#I included both times I ranked because I'm in hell and on fire

[reverseexorcist]

★ 𝐅𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐁𝐢𝐫𝐝 ★

"If it's alright could I request Carmilla Carmine x a fem reader who's a fallen angel? Like maybe they met during extermination and got their wings ripped off for not wanting to kill Carmilla's kids or they were already in hell with Carmilla for some time before the extermination? If you don't want to do this that's totally fine, and sorry if this isn't how to request stuff :)."

Honestly, with how this ended, I'm really tempted to write a much fluffier part 2 to this

Part 2 ↫ Right here

➲ 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐚 Carmine + !Fallen Angel!Reader

➲ Romantic ☐, Platonic ☒

➲ 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐝 Count; 3,462 Words

➲ Warnings/notes; Female reader, descriptions of gore/blood, canonical Lute slander (sorry Lute), romantic or platonic wasn't requested so I went with platonic to fit the story more (if the requester wants romantic just feel free to ask me), mother mode Carmilla (she might be a bit ooc because of this),

Oh wow.

Oh wow were you shaking.

You couldn't tell if it was from the excitement or the nerves - Probably both if you were being honest with yourself, but you couldn't shake off the vibrating feeling tingling beneath your skin that made you want to fly laps around heaven. Your stomach was doing flips, but you led mask only reflected your nearly psychopathic grin and twitching eye.

Even after your lieutenant Lute shot you a stern look, no doubt pissed off because you couldn't sit still for five goddamn seconds, you still couldn't resist fidgeting with your spear. It was sparkly, and somewhat heavy, and a murderous weapon that was entirely yours! It was also cold, freezing almost. Even against your gloves it made your palms feel numb and seemed to shine in sync with your own valiant excitement.

Baby's first extermination, basically. While the name certainly sounded scary, you'd been waiting for this day for six months (you and the other forty-five cadets in your platoon) and you were ready to do your best! Sure, you were still technically a rookie, hanging around the flock and bringing up the rear of the exorcists, but this was how you proved yourself to rise the ranks, right?

Your heart stopped beating in your chest when you finally reached the front. Holy shit, that was the high seraphim! Sera, right? Oh wow, she really was much much taller in person, towering above the clustering sea of black and white murderous intent. Her outward vibe was motherly and caring, but you could see the glint of distain, guilt and regret sparking in the deepest depths of her eyes. Which was confusing, because you were doing a good thing, right? Ridding the divine planes of sinners irredeemable souls.

The thoughts crowded your mind - Evil, twisted monsters crawling around like bugs in the brimstone crowded crevices of hell. You could only imagine the satisfaction of killing your first hell spawn.

It would have to be cool no doubt. Something big with lots of teeth and claws and that could breathe fire! You had to come home with a cool story to brag about. You'd heard the tales from all your superiors. From everyone including the first man Adam himself, your respectably awesome (if a little terrifying) lieutenant Lute, to the other lieutenants like Michael and Gabriel. You'd have to off a demon built like a mountain to get their attention.

And by the big man himself, you were going to do it. Even if it took you a hundred years, you could already see yourself commanding a group just like yours, bearing a helmet with horns big and curved and bold, black stripes stippled along your ivory wings.

With a very particular pep in your step, you saluted the high seraphim Sera respectively, head cocked up just so you could regard her kindly warmth in fullness. Her smile didn't reach her eyes, and although she swiftly sent you on your way with the rest of your platoon, you couldn't help but let your nerves sway your resolve ever so slightly.

It didn't matter though! You unfurled your wings with perhaps a bit too much of a dramatic flair, but with your spear in hand and helm polished so it shined with malevolent glory, you kicked off without a second thought, tailing right behind where you were supposed to be.

Your first impression of hell was the heat.

With the extermination already well under way, raging fires were already burning up half of the city sending whorls of smog up into the air. You easily battered it away with a few strong flaps of your wings. With your head on the swivel, your eagle-eyes peered around the desolate land for the forms of the sinners struggling to thrive below, silhouettes hidden by the thick layer of smoke and ash blanketing the landscape.

Lieutenant Lute furled out her wings below you, a screeching war cry echoing throughout the battlefield as she all but left your rookie platoon in the metaphorical dust. The sound itself only spurred you on, itching for the blood of a demon on the blade of your angelic spear. Without a second thought, you tucked your wings to you sides and dived below, headfirst into the fray.

Billowing flames licked past you harmlessly, though they burned like hell (which seemed rather apt, considering where you). You didn't falter, flying through the embers like a goddamn phoenix ready to cleanse the realm sprawled out beneath you. The solid wingbeats of two of your fellow cadets only strengthened your resolution, a holy fire burning in your soul - An itch to clear the filth of devil scum away. This was the chaotic strength that your captain had sought to build in you, and now you were finally able to act on it.

But everywhere you looked, you only found simple, humanoid souls running and screaming in terror. Eyes wide, half-dead or bloodied beyond belief as they scrambled to find shelter from the onslaught of exorcists like yourself. Nowhere could you see the mangled forms of the demons you'd been taught to slaughter. Descriptions from your seniors before you passed through your mind - 'gleaming eyes with with wrath and lust', 'gangly limbs twisted to an unholy form', 'mouths filled with rows of sharp teeth, and claws like knives'.

You faltered, confused. The words of Lute rang out in your mind.

"Of course, it's not like they can actually hurt you. You're all warriors, the toughest, just use your spears to stab the shit out of them!"

You were alone now. You couldn't hear the comforting sounds of your fellow rookies behind you anymore. They were well in front of you now, peering around with a similar confusion to yours. But to your absolute horror, they simply shrugged their shoulders and dived forward with bloodlust evident in their glowing white masks. Silver points of spears were jammed through the heads of the terrified demons below. But were they demons? They didn't look like them at all. Every single book you'd seen depicting demons drew them as eldritch monsters with too many eyes to count, tentacles and claws and fangs with nary but bloodlust and vile thoughts hidden within their slitted eyes.

But the demons in front of you looked just like people. You could see the way their faces contorted in terror. You could see them scrambling to help what you could only assume were friends and family, pulling them along and carrying the ones who couldn't run for themselves. You could only feel your heart fall as you watched one of your best friends land on top of a sinner already crushed by rubble, turquoise skin stained red. The begged and pleaded and cried, but their voice was silenced as the spearhead sunk into their skull.

You flinched. The world around you ignored you completely, and for once, you were completely happy to go unnoticed.

Shakily, you touched-down in a nearby street. It was littered with already oozing corpses, but other than that it was peacefully empty. At least here the sounds of violence and pain and terror was muffled, far away enough that you could at least try to distance yourself and get your breathing under control.

You barely reeled in a gag as the smell of blood invaded your senses.

Was this really what you wanted to do for the rest of your life? You could still see yourself in your mind's eye, a model exorcist like your lieutenant now leading her own platoon into another extermination. Maybe this would be a one off, just a shock to the system that would get your mind reworked into killing mode. But, the more you thought about it, the more your heart clenched in pain and terror that seemingly matched the suffering souls around you. You were an agent of heaven, you thought you were killing mindless monsters, not those with human souls! Sure, there were probably shitty people fucking around down here, but what about all those who had to sin in self defence?

A chorus of startled gasps startled you out of your panic ridden stupor. Your wings flared up, trying to make yourself look bigger, more threatening as you wheeled around. The spear in your hands looked more like a prop at this point, and it was clear that you had minimal idea how to use it inside a proper battle. But still, you fumbled with it and pointed it threateningly in the direction of the two demons that had appeared right behind you.

They clutched each other, stumbling backwards and further away from the danger of your angelic weapon. One of them placed an arm in front of the other, her eyes narrowing behind her red-tinted glasses as if she was both terrified by you, but was daring you to do something about it.

But still, you could see them shaking from where you stood. They both seemed rooted to the ground, the one with platinum blonde hair refused to take her eyes off of you, but the demon behind her (maybe her sister? A friend?) was looking around nervously.

You could see yourself reflected in those crimson specs, and for once it made you freeze. You'd seen yourself in uniform plenty of times before, the steel boots and guard gloves and the led, horned helmet, but it always seemed almost comforting before. When you were surrounded by your cohorts, it made you fit in. Out here, you realised, you were the monster.

The ever-present smile on your mask shrunk, falling into a grimace as your grip on your weapon tightened. Your wings drew in, you shrunk backwards, almost stumbling over your own feet in the process of trying your hardest to get away. You never wanted to scare people.

So drowned by your own confusion and fear and reckless thoughts of worry about the future that you didn't notice the confusion growing the faces of the demons in front of you turn into abject horror as a far more ominous silhouette grew behind you.

"I thought I taught you not to hesitate," Lute growled in your ear, placing her free hand on your shoulder and digging her fingers in till your were sure a bruise was marred into your skin. You didn't respond, couldn't even if you wanted to. The trembling that rattled you only grew stronger, and you fumbled as your hands cramped painfully. With a resounding clatter, your spear dropped from your grasp an on to the brazen brimstone floor.

Lute growled.

She didn't say anything, but she knew. The both of you knew by now. You couldn't kill a sinner.

Lute didn't even hesitate before shoving you to the ground. Your head collided with solid stone painfully even with your helmet on, stars shining behind your eyes as her words blurred together as she pressed her foot firmly between your shoulder blades. Your wings shivered and spread involuntarily, and you feared the moments that would come next. Lute was unpredictable, but this could only end with bloodshed.

The two girls still hadn't moved, transfixed in horror as they watched the scene in front of them play out.

Asphalt stung your hands and you tried to claw your way to freedom, fingertips digging into the scorched Earth as you started crying. Lute, however, was stronger than you. Of course she was, she'd been doing this for centuries, and you were still a fledging on her first trip out of heaven.

You never thought it would end like this.

Lute dug her fingers into your wings, tangling into your still downy feathers before she yanked with all her might. The scream she tore from your lips was hellish, agonising, yet the blended with the sounds of violence all around you. You were sure you blacked out several times throughout the process, but by the time your old lieutenant was done with you, barely anything but feathery stumps and golden blood remained of your wings.

You could only curl up, cry and watch as Lute tossed clumps of feathers aside as she stalked toward the two demons that still hadn't had the thought to run. And for the first time in your life, you felt sorry for the sinners that populated hell's ring of wrath.

She would make them suffer, that was for sure. If she was happy enough to tear of another angel's wings, you could only imagine what she would do to a sinner. You didn't want to imagine, and your mind was fuzzy enough that you thankfully didn't have to.

The sound of something sharp rang throughout the air. It made you groan in pain, the sound piercing your ears and making your brain rattle in your skull. Sharp - 'Tink tink tink tink tink.' If you could see the look of relief coming across the demons faces, a part of you might've urged Lute to run. Only, she had just torn your wings off with little qualm, and now you had no shits left to give if she lived or not.

The exorcist never got the chance to strike, her weapon torn from her hands and thrown across the street till it collided with a bloody body. Lute herself barely had time to react before she was struck over the head once, then twice in rapid succession. A whirlwind of white and angelic steel and pure fury launched herself in the path between the two demons and the exorcist. It was almost exhilarating to watch, seeing Lute strike out with her fists in a pathetic attempt of hand to hand combat against her new foe. Whoever they were, they were really fucking fast, almost too fast for you to keep up with.

The fight was over before it started. Without her weapon, Lute couldn't do much against the sinner she was pitted against, and as ruthless as she was, she knew when a battle was lost. In a flurry of black and white feathers, she fled. And then the newcomer's attention was shifted to you.

At this point, you would've welcomed death. The pain alone was making you drift slightly, and you didn't even have the energy left to groan when whoever nudged you slightly with something hard and cold.

"Mother.." The words were so soft, floating away from your ears.

"We need to leave." It was undoubtably her. That voice was the one who beat Lute into the ground.

"What about..?" That was the one who called out for mother.

"Won't she tattle?" So that had to be her sister.

Those words sent a dose of adrenaline through you. With as much strength as you could muster, you clawed yourself into an upwards position. You could feel the clotting blood running down your back, but if you were going to die, you at least wanted to do so with some dignity.

Shakily, with much more effort than was really desired, you reached up and peeled your helmet off.

It clattered noisily like glass against the floor, and suddenly the world was much brighter, much more red and the air was laced with more sulphur and death than you could imagine. But what really surprised you was the look of shock written across the sinner's face.

She was tall. Really tall. The only person who could really compete was Seraphim Sera or maybe Adam, but you really couldn't tell with how delirious you were.

"Una niña?" They all looked surprised.

The one called mother took a few steps forward, confusion and anger clearly present in her eyes. But, as she kneeled down in front of your comparatively tiny form, you realised the anger wasn't directed at you.

"Did she try to hurt you?" She turned back to face her daughters. They both shared a look, but ultimately shook their heads no. That right there, was your saving grace.

She looked back at you, hair pinned into high horns, and took your helmet in her large hands. She passed it off to one of her daughters, before gently scooping you into her hold.

You whined, writhing minutely in her hold as the searing phantom pain of your wings being torn off returned. Fat tears rolled down your cheeks, and yet the demoness tutted softly, shushing you like you were a baby.

Her daughters followed without a word, and you and the family unit moved swiftly through the desolate roads. So many questions were running through your mind, and yet you couldn't find the answer to any of them, your thoughts to lost to the fog of blood loss to ever truly return.

"You better not betray me," Were the last words you heard before promptly passing out.

The plushness of a soft blanket was the first thing you felt waking up. For a moment, you felt nothing but relief realising the entire thing had been a horrid nightmare, but when you tried to rustle the numbness out of your wings, the relief was replaced with horror when you realised that your wings were just straight up missing, only two feathery stumps remaining in their place.

That made you shoot up in horror. You didn't even care about the sharp sting that ran down your spine and into your very being, you were a bit too concerned about your current predicament.

"You're awake."

That made you promptly scream before ducking under the covers like you were a nestling again. A soft sigh reached your ears, but you dared not to venture out from the warmth of the thick covers.

Not like you had a choice, though, as you were soon pried away from their safety. It was her, the demoness with the high-pinned buns. She looked down on you, red eyes glowing in the low light, and yet, you couldn't sense a smidge of hatred towards you. Only distrust and sadness laced her expression.

"How old are you?" She asked after the silence had gone on long enough.

"I'm a fledgling," Is all you said. You didn't really fancy giving too much information. Although, the look of horror the crossed her face maybe suggested that you'd already given away plenty.

"Obligan a los niños a hacer esto?" She raised a hand and carded it through her snowy tresses, locks of white hair threaded loose as she paced back and forth. You only watched her, slowly sinking back into the comfort of the warm blankets.

"You're still a child." It was a statement.

You hated being a child. You didn't want to be a child, at least, you hadn't wanted to be a child in the past. You wanted to join the ranks of the exorcists, and to do that you at least needed to be juvenile. Hell, you were lucky enough to make it into the cadets while you still had baby feathers decorating your wings. But now, the fact that yes, you were still technically a kid made your saviour look upon you with more than just disdain and hatred like any other exorcist, but rather she looked upon you with an emotion that you'd never seen before, and not one you could really name.

"You are a child, and now you have fallen," She eyed your mostly healed wing stumps, and you couldn't help but reflexively flex them anxiously. The literal weight off your back made you want to cry.

"Was this your first extermination?" She gazed upon you with a guarded look. You nodded.

"And you didn't hurt my daughters?" Another nod from you. That seemed to make her relax just a tad.

"Could you ever hurt someone?" That made you pause, the memories of the extermination rushing back to you full force. Tears grew at the corners of your eyes, and still, you answered with a simple 'no'.

She exhaled a sigh of relief before closing the distance and kneeling down to your eye level.

"Carmilla Carmine." She reached a hand out toward you. So that was her name.

You clutched your hands close to your chest, fearing her touch, but gave her your name anyway.

"What are you gonna do with me?" You asked, voice cracking. Her gaze softened, finally letting her guard slip for just a moment.

"Well, you weren't going to make it out there by yourself. You'll be staying with me," The words took a moment to sink into your mind. Well, at least it was better than death.

Gently, like she was working with a scared animal, Carmilla coaxed you out from the comfort of the bed, slowly ushering you to her side. With your wings missing and their remains bandaged, head bare and missing your exorcist helmet, it felt like the safest place in the world.

"Welcome to Hell."

Rules + Info,

Masterlist,

[theanomily]

Regarding the H.I.V.E. birthday bundle, specifically my less-than-satisfactory contribution to it:

(Under a cut because I estimate this to be about 1000 words).

The shortest way I can say this is "sorry."

In a longer form, I acquknowledge that Wing is a beloved, respected character of the H.I.V.E. series, becoming a favourite of many, and ranking highly in the minds of everyone else. If anyone deserved better treatment in this event, it was undoubtedly him, not to mention the real-life disappointed H.I.V.E. fandom.

I also acquknowledge that this was probably the largest communal event since the release of Bloodline three years ago and that the date on which it was announced was long enough ago to counter any explanation I could possibly give, especially since I, as a minor, have more time to commit to any one project than an adult burdened with full-time employment and more significant responsibilities than I. Yet I shall offer one regardless and leave the perception of my character at the mercy of your own individual judgements. It is as follows:

Some of you might remember me directing a post to an "anon" threatening me in January, which I have since deleted. This is actually not a recent or isolated issue- not even for my blog, although I doubt that anybody remembers her posting so-called "edgy" stuff on it back in like 2019. But if you do, fun fact: it was the same person. This person used to be my friend, then a "girlfriend" and is now something of an enemy. As well as threats, there has been blackmail and cases of physical violence committed against both me and my other friends. The reason I bring this up is because she followed me to the store I worked at sometime mid Feburary and provoked me there too. I was stupid, I shouted at her, and I was rightfully fired as a result. And the reason I mention this at all is because it has been hell finding a new job, eating up the time I had specifically set aside for this project.

Then, the entirety of March I more or less dedicated to finally reading bloodline (I read it twice more after my initial "live react" posts so I could actually get the juice out of it).

On the 23rd of March, my cat died, and to be brutally honest, I spent the entirety of April not doing anything that wasn't complete brainrot (hence the surge in my blog activity 💀).

May brought with it UCAS exams (UCAS points being what you need in the UK to get into university).

June brought the results, one of which was a C in physics, a grade that my school, family, and peers viewed as an unforgivable failure. As such, I had devices as well as other "distractions," including my books, taken away until the end of July so I could focus on resitting everything. Additionally, I was forced to go to school two hours early for extra lessons, given hour long detentions until the end of the academic year and had to have random meetings during my breaks to really rub in how stupid I am (no exaggerations are being made here; my head of year managed to drag calling me the r slur into a forty minute rant on one occassion).

Then, in August, my uncle got into a car accident and requested that myself and my parents fly over into Zimbabwe to help him. Fair enough, but in the time it had taken us to get over there, the man had gone off-grid (as he has a habit of doing) and we still have no clue of his whereabouts.

I promise I will make amends, and the only path I can see heading towards this objective is completing and redoing what you have seen for this project alongside a few other elements I had planned to incorporate into it. To be more specific, I will:

- Finish the birthday bundle.

I'm sure you've noticed that the "playlist" and "prompts for you" categories are missing from my offering. This will be rectified, and I will add these to the original birthday bundle post so it can be completed. I had elected to avoid those categories as I figured that having a few tasks done to a "rushed and painfully mediocre" standard would be better than having a small amount of awful content for each element of the bundle. The reasons why those two categories were chosen to be neglected were that a) no music I know at all aligns with Wing and b) I had not noted that the "prompts for you" was an existing section and only remembered when reading through the example Otto post, meaning I had not left myself enough time to sit with and revisit ideas to see if they really were any good. Additionally, that fanfic is nowhere near finished. I do plan to edit the published chapter and then continue it, and I shall try my best to stick to frequent, regular updates of a higher quality and quantity than I have presented you with thus far.

- Improve what I have given you

I plan to drastically improve my digital art for each "mini" picture that's in my work- you can see that there's a very, very good reason why I kept them all mini. When I'm done, they will be transformed into something that can at least be posted at their full size without risking the health of your eyes.

- Add to what I've given you

I know I've done very few headcanons, so I'll be sure to focus on Wing for future ones that I'll publish on my blog. In all likelihood, the next post of mine will be a much longer list of Wing headcanons. And even if it is not next, it will still hopefully be in the near future.

My initial plan for the "Wing art" was to make a rudimentary physical model of him. I can't promise it'll be of high quality since the last time I did this, I was four years younger, working with better materials, working without keeping it a secret, and crafting the fox emoji rather than an entire person. I also can't see how the colour green, which is what I was assigned, will fit in. But I'll do it anyway.

Something that I played with a bit while waiting for the prompts to be given out was character art. Currently, I have WIPs for Shelby and Laura and have posted a Ms Leon. I want to do something for every character, and Wing will most certainly be included in that, so I promise I'll take extra care to do him justice when I get around to him. Consider it to be like a non-picrew alternative to the cover image.

I also have a physical drawing in the works, though I confess this too shall probably take a while in the interest of refining skills before applying them so I don't waste the one piece of sketch paper I bought.

Once more, I am so extremely sorry for what I have done, and I will ensure that never again shall this height of inadequacy be reached and inflicted onto people who deserve so much better.

Thank you for reading

[darthkieduss]

Try

Revolution doesn't just happen overnight. It can happen spontaneously, yes, but it builds and builds and builds until it can no longer be contained. The need for freedom, liberty and justice will become a force so massive that the government in Washington DC will not be able to ignore or write off as "tiktok kid activism". It is up to every single one of us to contribute to the revolution.

Oppression is not natural. Freedom is the nature of all life forms, not just us humans. While some animals such as the dog or cat can definitely survive better in a house under control of a human, I've never seen a dog more happy then when you let them outside. To control people, whether it be because of some dumb book written 2,000 years ago (by man not God) or because of some obsession with maintaining "order" is an act of narcissism. To think that one has a right to control what living breathing beings can do with their lives is a blatant act of claiming that they are gods over humanity.

Remember this: It is not natural to be controlled. If you are spiritual or super religious, God (or gods) gave us free will for a reason. If you are an atheist, then free will comes from nature. Governments try to control people because they are afraid. President Thomas Jefferson himself coined the phrase: When the government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. The government tries to control people because like most men, they fear losing their power and wealth. They seek to control to preserve their power. That's why the government will commit atrocities like opening fire on striking workers like the Kent State shootings against students protesting the Vietnam War or the 1927 Columbine Mine massacre against coal miners simply striking for better wages and benefits. It is inhumane to control people. Sure, government has to exist. I'm not an anarchist, but the amount of control the US government has exhibited since 1981 is unconstitutional and must be opposed.

Reform is not the answer. Reform is just a bandage on a wound that needs stitches. Change is needed but change through reform is like a drug addict thinking he's kicking drugs by simply only doing drugs once a week. True Revolution happens when the opium is completely thrown out and destroyed. In order for true change to happen, it must come through sudden revolution. We must uphaul the system and like a phoenix, rebirth this country from its ashes.

It does sometime seem like it's impossible. "What can I do? I'm just one person and the US government has the military." Remember this, we outnumber them. The US military has 1,328,000+ active servicemen, with 800,000+ reserve while the US population is 334,914,895 (2023 concenus). Ordinary peasants took down the Czar's Armies and ruled Russia for 74 years. In many revolutions, those were in the military sided with the people, such as the French and Russian Revolutions. Hell, a vast number of those who swore an allegiance to King George III took off their redcoats and pledged their lives to the cause of the American Revolution. When enough soldiers see what is happening, they will dissent and swell our ranks. The British Empire was the most powerful military in the world at that time and we won, though we would've lost without France's assistance so don't get arrogant.

I know revolution seems impossible especially with all the propaganda that Fox News, CNN, MSNBC etc pop out everyday. Remember the Soviets and the Nazis shoved propaganda throughout their empires and both fell, people in both nations rose up against the far-left communism and far-right fascism. The British government often used propaganda, including religious propaganda, to ensure that their American subjects should be loyal to the King and yet we've been an indepenet country since 1783. The Russian government under Putin commands obedience and tells its people tremendous lies about its illegal war in Ukraine and yet millions of Russian people protest him. The Israelis claim that anyone who opposes Israel or its actions (genocide) against Palestinians in Gaza is Anti-Semitic and yet people all around the world, including here in the US, protest Israel.

It's also quite possible that multiple revolutions must happen in order for the big one to come about. The Soviet Union didn't come about because of one revolution in 1917 but of two. The people rose up against the Czar in February of 1917 only for sadly the extremist Bolsheviks to conquer Russia in the October Revolution of 1917. Our own American Revolution took over 10 years to ignite, starting with the British Parliament passing the Stamp Act in 1765 to the firing of shots at Lexington and Concord in 1775. The American Revolution occurred across thirteen colonies. So really, the American Revolution was about multiple revolutions exploding throughout the Colonies that united to form the United States of America.

This is not a shot at conservatism or leftism. Both the Democrat and Republican Parties have taken rights from Americans, from the Republicans passing the Patriot Act (essentially gutting the Bill of Rights) after 9/11 and Democrats not allowing that proto-fascist act to expire (it's set to expire every five years but the government under both parties keep delaying the expiration). This is an outline on how revolution must happen. Both parties have allowed the wealthy elite to plunder this nation and steal from the working class to ensure they have all the money and power (one is definitely more guilty than the other but I digress) .

Remember this: Revolutions happen because the people demand it. When enough people have tried method after method of chaning the system peacefully, what other alternative do they have left other than Revolution? Every protest, whether it's on the left or right, puts out in front of the people the failures of the government. Millions of women are to this day protesting that the supreme court has stripped them of their constitutional right to bodily autonomy. Millions of people around the world are in the streets protesting the genocidal act of Putin's Russia and Netenyahu's Israel.

Maybe it is hopeless. Maybe I'm just wasting time on this post. Most likely no one will see it. But I have to try. I would rather die on my feet then live on my knees. If I could do this fight against tyranny all over again, the only thing I'd change is the year it happened. Never give up. Even if you don't live to see the results. Even if you fail. Even if the government comes to your house to take you away. Your example will inspire others to rise up. We have to try. Change doesn't happen because we bowed our heads and went along to get along. And sometimes you have to out yourself. Sometimes you have to call out your alcoholic racist uncle at Thanksgiving. Even if your family turns against you.

Remember this: revolutions don't happen because of one person. George Washington didn't defeat the British at Yorktown all himself. It took the courage, bravery and sacrifice of thousands of brave American men and women. Even children, as proven by then 13 year old Andrew Jackson. Napoleon didn't start the French revolution. Vladimir Lenin didn't start the Russian Revolution. It's up to all of us. To lead by example.

We will sacrifice, we will struggle but ultimately we will triumph.

Let me end this with the manifesto of Karis Nemik, a character from the Andor series (a really good Star Wars series despite my preference for Star Wars Legends). Consider these words and take them to heart:

There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy.

Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly throughout the galaxy. There are whole armies, battalions that have no idea that they've already enlisted in the cause.

Remember that the frontier of the Rebellion is everywhere. And even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. And then remember this. The Imperial need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear.

Remember that. And know this, the day will come when all these skirmishes and battles, these moments of defiance will have flooded the banks of the Empire's authority and then there will be one too many. One single thing will break the siege.

Remember this: Try.

[dhufflebee]

I'm new! whose binotto? How long he was there? What he do to Char?

hi! welcome :) and thanks for the vote of confidence, i'm not sure i'm the best person for the job since i've really gotten back into f1 a couple years ago, but i'll do my best.

i suggest you also do a deep dive into @leqclerc's blog, starting with these 3 posts ( x - x - x ).

mattia binotto was, for better or for worse, a key figure in ferrari up until the end of 2022, when he was let go/fired. he had worked for ferrari as a PU engineer since the schumacher times (not sure about what year he started), and climbed the ranks until he became technical director. due to internal politics - a problem that affects ferrari seemingly endemically - and his own inflated ego, in 2019 he all but forced the scuderia to hand him the role of team principal alongside being TD... and that was an atrociously bad decision, but you know what they say about hindsight.

2019 was the first year for charles leclerc in the team (but let's not forget he had been signed by the previous tp/management) alongside seb vettel; the year wasn't particularly good as a whole, but the car was developed well and the team got 3 wins back to back after summer (including monza with charles, which is A Big Deal). only problem is, in the winter break it came out that ferrari had signed some sort of pact/agreement/whatever with the fia, because apparently the engine had been a bit too much focused on exploiting grey areas of the regulations - both engine and accord being directly linked to binotto in his double role.

so to "protect" this engine project (still to this day nobody knows much about it except that it wasn't outright and wholly illegal), binotto decided not to get penalties & fines like any other team would; instead ferrari was forced by the fia to develop a new, power-limited engine who completely crippled the team in 2020 (and also 2021). the car was horrible to drive, results would not come - seb's and most especially charles's efforts notwithstanding - and internal politics were still rampant. to add fuel to the fire, italian media started a smear campaign against seb, which resulted in him being let go in 2020. a media campaign that started mainly because of results, but binotto's absurd and backwards communication style didn't help, with his tendency to not support, lie to and baby his drivers in statements and team radios.

2021 was a transitory year, last of the regulations - car was slightly better but still bad, nobody was thinking about ferrari much given the wdc fight. only noteworthy thing (and again: hindsight) was that carlos sainz joined ferrari, a driver coveted and handpicked by binotto himself.

2022 was when it all came to a head. new regs were established and apparently ferrari had the best car of them all: the first races were quite the sweep with charles seemingly poised to become wdc with the way he was dominating. except, engine reliability was an issue (not disastrous but charles did lose some wins because of that) and worst of all, the team and the wdc campaign under binotto were handled in the most shitty and maliciously bad way you can imagine. important tidbit: in the beginning, carlos was struggling in the car while charles soared, and it's clear now that binotto hated that and worked like hell to favour the driver he chose. meaning the strategies were amateurish, with wins and podiums lost - usually by charles - due to absurd decisions from the pitwall (wrong tyre choices, driver's suggestions getting blatantly ignored, pit stop fumbles like in monaco, charles constantly getting sacrificed because "he could recover", etc). absolute worst of the worst, ferrari robbed charles at gunpoint in silverstone, a race he was comfortably leading and going to win, until they chose to not pit him and to leave him out on old tyres to be overtaken, handing carlos the victory and kicking charles off the poium entirely. to make matters even worse, binotto wagged his finger in charles's face telling him he had to stay put and enjoy (maybe you've seen pictures, it was the single most enarging moment in a wholly enraging weekend).

that race was really the beginning of the end. i cannot let you understand the amount of hate the scuderia got for that result, from fans (especially charles's) but also from media and other teams who were all absolutely baffled by the team's choice. because you see, at that point of the year charles was still way above carlos in points and was still fighting for the wdc - silverstone basically killed that. firstly because it had been a conscious choice to hand carlos his first career win (something the team had been trying to do for a while), and then because it was the most blatant consequence of a season that should have been vehemently focused around charles (much like 2023!max) and instead saw binotto saying there was absolutely no need to establish hierarchy between the drivers at any point in the season (ignoring the huge gap in points and talent), that the team wasn't actually doing that bad of a job after all, that they still could win (if only it wasn't for the pesky driver who can't be a strategist and mechanic as well... if you read between the lines). binotto and the team never took responsibility for anything, letting the brunt of the mistakes and the failed endeavor to be shouldered by charles, which also warped people's ideas of charles and carlos and the media narrative about them - something you can still clearly see the effect of, and probably always will.

after summer break minor regs changed and any wdc hope charles had slipped away. the car got worse AND was developed more towards carlos's preferences to be more stable and him more comfortable, so as a whole less fast (the same path that produced the 2023 car, a monstrosity that was still developed by binotto as a "last gift"). charles had to fight tooth and nail but became vicechampion at the end of the year - still no hierarchy established, still not a single race in which charles was helped or favoured during his solid wdc campaign. we don't exactly know what happened behind the scenes, but after more than one year we can extrapolate with a good amount of certainty that the situation was very bad, and that at some point there was a concrete risk of charles deciding to quit ferrari - at least if binotto stayed.

at the end of 2022 it was announced binotto would leave the team (meaning not only his undeserved and disastroudly managed tp role, but the admittedly more successful engineering side as well), and alongside him most of his loyal cohort left too, especially those people he'd promoted to high roles with mixed results. after a short while fred vasseur was chosen to be the new tp - a move probably done in part to assuage charles (who, no matter what people say, is still ferrari's greatest asset) but also to bring new life and a new managerial approach to the team. fred basically had to restructure everything, but most importantly he brought a new way of working and communicating inside the team and towards the outside, focusing on honesty and mistake correction - something charles keeps praising (and that still gives hints about how shit the atmosphere must have been under binotto).

all in all, binotto has been a terrible team principal, probably one of the worst in ferrari's history, who got meagre results yet managed to fumble great drivers, cars and engines, the team's reputation - and to nuke an apparently foolproof wdc campaign. impressive, really, if it hadn't been so painful to live through.

[ladysolwind]

I broke out the 3DS and started playing Echoes a few days ago. Simultaneously, I both really love and am severely irritated by it. Some thoughts about it from someone who has played Gaiden, albeit over a decade ago.

The streamlined gameplay definitely has its benefits. Battles flow really well and it makes combat very easy to plan. The HP based magic can get so broken so fast if you put one mage on attack and one mage on heal. Promotions really feel like an upgrade. The one item system with no durability is different, but not necessarily in a bad way. Like finding a silver bow is a reward and not just like "oh cool free bow." You have to really think about who gets what. Also because this system is so constrictive there are some wild items in there.

The visuals are a glow up. I really like the character designs vs how everyone looks in Gaiden. Compared to Shadow Dragon, I feel like there was a lot of effort and creativity put into the redesigns. Mathilda probably wins as my favorite character design in the game. Hot damn that woman is beautiful.

Like if the girl on the left is just as pretty as the girl on the right.

Shout out to the music, too. Like some of it slapped in 8-Bit Gaiden glory, so it only gets better. With Mila's Divine Protection is probably one of my favorite songs in all of Fire Emblem.

Complaints and my Fire Emblem plans under the cut.

The grinding. Oh lord, the grinding. It's brutal. Going through dungeons and having the tiny three monster fights over and over. It's tedious as all hell and I am not here for it. The DLC helps, but that's not all that much of an option during the first two chapters. And you have to grind. It's unavoidable.

It's also a real pain in the ass to even promote. Like I just finished Chapter 4, and every time I needed to promote, I had to fight this giant hoard of necrodragons to get to the dungeon, then fight an unavoidable encounter in the dungeon, promote, evacuate, and then fight the necrodragons again on the way back to where I was.

Archanea. I get it, it's pronounced to reflect how you pronounce アカネイア but it sounds stupid this way. This is very important to me D:< the Archanea games are very close to my heart. Shadow Dragon was my first. Don't make it stupid.

Yet all of it is still such a step up from Gaiden that I'm not even that pressed about it. Yeah it sucks, but Gaiden was so much worse!

My plan at this point is to go through every Fire Emblem game. I've played Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Gaiden, and Mystery of the Emblem. The first two were with a lot of save state abuse rewinding, and fast forwarding, so it wasn't the authentic experience but, I mean, come on. They're clunky Famicom games. This was less of the case with Mystery of the Emblem.

Then I haven't played another game until Shadow Dragon. I've played every game since, including spin offs, except for Tokyo Mirage Sessions. But that leaves a pretty big gap of some really beloved games in this series that I only know through osmosis, Heroes, and Engage.

My plan is to play and rank them as I go. Next on my list is Fates. In order to give it a fair shake I'm playing all three routes, but in order to make it tolerable I'm refusing to make any child units. I'll do it in Awakening where it makes sense, but not in Fates. Maybe I'll marry Corrin off but that's it.

So far this list is:

1. Three Houses

2. Engage

3. Echoes

With Engage beating out Echoes by a smidge solely because of the tedious grinding in the former.

Let's see how long I'll go until I burn out.

[taiblogcomics]

Locket Up and Throw Away the Key

Hey there, big leafers. We're past the halfway point on Avengers Undercover by now, so it can only be downhill from here, I'm sure! Let's just get into it~

Here's the cover:

It's all about Deathlocket today, huh? My big criticism of her design? The eyes. If you're gonna give someone a robot eye, give them one that focuses in the same direction as their real eye. Coz, like, she looks weirdly wall-eyed to me with that big traffic reflector she's got in her eyesocket. I dunno why it works for Cyborg and not for her. Otherwise, the main complain is, like, it's been seven years, time to kill of Captain America again, right~? Except we know they won't, because this isn't an event comic. Can't kill a name-brand hero like Cap in some random comic. (Some Z-list teen heroes, though, totally fair game.)

Also, what an amazingly useless quote by ComicBookResources. "It's not about who they're fighting, it's who they'll become." Yeah, no shit. That is called character progression, it's basic writing. If I slapped that on an issue of Teen Titans or a volume of My Hero Academia, or, hell, one of the Critical Role prequel comics, would it make any difference? Like, I know these are all quote-mined from a larger interview or statement, but this one seems like such a basic thing to say, why even bother to share it as a quote, y'know~? It sure is the quote of all time.

So, where are we at present? Our non-marketable survivors of Child Murder Island got recruited by the Masters of Evil and managed to kill their tormentor. Faced with the very bad choice of "become supervillain" or "do not pass go, do not collect $200", our protagonists chose the secret third option of "maybe we take them down from the inside". This is an amazing plan that can't possibly fail and not at all a bad decision inside a worse decision. Oh, and Cammi tried to not make bad decisions, getting herself caught by Constrictor instead. How much of any of that will play out today remains to be seen, since Deathlocket wasn't even included in the secret bad decisions~

So we open with Deathlocket saying "Shooting people is so much fun!" You know, just to set the tone. You ever been go-karting? Imagine that, but crossed with Mad Max. That's basically what Deathlocket and her new friends in the Young Masters of Evil are doing. Live ammunition and all. I mean, it's very much the kind of stuff kids would do to screw around (as evidenced by Chase Stein also being here), but you add the supervillainy and that first line (and, you know, the live weapon fire), and it just comes across way worse than it should.

Locket and Excavator (the shovel-wielding teen Wrecking Crew member, in case you forgot) finish first as usual, and Excavator's all ready to go again, but Locket and Chase peel off to go get pizza. Chase doesn't get what she likes about Excavator, and she breaks it down as "I like him for the same reasons people like you". He replies "Ouch", but it's fair. He tries to get her alone so he can let her in on the terrible inside-job plan, but suddenly an alert goes off, and Constrictor scrambles his team of evil teens. And since they joined up, this included the both of them.

They go up in their plane, not even being told what their mission is (Excavator comments they usually figure it out once they hit the ground), and we get more of Deathlocket's narration boxes. Really, she finds Excavator endearing because he's more genuine about calling her "badass" and treats her like a person first instead of a weapon. Very different than her last friendship with ol' Apex. They land in what seems to be an A.I.M. base and start raising hell. AIM are also douchey villains, so, like, there's no winning side here.

A lot of this is a fight scene, so not a lot for me to say. Hate describing fight scenes. Locket starts getting the hang of fighting, with the worrying internal thought of "This is easy!" when she kills a guy with her cannon. Again, these are rank-and-file AIM goons, so no big loss and I'm not too broken up about our heroes doing a violence on them (especially to maintain their cover), but that's a worrying thought regardless of who she's up against. As they get set to head inside the base, though, Locket spots an Avengers Quinjet bearing down on the scene, and that's gonna be trouble.

The jet lands, and Captain America himself jumps out. As if you hadn't guessed this from the cover. I think he missed the actual fight, and is taking it slow to look around the place. He's clearly here for some other reason (mentions something about a "transfer"), not in response to what they're doing. Just bad timing, I guess. Anyway, the cover scenario. Deathlocket has a bead on Cap and jokes to Excavator that she could totally snipe him from here. And that's where it gets serious: he's not joking about it, and insists she has to do so.

As he literally yells "take the shot!", Chase dives in and knocks her aside enough to make the shot go wide, blasting Cap over but not headshotting him. Chase is outed, but I approve of his moral compass still being intact. Excavator immediately goes for him, but nobody's scared of a scrawny guy carrying a shovel and Chase blasts him with his fire gauntlets. Excavator runs off screaming, completely on fire. With the threat over for the moment, Chase takes a moment to let Locket in on the terrible secret plan.

Deathlocket is naturally a bit skeptical. Everyone should be, the plan is barely a plan. It's a good idea, but it's not a good plan, if that makes sense. And of course, she had no idea about any plans. Chase replies it's been a little hard to get her alone lately, she's spent so much of it buddying up with Shovel Boy. Speaking of, he suddenly appears behind Chase and begins whacking him with his shovel. Despite being just set on fire, his hair and skin are undamaged, and his costume is just a little ragged.

The two of them start going at it, and Deathlocket is desperate to break up the fight. I don't even know where Cap is, or any of the other guys they came in with. I assume the other villains are all inside, but did Cap get knocked out, or…? Not addressed. Either way, though, in her desperation Locket fires a big shot from her cannon at the two idiot bros fighting over her, and the comic ends with Chase lying on his back in a pool of blood. Once again, I'd probably be concerned if I wasn't from the future, having read future Runaways comics where he's still alive~

Hey, I guess I was right when I said it'd be downhill because, boy, this issue sure isn't great! I think it's meant to characterise Deathlocket, but it doesn't really characterise her as anything more than a dumbass. "Wow, it's so cool to be out here and shooting at people in go-karts because my father always said goofing off was bad, but goofing off is fun actually!" I mean, I guess I can't blame a teenager for kind of crushing on another and listening to her hormones, but I dunno if I can excuse the "all girls want bad boys" trope when the bad boy in question is Excavator, the Amazing Shovel Lad. Just have some better taste in the supervills you crush on, that's all I'm asking. Not gonna blame her for shooting Chase either, that was clearly done in a panic moment. Speaking of, though, on the complete opposite end, we have Chase, who may be a meathead who just jeopardised a plan that hasn't even worked itself out yet, but I can't fault his heroic heart. If anyone would blow their cover to save Captain America, it'd be Chase. So I guess everyone's off the hook. Heroism or hormones, sometimes you gotta let folks be dumbasses. ...So maybe this issue wasn't so bad after all. But that doesn't mean I like it either~

[severedfate]

Tagged by @minuns! can u tell i like halloween lol RULES 
Make your own aesthetics based on your personality and interests using ONLY saved images on your device. You cannot browse or download images before you do this. And I'm tagging @ivani3raginsky @slamncram @raviolili if you want to!

[chaos-event-horizon]

Good grief keep your pants on guys!

Okay, so since people seem to have some kind of personal interest in this, I'll do 4 different versions-- 2 from a "hero au" perspective, and 2 from a "villain au"-- with a little bit of how we met and everything... AND WE'RE NOT HUSBANDS! I SWEAR! WE'RE NOT!

Please enjoy! It's all under the cut due to the length.

~~~~~

HERO 1: In which Rian's parents are trying to find a way to just get rid of him, since he want to school a chick and came back a boy and fairly successful knight. They hold a ball and invite rich people from across the land, including those from other countries. Toshinori is a Duke and perpetual bachelor who came basically as a good will measure and to get his friends off his d*ck about the act that he isn't married. Rian and Toshinori both end up hiding from people on the same balcony and talking. Toshi kinda Susses out who Rian is and ends up asking him to dance, cause like... what the hell, amirite? So they dance and go absolutely Heart Eyes for each other! Rian's parents recognize Toshinori and immediately try to sell their kid off, and he's like... 'that's... an awful way to treat your very attractive and funny oldest child, so I'm going to pay you twice as much to literally never fucking talk to us again', which imo is an appropriate response. Rian is drunk on Love At First Sight juice and is like 'this is an excellent way to make huge life choices' and goes along with it! They proceed to live happily ever after, because I am a sucker who's in love and likes happy endings.

~~~

HERO 2: Rian is a roaming knight who has fled the lavish and abusive lifestyle of his family and finds work in a neighboring country, where Duke Toshinori Yagi the Retired War Hero happens to reside. Toshi's friends will NOT stop trying to set him up with as many people as possible, and end up forcing him into attending a party. Rian also happened to be invited, both as a guest from a high-ranking family and a covert bodyguard. They eventually end up hiding in the same semi-private study, and hit it off while talking about what it means to be a true warrior. How injuries can effect how people see you, and how you see yourself. They talk for hours. Eventually Toshinori's friends find him and end up prying him away to try to get him to talk to some women, but... Not before they exchange names and information on how to keep in contact. And they DO keep in touch, quietly and in near-secret, until eventually Toshinori escorts Rian to a ball and announces their partnership. They end up living happily ever after!

~~~

VILLAIN 1: Much like that first hero timeline, Rian's family is trying to quickly and lucratively get rid of him after he returns home differently than they expect... And Toshinori, who had met Rian on the battlefield and liked the rambunctious young man, heard as such through his unsavory comnections. The parents are a bit more violent this time around, and don't even stop at trying to poison him, but he expected no less from his family and manages to avoid death. Eventually they give up and settle for trying to marry him away to someone, sending out invitations far and wide about their "odd daughter", trying hard to sell the fact that Rian is still capable of "bearing children". Many people show up, but are put off by Rian's appearance... As well as the sudden and uninvited appearance of the Warlord Toshinori Yagi. He enters the grand ball unceremoniously, kicking open the door and generally throwing his weight around, all the while flirting with the sad and nauseas-looking young man that seemed to be at the center of a storm of offense and scrutiny. Rian was wary at first, obviously recognizing the battle-ready bruiser who he'd met as an enemy... But the large man's charm and obvious attempts to cheer him up quickly wore him down. After explaining the situation, and his disdain for his parents... Toshinori was more than happy to help. They ended up setting a lovely little fire and vacating the castle grounds in the confusion. The two of them went on to live happily and well together, very obviously in love, though too stubborn to admit it.

~~~

VILLAIN 2: Rian had attempted to escape his family and live the life of a vagabond after returning home from battle, but was unable to make it out before being caught. For weeks he was beaten and starved, but stayed as strong as he could, looking for an opening to escape... And miraculously, did not need to. A brother in arms that had been waiting for him at the border quickly realized what had happened, and went in search of help... But help was basically a deal with the devil. The Warlord Toshinori Yagi heard through his connections about the wealth of Rian's family, and the good looks and skill of the young knight, and brought his army with him to cash in. And as Toshinori kicked in the dungeon's door, meeting Rian's exhausted but determined eyes that danced in the firelight... He knew he'd found a true treasure. They left that night with carts full of valuables, and a little something more at one another's sides.

[cuzloki]

I wanted to write something different. So this is kinda different from my other stuff. If you guys like it let,e know and I’ll right more. If you have critiques let me know. Also I know spelling and grammar is not my strong suit so don’t be to hard on me haha. I hope you enjoy reading. ❤️

Everyone has their horror stories about their time in jail.....I mean school, but mine is a bit different. It's not about what was said to me it was about what wasn't said. I was ignored. Cast out by the popular crew and when I was talked to I was treated like a gazelle that had been accidentally put in the lion pen. But what people didn't know was that I have a secret. I'm a werewolf, an alpha werewolf. My best friend Ashton and my boyfriend Robbie are as well. I was born an alpha werewolf. Ashton and I have been friends since we were 2 and let's just say I went through a biting faze at around 4 that turned him into my omega. Then when I was 16, I met Robbie. I was with him for 2 years before I told him about me being a werewolf. Let's just say the idea of being just like me was everything to him. So now there is my little mini pack of 3, including me.

I am a tall blonde with hazel eyes. I'm not the skinniest thing but more muscular. I'm very shy but once you get to know me I can be quite the spit fire. Ashton is tall and muscular with the brightest smile you’ll ever see. He has the deepest green eyes that turn hazel in the right light. His hair is naturally brown but it's dyed black and brushed to the side currently. Robbie is a tall British boy with greenish-blue eyes that you could get lost in. He has brown hair that most of the time is just brushed and left to do its own thing.

My wolf is a jet black wolf with red eyes signifying the alpha gene. There is a little white patch on my wolfs chest that is white as snow. Ash’s wolf is white with glowing green eyes, which signifies his ability of telekinesis. He can control people and link people together so they can communicate through their minds. Robbie's wolf is jet black like mine with bright blue eyes, signifying his ability to do magic. He has a gene that was unknown to him from a warlock way back in his family tree. So technically he's a hybrid werewolf and warlock.

I get out of my car with a bag of groceries and start walking up the path to my house. It had a farmers porch around the front and is painted egg shell blue. The shingles on the roof are grey with specks of black freckled through them. The two story house stood at the edge of the forest on a dead end street where it is the only house. As my boots clicked on the stone walkway, the door to my house flew open " Hello love., let me grab that for you!" Robbie smiled at me fro. The door and put his hand into the air as a blue glow enveloped my grocery bag and floated towards Robbie. The bag landed I. His arms and he smiled at me as I continued walking up the path with a smirk on my face. "Well, wasn't that just magical." I say sarcastically as Robbie and I walk into the house, him still gripping the bag tightly and let out a little laugh .

We walk into the kitchen after walking through the hall entry way. The grey wash wood floor shined and the grey granite cabin area and stainless steel appliances sparkled as I walked in. "Surprise! I cleaned!" Robbie exclaimed as he set the grocery bag down on the counter and starting taking the various food items out. " You cleaned or you "cleaned" I said with air quotes and he looks over at me biting his lip. "Can't I just get credit for cleaning the place" he laughs as he walks over to me and loops his arms around my waist. "Hmm. Using your magic to get brownie points. I don't know if that's quite fair, Mr.Kay." I giggle as I wrap my arms around his neck. "Oh, you want to talk about fair! How about you making me do the dishes and the laundry?" He smirked as I started to laugh "That wasn't a werewolf thing that was a "I'm your girlfriend so do it" it. There is a difference!" Robbie threw his hands up in surrender and they landed on my hips. He brushed his lips against mine briefly and I pulled him in again to deepen the kiss. Let's just say the kiss was turning more into a make out session when there was a very loud knock on the door and yelling "Can you guys stop and just let me in!" Ashton. "He chooses now to show up on time." Robbie groans as I kiss Robbie one more time and walk to the door. I opened the door and there was look his brown eyes and newly dyed black hair. "Times like these I really hate my werewolf hearing." He mumbled as he walked past me into the house and I closed the door.

The three of us went into the living room and started talking about wolf stuff when I brought up the topic on everyone's mind. The pack. "So I found some more people for our pack boys." I looked at them both. "They are all the big show offs of high school. No one tells them what to do. Until now." I smirk and grab a chip from a nearby bag. "Why do you have to turn out of vengeance? Isn't that gonna backfire?" Ashton says and leans forward in his seat. "No it's gonna make a good pack. Strong obedient wolves that were never told what to do now have a purpose." I say as I look at Robbie "I say alpha picks her omegas. If she wants them, Ash, let her." Robbie stood up for me. I smiled at him and he smiled back. "Ok fine, not like it's my choice.When is this happening?" Ashton asks with his head in his hands. "Tonight’s football practice ends in 20 minutes." I smile as I stand up and grab the bag of chips, heading towards the kitchen. I rolled up the chip bag and placed them in the cabinet when I reached the kitchen. "Let's go boys!" I call as I head outside soon to be joined by my pack of two, soon to be more.

"GO BULLFROGS!" The team shouts as the huddle breaks signaling the end of practice. Robbie, Ash and I sit in the woods watching in wolf form. Robbie and is black fur hiding us from view and Ashton’s white fur blended with the green leaves, no one saw us. A group of 6 boys broke of from the rest of the football team and starting walking along side the woods. I looked at Ashton signaling him to use his powers to bring them into the woods. All the boys were pretty tall except 2 that were rather short. I see the piercing eyes of the boys that made my school life hell not because of what they said but the looks I was given and the lack of things they said. They come into the clearing we were sitting in and I had Robbie to my left and Ashton to my right. The boys froze unable to move or talk thanks to Ashton. All us wolves were mind-linked together so I introduced the great 6. First was Matt. The star of the football team and liked by everyone. A massive jerk but he has puppy dog brown eyes that make every girl weak in the knees. Next is Jack with his blue eyes. He was my crush back years ago and he broke my heart by simply saying no thank you when I said I liked him. Then there was Mike,Jacks best friend, he was nice but he always had that attitude like he was better than everyone else. Finally there was Dylan my first Love, even if he didn't know it. Then Nick who was a crush and I best friend to me at some point. Lastly there was John. He had been my crush in 4th grade and we haven't really talked since. I walked towards the boys , fear clear in their eyes. I shifted back into my human form, my red eyes still glowing. "Hello Boys. Long time no see" I say as I walk towards them. Still under Ashton’s control, they stood in shock and just stared at me. "I know you must be so confused right now. Thinking why us what did we do to deserve this!" I dramatically throw my arms in the air. I laughed as I looked over at one boy in particular. Jack. I walk up to Jack and grabbed his arm. "Interesting what you get yourself into, isn't it?" My eyes started to glow red as I open my mouth and bite down hard on Jack's arm. More than necessary I might add. I feel a hand on my shoulder pulling me back. It was Robbie. "Enough." I let go of Jack’s arm and blood dripped down my face. I use my werewolf speed to run down the line and bite the rest of the boys on the arm then take off, leaving the boys.

After about 20 minutes, Robbie and Ashton returned to my house to find me curled up in a ball on the couch. "I got a little carried away. " I say as I look at Robbie and Ashton. "He hurt you, I get it." Robbie said and Ashton nodded. "Let's call these boys shall we." I say as I got up and went out onto my deck. I howled ,loud ,turning my eyes red. I heard howls in return and knew they were on their way. Within 20 minutes 6 huge wolves stood in front of me. 4 grey and 2 tan. "Let's not be animals, boys" I say as I look at each one of them. Screams filled the air along with cracks and cries as they all turned human again. My howl triggered their first transformation and it hurts bad for the first month or so. The boys were in heaps on the ground. "Why" I knew that cocky voice. Matt. "Why?! Because I could, because I can. Because all the shit you guys put me through I thought I'd repay the favor. Plus I needed more wolves. Let me introduce my beta, Robbie" I pointed to Robbie "and my newly ranked up delta, Ashton"

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

tbf, the Oku arc also had the bs morgana/ryuji argument with inconsistencies like "Oh Ryuji's just in it for the fame/chicks!" as if his trauma from Kamo wasn't a thing, and like, when was he obsessed about getting chicks by being a PT? And then the plot favors Morgana even after running off, nearly running over the PT in car form (which i'm pretty sure would kill/injure them), and then robbing Haru of the big conflict scene with her dad

not to mention the same crap of Ryuji apologizing even though Morgana insulted HIM, akin to the Ann and Makoto situation; if we're pointing out character assassination in the Kamo arc it's only fair to bring it up in the Oku arc (not to mention Mona's whole hissyfit preventing the player from doing ANYTHING with free time, even though those scenes could've easily been edited to not include Morgana ye there're some damn good reasons the Oku arc is unanimously hated) 

Under cut cause length (I agree but....there are things that make it a bit murky)

100% agree with the free time stripped away, that was a bad design choice. That being said, I don’t think P5 offers a lot to do after you max stats and max CoOps (P3/4 have a similar issue but, hear me out, P5 is newer and probably should’ve fixed that by now), like more free time is great for people that don’t have this game down to a science like me (I tend to literally just sleep the last like 14 days of the game so I can get to the next story beat cause there’s nothing else to do, first playthrough to boot....I’ve played too much of this game even for trophies orz). Royal helps a bit with the darts game and my Palace (latter being a curse and a blessing)...oh and the challenge mode (except you know....majority of it is behind a paywall :D....but like the batting cage and darts games I don’t feel any motivation to keep playing it, not like the counterparts with Judgement. Fishing is a bit better, maybe it’s because I have something to work towards (better gear, better bait?) but there’s not a lot of variety so I’m kinda bored fast. Tycoons’ fine, maybe add more card games, but that one is solid...but it’s outside of the time block mechanic so there’s no issue??? The arcade is a treasure trove of stuff we could do just for fun (I ought to make (another) post about what we could have tbh). The game is kinda barren in terms of stuff to do ironically (maybe they needed to bring back P3/4 style quests or maybe more mini games I dunno just something). Moving on tho

And also I agree Haru was ROBBED...and so was Oku. Nothing really more to say tbh, her spotlight was stolen and Oku suffered as well. (I mean Kane suffered too, and instead of having Mako’s spotlight stole she ruins other chars spotlight instead and set off a domino effect that’d lead to her and Futaba taking the most spotlight as the game goes on but I dunno I’m just salty 8U) At least how she joins isn’t bad (idea? good. Execution? bad), and the lack of screen time where it went wrong as well. 

As for the other stuff....I agre....tho......here’s the thing (and what makes it murky)...when it comes to Mona....apparently they didn’t translate him well. He’s apparently NOT super mean to Ryu, he’s more of a joking kinda tone (at worst it’s P4 levels of banter, which.....imo is fine in theory since there’s no malice in those) when he does it. Like....take the part in a battle if Ryu misses, he’ll say “GAWD Skull, you’re PATHETIC!” with as much vitriol and contempt one could muster....but in the Japanese it’s like “you lame, lame guy” with an “ahaha haaaaa that was really bad :(” kinda tone (so it’s suppose to be like “haha....that was lame bro”). (he’s also supposed to come off as a wannabe gansta but they didn’t translate that.....unless they meant to translate him being insufferable then well 8U bad choice) So like...anytime he insults Ryu it’s suppose to be in a more friendly joking manner than what we got. This is probably why Ryu kinda lets him walk all over him. Ryu is suppose to be the one that actually fire shots first at Mona, and why it’s keen he apologizes first (that being said, even tho Mona’s shots are more playful/in good faith in the Japanese...I dunno how I feel about him doing that from like...the beginning when he barely knows them. 1) he lacks the familiarity and he does it from the beginning and 2) he lacks being the “mood lifter” that Yosuke’s role is coupled with putting his foot in his mouth, it makes no sense for Mona to be ragging on anyone even playfully). So apparently it’s more of a character assassination from the localization team (guess they didn’t fix it in Royal?). (it’s probably why.....iirc Mona ranked higher than Ryu in one of the first JPN polls?). (I still hate Mona tho, even tho I do know it’s possibly a localization error....I still don’t like him....plus other stuff he does too so...yeah). This isn’t the first time it happened tho in the series.

Past examples: PQ1, as much as I hold it higher than PQ2 all around, did character assassinate Teddy in one aspect. Him with Koro, in Japanese he has a failed but benign nickname/insult for Koro that’s like “puppy-doggy,” they translated it as “mutt” in english. Freaking mutt. I still think they should’ve used “Dawg”, not only is it closer to how the Japanese intended it, but it also works with Teddie already saying “fo’ sho.” Then there’s Yukari.....now I think it’s only with Junpei but apparently she’s more of a motherly scolding type when talking down to Junpei, and it doesn’t translate well in english (this and the “cold woman who keeps her emotions in tact” doesn’t either).....that being said I didn’t see it explaining her other bad behaviors so~! *shrugs*

THAT BEING SAID, man did Ryu come swinging OUT OF NOWHERE around Futaba’s dungeon. Straight up just calling him useless (ironically enough tho......he is) like????? Hold up, who are you and what have you done with my Ryu....but technically it was a bit before Oku’s arc started....and......while JARRING as all get out, it does make some sense.....it’s happened enough times befor Oku’s dungeon that they want to capitalize. And even if Mona’s banter was more in good nature, he and Mona still bantered so him maybe bullying him (partially cause fame is getting to his head now) isn’t TOO far off. 

As for Ryu and wanting fame, I’ll....yield for now. I could’ve sworn Ryu had soooome build up of wanting to use his fame for girls.......Actually, wait, I remembered something (both Ryu and one contradiction, it’s a minor one but yeah, minor compared to other arcs in both multitude and magnitude tbh). I think it’s just he was enjoying the PT’s popularity a little too much (rather than just tied to girls). I feel like it’s an arc he’s going through rather than character assassination, a weird choice (esp since they treat it like a team too later but-I’ll get to that).  I mean like I said with Dungeon 3, they were like “no we aren’t going after who the police are going after..........BECAUSE THEN THEY’LL TAKE THE CREDIT!” Like???? Didn’t think the fame went to your head just yet (you’d think it’d be starting as soon as Kane was caught rather than well prior). And then there’s.....Day Breakers....before we even got the game, happening sometime right as or right before Kane’s dungeon begins....he says some things that confused me. It was something along the lines of not wanting to go after small fish, or they needed a big target (the line was kinda implying eff the little guys)....and it confused the HELL outta me. Because we had JUST GOTTEN an article and Ryu was described as the reason the PT was formed, and everyone was like “Oh he cares so much about the victims!” only for him to not.....really.... with that line....and it was just weird. And while that is Day Breakers (it was made in mind to give us a taste of what was to come).....there’s that line I just mentioned that happens around the same time as DB.....which means the devs planned to this “we want to be popular” back in Mako’s dungeon..... which, in that dungeon it’s weird as hell cause we’re really not that far past them still being like “no save the victims above all else!” but again this change started happening in dungeon 3. Tbh I say this but I bet I can find a line or two around dungeon 1/2 for Ryu showing he’s more than just about victims.....which is weird....this isn’t handled with the delicacy it should if they wanted to go with that narrative....but it’s not all Dungeon 5′s fault tbh.

But that does lead to the contradiction (or I should say it’s weird/doesn’t make sense thing)...... We don’t want to go after Oku cause it seems fishy, and Ryu isn’t happy about it cause he wants to but yields, then Mona gets mad at Ryu (probably from being called useless, you know, cause Ryu’s been firing actual shots lately unlike Mona but the eng audience doesn’t realize it cause bad translation). But still he gets mad at the ONE PERSON who also wants to go after Oku???? That’s so counter productive??? And iirc then the game goes from the group being “we need to not go after Oku cause it seems sketch despite knowing what we know” to “of course we’re going after him! and *gasp* I can’t believe he’s done this! Even tho we’ve known about it we’ll be surprised! Also we’re ALL now responsible for having popularity go to our heads u_u” despite the fact we’re kinda only going after him cause of Haru’s plight (which is also where PQ2′s bold face lie comes in). 

Frankly I think Ryu and Mona should’ve been volatile to each other from the get go (just a mutual hate, iirc maybe similar to Mark and Nanjo from P1). Just complete animosity, and both being at fault by the time dungeon 5 happens. With both apologizing at the end. OR, make the Oku dungeon a place where the whole team is split (kinda like the Namatame TV scene in P4). Like I said good potential, just bad execution. 

Oku’s dungeon’s writing isn’t good by any stretch of the means. But a lot of stuff is either translation issues, or shitty seeds that were laid a lot prior t o this dungeon (and thus not really it’s fault it came about, its job is to resolve/capitalize on those seeds now). Kane’s? Literally trying to uproot and lie about an arc, not even laying seeds like Ryu, just straight up lying. Characters won’t act exactly like they used to. Oku’s Mona takes up a lot of Haru’s screen time, but in Kane’s the game literally bends to Mako’s will to get her into our team. 

Oku’s plot, while fumbled is plausible: Two chars who fight the entire game finally blow up, one runs off and ends up dragging in and recruiting another char who ironically is connected to our target....and is dragged in because Mona was near said target....cause she’s his dad....As opposed to Kane where: An adult thinks it’s a good idea to ask a normal student to look into something that cops usually look into (TWICE) even tho all he needs is a list which he should be able to provide due to having a bunch of names dropped the day of the confession and thus not actually NEED her or the events to even take place. Or the fact that the game seems to think Mako’s situation is any way plausible to ever happen and thus be taken seriously, along with all the character/story consistency being thrown out the window. 

Like I like Ryu and hate Mona, but....Ryu has some flaws tbh.....beyond just harassing Anne, he’s not perfect and that’s ok (tho how they handle any and all of it is not ok). Some seem counter intuitive to his apparent good boi nature. He’s kinda like Makoto with writing inconsistencies, but he’s limited to like....two diff modes while Mako is whatever the writers feel like atm consistency be damned. 

Also here’s the thing with Car Mona part.......either the writers forgot (wouldn’t be surprised)......or....they’re ignoring what they did. Mona literally states he needs someone to drive him when he first transforms:

Perv pyramid scene doesn’t really show Makoto driving-driving (she could just be gassing it while leaning, but like.....how much do we have to turn this wheel-whatever that’s not the issue here). Only time he is driving without input is when the team gets dragged into PQ2 (which makes sense), or with the Showtime (btw I hate these and that damn star), but the star “making the impossible possible” makes that make sense..... But this.....shows it means Haru must’ve tried to run us over. Now grant it she’s on Mona’s side, but it really begs the question....was it her idea or was it Mona’s? Or can Haru just not drive? I can def see Mona telling Haru to floor it tho, and her being like “Sure thing Sensei!” 

Oku’s arc, while badly written (and stuff setting it up was also badly written), makes some logical sense (execution was flubbed, but I can see it working at least  with someone more competent). Kane’s doesn’t make any sense on any level...and is badly written. It’s just, whatever Oku’s does (writing wise), Kane’s does worse and goes farther in making sure it’s worse. It’s like comparing two rotten apples. Oku’s is half rotten (not completely rotten, there’s still some non corrupt parts to that apple, but still rotten), and Kane’s is completely rotten (a mushy mess, nothing redeeming, rotten to the core). Both are bad, both are rotten, but one’s more far gone. 

[yournewapartment]

Do you have like a checklist or something of things that need to be done before you can move out? I have over a year to get ready, but I'm not certain what "ready" means exactly. What needs to happen before a person can live on their own (in the USA)? Thanks for answering, love your blog!

I’m realizing now that I have lots of posts that detail different parts of this moving into a new apartment process, but none that discuss everything. So this post is essentially a conglomerate of four different posts: Adulting 108, Moving (On Your Own), Living On Your Own, and Apartment Hunting 101.

But here they are, in step by step order! Enjoy!

Finding an Apartment (Apartment Hunting 101)

Overview: There’s no getting around it, apartment hunting is a stressful process. The waiting and wondering gets the best of everyone, so give yourself a break and remember not to be too hard on yourself. The more prepared and decisive you are, the better off you’ll be!

1. Step One: The most important step in this entire process is coming up with your list of “Need and Won’t”. This list can always be adjusted in the spur of the moment, but will act as a baseline to help you easily disregard impractical apartments. Before you even start your search, sit down with any roommates (SO or otherwise) and come up with a list. Here is my list:

Need: Dishwasher, pet friendly, heat included.

Won’t: First floor apartment, all or mostly carpeted apartment, no closet space.

2. Step Two: Decide your price range. The paycheck to paycheck life is not a great one to live, so try to find an apartment that still allows you to put anywhere from $100-$500 into savings every month. Figure out how much you make monthly, with taxes taken out. If you’re paid every other week, this is two paychecks. If you’re paid every week, this is four paychecks. Start with your total monthly income, and subtract the following expenses. Let’s say you make $1,000 with taxes taken out:

Rent - Let’s say you’re living with a roommate, and your rent is only $500 per month.

Electric - My electric expense is $60 a month for a one bedroom. Once again, you’re living with a roommate so let’s say that you pay half of that. $30.

Internet - $30 a month internet only. Please don’t waste your money on cable. Just use your mom’s Netflix account.

Travel expenses - I spend about $85 a month on gas. Let’s say you use public transportation and spend around $100.

Food - Figure you’ll be spending $100 per person each month. So that’s another $100.

Misc expense: Let’s just add an additional $50 worth of expenses on. Because you never know what’ll happen.

That leaves you $130 a month extra to put in savings or to use in the event of an emergency! That’s awesome. Substitute your own numbers in, and figure out how much you can afford for rent. Immediately disregard any apartments that do not fit in this budget.

3. Step Three: The best way to find dependable apartments is to consult with your fellow apartment renters. Consult with coworkers, friends, family- anyone who is currently renting in the area that you would like to rent in. Get the inside scoop on potential apartments, both their advantages and their pitfalls. If you don’t know anyone who is renting where you’d like to rent, here are some other apartment hunting options:

Craigslist: Obviously

Drive-bys: Literally drive around until you find a cool looking apartment complex. Find their rental office and go right in, this is how I found my first apartment.

Your college: The Dean’s Office will have a list of apartment offerings to give kids who don’t qualify for on-campus housing.

This Site: A list of the top ranked apartment hunting sites.

4. Set up an appointment: After finding a potential apartment, consult with the landlord or apartment representative to set up a date and time to see the apartment. Respond promptly to any email or phone call they leave for you. On the flip side, if they aren’t prompt in their response to you RUN.

The first apartment I ever looked at, my boyfriend and I showed up on time and the landlord wasn’t there. We called her and she said that she was running late, and told us that the apartment was open and we could show ourselves inside. Serious red flag, but we gave it the benefit of the doubt and went in. Long story short, she never showed up. She gave us a tour of the apartment over the phone and kept saying that she was five minutes away, but never came. We later found out that her rental office was two minutes from the apartment we looked at. Talk about flakey! We told her we weren’t interested, if she can’t even show up to show us the apartment, how the hell can we depend on her to fix any problems we might have? Because you’re young and inexperienced, some landlords will try to give you the run around. Your age is no concern of their’s, and has no bearing on how you will act as a tenant. Here are some red flags for flaky landlords:

Not contacting you within one day of leaving them a message. Disregarding the weekends.

Not showing up when they say they will.

Repeatedly telling you that you’re “young” or “inexperienced”.

Telling you that the apartment “is good for college kids” or “a good first apartment” (that just means it’s a shit hole).

If they tell you that the apartment has a large turnover (people are leaving for a reason).

If you speak with one person on the phone, and meet a different person who shows you the apartment.

If they can’t or refuse to give you the exact rent amount.

If they tell you that have to “run some numbers” based on your history. An apartment’s rent should be the same for everybody.

If they can’t answer basic questions about service providers for the apartment.

If you get a weird vibe from them. Listen to your intuition! This is the person who is going to be responsible for fixing all your apartment related problems, you will be dealing with them every month at least. If they seem unreliable, don’t sign the lease!

5. Step Five: Find your appointment buddy! Never, ever, EVER go to look at a potential apartment by yourself. I don’t care how friendly Wendy seems online, she may be a serial killer. There’s no way to tell. Here’s a list of people who can accompany you:

Your older brother

Your boyfriend/girlfriend

Your Aunt Meredith

Your second cousin

Your friend who can scream really loudly

Your Mother

Your Step Mother

Your old nosey neighbor who smells like cats

Literally anyone you can trust

Bribe them with chocolate, I don’t care. Take someone with you! If you absolutely cannot find anyone to go with you, then you need to take additional precautions. Here are some options:

Kitestring

“Share My Location” on your Iphone

Pepper Spray

Posting to Facebook the address you are going to and when you are expected to arrive and leave.

Rescheduling your appointment to a date and time when you can be accompanied

Apartment Checklist

A mental checklist is good in theory, but will you remember it when you’re actually at the prospective apartment with your Aunt Meredith? I think not! Make a physical list of some of the following points, and feel free to add your own. my list is super extensive, but that’s just who I am. I am detail oriented.

Tuck this list in your back pocket and consult it when the person showing you the apartment is not looking.

Expense related

How much is the rent?

Is the rent just the rent, or are there any amenities included? Some apartments include heat, hot water, or electric expenses.

Is hot water included (if the apartment has a washer/dryer in it, then the water is probably a separate expense)?

What Internet service providers are available?

What electric service providers are available?

Do I have to pay for garbage removal?

What is the average electric expense that other renters deal with?

Ask when rent is due. Find out what the rent check procedure is.

Basic

What type of heating/cooling is provided?

What appliances are in the kitchen? *If there is no oven or fridge and you are required to buy your own then run*

What is the apartment complex turnover rate?

Do you have a choice of carpet vs. hard wood floors?

Will window blinds be provided? *If the apartment complex won’t pay for something as simple as window blinds then the landlord is a cheapskate and can’t be trusted*

Is there a “curfew”? Most apartments have a time of night when all the tenants are supposed to be quiet. This is generally not enforced.

What will your address be?

Additional

Is any furniture included?

Is there a Laundromat in the complex? If not where is the closest one?

Similarly, is the Laundromat in the complex card operated or quarter operated? Do you have to pay a fee for the card? Is there a quarter dispensing machine?

Will you be given a free parking permit? *If parking is not free then run*

Ask about local shopping and gas stations.

Ask where your mailbox will be.

Ask what their pet policy is. (some apartment complexes charge an fee)

Ask what their policy on repainting/decorating is.

Ask what their maintenance request policy is.

Ask where the nearest dumpster is.

How often does the complex loose power?

Is there a nearby police station or fire department?

General check

Check all cabinets (for bug infestations or mouse droppings or that they open properly).

Open all the windows and check to see that there are screens installed. Especially important for us cat owners! If there are no screens- are they going to install screens before you move in?

Check that all the light switches work.

Check that the water turns on.

Flush the toilet.

Check all the closet space (for size, mold, and water damage).

Check how all the doors are set (some apartments will put doors in incorrectly and they’ll never close properly).

Check the outlets (bring a phone chord and plug it in).

Check any balcony access.

Take a look at the paint- is it chipped? Is it stained? Will they be repainting?

Knock on the walls to see how hollow they are (hollow walls require studs if you want to hang anything up).

Open up the oven and make sure it’s clean. If it’s not clean make it clear that it should be cleaned if you want to move into the apartment. It’s not your job to clean up after the previous tenant.

Check that none of the floorboards are sticking up/creaking.

Check for nails and screws in between hardwood floor, tile and carpet (I’m not even kidding).

Check your phone to see how much cell service you have.

Can you hear any neighbors? Could you hear them in the hallway?

Final Decision

If the apartment you visited fits all your criteria, feel free to tell the landlord that you’re interested in pursuing this apartment. This way they can advise you of the next steps. Before you sign ANYTHING, visit the apartment complex twice more to make sure that everything is kosher. Do NOT tell the landlord that you will be coming by.

During the day: Do a drive-by of your prospective apartment to see what it looks like during the day. Is it safe? Are there lots of people standing around outside? Is it loud?

During the night: Come back another night to check the safety of your apartment. Ask yourself- would I feel comfortable taking the trash out late at night? Having friends over? If the answer is “no” then run…

Applying to Rent the Apartment

Overview: After choosing an apartment that you like, there are lots of steps that need to be taken before you can actually move in. 

1. Rental application. You will need to fill out some sort of rental application when applying for an apartment. You’ll be asked for previous addresses (if you’ve lived in previous apartment complexes landlords will actually call and ask about how good of a tenant you were), if you’ve been convicted of a crime, pay stubs, references and/or credit information. If you don’t have a credit score, some complexes will require you to co-sign the lease with someone who does, like a parent. If a landlord does NOT ask you to fill out any kind of application, I’d advise you to run for the hills and not rent from them.

2. Approval. Apartment complexes will mail you a packet of information after you’ve been approved. This will list your new address, what power company services are available, apartment amenities, school districts, local attractions, as well as your next steps. My current apartment complex also mailed me what Internet providers are available, which was a nice extra bonus.

3. Initial expenses. Your next step will be to put down a “security deposit”. This will either be exactly the same or very close to the amount you pay for rent monthly. This deposit ensures that you don’t destroy the apartment, if you do they won’t refund you. You will also be asked to pay your first month’s rent in advance. Most rental companies will only accept money orders for these initial expenses, you have to go to your bank to get these. They’re essentially checks that take the money out of your account right away.

4. Apartment check. After you’re approved for an apartment, ask to see the actual unit that you’ll be moving into. Make sure that you see said apartment before signing any lease. Notice how loud your neighbors are, how good of a cell signal you have, the condition of the apartment, etc. This is a pretty extensive list.

Before You Move

1. List it up. Make a list of everything that you will need to accomplish before you are ready to move. This includes items that need to be packed, people that need to be contacted, pet accommodations, etc. I love lists, but you may not, so use any organizational technique that works for you.

2. Divide and conquer. After you’ve made your list, organize items based off of how much time they’ll take you. Packing will be fairly time-consuming, so this is something you’ll want to invite friends over for and break up over several days. I like to have “moving” parties whenever I’m getting ready to move, essentially I buy some chips and dip, play some Trap, and invite my friends over to act as my minions. Something like canceling your subscription to Cosmo will take you very little time and energy to do, so it’s something you can do when you’re ready for a stress-free activity.

3. Contact companies. Speaking of canceling your Cosmo subscription, you will need to update your address with all of the companies you use. If you’re no longer going to be using that company, you’ll need to call them and tell them when to end your service. If you’re going to continue to using that company, you’ll have to call them and tell that you’ll need an address change. Give them the exact date you’ll be moving so that they can backdate your information. Some examples of companies:

DMV in the county you’re moving to (if you’re going to drive)

Your doctor’s office

Your college (even if you graduated, they send out alumni letters all the time)

Your credit/debit card company

Your bank

Your phone company

Any government programs you’re a part of

Any companies that you have loans with

Your health insurance company

Your auto insurance company

Amazon

4. Pre-move in List. Make a shopping list of all the non-perishable items you will need before moving in. I’m talking trash cans, first aid kits, toilet paper, laundry detergent, etc. I like to work on this list over the span of several days, and do a large shop before moving in. Your moving day will be stressful enough as it is, don’t add the stress of missing something you need. Here’s a pretty good list.

5. Electric set-up. Use the information packed your landlord sent you to find out who your electricity provider is. Call them, you’ll probably get a pre-recorded message. Choose the option that says something along the lines of “set up electricity”. You will be connected to an actual human being, who will ask you to read your new address. Tell them to turn on power to your apartment a couple days before you move in. They will set up a billing plan with you (ask to be put on a budget, it’ll save you lots of money) and give you your account information.

6. Internet set-up. Setting up your internet is similar to setting up your electric, but a bit more hand’s on. Most cable/internet companies always have some sort of deal going on, a year or two years of discounted service. Be aware of when this discount will end, and contact the company to see if they can offer you a new deal. If Verizon is offered in your area, I strongly advise you to use them for Internet service. i was on a two year plan with them that saved us $40 a month on internet service, and after it ended they put us on a new plan that is now saving us $42 a month. Fuck yeah! Also make sure to set your internet installation date for the day after you move in, so that you’re not stuck sitting in your internet-less apartment, unable to read my blog. Know that most internet companies charge installation and routers fees, and if you complain enough they’ll drop one or both of these. Just be like “I’m a poor college student” or threaten to go to another internet company.  

7. Send ahead. If possible, send/drop off some of your items ahead of time. If you have a family member or a friend that lives nearby where you’ll be staying, ask if they can hold a few boxes for you. You can also mail yourself packages and ask your local post office to hold them for you, but you’ll need to arrange that ahead of time.

8. Forwarding address. You will inevitably forget something, so make sure to leave your forwarding address and contact information with your ex-landlord, college, ex-roommate, etc.

9. Signing the Lease. The last thing you will do before moving into your new apartment is signing a lease. You will be given a copy of the lease to keep, as well as the key to your apartment and/or laundry key. Keep your copy of the lease in a safe place, and make sure to get duplicates of your apartment keys.

During Moving

1. Take your time. Don’t try to unpack everything in one day! Take some time to explore your new space, and decide where to put everything in a leisurely way. There is no set schedule for moving.

2. Assistance. If you have friends/family helping you make the move, assign them specific tasks so that nobody spends their time pestering you and asking “what do you need help with?”. You can even decide these tasks ahead of time, during your plane or car ride over.

3. Be neighborly. You’ll likely meet some neighbors during this process, and make sure to stop and greet them, even if you’re in the middle of something. First impressions do matter, even when they shouldn’t, and spending thirty seconds to greet someone in a parking lot may save you a lot of hardship in the long run. Ask your neighbors to recommend local attractions, places to eat, what laundromats to use, etc.

4. Check everything. During your first few days moved into you new apartment, look around and make note of anything wrong. Outlets that don’t work, scratches on the wall, peeling paint, etc. Report these ASAP to your landlord to be fixed. This will give you a good idea of how put together their maintenance unit is. Make sure to offer maintenance workers water and be polite to them when they’re fixing anything in your apartment.

After You’re Settled (Specifically for Living Alone)

1. PKW. Phone, keys, wallet. Every time you go anywhere. Check twice. The worst part of living on your own is having to rely on yourself to never forget to lock yourself out or leave your wallet at a sandwich shop in a mall. Make absolutely sure you have duplicates of your keys (I would get a couple made) and give one to a friend who lives nearby who you can count on. I also like to keep an extra set inside the apartment itself in a secure place, just in case. Your landlord can let you in during office hours, but giving a key to a trustworthy friend helps you 24/7.

2. Cleaning routine. You don’t have to sit down at a writing desk and draft this out, but spend a few minutes coming up with a basic cleaning regime for you to follow. It’s definitely easier to do a little each day, but if that doesn’t work for your schedule set aside at least an hour and a half during your time off to get your apartment spotless. I don’t know about you, but whenever I deep clean my apartment I feel like I’m living in a hotel for a day, and I absolutely love it.

3. Make a “moving” shopping list. This is everything you will need (minus food) for your first week at your new place. Do a big shop, and get all the essentials out of the way: first aid kit, cleaning supplies, tape, cat food, etc. Your first week moving into your new place will be stressful enough, you don’t want to be halfway through setting up your living room and realize that you forgot to buy trash bags.

4. Secure yourself. I’m not the most agile or fast person in the world, and I do live in a mid-sized city that has a good deal of crime. The apartment complex I live in is very safe, but I still like to double lock my front door at night. It might be smart to keep some pepper spray or a baseball bat somewhere in your apartment, just in case.

5. Stay social. Even the most anti-social person gets lonely. Make sure to hang out with your friends, not just your co-workers, your actual friends. Get out off your apartment every few days and go see a movie, get a cup of coffee, go people watching at the park, etc. It’s easy to get depressed if you’re living alone and doing the same things the same way every day- allow yourself to mix it up.

6. Meal prep. It can be stressful and seem useless to cook complicated or “fancy” meals when you’re living on your own. Plan your meals for the week and make a list before going shopping. Get yourself enough food to make a variety of dinners that will only take you fifteen minutes. If you do want to go crazy and make steak and mashed potatoes for yourself, make enough for two meals. Also, nobody is going to think poorly of you for stocking your fridge with a couple frozen dinners.

7. Customer service. Living alone means that you are going to be doing a lot of talking to customer service representatives. Get comfortable talking to people over the phone. Tell the rep what you need as quickly as you can, and try to be polite because customer service at a phone center is a garbage job that doesn’t pay well. On the flip side, don’t be afraid to ask for a manager if you’re upset or unhappy with your service. Take their survey at the end of your phone call, tell them how unhappy you are. It’s someone’s shitty job to look at all those surveys, no complaint goes unheard. Companies with great phone service: Verizon, Apple, Amazon. Companies with awful phone service: USPS (literally the worst), electric companies, health insurance companies.

8. Guest space. This is not required, but it’s a good idea to have some sort of space for a friend to stay the night. A friend of mine had a bad breakup, showed up at my apartment with ten minute’s notice, and then fell asleep on my couch after an hour of crying. It as 7:30! Whatever, she needed it. Keep an extra blanket and pillow in your closet, I like to keep travel sized shampoos and conditioners in my bathroom cabinet on the off chance a guest wants to use my shower. I got these at a hotel for free, but they’re available at CVS and other pharmacies.

9. Toilet paper. Don’t let yourself run out of toilet paper! I like to buy more when I notice I only have one roll left. The same deal goes for paper towels.

10. Enjoy. Living on your own is simoltaneously exciting and exhausting, but an all around must-have experience. Enjoy the freedom to forget to make the bed, to decorate your bathroom however you want, to have ice cream for dinner, to watch reruns of Friends and cry when Rachel decides to move to France. Make sure to give yourself lots of space to move at your own pace, but please remember to eat three meals a day and to go to the doctor’s for a checkup at least once a year!

[aniseandspearmint]

@sparklecryptid Cor was indeed tempting, and I'm sure he's a good friend of Jaskier's, but the good angst doesn't outweigh all the reasons that someone else would work better. Like. First of all, I can't see Jaskier ever staying in Insomnia. Famous traveling bard in his last life, gonna stay in crown city behind walls (and Walls) like a good little spare? Hah, NO. And Cor wants the Crownsguard. He wouldn't say it out loud but Jaskier would be able to tell he wouldn't be his happiest as his sworn Shield.

(other funnier reasons include that he and Geralt would either HATE each other in that special way two people that are far too alike do, or become a twin force of Protect and Jaskier would never have any fun ever again. Or, worse, BOTH.)

So, TRIALS get opened up to anyone in the guard or glaive that wants to give it a go. Crowe isn't gonna initially, because like hell they'll pick a no name immigrant girl! The new shine isn't even off her uniform boots, what idiot's gonna pick a kid like her when Cor the Immortal is competing? But Nyx said he'd try if SHE tried and made it a bet, and two free dinners are two free dinners! She just has to rank higher than him by the end!

Except, it's not as hard as she thought it would be? She knew the looks her instructors had given her as she trained with the newly gifted Kings magic meant something, there'd been too many and too much muttering and note taking for it to NOT mean something, but she hadn't realized how much BETTER she was than others until she'd knocked down her twentieth opponent and looked up to see it was just her and three others names left on the board.

W H A T?

She's expecting another round of fights. Instead Crowe's herded from the room and given time to wash up and a fresh uniform before being shoved in a scarily fancy little side room in the royal wing (bigger than her entire apartment and probably Nyx's too, combined) along with the other three finalists. Two finalists? There's only her, Nyx, and Cor the Immortal and-

Sitting on one of the plush little couches is a young man somewhere around her age tuning a weirdly shaped guitar and humming under his breath.

It takes Crowe a second to place him as Prince Aurelius (AN: hopefully gold or golden is pretentious enough for the name he doesn't use much lols??) because she'd seen him before, at a distance, and the Prince was well known to pair the royal black with songbird bright colors. Today he was dressed in a faded gold coat over a black dress shirt and dark brown slacks. Nice, but utterly unobtrusive. She could have walked by him in any hall of the citadel and not noticed him at all.

He looks up, blue eyes raking over the three of them before landing on Cor the Immortal and morphing into a sharp scowl.

"Cor. We've had this talk, what the hell are you doing here? I'm /not/ picking you." Aaaaand, wow, there's the Prince. She sees it now, in the cool, harsh look he's leveling at Cor the Immortal like he's /annoying/ him.

Cor, for his part shifts his stance from harsh attention to a companionable shrug. He walks forward and nudges the Prince over to sit next to him. "I know. I was just weeding things out. These two are the best fighters, hopefully one will be a good match for you personality wise, and for your level of activity."

Prince Aurelius's eyes return to Crowe and Nyx and he tilts his head, bird like and inquisitive and GRINS at them. Crowe can feel the trouble in that cheerful expression.

What follows is weeks of her and Nyx running after Prince Aurelius ("Call me Jaskier! No really, I insist!") as he tears around the citadel, then with him as he somehow snuggles them out it Hammerhead. Nyx is forced to bow out after the second week. He and Jaskier get on like a house fire, but they have exactly the same level of caution, which is to say, none, and a Prince's Shield needs to (occasionally) be a voice of reason. And Crowe and Jaskier's magic mesh scarily well besides.

Three weeks in Jaskier sets her down and really ASKS her if she's sure this is what she wants, to BE sure because this is a life long commitment and he won't trap her into something like this if she won't be happy.

It doesn't take her long to respond. Hell yes, she's in.

____

Jaskier standing there, weapons whirling in a deadly glowing flower, a devil may care grin on his lips.... Be still my heart. Be still Geralt's heart too bc his is pounding as fast as a humans.

Because that's Jaskier. His last memory of the man is trying and failing to hold his blood in his body and yet, there he is (and he can FEEL it's him, the bright bloom of SOMETHING in his chest telling him this is not a trick) dressed in unfamiliar clothing and magic bleeding the air around him bright colors and spinning blades, a dark haired woman guarding his back with a feral smile and eyes glowing just a bit.

And Geralt is mildly jealous of the spinning weapon trick, but extremely jealous of the armiger. That would be SO damn useful for a Witcher! Jaskier basks in the feeling for a few days before explaining that he can link Geralt into his family magic if he wants, which comes with access to a pocket of the armiger.

_____

They do get to bring Geralt et all to Eos eventually. And you know what that means right? Introducing Geralt to CHOCOBOS.

*cackles* Imagining the look on his face gives me LIFE.

(There's a bit of a reverse situation to think of too btw, imagine Crowe and anyone else he brought to the Witcher world meeting horses for the first time. On the one hand, kind of pretty and graceful looking? On the other, hexathon look at those TEETH! And those hooves! And chocobos hardly ever bite or kick unlike horses...)

_____

Titles titles.... When in doubt, go for poetry.

There are surprisingly few references to buttercups in poetry according to Poem Hunter and poetry nook

Maybe something referencing coming home?? idk, gonna have to think about it.

Okay, pretty sure I saw some Witcher stuff on your page? If so consider Jaskier dying (I kno I kno hear me out tho) Jaskier dies and this is UNACCEPTABLE. He has a Witcher to mind, he can't DIE. His soul makes such a ruckus a god from another world notices, and makes him an offer. Cue Jaskier being reborn on Eos as an LC. Because the LCs need a dramatic bard and Jaskier needs LC magic to someday return to Geralt.

*snickers* his lucii title is. of course. the bard. and he’s stupidly good at magic. so stupidly good at magic. and he starts incorporating his magic into his music. and if there are times he gets quiet and sings about a white wolf or a witcher and no one knows who hes singing about well thats fine.

thats fine.

regis isn’t worried about his younger brother at all.

and then Jaskier starts looking into magic that can make someone travel between worlds and stumbles upon something from the oracles time and he’s conflicted about leaving but 

he misses his witcher. he misses his witcher so much and maybe he could split his time between worlds? would that even work? he hopes it will.

(or we could have geralt winding up in Insomnia and he sees Jaskier who /died in his arms/ up and alive and Jaskier starts fucking crying and cursing at geralt at the same time and geralt is just /what is that my bard/ which quickly turns into /THATS MY FUCKING BARD/

cue geralt the Trophy Husband of Prince Jaskier Lucis Caelum)

[kisekinovampirewriting]

💤❄FINALLY FINISHED!!!❄💤

At the 04/24/17 I finished the Diabolik Lovers game Lunatic Parade. Somehow Rukis Birthday brought me some luck! *Gives him a big hug* So I can finally buy me the next game of Diabolik Lovers. I think it will be Dark Fate or Lost Eden. I wanted to finish VanDead Carnival and Lunatic Parade first before buying the next one. But I’m not really sure which one. I’m so happy because both Storylines are so interesting and more. And if I get a new memory card for my PSVita System (there will be some changes, if you want to I can keep you updated about this changes 😋) I will play both games again without previous saved games. I hope you know what I mean. I can’t put my worship into words about the Diabolik Lovers games. And if I had to choose one of the family’s to live in I would live with the Mukami but I would steal Shu and Subaru from the Sakamakis to be with me 😄. The love for the Characters which is different per Character. I’m giving my opinion about the Characters if it is okay for you. You don’t have to read it.  The order is how mutch I like them Gomen…. As you will see the Mukamis did got higher places XD I typed this on my smartphone with (but I edited online before posting it), so I hope it worked with the formats. I had to put it into three ‘Notes’ on my Smartphone 😅 and besides that all the Seyuu are really good!!! As a side Info, the first six Characters I mention didn’t have to do mutch work to “bite” themselves into my heart 😘😍

Shu: He was the first route I took in More Blood and without many work I started (to be in my heart) to love him. Because we share ironically the same fear, I’m afraid of fire, so I could identify myself really easy with him. Also he gave me the love I had to classical music back, that I had long forgotten and ignored, everything else I think about him would fit in a separate Post, including Yuma.(If you want that I can do that, with all of the first six😄)

Yuma: Mmh… How was my first impression of him?! Big guy… I like big guys 😍 (I have a fucking soft spot for big guys, for example Aomine Daiki and Murasakibara Atsushi) Than I played his route in More Blood and became interested in him. So to be honest with you, the both of them where my first diabolik “boyfriend's​”. Like Shuu he had some particular characteristics which where “magnetic” for me. *Points to Shu*

Subaru: I don’t have to tell mutch about him. And after finding out what the…. I don’t have words for him (if you know Subarus Route you know WHO I mean)… Did to his mother… I’m so totally on his side. But what I do find really cool, the Sakamakis doesn’t have a deep bond like the Mukamis, even if Shuu and Subaru only are half-brothers Shuu is taking sides with Subaru. That isn’t shown in the Anime, only in the games. I do really love the connection between the both brothers. Even if Shuu get’s yelled at for that from his own *koff* younger brother. That I’m really missed in the animes after playing More Blood.

Kou: Mmh my first impression of him was that he was a little bit strange but fucking interesting strange. After playing his More Blood route (I know I mention it often but it was my first Diabolik Lovers Game and Experience with a PSP Emulator for Windows, which is a !£-*;#+#;@; in the ass…, at that time) so after playing his route I thought to myself /He could turn out to a very fascinating and interesting character/ and after playing VanDead Carnival and Lunatic Parade i wasn’t disappointed. So I’m pumped up to know more about him and how he will develop in the futher games.

Azusa: As I first layed my eyes on him, he is a masochistic vampire, I thought /Fuck I have to provide it from happening!!!!/ (I did it as a teenager and I’m not getting away from it so I understand it) so I did feld a really deep connection to him again. That is the problem if you play the games and can empathise with them which I unfortunately can 😒 I felt it with many of them, the first six at the most… So the goal I always have in his routes he should hurt the character I’m playing and not himself and also I wouldn’t have problems to eat spicy food which he likes. So like with Kou, I’m really excited about to see how he will develop.

Ruki: At first I thought he would be somehow like Megane (Reiji) but he showed me something else. To be honest my first impression wasn’t so a bad one like I had with the Tableware Otaku (Reiji). But I did got to his route with a whole lot of respect and adoration. I can’t say what the activator was for that but after his route I stated to like him. And after the Games VanDead Carnival and Lunatic Parade, I gave up. I’ll not call myself a Ruki Fan but I’m on the best way to become one.

Shin: Mmmh I can’t tell mutch about him, I only played his Lunatic Route. He is really difficult to rank. But I do like him, his Seyuu (sorry) gets him some positive points because he shares Kotobukis Voice and I’m a big Kotobuki Reiji Fan! 😍 So I’m really excited to see what his route is in Dark Fate, and sorry Carla I would rather be with your little brother… (even if he is 5cm smaller than me 😂) And sorry to Carla I can’t say anything because he is with only the Lunatic route really hard to describe. But because of both of their routes in Lunatic Parade I’m pumped up to know more about them in the Game Dark Fate. But if I have to choose one of them… Mmmmh I would incline more to Shin… I really can’t explain why it would end like that.😄

Ayato: Yes you are reading right. Ayato… The little *koff* obsessed Idiot 😄 He was the first DL Character where I was afraid to play his route, I’m fucking honest!!!! But after again his MB route it changed. After that route I wasn’t afraid of him anymore. But it took a long time before I really warmed up to him. And now I'm​ totally in his hell.

Kanato: My first impression of him was somehow similar to the one of Azusa but he did need a big hug impression. So I didn’t understood why so many of the fan’s have some kind of mixed feelings about him. He didn’t shock me and so I got to his route with no fear. After playing his route I do have admit I like him. But what I like or else of him is hard to point out.

Laito: Mmh.. he was the first of the characters from the Game I had contact with. So I was deeply in his hell at first. But thanks to the other Characters I got out of his hell, but coming out of his hell isn’t easy as fuck. But to be honest, I do have more problems with first six I mentioned as with him (i hope you understand what I mean with that), than with him. He somehow I wouldn’t dare to say it like this, he became a good friend for me. I don’t hate him but I’m not able to love him.😅But having him as a “friend” I wouldn’t say is bad or what do you think?!

Reiji: OmG him… How should I speak about him? I do like him and he's​ an acceptable Character. At first I didn’t like him and after playing his MB and the other routes I have to admit he became a character​ whom I use to complete the games. He and Laito are similar, I wouldn’t choose them if I have the possibility to choose one of the others, but I would come to terms with him. So as with Laito, I don’t love him but I accept him and wouldn’t be afraid of a friendship with him. Yeah it do sounds wierd but that is how I think about them.

But all in all I do have some weakness or something similar to the Seyuu Voices a more or less I do have to honestly admit… So that would be it for now, I really had to get it off my chest. If you would like to I can do the same with the Characters of Kuroko no basket, Utapri, Tsukiuta and many more. If you like to hear my honest opinion about some Characters. The only condition is that I’m a big fan of the Anime/Manga or Game myself.😋 Yours Zoroko-chin

[fluffi]

so should i reply in tiny font or just regular font?

hybe should do better in spreading out the comebacks of the groups under them :/ they're already at a huge advantage, might as well use it strategically. AHA streaming mvs is so convenient for a multi. the filler vids i could use in between could be mvs from the other groups that i stan. also you know what, i still haven't watched a single final performance bc im waiting for a friend to watch with me :D

i have a chinese movie recommendation in case you want something to cry over. i still love its ost and it's been months since i watched it. i'm not sure if you watched it already but more than blue. i've never cried over a movie as much as i cried for that one. the angst *chef's kiss*. i'd do anything to wipe my memory of it and watch it again for the first time.

also sungchan is mc-ing in inkigayo every sunday! and honestly, what the hell is nct hollywood :D but a part of me thinks it's just going to be a bunch of asians living in america like johnny that'll be a part of it. just a hunch tho. imagine having all 4 units coming back in a year with like 1 unit per quarter of the year. i'm not sure if sm even has the money to do this, especially when they filed bankruptcy recently.

and i've seen a lot of twitter memes saying taro's ghosted stans T_T alexa play ghosting by txt T_T sm come on give him smth to do, you're wasting talent.

the mall didn't burn down entirely (like from the outside it looked fine). the ventilation system caught fire so it was more internal—ceilings and all that. covered things with soot(?) and ashes so the entire mall was closed for nearly 2 years. and hey, i've experienced a school fire too back when i was younger. i, too, thought it was nothing but a fire drill until i saw the charred remains of the buildings behind our school : D thankfully, no one died.

the new nct track is for a samsung commercial AHAHA it's funny because nearly everyone uses apple TT_TT and the mv screams neo culture tech tho (well as it should lmao). yes, i was talking about that part in hot sauce but yes, it grew on me too.

ateez really know how to do a performance. they put the standard so high for me when it came to performing. their facial expressions and overall stage presence just impresses me. it's been a while since i've seen idols draw me to them by those standards.

ah, the long stan list! good luck in getting through it and i hope you do have fun as you go :] (also you can check out aurora by ateez and whiplash by tbz. the songs popped up in my head as i was typing this reply, you might like them)

ohhhh, what was the pd48 scandal? i don't watch survival shows so i don't know any of the stuff going on. would you care to elaborate? about their disbandment :(( i hope you're okay now tho! are the other girls still debuting in new groups? anyone eyeing an acting career instead of being an idol?

YES, A PATTERN IN THE BIASES (if you count an analysis of two ppl as a pattern, that is.) because it's the same pattern i have for my biaswreckers :D jake & seungmin, not only do they have the same animal to represent them, they have the same 'golden retriever' type of personality that just makes you go all soft. ygwim ;n; i wish i could elaborate but both boys just devastate me in the same level and my friends pointed out that they were quite similar in some aspects.

jaemin used to send really long bbl messages :< like if there was anything he loved most it was nctzens and it was obv in his messages. speaking of dream, album repackage news today! idk what to feel bc my hot sauce albums haven't even arrived yet :D + i'm dead br0ke.

how do you even manage to read 30k TT__TT i cant handle long fics bc of my attention span :D also, yes, i found the user now, i'll check if i'll like their works soon. <33

YES YOU SHOULDVE BEEN THERE T_T what a day that was. i think seungmin is still sweet and active in bbl. not a single cent goes to waste with him. also i think i'll post the drabble some time this month.

and oml seungmin vs jake :o let's see how that goes O.O XDD

clickity-clackity AHAH do you have a mechanical keyboard? :c i wanted one too but i haven't got around to saving up for one. but yes indeed, typing asmr v relaxing \m/

sunny hyuck day, fullsun sunday, fullsunday T_T feels were very strong that day. i kept seeing edits on my twt tl and i would just s o b : D i've only stanned nct for a year but i've seen him grow so much i just wanted to crie i love him sm :') yk my mom didn't cook spaghetti for my birthday, but she cooked for hyuck's? : D

and i checked ur recs blog and indeed, full of nct T_T

also have i mentioned that your desktop thing amuses me so much HAHAH i got confused for a sec if i had twt opened or tumblr. plus, i've been wanting to mention that i noticed that our mobile themes are opposites. black and red, white and blue. it's cute XDD <3

help, people have been telling me that our asks are long but i highkey love it. i added a ‘keep reading’ for the mobile users though, sorry in advance hh.

honestly, both works. tiny font saves space but regular font does more justice for my poor eyes haha. its your call!

hybe comebacks :( yeah enhypen got lucky because they came back right before cb season so they got three wins (yay)! on the bright side, txt just got their first win and bts has six wins, so it all works out i guess. omg yes, the streaming thing is perfect. i stan like 20 groups so i have a never-ending cycle of filler mvs and its always so helpful. ooh for the final performances - you wont regret watching any of them! literally wild, kingdom's budget and talent are wild.

ooh, I don't watch any cdramas lmao. i want to but i can barely finish kdramas. if its a movie ill watch it! ive never heard of more than blue but ill check it out <3 where can i watch it?

yes yes i have just realized that sungchan is yujin's co-mc! i watched their special stage (which is literally adorable) and was today years old when i realized that the dude is sungchan pls. nct hollywood was so unexpected and i still have mixed feelings about it now. LMAO JUST ASIANS LIVING IN AMERICA...help. that would be interesting (?) but the concept reminds me of those horrendous awesomeness tv shows. lets hope sm pulls this off well and proves me wrong. lmao all 4 units coming back would probably happen, but i hope none of them get overworked :( i constantly feel like mork lee has four clones :'( also...sm filed bankcruptcy??? dang, what happened?

ugh omg yeah shotaros talent is seriously being wasted in the basement right now. as for fires, scary T-T i wasnt that fazed by them until the australia wildfires happened, and i learned about the consequences of fire and got really scared. its good that the entire mall didnt burn down though! although its weird that no one is opening it :( schools really need to tell us the difference between drills though, it might be dangerous for those rebellious kids.

yeah i just realized that the nct track is an endorsement which partly explains why i cant listen to it. the mv's visuals are stunning!! the set and people are so gorgeous aa i cant

oh yeah im not an atiny but i have acknowledged since 2020 that they have one of the best, if not the best stage presence and expressions on stage for 4th gen. i think their only worthy competitor would be stray kids actually. theyre truly one of a kind and all of them are cute especially that yeosang guy. i will definitely check out your song recommendations though!

oof the pd48 scandal is extremely complicated. to condense it in a few statements: all of the girls' rankings have been rigged since the very beginning and it was rumored that they already had their end group before the show even started. it was like this for pf48 and pdx101 (group x1) which was why x1 disbanded within a month of debuting, and izone were on hiatus for like 4 months. im not the best at explaining stuff like this haha, but i think you get it. you can check out yt or search up 'pd48 scandal', a ton of articles and videos. as for new groups, nothing has been made clear yet. theyve only made instagram handles for now and appeared on variety shows haha. as for acting career, hyewon was supposed to do acting but was forced to join pd48 so maybe she'll continue acting afterwards? nothing is confirmed yet!

lmao two similarities, its okay it counts. ah, true, i can see their similarities now that youve mentioned it, as well as how jeno is kind of like that. however, i am currently attached to jaemin so we'll see what happens from there hehe. i swerve easily.

jaemin on bubble grr, that would be a whole experience. from the bare minimum of vidoes ive seen for him wbk jaemin is so whipped for czennies. ah yes repackage! i saw the post on instagram and went to the comments to see everything screaming ‘iM bROke!’ and it was lowkey hilarious lmao. kpop is really trying to suck our money T-T.

ope the longest fic ive read is like...40k words i think? and it was by jeonginks. ill read anything eiko produces lmao, theres always so much substance in her work. ooh, tell me what you think of luvdsc’s stuff, i just finished binging their entire masterlist lmao.

seungmin vs jake yeah, i havent been catching up on skz enha content because im still obsessing over the dreamies but when that saga is over then im going to focus on my ults lmao (which might include dream soon, hehe).

yes yes i have a mechanical bluetooth keyboard that i use to connect to my computer! it literally sounds amazing lmao, its only 10am here but i feel like im going to doze off from the clickity clackitys already. i cant wait for you to get one! tell me when you do, we can match hehe.

hyuck is an aodrable brat please. hes like the best comedian of nct at this point, so hilarious and filled with variety i love him. he rose up my bias list pretty fast too. LMAO YOUR MOM IS SO COOL I LOVE HER ALREADY. if only my mom would cook for my ults’ borndays.

yes my rec blog is a mess right now, ill organize it soon haha.

omg thank you and yes my website theme is one-of-a-kind. even i get confused when i open it or edit it, and i constantly get comments about it. also i just realized our opposing theme colors and i love it! its adorable.

[yournewapartment]

How do I find a decent apartment, and like I'm general be an adult

Here’s information on Apartment Hunting, but can you be more specific about what “Adulting” activities you’re interested in learning about? xx

Apartment Hunting 101

Overview: There’s no getting around it, apartment hunting is a stressful process. The waiting and wondering gets the best of everyone, so give yourself a break and remember not to be too hard on yourself. The more prepared and decisive you are, the better off you’ll be!

1. Step One: The most important step in this entire process is coming up with your list of “Need and Won’t”. This list can always be adjusted in the spur of the moment, but will act as a baseline to help you easily disregard impractical apartments. Before you even start your search, sit down with any roommates (SO or otherwise) and come up with a list. Here is my list:

Need: Dishwasher, pet friendly, heat included.

Won’t: First floor apartment, all or mostly carpeted apartment, no closet space.

2. Step Two: Decide your price range. The paycheck to paycheck life is not a great one to live, so try to find an apartment that still allows you to put anywhere from $100-$500 into savings every month. Figure out how much you make monthly, with taxes taken out. If you’re paid every other week, this is two paychecks. If you’re paid every week, this is four paychecks. Start with your total monthly income, and subtract the following expenses. Let’s say you make $1,000 with taxes taken out:

Rent - Let’s say you’re living with a roommate, and your rent is only $500 per month.

Electric - My electric expense is $60 a month for a one bedroom. Once again, you’re living with a roommate so let’s say that you pay half of that. $30.

Internet - $30 a month internet only. Please don’t waste your money on cable. Just use your mom’s Netflix account.

Travel expenses - I spend about $85 a month on gas. Let’s say you use public transportation and spend around $100.

Food - Figure you’ll be spending $100 per person each month. So that’s another $100.

Misc expense: Let’s just add an additional $50 worth of expenses on. Because you never know what’ll happen.

That leaves you $130 a month extra to put in savings or to use in the event of an emergency! That’s awesome. Substitute your own numbers in, and figure out how much you can afford for rent. Immediately disregard any apartments that do not fit in this budget.

3. Step Three: The best way to find dependable apartments is to consult with your fellow apartment renters. Consult with coworkers, friends, family- anyone who is currently renting in the area that you would like to rent in. Get the inside scoop on potential apartments, both their advantages and their pitfalls. If you don’t know anyone who is renting where you’d like to rent, here are some other apartment hunting options:

Craigslist: Obviously

Drive-bys: Literally drive around until you find a cool looking apartment complex. Find their rental office and go right in, this is how I found my first apartment.

Your college: The Dean’s Office will have a list of apartment offerings to give kids who don’t qualify for on-campus housing.

This Site: A list of the top ranked apartment hunting sites.

4. Set up an appointment: After finding a potential apartment, consult with the landlord or apartment representative to set up a date and time to see the apartment. Respond promptly to any email or phone call they leave for you. On the flip side, if they aren’t prompt in their response to you RUN.

The first apartment I ever looked at, my boyfriend and I showed up on time and the landlord wasn’t there. We called her and she said that she was running late, and told us that the apartment was open and we could show ourselves inside. Serious red flag, but we gave it the benefit of the doubt and went in. Long story short, she never showed up. She gave us a tour of the apartment over the phone and kept saying that she was five minutes away, but never came. We later found out that her rental office was two minutes from the apartment we looked at. Talk about flakey! We told her we weren’t interested, if she can’t even show up to show us the apartment, how the hell can we depend on her to fix any problems we might have? Because you’re young and inexperienced, some landlords will try to give you the run around. Your age is no concern of their’s, and has no bearing on how you will act as a tenant. Here are some red flags for flaky landlords:

Not contacting you within one day of leaving them a message. Disregarding the weekends.

Not showing up when they say they will.

Repeatedly telling you that you’re “young” or “inexperienced”.

Telling you that the apartment “is good for college kids” or “a good first apartment” (that just means it’s a shit hole).

If they tell you that the apartment has a large turnover (people are leaving for a reason).

If you speak with one person on the phone, and meet a different person who shows you the apartment.

If they can’t or refuse to give you the exact rent amount.

If they tell you that have to “run some numbers” based on your history. An apartment’s rent should be the same for everybody.

If they can’t answer basic questions about service providers for the apartment.

If you get a weird vibe from them. Listen to your intuition! This is the person who is going to be responsible for fixing all your apartment related problems, you will be dealing with them every month at least. If they seem unreliable, don’t sign the lease!

5. Step Five: Find your appointment buddy! Never, ever, EVER go to look at a potential apartment by yourself. I don’t care how friendly Wendy seems online, she may be a serial killer. There’s no way to tell. Here’s a list of people who can accompany you:

Your older brother

Your boyfriend/girlfriend

Your Aunt Meredith

Your second cousin

Your friend who can scream really loudly

Your Mother

Your Step Mother

Your old nosey neighbor who smells like cats

Literally anyone you can trust

Bribe them with chocolate, I don’t care. Take someone with you! If you absolutely cannot find anyone to go with you, then you need to take additional precautions. Here are some options:

Kitestring

“Share My Location” on your Iphone

Pepper Spray

Posting to Facebook the address you are going to and when you are expected to arrive and leave.

Rescheduling your appointment to a date and time when you can be accompanied

Checklist

A mental checklist is good in theory, but will you remember it when you’re actually at the prospective apartment with your Aunt Meredith? I think not! Make a physical list of some of the following points, and feel free to add your own. my list is super extensive, but that’s just who I am. I am detail oriented.

Tuck this list in your back pocket and consult it when the person showing you the apartment is not looking.

Expense related

How much is the rent?

Is the rent just the rent, or are there any amenities included? Some apartments include heat, hot water, or electric expenses.

Is hot water included (if the apartment has a washer/dryer in it, then the water is probably a separate expense)?

What Internet service providers are available?

What electric service providers are available?

Do I have to pay for garbage removal?

What is the average electric expense that other renters deal with?

Ask when rent is due. Find out what the rent check procedure is.

Basic

What type of heating/cooling is provided?

What appliances are in the kitchen? *If there is no oven or fridge and you are required to buy your own then run*

What is the apartment complex turnover rate?

Do you have a choice of carpet vs. hard wood floors?

Will window blinds be provided? *If the apartment complex won’t pay for something as simple as window blinds then the landlord is a cheapskate and can’t be trusted*

Is there a “curfew”? Most apartments have a time of night when all the tenants are supposed to be quiet. This is generally not enforced.

What will your address be?

Additional

Is any furniture included?

Is there a Laundromat in the complex? If not where is the closest one?

Similarly, is the Laundromat in the complex card operated or quarter operated? Do you have to pay a fee for the card? Is there a quarter dispensing machine?

Will you be given a free parking permit? *If parking is not free then run*

Ask about local shopping and gas stations.

Ask where your mailbox will be.

Ask what their pet policy is. (some apartment complexes charge an fee)

Ask what their policy on repainting/decorating is.

Ask what their maintenance request policy is.

Ask where the nearest dumpster is.

How often does the complex loose power?

Is there a nearby police station or fire department?

General check

Check all cabinets (for bug infestations or mouse droppings or that they open properly).

Open all the windows and check to see that there are screens installed. Especially important for us cat owners! If there are no screens- are they going to install screens before you move in?

Check that all the light switches work.

Check that the water turns on.

Flush the toilet.

Check all the closet space (for size, mold, and water damage).

Check how all the doors are set (some apartments will put doors in incorrectly and they’ll never close properly).

Check the outlets (bring a phone chord and plug it in).

Check any balcony access.

Take a look at the paint- is it chipped? Is it stained? Will they be repainting?

Knock on the walls to see how hollow they are (hollow walls require studs if you want to hang anything up).

Open up the oven and make sure it’s clean. If it’s not clean make it clear that it should be cleaned if you want to move into the apartment. It’s not your job to clean up after the previous tenant.

Check that none of the floorboards are sticking up/creaking.

Check for nails and screws in between hardwood floor, tile and carpet (I’m not even kidding).

Check your phone to see how much cell service you have.

Can you hear any neighbors? Could you hear them in the hallway?

Final Decision

If the apartment you visited fits all your criteria, feel free to tell the landlord that you’re interested in pursuing this apartment. This way they can advise you of the next steps. Before you sign ANYTHING, visit the apartment complex twice more to make sure that everything is kosher. Do NOT tell the landlord that you will be coming by.

During the day: Do a drive-by of your prospective apartment to see what it looks like during the day. Is it safe? Are there lots of people standing around outside? Is it loud?

During the night: Come back another night to check the safety of your apartment. Ask yourself- would I feel comfortable taking the trash out late at night? Having friends over? If the answer is “no” then run…

Additional Resources

Apartment Setup: My post that briefly outlines locating, checking out, and setting up a new apartment. Also has some next steps that I’m not going over in this post. It’s pretty good if I do say so myself!

Apartment Hunting 101: A list of helpful resources all relating to locating and checking out potential apartments. Some of the links aren’t set up correctly, so you will need to copy and paste them into a new browser.

NYC Renters: This post is designed for NYC Renters, but the points are still valid even if you’re not renting in NYC. A must read!

Stuff Nobody Tells You: I love love LOVE @hipdomestic so much! They haven’t posted anything recently, but this blog is an incredible resource. Check out this post that really goes into depth about apartments.

[yournewapartment]

Hi! This blog is a life saver haha! I have a little question; I'm going to be looking for apartments soon and it's my first time ever being away from home,,, is there anything I should look out for in general? Thank you!

Hey I’m so glad I’m helping! I have been meaning to write a post of this nature for a long time, so thank you for asking. Here. We. Go.

Apartment Hunting 101

Overview: There’s no getting around it, apartment hunting is a stressful process. The waiting and wondering gets the best of everyone, so give yourself a break and remember not to be too hard on yourself. The more prepared and decisive you are, the better off you’ll be!

1. Step One: The most important step in this entire process is coming up with your list of “Need and Won’t”. This list can always be adjusted in the spur of the moment, but will act as a baseline to help you easily disregard impractical apartments. Before you even start your search, sit down with any roommates (SO or otherwise) and come up with a list. Here is my list:

Need: Dishwasher, pet friendly, heat included.

Won’t: First floor apartment, all or mostly carpeted apartment, no closet space.

2. Step Two: Decide your price range. The paycheck to paycheck life is not a great one to live, so try to find an apartment that still allows you to put anywhere from $100-$500 into savings every month. Figure out how much you make monthly, with taxes taken out. If you’re paid every other week, this is two paychecks. If you’re paid every week, this is four paychecks. Start with your total monthly income, and subtract the following expenses. Let’s say you make $1,000 with taxes taken out:

Rent - Let’s say you’re living with a roommate, and your rent is only $500 per month.

Electric - My electric expense is $60 a month for a one bedroom. Once again, you’re living with a roommate so let’s say that you pay half of that. $30.

Internet - $30 a month internet only. Please don’t waste your money on cable. Just use your mom’s Netflix account.

Travel expenses - I spend about $85 a month on gas. Let’s say you use public transportation and spend around $100.

Food - Figure you’ll be spending $100 per person each month. So that’s another $100.

Misc expense: Let’s just add an additional $50 worth of expenses on. Because you never know what’ll happen.

That leaves you $130 a month extra to put in savings or to use in the event of an emergency! That’s awesome. Substitute your own numbers in, and figure out how much you can afford for rent. Immediately disregard any apartments that do not fit in this budget.

3. Step Three: The best way to find dependable apartments is to consult with your fellow apartment renters. Consult with coworkers, friends, family- anyone who is currently renting in the area that you would like to rent in. Get the inside scoop on potential apartments, both their advantages and their pitfalls. If you don’t know anyone who is renting where you’d like to rent, here are some other apartment hunting options:

Craigslist: Obviously

Drive-bys: Literally drive around until you find a cool looking apartment complex. Find their rental office and go right in, this is how I found my first apartment.

Your college: The Dean’s Office will have a list of apartment offerings to give kids who don’t qualify for on-campus housing.

This Site: A list of the top ranked apartment hunting sites.

4. Set up an appointment: After finding a potential apartment, consult with the landlord or apartment representative to set up a date and time to see the apartment. Respond promptly to any email or phone call they leave for you. On the flip side, if they aren’t prompt in their response to you RUN.

The first apartment I ever looked at, my boyfriend and I showed up on time and the landlord wasn’t there. We called her and she said that she was running late, and told us that the apartment was open and we could show ourselves inside. Serious red flag, but we gave it the benefit of the doubt and went in. Long story short, she never showed up. She gave us a tour of the apartment over the phone and kept saying that she was five minutes away, but never came. We later found out that her rental office was two minutes from the apartment we looked at. Talk about flakey! We told her we weren’t interested, if she can’t even show up to show us the apartment, how the hell can we depend on her to fix any problems we might have? Because you’re young and inexperienced, some landlords will try to give you the run around. Your age is no concern of their’s, and has no bearing on how you will act as a tenant. Here are some red flags for flaky landlords:

Not contacting you within one day of leaving them a message. Disregarding the weekends.

Not showing up when they say they will.

Repeatedly telling you that you’re “young” or “inexperienced”.

Telling you that the apartment “is good for college kids” or “a good first apartment” (that just means it’s a shit hole).

If they tell you that the apartment has a large turnover (people are leaving for a reason).

If you speak with one person on the phone, and meet a different person who shows you the apartment.

If they can’t or refuse to give you the exact rent amount.

If they tell you that have to “run some numbers” based on your history. An apartment’s rent should be the same for everybody.

If they can’t answer basic questions about service providers for the apartment.

If you get a weird vibe from them. Listen to your intuition! This is the person who is going to be responsible for fixing all your apartment related problems, you will be dealing with them every month at least. If they seem unreliable, don’t sign the lease!

5. Step Five: Find your appointment buddy! Never, ever, EVER go to look at a potential apartment by yourself. I don’t care how friendly Wendy seems online, she may be a serial killer. There’s no way to tell. Here’s a list of people who can accompany you:

Your older brother

Your boyfriend/girlfriend

Your Aunt Meredith

Your second cousin

Your friend who can scream really loudly

Your Mother

Your Step Mother

Your old nosey neighbor who smells like cats

Literally anyone you can trust

Bribe them with chocolate, I don’t care. Take someone with you! If you absolutely cannot find anyone to go with you, then you need to take additional precautions. Here are some options:

Kitestring

“Share My Location” on your Iphone

Pepper Spray

Posting to Facebook the address you are going to and when you are expected to arrive and leave.

Rescheduling your appointment to a date and time when you can be accompanied

Checklist

A mental checklist is good in theory, but will you remember it when you’re actually at the prospective apartment with your Aunt Meredith? I think not! Make a physical list of some of the following points, and feel free to add your own. my list is super extensive, but that’s just who I am. I am detail oriented.

Tuck this list in your back pocket and consult it when the person showing you the apartment is not looking.

Expense related

How much is the rent?

Is the rent just the rent, or are there any amenities included? Some apartments include heat, hot water, or electric expenses.

Is hot water included (if the apartment has a washer/dryer in it, then the water is probably a separate expense)?

What Internet service providers are available?

What electric service providers are available?

Do I have to pay for garbage removal?

What is the average electric expense that other renters deal with?

Ask when rent is due. Find out what the rent check procedure is.

Basic

What type of heating/cooling is provided?

What appliances are in the kitchen? *If there is no oven or fridge and you are required to buy your own then run*

What is the apartment complex turnover rate?

Do you have a choice of carpet vs. hard wood floors?

Will window blinds be provided? *If the apartment complex won’t pay for something as simple as window blinds then the landlord is a cheapskate and can’t be trusted*

Is there a “curfew”? Most apartments have a time of night when all the tenants are supposed to be quiet. This is generally not enforced.

What will your address be?

Additional

Is any furniture included?

Is there a Laundromat in the complex? If not where is the closest one?

Similarly, is the Laundromat in the complex card operated or quarter operated? Do you have to pay a fee for the card? Is there a quarter dispensing machine?

Will you be given a free parking permit? *If parking is not free then run*

Ask about local shopping and gas stations.

Ask where your mailbox will be.

Ask what their pet policy is. (some apartment complexes charge an fee)

Ask what their policy on repainting/decorating is.

Ask what their maintenance request policy is.

Ask where the nearest dumpster is.

How often does the complex loose power?

Is there a nearby police station or fire department?

General check

Check all cabinets (for bug infestations or mouse droppings or that they open properly).

Open all the windows and check to see that there are screens installed. Especially important for us cat owners! If there are no screens- are they going to install screens before you move in?

Check that all the light switches work.

Check that the water turns on.

Flush the toilet.

Check all the closet space (for size, mold, and water damage).

Check how all the doors are set (some apartments will put doors in incorrectly and they’ll never close properly).

Check the outlets (bring a phone chord and plug it in).

Check any balcony access.

Take a look at the paint- is it chipped? Is it stained? Will they be repainting?

Knock on the walls to see how hollow they are (hollow walls require studs if you want to hang anything up).

Open up the oven and make sure it’s clean. If it’s not clean make it clear that it should be cleaned if you want to move into the apartment. It’s not your job to clean up after the previous tenant.

Check that none of the floorboards are sticking up/creaking.

Check for nails and screws in between hardwood floor, tile and carpet (I’m not even kidding).

Check your phone to see how much cell service you have.

Can you hear any neighbors? Could you hear them in the hallway?

Final Decision

If the apartment you visited fits all your criteria, feel free to tell the landlord that you’re interested in pursuing this apartment. This way they can advise you of the next steps. Before you sign ANYTHING, visit the apartment complex twice more to make sure that everything is kosher. Do NOT tell the landlord that you will be coming by.

During the day: Do a drive-by of your prospective apartment to see what it looks like during the day. Is it safe? Are there lots of people standing around outside? Is it loud?

During the night: Come back another night to check the safety of your apartment. Ask yourself- would I feel comfortable taking the trash out late at night? Having friends over? If the answer is “no” then run…

Additional Resources

Apartment Setup: My post that briefly outlines locating, checking out, and setting up a new apartment. Also has some next steps that I’m not going over in this post. It’s pretty good if I do say so myself!

Apartment Hunting 101: A list of helpful resources all relating to locating and checking out potential apartments. Some of the links aren’t set up correctly, so you will need to copy and paste them into a new browser.

NYC Renters: This post is designed for NYC Renters, but the points are still valid even if you’re not renting in NYC. A must read!

Stuff Nobody Tells You: I love love LOVE @hipdomestic so much! They haven’t posted anything recently, but this blog is an incredible resource. Check out this post that really goes into depth about apartments.