as it pressed forward and it looked that it would collide with us and carry out its final revenge.

A thermal warhead struck its rear thrusters at the last moment. The two ships scraped and grinded against each other’s hulls and the entire ship shook with a force I would equate to an earthquake. Countless human crewmen were thrown from their seats and some of the less lucky ones were dashed against the metal terminals of their posts and fell limply to the ground, blood pooling around them from their wounds. The Admiral watched unmoving from his throne as his ship sparked and screamed in pain until finally the nightmare ended.

The Tempari ship drifted behind our ship, now dotting countless holes and trails of smoke from plasma fires raging across multiple decks. Admiral Horner didn’t even bother to watch as his rival finally met their end, and instead relinquished the bridge to his second so he could go to his quarters to rest.

“They’ll call you a monster for this.” I couldn’t help myself from saying as the enemy flagship finally detonated.

With a look of disappointment in their eye the Admiral turned to me. “I should hope so; war makes monsters of us all.”

I look down over the edge of the thin ledge as I attempt to scoot along it. I can't see the bottom. I ponder whether I really love her quite this much. Going to hell and back sounds easy compared with following this goats' path across this cliff face where anything by other than good luck will mean certain death. Especially the comforting "and back" bit. I'm usually so sensible. How on earth did I end up here?

Don't look down. I close my eyes.

I press my back and hands harder into the cliff and slide my right foot a little further along. Then my back. Then my left foot. I peek over my right shoulder. Only another 5 metres.

Right foot. Back. Left foot. Right foot. Back. My left foot gets caught on the uneven terrain. For a moment I wobble, and my stomach lurches (not helping!) I press myself back harder against the cliff and lift my foot over the obstruction.

My therapist would be so impressed with how much I'm living in the moment right now.

I continue until my right foot hits a rock. I try to look down at the rock but the lighting is bad and I can't quite see it. I scoot my left foot over and then trace the rock out with my right. When I come level with my left foot I expect to find more of the ledge, but it's not there. Lowering my right foot further, still no ledge. I raise it again and balance my right foot on the rock. I look further to the right. I'm only 1-1.5 metres from where I need to be. Just out of reach.

I try harder to see if I can see where the ledge resumes. I think I see it, just one stride away. I pull a rock out of the cliff behind me and toss it. I see and hear it bounce off the ledge before falling, falling. I don't hear it hit the bottom.

I mentally rehearse my next moves. I'll bring both feet onto the rock. I'll swing my right foot wide and hopefully hit the ledge where it continues. If I miss... Well, better I don't think about that. My stomach churns and I want to pee. My hands feel clammy. My head starts spinning. I am surprised by how loud my breath sounds. I try to relax, despite pinning myself to the edge of a cliff.

I hate heights.

I breathe deeply and then start enacting my plan. I hesitate one more time, before swinging my foot over the distance. Then commit. For a moment my foot swings through empty air, even as my weight shifts. My stomach lurches again and I wish that I believed in a higher power.

It's an eternity before my foot comes down on the ledge. I pause, straddling the gap, heart beating in my ears. I wiggle my back a little to get more comfortable. I scoot my right foot over just a bit more, then, placing all my weight on it, I swing my left foot down from the rock and over the gap to where my right foot first landed.

Two more steps and I'm off this ledge.

When I reach the bridge, I climb over the railing and fall to my hands and knees. I sob and my whole body shakes with the after effects of the adrenaline. I contemplate curling into a ball. I breathe deeply.

I check my pocket, there she is, still asleep. Unaware of the trials her adventure inspired. My heart melts.

"Get a kitten", my therapist suggested. "It'll help you stay present." Sure, a kitten. But no more outside exploring for you.

Writing Prompt

There was a very brief moment – where it was unwelcome and far too late – where he wondered who managed to talk him into this.

These books are great and I can't recommend them highly enough!

Humans Are Weird: Bungee Jumping

I've talked a lot about adrenaline junkies but is there anything we won't do to get that thrill? The aliens are wondering the same thing...

Alien *shaking head*: so you jump out of aircrafts with thin fabrics...and now you are telling me you find great heights to leap from?

Human: yeah. we just use an elastic cord to yank us back up before we get hurt.

Alien *slow blinks*: so falling to your death is not enough? you must get...closer.

Human: yeah. there's something about watching the ground just come up at you and you can get way closer when bungee jumping.

Alien: ...because getting closer to death is...good?

Human *grins*: we love to cheat death.

Alien *slowly backing away*: I fear what that means for your kind.

If you like this scene and want to see more of them, check out my full-length projects pinned on my page! All are available FREE in KU!

If you decide to read this, just remember you're not obliged to finish reading it. It's a hard read and stopping and watering the garden or making dinner or having a cup of tea and looking at plants are all good self care.

Quick notes below if you can't read the whole article.

The article expands on a story that became public mid 2024, but in short, Gaiman is alleged to be a serial sexual abuser.

During the acute phase of the pandemic, Palmer who was in the process of divorcing Gaiman, befriended a homeless and vulnerable woman, Pavlovich, and offered her a job in being nanny to her and Gaiman's son (shared custody split between two homes). Gaiman could easily have afforded to pay an experienced nanny but somehow ended up having this vulnerable woman, Pavlovich, come play nanny at his as well. Palmer allegedly told him to leave Pavlovich alone, but Gaiman allegedly did not, and allegedly sexually assaulted/raped her repeatedly throughout the time she was their son's nanny. A lot of terrible abuse is detailed, including under-the-covers sexual activity with the lights on in a hotel room with his under-10yo son metres away looking at his tablet.

Payment for the nannying was... spotty at best.

Eventually Pavlovich told Palmer about Gaiman's behaviour. Palmer tried to help Pavlovich during her (very understandable) mental health crisis as a result but was not very effective. Eventually Pavlovich told the police about the alleged assaults and rape. The police said they'd need Palmer to verify her parts of the story, Pavlovich was convinced she would, but Palmer didn't.

Pavlovich is now doing much better far away from the two of them.

Palmer lost everything in the divorce (an outcome she was probably hoping to avoid by keeping her mouth shut) and now lives with her parents. I'm not sure what the custody agreement is for their kid but hopefully it's not 100% with Gaiman.

Gaiman has been doing fine.

The article attempts at various times to blame Gaiman's behaviour on the abuse he probably experienced as a child from Scientology/Dianetics, that he's never talked about but which may have informed some of the child abuse in The Ocean At The End Of The Lane.

Vulture

There Is No Safe Word

How the best-selling fantasy author Neil Gaiman hid the darkest parts of himself for decades.

TW: rape, sexual assault, child abuse

Archived version here, in case you hit the pay wall:

https://archive.is/HJtxW