#our stories

[nappy-by-nature]

Happy World Afro Day!

#world afro day #illustration #Afro pick #our stories #african culture #natural hair #black beauty

[hypno-cc]

HYPNOVEMBER DAY 3: BUNNY SUIT

This month, C&C will be doing a micro story every day based on a Hypnovember list curated by Robohypnoo on Twitter. Day 3’s prompt was “Bunny Suit”.

It all felt a bit demeaning. Sydney had been looking for a new job for so long that she was in no position to refuse any opportunity that came her way, but seeing her new uniform, what little there was of it, had her second-guessing if applying to the Flip-Hop Cafe had actually been a good idea.

The Flip-Hop was the newest internet cafe in town, highly rated by both customers and employees as a great place to work and a great place to hang. Sydney hadn’t necessarily wanted to work there, given the skimpy bunny outfits that the girls who served the customers were required to wear, but she had enough confidence in her body and enough need for the cash that she at least threw her hat in the ring. But now that she was in the office, looking at that tiny suit, she was having second thoughts. 

“It’s okay.” Robert, her new to-be manager, walked up to her and put his hand on her shoulder. “A lot of the girls who come in here look at the outfit and have their worries, but it’s a big part of the success of our cafe. The more money we make, the more we can pay y’all, and the happier the employees are. I’m sure you understand that showing a little skin tends to boost the tip and sales numbers.”

“Yeah, yeah…” Sydney looked away from him and shrugged off his touch. “I get it, but man, I’m gonna look ridiculous. And it feels a little bit weird to go out in front of a bunch of strangers in what’s basically just a bikini with big fluffy ears on your head, you know?”

“I understand, Sydney. How about this? I’ll get you through the new-employee orientation, no need to go out in the costume a single time. After you’ve gone through the training and videos and all that, we’ll see how you’re feeling. I think you’d make a stellar addition to the team, so I’d like you to at least consider it.”

“Well, I guess.” She had never been great at saying no. 

“Excellent. Let’s get you through the video orientation first, okay? It’ll only take a few minutes.”

“Okay…” Sydney dropped her head and allowed herself to get led into the other room, costume still in hand.

Robert walked over to a large monitor and double-clicked on a .MP4 file on the desktop. “I’ll see you in a minute.” 

She looked behind as he exited the room and fixed her eyes on the screen. The bar showed only 7 minutes of video, so she knew it would at least be a short video. “Well, I can leave after t-aww!”

The monitor showed something that didn’t seem related to the job at all, a scene of a couple of fluffy gray rabbits frolicking in a field. Two of them began to nuzzle into one-another as the rest bounced around joyfully in the dew-covered grass. Sydney couldn’t help herself: She was immediately invested. For as little as she wanted to take the job, she was a sucker for a good cute animal video. 

“I… It’s so cute… I love them…”

For several minutes, the bunnies continued to mess around in the grass, and Sydney forgot that she was supposed to be watching an employee orientation video. It was just too cute for her to take. She hardly even noticed as the screen began to flicker, at first a few times every minute at the start and then far more frequently as the time passed.

“So cute…” She couldn’t find any other words. Her eyes were glued to the screen.

She was completely lost in the video, watching the adorable bunnies hopping around in the grass as her eyes began to glaze over. Had her senses been with her, she’d have noticed that the screen had gone darker and that text was flashing quickly above the video she was so infatuated with. Eventually, the video stopped entirely and she was far too lost to realize it.

“So cute…”

“Yes, yes you will be.” Robert took her hand from behind her and lifted her to her feet.

“I… cute?” Sydney’s synapses were fried from the flashing video that had numbed her brain.

“Of course. Don’t you want to be cute, love?”

“Cute…”

“Just put this on and I’ll show you exactly how you can be the cutest, Sydney.”

“Yes… sir…” Sydney looked at the skimpy suit in her hand, ready to be the cutest bunny that she could possibly be.

#bunny #transformation #hypnokink #hypnotic video #mind control #our stories #hypnovember

[rubycopan]

Hospital Oatmeal

I woke up in the emergency room waiting to be assessed by the mental health team. Four cops escorted me out of the apartment I was living in with no water and no safety under an abusive landlord. 

    And then, the most amazing thing happened. Hospital Oatmeal. They brought me in a breakfast tray and I opened the oatmeal. I've been in many hospitals, many cities towns and provinces since I was a sick child that couldn't breathe. I've lived in a million places and never had a home. 

But hospital oatmeal tastes like home. 

I found more comfort in that first bite of warm bland oatmeal sweetened with brown sugar than I had since the summer before. 

    The summer I spent barefoot in the mud, trees, dirt ocean and literal mountains of safety. Then a hurricane came and wiped away the small piece of happiness I built for myself and my boys on this island. 

    Hospital oatmeal gave me more comfort than the only man I ever thought was home. My almost forever. The man that touched and loved me - for all of me. Almost. Even he could not love my pain and scars . Its just too much. He left me alone and hospitalised - but can I blame him? I sat wishing the world would finally put an end to my misery as I cried. I cried for the man that made me feel - even for a small moment in time - that I wasn’t alone in this world. Made me feel like I had a partner, a teammate, a lover, a best friend. A family. The man who saw me and loved me whole, as if my broken cracks were filled with gold. Even my forever didn’t have the capacity to love me. 

    My pain encompasses too much of me and it overflows into those I love, infecting them and spreading like a pandemic. They love me, but they can’t watch me fight for my life anymore. I am not sure if I have the capacity to fight for my life anymore. 

I’m too alone. 

They love me - but only from great distances. To protect themselves. 

From me. 

My pain. My scars. My sickness. 

 I understand. 

They need to leave me alone in the cold as they shield themselves from exposure. But I am freezing, shivering and withering away. The last petal is always “they love me not”. No matter how they loved me. As a mother, daughter, sister, aunt, niece, lover, friend. The last petal falls because I am a cancer. 

    But there has always been one constant. One thing that always brings me comfort and warmth. Holds me, loves me for exactly who I am and never leaves me. 

Hospital Oatmeal.

#adhd #bpd #complex trauma #healing #mentallness #oatmeal #our stories #survivor

[queenvlion]

#tina turner #queenof rock n roll #our stories #ourstories365 #black excellence #black girls rock #full commentary #fanbase app #youtube #the more you know

[apsisuu]

#memories make me happy makes me sad #it’s too good to become true so hide it behind the times flies #lewy #marco #our stories #make the documentary fulfilled

[johndoescelerat]

What does it feel like to be a cosplayer from the Mother City? We're looking to share your story. Contact us at [email protected].

#ComicConCapeTown #cosplay #OnTheConventionFloorDocumentary #TankwaCollective #cape town #comiccon #our stories #themothercity

[iwasbored777]

We're not appreciating the Weird Barbie enough. It's said in the movie that she helps everyone who need help while they always see her as someone who's not as good as them. She was friends with all dismissed Barbies and Kens, was there to offer support and safe shelter for everyone who needed it in Kendom, without her nothing in the movie would've been alright. When Stereotypical Barbie calls her "ugly and unwanted" she still helps her.

She was representing a woman in women's world who was pushed aside by other women because she didn't fit in but still had more wisdom and kindness than everyone who thought they're better than her.

#weird barbie #barbie #Barbie movie #everyone looks at her as a queer person i see her as me I'm a straight person who got bullied simply for being different than the rest #but it's beautiful that we all see ourselves in her whatever our story is #cuz that's the point of characters like her

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

the fact that shakespeare was a playwright is sometimes so funny to me. just the concept of the "greatest writer of the English language" being a random 450-year-old entertainer, a 16th cent pop cultural sensation (thanks in large part to puns & dirty jokes & verbiage & a long-running appeal to commoners). and his work was made to be watched not read, but in the classroom teachers just hand us his scripts and say "that's literature"

just...imagine it's 2450 A.D. and English Lit students are regularly going into 100k debt writing postdoc theses on The Simpsons screenplays. the original animation hasn't even been preserved, it's literally just scripts and the occasional SDH subtitles.txt. they've been republished more times than the Bible

#due to the Great Data Decay academics write viciously argumentative articles on which episodes aired in what order #at conferences professors have known to engage in physically violent altercations whilst debating the air date number of household viewers #90% of the couch gags have been lost and there is a billion dollar trade in counterfeit “lost copies” #serious note: i'll be honest i always assumed it was english imperialism that made shakespeare so inescapable in the 19th/20th cent #like his writing should have become obscure at the same level of his contemporaries #but british imperialists needed an ENGLISH LANGUAGE (and BRITISH) writer to venerate #and shakespeare wrote so many damn things that there was a humongous body of work just sitting there waiting to be culturally exploited... #i know it didn't happen like this but i imagine a English Parliament House Committee Member For The Education Of The Masses or something #cartoonishly stumbling over a dusty cobwebbed crate labelled the Complete Works of Shakespeare #and going 'Eureka! this shall make excellent propoganda for fabricating a national identity in a time of great social unrest. #it will be a cornerstone of our elitist educational institutions for centuries to come! long live our decaying empire!' #'what good fortune that this used to be accessible and entertaining to mainstream illiterate audience members... #..but now we can strip that away and make it a difficult & alienating foundation of a Classical Education! just like the latin language :)' #anyway maybe there's no such thing as the 'greatest writer of x language' in ANY language? #maybe there are just different styles and yes levels of expertise and skill but also a high degree of subjectivity #and variance in the way that we as individuals and members of different cultures/time periods experience any work of media #and that's okay! and should be acknowledged!!! and allow us to give ourselves permission to broaden our horizons #and explore the stories of marginalized/underappreciated creators #instead of worshiping the List of Top 10 Best (aka Most Famous) Whatevers Of All Time/A Certain Time Period #anyways things are famous for a reason and that reason has little to do with innate “value” #and much more to do with how it plays into the interests of powerful institutions motivated to influence our shared cultural narratives #so i'm not saying 'stop teaching shakespeare'. but like...maybe classrooms should stop using it as busy work that (by accident or designs) #happens to alienate a large number of students who could otherwise be engaging critically with works that feel more relevant to their world #(by merit of not being 4 centuries old or lacking necessary historical context or requiring untaught translation skills) #and yeah...MAYBE our educational institutions could spend less time/money on shakespeare critical analysis and more on... #...any of thousands of underfunded areas of literary research i literally (pun!) don't know where to begin #oh and p.s. the modern publishing world is in shambles and it would be neat if schoolwork could include modern works? #beautiful complicated socially relevant works of literature are published every year. it's not just the 'classics' that have value #and actually modern publications are probably an easier way for students to learn the basics. since lesson plans don't have to include the #important historical/cultural context many teens need for 20+ year old media (which is older than their entire lived experience fyi)

[devsgames]

I saw someone be like "It's still as good a time as ever to take a risk and make your indie game into a breakout success, just look at Lethal Company!"

Let's just be clear that "massively unpredictable viral success making an ungodly amount of money" does not equal "realistic and attainable benchmark" for almost any other indie dev.

#this statement was by a businessman though so of course it was hella capitalist #'lets gauge our industry's potential by its weird extreme top outlier and not its average success' - the capitalism story #thoughts #indie dev #indiedev

[propaneandrevelations]

This is my story, I feel like it’s important to remember what happened, to tell these stories and ensure that our children do not suffer the same fate

Context: I wrote this as a “Personal Struggle” essay for college applications

Names of locations and dates identifying my age are redacted for obvious reasons, this is the Internet after all

#childhood #trauma #our stories #music #musician #french horn #classical music

[gentil-minou]

Everytime I see posts like this I get filled with such profound sadness

Cause you know who has the same brainrot as you? The same unhinged feelings as you after you've read the fic? The person who always wants to scream about the fic with you?

THE PERSON WHO WROTE IT

I never used to leave comments but since I got into the habit of commenting on everything i enjoy it's been incredible. Especially when the author gets back to me about it and we get to have a discussion of what other ideas they had. One writer replied to my comment with a 5 paragraph essay detailing the Floorplan of the building the characters lived in and it was incredible

Anyways this is all to say that if you find a fic that just makes you want to scream from the rooftops, leave a comment saying that to the author and maybe they will join you and you can scream incoherently together

#i really think people have reached the point where they forget theres a person just like them who wrote the story #and it makes me sad its wonderful talking to authors #also this screenshot isnt mine i found it on twitter skkskfksk #fanfiction #fanfic #ao3 #archive of our own

[hypno-cc]

HYPNOVEMBER DAY 6: Mist

If you’re reading this sign, it means you’ve taken the path past the north watchtower at the edge of town, and ignored the pleas of whatever poor soul they’ve got cooped up in there now to stay within the safety of the walls. Perhaps they suggested that if you want to wander, the Southern path towards the other nearby towns or the Eastern path towards the beautiful scenery of the ocean would be preferable. But you ignored them. 

You’ve traveled for miles, well past the charred remains of the old factory and the thousands of acres of deserted, dead prairie, to reach the edge of the Fateful Forest. Consider this sign your welcome; it’s recommended you read our warnings carefully, lest you fall prey to the Forest’s tricks.

Are you here because of the rumors of fulfillment, wealth, or knowledge that the Forest can provide? Are you here because you simply want to be the first to enter the Forest and return? Surely when you arrived you knew that no one who has arrived at this point has returned, and the thing with points of no return is that there’s no one to tell the tale why. What is in your imagination, traveler? Horrendous beasts that will tear you limb from limb? Traps and pratfalls so plentiful that only the most clever adventurer could overcome them? Or maybe you just heard of the Forest’s natural beauty and you assume that those who arrived have simply never wanted to leave. 

Look past the sign for a moment, traveler. It’s a beautiful sight around you, isn’t it? The light blue mists coating the rocks and moss scattered on the ground and whispering up around your feet, giving everything a sweet, indescribable scent that evokes joy and pleasure. Inhale that scent deep now as you continue to read. 

You’ve noticed the magnificent trees. The untouched majesty of the huge trees, coated in beautiful jutting patterns of tan bark and their bright plumage: striking yellows, reds, oranges, browns and blacks unlike any leaves you’ve ever seen. They’re unlike any trees you’ve known before, aren’t they? 

Well they’re the answer to that question, dear traveler. The trees are your former adventurers, changed from flesh to wood to grow our forest ever further. That is your fate as well.

But you don’t mind. If there were any doubts left in your mind as you continue to read this, they’re slowly disappearing, aren’t they? Even any doubts that remain can’t seem to convince you to move. You don’t want to do anything but continue to read, focus your eyes on the words. Your fate was sealed the moment you took your first breath here, allowing the faintest  tendrils of the mist to wrap itself around your mind.

It’s okay. You are safe. You are fine. You want this.

Say it out loud as you read this. “I am safe. I am fine. I want this.” We need not question if you did as you were told. You’ve been reading for far too long. You’ve let the mists surround you. Look past the sign again, if you dare. The scenery is gone. There is nothing but the wave of blue mist now in your vision, slithering in and out of your nostrils whether you want it to or not. Your skin is stiffening. Your body is growing. Your mind is numb. You crave your destiny, traveler. And so it shall be.

Inhale deep one final time and step forward along the path to find your place of rooting, future denizen of the Forest. It’s time to meet your fate.

#mist #brainwashing #hypnosis story #hypnovember #transformation #c&c #our stories #writing

[dwuerch-blog]

We are Messengers

With all the text messaging we do, we can officially declare ourselves “messengers”! We’ve got it down well – just a quick message to announce: “On my way home!” “Running late – home by 6!” “Thx for the info!” “What’s for dinner?” But, today, I’m referring to being “life” messengers because we ARE the message! Check out this scripture:“And because of you, the Lord’s message has spread everywhere…

View On WordPress

#1 Thessalonians 1:8 #bible #blog #christian #Church at Thessalonica #Go into all the world #go tell #God&039;s messengers #good news #inspiration #life messengers #message #messengers #our stories #paul #test messaging #text messages #this little light of mine #we are the church #we are the message

[counting-stars-gayly]

I’m actually LOVING how Rick Riordan, and the other writers of the show, took his initial concept of a Percabeth rivalry fueled by that of their parents and kind of turned it on its head?

Now, instead of Annabeth being wary of Percy because he’s a son of Poseidon, he’s wary of her because she made a callous impression on him. They get off to a rocky start even before finding out who Percy’s father is, and when they finally do, Annabeth doesn’t care. Instead of them fighting because of who their parents are, they’re fighting over their own opposed worldviews.

Then, instead of them arguing over which of the gods is cooler and who was right in the story of Medusa, they realize that, just like Medusa, Annabeth is a victim of her mother and that, unlike Medusa, she is a far kinder and stronger person, unwilling to repeat the cycle of hurt. They realize that, like his father, Percy often acts without considering potential consequences and that, unlike his father, he is a far kinder and stronger person, willing to step up for someone he wronged and whom he cares about.

Instead of Percy and Annabeth’s rivalry being focused on that of their parents, it’s focused on who they are, themselves. But the path to friendship is still the same: a realization that they have each other’s backs, no matter what, because they’re not their parents after all.

#i kind of typed this in my essay voice because I knew it would be long so ignore that #also I don’t actually know which of the other writers are playing big parts in percabeth’s story so threats why I put a focus on Riordan #that’s* #aaaaanyhoo if I’m being honest I definitely prefer this version of percabeth #AND I like that Medusa said ‘‘we are not our parents until we choose to be. you three have chosen’’ implying that she thinks they’ve chosen #to be their parents only for Percy to reveal in the next episode that he’s chosen to be better than his father. #that was a really nice touch 👌👌👌 #percy jackson and the olympians #pjo #pjo disney+ #percy jackson disney+ #percy jackson #annabeth chase #Percabeth #rick riordan #Medusa #pjo tv show #pjo tv series #pjo tv spoilers

[foone]

Does anyone remember what happened to Radio Shack?

They started out selling niche electronics supplies. Capacitors and transformers and shit. This was never the most popular thing, but they had an audience, one that they had a real lock on. No one else was doing that, so all the electronics geeks had to go to them, back in the days before online ordering. They branched out into other electronics too, but kept doing the electronic components.

Eventually they realize that they are making more money selling cell phones and remote control cars than they were with those electronic components. After all, everyone needs a cellphone and some electronic toys, but how many people need a multimeter and some resistors?

So they pivoted, and started only selling that stuff. All cellphones, all remote control cars, stop wasting store space on this niche shit.

And then Walmart and Target and Circuit City and Best Buy ate their lunch. Those companies were already running big stores that sold cellphones and remote control cars, and they had more leverage to get lower prices and selling more stuff meant they had more reasons to go in there, and they couldn't compete. Without the niche electronics stuff that had been their core brand, there was no reason to go to their stores. Everything they sold, you could get elsewhere, and almost always for cheaper, and probably you could buy 5 other things you needed while you were there, stuff Radio Shack didn't sell.

And Radio Shack is gone now. They had a small but loyal customer base that they were never going to lose, but they decided to switch to a bigger but more fickle customer base, one that would go somewhere else for convenience or a bargain. Rather than stick with what they were great at (and only they could do), they switched to something they were only okay at... putting them in a bigger pond with a lot of bigger fish who promptly out-competed them.

If Radio Shack had stayed with their core audience, who knows what would have happened? Maybe they wouldn't have made a billion dollars, but maybe they would still be around, still serving that community, still getting by. They may have had a small audience, but they had basically no competition for that audience. But yeah, we only know for sure what would happen if they decided to attempt to go more mainstream: They fail and die. We know for sure because that's what they did.

I don't know why I keep thinking about the story of what happened to Radio Shack. It just keeps feeling relevant for some reason.

#radio shack #radio shack is the story of our times

[shesnake]

I'm a lesbian and i see myself in media about bi women, also in media about gay/bi men. even if it's not Entirely made for me, it's still for me. and I know and hope that other gay/bi people are able to see parts of themselves in lesbian media. sorry to be cheesy but we are more similar than we are different and it's those experiences we share that draw us to these stories in the first place, and the reason we're even telling them <3

#how one can go about judging/critiquing these stories from our specific perspectives is a different story though #but whatever. everyone go watch black sails #cin #film #d