#Effective Revision

[recsspecs]

27 Exam strategies from 'Cracking the GRE Premium Edition with 6 Practice Tests, 2020' which can also become life tips

As you become more familiar with the test, you will also develop a sense of “the ETS mentality.” This is a predictable kind of thinking that influences nearly every part of nearly every ETS exam. By learning to recognize the ETS mentality, you’ll earn points even when you aren’t sure why an answer is correct. You’ll inevitably do better on the test by learning to think like the people who wrote it.

You’ll do better on the GRE by putting aside your feelings about real education and surrendering yourself to the strange logic of the standardized test.

You might be surprised to learn that the GRE isn’t written by distinguished professors, renowned scholars, or graduate school admissions officers. For the most part, it’s written by ordinary ETS employees, sometimes with freelance help from local graduate students. You have no reason to be intimidated.

Our focus is on the basic concepts that will enable you to attack any problem, strip it down to its essential components, and solve it in as little time as possible.

In many ways, taking a standardized test is a skill and, as with any skill, you can become more proficient at it by both practicing and following the advice of a good teacher.

Think of your GRE preparation as if you were practicing for a piano recital or a track meet; you wouldn’t show up at the concert hall or track field without having put in hours of practice beforehand (at least we hope you wouldn’t!). If you want to get a good score on the GRE, you’ll have to put in the necessary preparation time.

After all, the GRE leaves you no room to make explanations or justifications for your responses.

However, the difficulty of an individual question plays no role in determining your score; that is, your score is calculated by your performance on the entirety of the scored sections, not just a handful of the hardest questions on a given section.

This strategy is called Take the Easy Test First. Skip early and skip often.

On your first pass through the questions, if you see a question you don’t like, a question that looks hard, or a question that looks time consuming, you’re going to walk on by and leave it for the end.

Sometimes, however, a question that looks easy turns out to be more troublesome than you thought. The question may be trickier than it first appeared, or you may have simply misread it, and it seems hard only because you’re working with the wrong information.

Over four hours your brain is going to get tired.

Once you read a question wrong, however, it is almost impossible to un-read that and see it right. As long as you are still immersed in the question, you could read it 10 times in a row and you will read it the same wrong way each time.

Whether a question is harder than it first appeared, or made harder by the fact that you missed a key phrase or piece of information, the approach you’ve taken is not working.

Reset your brain by walking away from the problem, but Mark the question before you do. Do two or three other questions, and then return to the marked problem. When you walk away, your brain doesn’t just forget the problem, it keeps on processing in the background. The distraction of the other questions helps your brain to consider the question from other angles. When you return to the problem, you may find that the part that gave you so much trouble the first time is now magically clear. If the problem continues to give you trouble, walk away again.

Staying with a problem when you’re stuck burns time but yields no points. You might spend two, three, five, or even six minutes on a problem but still be no closer to the answer.

In the five minutes you spend on a problem that you’ve misread, you could nail three or four easier questions. When you return to the question that gave you trouble, there is a good chance that you will spot your error, and the path to the correct answer will become clear. If it doesn’t become clear, walk away again. Any time you encounter resistance on the test, do not keep pushing; bend like a reed and walk away

You should take the easy test first and you should spend most of your time on questions that you know how to answer, or are reasonably certain you can answer.

As a result, it’s better to guess than it is to leave a question blank. At least by guessing, you stand a chance at getting lucky and guessing correctly.

In fact, sometimes it is easier to identify the wrong answers and eliminate them than it is to find the right ones,

Trap answers are specifically designed to appeal to test takers. Oftentimes, they’re the answers that seem to scream out “pick me!” as you work through a question. However, these attractive answers are often incorrect.

Get into the habit of double-checking all of your answers before you click on your answer choice

The only way to reliably avoid careless errors is to adopt habits that make them less likely to occur.

Every time you begin a new section, focus on that section and put the last section you completed behind you. Don’t think about that pesky synonym from an earlier section while a geometry question is on your screen. You can’t go back, and besides, your impression of how you did on a section is probably much worse than reality.

The week before the test is not the time for any major life changes. This is NOT the week to quit smoking, start smoking, quit drinking coffee, start drinking coffee, start a relationship, end a relationship, or quit a job. Business as usual, okay?

Before you dive in, you might wish to take one of the practice tests in this book or online to get a sense of where you are starting from.

Accuracy is better than speed. Slow down and focus on accumulating as many points as possible. Forcing yourself to work faster results in careless errors and lower scores.

[squigglysquidd]

I commissioned the ever so sweet and awesome @palavenmoons for another commission of Juxtaposed Shakarian and this time, a wing it comm!

I'm so excited to see what Pally did with it!

[yourmoonie]

Moonie, have you ever revised anything? I want to revise my age and appearance, I have never manifested anything huge so it’s scaring meeeee.

Hey my moonlight

Yes I have! And many many things

I have shared some stories on X/Twitter before. I will link some of the stories down below. (Just click on pink words/sentences down below, and you will be able to see the stories.)

Revision -> Revision is you changing your memories, which also “changes” other people’s memories or POVs on the situation. I have done revision before, and it's as real as you can imagine

"The present is not what we want, but it is what the past has produced. In revision, we heal the past“ - Neville Goddard.

Card debt

NO, turning into a YES

Exams

Bachelor’s

Legal stuff regarding road police

[tomboyjessie13]

I'm not from the UK so it's not my place to say, but shame on the UK gonvernment and the people who supported them.

I hope you're all proud of yourselves now that you've put innocent lives in danger.

And here I thought my country's gonvernment's full of shit, and it is.

[drlancasterpsychology]

Pikmin

*he goes quiet, twitching slightly, before murmuring a quiet*

pikmmin

[seonghwacore]

🏍 AKIRA-ISH MOTION BLURRED LIGHT EFFECT (or the cooler name, ✨Rear Sync Flash effect✨)

as requested for my carrot kid @renjunniez (and everyone) <3

⁕ Tool: Photoshop 2021 (PS)

⁕ GUIDE:

1. Open/place your picture of your choice on PS. For this set, I took a screenshot from the MV using VLC. Didn't bother to take it from VS.

You need a black & white picture with dense shadow/black shade and focused highlight to achieve this effect. If your base is as colorful and bright as a 4 year old's imagination about the world of unicorns, you gotta need some adjustments. The effect still appears but give a totally different vibe. I put an example at the end of the tutorial.

2. Then, do the basic sharpening and resizing for the base layer. I crop them to 540x540px.

3. Copy the base layer and delete the sharpening smart filters. Double click the layer to open Layer Style panel.

On General Blending, change the Blend Mode to Lighten. On Advanced Blending, uncheck the Green (G) and Blue (B) channels, so you'll be left with Red (R) channel. And then, move the picture to the right because you want the red shadow to "trail" Seonghwa (your subject)'s movement.

Your pic will look somehow like this:

4. Go to Filter > Blur Gallery > Path Blur. The default option is usually Basic Blur. Change the option to Rear Sync Flash.

Now, you have to decide the direction of the "red trail". This is quite tricky because it's better if you apply the blur with the subject's real movement in mind. In this example, I imagined Hwa was swaying to the left in slow motion as he restrained from being dragged away. So, my path's starting point is from the left.

Once you've decided, click on a random point to pin a starting point and stretch the arrow to your desirable distance. You can also curve the arrow to give a more, well, fancy direction.

I set the Speed to 146% and the Taper to 17%. Uncheck everything else.

*Hover over the word "Speed" and "Taper" to know what it'll do to your pic

**If you wanna know more about Rear Sync or Rear Curtain Flash in photography [x]

5. After this part, basically you're free to do whatever with your gfx. These steps below are OPTIONAL.

5-a. First, I adjusted the lighting and contrast.

5-b. Then, I added text.

5-c. After that, I placed a lined texture. I set the blending to Overlay with 82% Opacity and gave it a Basic Blur effect from Path Blur. I definitely just fuckin around with this step and found out that it changed the opacity of the lines depending on where it's applied on: shadow, midtone, or highlight parts.

5-d. Lastly, add grains texture

Et voila! You'll get this effect 🤩

Now, if you have a bright, colorful pic as the base. For example, I use this The Real Hwa dontevenaskmehowmanypicsofhwaihaveinmyputer. The "highlight" part (the sky) is surrounding the "shadow" (Hwa in hanbok). Then, I applied the same effect.

Still slay but definitely not as "dramatic" and intense as the dark mode version. Kinda lose the purpose of the trail to me. HOWEVER. I encourage you to fuck around and improvise 👍

Hope this helps!

[zestysthoughts]

Tep Tons: Fictional Melee Weapons (Revised)

10. Edge of Duality (LoZ)

9. Final Cutter (SSB)

8. Krug's Cleaver (Heroscape)

7. Ruyi Bang / Jingu Bang (RWBY)

6. Bloodhoof Runespear (Warcraft)

5. Vahki Blades (Bionicle)

4. Tricky's Stop Sign (Madness Combat)

3. Omnissian Axe (Warhammer)

2. Paracesis (Warframe)

1. Protoss Psi-Blade (Starcraft/2)

[richardtheteacher]

10 Tips to Help High School Students Achieve High Performance

An article by Richard James Rogers (Award-Winning Author of The Quick Guide to Classroom Management and The Power of Praise: Empowering Students Through Positive Feedback). This blog post is illustrated by Pop Sutthiya Lertyongphati. Success in high school is not just about hard work: it’s about working smart, using proven strategies that boost learning, memory, and motivation. Here are 10…

[daughterofzeus-the-novel]

finally getting through this goddamn chapter . . . also I forgot Penelope. oops.

[outeremissary]

break and secret for Balthazar and Kasander?👀

Thanks for the question, and sorry for the delay!! These are things I can go on for ages about for most characters, haha. Personal limits and private experiences are essential in some way to me when thinking through characters. Even though I tried to keep this under control it still got really long... it's under a cut for that and the umm. Content warnings.

CW: mentions of disordered eating, self harm, suicidal ideation, and suicide

[prompt list]

break: What would cause your OC to break down completely? What do they look like when that happens? Has anyone ever seen them at their lowest?

Balthazar

For Balthazar, total breakdown is the result of being completely, inescapably trapped, especially when it shows a harsh limit on what he's able to do or be. As it is, he already sees his bounds in everything. In his mind he's always struggling through them to live the life he wants rather than what he feels the world is fencing him in to. He knows that he's weak and there's a limit to what he can control. He also knows that he's choosing something with his life that destroys his value in the eyes of others. Still, he needs to believe that he can play past the point where he should have to quit, that his cruel and self-isolating exercises in agency will give him control even if there's no other reward.

At his lowest, Balthazar shuts down near completely. He's been shown that there's nothing that can be gained by fighting; thus, the fight leaves him. He's lethargic, unresponsive, and pliant. To point to a specific incident: when his wings developed and shackled him to the inescapable image of his heritage he withdrew into himself for weeks, avoiding being in the public eye and doing nothing more than the minimum to maintain the illusion of control over his domain- and struggling to do even that. But the withdrawal felt like all he could do to assert control over his body and to shield himself from seeing the extent to which the carefully maintained narrative of himself had escaped him. It was a self-pitying, self-punishing period of neglect. He did very little beyond function. Near the beginning he stopped looking after himself more or less completely. He also stopped eating, something common to his deepest lows but made more intense by the awareness of how the wings merely existing had changed his appetite, the way they ate up energy. He interacted with them only to try to find ways to crush them down to be less visible, or to idly pick at neglected feathers. More than anything, he avoided the people who knew and cared for him. It seemed like the ugliest indignity to be seen in that state. The thought of being pitied made him nauseous.

Still, he's never seemed to have the dignity of suffering alone during any breakdown he's had in his life. No matter how he tries to isolate himself his worst moments always seem to be seen, and sometimes they've been taken advantage of as well. There's a nasty spiral to being shown how much further he can fall when he already feels helpless. He was lucky in this one though: for the most part, it was only the concerned and supportive interacting with him (except Lander, as typical for the rat). And Jaethal, who was instrumental in pressing him back into his daily tasks, wasn't one for pity- that abrasive appeal to his pride did a lot to pull him out of the state. Although she did enlist some help in following through on the more menial or overly sensitive tasks: for a time afterwards, Tristian was in charge of making sure he was eating.

Kasander

So: Kasander is an Oath of the Ancients paladin, the oath most focused on love of life and defense of its sanctity. Light, joy, life. Everything that Bhaal exists to destroy, and that Bhaal made them to snuff out. And you have to understand that Kas takes 1) takes this ungodly seriously and 2) has an extremely radical interpretation of what their oath means. Kasander is a reckless savior. Their mercy can easily be as destructive as their violence. Without very immediate threat they hate to destroy even for a greater good, not while there's still some foolish hope that somehow, the situation will turn around. Kasander has lost their oath three times over the course of BG3 and every time it has been because they've strained the concept of mercy to the breaking point: refused to kill what was lethal, refused to destroy what was tormented. And they're not exactly doing a lot of follow-through here. They hate to control others as much as they hate to condemn them. Their mercy is unconditional. They'll turn around and wait until you're gone- do whatever you want after that. To them, this is what it means to shelter life and see value in it. To just keep offering and offering. To hope against hope and against reason. It isn't as if they're naive, not really. But they're stubborn anyway. And on top of that, they don't want to pass judgment that they know would condemn them. Whatever chance they've been given they have no right to withhold.

To me, Kasander is kind of incorruptible, but that's what can destroy them: they're holding themself and the world to a standard that just isn't possible. They believe too fervently, too uncompromisingly. They're trying to be too good for good, too kind to be kind. And when the world pushes back and tells them no, that's not an answer they can accept. It's not about realism. It's about rejection. Breaking their oath over attempted mercy is being told that their best intentions and all their attempts to overcome everything the world has tried to make them still aren't enough. It makes them feel fundamentally broken. Too dirty to be saved. Far too dirty to save others.

Their lowest points are born out of that conflict between their radical idealism and their oath (or reality at large) more than the direct influence of the Urge (or actions of their siblings). In the game itself, their lowest point was probably the first time they lost their oath. In the same short period they'd endured Alfira's death, had accidentally killed innocents for Ethel, had been called a monster by people they wanted to save and accidentally killed some of the victims they tried to rescue, and when they finally thought they could do one good thing for Mayrina by putting control over her future in her hands and letting her choose what to do about her husband, that was the thing that finally shattered their oath. How much crueler could anything get? Even their attempts at atonement were too monstrous to be accepted. And there's no such thing as a private low- not with Bhaal watching, waiting for them to break completely.

In their total breakdown, they backslide more or less completely into despair. They succumb to self-destructive behavior without the hope of repairing a situation, and they're often driven by the influence, passive or active, of parts of their internal system which are already inclined to shame and self-punishment. Bride in particular holds sway in these moments: though Bride doesn't mean it with any ill will, they see suffering in everything, and they want to find accountability through self-harm and release through death. For Bride, hope is unreliable, and the hard reality is that only extreme solutions can work. It was somewhere in the halfway point between Kasander drowning in their own misery and Bride's desires to save them all from pain that they committed suicide by goading Astarion into killing them while feeding. Their death didn't stick- Shadowheart "rescued" them immediately after finding out, and they wallowed in the guilt of knowing that Astarion almost paid the price for their choices.

Though not characteristic of that particular incident, it's also not uncommon for them to withdraw very quickly and instinctually inside themself, causing someone else to switch to front. In response to distress this is usually Bride, who resolves the situation through self-punishment, or Asperia, who resolves it by lashing out. The things that cause Kasander pain don't often get to Asperia. Asperia is good at going beyond Kasander's limits. Whatever the results, withdrawing gives Kas time to calm down and return to something different.

secret: What's one secret your OC never wants anyone to know about them?

Balthazar

There are a lot of things Balthazar hates to have people know about him, but some of his worst moments and deepest weaknesses have been ripped from him against his will and laid bare to the world. It gives him a strange relationship with personal secrets- most of what he doesn't want known is already out there somewhere. He's used to living in a constant state of damage control. Leaving Absalom gave him a blank slate though, and in many ways he doesn't want others to know anything at all about who he was or what his life was like before he crossed the Inner Sea and went north. As much as it makes him feel cut off from a past he mourns, he feels it's best to hide as much of it as possible through avoidance, vague answers, and lies.

In terms of more specific things though... one thing that he managed to keep from spreading too outside his immediate home neighborhood was information about his mother and about his father's relationship with her. Even before his aasimar heritage had manifested, he knew what it was like to have people look right through him, searching for someone else. He never knew much about her himself because of the way she disappeared, but speculation about her hung over his early childhood and haunted his relationship with his father. He never discusses her willingly. When people ask about his mother he tends to say that she died in childbirth, elaborating occasionally some sickly sweet additional details. His father's fiance, you see. She was young and frail, but they were in love, you understand. A beloved presence and a dearly missed one. All lies, but what a wonder a banal family sob story does for shutting down questions. Anything to stop people seizing on the knowledge she could be alive out there somewhere and thinking she ought to be found. There's no one he has less desire to know more about.

But if there was one thing he wishes he could turn into a secret that he'll never be able to, it would be his aasimar heritage.

Kasander

Despite the fact that Kasander is a painfully honest person and a chronic oversharer, there are still many things they don't want anyone to ever know about them, or to not know the extent of. It's the burden of being a Bhaalspawn: the visions, the acts, the private battles, the lapses... And more than anything, I think that Kasander doesn't ever want anyone to know how much they have suffered over the course of their life. Even Kas can't truly grasp it- like Asperia, they had very few memories before around age 9 even prior to the Tadpole Incident. And after that point there were still always long periods of patchiness. Sometimes scraps from those periods drift through when they trance, and there are dark memories they understand are bound up in the others and can't be accessed by them.

What they remember they still don't want to share. They hate for their pain, past or present, to be a burden on others and find the reactions other people have to it distressing. They know that they've experienced terrible things and that few people can understand that, and they don't want to be hurt again by others denying their experiences, downplaying them, or misinterpreting them. With most of the party members distress and pushback seem to be the norm- it's made them reluctant to confide in anyone outside themself. It also feels like they've failed other people when just talking about their past with others seems to hurt them. Jaheira is the only consistently safe person, and they're thankful beyond words for her, especially after many of their memories were restored. It's hard to imagine continuing to just push through without processing, but they couldn't process all of that alone.

There's another element to past hurt as well though: not all of it belongs to them, and that vulnerable part of the other alters is too sacred to violate by sharing even through implication. Concealing their past- their shared past- is an act of protection so natural they don't even think about it.

[squigglysquidd]

Happy N7 Day!! - Juxtaposed Snippet

It's late.

Too late for Jane to make good on her promise of striping so that Garrus can explore and see her bare body just as she had his.

He hasn't returned to the apartment yet and her eyelids are starting to grow heavy despite every damn thing she's tried to keep them open. Even trying to draw doesn't work in keeping her mind from trying to drift into that nothingness that is sleep.

Her will is failing.

"Sorry, Garrus," she whispers aloud to the empty apartment and stands.

She leaves her sketchbook on the couch and heads for the bathroom, yawning as she walks the familiar steps through the apartment and bedroom.

She brushes her teeth and ruffles her hair with her hands to get rid of the strands that were disturbed by Garrus' fingers. Now, all of her hair is a mess so it doesn't seem so obvious in her reflection that she had someone's hand tangled in her curls.

Disappointed that she's getting undressed all alone, she removes her clothes down to just her plain panties. In her things, she finds her loose, sleeping shorts with a pattern of dancing pyjaks on them and a basic black tank top. She wears something like these every night, exchanging the pieces when they need to be washed so Garrus is familiar with her nightly attire.

This way, if he wants to continue what they had been doing before he left, she's in familiar clothing and that might make him less nervous about her getting completely naked. After all, she's pretty exposed as is so he should be used to seeing at least peeks of her thighs, stomach, and chest which could happen as her clothes move and bunch up when she tosses and turns in her sleep.

Crawling into bed, she sighs and relaxes into the pillows that make up the cushioning for this turian-styled bed frame. Normally, the cup shape wouldn't work for a human but Garrus has filled it with so many plush pillows that she can easily make a perfect indention where she's most comfortable and she even feels cradled which she's never felt with a human bed.

She hopes Garrus will be home soon and closes her eyes. She might as well get some sleep just in case he has free time tomorrow to spend with her.

It's in the odd hours of the night when she feels the shift of the bed as someone puts pressure on it. In no time, she feels that comforting, familiar, and welcomed warmth against her back. She feels the touch of his body, the hardness of his plates, and the ridge of his keel and smiles.

Shifting to get a better look at him over her shoulder, she says, "Hi."

His silhouette flicks a mandible and buzzes apologetically. "Did I wake you?"

She can't quite see his face but she knows he can see her face much clearer in the dark. Shrugging to dismiss his worries, she smiles and asks, "What time is it?"

"Late" he admits and she rolls over completely so they can face one another.

He lays his head on hers, cheek against cheek plate, and nuzzles against her with a deep purr. It's a weighty gesture and more than a simple, light caress but she doesn't mind. She enjoys this close contact after being alone all night.

"Good news?" he finally says, leaning back so they can see each other. "The case is closed," he remarks with a proud flare of his mandibles. "For now, there won't be any more long days because we're just going through the paperwork …. Bureaucracy at its finest," he adds with a huff of frustration.

She knows she can't ask him for specifics because of C-Sec regulations and although he would tell her anyway, she wants to try and keep him on his best behavior. He doesn’t have to spell it out for her because she’s already happy for him even without the details.

With their previous agreement in mind, she smiles and runs her hands against the fabric of his shirt. She can feel the grooves and ridges of his plates and slides her hand down the rise of his keel.

“Do you want to sleep?” she asks, wanting to give him the chance to stop things before they get heated. While she’s all for continuing what they started, she doesn’t want to push him into it if he’s exhausted and wants to sleep.

There’s always tomorrow.

Scoffing, he remarks, “Did you forget that you promised me something?”

Although she can’t see his expression, she’s pretty sure he has that insufferable smirk on his face.

Smug little shit.

She smirks and grabs a fistful of his shirt’s fabric, tugging him closer. “I would never dare to imagine pulling something like that on you. I don’t mess around with promises and I don’t give them out freely.”

Chuckling, he sits up and opens his omni-tool. She soon follows and smiles now that he can see her face in the cast off from his tool. When she’s in place, he nuzzles his mouth against her cheek and she hunches her shoulders at the slight tickle from his warm breath.

Unable to read turian, she doesn’t know what he’s doing but she does like to see how different the universal turian language is from humanity’s universal English. She watches, interested as he types into the interface. With a few flicks and waves of his fingers, the lights in the room brighten just enough that they seem under the cover of shadows but not complete darkness.

“I didn’t know we could just control the lights remotely from our tools because …?” She trails off as she waves a hand encouragingly, raising a brow.

He smirks back. “Because it’s not standard, so you shouldn’t normally be able to interfere with the lights. I decided to sync them up to my omni-tool one day. A few calibrations and a couple of blown fixtures later, I had it working flawlessly.” He hums and glances at her in his peripheral, adding, “It’s not really allowed under the building’s tenant agreement but what’s that saying? ‘What they don’t know won’t hurt them?”

Laughing, she playful shoves his shoulder. “Damn, aren’t you a little handyman?”

“I have no idea what that means,” he says flatly and she laughs again.

“So,” she says, calming her amusement and smiling. “I guess since I stripped you, it’s my turn, right?” Shifting to face him better, she holds up her arms to the side. “I am at your mercy, as you put it.”

“I’d like that.” He nods before letting out a hum and reaching out to her. Instead of trying to undress her, though, he guides her arms down to her sides. “But I want to do things at your speed.” He holds her hands for a moment before flaring a mandible and saying, “I know that me nude is different than you being nude because of our differing species–”

“Whoa–Hold your horses, there, cowboy,” she interrupts with a raised hand and immediately bursts into laughter when she sees his face grimace at what must be his translator’s failed attempt to understand her. “Okay,” she says when she has a chance to catch her breath. “Okay …. Never mind what I just said. It’d take way too long to make any of that make sense so I’ll just say this.” Cupping his face, she smiles encouragingly. “Don’t worry. We got this.”

“So, the thing about humans and taking off your clothes isn’t something I should worry about?” Garrus rumbles and flutters his mandibles in what she thinks are nerves. “I read ….”

“That we are a bunch of prudes who feel exposed when we get naked?” she offers with a playful smirk.

He huffs and some of the tension lifts from the air. “Well, you are ‘exposed,’ Jane. You don’t have any plates to cover anything.”

“You know what I meant,” she retorts, dropping her arms. “And, yeah. Maybe some people feel a little vulnerable naked in a more mental way but this is different.” Smiling, she pats his leg softly. “I trust this will be okay. I’m … comfortable. And I know you,” she adds as she finds his hands and brings them to the hem of her tank top without directing him to do anything further if he doesn’t intend to. “You’re even more aware of what I’m okay with even more than me sometimes.” She leaves his hands there, releasing him and giving him the silent permission to do as he pleases. “I trust you.”

Thrumming that sound she knows is just for her, he wraps his hands around her waist. When she watches his fingers overlap, she finds herself reacting the same way as when she felt his sharp teeth during their kiss.

It must be the size of them.

Or his talons.

His talons.

I’m developing some weird fetish for dangerous men, it seems.

And I like it.

It’s either the realization that she likes danger with her sex or it has more to do with this being Garrus.

That brings too many questions into the mix that she doesn’t want to get into tonight. They’re mood killers and too much for her to deal with when all she wants is to feel good, experience something new, and get even closer to her best friend.

He relaxes his hands and strokes down to her hips, settling there to stroke the curve of her hip through her clothing. Hooking the tip of his talon beneath the tank, he glances up at her with a question in his gaze.

She smiles and nods, giving him further permission as she holds her hands out so that there are no obstacles between him and getting her top off. Thankfully, they won’t have to talk about bras and how annoying they are to get on and off because that’d probably ruin the mood.

Now that she knows what he does with lights in his bedroom, she thinks he’d probably get tangled up in the engineering flaws of a human bra. If she’s not careful, he might even suggest trying to modify them.

She does not need enhanced bras. Her military-grade ones are just fine.

Although, if we’re going to keep stripping each other, maybe I should invest in some nice ones.

He slides his hands under her tank and she sighs at the sensation of his palms on her skin. It’s so different from the touch of a human’s hands but she likes it.

His hands are like a pair of leather gloves that have been used and well-worn with smoother palms and a slight roughness on his fingertips. These hands are strong, confident, and, dare she think it, caring.

Humming in delight, she closes her eyes and mindlessly lifts her arms so he can pull the tank top up and off her. Her skin feels cold where his hands once were and she opens her eyes as she lowers her arms to watch him toss the clothing away.

His gaze sweeps across her and she feels the true predatory nature of his species in the way he seems so focused on her. Her skin prickles and flushes under his scrutiny and she realizes this is the first time she’s ever blushed when someone’s seen her bare breasts and torso.

She has no idea why.

This is supposed to be an exploratory give-and-take where he strips for her and she for him. He stayed at the center of attention so diligently and composed and here she is, acting as if she’s never gotten naked in front of people before.

She just wishes she knew how to read Garrus’ facial expressions in this kind of situation. He’s so damn different from a human but, in a way, this is probably what he felt when she was undressing him.

“So?” she asks, trying for a levity that can wash away her worries and hopefully stop that insufferable blushing so she can seem more in control. “I’m not too squishy and pink for you, am I?”

She feels like such a damn fool for asking.

What does it matter if he rejects her like this? It wouldn’t change their friendship, just their views of their appearances without clothes.

They’ve already agreed on that.

If this doesn't go anywhere, that’s okay.

Even if she’s developed this weird, blind desire to see more of him.

He smiles and runs a talon across her left collarbone, responding, “I know you too well to agree with that and expect to get out alive.” Tilting his head, he smirks. “What did you say? ‘You’re gorgeous?’”

Hearing her own words thrown back at her with such honesty, she swallows heavily and nods.

Tonight is getting heavier than she thought it would.

Where is he going with this?

With a finger under her chin, he gets her attention to look at her again and out of her head. “Jane, are you sure I’m what you want? Are you sure you don’t want something a little closer to home?”

She now realizes what he must be thinking and internally slaps herself.

It isn’t her that should be nervous and uncomfortable. Not entirely.

In completing their little game of undressing each other, there comes a logical conclusion.

They’re closer now, more intimate, and there’s no going back. No matter how many times they say it, they’re each going to have to get over their own self-doubt about what the other thinks of them.

Right now, it’s his turn.

“Home was never something that brought me happiness,” she admits with a smile and closes her hand around his wrist. “You do, Garrus.”

A thunderous purr erupts from him and he flares his mandibles.

Pressing his mouth to her lips, he kisses her. His tongue slips into her mouth and he growls as she meets him with her own. She can feel the vibrations from his subvocals at their connection and along her tongue.

It trails down her throat, spreads across her chest, and blossoms in her belly and causes a rush of heat between her legs. She closes her eyes to bask in the kiss, giving as much as she takes even though her tongue is just too short to compete with his wonderfully nimble one.

She whines as he pulls away but calms when he nuzzles against her forehead and says, “Show me where to touch you.”

She can’t nod hard enough, unable to come up with anything witty to say that deep timbre of his voice. Instead, she takes his hands and lays them on her breasts. “They’re very sensitive. You can squeeze them—”

Her heart races when he shifts his hands without her lead, rubbing the callused pad of his thumb over her nipple. She has to bite her lip from trying to say something snarky that would most likely end up sounding more wanton than she wants to admit right now.

She realizes that he’s learned how to treat her breasts from somewhere else and it’s not just experience over the years. There sure as hell aren’t any on female turians and he’s repeatedly sworn he’s never slept with another species.

It’s annoyingly touching that he’d go through the effort to learn how to properly tease her instead of fumbling around and figuring it out in the moment. That’s good because she’s done herself enough stumbling and groping around during her turn to make their encounters awkward enough.

Just as she’s about to ask him what kind of kind of porn he’s been watching, he grazes her erect nipple with the edge of his talon.

She jumps as electricity runs straight to her toes. A breath comes out of her lungs in a short gasp and she grins.

“Do that again,” she greedily demands, almost panting in want. When he raises a brow plate in intrigue, eyes glancing up at her face, she says, “I know it’s weird, but just … do that again.”

He shifts his hands so that only the tips of his talons run over her skin, skimming over her nipples and leaving tingling trails of pleasure against the skin of her breasts. She knows his talons are blunted but they still have enough of an edge to pull a moan from her lips.

Fuck …. He has no idea what he’s doing to me ….

Or does he?

She isn’t of a sound enough mind to demand he do it again but she finds that she doesn't have to. Not when he leans down and sweeps his rough tongue across her right nipple.

Jerking in reaction, she moans and throws her head back. As she closes her eyes, she asks, “Fuck ….” She sighs and looks at him, a lazy smirk on her face as she tries to maintain her composure. “Good God, Garrus. Where the hell did you learn this?”

[b-dubs-valdubs]

hey chat its decomposition hours againnnnnn

[bethiniancorpuscle]

Causes of drug-induced lupus

SHIP

Sulfasalazine & Sulfonamide Hydralazine Isoniazid Procainamide & Phenytoin

This is by no means a definitive list (they are many!) but these are some of the most common causes.

[eli-is-an-idiot]

so when i said that i might not be updating you'd have to stop the world bc of exams...

yeah that was a lie i'm editing chapter four now and it should be out by the end of the day

[uefb]

I have so many one-shots in my one-shot folder right now I don’t even know where to start… So here’s the opening of a new one I started writing in my head while driving today! 🫠

[farie-insignias]

Revised Chapter 18 of AE

Hi everyone! I hope you're doing well!!!! Yes, I'm still alive.

The following post will address the topic of SA - just to warn you, so if you have any triggers, please be mindful when reading.

After thinking about it for several, several months, I’ve decided to go back and rewrite part of Chapter 18: Photographic Evidence – namely, the section dealing with Caroline’s trauma. There are several reasons for this and I’ll list them below.

Firstly, I just didn’t like how I handled the subject matter. When I set out to write this story I had no intention of ever addressing the subject of sexual assault in any concrete way. I mean, it’s a stark and terrible reality of the world that many woman, unfortunately, have to deal with, and I knew I might brush against it as I painted a picture of Bonnie’s experiences in 1864, but I had no intention of diving any further into it than that. That simply wasn’t what this story was going to be about, and I know writing about a character that has gone through something like that should be done with thoughtfulness and respect.

So, why did I even bother trying in the first place?

I’ve responded to a few reviews asking me this very question, and the answer is pretty simple: timing. That’s what it boils down to. Just as I was gearing up to write the moment between Caroline and Bonnie, a video started making the rounds on Tumblr. It was of a woman talking about the media’s representation of assault culture and how it needed to change, and I believe she even used Caroline as an example of this – how all she does is shove Damon and call him a jerk in response to remembering that he assaulted her.

Some of you old hats might remember which video I’m talking about.

It was an interesting video, very well articulated points – and suddenly I felt very unsure about how I wanted to handle the Caroline/Bonnie scene I was about to write. Personally, even to this day, I don’t really think about a vampire’s compulsion in terms of how it would function in the real world – though that could make for an interesting exploration and for a very gritty and grounded series. Basically, I don’t think too deeply about the realistic consequences of a vampire using their naturally given powers – especially on a show like The Vampire Diaries. Maybe if this were The Walking Dead or Game of Thrones, I might have thought about it more, but…

As it was, I started to wonder: was I a part of the problem? Should I be addressing this? Would it be wrong of me to ignore it? Do I really believe Caroline views what happened to her in those terms?

If Caroline existed in the real world, I would say a thousand percent yes. But the Caroline in The Vampire Diaries? No, I honestly don’t think she does. I don’t think ANY of the characters do. For exactly the same reason as the young woman was addressing in the video: none of the writers saw it as sexual assault.

Which left me in a weird position – did I go along with the established portrayal of Caroline (which would be the easy thing to do) or did I bite the bullet and talk about what was on everyone’s mind at the time? Tbh, I wasn’t convinced I should touch it, because I deeply believe that sexual assault isn’t something that should be marginalized in a story and, if it’s going to be addressed it needs to be at the forefront.

But I also believe in signs from God… And a video popping up, just when you’re about to write a character’s perspective on another character, talking about the very same said character and how their justified hatred for other said character has been watered down… I mean, it seemed like a pretty clear sign to me.

In the end, we know what I chose. It simply felt like it would be wrong of me to try and sweep it under the rug. So, I took a swing at it… and I missed.

I got an extremely insightful review from someone named Miss 45 that really helped me realise how far off the mark I was with my attempt. I am eternally grateful to this person, because I now know what to avoid doing if I ever tackle this subject matter again in the future.

They also said, and I quote – “Tbh, when I think about bamon as a ship I usually pretend that it didn't happen bcs I can't imagine Bonnie ever doing that to Caroline […]”

And they are completely right! Especially looking back, I can see that now. The only reason I could write the scene and have it turn out fairly acceptable was because I was focused on Bonnie’s experiences/emotions and not Caroline’s – which was selfish of me as a writer. At the time, I had thought I had addressed the issue, but I really hadn’t. At least not in a way that represented Caroline’s trauma realistically.

So, I made a promise to myself and to Miss 45, that when I did address the issue again, as I was planning to at least once or twice more, I would do a better job.

Which brings us to where we are now, because the closer I get to talking about what happened to Caroline again and how it affects, not only her, but also Bonnie/Damon’s potential relationship… I realize there is no feasible way to do it and stay true to the characters/have a happy ending.

I’ve been wracking my brain about it for ages now. If I want to honestly do a good job, I realize I would have to dedicate far more of the story than I’m willing to on the subject of Caroline/Damon.

And not just because, if I’m being true to Bonnie, she wouldn’t be able to write off what Damon did to Caroline for her own happiness, no matter what Caroline said (which realistically Caroline wouldn’t want her doing either – who would want that?). But Damon wouldn’t be able to forgive himself either.

I honestly, with every fiber of my being, don’t believe Damon views what he did as sexual assault. Which is not to excuse him, but his understanding of the situation is definitely not objective. If he ever did come to understand the full extent of his actions I think that knowledge would destroy him. He’s a lot of things – proudly a monster who will cross many a line, but I can’t imagine he would ever cross that one. At least, not knowingly. So, if his perception of himself and his actions were to change so fundamentally, and in such a negative way… if he were to see himself fully for what he actually is and what he actually did... He already has issues with self-hatred…

Yeah, all the Damon scenarios in my head got pretty dark, pretty quickly.

I realized that if I wanted Bonnie and Damon to have any chance of being together, Damon would have to go on a very long journey towards recovery – which completely changed what the story was about and was something I wasn’t willing to do.

So, in order to tell the story I originally set out to tell, I made the decision to retcon Caroline and Bonnie’s forest conversation in Chapter 18 and make it into something that better serves the purposes of the story as a whole. *deep sigh* I’m not 1000% happy with this decision, but I do believe it’s the right decision to make. I think the story will, ultimately, be stronger for it.

I hope this doesn’t upset anyone. I understand if people think I’m being cowardly or even selfish for deciding not to pursue the topic anymore (and I would agree with you completely). I feel it would take a far more educated, sensitive and talented writer than myself to be able to do that particular storyline justice in the story I’m setting out to tell. But I’ve learned a lot from this experience that I plan to take with me into the future.