#(using current scoring methods)

[catastrophic-crow]

important correction!

a credit score is not, exactly, an indication of how "well" you will pay back a loan. it is an indication of reliability for the exact terms of a loan, which is why paying off a loan early or more aggressively can make your score go down. not directly—it has to do with active accounts and credit history and—it'll still drop your score to finish paying off a loan and remove it from your active accounts.

a credit score isn't for you. it's for corporations (most often) to know which customers they can maximixe their loan-lifetime profit from. someone who takes longer to pay loans back but always pays on time with the minimum payment will have a higher score (all else being equal) compared to someone who pays off their loans aggressively with the surplus of payments going to the principal of the loan, rather than early loan payments. (paying to the principal of the loan reduces the term of the loan, and thus the interest owed, and thus the amount of money they make off of you over the course of your payment on the loan. paying extra without specifying it go toward the principal will just "stock up" on payments to the loan, so the extra goes to the next payment, and then the next after that. doing this will not save you any money. it will still reduce your credit score if you pay off the loan early, even though they made the same amount of money off of you.)

yes, this is all even more horrendously complicated than you might have already been aware.

you're not even allowed to know the exact criteria used to determine your credit score, just approximations. also, you don't have "a" credit score. you have several. or many, even. it depends on the scoring methods the relevant institution(s) use, as well as the purpose for the score. is it for an auto loan? a home loan? a consumer loan, such as for an appliance or furnature? (some kinds of loan will drop your credit score just by existing on your history, even if you pay it off completely and on time.) are they using FICO 8? Experian? credit karma is well-advertised, but will that score be even remotely close to what someone sees when they evaluate your credit?

i know wayyyyyy too much about this, considering i can't really put the knowledge to practical use anymore, so. if you want to learn more, expect to spend many hours doing a lot of reading.

there are useful guides to outline the basics, but frankly at a certain granularity of knowledge you will need to just buckle down and read. and read. and read. and ask lots of questions. and keep track of the answers, and the context in which they're given.

no, it's not fair. no, it's not accessible. yes, this system is designed for others to use, and you're explicitly the product. yes, the many "gotchas" and "howevers" and "not-quite-but-actuallys" are very likely going to frustrate you and trip you up. if there's someone you know personally who is knowledgeable and willing to give you a place to start, having one or more detailed conversations with note-taking may be a good place to begin. just be wary of relying on their knowledge solely, because the rules change and if the last time it was relevant to them was several years ago when they last bought a car, they may give you bad (or at least un-optimal) advice by accident. yes, that is somewhat contradictory. i'm sorry i can't reveal a hidden, simpler way to understand all of this.

oh, yeah, and: i am not a laywer

[kissesbyliz]

simon having beef with your dog.

the thing hates him, he's sure. he's been aware of the fact ever since the first time it jumped up at him, indulging itself with a nice helping of his brand new jeans.

"oh my god!" you gaped at his jeans with horror, immediately scooping the offending animal into your arms. even within its confines, the creature still manages a growl that simon swears is nothing less than evil.

between the sweet apologizes falling from your lips and the way your eyes widened in embarrassment, simon unsurprisingly found it difficult to stay mad. after fixing him a change of clothes and apologizing profusely for your pet's behavior, you urged your pet into its play pen to prevent her from ruining the rest of the night. she stared up at you with wide eyes, letting out a pitiful whine as she was obviously not used to being locked up.

though the inner dog-lover in him should be feeling a twinge of guilt at the sight, simon couldn't deny a sense of victory.

at least now, they were even.

they used to be even. used to. his score was ultimately decimated after countless incidents of your dog peeing all over his boots, stealing his food, and gnawing it's way through the souvenirs he brought for you from missions.

why the thing hates him so much is beyond him. ever since the first incident, he's tried every bribery method under the sun. from endless treats to long walks in her favorite park, all his attempts ended the same way: with his hand being damn near ripped off his arm.

after weeks of no progress, you had brought up the idea of meeting at his place instead. simon refused. he couldn't handle the thought of you traveling the hour it takes to get to his apartment, just to see him. after all, if he could handle countless hordes of enemies and disarm bombs, he sure as hell could handle some dog.

which of course, brings him to his current predicament.

after a particularly long deployment, you've taken the liberty of planning a special welcome home dinner for him and his task force. nothing big, just a small gathering to celebrate a reunion between friends as well as a job well done.

you insisted on doing all the work of preparing the food and letting him relax on the couch. it was a dinner in celebration of him as well, after all. the very last thing simon wanted was to leave you to do all the work, but if he was going to do anything about your dog, he had to do it now.

because even though he'd call his task force some of the closest friends he has, he pales at the idea of them finding out that a dog has him beat. he can already imagine how they'll react: a (horribly) stifled laugh from price, a smart jab from gaz, and an unashamed guffaw from johnny. and of course, the endless amounts of taunting that'll be flowing throughout the base. yeah, that's not going to happen. least of all, in front of his girl.

he approaches the play pen which houses your dog slowly, attempting to seem as unintimidating as he can for someone of his stature. your pet immediately takes notice--has had an eye laser pointed on him since the moment he arrived--and starts up a low growl.

"hey..girl..." he greets awkwardly, crouching down in a manner that allows his every action to be observed. it's evident that your dog couldn't be less happy with his presence, with the way she moves to the opposite end of the enclosure. he sighs, dropping onto the floor next to the pen and wincing at the slight pain shooting up his tailbone.

"why d'ya hate me so much, huh?" your dog huffed, closing her eyes and assuming a sleeping position. simon didn't even know dogs were capable of the silent treatment. unfazed, he pushes on, speaking to the dog as if it miraculously developed the ability to understand him.

"all i wanna do is spend time with my girl, and all you do is try to make me look like the bad guy." he shoots her an unimpressed look. "it's not like i'm gonna take her away, y'know."

to simon's surprise, the dog rises and begins to slowly approach him and for once, without utter disdain in her eyes. simon really didn't expect that to work, but he supposes he doesn't have any room to complain. he gulps -- he's never made it this far before. carefully, he raises a big hand up to stroke over the dog's soft fur.

in a flash, the canine snaps her teeth onto the surface of his skin. hard.

"fuck--!" he snarls, snatching his hand away. at that moment, the doorbell rings and he cradles his aching hand to his chest. he stands up, glaring hard at the animal as he goes to answer the door.

"hey, there's my favorite girl!" johnny pushes past him and beelines for the play pen, where your dog is excitedly standing on its hind legs to greet him. simon's never seen her tail wag so fast. she eagerly yips for him to come closer, bowing to allow him to scratch behind her ears.

"oh, and hey to you too, i guess." johnny briefly nods in acknowledgement in your direction. you playfully roll your eyes, giggling at his display.

"simon. 's good to see you." price offers a brief nod, and kyle pats him on the shoulder before they both walk around him to join johnny at the play pen. the dog takes to the rest of his team just as easily, greeting them all with tail wags and licks to the hand.

simon riley is at a loss.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing a "Wise" Character

Wisdom

The ability of an individual to make sound decisions, to find the right—or at least good—answers to difficult and important life questions, and to give advice about the complex problems of everyday life and interpersonal relationships.

The role of knowledge and life experience and the importance of applying knowledge toward a common good through balancing one’s own, others’, and institutional interests are two perspectives that have received significant psychological study.

Aristotle believed in 2 types of wisdom:

Theoretical - involves the exploration of things we can’t change, but about which we seek truth.

Practical - explores that which we can change through making good choices (Lacewing, n.d.).

Descartes viewed wisdom as:

good judgment in everyday life and

seeking knowledge in all things one is able (Rutherford, 2017).

Confucius said, "By 3 methods we may learn wisdom:

First, by reflection, which is noblest;

Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and

third by experience, which is the bitterest."

Although a definition is difficult to come by, agreement on what wisdom is not, have been much easier.

Researchers agree that wisdom isn’t a result of aging.

They also believe that higher IQ scores don’t equal increased wisdom.

What role does age play in attaining wisdom? Can a child be wise?

Current research indicates that the “optimal age to attain wisdom is about 60 years old” (Compton & Hoffman, 2013, p. 201).

Balance Theory of Wisdom

By Robert Sternberg

He defines wisdom as “using one’s:

intelligence,

creativity,

common sense, and

knowledge” to balance 3 life domains:

They are interpersonal, intra-personal, and extra-personal interests.

People do this over the short and long-term.

The goal is to achieve balance among:

adaptation to current environments,

shaping of those environments, and

choosing a new environment

Baltes and Staudinger (2000, p. 124) define wisdom as “expertise in the fundamental pragmatics of life.” This is further defined as “knowledge and judgment about the essence of the human condition and the ways and means of planning, managing, and understanding a good life.”

Through their research, they developed 5 criteria for evaluating wisdom-related performance:

Factual (declarative) knowledge which asks, ‘What does one know about human nature, interpersonal relations, and social norms?’

Procedural knowledge criteria answers, ‘What strategies does one use to navigate the twists and turns of life?’

Lifespan contextualism criteria consider questions like, ‘Where does everything fit?’ ‘How are things interconnected?’ and ‘How are the various roles – education, family, etc. connected?’

The relativism of values and life priorities allows for the tolerance of differences in values between people.

Recognition of and management of uncertainty criteria acknowledges that we don’t know everything. There are limits to human processing.

Ardelt (2004, p. 257) in contrast to Baltes and Staudinger (2000), viewed wisdom as an “integration of cognitive, reflective, and affective personality characteristics.”

She argues that preserved wisdom (writings) represent theoretical (intellectual) knowledge.

This knowledge doesn’t become wisdom until or unless the person internalizes it.

For this to happen a person must experience the truth contained in the preserved wisdom. Doing this leads to the person becoming wise(r).

Meeks and Jeste (2009) reviewed the wisdom literature and identified common areas. From their review, they created the 6 sub-components of wisdom:

Prosocial attitudes/behaviors: promotion of common good, empathy, social cooperation, and altruism

Social decision making/pragmatic knowledge of life: understanding others’ emotions and motivations and using the information to make “wise” social decisions

Emotional homeostasis: self-control and impulse control; ability to manage oneself in challenging situations

Reflection/self-understanding: self-knowledge

Value relativism/tolerance: perspective-taking behavior

Acknowledgment of and dealing effectively with uncertainty or ambiguity: navigating uncertainty and acknowledging/accepting the limits of what one knows.

Their review also is interesting for its inclusion of specific brain regions believed to play a role in the 6 sub-components.

Peterson and Seligman (2004, p. 39) define wisdom as “knowledge hard fought for, and then used for good.”

They describe it as a noble virtue or trait — one that people appreciate in others.

To date, 5 strengths fall beneath the wisdom umbrella in their research:

Creativity

Curiosity

Judgment

Love of Learning

Perspective

Each of these strengths exists in every person to some degree.

They also can increase in prominence as you learn to use them more.

These strengths are part of a larger list consisting of 24.

The measurement of wisdom is challenging, but not impossible. Most research falls into one of 3 areas:

wise process

wise product, or

wise persons

It’s the combination of these 3 that yields what researchers now agree about: Wise products are generated by wise persons using wise processes.

Issues

Character strengths can be over/underused.

The goal is to achieve optimal use of each of the 24 as needed.

Following are examples of issues arising from over/under use of particular strengths (Niemiec, 2018).

Extreme creativity leads to eccentricity, but a lack of it leads to conformity. We strive for adaptive originality.

Someone who is overly curious is nosy, but a lack of curiosity leads to disinterest. Strive for a balance between exploration/seeking novelty.

Narrow-mindedness and cynicism are judgment “gone bad.” People who lack good judgment tend to skip reflecting on situations. Balanced use marries critical thinking and rationality.

Know-it-alls flaunt their love of learning. Complacent people don’t care. Strive for deepening your knowledge systematically.

Extreme use of perspective is overbearing, and a lack of it is shallowness. A wider view is optimal.

Sources: 1 2 3 ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

[glowettee]

// part 7: advanced scripting methods for your dream life ✨

hey loves! mindy back with the juiciest scripting techniques~

as someone who's manifested everything from perfect test scores to dream internships, scripting has been my secret weapon. i'm gonna dive into the most powerful methods i use daily!

what is scripting?

detailed written stories of your desires

written in present tense

includes emotions and sensory details

acts as a letter to the universe

my top scripting methods:

future self journaling • write as your future self • include daily routines • describe achievements • detail relationships • add emotional states

the perfect day method

wake up scenario

daily activities

conversations

accomplishments

bedtime routine

success story scripting • write news articles about you • create social media posts • draft celebration texts • imagine interviews • describe award speeches

quantum jumping scripts

parallel reality details

identity shifting

timeline exploration

reality bridging

dimensional alignment

my personal scripting rules:

timing matters • morning: set daily intentions • afternoon: reality checks • night: gratitude & future pacing

format essentials

use "i am" statements

write in present tense

include specific details

add sensory information

express genuine emotion

power phrases to include: • "i'm so happy now that…" • "i'm grateful that…" • "it feels amazing to…" • "i love how…" • "i'm celebrating…"

my scripting success template:

date: [current date] i am so grateful now that [desire] has manifested. i love [specific details about manifestation]. every day i [new daily activities]. my life has transformed because [results and impact]. i feel [emotional state] knowing that [achievement details].

advanced techniques:

timeline hopping

script multiple scenarios

choose preferred timeline

detail transition period

document quantum leaps

identity scripting • who you've become • new habits formed • changed mindset • evolved relationships • achieved milestones

emotional integration

physical sensations

mental states

emotional responses

energetic frequencies

vibrational alignment

pro tips from my manifestation journal:

write in your favorite aesthetic space

use a special pen just for scripting

add drawings or symbols

include photos or visual elements

review scripts during moon phases

common scripting mistakes to avoid: × using future tense × including doubt words × being too vague × forgetting emotion × neglecting action steps

note: your pen is literally your magic wand. every word you write is programming your subconscious for success!

tonight's scripting homework:

write your perfect day script

detail three manifestations

create a future self journal entry

script a success story

review in 30 days

with love, mindy xo

[follow-up-news]

Senate Republicans released a new budget blueprint Wednesday that would pave the way for $1.5 trillion in new tax cuts in addition to making President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax cuts permanent. They hope to adopt the plan in the coming days to instruct committees to begin work a massive bill to pass Trump’s agenda on taxes, immigration funding and other priorities. Senate Republicans are using the budget “reconciliation” process to evade the 60-vote hurdle in the chamber, where they hold a 53-47 majority, and cut Democrats out of the process. Republicans are using a controversial new accounting method known as “current policy baseline” to score the cost of a Trump tax cut extension at $0. Democrats have slammed it as “magic math” that papers over the multitrillion-dollar cost of extending those tax cuts and are exploring their options to challenge the approach. The Senate GOP budget resolution includes a $5 trillion debt limit increase.

[theygender]

im going back to school in august do you have any advice on how to dyke it up in a collegiate manner. it’s been four years i dont remember what to do

My best advice:

Read the syllabus on the first day of class (even though it's boring 😔). Main things to look out for are: the best way to contact your professor, the course schedule (are you being taught by a sadist who made something due on day 1?), the class's late work policy, and how many points/what percentage of your grade each assignment is worth

Use this information to prioritize assignments. Assignments from classes that don't allow late work + assignments that are worth a lot of points are the ones with the highest priority

Done Is More Important Than Perfect!!! If you can't do something perfect, just get it done. Half ass it or turn it in incomplete if you need to, but turn it in. Scoring 50% is better for your grade than scoring 0%

Do your best to work ahead on lessons each week. I know it's hard. When all of your assignments are due at 11:59 PM on Sunday your brain will want so so badly to wait until Sunday to do all of them but that's how they get you. You will die

If you can find a way to break your lessons down into smaller pieces throughout the week it'll make things so much easier. Example from one of my current classes: watching one 15 minute video per day is WAY better than watching an hour and a half of videos in one sitting the same day your quiz is due

Trying not to put assignments off until the last minute can be hard, but at the very least you should try to start before tech support closes. Realizing that your shit is broken at 11:00 PM the day of is the worst feeling

Don't be afraid to contact your professor if you need to, most of them are glad to help. Make sure to check whether your question is answered in the syllabus first and include your course & section number in the email/message to make it easier for them to help you

On the other hand, if your professor is rude/intimidating when you reach out about issues just remember that you're both adults and you're paying them for a service. And if something is really wrong you can talk to their boss (the head of their department)

If you need to take notes and you don't know/remember how, look around online and find a note taking system that works for you. The Cornell notes method was helpful for me and it's really simple to do

If you have trouble sitting down to study/work, try the pomodoro method (25 min study + 5 min break) and some ambient music. Body doubling/"study with me" can also be helpful, and you can even find videos with all three of these combined. (My favorite are the video game ones. I am studying with Mr. Skyrim and we're doing pomodoros together)

Above all else, make sure to earn that degree in a dyke-honoring way 🫡 godspeed, soldier

[robininthelabyrinth]

Subtle - ao3

Pairing: LQR/WRH Summary:

"Have you ever considered being subtle?" Wen Ruohan glanced sidelong at that-bastard-surnamed-Nie. "Are you suggesting that I'm not subtle?"

------------

"Have you ever considered being subtle?" 

Wen Ruohan glanced sidelong at that-bastard-surnamed-Nie. "Are you suggesting that I'm not subtle?" he asked, tone low and insidious, suggestive of possible violence should the answer not meet with his satisfaction – and rich with the expectation that it would not, rendering the subsequent clash inevitable.

There were times when he and the Nie sect leader were on good terms, even very good indeed, and times when they were not.

At the moment, they were most definitively not.

"I'm suggesting that you've never met the concept of subtle," that-bastard-surnamed-Nie said, having apparently not realized the current state of affairs. "You're passingly acquainted with its cousin discretion, maybe. But subtle?"

He snorted.

Like the damn pig he was.

"Maybe I don't require subtlety," Wen Ruohan said. "My Qishan Wen sect -"

"Most powerful in the world, sun in the sky above us all, all good things are yours, yes, yes, I know. Heard it all before. I'm not questioning your methods -"

He was definitely questioning.

"- I'm just curious to know if it's ever even crossed your mind to try something different. I mean, it's all a bit crude, isn’t it? All pillage and slaughter, the iron fist of tyranny, the marching army, submission or the sword…I mean, no one can doubt that it’s efficient, certainly. But one can hardly call it subtle."

Wen Ruohan scowled icily, even though most of his plans for conquest really did more or less boil down to that. "Don't pretend as if you know what subtlety is yourself. Your sect isn't exactly famous for it - rather the opposite."

That-bastard-surnamed-Nie was unmoved. 

"As you're always saying, I am not my sect," he said easily. "And you're not yours. Is that a no?"

"It most certainly is not a no."

"Hm." The bastard didn't believe him. "All right, then. Whatever you say."

Wen Ruohan seethed. 

He'd show him subtle, he vowed to himself. He could be subtle. He would be subtle. He'd be so damn subtle that the bastard wouldn't see the hit coming for a thousand li, and when he finally did, it'd strike him right where it hurt most. It would take away something he didn't even realize was his to lose.

Subtle. Hah!

Wen Ruohan could do subtle.

-

Lan Qiren received a letter.

This by itself was not terribly unusual. He was acting sect leader of a Great Sect - he received a frankly dizzying number of letters. He received letters of all sorts and shapes and sizes, though most of them contained complaints of one color or another. Well, complaints, and also bills.

He hated bills. It wasn’t even that he minded paying them, when deserved, but he still loathed them. He was good enough at mathematics, even though it was far from being his passion the way obscure musical arrangements or historical depictions of ethical debate were, but he was in no way naturally inclined towards the sort of skills required in managing the economic considerations of a sect as large as his Lan sect. Not to mention also accommodating the many subsidiary sects that expected to be able to use his sect as the lender of last resort in a crisis, no matter how inconvenient that made planning his own budget...in short, it was a nightmare.

One he was never going to wake from, it seemed, though he lived in (increasingly futile) hope.

This letter, therefore, was primarily notable in that it was not a complaint. Or a bill. Or a pressing problem Lan Qiren needed to solve. On the contrary, it contained a perfectly friendly, even mildly chatty, introduction, then a request for assistance in identifying a snippet of an unusual musical score that might or might not belong to the Lan sect, accompanied by reassurances that an answer was only needed whenever he had the time and only if he had the interest, and also including the snippet itself. It was by far the most enjoyable letter Lan Qiren had received all season, and it would have been all year if not for the very effusive thank you he'd received a few months back from one of his more troubled student's parents, deeply relieved at their son’s remarkable improvement. 

Still, even compared with that, this letter was a delight.

It was also unsigned.

Please respond at your convenience using the transfer array attached to the bottom of this letter, the letter said cheerfully, as if opening an unfamiliar array inside the sect’s gate wards wasn't a recipe for trouble at minimum, disaster at maximum. Not being an idiot, Lan Qiren promptly took the array to be examined by his sect's specialists, and he was even now waiting for their reply.

There was every chance that the letter was part of some sort of plot, Lan Qiren reminded himself diligently. His interest in musical arrangements was well known, and could therefore be targeted through a well-tailored appeal. The letter could even contain some sort of poison or curse aimed at crippling him, and through him his sect; such things were not unheard of. There was no point in giving it another thought until that gating question had been resolved. 

Only...he was giving it some thought.

Mostly about that music score, which itched in the back of his brain - he was pretty sure it was Lan sect in origin, although nothing out of their usual rotation of spell-songs. A private composition, perhaps, which meant thar the only way to identify it would be through a stylistic comparison with other examples -

You do not have time for this, Lan Qiren reminded himself. You are not helping until you know whether it is worthwhile to do so.

It would have been much easier if only the letter had been signed! Lan Qiren would have been more than happy to help if the requestor had been one of the smaller sects, or even a rogue cultivator with a little fame, just enough to be recognizable. To refuse to sign a name - any name - suggested either something to hide or a profound need for privacy, which one wouldn't have expected for something as measly as a few questions about music. It was suspicious!

It was music.

It was the most fun Lan Qiren had had in months, and he hadn't even started properly digging into it yet.

He liked research, liked music, liked helping people - in fact, the reason he was quite so suspicious of the letter was because it was exactly the sort of thing he liked most. At this stage in his life, Lan Qiren had long since accepted that there was no such thing as an unasked-for turn of luck, no silver lining without its accompanying cloud...

Still, it was hard to see what sort of plot could be advanced by an academic request regarding music. Maybe the requestor was simply too embarrassed to reveal their identity - one of the other musical cultivation sects, perhaps, that didn't want to admit to their ignorance. That would be quite reasonable, and under such a situation it would not be unreasonable for Lan Qiren to provide the asked-for aid. The Lan sect rules counseled prioritizing chivalry and graciousness, after all. He would be perfectly justified in diverting some of his limited time to visiting the library, perusing old volumes, even taking notes...

Lan Qiren sighed to himself.

"Teacher?"

He blinked, roused from his reverie, and found that it was a disciple, one he recognized: it was one of the apprentices to the specialists in the talismanic arts. He was holding the letter in his hands.

Lan Qiren felt an unaccustomed frisson of excitement. If the specialists had determined the letter to contain harmful substances, it would not be returned to him at all. There was still the possibility that it had been deemed to involve some sort of plot, but...

"What is the honorable masters’ conclusion?" he asked politely, trying to suppress his excitement.

"There appears to be nothing wrong with the letter, Teacher,” the disciple reported. “The transfer array at the back is a little unusual, but mostly for being so old fashioned - it was once a popular method for discrete correspondence, despite the strain and cost involved in using it. Later a method for detecting and even interfering with such messages was discovered and the use fell out of favor."

Lan Qiren hummed thoughtfully. He hadn’t heard of such a method; it must have been before his time, or something only of interest to people who studied obscure arrays and talismans. "What does it involve?"

"The array must be personally crafted by an expert that is familiar with the craft, and the sender must put in a considerable amount of spiritual energy in order to charge the array for use. Once charged, the recipient can use the array to send correspondence back to the sender until the spiritual energy in the array has been exhausted."

Lan Qiren's eyebrows arched despite himself. "The transfer is immediate?"

"Unfortunately not, Teacher. The spiritual energy travels through the air. Sending a messenger by sword, or even by horse, is likely more efficient."

"Only if you know where the recipient is," Lan Qiren said, reaching up to stroke his beard. "And of course spiritual energy is far more discreet than a messenger. I am unsurprised that it was once popular, whether for diplomatic missives or even spy-craft."

"Just so, Teacher. Unfortunately, the sect that discovered the countermeasures was Qishan Wen, so..."

Lan Qiren didn't grimace outright, though he was tempted. "Yes, I can see why the method's popularity waned."

The Wen sect had always been ambitious. There was the current Wen Ruohan, who was constantly scheming to expand his power and influence, and by historical accounts, prior generations had been no better and were quite likely worse. 

Still -

"I see why the array was included," Lan Qiren said. "It serves as both a method to ensure discretion and as an offer of payment. Please inform the elders that I intend to accept, and will offer my assistance with the question in exchange for commissioning the sender for another of these arrays for my own use."

The disciple looked surprised. "What for, Teacher? If it's not secure..."

"Security matters only when the contents are confidential," Lan Qiren explained. "Such an array would be invaluable when corresponding with someone with no fixed location. For instance, disciples out on a night hunt."

Or, for another example, a rogue cultivator family constantly on the move. Lan Qiren had long maintained a correspondence with Cangse Sanren, primarily through her determined efforts, but it had by necessity been largely one-sided to date. Even if he received a letter from her from Jiangnan, by the time it arrived and his reply composed, she might already be in Henan. He was only able to gather his thoughts and wait patiently for her next visit to the Cloud Recesses, or else count on luck to have them cross paths elsewhere. This array would not improve the speed of their interchanges, but it would give Lan Qiren the chance to write back, no matter where she was when he did so, and in return she could always send something if she happened to find herself in an urgent situation far away from any post.

His mood significantly improved, Lan Qiren dismissed the disciple and carried on with the paperwork he still had to complete. Diligence came first, pleasure only later - thus were good habits formed and maintained. 

But later...

Research on a matter of great interest to him, a valid excuse to spend time on it, and even the possibility of repairing an old regret and improving a friendship - really, Lan Qiren could not be more pleased with his mysterious correspondent, anonymous or not. He could even say that he'd formed a rather favorable impression of whoever it was, and perhaps even go so far as to hope this would not be the only letter they exchanged. Lan Qiren liked fellow scholars best of all, and he had painfully few friends; it would be nice to increase their number, even remotely.

He would write back with a preliminary response this evening, he decided, and take some time over the next few days to look through their library. It would not be inappropriate to show his correspondent some measure of his enthusiasm and sincerity...

-

Wen Ruohan felt a small twinge in his qi, signifying that a part of it had been consumed. It was not an inconsiderable amount - for a weaker cultivator, it might be exhausting, while even a stronger cultivator would notice the strain of the effort, though it wouldn't slow them down too much. For someone of Wen Ruohan’s caliber, it was of course not even worth mentioning. 

Lan Qiren had already responded to his last letter, it seemed.

Smiling faintly to himself, inadvertently terrifying the majority of his lieutenants currently attending to him, Wen Ruohan dismissed his audience and rose to return to his study, where he had set the receiving array. 

He had been the one to create the letter transportation array, back when he was much younger and his primary concern had been satisfying his little brother’s obsession with collecting trinkets, though one of his brothers had figured out the potential use of it for spycraft first and claimed it in his own name. Not that it did him much good – he was known to be stupid, the way the Wen clan regretfully sometimes tended to be when they weren’t ambitious or cunning enough to get themselves out of it – and so everyone had ascribed the original invention to whatever little sect he had just demolished. Wen Ruohan hadn’t very much cared back then, having not yet decided to jump into the race for the position of sect leader; later, when he decided it was time to start caring, he had simply invented a countermeasure and employed it to great effect.

As far as he could tell – and if he couldn’t, no one could – there were at the present moment in time only two such arrays currently in existence, both created by him: the one he used to contact Lan Qiren, and the one Lan Qiren used to write letters to his little rouge cultivator friend, Baoshan Sanren’s disciple.

Wen Ruohan naturally was able to read all of those as well, and of course he did. He’d found himself unexpectedly amused by her consistent teasing and Lan Qiren’s querulous and too-earnest responses. There was not a hint of romance there, as he’d initially expected to find, but there were some very funny and rather uncomplimentary asides about Jiang Fengmian that revealed an entirely unexpected layer of petty nastiness in Lan Qiren, which by itself would have made the whole business worthwhile.

Not that it wasn’t otherwise worthwhile.

Lan Qiren wrote to both of them, Cangse Sanren and (unknowingly) Wen Ruohan, but the letters he sent to Wen Ruohan were by far the more common.

In fact, Wen Ruohan had to admit that he was a little surprised at the alacrity of Lan Qiren's responses. Naturally he was well aware of how starved for company the other man was, how lonely, and indeed he had been counting on it to ensure that his plan would be a success. And it was a success, an astounding one - only a few months in, and Lao Nie was already complaining under his breath that Lan Qiren never seemed to have much time for him these days, always busy writing letters or doing research. It was only that he'd underestimated, well...

No, let him be blunt: he'd underestimated Lan Qiren’s genius. 

It was not much consolation that everyone else had apparently missed it as well. Wen Ruohan had picked his first few requests quite carefully, old Lan sect tunes that had been very briefly popular decades ago, but not popular enough or in rotation long enough to be included in the sect's regular canon or even recorded in their histories. He was baiting a trap for a Lan, after all; it wouldn't do to send Lan Qiren a problem he wouldn't be able to solve. He'd figured that the examples he'd picked would last him half a year or even more.

Lan Qiren had identified them all within a month.

Moreover, he'd explained the rationale of his deductions - comparing first underlying composition styles to identify the approximate time period, then sorting the whole era by idiosyncratic musical quirks, which was insane - and even offered some helpful suggestions on improvements to solving the mostly non-existent problems Wen Ruohan had been pretending to have. He specified 'mostly' because while he had indeed been pretending at the start, Lan Qiren's proposed solutions had been so effective that he'd actually started implementing some of them in various parts of his extensive domain. 

Most recently, he'd even taken to asking about real problems he was obligated as sect leader to solve, of which there were always a multitude, and in turn getting real answers. It was fantastic. He was resolving issues that his entire cadre of advisors had failed to even come up with ideas to tackle, and with remarkable swiftness. His entire sect was reconvinced all over again that he was a genius! Which of course he was, but in this instance it wasn't entirely due to him. Or rather it was, indirectly, but only in the sense that knowing how to properly utilize personnel was also a form of genius.

Lan Qiren had even somehow divined from Wen Ruohan’s manner of asking questions that his true interest was in arrays, not strictly music, and had modified his explanations accordingly, including more details regarding of the underlying spellcrafting and taking extra time to explain some of the more obscure music-only concepts. He hadn't figured out that his anonymous correspondent was Wen Ruohan, which was only reasonable, Wen Ruohan being these days more famous for his tyranny than his talent for arrays - which was actually a little annoying if he thought about it too long - but their correspondence had certainly become a great deal more fun ever since. It was nice to have his interests catered to, even interests that he had very nearly forgotten that he had.

Wen Ruohan might not have had much time for academia in the past few decades, but he had once been one of the most accomplished and recognized in his field, and like most academics, he loved his subject. He hadn't had a willing ear, as opposed to a terrified and inadvertently coerced one, for years upon years now, and in all truth he'd forgotten how enjoyable it could be to talk about cultivation simply for the sake of increasing his knowledge, rather than always considering it as a matter of power.

Not that he'd forgotten about power.

His plan to seduce Lan Qiren by proxy was working splendidly, and it wasn't as if he'd planned to start extracting secrets from the man until he'd built up at least a year or two of acquaintance. Nothing had changed there, other than the fact that Wen Ruohan was having an unexpectedly good time doing it. And solving problems for his sect in the meantime, which was always a plus - though of course he'd have to be careful there. He couldn't let the far too clever Lan Qiren have a chance to put together his recent correspondence with the Wen sect's recent successes. He would, too, given even the smallest little hint.

He was too clever not to.

Perhaps for the next set of letters Wen Ruohan would pick something a little more theoretical, more purely academic rather than practical. Maybe he could dig something up from his old notes, the ones he’d kept from back when he used to occupy his days with research and cultivation and experimenting with talismans and arrays. It'd been ages, long enough that he barely remembered it, but a little study should be enough to get him back into shape. And then he could get Lan Qiren to focus on that, which had no known connection to the Wen Ruohan of today...yes, that would do quite well.

It might even be fun.

Who would have expected that?

-

"I took your advice," Lao Nie said to Lan Qiren, who was just finishing pouring tea for them both.

"I wasn't aware I had given you advice," Lan Qiren said, then added, dryly, "Or that you ever listened when I did. The last time we met, we argued, did we not?"

"We did, we did," Lao Nie agreed, completely unswayed by any reasonable criticism, as was his fashion. "I'm not saying you're wrong that I've been acting a little atrociously with regard to Wen Ruohan, though I still don't plan to change anything -"

"That is functionally the same thing."

"I don't understand why you even care about him. No, don't say you don't; I don't see you getting involved in other sect leaders' relationships, do I?"

"Most sect leaders are not my friends, as you are, and they have not decided to start a liaison with the most powerful cultivator currently alive and then cheat on him – and not just once, but twice – "

"Now, we don't need to rehash all that," Lao Nie hastily interrupted. "By chance, it was to that argument which I was referring, in fact. You might recall that about halfway through you called me - what was it - it started with 'lumbering' -"

"A lumbering uncouth bull charging around a porcelain shop without the slightest sense of presence, wholly incapable of tact, discretion or subtlety?"

"...ouch. Somehow that's even worse than I remembered." Lao Nie rubbed his forehead, then shrugged it off. "Anyway, I then said I was totally capable of subtlety, and you said 'I'll believe it when I see it' -"

"To be precise, I said that you had hitherto not demonstrated any instances of such behavior to the best of my knowledge."

"Same thing. Anyway, I decided that I would try it out."

Lan Qiren frowned. "Try what out?"

"Being subtle. Anyway, I think it worked!"

"...congratulations." Lan Qiren sighed. "What exactly did you do?"

"As if I'd tell you the details-"

"You have no idea what exactly you did, do you."

"No, not as such. But it worked! Wen Ruohan is way too busy with whatever his current scheme is to be angry at me. Or angry enough to kill me, anyway; he’s still not exactly pleased."

Now it was Lan Qiren's turn to rub his temples. "Should I be worried? Or rather, should we all be concerned, given the end results of most of Wen Ruohan’s schemes?"

"You're such a pessimist." Lao Nie chuckled and picked up his teacup. "Maybe he's just picked up a hobby again...? A non-torture hobby, even. Surely he could find one of those."

Lan Qiren snorted disdainfully.

"Yeah, I don't think it's likely either," Lao Nie conceded. "I'll let you know as soon as I have some idea of what he's up to. Anyway, enough about me. Tell me more about you! Tell me about your new love interest -"

"It's not like that," Lan Qiren protested, but he had started smiling in a way that might open him up to criticism based on the Lan sect's rule against smiling foolishly. His ears had even gone a little pink! "We are only acquaintances at best, not even friends, much less that. I do not even know their name..."

"And yet you knew exactly who I was referring to, didn't you?" Lao Nie pointed out, and had the pleasure of seeing Lan Qiren blush and stutter out a half-hearted denial. "Qiren, really, even if you only get a new friend out of it, I couldn't be more pleased for you! But I'm telling you, at this point whoever it is? They’re just looking for excuses to write back."

"Nonsense. They have posed genuine problems in need of solving."

"No one has a territory with that many problems at once, Qiren, not even the Great Sects. Not even Wen Ruohan! They just want to keep talking."

Lan Qiren coughed. "Well, perhaps. It's no business of mine what their motives are, provided they do not cause harm...though I admit I have been enjoying receiving their letters. Even enjoying immensely."

"Oh, well, if it's enjoying immensely, then I suppose I can forgive you for forgetting about little old me -"

"Lao Nie!"

Lao Nie laughed. "Don't worry about it, Qiren. I really am glad for you. You should be immersing yourself in the joy of a new relationship -"

"I told you, it is not -"

"Not necessarily romantic," Lao Nie said, though if it wasn't romantic he'd eat his boots. Lan Qiren had never blushed over one of his letters, to be sure...though presumably it was the content that was the issue. Not that the contents here were standard sweettalk! What Lan Qiren found romantic in receiving an array based on a musical composition meant to clear murky water, Lao Nie had no idea, even if it was a composition of Lan Qiren's own making, based on something he’d written about one of his nephews.

Scholars. Who could understand them? Even Wen Ruohan had the same tendencies, deep down, and he'd been more warlord than scholar for as long as Lan Qiren had been alive.

Actually, sometimes Lao Nie did get a little worried about what Wen Ruohan was now cooking up. Whatever it was, it was making him smile - actually smile, rather than the usual dead eye smirks he typically favored - nearly as much as Lan Qiren was now, and knowing Wen Ruohan’s temperament, the cause could be anything from genocidal atrocity to a particularly good witticism. 

If only he could figure out a way to get Wen Ruohan to fall in love with somebody! Now that would solve all their problems - including, yes, the ones he'd created for himself though some concededly less-than-wise romantic decisions. Wen Ruohan had an obsessive personality: if he fell in love, really in love, he would move heaven and earth to win his lover's favor, and that would probably distract him from all that torture and world domination and such. 

Unfortunately, as far as Lao Nie could figure out, the only thing that Wen Ruohan was attracted to was power, either for himself or for his sect, and also being the first one to discover or exploit that power. Which was a hell of an ask. It wasn't as though Lao Nie could pull an underappreciated genius out from his sleeve to throw at Wen Ruohan...

Oh, well.

Whatever it was that Wen Ruohan was planning, they'd find a way to deal with it. 

In the meantime, he had Lan Qiren to tease. 

Such fun!

[mariacallous]

WASHINGTON ― Congressional Republicans want to use a controversial budget gimmick to pass their $5 trillion tax cut package ― and they plan to steamroll the Senate rules to make it happen.

Their risky and never-before-used strategy hinges on how to account for the bill’s impact on the deficit. Republicans want to use a “current policy” baseline, which assumes the 2017 tax cuts will be extended permanently even though they are due to expire this year. Under this method, which has been roundly panned by bipartisan budget experts, Republicans could claim that a huge part of the tax cuts would be cost-free. In reality, however, they would blow a massive hole in the deficit.

Initially, Republicans were expected to seek a green light on using “current policy” from the Senate parliamentarian, who advises the chamber on its rules and parliamentary procedure. But a meeting between the parliamentarian and Democratic and Republican budget staffers was canceled on Tuesday, a sign that Senate Republicans are planning to go their own way.

Republican leaders argued in a closed-door lunch on Tuesday that Senate Budget Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has sufficient authority under the Congressional Budget Act to score their reconciliation bill using “current policy” himself, without needing a ruling from the parliamentarian.

“By law — it is the chairman’s call,” Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) told HuffPost.

But Democrats said that ignoring the Senate parliamentarian on the matter and pressing forward with a “current policy” baseline would be tantamount to going “nuclear” and breaking Senate rules, further weakening the institution.

“That would be going nuclear. It shows that Republicans are so hellbent on giving these tax breaks to the billionaires that they’re willing to break any rules, norms and things they promised they wouldn’t do,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) told reporters on Tuesday.

“Republicans are adding magic rules to their magic math,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) added. “At the end of the day, none of this will work. A $4.7 trillion tax giveaway to billionaires will cost $4.7 trillion, and cuts to Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid will be real and cost millions of people around this country.”

[transgenderer]

New study says gender-affirming surgery is associated with increased risk of mental health issues. Study of 100k+ patients found those with surgery had significantly higher rates of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation & substance use disorder vs matched controls w/o surgery. The title of the study is “Examining gender-specific mental health risks after gender-affirming surgery: a national database study”

I’m interested in your take on this Summer, because you have posted before about how gender affirming care is the best method for dealing with dysphoria. Can you find any flaws in this study? Does it change your view? I’m not trying to trap you in some gotcha, it just seems sound to me. Sorry if this is invasive, but didn’t you get the surgery, and would you say your experience reflected this? Don’t answer if you don’t want to.

For some context on myself, I just go by male pronouns, my birth name, and wear male clothes in public, yet I have desired to be a girl since childhood (still do) and wear female clothes when in private. I don’t act on it largely do to my own (quite large) family and community, very conservative. I pretty early on decided not to get the surgery no matter what, even if I move away and/or change my lifestyle, solely due to my personal fear of surgery. Like I said, I’m not trying to trap you in any gotcha. Maybe I’m only interested in this study as confirmation bias, prove I made the right choice.

it's not on sci hub, so i cant read the full text of the study, but based on the methods section:

This retrospective study utilized the TriNetX database, analyzing U.S. patients aged ≥18 with gender dysphoria (International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision [ICD-10] F64) between June 2014 and June 2024. Six cohorts were created based on gender and surgery status: Cohorts A-D included patients with or without surgery, and Cohorts E-F allowed for gender comparison among those with surgery. Propensity score matching controlled for age, race, and ethnicity. Mental health outcomes included depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, substance use disorder, and body dysmorphic disorder, assessed over two years post-surgery using clinician-verified ICD-10 codes

and reuslts section

From 107 583 patients, matched cohorts demonstrated that those undergoing surgery were at significantly higher risk for depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and substance use disorders than those without surgery. Males with surgery showed a higher prevalence of depression (25.4% vs. 11.5%, RR 2.203, P < 0.0001) and anxiety (12.8% vs. 2.6%, RR 4.882, P < 0.0001). Females exhibited similar trends, with elevated depression (22.9% vs. 14.6%, RR 1.563, P < 0.0001) and anxiety (10.5% vs. 7.1%, RR 1.478, P < 0.0001). Feminizing individuals demonstrated particularly high risk for depression (RR 1.783, P = 0.0298) and substance use disorders (RR 1.284, P < 0.0001).

it doesnt seem like its saying over a 2 year period people who underwent surgery had worse mental health outcomes before surgery than after surgery, relative to the other group? i think it's saying (maybe? wish i could read the paper) that people who underwent surgery have worse mental health *in general*. like before and after. which makes sense. youre more likely to want bottom surgery if you're really unhappy with your current situation. but also, it seems like probably bottom surgery does not generally cure depression. so. it makes sense that people after surgery would also tend to be less happy with their current situation, then people who were less unhappy in the first place. maybe they correct for that? but if you correct for that i feel like you'd mention it, i think by "matched cohorts" they just mean age race and ethnicity.

i mean, if you have a link to the full text of the study i could check it out.

anyway, i only got an orchi. i had way worse mental health afterwards cuz they didnt start me on T for a year. and so i had 0 T in my system. gender doctors are really incompetent re: hormones, my understanding is there's minimal training for it and most clinics have a limited number of endocrinologists (if any). so mostly its doctors kinda playing it by ear, based on half-assed guidelines. but apparently sometimes no T is fine? idk

im not particularly interested in a vaginoplasty but i think my relationship to transness is somewhat nonstandard. anyway i hope you figure things out for yourself. i dont know you or your life but i think getting away from your family is good for 90+% of people. moving away from your family is the best part of american atomism. even if theyre good, its just not good for your development to be in their radius, they cant help but influence you. and often theyre not good, and try to control you on purpose.

[elizadoll]

Divine (Military) Intervention

Content Warning: Mechs, Angels, Implications of extreme violence, Mental conditioning/Brainwashing

When the idea of using angels as pilots was first floated as a possibility years ago, very few took it seriously. Could our technology really hope to channel the power of a divine being into a mech without the risk of severe complication? What happens when an angelic pilot snaps on the battlefield? Could anyone or anything for that matter hope to survive the ensuing rampage? A combat angel without a thousand-foot-tall killing machine backing it up can already be a massive hazard for both sides of a conflict, the risk felt too great.

Eventually someone got the funding to do a study on a large group of angels, having them tank an array of standard pilot aptitude tests and the results were, frankly, completely shocking. The average angel got the same score as a human in the 94th percentile of human mech pilots. The lowest score recorded would've placed that angel in the 87th percentile. it seemed angels were not only viable as pilots, but some of the best entities one could ever hope to find for the job, outshining even combat dolls. Of course, aptitude tests and actual piloting are very different things, so some remained skeptical of their potentially.

When the first angel pilot training programs were put into practice, much of the world waited with bated breath to see the results. Unfortunately for them, though, it proved to be far more difficult than the aptitude tests made it seem. While angels' bodies showed compatibility with the standard implants used for human and doll pilots, they all without fail completely flunked out of any training or conditioning exercises. They remained hopelessly clumsy in their mechs, they remained resistant to their handlers' commands, and perhaps most troubling, the stress and overstimulation of piloting exercises would overload the angels' halos, often leading to power surges and blackouts within the mechs. It is rumored that it got so bad in one case, that the angel's halo shattered spontaneously during what would otherwise be a routine mental conditioning exercise.

For some, these failures were proof enough that angel pilots were a fool's errand. Despite their aptitude on paper, there was simply something about angels that made them unfit for piloting in some way and the strain it put on their halos was another problem altogether. It was best to leave this experiment in the past where it belonged, and focus on improving current mech programs.

For others, however, this setback provided something of an opportunity. Sure, the conditioning methods used on humans and dolls didn't seem to work, and in fact only seemed to confuse, disorient, and aggravate the angel pilots, but that could simply mean that a fundamentally different approach was in order. Two schools of thought emerged from this idea: The Absolution hypothesis and the Divine Wrath hypothesis.

The Absolution hypothesis posited that angels would be more responsive to their handlers if they were conditioned to believe that those handlers were being capable of passing judgement on them, and that said handlers would absolve them of their guilt, that fulfilling their duties of pilots would allow them compassion and affection. It was the idea that an angel would do anything to earn the feelings of adoration and forgiveness they were promised.

The Divine Wrath hypothesis, on the other hand, was a more outward approach. An angel could be conditioned to perceive enemy combatants as irredeemable sinners who must be cut down, or perhaps even that an opposing mech could be seen as a demon that must be purged from the Earth at all costs. This school of thought believed that the confusion and disorientation angels experienced in the piloting seat could be nullified if they were given a straightforward goal: Purge the world of the unholy.

In truth, though, it was not either of these ideas that was the secret to training angel pilots but both. The first ever successful angel pilot, designated HAL-0, was conditioned in accordance to both hypotheses, and was known at the time to be one of the most unquestioning and ruthless mech pilots of its time. HAL-0's original handler reported that the angel revered her as a goddess of sorts, and that it seemed to consider every confirmed kill to be an act of worship.

After HAL-0's success, more angel pilots inevitably followed, and much like their aptitude scores suggested, they quickly became revered as some of the most efficient pilots in the history of mech piloting. For a while, some believed that human and doll pilots would have to be phased out entirely, but the relative rarity of angels, and the unique difficulties of their training, made that effectively impossible.

Today, angel pilots can feel like a known quantity, but it should be noted that they remain starkly unique from other pilots to this very day. Even now, the handlers of more recent angel pilots report similar experiences to that of the woman who worked with HAL-0. A conditioned angel will stop at absolutely nothing to earn its absolution, and it holds no remorse for the sinners and demons in its crosshairs. It knows its purpose, and it'll pursue the purpose no matter what. Even when it means their halo might snap.

[pedriscroquettes]

awww poor gavi being so stressed i was wondering is the only reason he pushes himself so hard for studying too bc he wants to compete with reader or are there other deeper reasons? you dont have to answer if its spoilery im just curious !

another academic rival!gavi blurb for y’all 🫶🏽

warnings. injury trauma & lowkey suggestive content.

a/n. guys i’ve gotten attached to them i’m afraid…

the bond that had formed between the two of you had caused the two of you to begin studying together. your dad has once walked in on the two of you staring intently at your professor’s old lectures trying to figure out what part of the solution method you had missed. he was so confused but you simply glared at him and he never brought up the topic again. to be honest even if he has asked anyways you wouldn’t have known what to tell him. you couldn’t just tell your father that you were hooking up with the boy next door because it was the only thing helping you from losing your sanity.

currently gavi was trying to finish his research paper for his sports medicine class. he was quite frustrated that his professor had also asked his class to not only write about the physical effects of an acl tear but the psychological effects as well. you were too engrossed in your own work that you didn’t notice how intensely he was looking at images he was using for reference. the picture of the player in pain brought back memories he had hoped to have forgotten about.

for his fifteenth birthday his father had gifted him lower section tickets to a real betis match. he remembered how excited he was to see his hometown team play, to see them on the pitch. he also was looking forward to entering the stadium and getting that fuzzy feeling in his stomach as he analyzed every inch of the stadium hoping to play a match in there in the future.

the game had started off slow with both of the teams not allowing each other to score. that is until things heated up between both teams. one moment the ball would be in real betis’s box and the next in the opposing team. gavi was excited that the game was building up, he just wanted to see someone score a goal already. then it happened a player from the opposing team had finally gotten fed up with the defense and how they couldn’t keep the ball away from their goalpost. so he did the job himself tackling the real betis forward.

the crowd immediately burst out into chants yelling at the referee to give him a red card, which he did. but gavi could only stare as the player lay on the ground screaming in pain. his screams replayed in his mind from time to time. he had never been able to shake off the image of the player being taken away in a stretcher. he thought that had been the worse thing to happen that night but then the next day he saw on the news how it was confirmed the player would never play again. the injury forcing him into early retirement.

that day he realized that if he did achieve his dreams they could always be stripped away from him. so he spent hours studying. he didn’t miss a single class from then on out. fearing that if one day his career was taken from him he wouldn’t have nothing to do. he’d just be gavi the failed football star with nothing to his name except a bunch of “what if’s?”

“pablo?” you called his name for the fifth time.

“huh? oh hmm?” he perked his head up noticing your concerned glare.

“what happened?” you sat up on his bed.

“nothing just daydreaming.” he was lying and you could tell.

you stood up and walked towards his desk. the cold floor making you tingle as you made your way towards him. careful to not cause a mess on his desk you slip into his lap. he welcomes you as he scoots you closer to his body. he doesn’t realize he’s grinning like a little kid until you tease him about it. his cheeks going pink at your teasing.

“nothing? pablo you’ve been staring at your laptop for like ten minutes without writing anything and you’re going to lie to me? yeah okay.” you playfully confront him about his lying.

“really it’s nothing! can’t a boy live?” he smiles up at you.

“okay fine don’t tell me.” his hand begins roaming your back trying to discreetly make its way to your ass. which you simply shove away. “no. if you can’t be honest with me you can keep your hands to yourself.”

“oh so it’s like that now?” he laughs but quickly stops once he realizes you’re being for real. “oh come on!”

“you can do whatever you want as long as you tell me what’s wrong.” you reply.

so he does. he tells you about his fears and you tell him about yours. you assure him that he’ll be fine and he assures you that you’ll eventually figure out what you want to do after school. his kisses change that night, they have feelings to them now. you even stay for dinner, the paéz family happily welcoming you. aurora teases his brother that night but she also notices the way her brother looks at you. with the same look she looks at her boyfriend.

[munchboxart]

I didn't bring my iPad and I'm bored so I'm just gonna dump a bunch of stationery and crafting stuff. A lot of this stuff is just gonna be stuff I learned when making my merch (outside of the acrylics).

If you want to fold paper without it crinkling the paper so it looks smooth, you can use a method called "scoring". Depending on the paper, you can either fold the paper and run a scoring bone/anything flat like a ruler across the fold OR (what I prefer doing, and better for thicker paper) align your ruler against the area you want to fold, and run a cutter across lightly (not enough to cut. If your cutter is sharp, you can just lightly drag it across the paper) and fold it.

Please note that the 2nd method is only for closing paper the opposite direction you cut it (closing away from you) if that makes sense.

Midori paper is one of the best fucking papers I've ever used. Doesn't bleed across multiple papers (will show on the back of course, though) when I used fountain pen ink + their notepads are really good. The top and right are glued rather than just the top or side only, which I really like.

They also have a journal where if you finish a page, you can tear off the corner to note where you are currently at in your journal.

If you do a lot of gluing, just get a double sided tape runner. They look like correction tapes but it's filled with double sided tape instead.

There is a pencil sharpener called the Kutsuwa Stad T'Gaal where it can adjust your pencil length.

I do actually have the desk version but this seems to be uncommon + to be honest, the smaller version (above) seems to be more reliable since this one is kind of flimsy for adjusting?

There's another version of a hole puncher called a screw punch. I believe that the company Nonaka Works invented it? Basically it's a tool where you push down the tool against the material and it'll cut a hole. It can go through a lot of materials including cardstock, but if you need to punch through a lot of layers of paper without destroying your hands, this has been a very useful tool for me. There are a lot of knock offs though so be wary. The original Nonaka Works screw punch should have "Screw Punch Made in Japan" engraved on the gold part of the tool.

If you're cutting a bunch of paper with straight ends, get a paper guillotine. I have a tiny one for my backing cards and it saves me from killing my arm.

Also last thing for you artists/shop owners. Standard business card sizes are 2 inches by 3.5 inches. You can use other sizes but I just want to mention that, since I collect business cards and put them in my case that only fits 2 inches by 3.5 inches or smaller. Margins (area between the content and edge of the page) should be 0.125-0.25 inches and bleed (border outside of the edge. This is required if you are doing double sided business cards so that there wont be white space when you cut it) is 0.125 inches

[dgrailwar]

Round 9, Day 2 - Gunner vs. Pretender vs. Foreigner

Like a shooting star, the Foreigner shot down from orbit, slamming into one of the massive windows that served as the Takasugi Building outlook. The Foreigner looked back through the shattered glass, frowning.

"…oops."

"Now that's an exciting entrance! And it was on accident? Don't apologize! I mean, I'm a bit unprepared, but that's fine!"

As if on cue, the Pretender smashed through the other window, sending glass flying.

"Okay. That one was intentionally mean-spirited. I saw you outside the window considering it."

Idly, the Pretender slid an object off the Gunner's desk, watching it crash to the floor with a sneer.

"No, reaaaally? C'mon, keep up. We're here to fight, let's cut the banter and get down to it, shall we?"

Gunner was attacked while Playing Defensively! He's been ambushed! None of his skills trigger!

Voyager's 'Contact with Civilization' triggers! He gains an additional +2%!

Pretender will get an automatic +1 to his Curse Counter, adding additional curses depending on his final results!

The Boosts have been Set!

Takasugi Shinsaku: +0%

Oberon-Vortigern: +5%

Voyager: +9%

SERVANT DETAILS:

Takasugi Shinsaku (GUNNER)

Gunner's skills don't trigger under an ambush!

Class-Trait:

GUNNER-Class Servants are quick to action and yet methodical with their attacks. When engaged in combat, gain a +3% boost. Additionally, if in last place during a Free-for-All, inflict a -4% demerit on the 1st place Servant.

Oberon-Vortigern (PRETENDER)

Evening Shroud and Morning Lark (EX Rank) - In the cover of night, even the most unscrupulous warriors can at least feign greatness. When the sun rises, warriors gain the morale to fight another day. When engaged in combat, gain a +5% boost.

Affection of the Fairy Princess (Unranked) - A 'false' skill. The fair Princess of the Autumn Forest fell in love with the vile King of the Mors, who was cursed to never love. A tragedy almost Shakespearean in nature. When Oberon would take his final wound, Blanca will take the damage in his place, killing herself in his stead. This does not work against 'red'-grade Noble Phantasms, that possess a power that can destroy both Oberon and Blanca together.

Fairy Eyes (Unranked) - When 'Playing Defensively', increase your +5% combat boost to +7%. He also cannot be 'Ambushed'.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (EX Rank) - Rather than just reducing the effectiveness of Servant-imposed demerits, he is immune to them entirely. Unlike other demerit immunities, this ignores the effects of Servant traits and Free-for-All demerits as well. He gathers 'Curses' from combat, which can be used to fuel his Noble Phantasm (baseline +1 for participating, +2 for winning, and +3 for winning with more than 20% over your opponent). Current Curses: 0

Class-Trait:

PRETENDER-CLASS Servants possess an inherent trickster nature. If they fall in last place during a Free-for-All, if there is a gap of 3% within their final score and that of the Servant in 2nd place, they can evade taking a wound. Additionally, if they're victorious against other Servants, other teams cannot attempt to study the Pretender in order to gain a percentage bonus against them.

Voyager (FOREIGNER)

Swing-By (A Rank): A momentum-based skill that assigns a boost to Voyager. This value starts at 1%, and increases by 1% per each victory, and .5% per loss. It remains unchanged if the Masters choose to 'Play Defensively'. This buff is applied whether Voyager is caught off guard or not. (Current value: +5%)

Contact with Civilization (D Rank): When fighting in a Free-for-All, he gains a +2% boost. No matter the battle type, if he's encountering a Servant that he hasn't met before, he gains a +2% bonus to his poll results.

Voyager has Encountered:

Alter-Ego

Pretender (False and True Faces)

Gunner

Voyager of the Stars (A Rank): When fighting against a Servant with a higher boost than him, gain an additional +2%. Voyager's 'Swing-By' skill is also upgraded, adding an additional .5% bonus to his Swing-By victory boost if he wins in a Free-for-All.

Class-Trait:

FOREIGNER-CLASS Servants take advantage of the chaos around them. When engaged in a Free-for-All (while not Playing Defensively), all other participants are given a -3% demerit. If attacked while 'Playing Defensively'', their attacker takes a -2% penalty.

[adrl-pt]

Saving Activist Andrey Gnyot. VPN Protest. Charity Lecture by a Political Philosopher.

You are watching the news from the weekly rally at the Russian Embassy in Lisbon. Today is August 24, 2:30 PM.

Since the end of last week, Belarusian and Russian activists have been holding a protest demanding that Belarusian activist Andrey Gnyot not be extradited to dictator Lukashenko. On August 21, Andrey and his lawyers shared the details of his case on the European Radio channel. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-upcgkIwWSA

On August 25 at 2 PM, we will gather in front of the Serbian Embassy in Lisbon at Rua de Alcolena 11. https://www.facebook.com/events/1043644033328903/

If you cannot come, please take photos with posters and send them to us at info@adrl.pt.

Sign and share the petition that could help Andrey in the Serbian court. https://www.peticije.online/slobodazaandreja

Also, support the fundraising for his legal defense. https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-andrey-gnyot-save-his-life

We believe it is important to support Andrey because we understand the problems that dictator Lukashenko creates for Belarusians. Recently, with great difficulty, the rock band Bi-2 was saved from deportation to Russia. https://www.change.org/p/thailand-free-bi-2-rock-band

Currently, Russian citizen Vladislav Arinichev is under threat of deportation from Croatia. The reason is that Putin labeled him a "terrorist" and "extremist" for his anti-war statements. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RU2JQ9NArqo

In April, Novaya Gazeta Evropa reported that Rosfinmonitoring is adding both people suspected of terrorist activities and, for example, employees of an Orenburg gay bar in a case about the alleged "extremist LGBT movement" to this list. This list already contains more than 14,000 people, including well-known journalists, politicians, and theater figures. https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2024/04/02/s-nachala-2024-goda-spisok-terroristov-i-ekstremistov-rosfinmonitoringa-popolnilsia-na-rekordnye-669-chelovek-17-iz-nikh-nesovershennoletnie-news

Back in 2018, Novaya Gazeta reported how law enforcement agencies find "extremism" in social media posts. https://novayagazeta.ru/articles/2018/08/21/77560-etot-spisok-grazhdanskaya-smert

In the Freedom House Internet Freedom Rating, Russia ranks fifth from the bottom, while Belarus is seventh. https://freedomhouse.org/countries/freedom-net/scores?sort=asc&order=Total%20Score%20and%20Status

On August 23, the director of the "Internet Protection Society" Mikhail Klimarev reported disruptions in the work of Telegram, WhatsApp, and Viber. https://t.me/zatelecom/28739

On July 26, he shared two working methods for bypassing the blocks and slowdowns of YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbTGhCYFIsY

These are the Ceno Browser and VPN generator. https://censorship.no/ru/download.html https://t.me/vpngeneratorbot/?start=BrSh2607

The Telegram channel "Tech Talk" published a link on how to purchase Amnezia VPN while bypassing the blocking of their main site. https://t.me/ru_tech_talk/543

They also provided instructions on how to connect MTProxy, which helped with Telegram blocking in 2018. https://t.me/ru_tech_talk/544

While Russians are protesting by installing VPNs, Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov burned the files of Russian draft dodgers at the Sudzha military registration and enlistment office, calling them "smart people." One of the comments under this video reads: "One Ukrainian soldier helped these people more than their native Russia." https://www.youtube.com/shorts/qaeEidnquCE

On August 27 at 7 PM, we will hold a charity lecture on what a revolutionary situation is. The lecture will be given by political philosopher Ilya Budraitskis. We recommend registering using the phone number listed on the poster so that we can better understand how many viewers will attend. https://www.facebook.com/events/1021147643042506/

We are holding this event as part of our regular support for the Netherlands Orphans Feeding Foundation, which works to return stolen Ukrainian children. If you can't come, please make a donation from home. https://www.every.org/orphans-feeding-foundation/f/help-us-return-the-deported

Proofs and links are in the description. Subscribe and help!

[respocked]

I'm thinking about work anyway so fuck it

Star Trek Public Primary School AU 🛸 !

Kirk

-the headmaster!

-went into education because of his own unfortunate childhood

-has an uncanny ability to tell which student has a bad home life

-remembers everyone's name, even if you went to his school 5 years ago for 2 months

-misbehaving teenagers send to his office get some candy and a motivational speech that changes the course of their lifetime

-most days can be found hovering suspiciously outside of spock's classroom

-way better with older students, 12-13 - has absolutely 0 idea what to do with young children

-which is awkward when while waiting for spock outside his classroom he tries to make small talk with them (-so... son... read any good books lately? -i can't read!)

Spock

- teaches early education, 6 to 9 year olds

-greatly overqualified for the position, had a human psychology degree, interspecies child development degree, highly regarded in scientific community

-could be teaching university but prefers to spend his time sitting on carpets with children drawing clouds

-his class is extremely nontraditional - no desks, sitting on the floor, tons of meditation, classes in nature

-does not adhere to the program at all but somehow his classes always score the best on all exams

-turned down a position in a trendy montessori school for a public one

-parents either go out his way for their child to attend his class or request someone else - either from homophobic or xeniphobic reasons

Uhura

-the school's cultural assistant!

-also runs student exchanges with other countries and planets

-speaks every minority language that has representation in the student body

-also a substitute teacher

-she can give a super interesting lessons

-but takes 0 shit from students who won't respect her

-runs an extracurricular activity with spock when she teaches immigrant and refugee students to express their emotions with music

-is the best at pitching a project idea for funding, which is why her office and spock's classrom are the best equipped ones in the school

-spock's bestie, they hang out after work (gay/lesbian solidatity)

-still lives with her parents, they're super close

-wants to date but it's too boring compared to writing another lesson plan

Bones

-the school nurse! & in charge of nutrition

-teenagers are afraid of him

-small children absolutely love him

-takes his daughter to work and lets her draw with crayons on his important papers

-also constantly in spock's classroom, but to complain

-"damnit, spock! give them all the vulcan cuisine you want, but don't send them crying to me after they get an allergic reaction!"

-"meditation? maybe have them meditate on doing some real work for once"

-but when parents with pitchforks come to complain abt spock's methods he defends him like a lion

-he sends them piles after piles of scientific proof of why spock's method are actually the bestest and most efficient

-when kirk thanks him for stepping in he pretends like he doesn't know what he's talking about

Chapel

-teaches sex ed!

-the sweetest teacher ever

-one of those teachers that noone is intimidated by but noone disobeys because noone wants to makes her upset

-uses her Blonde White Straight Pretty Woman priviledge to convince reluctant parents to sign up their kids for sex ed

-goes All Out on halloween tho

-you know she is there, dressed like a witch, running an educational halloween themed activity! paper bats hanging from the ceiling!

-has gluten free and vegan candy in case the winners have a food sensivity!

-has a secret crush on Uhura and Spock both

Chekov

-teaches IT

-burned out miracle kid

-graduated university when he was younger than his current students

-lets students play roblox on the computers

-and teaches them how to torrent

-somehow noone from the faculty knows where he lives

-background check turns up nothing

-"did you know computers were invented in russia?"

-puts 0 effort in but somehow his students love him

-little girls take sneak photos of him to edit in a flower crowns

Scotty

-teaches a woodworking & engineering class and does janitor duties on the side!

-like kirk, absolutely 0 idea on how to treat younger kids

-strict

-has to be, no joking around power tools!

-but you know praise from him hits different

-will tell students he's proud of them when they make theit first little table

-can fix everything

-say "this interactive blackboard is broken!" three times to summon him

-marries to his career, teaching fulfills his paternal calling

Sulu

-teaches biology!

-rule follower

-stressed out about exams 3 years before his students

-not very inventive but everyone wants his class because there is a hamster in the classroom

-classroom full of houseplants

-if you agree to water them when he's away you will receive a 50 page manual on proper misting techniques

-not strict at all but will give a dressing down to a student who is seen treating a living thing badly

-can be bribed with plants

[heresmyfiddlestick]

Tumblr Dr. Who Poll vs Doctor Who Magazine Poll

It's been just over a month since the end of @adventure-showdown 's monumental survey of how Tumblr feels about individual Doctor Who adventures. Across ten rounds, we sorted the wheat from the chaff, the Quarks from the Rills, and the Cousins from the Looms. I wanted to compare the results of that huge bracket with the results from last year's Doctor Who Magazine poll, which ranked each Doctor's stories individually.

The methodologies for these two were quite different (though adventure-showdown did seed the bracket with a pre-poll that used the same methodology as DWM, but I'm looking at the final poll results for my data here), so comparing them is really interesting! I'm not a statistician, I just like making spreadsheets for fun. I think what can be seen from the trends and data below is a really unique picture of two somewhat overlapping but seriously demographically distinct fragments of the fandom.

Methodologies

Poll Methodologies

The DWM poll asked readers to rank as many televised Doctor Who stories as they liked from 1 to 10. The editors then took the resulting scores for each story and put them in a ranked list for each Doctor.

adventure-showdown began with a series of Google Forms with the same method as DWM, asking internet users to rank stories from 1 to 10. adventure-showdown lumped and split stories differently to DWM: The Key to Time was included as a distinct Four story to each of its individual parts, and each of the individual parts of Trial of a Time Lord and Flux were included alongside the overarching story. Utopia was also split from The Sound of Drums/The Last of the Time Lords.

adventure-showdown used the resulting rankings to create a series of Tumblr polls, moving from a group stage into a series of head-to-head matchups. They matched stories up roughly by obscurity (keeping advertisements and musical numbers separate from audio dramas and comics, which were separate from TV spin-offs, which were separate from the TV show itself), then Doctor or era. With each new round, the matchups were scrambled within melded groups, which ultimately led to a diverse distribution of all different eras and media under the umbrella of Doctor Who throughout the tournament.

My Methodology

In order to turn adventure-showdown's poll results into something that can be compared to DWM's, I created a spreadsheet tracking how each Doctor's stories were doing, separating them first into tiers according to which round they were eliminated in, then within those tiers by how many votes they had in the matchup where they were eliminated.

In the case of some particularly tough matchups, this means that the story that got the most points throughout the entire competition is not necessarily the highest-ranked story for that Doctor. For instance, The Happiness Patrol finished #3 of the Seventh Doctor's stories according to my reckoning of the Tumblr poll, being eliminated in the fifth round with 400 votes, less than the two stories above it (which were eliminated in rounds where they got 147 and 107 votes, respectively). The Happiness Patrol saw a vigorous campaign to increase its vote count, since it was up against Blink. The post for the matchup that eliminated it currently has 304 notes as of this writing. This is one of the fun quirks of this execrise.

General Trends

Where We Agree

The Ninth Doctor shows very stable story rankings between DWM and Tumblr.

On average, the difference in rankings for each episode of 9 is 5%, with only 2 out of 10 stories actually moving up or down the rankings at all. The Sixth Doctor is similar: only 3 of his 8 stories (included in the DWM poll, meaning not counting the individual parts of Trial) moved by more than 1 ranking. The Seventh Doctor only had 4 of his 12 stories move by more than 1 ranking.

On the flipside, Tumblr's opinions differ from DWM most regarding the First, Fifth, and Eleventh Doctors. The only stories that stayed relatively stable across both rankings for these Doctors are as follows.

For the First Doctor, only 4 out of 29 didn't shift by more than 1 ranking: #2 The Time Meddler, #5 The Tenth Planet (#6 in DWM), #18 The Keys of Marinus, and #20 The Reign of Terror (#19 in DWM) For the Fifth Doctor, we agreed only 5 times out of 20: #1 The Caves of Androzani, #2 The Five Doctors (#3 in DWM), #11 Frontios, #14 Black Orchid, and #17 Arc of Infinity (#16 in DWM) For Eleven, 5 of his 39 stories stayed relatively stable: #1 Vincent and the Doctor (#2 in DWM), #4 The Eleventh Hour (#3 in DWM), #9 Amy's Choice, #14 The Snowmen (#13 in DWM), and #39 The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe.

As you'll see further below, there is usually agreement between both polls about at least one episode that is in the top and bottom 3 or 4 for each Doctor, so these extremes represent the battle over ordering the ones generally ranked in the middle.

We Hate Daleks

As a general trend, Tumblr seems to think less of Dalek stories than the general DWM readership.

Out of 26 stories with Daleks as the primary antagonist, only 8 did not drop by more than 1 slot between the DWM poll and the Tumblr bracket (that is The Chase, Genesis of the Daleks, Remembrance of the Daleks, Dalek, Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks, The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar, and Eve of the Daleks). DIM/Evolution actually ranked 3 slots higher on Tumblr than the magazine, while TMA/TWF and Eve finished significantly higher on Tumblr than in the magazine, cracking into the top 5 for their respective Doctors.

We Love The Master

Meanwhile, out of 26 stories featuring the Master, either as the primary antagonist or as an important character, only two dropped by more than one place in the rankings (The End of Time and The Power of the Doctor), while the others either stayed put or increased their positions, some by quite a lot (e.g. The Time Monster (up 20 slots in the Third Doctor rankings), The Keeper of Traken (up 8 slots in the Fourth Doctor rankings), Planet of Fire (up 6 spots in the Fifth Doctor rankings), and The Magician's Apprentice/The Witch's Familiar (up 9 spots in the Twelfth Doctor rankings)).

We Have No Easily Observable Feelings About the Cybermen

Out of 18 Cyberman stories, 9 fell in the rankings between DWM and Tumblr, while 5 stayed within 1 rank of the DWM poll, and 4 rose. If I had to venture a hypothesis based on my unscientific qualitative analysis, it looks like Tumblr marked down most of the Classic Who Cyberman stories (only The Tenth Planet, The Invasion, and Attack staying within 1 rank of the DWM poll), while the only ones that rose in the ranks were New Who stories (Rise/The Age of Steel, Closing Time, Nightmare in Silver, and Dark Water/Death in Heaven-- though of course this last one is also a Master story, which we know we love).

Superlatives

Here are the stories that showed the biggest positive and negative difference in their rankings between the DWM poll and the Tumblr bracket, for each Doctor:

First Doctor

Biggest jump: #10 The Sensorites (up from #27 in DWM) Biggest fall: #28 The Crusade (down from #13 in DWM)

Second Doctor

Biggest jump: #8 The Highlanders (up from #16 in DWM) Biggest fall: #14 The Evil of the Daleks (down from #14 in DWM)

Third Doctor

Biggest jump: #4 The Time Monster (up from #24 in DWM) Biggest fall: #21 Day of the Daleks (down from #11 in DWM)

Fourth Doctor

Biggest jump: #7 The Horns of Nimon (up from #40 in DWM) Biggest fall: #36 The Talons of Weng-Chiang (down from #5 in DWM)

Fifth Doctor

Biggest jump: #8 Planet of Fire (up from #14) Biggest fall: #15 Resurrection of the Daleks (down from #6)

Sixth Doctor

Biggest jump: #1 The Mark of the Rani (up from #5 in DWM) Biggest fall: #6 Revelation of the Daleks (down from #1 in DWM) [NB: not counting each part of Trial, since DWM didn't include them - though The Ultimate Foe ranked #10 on Tumblr while Trial itself ranked #4 in DWM, so that could be another option for this superlative]

Seventh Doctor

Biggest jump: #3 The Happiness Patrol (up from #7 in DWM) Biggest fall: #12 Silver Nemesis (down from #9 in DWM)

Ninth Doctor

Biggest jump: #5 The End of the World (up from #7 in DWM) Biggest fall: #7 Rose (down from #5 in DWM)

Tenth Doctor

Biggest jump: #17 42 (up from #31 in DWM) Biggest fall: #29 The Girl in the Fireplace (down from #7 in DWM) [NB: adventure-showdown split Utopia and The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords where DWM didn't, which both placed above these two stories.]

Eleventh Doctor

Biggest jump: #13 The Rings of Akhaten (up from #34 in DWM) Biggest fall: #36 The Crimson Horror (down from #18 in DWM)

Twelfth Doctor

Biggest jump: #20 The Eaters of Light (up from #30 in DWM) Biggest fall: #18 The Zygon Invasion/The Zygon Inversion (down from #7 in DWM)

Thirteenth Doctor

Biggest jump: TIE #1 Demons of the Punjab (up from #5), #2 Spyfall (up from #6), and #3 Eve of the Daleks (up from #7) Biggest fall: #15 Rosa (down from #4) [NB: not counting each part of Flux, since DWM didn't include them - though The Vanquishers ranked #29 on Tumblr while Flux itself ranked #12 in DWM, so that could be another option for this superlative]

Definitive Bests and Worsts

Here, then, are each Doctor's commonly agreed-upon best and worst stories: that is, those stories ranked in each Doctor's top/bottom 10% (minimum 3) in each poll, and where both polls overlap. Lists are alphabetical.

First Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: The Time Meddler Tumblr: The Edge of Destruction, The Romans DWM: The Dalek Invasion of Earth, The Daleks' Master Plan Worst Tumblr: The Crusade, The Savages, The Smugglers DWM: The Sensorites, The Space Museum, The Web Planet

Second Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: The War Games Tumblr: The Enemy of the World, The Mind Robber DWM: The Power of the Daleks, Tomb of the Cybermen Worst Both agree: The Dominators, The Space Pirates Tumblr: The Krotons DWM: The Underwater Menace

Third Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: The Green Death Tumblr: The Dæmons, The Three Doctors DWM: Inferno, Spearhead from Space Worst Both agree: The Mutants Tumblr: Death to the Daleks, Planet of the Daleks DWM: The Monster of Peladon, The Time Monster

Fourth Doctor (top/bottom 4)

Best Both agree: City of Death, Genesis of the Daleks, Robots of Death Tumblr: The Horror of Fang Rock DWM: Pyramids of Mars Worst Both agree: The Power of Kroll, Underworld Tumblr: Nightmare of Eden, Revenge of the Cybermen DWM: The Horns of Nimon, Meglos

Fifth Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: The Caves of Androzani, The Five Doctors Tumblr: Enlightenment DWM: Earthshock Worst Both agree: Time-Flight Tumblr: The Awakening, Four to Doomsday DWM: The King's Demons, Warriors of the Deep

Sixth Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: Vengeance on Varos Tumblr: The Mark of the Rani, Trial of a Time Lord (considered as a whole) Worst Both agree: Timelash, The Twin Dilemma Tumblr: The Ultimate Evil (specifically) DWM: Attack of the Cybermen

Seventh Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: Remembrance of the Daleks, Survival Tumblr: The Happiness Patrol DWM: The Curse of Fenric Worst Both agree: Delta and the Bannermen, Time and the Rani Tumblr: Silver Nemesis DWM: Paradise Towers

Ninth Doctor (top/bottom 3)

Best Both agree: Bad Wolf/The Parting of Ways, Dalek, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances Worst Both agree: Aliens of London/World War Three, Boom Town, The Long Game

Tenth Doctor (top/bottom 4)

Best Both agree: Blink, Midnight, Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead Tumblr: The Fires of Pompeii DWM: Human Nature/The Family of Blood Worst Both agree: The Idiot's Lantern, The Lazarus Experiment Tumblr: The Next Doctor, The Shakespeare Code DWM: Fear Her, Love & Monsters

Eleventh Doctor (top/bottom 4)

Best Both agree: The Eleventh Hour, The Pandorica Opens, Vincent and the Doctor Tumblr: The Doctor's Wife DWM: Day of the Doctor Worst Both agree: The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe Tumblr: The Crimson Horror, Night Terrors, Victory of the Daleks DWM: The Curse of the Black Spot, Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS, Nightmare in Silver

Twelfth Doctor (top/bottom 4)

Best Both agree: Heaven Sent, Mummy on the Orient Express, World Enough and Time/The Doctor Falls Tumblr: The Husbands of River Song DWM: Flatline Worst Both agree: In the Forest of the Night, Kill the Moon, Sleep No More Tumblr: The Lie of the Land DWM: The Woman Who Lived

Thirteenth Doctor (top/bottom 3)

[Villa Diodati gif included because there is no overlap in the two polls' top 3 for Thirteen, however this episode ranked #4 on Tumblr and #2 in DWM, so it is the closest overlap at the top.]

Best Both agree: None! Tumblr: Eve of the Daleks, Demons of the Punjab, Spyfall DWM: Fugitive of the Judoon, The Haunting of Villa Diodati, The Power of the Doctor Worst Both agree: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos, Orphan 55 Tumblr: The Vanquishers (on its own) DWM: Legend of the Sea Devils

...What about Eight?

Who said that? I thought you had all gone. You shouldn't scare me like that. Well, you see, the Eighth Doctor only has two televised appearances in which he features, and only one of those was included in the DWM poll. This post is about comparing the two polls. I can't really do anything...

Ah, alright.

Televised Appearances

We ranked The Night of the Doctor above the TV Movie. Night made it all the way to round 6, while the TV Movie was out in Round 2, losing with 266 votes to Jubilee, which then lost to Scherzo in the next round. Night lost to Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, which had 344 votes to Night's 204.

Audios

Scherzo made it to the quarter-finals of the Tumblr poll! It lost out to Midnight 435 to 581, the first TV episode it encountered in adventure-showdown's very intricate media-segregating bracket.

Caerdroia made it to round 7, losing to Scherzo after it had beaten out Father's Day in round 6 (299-280) and the much-loved SJA episode The Curse of Clyde Langer in round 5.

The Natural History of Fear made it to round 6, finally losing out to Blink (253-352), and making it the top-scoring Eight audio to go out in this round.

The Chimes of Midnight also got to round 6, finally just losing to Remembrance of the Daleks (163-166); in the same round, Zagreus lost to Scherzo (131-210) just after it had beaten Genesis of the Daleks (132-103) in round 5.

The next highest-ranked Eight* audio is Solitaire (a Companion Chronicle, hence the asterisk), which was eliminated in round 5, losing to Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead (180-43).

It's worth noting here, that Doctor Who and the Pirates also made it to round 6, making it the highest-ranked non-Eighth Doctor audio. It lost to City of Death (170-78). The next-highest ranked audios are The Marian Conspiracy (lost in Round 5 to The Wedding of Sarah-Jane Smith), The Holy Terror (lost in Round 5 to The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances), and A Death in the Family (lost in Round 5 to The Natural History of Fear). Congratulations to Evelyn Smythe.

Novels

The EDA Alien Bodies managed to make it to round 6, finally being eliminated by Turn Left with 145 votes to 264. It had just beaten out Time Crash in the previous round. This makes it the highest-ranked Doctor Who novel overall, according to this Tumblr tournament.

The next-highest novel for the Eighth Doctor was Unnatural History, which was defeated in round 5 by The Chimes of Midnight.

Below that, there were five EDAs eliminated in round 4:

Interference (lost with 41 votes to Scherzo's 85)

Mad Dogs and Englishmen (lost with 38 votes to The Marian Conspiracy's 56)

The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (lost with 28 votes to A Death in the Family's 54)

Camera Obscura (lost with 27 votes to Lungbarrow's 47)

The Scarlet Empress (lost with 22 votes to The Chimes of Midnight's 102)

Comics

I hadn't actually been tracking any of this Eight stuff, so I'm having to squint through the backlog and this is already much too long. So you're only getting two: The Land of Happy Endings is the Eighth Doctor comic that made it the farthest in the Tumblr competition, being eliminated in round 3 by An Adventure in Space and Time (46 votes to 95). The Flood also made it to round 3, where it was eliminated by the Thirteenth Doctor comic Old Friends, gaining 39 votes against Old Friends' 47.