#As much as FM is so much fun and interesting to learn about

[punkpandapatrixk]

Full Wolf Moon in Cancer ♦︎ Moon Magick Pick A Card

The first FM of 2025, although aenergetically still a full moon of the previous year, the Full Wolf Moon was in Cancer on 14th January. Food is scarce during winter and the wolves howl more because of that🐺My gosh, aren’t we hungry for more sustenance?🍕Amazingly, the Cancer aenergy is all about food and nutrition!🥗Starting this FM, you may feel the urge to develop a healthier relationship with food and sustenance~♦︎

The world is healing and so many people are elevating spiritually, and with that, our awareness of the relationship between what we consume and how that affects the mind and body grows correspondingly. The true revolution of humanity is Environmentalism!🫒This is also a time the Full Moon invites us to reconsider what we individually deem as ‘healthy work-life balance’. It’s a good idea to move the body more and/or create things with our very own hands; reminds modern people what it means to be…Human. To be actively human🤸‍♀️

If you’ve ever sustained some kind of trauma related to ‘hard work’ in which you felt underappreciated⚰️or that your efforts gave you no gain whatsoever in return💰and all that you got was heartache…💔this FM in Cancer is inviting you to reframe that trauma🧬Starting this year, if and when it suits you, try to 'get back to nature' by refamiliarizing yourself with touching real materials or making real things that stimulate the creativity through motion~♪

You are Human—you're supposed to emote a lot🏄‍♀️And most of all, whilst learning to ‘live again’, so to speak, remember that your T.I.M.E is essentially unlimited as you live fully in the present moment~♡

move: Ballerina CORE & POSTURE Workout by Everyday Ballet

make: Those Famous Blue Chinese Bowls Come From This Town by Goldthread

deck-bottom: 9 of Swords, Gold Magus (Johannes Faustus), Priestess of Happiness

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☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 1 – The Reclamation of Individual Thought!

pizzaaa: New York Pizza Vs. Italian Pizza by Joshua Weissman

mind – 7 of Cups

You are such a gentle Soul—and most likely identify as an altruist?🕊There’s a chance you have significant Mercury/Virgo/6H or Venus/Libra/7H placements. You’re the type of person who genuinely values every person’s individual thought, input and opinions on a matter. Actually, you’re a natural-born peacemaker and this penchant for listening and appreciating people’s individual preferences is in essence a display of your deep empathy and incredible intelligence🦌

Buutt…a little downside to this is that you sometimes put yourself last. You don’t think you’re important enough or you simply get confused. Thing is, if you never took the chance to prioritise your own ideas, perceptions and opinions on a matter, you’d never matter either🦑And that wouldn’t be fun at all, because deep down, you yearn to be recognised as someone unique who has a plethora of interesting perspectives!⚖️

The Full Wolf Moon in Cancer has sent an invitation for you to gradually develop a sense for individual thinking🍳Check out the strengths and uniqueness of your Mercury sign and placement (as well as what it’s aspected with) and find your validation for a very unique way you can communicate/express all of the wonderful ideas that are stored inside of YOU~🥘

body – 2 of Cups

Still within the realm of talking/eating here, oohh…someone needs to fix their relationship with food and learn balanced eating here🌞The Cancer/4H and Capricorn/10H axis is all about tradition and responsibility. Some of you tuning into this as your main pile may have dealt with varying levels of imbalance in the way you eat or how much you eat🥡This has everything to do with a forced sense of ‘control’ and ‘discipline’. In astrology, Cancer is mother and Capricorn is father—now go figure how this applies to your situation😉

This FM you’re being invited to reframe the ‘trauma’ that’s the root cause of this imbalanced eating, so to speak. It’s all emotional, honey. Eating disorders of any kind is rooted in the emotions—I’d suggest looking on YouTube some videos by Teal Swan on this topic; very enlightening🍵Anyway, you can also look up ways and methods to balance and strengthen your Sacral and Throat chakras. Eating and talking are all within the realms of those two chakra points🥭

Other than that, whether or not you have problems with eating enjoyably and sanely, this FM is also inviting you to rethink what tradition or custom means to you on a personal and spiritual level🍱

spirit – 10 of Pentacles Rx

All of this rumination that you’re being invited to partake in, ultimately will lead to developing a stronger sense for individual thinking🐉See? It’s all leading back to that. People naturally should be responsible for their own thoughts and decision making, irrespective of what kind of tradition or community they were born into. Freedom in thinking is man’s greatest treasure that should be cherished. This FM is simply inviting you to rediscover your sense of unique identity whilst being part of a community or any other kind of a collective🌕

The truth of the matter is—especially if this has been your main pile—you’re part of a group of Souls (ironic🤣) that are meant to break some rules in this Hyper Game. Now, if you’re going to break rules and customs, you need to know how they were built in the first place, then can you intelligently decide the values that are inconvertibly good and then discard or improve upon whatever no longer serves the Highest Good of the community🍊

You’re a System Buster. I know you know that deep within your Soul. As much as you care about people, also understand that YOU~ ain’t responsible for saving nobody. People don’t need saving as much as they need a reminding. If tomorrow extraterrestrials came down from the heavens, even they wouldn’t save nobody from the misery of their own creation—aliens most likely are just going to remind Humans that the only thing capable of saving them is just them quitting being so negative, conflicty and shitty in the first place🐀

full moon self-care🔻🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘

Silver Historian (Polydore Vergil) & Priestess of Inspiration

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Pile 2 – Flirting with Life Because You Have a Lot to Offer~★

pizzaaa: Midnight Margherita Pizza in Naples by Jamie Oliver & Gennaro Contaldo

mind – King of Wands

‘Life is colourful!’🎨I feel like that’s the numero uno vibe that you’ve been enveloped in lately (or soon to experience) due to your own elevation in vibration. Other than elevation, you may have done something to further shield or protect yourself from all of the world’s low-vibrational thought and emotional patterns. In essence, if this is your main pile, you’ve done a massive spiritual purge—which seems to be a message that has been coming up a lot in the collective lately—and all of that shadow work, so to speak, is bearing fruits~🫐🍓🥝

With all of the limiting beliefs from which you’ve managed to set yourself free, you’ve come to a much, much deeper understanding of how your states of mind, moods, and sense of inspiration all hold the magical codes for co-Creation with the ever-benevolent Universe💫Essentially, what comes after that is either complete faith in the trajectory of your Destiny, or you’ve simply given up on feeling anxious about where you’re being led to, or both🦉Oh! Isn’t that so liberating~?🐣

Babe, people call something magic when they don’t understand its logic, but to those who do truly understand magic, quite everything about it is scientific🎼This year is all about you awakening more fully to the magic deep within, and seeing and experiencing for yourself how your physical Reality gradually aligns with your personal values and desires~🐾

body – 6 of Pentacles

Those of you who’ve been struggling financially, this FM was a gateway towards your physical abundance, for real. Basically, whether or not you were struggling financially, there was a sense of lack or limitation that was always making you feel unstable or insecure. You couldn’t always do or get what you needed when you needed it. Starting this FM—and yes, this is your theme throughout 2025—you’ll be seeing for real how your sense of ‘security’ or ‘abundance’ gets rectified by the Universe~⚖️

For some people, yes, it is about money or a job opportunity; for some others, this could revolve around time spent with loved ones, or even a greater sense of ease in pursuing your creative hobbies/interests. Bottom line is, trust that this FM in Cancer is opening up the floodgates of GOOD VIBES and confidence what will make your entire year so much easier to navigate. I sense that this in itself is just preparation for you to manifest something MUCH, MUCH, MUCH MORE VALUABLE than this peace of mind🚁

I’m hearing: before the summer, use this time to take very good care of your physical avatar. Eat whatever you like as much or as little as you want, and see for yourself what kind of eating habits suit you~🌭

spirit – 4 of Cups Rx

If this is your main pile, you surely have worked tirelessly at something that actually took away a great amount of JOY from your everyday Reality. I’m being told—and I’m being told that you need to really, really believe this—that all of the good times you’ve missed during survival or trauma healing or shadow work are going to be fully compensated by the abundant Universe🛍🎡🥂

Lately I’ve been seeing these vids on YouTube that have titles like: ‘God can make up for your lost time’ or something along those lines~🥞Maybe such ‘prophetic words’ could heal some of the emotional pain you’ve sustained during spiritual purging🍋It may seem endless at times, but if you’ve resonated with this pile so far, your Spirit Guides are insisting that your GOOD TIMES are chasing you hard this year🌊🌊🌊

With that said, keep the faith, act like it’s already yours—because it really already is; and most of all, know that you deserve all of this goodness because the ‘you’ now also have so much good to share with the world!🌟🌟🌟

full moon self-care🔻🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘

Silver Alchemist (Ramon Llull) & Priestess of Healing

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☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

Pile 3 – Figuring Out More Deeply How the Matrix Works!

pizzaaa: How to Make Perfect Pizza by Gennaro Contaldo

mind – XIX The Sun

Wow! Two major arcana for you, boo~🍻But listen, Pile 3 aenergy is somewhat heavy in the sense that you do have a huge responsibility in this incarnation—and I’ve a feeling this is a pile not that many people are gonna choose or resonate with🦞

It’s very likely that this year you’re going to begin reuniting with your—let’s say… Soul Comrades? lol🦁These are the Souls that share multitudes of mission with you and of course many of them could be true Soul Fam, but there are just as many that aren’t necessarily family with you on a Soul level. This is big, ma man—if this is your main pile, you’re obviously an important, high-ranking Celestial who has infused your consciousness deep into the Earth-Matrix Experience (Human ver.) programme🐦‍🔥🐲

Did you know that you came here to hijack the Game—the System?👾Your entire Life you were learning to redirect aenergy and thought, as part of the liberation of Mankind’s collective consciousness. You’ve the ability/access to hijack back the matrices of evil and suffering by entering and rearranging codes in the Records!🕹

body – 9 of Pentacles

Now this FM being in the Cancer-Capricorn axis—the axis of traditional values—you may have felt a deep desire to ‘touch grass’ more lol🍃The last time Pluto was in Capricorn, or when Capricorn Pluto generation (equivalent of today’s Gen Alpha) were young adults, Humanity was in the Romantic Era. This era came right after the Industrial Revolution whereby intellectual young adults rebelled against rapid ‘modernisation’ by deliberately returning to what was beautiful and poetic albeit impractical—but that is exactly the point, right?🌷

If you’ve chosen this as your main pile, chances are, you’re someone who inherently appreciates the beauty of the natural world🪺You could still be into technology and are appreciative of the ease of modern amenities, but deep down, you know that ‘modernity’ shouldn’t have to equal drabness or ugly buildings—or ugly everything on that matter🦚

What you’re being led to, aenergetically speaking, is an awareness of this mechanism of how ‘evil powers’ that are holding this Matrix hostage are deliberately making everything uglier so as to kill the Human Spirit🥀And thus, by realising this trick and noticing the patterns, you’re meant to rebel against the equilibrium of boredom by being weirder and more colourful still~🌈

spirit – VIII Strength Rx

What Humanity is going through right now, I’m sure you of all people understand that we’re watching the crumbling of the establishment that was founded on deceit and funded by lies, in real-time🍭That’s why economies are weakening and so many are struggling for food and other forms of basic necessities. But for you, Pile 3, it could be that you’ve been swimming in that exact frequency for a while…🧆

But starting this FM—and for the rest of the year if not the rest of your Life—you’re going to be so abundant now that you’ve finished gathering data for why the Human Matrix is filled with a ‘lack consciousness’—not just mindset but ‘consciousness’ altogether🍬Right now, there’s a sense of needing to rest… No, actually, from now on, you’ll always have the freedom to manipulate Reality—aenergy and timeline and such—in accordance to what you like, when you like it🍽

You aren’t doing this all by yourself, you know. Your Spirit Guides and Cosmic Ancestors are all in this with you. Anyway, learn to embrace this feeling of peace because you seem like you’ve forgotten🎂You have the power to choose to be so deeply grounded in your Divine Consciousness that nothing outside of that calm can shake your foundation~🥘

full moon self-care🔻🌒🌓🌔🌕🌖🌗🌘

Red Astronomer (Johannes Kepler) & Priestess of Luxury

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☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・. ☆♪°・.

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[strangermoons]

Research notes for Much More Than Fun

Fic here, spoilers behind the cut.

We’re all familiar with Tom of Finland, yes? Eddie’s stash of magazines isn’t based on any actual vintage stuff, for a change — the gay porn comics I came across just didn’t fit the story — but Tom’s work has been out there for a very long time and I figured why not.

Metalmania is a real compilation album and the cover art is weird.

Check out that tracklist, also. Worth assembling as a playlist if you can tbh, although I’ve only found the Frank Marino track on Youtube. 

I’m not here to get into arguments about metal-or-not-metal decades after the fact, but I figure based on the bands Eddie canonically likes he’s liable to have opinions on how heavy something has to be to “really” count as metal. On that note, my deepest apologies for slandering the good name of WLHN 97.9 FM of Anderson, Indiana, which actually sounds like it was a pretty cool station based on some old forums discussions I found. Eddie’s just being a pill because he can’t smoke.

I’ve long since lost the tumblr post pointing out a bottle in the sea of random crap in Eddie’s room that looked like it was part a home perm kit but the idea gave me much joy at the time, and so here Perm Eddie is.

Eddie may not necessarily be a Ratt fan but he’d still recognize Warren DeMartini. Now you can too.

The Peach Grove is fake but the books Eddie spots are all real, and apart from Meat/Flesh/Sex: True Homosexual Experiences Vol. 1 (the title of which I got from an ad in some old queer magazine or other) they’re all on the Internet Archive. Links: The Male Couple: How Relationships Develop by David P. McWhirter (1984) Gay & Gray: The Older Homosexual Man by Raymond M. Berger (1982) A Gay Diary by Donald Vining (1979) Male Fantasies/Gay Realities: Interviews With Ten Men by George Stambolian (1984) I recommend this last one, by the way. Very interesting read.

Speaking of books, there was a Joy Of Sex for gay guys, aptly titled The Joy Of Gay Sex (1977). You can find it here. Men Loving Men: A Gay Sex Guide & Consciousness Book is also real, was also published in 1977 and is available here. I went with the funnier title and jacked the price up a couple bucks for reasons of narrative convenience. Nothing in the chapter Eddie hastily skims says anything about Vaseline and latex not mixing well, so he hasn’t learned that particular lesson yet. And I mean, The Joy Of Gay Sex expressly recommends Vaseline as a lubricant for anal. Considering when it was published I suspect it wasn't written for an audience in the habit of using condoms.

Also, this one doesn’t appear anywhere in the story but I want to mention it anyway: Safe Stud: The Safesex Chronicles Of Max Exander (1985).

Finally: Nine dollars in 1986 is roughly equivalent to $26 in modern US dollars. If you didn’t think I was doing meticulous price/wage/inflation research for every throwaway mention of money in my joke fic about awkward gay sex, well, now you know.

[femmefighter]

I'll be greedy and ask 2, 6, 17 and 18 for the Fic Writer Asks 😘

Alright, I'm loving @btwxsixesandsevens 's idea of using these as a 'writing warm-up', so let's see how this goes!

2. Do you read/reread your own fics? Yes, very much so. It sounds conceited perhaps, but when I started my WIP, there was next to no Sokabine content whatsoever. So I literally went, "stuff it, I'll do it myself". I'm writing the story/stories I want to read, so yes I reread my own work. It's also great to come across horrible spelling or grammar mistakes and be like, "SHIIIIIIIIT" *RACES FOR EDIT BUTTON*. 🤣

6. Are there many fics you reread all the time? You bet there are! I especially read WIPs over and over, either when a new chapter is up to double-check what was going before moving on with the story, or just because I'm loving where the author is going with the piece; I love cheering them on with comments and I want to keep reliving it and wonder where the adventure's going next. I don't reread the completed multi-fics so much (but I do sometimes!), but I do love rereading some one shots! (I feel less guilty doing so coz they're shorter!)

And since we're here, might as well do some special shout outs: WIPs: Heart of a leader, soul of a rebel  by @halepo ; Crimson Dusk, Cerulean Dawn by @loevawrites ; Splintered Realities by @calyxborealis and Dreams and Madness by CarboniteCass Multi-chaptered fics: chaos, yet harmony by rain_sleet_snow ; Rid'alor by albedobrave

One-shots: what strange dreams have we shared by October_sky ; In Her Mouth an Amethyst by @ambiguityisnoonesfriend ; Love So Alike by @tatooinesun2121 ; Ka'rta Ve'vut by @kanskje-kaffe and never know what to say (but you get it anyway) by lostresidentevilpotter 

Decadent smut fics for dessert: Mesh'la by @machinerismsx ; ni kar'tayli gar darasuum (i will know you forever) by @augustfiction and pretty much anything written by @armoralor but especially Homecoming, Built to Wreck and Here & Now 

17. What's something you learned about while doing research for a fic? Well, my favourite concept (from Legends) was about Togruta blushing through the darkening of the stripes on their montrals and lekku! So the fact that Ahsoka blushes blue just makes me 😍 But I think the most interesting thing I've discovered is Operation Cinder, the world-killing revenge mission for Imperial remnants after the Emperor dies - and even though I haven't found anything to confirm it yet, I reckon Mandalore was victim to this operation. 18. What's one of your favourite lines you've written in a fic? Ugh, that's a hard one. The title of my WIP, Reach Out and Feel Me, is probably my favourite line to slip in. Maybe that's a cop-out. Fine, lemme think... Alright. A paragraph from Ch 18 of RO&FM, Sabine talking to Ahsoka: "The person I wanted to learn how to wield a lightsaber from I thought was dead. I resented Kanan because he wasn’t you, and I was horrible because of it.” ~~~ I dunno, I love that whole chapter of the first time Sabine has a lesson with Ahsoka in lightsaber sparring.

Well that was fun! Sorry for the avalanche. Guess I'm well warmed up now! Thanks for the ask 😘

[crescynnt]

Just listened to Wonderful Tone and 🩶🩶🩶🩶 Solomon's voice is amazing as always.

For old times' sake, I'll be writing translyrics for it and probably revisit the other Obey Me songs I never got the chance to.

. . .

Obey Me was my therapy.

I had first heard of it through the anime (the first season) and thought it was pretty cool. Then I never thought about it again until I found it on my recommendations while I was looking for games to occupy my summer break late 2022 and decided to give the game a shot.

To be honest, it was hard to take seriously at first.

The free Asmo card (the Christmas one) gave me so much second-hand embarrassment whenever it showed up on the screen. The character sprites were so uncanny and don't even get me started on the Surprise Guest stuff. When I said I played it for the story, that was truly it.

The story was fine. It wasn't top-tier writing, but it kept me hooked when I had nothing better to do.

My first two favorites were Levi and Satan because when I joined, they were celebrating HDD.6 with Levi and Satan summons. But that was short-lived, as the moment I was introduced to Solomon (during the Goldie arc), he instantly shot up to #1. The same happened with Belphie. I'll admit, the plot twist with Belphie wasn't much of a twist. I saw his picture in the devils tab and under the devilgrams, and it was pretty obvious there was a seventh brother they were hiding away.

But despite how predictable, how repetitive, how cliched, or cheesy the writing was, it was fun. The developers had fun writing, and I had fun reading the fluffy moments between the brothers. It was honestly a nice retreat from my life.

Soon, it became my main fandom. I wrote character analyses (most of which are lost in my folders and emails) and listened to all of the Otaku FM episodes (I was only on my third year of learning Japanese at the time and Obey Me helped me practice). I met some really great people as part of the fandom. I did so much research on the seven devils, my search history probably made me look like a Satanist or something. Also around that time, I was suffering from a major writing block, and writing about Mammon's misadventures broke me out of it.

Sometime near the end of 2022, I joined an English cover group for the Obey Me songs (I had Belphie). We ended up disbanding due to the leader losing interest, but I had written translyrics for most of the songs by that point. I never ended up doing anything with them, and only just recently posted them on my sideblog.

It was great that I joined during so many major events. The second season of the anime, the new side characters, the new songs (Rock On, Trigger, Take it Easy), the ending of the manga... There was a lot of content to consume. But by the time Nightbringer came out, the game was starting to get tiring. Especially having to start over from scratch and all of the new features (don't get me started about the wonky 3D models) that just made the game a hassle to play. I still stayed for a couple more months for the characters before moving on.

It was just a silly little game. Then why am I crying so much over the loss of it?

Lucifer, Mammon, Leviathan, Satan, Asmodeus, Beelzebub, Belphegor, Barbatos, Diavolo, Luke, Simeon, Solomon...

I'll miss you.

[shrekgogurt]

WORDS

This is a sappy creative talking about being creative post. You have been warned. I did not proofread because I am nothing if not consistent in my personality.

I just got done watching Season 2 episodes 3&4 of the FX’s The Bear and I’m constantly inspired by their storytelling. The two episodes I watched really leaned into the creative process in a way that made me very reflective. I am terrible in a kitchen. However, I really saw similar patterns in my own pursuits.

I have a dear friend who studied brains in university and when I was at my lowest a few months ago she was telling me about how life is just skills. Things like IQ are bullshit. Everybody can do anything if they put the time in. It’s about just choosing skills and developing them. I get mad that I can’t draw. I get mad that I can’t play guitar well. Those are skills I’ve never worked on because the process doesn’t bring me joy, even though they are skills I wished I had. Meanwhile things like science or sports are areas I’ve never had much interest in cultivating anyway so the lack of skill doesn’t bother me as much.

I think about my skillset now a lot more. I think about how learning piano—while I’m frustrated by my lack of expertise—doesn’t make me literally cry while I’m learning. I embrace the challenge unlike something like drawing where I get so upset with myself it’s not fun anymore. This past fall while my confidence was totally shot (for a lot of reasons) I looked at my ability to sit at a keyboard and just play the same riffs from Kate Bush’s Wuthering Heights over and over and over and over until I could do them. I learned I could do hard things. That maybe I’m not a total lazy piece of shit who gives up at the first sign of trouble.

And the beautiful thing is? That wasn’t always the case with piano. I’ve dabbled here and there throughout my life but when I first took piano lessons as a kid I HATED them. I didn’t enjoy putting in the work. But I do now because people change. And so maybe one day I will learn to draw but not right now. And that’s okay.

And then I start thinking about singing. There’s this sentiment that people are just naturally gifted, especially at singing. But at least for me that’s not the case. I’m good at singing because as a kid I loved it. I gravitated toward it. I sung all the time to the radio, mimicking the voices I heard. And I listened to SO MUCH music—partially because of my parents but also because I chose to always have the radio or a CD or my trusty mp3 player going. When I was playing with my dolls. When I was riding my bike. When I was in the shower. When I was at dance class. When I was dragged along to my siblings' sports games, I would build worlds while tuned into the nearest iHeartRadio station. (Airplanes feat. Hayley Williams. I loved it. I loved the storytelling. Pt. 1 but oh when the oh so rare Pt. 2 came through over the FM waves it was the best day of my life.)

Eventually, my parents put me into voice lessons. I learned how to sing rather than mimic. (Not that the latter is bad.) But I learned how to use it as an instrument. And I sang and I sang and I sang. In lessons. In choir. In church. That’s why I’m good at singing. It took me forever to learn how to harmonize. I was a soprano—it was always melody. But I’m learning that too as my voice changes. I can’t sing as high as I used to. I haven’t practiced notes off the staff since high school. Life is just skills. I was focusing on different ones. Like film (but we’ll get to that.)

There was something else always there. I don’t know how many people knew it—the extent. You had to live with me to see it…but I loved nothing more than I loved reading. 

I always had my nose in a book. Like a lot of kids who consumed books non-stop it was definitely escapism. But I read and I read and I read. The classic question in my family was “where is Mary?” And the answer was always “in her room.” And if I wasn’t reading a story I was creating one. With my dolls yes, but eventually with my tiny little acer computer and with my thumbs in the notes app on my iPod Touch. (I still maintain that the notes app is where the best art happens.)

It was May in my eighth grade pre-Algebra class when my friend told me what FanFiction was and about how she had an account on good ole fanfiction.net. I made one too. I joined a Divergent roleplaying forum that lasted two months. I started writing a long-abandoned backstory for my character—Antoine, named at intermission of the high school production of West Side Story I was watching. It was bad. But I didn’t know it at the time. I thought I was doing something important and I guess I was.

The Divergent forum didn’t last long but a few months later I would create my own. Welcome to Camp Half Blood! Join in! Make an OC! I brought my friends over from the old forum and even as Admin my authority was immediately usurped. We built worlds. And then we rebuilt them. And then our worlds had baby worlds. Generation 1, Gen 1.5 (you suggest a teen pregnancy plot line as a joke one time while on a choir trip in Yorkshire ONE TIME and then you wake up and uh oh two characters are actually teen pregnant), Gen 2, on and on and on. There’s a whole Google Sheets document. It’s deeply comprehensive and filled with all our faceclaims and timelines and playlists.

We rarely wrote action in our roleplay. We mainly talked. Dialogue and dialogue and dialogue for years. I get compliments now on my dialogue in fics. It didn’t come from nowhere. It came from cringe-y exchanges with my friends as we fell in love with each other’s self inserts over and over and over again. I stayed up on school nights until 2am quietly wheezing only to fall asleep in Algebra 1 over my scribbled cursive poetry on the graph paper. Life is skills. I was choosing which ones to build.

It was never math.

It was stories.

In the singing. In the dance (competition team—burned me out. I was never the best athlete. I was always the most expressive. I was telling the story.) In the theatre. And in the little fan videos I would make with my friends for our OCs over on fanfiction.net.

So my dumbass went to film school. And like with singing I learned about stories. How to craft them. And I wrote bad scripts. And we made bad low budget films. And I was so scared of cameras but I learned how to use them. And I directed and I got good at that especially with documentaries. Looking at all the information and chasing down the story. Telling people who were faster editors than me where to cut. Telling people who could make the camera capture what I saw in my eye what to film. God I fucking loved it. And I miss it.

Because my dumbass went to seminary. Why? Because there were these ancient stories that were really important to me that were being used to harm others. And I wanted to learn them. And I wanted to be able to show that there was a different way than the one that spews hatred. And as Phoebe Bridgers sings I “went looking for a creation myth ended up with a pair of cracked lips.” And I’m figuring all that out still. What to do with these stories that mean so much to me. How to tell them. How to Robin Hood theology.

And as my life and my faith were falling apart. I looked at my tiny little shithole apartment. And how I used to hide in my room where I felt safe. And I made that apartment feel safe. It was my room now. And I walked out to my bookshelf and I saw a book I had bought and opened it up. And on the inside of the cover there was a map just like there was in all the best books from my childhood. So I stayed up until 3am reading it. And then the next night. And the next night. And then I bought the sequel and I read about a boy who thought he was going to be something and then he wasn’t that anymore. And he was lost and angry and self-destructive just like me. But then in the last part of the trilogy he decided at the last second to try to figure it all out. And I’m still trying to do that too.

I had been writing all along—non-fiction. Papers. Essays. (Metas—really.) And I learned how to approach a text. How to analyze it in one million different ways. And I think I took those skills I learned from the Bible and I stuck them on some YA trilogy. And I thought and I thought and I had something to say.

And I wrote. And I keep getting better. Because life is just skills.

So I was watching The Bear and Will Poulter as a baker talks about how he used to see some other baker as competition. Until he decided he wasn’t and instead he just tried to keep up. And I want to keep up. And I watch these television shows and I read your fics and I get so fucking inspired. 

And I look at this stupid fucking soccer fic I love with my whole chest and I think about how life is just skills and they all have led me to be able to write it. And I know that in ten years when I’m 34 I’ll probably think it’s cringey just like I think that what I wrote when I was 14 is cringey. But GOD I’m so proud of it. And I think I always will be.

Because life is just skills and I’m really glad I chose these ones.

TL;DR I’ve never been the best “athlete” (had the best skills in a particular medium) but goddamn if I’m not a good fucking storyteller.

[ericdeggans]

From Voyage Band to Soul Mafia: Celebrating a lifetime of drumming and playing music

Even though I abandoned any ideas of working as a professional musician a long time ago, I still feel a big part of my identity is wrapped up in being a musician. Particularly being a drummer.

It’s lasted from my early days in middle school, when I tried a lot of different instruments – guitar, piano, trumpet – before I sat behind a drumkit and felt like I had finally come home. I spent years as a younger player, with an inexplicably tolerant mom, practicing with deafening intensity while learning the intricacies of Stewart Copeland’s hi hat work in The Police and Simon Phillips’ odd time grooves with Jeff Beck and Pete Townshend.

One of my proudest moments in a life studded with amazing experiences was co-founding a group in college, The Voyage Band, which went on to earn a recording contract with Motown Records.

I have tried to stay active as a musician even as my journalism career unfolded, playing with awesome blues artists like Bob Beach and Barbara Blue in Pittsburgh, rocking out with bands like Cats on a Smooth Surface in New Jersey and backing singer songwriters like Fran Snyder and Shana “Banana” Smith in Florida.

Now I’m playing regularly with the first funk band I’ve been a member of since the Voyage days, a wonderful group of musicians in Florida called Soul Mafia.

It’s tough to pull together a real band in the Tampa Bay area; there aren’t loads of venues where a group larger than four pieces can play comfortably. And sometimes it feels like the pay rates haven’t progressed much since the days when I first came to Florida and made about $100 a gig backing folks who needed a drummer quickly.

But the folks in Soul Mafia are wonderful people -- great players who are fun to spend time with and have a deep love for the songs we’re doing, covering tunes by Chaka Khan, Bruno Mars, Dua Lipa, Prince and much more. We have a great time onstage and just want to help everybody in the audience dance and have a good time along with us.

If you’re interested in learning more about the band – especially booking us for clubs, events or private functions – please visit www.soulmafiaband.com, or contact me through this website. Below is a look at three tunes we performed for WUSF-FM’s digital music series Soul Sessions, which was so much fun!

Hope to see you at the next gig!

 

[ledenews]

First things first. Alexis Storch is not a morning person. Give her coffee. Walk away. She’ll let you know when it’s safe. But at least Ms. Morning Grumpy Pants is back here at home. Alexis, a member of the Class of 2018 at The Linsly School, moved to Philadelphia for her first big gig with the Free People clothing brand, and in three years, she learned the diversity of foods, the fun bars, and the Phillies and Eagles are all fantastic, but the eyes in the back of her head got tired from constantly seeking safety. In Wheeling, the 25-year-old Kent State grad (2022) is home and close enough to big cities to the east and west, not far from her her position as an assistant clothing buyer for Dick’s Sporting Goods, and mostly importantly, Alexis is back with her people. Her father, Tom, is as hardworking as they come, and he makes maple syrup on the side, and her mother, Erikka, is the external affairs manager for Appalachian Power and was a member of the state Legislature’s House of Delegates for 13 years. She serves as a Republican political analyst for River Talk Radio on 100.1/100.9 FM on Friday afternoons and as a columnist for LEDE News. As the middle child in the Storch house, Alexis always counts on her older brother, Seth, to check in often from his home in Chicago, and little sister Payton is now the one who’s in college and asking big sister all the important questions. She’s a “family” girl, for sure … but only after coffee, of course. Alexis enjoys the holidays because both sides of her family always get together. How fashionable is Wheeling? Wheeling is a place that is in the eye of the beholder. I don’t think that a certain place can be determined as fashionable, but it could have fashionable people. Wheeling is one of those places that I do think it depends on what you think is fashionable or how you express yourself. I think of it as a judgment-free zone. It is built with so many different people with different interests that come from all over, everyone expresses their individuality, whether that's through fashion or not, in their everyday lives.  Have you tried to help your mother be more fashionable by offering your recommendations? My mother and I are different people who have different roles in our lives. Since she has worked in very corporate roles in her life, we tend to lean in opposite fashion directions. She always comes to me for advice on what to wear or how to style her outfits, and she does pick up trends from Payton and me so she can really have fun when she’s choosing what to wear. As her daughter, I always make sure that she has the hottest brands in her closet by gifting them to her for birthdays or Christmas. I have to make sure she is staying up to date on trends!  Payton (in the middle with the flowers) is in her first year of college at West Virginia University, and she often comes home for the weekends. What was awesome – and what was horrible – about living in the city of Philadelphia? I lived in Philly for almost 3 years. During these 3 years, the Phillies made it and almost made it to the World Series TWICE, and the Eagles played in the Super Bowl my first year there. That was probably the most awesome part about Philadelphia. Seeing the city come together, no matter which part you lived in or what you did for work, as fans for these teams. Closing down the streets and greasing the light poles to celebrate all the great accomplishments that have come out of Philadelphia was always a great time. Another great part about the city was how much there was to do there. There are one million great restaurants for every type of food imaginable, great bars to meet your friends or even new people, and an opportunity to join groups that you wouldn’t run into unless you were a part of what really made Philly special. The community at Free People gave me friends for a lifetime and a job I was proud of being a part of.  But with every great city, there are some cons. Philly was one of those places that I just did not feel the safest on a day-to-day basis. Walking around the city, you never knew what you were going to see or smell. During the summer, I never liked spending too much time in Center City Philadelphia because of the smell – not to mention I have seen a woman fully bathe herself in the streets. It is a city where you learn to keep your eyes and ears open, to never talk to strangers, and to always Uber or walk in groups. It is also a city where you learn to never leave anything in your car, or someone will bust your window and rummage through the entire thing. (I learned this the hard way and saw more glass on the streets than I have ever seen before.) Do you appreciate your hometown more now that you’ve moved back? The Pennsylvania Turnpike and I became great friends. One of us made $85 (not including gas) every single time I was on it, and it was not me. The greatest part about Wheeling is how close it is to everything. You can get to big cities like Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and Columbus so quickly and easily, so that’s why Wheeling feels like it is set up in the best spot to experience whatever you would like. I think I appreciate my hometown the most because Wheeling is where my people are. I value my family so very much and love getting to come home and be around everyone I love in the home and the city that I grew up in. I know this place like the back of my hand and get excited when there are new places to experience and the growth that has been so noticeable over the years. Alexis communicates with her brother, Seth, and her sister, Payton, on an everyday basis. What are the best parts and worst parts about being the middle child? There are a lot of negatives you see on the internet about being a middle child, and I honestly don’t think I’ve experienced any of them. I have an older brother who all I wanted as a child was to be my best friend and want to make me included in anything he was doing (which is probably why I had too many welts from being shot with an airsoft gun). He now just calls me just to chat and to check in, and helps me with anything I ever need. And I have a little sister whom I had the pleasure of watching grow up from a shy, side-pony-tail-wearing girl to an outgoing and honest young adult who looks up to me and comes to me with everything while knowing that having a sister is a judgment-free advice zone. So, I don’t think there’s a better spot to be in than the middle child. I also like to think of myself as the glue, some may say, and the mediator. I defuse most of the fights between my siblings and give my family a very fun person to be around … just not in the morning before I’ve had my coffee. Read the full article

[xxdemon-akitsuhaxx]

Media Thread January 2025

Music:

"brat but it's completely different but it's still brat" - Charli XCX

Pretty good. I didnt like all the remixes and its overall is worse than the original brat but still pretty fun. It was never going to hit since EDM that explicit about being EDM has never been my thing (I am just too much of a slut for traditional pop spong structure) but it was still a fun time.

"Short N' Sweet" - Sabrina Carpenter

Pretty fun. There was a fair bit of filler I feel and the lyrics did feel repetitive at a certain point. But it is undeniable that Sabrina has the songs and the potential. I left this album positive, if not moved, but I am excited for what Album 2 could bring.

"What's Going On" - Marvin Gaye

A classic. It feels very tranisitional. It has the lush sounds of 60s Motown but going more into the arrangements and rhythms of 70s soul. The lyrics are depressingly still applicable. 50 years is too short to expect real serious change to happen but even still, its frustrating to hear whats being sung on this record not only still exist, but for it to have escalated.

This record is important for a reason. Highly recomennded. It helps the medicine of current event go down smoother I suppose.

"Get Up" - NewJeans

My first K-Pop record! It was a lot of fun to listen to. It felt nice hearing 2-step garage influences, since that genre holds a lot of nostalgic value for me ("Kisstory FM: Old School and Classics!"). The Y2K vibes are immaculate and the songs are really good. This world has become a lot less daunting for me, even if I know NewJeans are distinct in their sound.

"The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars" - David Bowie

This wasnt my favourite Bowie album in the past (Station to Station and Low had that honour) but oh gof this has gotten so much better and I'm mad that I might actually be basic. Low, please be everything I remember you being in sixth form so I dont look like an NPC

"Station to Station" - David Bowie

Not quite as good as I remember but the title track and Wild Is The Wind still stand as masterpieces and easy top 20 Bowie song picks.

Manga:

QQ Sweeper/Queen's Quality:

I learned of this manga watching a video providing recommendations for shonen fans, sepcifically JJK. Shojo ha sun fortunately developed into a blindspot. I was pretty good at balancing the demograpgics when first starting out my otaku journey but fell off hard during lockdown. Given how much JJK means to me, I was pretty excited for this one.

Unfortunately, Queen's Quality did not really feel like a good recomendation in that regard. For one, it simply just wasnt fun to read. I found myself getting distracted extremely often since nothing really held my attention. The charcacters were nice but didnt really go beyond that. But most of, it felt like it didnt have the darkness that I loved in JJK. There's this bleak atmosphere that runs through JJK. I like it for the fighting and exorcism, but I really love it for the broken psyches of the cast, the miserable conditions, the cycle that can never be broken (unless Yuki got actual writing put into her I swear to god Gege you took this from me).

I wasnt able to get very far, but the stakes or feel of QQ Sweeper never felt like it was ever going to go where JJK could go. Ultimately, it saddens me because everything about this manga should make it something I like, but I just couldnt bring myself to finish it. It just did not impress me enough unfortunately

The art was truly phenomenal, however. A veritable feast for the eyes.

Games:

LipTrip ~My Boss Is My Heat Suppressant?!~

Oh god why was the most enjoyable thing from this month an R-18 yuri omegaverse vn... Obviously this is an explicit NSFW work so feel free to stop if you're not interested in me being pathetic, here's where this post ends!

So watching Amelie Doree's Saya no Uta video finally made me bite the bulelt and get a DLSite account. This may prove to be a grave mistake in the future, but it is not a mistake I can see myself regretting.

In trying to find and navigate the yuri section, I found... Employee X Boss... Yuri... Omegaverse... With art form Chigusa Mimori...

It was over. I finished it in less than a day. This was really good. I rarely ponder the societal implications of omegaverse when I'm engaging with such works. But this actually did. The drama was pretty good for all intents and purproses. However, the soundtrack felt a little eh overall.

Chigusa's art was stellar as always. Rino and Chizu's designs are so god damn pretty. I do waish we got a couple sprites for some of the other workers (they did get voice acting so its a little off imo). Also oh god what I wouldnt give to look like Rino, be in her position, an be with somebody like Chizu oh god this game is bait on a hook and I'm the fish ghghdsnjdajdcnfhncfhfchjkdsnjcdnlvenhfrvhbvrgfhvrhvfiohvfhvwfehuedchbcbgdc

[a-life-in-medicine]

Highlight of the day was getting called by orthopaedics attending in the middle of forensic medicine lesson for him to show the anterior shoulder dislocation case he has just got and how he will reduce it. Was worth to leave the lesson suddenly. Like… Priorities, please 💅🏼

[more-than-monoglot]

Fun things to do for immersion in your target language

Some things you can do in your target language that are fun and make you care more than when reading a textbook:

Cook a traditional recipe

Find a video in your target language on how to cook something you like from somewhere that speaks your target language. The motivation here is obvious- if you don't understand the recipe you won't be able to make the dish. Watch it once to find out what the ingredients are, and again when making the dish. Use your dictionary of choice to help out if needed.

2. Play a video game

I prefer turn-based games with RPG elements as I get a mix of dialogue and utility words like save, menu, attack, etc. Right now, I'm playing Dicey Dungeons in Chinese and Pokemon SoulSilver in Japanese (hiragana only). The consequence here is obvious, if you can't navigate menus or choose the wrong attack, the game will be harder.

Hard mode: Find a server with voice chat in your target language where teamwork or communication is important. Any MOBA or MMORPG comes to mind. You'll learn to communicate on the fly, and you'll learn a plethora of the foulest swear words imaginable.

3. Share your personal interests with others

Learn to talk about things that you do that are unique to you. Standard language courses teach you words that tend to be generally used: eat, sleep, drink, etc. What about things that are of special interest to you? Chances are, you will use this vocabulary more often than the average person, and you will be more passionate about the subject- this leads to higher motivation to retain this specialized vocabulary.

Then post it wherever you want, or in a diary, or talk about it to a native speaker.

4. Learn to tell a joke

Recite and rehearse jokes you find funny. Jokes in other languages reveal so much about the underlying culture that can't easily be translated. By understanding how to tell a joke in another language, you will gain more appreciation for the language itself. The upshot here is that telling a joke comes with social risk, so you will have to build the confidence before delivering the joke.

Bonus: Foreign language puns are hilarious.

5. Listen to a local radio station

Local radio stations have it all- interviews, ads, music, traffic updates, and more. Many of these are available online, so no need to move to the city and pull out your FM receiver! What's especially nice about this option is that radio hosts tend to enunciate and use proper language. Even if you don't understand every word, the grammar and structure of the language will slowly ingrain itself.

This is the most passive of the immersion techniques I use, but I've found many songs I enjoy through local radio stations. Then, I take a deep dive into the song lyrics and learn them, which is much more active. The goal is to learn the lyrics and rehearse them until I can sing along with the music.

[arvandus]

So hopefully I got in on time! Btw, I’ve been absolutely loving your HC’s, the stutter one was friggin adorable! I love soft Dabi, there’s not much of him out there in stories 😢

Anyway! I was wondering if you could do HC’s with Dabi for someone who may be deaf or just hard of hearing? Ifff your comfortable, I would love to see what he would do for a male s/o (or platonic friend/league member, etc, whichever you choose!) If you don’t want to do this it’s completely fine and you can switch it to ambiguous/female (I don’t know if you have ever done men before haha!)

Hello! I’m so flattered for this ask because you’re trusting me to portray something that’s personal to you and outside of my own experience. I can absolutely do this with a Male Reader (my first one!).

I’m not sure what type or level of hearing loss you had in mind, so I did my best with this and went with an acquired hearing loss that’s moderate-to-severe. Also, I wrote Reader as someone who wears hearing aids. I hope that’s all right, since that’s typically the case for those with more severe hearing loss (otherwise communication is really difficult to do, since I don’t suspect Dabi would know sign language). Also, I got a couple of cute ideas that I really wanted to fit into this that follow more of a friends-to-lovers sort of vibe rather than established relationship. Anyway, I hope you enjoy!


Headcanons for Dabi x M!Reader who’s Deaf/Hard of Hearing (HOH)

Warnings: None.

Word Count: 1240

💙 When you first join the LOV, Dabi will be skeptical at first, as he is with all things. How could someone with a hearing loss really be of any value to the league? He can’t help but wonder what skills you’re bringing to the table to that convinced Shigaraki to allow you to join.

💙 Dabi doesn’t interact with you right away... he prefers to observe. Part of it is that he doesn’t care for attachments, even amongst his comrades. Another is that he doesn’t expect you to last very long in the League. If he does interact, it’ll be through snarky quips and insults. After all, he loves getting under other people’s skin... it makes him feel like has an advantage.

💙 So, it goes without saying that Dabi will be a hard nut to crack at first. He’ll definitely have some crappy preconceived notions about people with hearing loss that he’ll get to face as he’s forced to get to know you.

💙 For example, he learns super fast that your hearing has little to do with your intelligence. You’re fucking smart and more than capable of handling yourself, much to his surprise. You quickly become an important member of the team, and even Dabi can’t really argue your value. It only makes his interest in you grow, his skepticism giving way to curiosity.

💙 Another thing he learns about you... you value your independence and hate when others coddle or dote on you due to your hearing loss. The first time Toga had tried to treat you as something fragile (granted she was trying to be nice), you’d quickly put her in her place. Dabi couldn’t help but grin at that exchange...

💙 The great thing about Dabi sitting back and observing everyone else most of the time is that he gets to learn by proxy how to interact with you.

💙 Don’t mumble or talk too fast. Don’t look away when talking to you. Talk more clearly, and slower, but for God’s sake, don’t treat you like you’re dumb. You’re hard of hearing, not stupid.

💙 Even with all of that taken into consideration though, he’ll notice that while you seem to do fine in one-on-one exchanges in quiet environment, you’ll withdraw more in group gatherings. Is the chattering of multiple voices too much? Is the noise overwhelming? Even he can’t always tolerate the prattling of the social butterflies of the group, so he wouldn’t blame you if it got under your skin too.

💙 His interest will finally be piqued when he watches you retreat during a rather boisterously loud game night amongst the League. He’ll follow quietly behind you, watching as you pass your own room in favor of the stairwell leading up to the rooftop.

💙 You don’t notice he’s followed you until he sits next to you. Your eyes betray your surprised at his presence.

💙 “What are you doing here?” you demand.

💙 He’ll give you a grin and a cock of his head. “You didn’t seem like you were havin’ much fun back there. Got anything to do with these?” he’ll tap your hearing aid playfully.

💙 You huff at him. “If you want me to hear you better, you’ll need to sit on my other side. My hearing aid battery died.”

💙 “You don’t have a backup?” he asks as he adjusts his position.

💙 You shake your head.

💙 “Doesn’t sound too bad.” He’ll tease. “I wish I could turn off my ears, especially when Toga laughs.”

💙 You give him a glare at his insensitive comment. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.”

💙 He raises an eyebrow at you and think for a moment, before looking back out over the cityscape. “Why don’tcha tell me about it then.”

💙 You give him a skeptical look but he waits silently for you to continue. His smirk is gone as his sharp eyes glance back at you. He's serious.

💙 You’ll finally open up to him, explaining how hard it can be sometimes. How noisy environments can make your hearing aids nearly useless when the noise is too much, when everyone is talking at once. How frustrating it is to not be able to follow a conversation let alone participate, and how it can sometimes make people assume things about you. At best, they’ll assume you can hear fine with your hearing aids and therefore assume you’re being aloof or don’t want to interact. At worst, they’ll think your slow or stupid, and look at you with pity.

💙 Dabi will listen, but he won’t offer much up except sarcastic remarks about the others in an attempt to make you feel better. After all, sympathy isn’t his strong suit. But you’ll find yourself feeling better by the end, just grateful to be able to vent to someone.

💙 When you smile at him and tell him thanks for listening, it’ll take him by surprise. Not because of your reaction – he expected that, at least. What’ll surprise him is his reaction to it – a strange sense of satisfaction will wash over him, filling him with an unfamiliar warmth. He realizes - a moment too late, before he can bring down his barriers - that he likes seeing you smile, especially when it’s at him.

💙 You’ll feel slightly closer after that, finding more opportunities to hang out on the quiet rooftop and chat.

💙 He’ll surprise you on your next visit with a brand-new pack of hearing aid batteries. You’ll give him a suspicious look, asking where he got them and how he knew what kind to get you, but he’ll give you a wicked grin and brush off your question with an evasive comment.

💙 It won’t take long for you to start developing a crush on him, and against your better judgment, you find yourself staring at him a lot more and finding ways to be around him more. Hanging out at the bar, going on missions together, sitting next to him during the LOV discussions… you try to brush it off as ‘becoming friends,’ but deep down you know better.

💙 It doesn’t take long for Dabi to take notice and begin to suspect that maybe… just maybe… all of your secret glances and increased attention aren’t strictly platonic.

💙 What a wonderful turn of events. He wasn’t sure if you were interested in men, but now he’s 99% sure you are... or at the very least, interested in him.

💙 It leaves his skin feeling hotter than usual, his heart pounding in his chest with excitement. He wonders if you know... or even suspect... that he watches you too in mutual attraction.

💙 He’ll start testing the waters, just to make sure, of course. Hit you with a few flirty nicknames to see how you react. As soon as he sees you fluster and flounder in obvious embarrassment, he’ll know he’s got you, and it makes your exchanges only that much more entertaining.

💙 The more he learns about you, the more interested he becomes. He’ll start to do research on ways to support you with your hearing loss. It’ll be purely out of curiosity, of course... it’s not like he’s gonna go out of his way or anything. But he ends up finding himself down the rabbit hole of hearing aid supports, and learns about Bluetooth capabilities, FM systems, infrared systems... ways to send targeted noise – like speech for instance – straight to your hearing aids, bypassing any pesky background noise.

💙 It won’t take long for him to get an idea – two birds with one stone, so to speak...

💙 You’ll be on the rooftop together, when he says, “I gotta surprise for ya.”

💙 He pulls out a box that’s labelled ‘Dynamic FM System.’

💙 If you try to reach for it though, he’ll hold it out of your reach. “ah ah ah... we gotta find the right place to try it out.”

💙 He’ll lead you downstairs and you’ll think he’s heading to the common space where the others are, but instead he takes you outside of the hideout, leading you down the street.

💙 “Where are we going?”

💙 “You’ll see.”

💙 The two of you will end up outside of a bar. Not just any bar, though… the line of patrons is already a huge hint of what you’ll find inside.

💙 “Wait isn’t this….?” You’ll start.

💙 Dabi will only smirk at you though, before he grabs your hand and leads you in.

💙 Inside will be loud. So loud you have to turn down the volume on your hearing aids, and too loud for you to hear anything of value. But as you look around, your suspicions are confirmed - instead of the usual opposite sexes pairing up like you find at most bars, this one is different. Men are pairing up with men, women are pairing up with women. Your heart is beating like a drum in your chest, your pulse racing with excitement. Of all the places for Dabi to bring you…

💙 You keep close to Dabi, holding onto his arm. He loves that, loves that you’re looking to him for protection. And protect you he does, his eyes threatening violence to anyone who stares too long at you.

💙 He’ll sit you down at the bar with him in the center of the noise while drunken gay couples flirt over their drinks and a group of girls laugh in the corner. He’ll say something to the bartender, and a minute later, two fresh drinks are place before the two of you.

💙 He won’t try to talk to you yet as he opens the box and begins taking out all of the pieces. He’ll plug in the small, cylinder-like component into your hearing aid - the receiver. He’ll be completely up in your space when he does it too, grinning at you with his ocean blue eyes. In his hand he holds the transmitter that contains a button with a microphone on it.

💙 Once everything is hooked up properly, he’ll speak into the mic, his finger on the button.

💙 “Hey there.” He says. His voice comes through crystal clear.

💙 “Hey.” You smile.

💙 Once Dabi knows you can hear him, his devilish grin will widen and he’ll lean casually against the bar counter as he stares at you, his eyes drinking you in. “Have I ever told you how hot you are?”

💙 That’s when it finally clicks… Dabi is actually interested in you. And he’s taken you out on a date.

💙 BONUS: If the bar scene ends up being too much for you, he’ll be more than happy to spend the rest of your date on your favorite rooftop spot with some take-out. 10/10 will kiss you by the end of the date.

[roversrovers]

Where do you get space news and scientific articles to read? I don't know where to begin searching to stay up to date.

Hi there, thanks so much for the question!

I wanna say before anything that I just do all this for fun so I maybe don't have the best methods and sources, this is simply what works well for me personally.

If anyone wants to share their own methods and sources feel free to rb and share!

One of my major sources of news is my space and science twitter list. Anytime I follow an account that's related to science I add it to the list. You can see that I have all sorts of accounts on there, from big institutions over news outlets to individuals working in a certain field. I get a lot of news and reliable sources through this list because I can see rightaway if multiple renowned scientists and institutions share the same thing.*

I also just use Google News(stand). You can choose topics that interest you so you can just browse for example Science & Technology and find publications that match your interests and provide the news you are looking for.*

There's also certain podcasts that I like to get some news from or learn about something interesting. (I'm not the most avid podcast listener so this isn't the best list out there and probably my least used method)

And a lot is also just me browsing. If a topic interests me I'll just scour the internet for articles, papers and even books on the topic and it takes me to all sorts of different places online.*

Overall I recommend starting by following institutions like NASA or CERN or whatever it is that interests you on whichever social media you use (twitter, Instagram, YouTube...) and go from there. Pay attention to people, universities, research facilities etc that they post about or follow and follow those as well and you'll quickly build a list of accounts that provide you with all that you want to know that's personalised to your interests.*

*DISCLAIMER: The internet is full of misinformation and disinformation that can become quite dangerous. These methods I use can lead you down the opposite path than you may intend to go if you're not familiar with the basics of media literacy. If you're not 100% sure you really can tell a legitimate, reliable account, publication or website from one that intends to share misleading or false information or you have no idea what I mean by media literacy, I recommend having a look at this before you do anything else.

[hellativity]

finally got the final ounce of motivation/confidence needed to improve my audio setup!! Long post bc it's all I'm thinking about rn

my current turntable is one of those cutesy built-in speaker ones that can damage your records, so I ordered a used pro-ject debut iii as recommended by an online pal

this of course means I need a receiver or amp so I found an old receiver on fb marketplace. I did a quick google and the first thing that came up was an old forum post saying "why does this receiver sound so good??" so I'm really excited about that one too. Also looking forward to having fm radio access in my home

I also found some old out of production speakers on fb marketplace which, after a quick google, also have rave reviews on niche forum posts. I don't have the space for huge bookshelf speakers or a sub or anything but I think these will work really well!

I am also ordering new stands for them & planning to do a gay little crochet project to give them some personality lol.

Then I just need wires/cables! I have a newer TV so I'll need some kind of adapter to get it's audio into the receiver but I know they exist

And because I don't have much space I also am thinking of building a little stand to place the turntable over the receiver. I don't know much about woodworking but I own a drill and want to paint something! I also think I could incorporate a little stand behind the turntable so I can prop up the record sleeve while I'm playing something :)

I'm so excited about how many things I'm able to get secondhand and I'm excited to learn about the setup & do a few little DIY aspects as well!!! This will be so fun to put together and allow me to enjoy my records without worrying about them, and enjoy my Spotify on better speakers than a Google mini. And between the tech and the sound and the crafting it's a great intersection of my interests

[somedayonbroadway]

So about that Radio Rebel AU... 👀

I’m oddly excited about this one. I love the concept of this movie, it’s so interesting.

Radio Rebel AU

Characters

Racetrack Higgins — Tara Adams

Rafaela — Stacy DeBane

Spot Conlon — Gavin

Albert DaSilva — Audrey Sharma

Obadiah Weisel — Principal Moreno

Jack Kelly — DJ Cami Q

Coffee Bean — Kim

Hot Shot — Gabe

JoJo De La Guerra — Larry

Buttons — Barry

Alright so…

Antonio Higgins never claimed to be outgoing. He never wanted to be popular or even really put himself out there. What he knew he was, was shy. Well, if having severe social anxiety meant being shy, then, yeah… that’s what he was. People terrified him and the mere thought of talking to some of them could send him into a full blown anxiety attack.

Therapy had helped once. But he didn’t go anymore. High school kept him pretty busy. Not to mention his ride had gotten busy with someone else. Walking was just too much. He just didn’t care enough. He would shut himself in his room for the rest of his life and never come out.

That is, until he found out he’d be getting a new stepdad. And that came with a new stepbrother.

Everything happened so fast and Race couldn’t keep up. His step brother was some radio host who loved attention and parties. Race knew he’d been the popular kid in school who played sports and got any date he wanted.

Jack was so open with people.

Race wasn’t.

When Jack starts coming around more, Race finds himself getting jealous of how easily Jack connects with people. Jack puts himself out there in everything he does. He’s a radio host, he’s got a lot of friends. He’s a singer and a songwriter and he plays guitar and he plays sports and everybody loves him. Even Race’s own mother who seems to like having Jack around more than him.

Eventually, when Race and Jack are forced to hang out a bit, Jack tells Race that he didn’t always used to be so outgoing, that he had to work up to it. He hadn’t had the easiest childhood. He tells Race a bit about it, being the more talkative one of the two of them. He admits that his father hadn’t always necessarily been the most loving, affectionate guy. He admits to Race that his dad was a drunk and that he used to get so out of it that he’d beat him. With the bruises and the scars, Jack never wanted anyone to notice. But after his dad got help, straightened himself out and took himself and his son to therapy and worked hard for years and years and still tried to make it up to him, Jack found himself wanting to allow himself to let more people into his life.

He wanted to finally be heard when he struggled through forgiving his dad.

So he started his own mini radio show. He was in high school when it all started.

Without any prompting, Jack pulls out a laptop and shows Race how he did it. He shows him how cool it is to put on his own show and then he stops because he knows he’s rambling. He tells Race that the show really did help him grow, though and make friends and be a part of society.

Eventually, Jack’s dad went back to work at a radio station that he’d run before and he brought Jack on as a host. His radio host name is Jay K and his show focuses a lot on how to stay positive even when bad things are going on in the world or in people’s lives specifically.

Race listened to his show every day that it’s on. But he doesn’t tell Jack that. Jack’s a cool college guy. He’s just his awkward step brother who has trouble getting out two words to someone and whose mother has to order food for him whenever they go out to eat.

But something about Jack’s show makes him want his own.

So he makes one. And he calls it Radio Rebel.

He locks himself in his room and puts on some headphones and just… starts talking.

And people listen.

They like his taste in music and what he has to say about the world they live in, the awful truths of high school and he asks why it has to be that way, why kids are supposed to respect adults who talk down to them and don’t care what’s going on in their lives. He challenges the rules that they’re being told and the things they’re being taught and the biases that people have and how teachers play favorites.

And the best part of all of it? No one knows it’s him.

Radio Rebel is a mystery.

He has one friend at school. Albert DaSilva. Albert broke into his shell and is the only person Race ever talks to really. Albert is constantly trying to help Race overcome his fears of talking to people. Eventually, he even tricks Race into taking drama with him.

The first day of classes, Race knows he made a mistake, if it’s not the participation grade that’s introduced to him it’s the fact that the guy he’s had a crush on since the sixth grade is in that class for his art credit and the girl who’s been making everyone’s life hell since forever is also there with her ever present sidekick.

The first day of class, the first day, and Race gets picked on by the teacher to write down a scene suggestion. He freezes in front of the class, his hand shaking as he tries to function like a normal person.

See, when he was young, his father died. His father had been the person he looked up to above all else. He was so happy all the time, even when he got sick. After that, it was like a little part of Race died with him and he just never knew how to communicate his feelings anymore. He didn’t know how to function in society because he spent most of his time as a child at his dying father’s bedside instead of out with children his own age.

At least, that’s what he thinks.

Even as he’s clearly terrified, Rafaela, a walking nightmare, decides that this is the perfect time to make fun of him. So Race, still trembling, tries to go back to his seat, knocking down the popular girl’s books and then he tries to pick them up, only hitting his head beneath her desk.

He looked up to find Spot staring at him. Spot Conlon, the hottest boy Race had ever known, was staring at him like he was some kind of freak. So Race ran, hiding in the bathroom completely humiliated.

He tries to calm himself down with some music. Though he still won’t admit it, his step brother’s music really does help him relax. He listens to it when he feels alone.

But in the hallway on his way to his next class, his principal, the ever irritating Mr. Wiesel, or, as Race likes to silently call him, Weasel, confiscates his third pair of headphones this semester, leaving Race to muddle through until he can go home and anonymously let his frustrations out with a microphone, some music and a voice scrambler. He plays one of Jack’s songs on the radio that day.

In the middle of his show, Race is jamming out to his song choice while he’s waiting to go back on when a knock comes at his door.

It’s his stepdad.

Race doesn’t hate the guy, he just barely knows him. They’re practically strangers living under the same roof. But, wanting to form a bond with his new step son, the man asks Race is he’d ever heard of someone called Radio Rebel, stating that the kid was some kind of local sensation and suggesting they listen to him together. Race tries to get rid of him, but doesn’t wanna be rude so he ends up giving in and continuing his show with the man in the room.

He’s terrified of what’s going to happen. His stepdad, however, offers him a job. He doesn’t wait for an answer before telling Race that he’s hired. That’s when Race is even more terrified.

It’s announced the next day that Radio Rebel is going to be on WORLD FM (i don’t know what it stands for). Race is horrified. And it doesn’t help that he has to blow off Albert in order to keep his identity a secret. His best friend is starting to get frustrated and Race knows it won’t be long before he’s had enough.

A couple days later, Race finds out that he will have to perform a Shakespeare scene in front of his whole class with two partners. Rafaela and Spot. Because of course it would be them

On Race’s first day at the studio, his step dad tries to give him a tour of the place only to lose him. Race runs off and tries to find an empty room to have a panic attack in. He only ends up finding Jack in the kitchen. Jack immediately greets him and tells him how happy he is that he tried to put himself out there and he’d tell Race how much he liked his show and how it encouraged so many people to just be themselves and have fun. But Jack turns around for one second to finish pouring himself some coffee, only to turn around and have the room be seemingly empty.

Having been on the verge of a breakdown for days, Race is hiding between the wall and the refrigerator, unable to barely breathe. When Jack finally finds him, he starts rambling, not knowing what to do or say. He tells Jack how scared he is and how different it is to go from pretending no one’s listening to knowing that everyone is.

Eventually, Jack coaxes him out of his hiding spot and gives him a soda, sitting him down and telling him that everybody gets nervous. Even him. He tells Race that it doesn’t help to feed into it and continue telling himself how scared he is, but instead use the adrenaline to hype himself up.

Race actually benefits from the talk and thanks Jack. Jack just tells him that’s what brothers are for before going to show him the ropes. He gives Race a small tour of his live room and explains to him how everything works and lets Race get in a practice run. It doesn’t go extremely well. But Jack just tells him he’ll be great, just like he was when he was alone, and then he’d tell Race that he had fifteen second before he was live and he’d go into the next room to watch and listen and help if Race needed it. Race shuts himself in the room, trying to pretend he’s alone before his show starts up.

He falls back into an easy rhythm.

His show is an immediate hit.

At the end of his show, he talks about the hierarchy of high school and how it’s all a bunch of crap. How differences shouldn’t be outlined as a bad thing and everyone should just learn how to accept each other. Then he asks every listener to wear red the next day, just to show that they were all equal.

He shows up to find a sea of red at school the next day. People were listening.

Albert is still mad at him.

Race tries to just continue on but after having to rehearse his scene with Spot and Rafaela, he just feels overwhelmed and practically begs Albert to talk to him again. When Albert still tries to refuse, he pulls him into an empty hallway and finally tells his best friend that he’s the guy everybody loves so much. Albert almost doesn’t believe him but eventually just kind of hugs him and tells him how proud of him he is.

After school, Race agrees to rehearse the scene with Spot and Rafaela and after being berated a bit by Rafaela, Spot encourages Race to stand up for himself and push back against Rafe, who’s acting as their director.

Race finally admits that in this scene of Romeo and Juliet, the audience would only get real emotion from them if they were closer. Spot is Mercutio and Race is Romeo.

Race has adored Spot for so long. He was always just so genuine and yeah, he was a tough guy, originally from Brooklyn, who plays sports and works out, but he was also in a band. He played guitar.

And after this particular rehearsal, he accidentally leaves behind a demo of his band. And Race picks it up.

Race uses it on his show later as he encourages everybody who’s listening to just get up and dance at eight o’clock tomorrow and just go crazy. Jack and Race dance to it in the studio and Race’s stepdad gets a small video of it, loving how well his boys are getting along now. This is the most of the real Race either of them have ever truly seen.

The next morning, when a full on dance part breaks out, Race gets to dance with Spot for a split second before Rafaela joins in with her weird, jerky movements just to get on his nerves. It’s only moments later that Radio Rebel is threatened by the principal to turn himself in now.  

The principal is not happy with the encouragement from this mystery person to disobey school policy and dance instead of focus on classes and work. He then states that anyone caught listening to Radio Rebel during school hours will be expelled.

But that only gives Race an idea.

He runs to Jack who he feels more comfortable with now than he’s sure he’d ever felt with anyone before and asks him for a favor.

The next day at lunch, Jack shows up with a WORLD FM van and gives the kids a special lunchtime dance party, making sure he’s right on the border of city property as a recording of Race tells everybody that they were taking lunchtime back and making it theirs again.

Weasel is not happy and gets it in his head that the minute he finds out who Radio Rebel is, he will be expelling them.

Later that night, after Jack’s show, Race stays to watch Jack record a new song he’d written with a small team of people. Race is a little nervous still, but feels comfortable enough with Jack there. Jack is singing and playing guitar for this new track (Burnout. A song Jeremy Jordan did in fact write) that Race sort of inspired him to write after opening up to him and telling him about his crush and how he doesn’t know how to talk to him. But while trying to record, something just sounds wrong and Race offhandedly points out that he needs a bottom harmony. So Jack tells him to get into the booth and grab a microphone.

And they record a song together.

The next night, Jack lets him play it on his show.

Jack can see Race starting to open up and gain confidence and just be himself. And he’s so happy for him.

A couple days later, Albert pulls Race into the janitor’s closet to tell him the news. Radio Rebels was nominated for Prom King. Race is immediately terrified and starts having a panic attack as he says he has to stop doing the show because no one can know who he is. Albert calms him down and drives him to the studio where they park three blocks away and wear hoodies and sunglasses to try and hide their faces.

Race finally shows Albert where the magic happens and introduces him to another one of his favorite radio hosts, Jay K.

Just before his show starts, Race’s stepdad makes an appearance, telling him that they have to cancel the show. Outraged by this sudden turn of events, Race asks the man why and he explains that Principal Wiesel just called and that if he finds out who Radio Rebel is, he’ll be expelled and that he’s Race’s stepdad first.

Race just says no. He says that he didn’t come this far to get shut down and he didn’t bend the rules just to be cornered by some lonely, bored old man (Weasel). And his stepdad says that’s the most he’d ever heard Race speak, not Radio Rebel, and that he’s on in fifteen.  

He turns back to Jack who gives him a thumbs up and a grin.

That night, Race asks people to share their fears, to stop being afraid of admitting they’re afraid. He gets calls immediately.

The last call he takes is from Spot. He tells Race that he’s afraid to do his own thing. See, his band used to be made up of his best friends but they only want to make loud, superficial music while Spot wants to make something real. Race admits he was terrified to do his own thing too. He looks at Jack as he said he had somebody who believed in him and told him that if he wanted to, he could make a real difference. And then he’d tell Spot that he believed in him and could do the same.

When Race gets home that night, his mother is waiting up for him, waiting to tell him how proud she is of him and how he inspires people to be themselves and that she knows he’s teaching himself some things along the way too.

The next day, however, the school gets some disastrous news. Weasel is cancelling the prom until Radio Rebel reveals themselves.

Race is devastated. He knows people are gonna destroy him for this.

Sure enough, he’s greeted with an angry mob on his way to the studio. He tried to blend in. Jack meets him at the front doors, trying to figure out a way to get him inside without anyone noticing. So, he pulls a hood over his head and starts running to draw away the crowd while Race and Albert sneak inside.

Eventually, once Jack gets back in the show starts. And it’s brutal.

Race gets through several calls of people yelling at him and calling him names and telling him how much they hate him and Jack can see Race start to shake. So the second they take a music break, Jack goes in and hugs him. It’s the first time in a long time Race can remember being held like this. He cries a bit and tells Jack he’s gonna come clean and Jack discourages that, telling his little brother how backwards this all was.

And that gives Race an idea.

On his way out of the building, the mob is still there, so they ask some guy dressed as a sandwich to distract the crowd while they get away. And he does.

The next morning, WORLD FM hijacks the high schools PA system and announces that WORLD FM will be throwing the school a Morp instead of a Prom. Race recorded himself saying that a Morp was a celebration and encouraged people to come as they are. No limos, no hundred dollar dresses or suits, just a party that celebrates them.

And everyone loves it.

Except for Rafaela, of course. Race teasingly encourages her to call in and tell Radio Rebel her frustrations about the prom court. Later that night, on Race’s show, he talks about prom court, giving Rafe the suspicion that it’s been him all along. So Rafaela decides to find a way to prove it and get Race expelled.

She invites the whole school to a party at her house during Radio Rebels broadcast. Whoever doesn’t show up is the person they’re looking for.

Only… Race shows up.

At the studio, Jack and Race’s mom are going crazy trying to figure out the recordings they made of Race and are trying to navigate a call with Rafaela who calls in only screwing up a line and trying to push her off the phone. Race then finally calls in and tells Jack to patch him into the show. Jack does and Race has to run around Rafaela’s house to hide from her while he takes her phone call.

Race finds her room and remembers that when they were young, Rafe used to dress up in dresses and tiaras at school. Race used to be so jealous of how comfortable she was just being herself. Race tells her that when she walks in before he runs out to find Albert.

A few minutes later, Rafaela sends out her best friend Coffee Bean to “deliver a pizza” to WORLD FM. To end this once and for all. Coffee Bean ends up recording Jack and Race’s mom talking about how far Race had come and how proud they were of him. She also gets a bit of Jack talking about his own past. She feels bad, knowing that Jay K had such a traumatic past. He always kept it a mystery to his listeners. But that’s not as important as finally busting Race.

A few days later is the day of their drama scene presentation. Rafaela tricks Race into following her into the janitor's closet before she locks him in there. He knows Spot will hate him if he misses their scene and he also knows that he hates small spaces.

He calls Jack to beg for help and Jack literally runs to him and gets him out while people are still in class. He calms Race down enough for Race to try and get through the day.

But Rafaela finds Race right after school. She plays the recording, telling him that she knows who he is. Race tries to explain that that doesn’t prove anything but Rafe threatens to forward it to the whole school. Race can’t have that happened, not only to keep his identity safe but also to protect the secrets of his step brother and his step dad from getting out. If people found out the guy who ran WORLD FM was a former alcoholic who used to beat his son, that wouldn’t be good. Race knew that. So he does what Rafaela tells him to do and tells the whole school to vote Rafaela for Morp Queen.

Albert however, after talking to Race and finding out what happened, tells Spot the story of him getting locked in the closet.

Spot confronts Rafaela who he was supposed to be going to morp with and immediately breaks it off, telling her that he’ll be going alone.

The next night is morp. Jack is DJing and Spot’s band has a small time slot. But that’s not what has everyone hyped.

No, what has everyone hyped is that they know who’s gonna be crowned prom king.

Jack announces it. It’s Radio Rebel.

Race panics for a moment before he realizes that he can’t keep hiding. He finds a mic backstage and starts talking, telling everyone how scared he was and how this was all even scarier. He reveals that he didn’t know he could feel so much like himself until now. Then he walks out onstage and reveals himself.

Weasel laughs from the crowd as people cheer. He grabs the mic and tells Race that he’s expelled in front of the whole school and Jack stands protectively in front of him, ready to give Weasel a piece of his mind before Albert shouts out that he’s Radio Rebel. Spot follows suit. And suddenly, the whole crowd is admitting to being Radio Rebel.

So Weasel backs down.

And then Spot gets up on stage to sing a song dedicated to a boy that isn’t afraid to ask a dancing sandwich for help. After this, he reveals to Race that he’s always been afraid to be himself and asks Race to help him do just that, asking him to dance and kissing him in front of the crowd.

And Race thinks just maybe he’s not afraid anymore.

For more Mood Boards and AUs, click here!

[quasieli]

top six: fictional characters that give you gender envy, flowers, little things that make you happy and d&d moments :D

Ooh lotsa questions!

Gender Envy:

1) Bow from She-Ra (2018). Something about buff athletic dude who wears crop tops and is soft as hell is very Gender to me.

2) Vax from Critical Role. Pretty boy, kinda goth rogue? That’s sexy as hell and I wish that was me. 

3) In a wildly different idea of gender envy, I’ve been thinking about it lately and @quantum-lesbian’s character in the Frostmaiden game I’m in with them, Ambrose, is Big Gender. Beautiful non-binary drow with a starry and kinda witchy aesthetic that dresses super grandly and ostentatiously no matter the occasion? Yes please.

4) Pete from The Unsleeping City, specifically season two. I adore season one Pete but season two Pete that works in a queer bookshop and has a teapot arcane focus, is artsy and is unapologetically a trans man who doesn’t give a shit about gender roles? Sign me the fuck up.  

5) Beau from Critical Role. Buff GNC lesbian mixed with academia, but like academia from the prospective of a grad student with ADHD trying to learn everything about their special interests? A+, I love her and I’m jealous. 

6) I’m gonna cheat a lil bit for this last one. I know the prompt is fictional characters, but Julia Lepetit and Jacob Andrews in their Hitman streams? Simultaneously both of them were Gender for me. Jacob esp felt like that for me, which is weird cause dresses can make me dysphoric, but I am also slightly envious of the Dude in a Dress type of gender presentation. 

Can you tell that I’m a confused trans masc enby

Gonna put it under the cut from here cause oof, there’s still a lot more.

Flowers:

1) Big slut for Sunflowers, always have been, always will be.

2) Fun fact, my dad’s family used to own a flower shop (in like the 70s, so I never got to see it :(), and one of their big things was hydrangeas. My dad has always loved them and now I love the snowballs too!  

3) A recent favorite, the Baker’s Globe Mallow. It’s a type of flower that only grows from the soils of forests that have been affected by wildfires. It’s a simple little flower but I love the idea of something beautiful rising from the ashes after tragedy. A little dramatic, but I’m queer, ofc I’m dramatic.

4) Roses are another important flower to my family (Rose was a family name for a couple generations), and ya know, they’re a classic. 

5) There’s this beautiful magnolia tree in front of my house that blooms with the most beautiful white and pink flowers every spring, and it’s one of my favorite things to see every year. 

6) There’s so many different types of Lillies and they’re all very pretty, but the Purple Stargazer is prob my favorite.

Little Things That Make Me Happy:

1) My cat, Maddie. She may be a cranky girl at times, but she is also very sweet and will always be my baby (even though she is 12). 

2) Not a little thing really, but my best friend. Just getting a sweet/silly text from her or the two of us chilling in a room, sitting in a comfortable silence because we just like being together, nothing better. 

3) Baking, esp if I’m doing it for others. I’m not much of a sweets person myself, a little treat every once in a while type person, but I love baking. It’s a very relaxing process for me, even when it can sometimes get stressful, but seeing people enjoying something I made, especially something that brought me great joy to make, is simply the best. 

4) In the same sorta vein, crafting and other art, but that’s a bit more personal. I love making things for others, but art, particularly drawing, is something I do more for me. It’s such a great feeling when you can get into a really good art mood and just sink yourself into a project. I love it.

5) My plush toys. Yes, I am a 23 year old, no I will not stop loving my plushies. I just got a few new friends, which I made a post about recently, and they such good cuddle buddies. However, there is one king amongst them all. I have this old, beat up christmas puppy beanie baby, on his tag named Jingle Pup, but I just call him Jingle. I had one version of him since I was like 6, but he currently lives on a shelf cause he is very beaten up and fragile, but his “brother”, who I got when I was 8, is still in kinda good shape and is currently chilling on my chest as I type this lol.

6) Again, not a little thing, but it’s important to mention; D&D. The game itself is such a joy, but truly the best part of it is the people. I love creating stories and memories with people through this weird little game. Truly one of my favorite things to do.

D&D Moments:

These are all gonna be personal moments, rather than anything from actual play shows/podcasts. RC is Reforged Campaign, where I play Saube, and FM is Frostmaiden, where I play Sparks.

1) RC - Meeting Mahety, Saube’s girlfriend. We met her way back in session 12 and we are now up to like session 73. Saube saw her and was immediately big heart eyes at her but also felt a bit awkward and shy. So, being a game a dice, I decided to roll. 10 or higher, Saube would talk to her, 9 or lower, she’d stay put. I rolled a 17, 17 is now a lucky number for me. I love Mahety and I’d die for her. 

2) FM - This was an insane fight that should not have been so crazy, but in a fairly early session, my group went up against an angry druid and her awakened animals. So much batshit stuff happened in that fight, and we unfortunately lost our bread loving bard (RIP Agneyis), but one of my favorite combat turns happened in this fight. Our artificer, Omaren, has a robe of useful items and one of the patches on it creates a large pit. Thinking quickly, Omaren tore off the patch, slid it under one of the dire wolves we were fighting and created a looney tunes style pit under it, allowing us to take it out easily via pot shots. Such a clutch move and such a funny visual, especially because the dire wolf kept failing the checks to get out of the pit.  

3) RC - Saube’s Zebrith (I will never remember how this actually spelled RIP). So, for context, Saube ended up with a death curse (long story) that mechanically meant they had disadvantage on any death saving throws. Scary as hell, need to get that fixed! So, Saube and their party had to be smuggled into another country to talk with some religious leaders of a goddess known as The First, the goddess of death. They were told that Saube would have to go through the aforementioned ritual, which included her soul leaving her body for a short period of time. During this ritual, her friends had to call back to her, to say things that would bring her back to her body and I still cry thinking about that game. That ritual was not only important for Saube bodily, but spiritually as well. After that ritual, Saube officially became a cleric of The First! 

4) A real sappy one, RC - Saube meeting all of her friends. Anyone who follows along with the rantings on my blog probably knows how important this game is to me. I met this random group of strangers on tumblr and formed a D&D party with them and now, a year and a half later, I honestly think it’s one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I know that sounds silly and dramatic but not only has this game brought me so much joy and comfort, but I also gained a group of really amazing friends who have been nothing but amazing since day one. As much as Saube knows she can depend on SICL, I know I can depend on my group of weirdos lol. We both love our friends very much and even though we’ve all been through some crazy shit, we wouldn’t change it for the world.    

5) RC - Just playing Saube in general. I really didn’t intend for it to be this way, but Saube is very much a reflection of myself. She is the first long term character I have ever played and so much of me is in her. I try not to treat D&D like therapy, because that’s unfair to my DM and fellow party members, but playing Saube has allowed me to work through some of my own problems, especially social anxiety, in a lot safer of an environment. It isn’t so much that I’m asking this game to help me fix my life, but playing out these scenarios that, in the real world, would make me anxious or make me freak out, I can stop, take a moment to breathe and work out these issues in a way that makes sense to me. Playing her has led me to understanding myself a bit better, as well, and that’s truly such a wonderfully unexpected gift from this whole experience. 

6) Lastly, a silly one: RC - Getting a crit 6. The last session of this game got real interesting. Saube’s party ended up in the ethereal plane and magic got real fucky there. So, any time any of us tried to cast a spell, we’d roll a d20, not look at the result, and then try to guess what number rolled. The closer to the number, the better the result. A few times, a few people managed to get within like 3 or 4 of their roll, but oh the power I felt when I rolled a 6 (on Saube’s die!) and guessed it correctly! So, not only did the spell (Bless) work, but it worked super well. So instead of getting +1d4 to attack rolls and saving throws, Saube and two other party members got +2d4 to attacks, saving throws and skill checks. So powerful I broke the rules of D&D lmao.