Dangerous-button - Buttons & Bottleglass

“Are you the witch who turned eleven princes into swans?”

The old woman stared at the figure on the front step of her cottage and considered her options. It was the kind of question usually backed up by a mob with meaningful torches, and the kind of question she tried to avoid.

Coming from a single dusty, tired housewife, it should’ve held no terrors.

“You a cop?”

The housewife twisted the hem of her apron. “No,” she muttered. “I’m a swan.”

A raven croaked somewhere in the woods. Wind whispered in the autumn leaves.

Then: “I think I can guess,” the old woman said slowly. “Husband stole your swan skin and forced you to marry him?”

A nod.

“And you can’t turn back into a swan until you find your skin again.”

A nod.

“But I reckon he’s hidden it, or burned it, or keeps it locked up so you can’t touch it.”

A tiny, miserable nod.

“And then you hear that old Granny Rothbart who lives out in the woods is really a batty old witch whose father taught her how to turn princes into swans,” the old woman sighed. “And you think, ‘Hey, stuff the old skin, I can just turn into a swan again this way.’

“But even if that was true – which I haven’t said if it is or if it isn’t – I’d say that I can only do it to make people miserable. I’m an awful person. I can’t do it out of the goodness of my heart. I have no goodness. I can’t use magic to make you feel better. I only wish I could.”

Another pause. “If I was a witch,” she added.

The housewife chewed the inside of her cheek. Then she drew herself up and, for the first time, looked the old woman in the eyes.

“Can you do it to make my husband miserable?”

The old woman considered her options. Then she pulled the wand out from the umbrella stand by the door. It was long, and silver, and a tiny glass swan with open wings stood perched on the tip.

“I can work with that,” said the witch.

This is phenomenal modeling of taking a confrontation and reshaping it into a constructive dialogue. I'd never heard of the VERA model before, and it's awesome that people have actually articulated the elements of this skill!

Wow. The patience, kindness and calm communication skills. Outstanding.

From raindovemodel

Hey, the ACLU is getting people to send letters to your Reps to have Congress pass the No Kings Act.

This act would make constitutional amendments to ensure that even sitting presidents are held liable for their actions. That NOBODY is above the law.

Their goal is 150k messages sent and at the time of writing this they're about 2.1k off from that goal!

ACLU gives you a prefilled message that you can edit to send to make the process easier, and will send it out for you.

action.aclu.org

Tell Congress: America Elects Presidents, Not Kings

The Supreme Court declared that criminal law doesn’t apply when you’re Donald Trump or any other president using the powers of the office. D

This only takes a few minutes!

being a self-taught artist with no formal training is having done art seriously since you were a young teenager and only finding out that you’re supposed to do warm up sketches every time you’re about to work on serious art when you’re fuckin twenty-five

Petitions - UK Government and Parliament

Petition: Legally enshrine the right of adults to physically transition using NHS services

Introduce a law to legally protect the right of those aged 18 and over to transition using NHS services. This should specifically cover phys

Uk peeps!! Let’s get this going! 🏳️‍⚧️🇬🇧

Yesterday was the first reading of the Treaty Principles Bill and it passed. It is one of the most disgusting pieces of legislation to ever be introduced, it is racist and another act of colonial violence.

Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, is the youngest MP since 1853 in Aotearoa's parliament, she is from Te Pāti Māori (Māori party) and is the MP for the Hauraki-Waikato electorate. Know her name, she has faced so much discrimination and violence especially since campaigning and continues to lead with power. She ripped up this disgusting bill and started a haka. The House was suspended after.

This is what the haka is. This is why us Māori do it.

I am so glad we have an opposition with a proud young wahine Māori like her. That we have a whole opposition who STOOD up in solidarity with Māori or who joined in this haka, MPs from Labour, Green, and Te Pāti Māori joined in.

Other MPs were kicked out, a very senior politician here, Willie Jackson was kicked out for rightly so calling Seymour a liar. And this haka is being called inappropriate by the right. It is not. You can't call the haka inappropriate only when it has brown bodies doing it as an act against colonial violence.

Fuck Seymour and as Rawiri Waititi said, see you next Tuesday. Ake ake ake!

The Meowmorphosis

Via Michi Posting: Out of Context Public group on Facebook - 575.4K members

Imagine if you knew of a population of semi-wild hamsters that live communally near to where you live. They don't run for their lives and bolt into their nests for safety when they see you, they'll just kind of go "aw fuck there's that guy again" and just kind of lazily trot off - they know you're not really a predator, just an inconvenience. But some of them don't flee from you, they're a bit weird you guess, but those are your favourites. So every once in a while when you've got a task you really don't want to do alone, you can just walk up there, grab a hamster, pop it into your breast pocket and now you've got a little emotional support buddy for the day.

That's Gandalf's relationship with the hobbits.

December 26-29, 2024

I found a hand sanitizer bottle that came with a built-in loop and a carabiner. Emptied out the hand sanitizer and refilled with liquid soap, and just keep it clipped to my belt-loop. Easy to use, don't even have to unclip it, no need to set the container anywhere, and I've been using and refilling the same little bottle since 2020. Since I'm pretty much universally allergic to soap in public dispensers, it's made hygeine much easier. As a bonus, with the liquid soap and a water bottle, hand washing doesn't require a bathroom or sink at all.

I've noticed more and more in public bathrooms that people skip the handwash and just take a squirt of hand sanitizer from wall dispensers on the way out. hand sanitizer is NOT effective against most things that come out of your ass. i cannot stress this enough. i'm begging y'all. please. please please please please please use the soap.

i'm out here immunosupressed fighting for my life to not get naturally selected while people around me touch a public toilet handles and walk back to their tables to immediately eat a burger