"Now you are a lioness".

i got disability pride and nonbinary stickers, plus the rainbow flag and bi pride 🥰 and i figured the perfect backdrop for something that says “you cannot automate the human experience” is something i hand knit

You are not going to pass a skillcheck against a rip current once it has you.

Waves will not bow to your physical prowess no matter how impressive.

Shock does not care that you used to be on your school swim team.

If you hit your head, being good at swimming isn't going to turn you face-up while you're unconscious.

The current under the water was so strong the 2 feet of space between my head and the surface acted like a solid sheet of glass. I was instantly pulled so hard away from the shore it felt like I had a chain around my legs and a car was dragging me. The amount of force felt like I was swimming against something with an engine. I was tied to a Subaru Outback and trying to keep it from dragging me along by running really fast in the other direction.

I could touch the sand at the bottom with my fingers, but I had no leverage, no weight to push up against because my body was still floating and buoyant in the water underneath that 'glass' layer. When I struggled and strained with all my strength to put a leg down (I was on the track team, young and strong and in shape) I could just barely bend one leg, which did not change the fact that I was weightless and the water above my head was essentially a sheet of glass. So I just rotated slightly in the water so my foot was farther away from the bottom and my head was closer.

I had wondered as a kid how anyone could drown in shallow water, I'd thought 'well if I'm ever in that situation I'll figure it out, I won't panic'. And I didn't panic. Even as I was literally trapped there, I didn't believe I was in a deadly situation. I had a good lungful of air. I had time, I could figure this out. I felt like I was in a layer cake- the physics of the layer of water I was trapped in didn't behave like anything I'd ever experienced before. I actually started getting annoyed as one thing after another didn't work.

And then there was a moment when I realized I had tried everything. I logically went through my options...and I had no options. I remember reaching out to touch the white sand of the sea floor and watching it go through my fingertips as I was pulled along out to sea. And I thought 'Oh. THAT'S how people die.' I was a dead person. I just hadn't actually died yet. The thought was surreal.

And then my father grabbed me and yanked me onto my feet.

And I was FINE.

There was no indication that I was standing anywhere dangerous. As soon as I had enough of myself above the water to put weight on my feet I could have been standing in a pool. You had to get stuck in that ONE layer of water in the layer cake to be killed- but once you fell into it, you could not get yourself out. You could only get out with help.

Look at me. If you are caught in a current under the water like that you cannot get out without help. You need another person. That is the 'trick' to it. You are in the 'kill people' layer of water, a fundamental property of that layer is it kills anyone who doesn't have help. Thinking that if it happens you'll figure it out is as unrealistic as thinking if you ever fall off a building you'll figure out how to fly before you hit the ground.

Bushpig (Potamochoerus larvatus) “I'm a big handsome fellow ... really ...” by Leonora (Ellie) Enking, CC BY-SA 2.0

Collared peccary (Dicotyles tajacu/Pecari tajacu) with leucism amongst a squadron of typical peccaries

Captured by Ramiro Gonzalez, CC BY-NC 4.0

Kassaqua’s Mother from To Shape a Dragon’s Breath! Yes I know she has leather wings not feathered. But I like feathered wings lmao

Absolutely adore this book series and am SO excited to read the third one when it comes out!

@blazenight-it I actually photobashed two chairs together into one and then photobashed it into the painting ☝️🤓 tho I did draw some of the patterns on the back of the chair to made it all look more cohesive

This is because topless equality has been a basic push from feminists for literally decades, until Radfems and NeoCons bonded over wanting a trans genocide less than a decade ago.

It's literally why the "no tits on tumblr" and other lesser SESTA/FOSTA consequences* like it were so jarring. It set back FORTY. YEARS. OF PROGRESS in the rights of people with breasts or perceived as women to wear the same clothes as people without.

Do not let conservatives lie to you about this. The majority of people in the us and the VAST majority of States recognize the right of people to not wear a damn shirt. It isn't obscenity, it isn't even nudity, it's just something pericis men are allowed that everyone else isn't.

Y'know.

Basic sexual discrimination.

henchperson: uh, boss? You know how a couple weeks ago, me and the girls put up that barrier against invaders, extra thick, just like you asked?

boss: yes…

henchperson: one thing, though, boss…

boss: out with it.

henchperson: weeeel, the good news is no invaders.

boss: and the bad news?

henchperson: weeeeeel, we made it out of wet tissue again, boss. so we’re going to have to peel it off and put up a new one before it gets all nasty, see?