Tiffany couldn’t quite work out how Miss Level got paid. Certainly the basket she carried filled up more than it emptied. They’d walk past a cottage and a woman would come scurrying out with a fresh-baked loaf or a jar of pickles, even though Miss Level hadn’t stopped there. But they’d spend an hour somewhere else, stitching up the leg of a farmer who’d been careless with an axe, and get a cup of tea and a stale biscuit.
It didn’t seem fair.
“Oh, it evens out,” said Miss Level, as they walked on through the woods.
“You do what you can. People give what they can, when they can. Old Slapwick there, with the leg, he’s as mean as a cat, but there’ll be a big cut of beef on my doorstep before the week’s end, you can bet on it. His wife will see to it. And pretty soon people will be killing their pigs for the winter, and I’ll get more brawn, ham, bacon and sausages turning up than a family could eat in a year.”
“You do? What do you do with all that food?”
“Store it,” said Miss Level.
“But you-”
“I store it in other people. It’s amazing what you can store in other people.” Miss Level laughed at Tiffany’s expression. “I mean, I take what I don’t need round to those who don’t have a pig, or who’re going through a bad patch, or who don’t have anyone to remember them.”
“But that means they’ll owe you a favour!”
“Right! And so it just keeps on going round. It all works out.”
“I bet some people are too mean to pay-”
“Not pay,” said Miss Level, severely. “A witch never expects payment and never asks for it and just hopes she never needs to. But, sadly, you are right.”
“And then what happens?“
“What do you mean?”
“You stop helping them, do you?”
“Oh, no,” said Miss Level, genuinely shocked. “You can’t not help people just because they’re stupid or forgetful or unpleasant. Everyone’s poor round here. If I don’t help them, who will?”
"A Hat full of Sky” - Terry Pratchett
And now I remember why I grieve for Terry Pratchett, a man I have never met. He never knew of my existence, but he raised me to know what it means to care for people.
What I appreciate is that he not only showed this kind of thing working–that’s good to depict, but it’s also fairly common even if the details are usually less concrete. Books where people being decent even when it’s hard matters are a dime a dozen.
Pratchett consistently showed that this kind of unglamorous public service, which is necessary to keeping human society running, is an absolute bitch and very very difficult and never becomes easy and has to be done anyway.
And also that you can do it while being yourself an absolute bitch, and in fact that tends to be a more applicable skill than niceness.
There’s a recurring thought line in a lot of Pratchett books - “Someone’s got to do it. Unfortunately, that someone is me.” And then they do it.
I've been following you since your HQ days and I always love going back to re-read your fics <3 Lavender is still one of my absolute favourites ever
That means so much to me, you have no idea. Thank you for sending this message <3 Every once in a while I think about dipping my fingers back into fandom, especially Haikyuu since it holds so many fond memories for me…
I never really left. I’ve been here since I was 18 and at this point it’s like the childhood home you come back to, where nothing has changed but you have, and yet you return because it’s tradition and there are memories here
hey there, the magpie sitting on top of the telephone pole with tons of jewelry and necklaces and stuff that you reblogged recently is AI-generated, sorry to say!
Thank you for letting me know, reblog has been deleted.
You can be talking to someone and she’ll be like, “Oh I made a silly mistake. Women don’t deserve voting rights teehee.” And you’ll be like, “What.” And she’ll be like, “Oh I’m sorry! That must sound so bad out of context. No it’s this Tiktok meme where, if you’re a girl and you do something dumb, you say ‘Women don’t deserve voting rights teehee.’”
And you’ll be like, “That sounds bad.” And she’ll be like, “No no. It’s totally not that bad. It’s just a meme. Men say it too. Like if a man does something silly he’ll be like, 'I am like those women who do not deserve to vote.’” And you’ll be like, “Does that make it better?” And she’ll be like, “Well there was one guy who tried to make 'Men shouldn’t vote’ a popular meme. But it never caught on and also he got yelled at a lot.”
And then you drop it there because like, you’re harshing the vibe.
God this makes me think of this screenshot:
“it minimizes you as a person” really wraps up my entire discomfort with the whole “oh but i’m just a girl” thing when used in most situations.
i hate it when i cant even write a poem about something because its too obvious. like in the airbnb i was at i guess it used to be a kids room cause you could see the imprint of one little glow in the dark star that had been missed and painted over in landlord white. like that’s a poem already what’s the point
you get it. you get the themes. i dont have time to do it justice. just look at it its on the ceiling
“There are no female aliens in our game because we don’t know how to make a female version of this alien” You know that alien you just designed? That male alien? Give it a female voice actor and have characters refer to it as she. That’s it. That’s literally all you have to do
Make her shorter if you must
Make her BIGGER if you aren’t a coward
Take your male alien bodytype, make her like 4 feet taller, give her an extra set of arms and sharper teeth, and as muscular as shit.
Boom.
Give her natural camouflage and make the man like this
earlier this week Twitter user ppuccin0 tweeted about a fashion article that advised against tops with large floral patterns, saying the wearer was in danger of looking like a “ロマンティックおばさん,” or a “romantic auntie.” the tweet went viral with many agreeing that a “romantic auntie” sounded like a very nice thing to aspire to be, and some even posted illustrations or photos tagged with the trend
illustration by Toyota Yuu (author of Cherry Magic)
illustration by 141shkw/Sora Midori (author of Beautiful Curse)
photos by Takinami Yukari (author of Motokare Mania and Watashi-tachi wa Mutsuu Ren'ai ga Shitai or “We Want A Painless Romance”)
illustration by m:m (mangaka of Matataki no End Roll)
illustration by ooinuai (mangaka of Onikui Kitan)
illustration by ma2 (mangaka of The Reason We Fall In Love)
BONUS:
Twitter user WomeGa55 drew some art of “Romance Auntie x Combat Auntie”
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