softmature

[fulgurbugs]

Headcanon request: If the Octopath characters (1 and 2 if you can) were to play MarioKart, what would they be like? As in whos the most competitive and NEEDS TO WIN or just playing for the fun of it. Also if it ain't too much, what characters would they use? (I can see Tressa or Alfyn using Yoshi lol)

btw I LOVE your Octopath comics and doodles, always excited when I see a new one posted!

Real as hell. Here’s your. Graph lol

[thelostmagicians]

Booksmart | Steve Harrington

Summary: Steve Harrington’s head may be full of air, but his heart is full of love. [4.4k]

Fluff, comfort, slight angst, insecure Steve

♡

Steve Harrington isn’t a genius. He barely passed his classes in high school, couldn’t get into college, and can barely keep his minimum wage job. He’s been belittled by his parents too many times to care about their opinion and he knows compared to his friends he isn’t as clever or witty, but he’s okay with it - at least he thinks he is. It might sting when Robin and Eddie tease him for being too slow or when Dustin sighs in frustration because he can’t keep up, but the ache dissipates when they look at him in adoration. 

He blames his failing love life on his lack of intelligence. Although girls find his himbo-ness endearing, his relationships never last long.  Most of the dates he goes on end up as dirty hookups in the backseat of his car and on the off chance a girl stays longer than a month he can slowly see the irritation replace the endearment in her eyes. He was just something to do during the inbetween phase of graduation and moving out of Hawkins, a trophy to conquer - to finally have slept with the previously known King. He used to be okay with that at the beginning, he got his needs met while girls crossed him off their list, but over time he craved more. He saw how Nancy looked at Jonathan, how Joyce laughed with Hopper, and how Robin blushed around Vickie. He was desperate for that feeling of being wanted and loved. 

Even though he's surrounded by people who love and accept him as he is, he can't help but wonder if things would’ve been different if he was just a little smarter. 

_

“Robin I’m telling you she started speaking a different language halfway through dinner,” Steve grumbles as he’s shelving the horror section. 

Robin rolls her eyes at him, “Just because you don’t understand the words she’s using doesn’t mean she was speaking a different language, Steven. I don’t even think she knows anything but English. 

Steve sighs under his breath. 

He had gone on another date last night, but didn’t even make it past the appetizers before he made up an emergency and left. The night started off great, the Indiana summer evening had a cool breeze, he opened the door for her, and was rewarded with a kiss on his cheek when he presented her with  flowers. Valerie had been nice, beautiful, and smart - maybe a little too smart for Steve. Don’t get him wrong, Steve loves strong, smart, and capable women. He loved hearing Valerie speak about physics and graphing linear equations, he loved learning about what interested her, but as the night went on he could see the light in her eyes fading as he kept asking her questions. The final straw had been when he told her he hasn’t read a book since high school and she laughed lightly before saying “you really are only a pretty face.” 

“Maybe, I’m just destined to be alone, or like a back up plan for girls who come back to Hawkins after giving up on their big city dreams.”

Robin sighs and gives him a reassuring pat, “Steve, you’re a good man. You’ll find your one, trust me on this.”

Before he can say more the bell jingles as a gust of hot air is let in. Steve groans as he spots Dustin’s mop of curly hair and hears the chatter of 6 other teens. He holds the door open with his arm as he sees Lucas struggling with Max’s wheelchair. 

“You guys can’t keep coming in here, Robin and I actually have work to do you know.”

“We wanted to pick a movie for movie night,” Max says. 

He sighs softly as he meets her eyes. Steve’s always had a soft spot for Max ever since they’ve met and it’s only gotten softer since then, everyone knows this, but the kids tend to take advantage of this and use Max to get their way. 

“Alright two movies max and no rated r ones.”

As he hears the bell jingle again he starts his greeting in a monotone voice, “Welcome to Family Video, my name is St—” he chokes. 

“Oh my god, are you okay?” you ask softly. 

He’s still coughing and panting slightly as he tries to give you a reassuring nod. Robin makes her way to the front to hand Steve some water and finish introductions. 

“What he means to say is his name is Steve and I’m Robin. You can come get us if you have any questions.”

You nod politely, finally tearing your gaze away from Steve as you start browsing through the racks. Steve, however, can’t seem to stop looking at you. He’s seen a lot of beautiful women in his life, but none of them held a candle to you. Everything about you was just perfect to him and he didn’t even know you yet. His eyes repeatedly traced the slope of your nose, down to your plush lips, and back to your furrowed eyebrows as you read the back of a tape. 

You lift your head up and he blushes as you make eye contact. 

“Do you have any recommendations for sci-fi, I just moved to town and need something to keep me from getting bored?” you ask shyly. 

“Err- We have a sci-fi section over there” Steve points to the rack behind him where the kids are gathered and quietly arguing over which movie to pick. 

You speak as you make your way over, “Yeah, but do you have any recommendations for me? I feel like I’ve seen all the good ones already.”

Steve's face falls as he tries to come up with an answer. 

“Have you seen Star Wars?” Dustin speaks up

Max and El groan loudly as you shake your head. 

“I tend to stay away from franchises, but what’s it about?”

Before Dustin can answer, Mike beats him to it, “It’s about galactic adventures of these characters, it’s pretty cool.”

“We were planning on watching it tonight, we always have movie nights at Steve’s on Friday. You should join us!” Dustin exclaims as he tries to shoot Steve a sly wink. 

Your eyes grow wide at the sudden invitation as Steve rests his head in his hands too embarrassed to speak. 

“Is that alright with you, Steve?” You ask kindly. 

Steve’s breath hitches as he hears you say his name, he slowly meets your gaze as he gives you a slight nod trying to avoid choking on air again.

Robin smirks at Steve as she hands you a post-it, “Here’s Steve’s address. Movie starts at 7 and bring as many snacks as you’d like!”

You grab the post-it and shoot everyone a small wave “I’ll see you guys then!”

Steve feels like he can finally breathe after he hears the soft slam of the door behind you. 

_

“I can’t believe you would do that, just invite a stranger to my home like that,” Steve groans as he fixes his hair, again, in the hallway mirror. He glances down at his polo debating if he should change his shirt for the fourth time. 

“Steve, she agreed to come while seeing you in a Family Video vest, I don’t think your outfit is what you should be worried about,” Jonathan teases him as he passes him a coke. 

Steve shoots him a sarcastic smile before checking his watch. It’s 7:02, you should’ve shown up 2 minutes ago and he’s a nervous wreck. He sees your headlights before anyone else does and trips over Will’s backpack as he waits to open the door on the very first knock. 

“Sorry I’m late, the petit fours took longer than expected.” You smile at him holding out a large container filled with small cakes. 

He gives you a confused look too embarrassed to ask what petit fours are, so instead he takes the container and waves you in. 

“What brings you to Hawkins?” Eddie asks.

“I actually came here for work, Hawkins laboratory needed another scientist to look at all the crazy stuff that’s happened here.”

Everyone basks in the uncomfortable silence as you mention the lab before Nancy speaks up, “You work as a scientist? You seem pretty young.”

You hesitate slightly, folding your hands in your lap, “I am young, but I graduated college at 16 and recently got my PhD and my advisor recommended me for this job, so here I am.”

Steve’s heart falls to his stomach, you were a genius, a child prodigy of some sort and you’ve accomplished so much at such a young age. There was no way you would even be slightly interested in him, but part of him was willing to take that risk - be okay with whatever you spared him because it was better than not having you in his life at all. 

The movie is ignored as everyone pays more attention to you and your genius-ness. He hears voices all at once but all he can focus on is yours. The way your laugh ends in a higher pitch than it starts in, the way you softly reassure Nancy that college isn’t hard, but his favorite is when you say his name when you ask for his opinion on the theories the kids present to you. It makes him feel important like you care about what he has to say and you value his thoughts just as much as you would anyone else’s. 

Steve might’ve only met you today, but he was already enamored. You might’ve knowingly opened the door only to Family Video, but you also unknowingly opened the door to his heart and started to fill every corner of it with you. 

_

Steve doesn’t think he’s read this much in his entire existence as he has this month.

The first thing he did the morning after movie night was go to the library and check out as many books as he could about everything that sounded smart. He’s inhaled almost every book on poetry (specifically Shakespeare), astrophysics and European history. You’ve come to every movie night since the first one and you try your best to visit Family Video after work just to chat with Steve and Robin. He was slowly falling in love with you and he wasn’t going to let his dumb brain be the reason he lost you. He forcefully read every book from cover to cover, prying his eyes open with the memory of your impressed smile anytime he fell asleep. He’s made countless flashcards and pesters Robin to quiz them during their shift. 

After two months of revising and memorizing he thinks he finally finds the courage to ask you out. You’re the last one to leave tonight, helping Steve clean up after everyone either left or claimed a spare room. 

Steve’s hands are clammy as he ties the trash bag into a pretty bow, “I was wondering if… I mean you don’t have to… but umm, like if you wanted to go out. With me, I mean.”

Your eyes trace his face as you clench the empty red vines wrapper, “You mean like a date?”

Steve nods, unsure of your reaction. Part of him hopes you’ll say no and put him out of his misery, so he can finally stop learning, but a bigger part of him hopes you’ll give him a chance. 

Your lips upturn in a shy smile as you fiddle your thumbs, “Yeah, I’d like that a lot. What did you have in mind?”

“How about next Friday, we ditch the losers and have our movie night? I’ll pick you up at 7 and we can catch a movie?”

You respond with a quick kiss on his cheek as you grab your purse and head out. Steve rests his head on the back of the door as he pumps his fist in the air and tries his hardest to not  wake Robin and Eddie with his cheering. 

_

You’re nervous as you pace in front of your door. Steve makes you nervous, but you don’t hate the feeling. You’ve never felt this way about a boy before, boys always had a competition with you, a majority of your dates ended up with the two of you trying to up each other with accomplishments, but with Steve everything is different. Even though the facts he tells are wrong, it was still endearing to watch him try. 

You’re broken out of your thoughts with a knock on your door. You smooth down your dress and look in the mirror once more before swinging the door open. Steve stands there in all his glory, hair perfectly done, snug jeans, and a bouquet of flowers covering his stupidly handsome face. 

“These are for you,” he pushes the bouquet towards you with a surprise force that you have to step back to avoid them pressing into your nose. 

“Thanks Steve, they’re beautiful.” You set them down gently at the nearby table mentally making a note to find a vase after you come back home. 

He opens his car door for you, waiting until you’re settled in before jogging back to his side. “There’s a French movie playing tonight, I think it’s about Marie - Annette, you know the queen who liked cake?” 

You giggle quietly but opt to ignore his mistake because he just looked too fucking cute with furrowed eyebrows and a nervous smile. 

“And after the movie I was thinking we can stop by somewhere for a late night snack?”

You nod excitedly eager to finally spend time with him far away from the eyes of your prying friends, “I didn’t know you knew French?”

“Uh, yeah.”

The movie was… boring and bland. Steve didn’t understand anything happening so instead spent the entire time admiring you, the furrow of your eyebrows, the tilt of your head, and the gentle bite of your lip. He remembered you mentioning to Robin that you were fluent in French, so thought a foreign film would be a good idea for a first date, but now he regrets his choice especially since you spent the drive to the diner asking him questions about the movie. Questions he didn’t know the answer to. Steve has charmed his way through life, but he wasn’t sure how much longer his charm would last with you, he had an inkling that sooner or later you would be able to see through his facade and you would see him as a disappointment.

_

You had a hunch that Steve was lying about knowing French and your hunch was confirmed when his shoulders tensed as the ticket guy told him the movie didn’t have English subtitles. He played it off with a laugh and a wave of his hand, but you could tell it made him nervous. You thought the movie was alright, but your favorite part was feeling Steve’s eyes on you. You try to be mindful when asking him questions, keeping them vague and more about opinions rather than asking him questions that have a right or wrong answer. He responds as vaguely as possible, gauging your reaction to see if you’re pleased with his answer or if he needs to backtrack and fix his opinion. 

Your conversation at the diner starts to get more personal as you ask each other about your likes and dislikes. You learn that Steve broke his arm learning to ride a bike, his favorite color is green, and he’s always wanted a dog. Everything you learn about Steve just makes you like him even more and the potential of falling in love with him makes you giddy with happiness. Your hands brush occasionally as you walk back to his car. He bites his lip hesitating to grab your hand as he peeks at you from the corner of his eye. You make the decision for the both of you and take a hold of his hand swinging both your arms as he blushes. 

“You’re really cute Steve Harrington,” you say as you force him to face you before gently pushing your lips to his. 

_

You spend every free time you have with Steve now. It’s been a month since your first date and since then you’ve gone out plenty of times and if you’re not physically together then you’re talking for hours on the phone. Steve’s able to open up to you more than he has to anyone else and it’s only been a few months of knowing you but he knows he’s in love, yet he can’t ask you to be his girlfriend. He does everything a boyfriend should do, calling you during breaks, kissing your bad days away, and hugging you just right when you’re on the verge of tears, but he still can’t find the courage to ask you to be his, officially. 

You express your concern to Nancy and Robin at an impromptu girls night, thrown together after a rough week for all of you. 

“I just don’t know why he won’t ask me, I always want to ask him myself before I see him, but then I lose my nerve. Maybe he doesn’t even like me like that and I’m just reading into things,” you whine as you smear a homemade face mask on Robin's face. 

“Trust me, Steve is a goner for you,” Nancy replies as she squints to make sure her brushes on the nail polish perfectly. 

“Nance is right, Steve is in love with you, but you just make him nervous.”

“I don’t understand why though, how do I make him nervous when he’s Steve Harrington,” you sigh dreamily. 

Nancy and Robin giggle as they see the childish frown on your face. You push your face into a pillow whining into it like a petulant child. 

Nancy rubs your back gently, “Look it’s not my place to say, but Steve isn’t the smartest tool academically. And you’re this child prodigy and that makes him nervous.”

Robin nods in agreement, “Yeah, you do know he spent months reading all sorts of books just to impress you right? He isn’t actually as smart as he pretends to be. He just memorizes a bunch of stuff the days leading up to your date.”

You huff in annoyance, “Yeah, I knew that on our first date when he took me to that French film. But I don’t love him because he can tell me facts about the mesozoic era. I love him because he’s him.”

Nancy and Robin share a knowing look.

“You love him?” Robin whispers.

“What?”

“You just said you love him,” Nancy clarifies.

You breathe in deeply before letting it out, the weight of what you said finally sinking in. “Yeah, I do. I really do.”

Both girls squeal as they pull you into a hug, face masks and nail polish quickly forgotten. 

You fall asleep that night knowing the next time you see Steve you’ll tell him. Tell him how much you love him and how he means to you.

_

Unfortunately for you and Steve, you aren’t able to spend any time alone lately. Work is crazy for the both of you and any time you have off it’s spent with the group. While you love spending time with your friends, you’re dying for a second alone with Steve. A second that only you both can cherish when you finally tell him how you feel. 

You’re hoping you can finally catch a moment alone with Steve at the summer bonfire by Lover’s Lake. Almost every young adult in Hawkins comes out of hiding for this annual bonfire, usually thrown by college kids as a final hurrah before summer break is officially over. You hung out with Nancy and Robin for a while and meet some new people, but you’re aren’t able to find the one person you want to see. You finally spot him parking his car and hurriedly shoving his family video vest in the trunk, but before you call out to him you’re blocked by a freckled boy wearing a smug smile. 

“Well if it isn’t the new genius of Hawkins,” the boy teases, voice filled with malice.

You smile politely, “I’m sorry you’re–”

“I’m Hagan. Tommy Hagan, surprised Steve hasn’t mentioned me considering we used to be the best of friends before he became a loser.”

You’ve heard about Tommy, mostly through passing from Nancy and Jonathan and based on Steve’s disgruntled face every time his name was mentioned, you decided Tommy Hagan wasn’t worth your time. 

“How can I help you?” You ask in a monotone voice to show how disinterested you are. 

Before Tommy can start you feel a pair of arms wrap around your waist and lips brush against the side of your head. You turn to see Steve’s grimace at Tommy before his eyes soften landing on you. 

“Hi hon,” he whispers gently, his left arm moving from caressing your hip to soothing the ache in your shoulder. 

“Hey baby.” For a second it’s just the two of you lost in each other’s eyes, you wonder if everyone else can see how lovesick you are for Steve. Before you can whisk him away for yourself Tommy interrupts again.

“Damn, Harrington. Didn’t think I’d see you go all soft again after what Wheeler did to you.”

You rolled your eyes at the mention of Nancy. It’s been years, both Steve and Nancy were over it, being happy for each other and supporting each other as friends. Yet everyone still brought it up because they had no other dirt on Steve. 

“Didn’t know you were home for the summer Tommy,” Steve replies ready to end the conversation with his former friend. 

At this point you see Jonathan and Eddie glancing from their spot near the fire. Both of them looking at Steve, silently asking him if he needed them. Steve shakes his head at them and squeezes your shoulder readying to lead you away. 

“Yeah, summer is the only time I have off now. Between college and my internship. It’s hard out there man, but you wouldn’t know that, would you?” Tommy smirks knowingly as he pushes Steve’s buttons. He knows college has always been a sore spot for Steve especially since he was still stuck working at Family Video. 

Steve grunts in response hoping his disinterest is enough to stray Tommy away from the both of you, but with Steve’s luck Tommy turns his attention to you. 

“Surprised he can keep up with a genius like you sweetheart.”

You wrinkled your nose in disgust, the term of endearment turning sour coming from a mouth other than Steve’s.

Tommy continues to go on, swaying from the few too many drinks he’s had. “Did he tell you he barely passed high school? His dad complained to mine about how much of a disappointment he turned out to be. Can’t even get a job at his dad’s firm with the brain he has.”

Steve loosens his grip around your shoulder, cheeks flushing in embarrassment. 

“You’re telling me your girl hasn’t caught on to the kind of screw up you are Harrington? You sure she’s a genius, or maybe you found someone that aligns with your IQ.”

At this point everyone is watching the words fly out of Tommy’s mouth, some snickering others shooting Steve looks of pity. Tommy Hagan is ripping him to shreds in front of everyone and yet all he can focus on is you. A look of disappointment mixed with frustration glazing over your otherwise sweet disposition. He sees his friends pushing their way through the crowd but before they could defend him he hears your honey like voice calling out for Tommy. 

“What university did you say you go to, Tommy?” you ask sweetly.

“Indiana University of Business,” he smirks behind his beer.

“And I’m assuming your daddy paid for it? Cause you sure as hell didn’t get into school by your merit, considering you spent most of high school with your head so far up people’s asses that you couldn’t get enough oxygen to your brain. Hence, why you and your stupid ass are still playing into high school politics at your grown ass age.”

The smugness on Tommy’s face disappears. 

“And what do you want to do with your future Tommy? Join daddy’s business? Turn out exactly like him? Cause last I heard he spends more time with his new family than he does with you. Maybe he finally got a child he actually loves.”

You knew it was a low blow, bringing up Tommy’s family issues, but you couldn’t care less. After everything he said to Steve, he had it coming and you only wish you were around in high school so you could’ve put him in his place earlier. 

You heard a low whistle from Eddie, “Well guess the shows over folks. And looks like we have a clear winner.”

People start clearing out going back to mind their own business and you grab Steve’s arm leading him far away from Tommy’s frozen stance. 

“Guess the secret’s out,” Steve mumbles.

“Huh?”

“Now you know I’m not really smart, so..” he trails off.

You smile, arms twisting around his waist pulling him close. “You know, I’ve met a lot of smart people in my life, but don't you dare, even for a second take Tommy’s words to heart. Because I know you, and I know that you’re the greatest person I’ve ever met.”

Steve pinches your chin, holding your gaze before whispering out a shy “yeah?” 

You hear the insecurity laced in his voice as you nod fervently. “I kinda figured you weren’t as smart as you let on from our first date, but I said yes because even though you aren’t a brainiac you have a heart of gold. I see the way you take care of the kids, how you take care of your friends. And I love how you take care of me. I love you and everything about you, Steve Harrington.”

Steve blushes, his cheeks turn a rosy hue as he grabs your waist pressing his lips to yours in a kiss so sweet you think you’ll get a toothache. 

“You really love me?”

“I really do.”

Steve presses another kiss before murmuring out an I love you against your lips.

Yeah, Steve Harrington is stupid. Stupidly in love with you. 

[ckret2]

Why do you ship billford? i want to hear all ur handcanons and reasons hehehe

ALL of them? My friend I do not think you comprehend the magnitude of the task you have requested. I can tell you some of them.

Here's a post I already wrote listing why I like them, and here's a post about what Ford thinks about Bill, and I just made a post about what Bill thinks about Ford because I've had it typed up on discord for ages and decided it needs its own post.

So, some headcanons:

⭐️ While most people who ship it headcanon that they had a romantic relationship of some kind pre-betrayal, my default headcanon is that they DIDN'T have a relationship—mainly because I enjoy making Bill, specifically, miserable, and I like headcanoning that Ford violently lost interest in Bill at the EXACT moment Bill developed a sincere interest in Ford.

Meaning that Bill "LOOKS LIKE MR. BRAINIAC FINALLY GOT SMART" Cipher destroyed his own chances five seconds before going "no no wait I actually want to keep this one," and that's SO funny. I made a graph!

⭐️ From Lost Legends we know that Ford used to date a siren. In the original Greek mythology, sirens didn't woo sailors by singing prettily; sirens offered knowledge about distant and future events. Sailors wrecked their ship upon the sirens' shores and starved to death at their feet just to listen to them sing about the secrets of the universe.

What I'm saying is: Ford has a type.

⭐️ This is a mutual monsterfucker 4 monsterfucker relationship. They look at each other and go "wow you're such a weird-looking alien" and they're attracted to each other BECAUSE of that, not in spite of that. I don't want any of this "oh how could I be drawn to something so strange..." shame out of Ford, as far as I'm concerned his first crush was Mothra, a floating triangle is nothing.

⭐️ Consequently, this means that if you take an AU where Bill gets stuffed in a human body, rather than making things easier, it ironically means that any PHYSICAL attraction Ford had for Bill instantly evaporates. A humanized Bill could be the sexiest damn thing in the room and everyone else in the vicinity is going 🥵💦 but Ford's going 😐. If they hook up with Bill in a human body it's in spite of Bill's current appearance and it's because Ford knows that, underneath the body, Bill's still Bill. You could hand Ford a perfect Tumblr Sexyman supermodel and he'll be fantasizing about a three-tiered pyramid with more teeth than a shark.

⭐️ Bill WILL play Dungeons Dungeons & More Dungeons with Ford, voluntarily, for fun. However he always wants to DM and he's brutal.

⭐️ I think that the majority of the Henchmaniacs used to be like Ford: young, naive, USEFUL aliens that Bill was trying to manipulate into getting access to their universes, probably by trying to get THEM to build portals. None succeeded, but they got far enough along that either they chose to join Bill, they were forced to flee their dimension and join Bill—or, due to Bill, their home no longer existed, so they might as well join him. I think that every one of them was once his ✨favorite✨ person. I think he sealed the deal in winning their friendship & loyalty with a calculated, scripted display of vulnerability—the exact same one he tried to use on Ford: I liberated my constricting, flat world; I want to liberate yours...

He may have dated some of them, too, especially right after they joined. Because he wouldn't have recruited them unless he thought they were JUST ♥ LIKE ♥ HIM. They're special, they're important...

... and after a few years, Bill realizes they're not that much like him after all and loses interest, and they sink down into the rank-and-file with the rest of the Henchmaniacs. The Henchmaniacs are FULL of people who were once Bill's Favorite—his best friends, his confidants, his lovers—and most of them are desperate to catch his eye and be that important to him again. They gave everything they had to Bill only for Bill to get bored.

So when he shows off the human who enabled Weirdmageddon and invites him to join the gang, they know EXACTLY what they're looking at: Bill's newest favorite. They know how this goes, he'll be gaga over this earthling for the next 5 to 500 years and then Ford will be just another regular Henchmaniac. The fact that Ford doesn't seem eager to join is no problem. Ford isn't the only soon-to-be Henchmaniac whose world Bill ended; some of them had to be talked around into joining, too.

⭐️ I think that, if you took Bill with his canon personality, didn't give him any character development, and then made him GENUINELY fall in love with Ford, and had him SINCERELY try his hardest to be a good, loving, healthy partner... he would still be toxic as hell for Ford.

Part of what draws Bill to Ford is that he sees SO much of himself in Ford—some accurate, some just projection. (You who crave power and fame and fortune like I do; you who also hunger to be all-knowing; you who would also sacrifice your world and your family and everyone you know and love to get what you want; you with an ego the size of the moon, oh, you deserve an ego the size of a star.) And so he assumes that what Ford really wants is what BILL would want in Ford's shoes.

And if Bill was Ford, what he'd want is to REALLY be the man who changed the world. Bill thinks he's fulfilling all Ford's wildest dreams if he gives that to him. Naming Ford the orchestrator of Weirdmageddon is the most generous gift Bill could ever offer.

Even if Bill is Really Really Trying and accepts that okay Ford doesn't want his world invaded: his idea of showing Ford love will be pulling the strings to get Ford fame & fortune. Teach him secrets of the universe that he can publish in a dozen groundbreaking scientific papers, arrange meetings with politicians and celebrities, get him a Nobel, get him an Oscar-winning bio pic, get him a billion dollars, get him EVERYTHING Ford's ever imagined as a marker of success and then double it.

When Bill's manipulating Ford, he offers praise and approval in little drops periodically leaking from the faucet, to keep Ford thirsty for more. When Bill's LOVING Ford, he just breaks the fire hydrant and lets it flood the street.

But the thing is, that's not good for Ford. That'll never make him truly happy. Ford's only ever learned how to measure his success by external markers, but the more external markers he collects the more he'll feel like he hasn't Made It yet. It's even possible that knowing Bill's helped him get this far will make him feel like he hasn't really EARNED it. He could have the whole world handed to him and he'll feel just as dissatisfied as he was on the day he first summoned Bill.

And Bill, even if he's trying his HARDEST to do this right, wouldn't be able to understand why this isn't working. A trillion years old and the only way he knows how to show love (or to receive love) is by showering someone in praise and gifts and favors. If that doesn't work, he doesn't know what's left.

[somelegobird]

I got curious so I kinda

Total number of wishes made per season:

Pilot Episodes: 0

Rise of the snakes: 3

Legacy of the Green Ninja: 6

Rebooted: 0

Tournament of Elements: 6

Possession: 3

Skybound: 45

Day of the Departed: 0

The Hands of Time: 7

Sons of Garmadon: 1

Hunted: 0

March of the Oni: 1

Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu: 7

Prime Empire: 0

Master of the Mountain: 3

The Island: 0

Seabound: 1

Crystalized: 6

Dragons Rising s1: 7

Total wishes: 96

In this doc, the seasons are colour coded, I made a "Wishes per Character" list, the rules and guidelines I set for myself are laid out, and there's more interesting and specific graphs.

More specific lists below (Who said it, how it was said, and what episode it was said in).

Rise of the snakes

(Snakebit) Wu: I wish.

(Once Bitten, Twice Shy) Cole: I wish I had a sister like you.

(All of Nothing) Kai: Ugh. I wish I could see me now, because you all just got Kai'd.

Legacy of the Green Ninja

(Pirates vs Ninja) Garmadon:  I wish they were here to show these scaly idiots how it's done.

(Double Trouble) Garmadon: Ninja, today I wish for you to finally meet your match.

(Ninjaball Run) Ed: Oh, we're fine, son. Just wish I could say the same for the old jalopy.

(Ninjaball Run) Garmadon: I wish to rip open Ninjago and make an insurmountable obstacle that they can never surpass!

(Child's Play) Garmadon: I wish to create the power to make you young.

(Wrong Place, Wrong Time) Garmadon: I wish I could go back in time, and make it so the ninja were never formed in the first place!

Tournament of Elements

(Only One Can Remain) Karlof: Karlof wish he never sign up for this. 

(Versus) Neuro: I wish I could've done more.

(Spy for a Spy) Karlof: Karlof wish he had friend like that.

(The Day of the Dragon) Karlof: Karlof wish he could do that.

(The Greatest Fear of All) Skylor: I wish I still had the power to change.

(The Corridor of Elders) Kai: I wish I could say we're not facing an army unlike we've ever seen, but we have, and we know what they're capable of.

Possession

(Ghost Story) Jay: Uh, I wish Lloyd was here for that.

(The Crooked Path) Ronin: I wish it never had to come to this.

(Grave Danger Jay: Oh, I wish we had the Sword right about now.

Skybound

(Infamous) Nya: Aw, I wish we could, but duty calls.

(Infamous) Clouse: I wish for my Book of Spells.

(Infamous) Clouse: I wish...I wish to become mortal again.

(Infamous) Nadakhan: I wish it could be over soon, but right now, you're probably thinking about your last wish.

(Infamous) Clouse: I-I wish it all to go away!

(Public Enemy Number One) Misako: I wish to speak to someone in charge!

(Public Enemy Number One) Misako: I wish I hadn't said anything in the first place!

(Misfortune Rising) Clancee: I really wish he'd warn us when he did that.

(Misfortune Rising) Jay: I wish I never saw my future.

(Misfortune Rising) Jay: Then I wish...I wish I wasn't born in a junkyard.

(Misfortune Rising) Jay: I wish I wasn't poor anymore and could give Nya everything she wants.

(Misfortune Rising) Nadakhan: I wish.

(Misfortune Rising) Jay: I just wish I wasn't alone with you.

(Misfortune Rising) Lloyd: I wish Wu were here to guide us.

(Misfortune Rising) Kai: The only thing I wish is for you to take me back.

(Misfortune Rising) Kai: I wish you could take me back

(Misfortune Rising) Kai: I wish for all of it to go away!

(On a Wish and a Prayer) Zane: For my first wish, I wish that you'll not twist my words, nor find a loophole, but understand the true intentions of the words that I speak, and carry out your will as I've thoroughly instructed.

(On a Wish and a Prayer) Zane: I wish...I wish for it all to go away! 

(On a Wish and a Prayer) Flintlocke: We're acquiring so much land, I wish we had more hands.

(Wishmasters) Dareth: I wish I could tell you the mission is gonna be simple. It's not.

(Wishmasters) Cole: I wish Vengestone didn't stop our powers, but made them stronger.

(Wishmasters) Nya: I wish someone told me we were gonna use wishes!

(Wishmasters) Lloyd: I wish you were a lousy shot!

(Wishmasters) Cole: I wish he didn't have that sword.

(Wishmasters) Lloyd: I wish I was wise like Wu.

(Wishmasters) Cole: I wish us all out of here.

(Wishmasters) Nya: I really wish you hadn't said that, Cole.

(Wishmasters) Nya: Then I wish those clouds would stop us!

(Wishmasters) Lloyd: I wish for a sword!

(Wishmasters) Clancee: I-I wish them away!

(The Last Resort) Clancee: Oh, I wish...I wish...I wish I could see where she is right now.

(The Last Resort) Nya: I just wish I had a say in it.

(The Last Resort) Nya: And I wish we didn't have a lovestruck Djinn chasing us to the ends of Ninjago.

(Operation Land Ho!) Jay: I wish Nadakhan wasn't a Djinn! I wish Nadakhan wasn't a Djinn!

(The Way Back) Nadakhan: I wish you wouldn't say that!

(The Way Back) Nadakhan: I wish to deal with you later.

(The Way Back) Nadakhan: I wish I had those odds.

(The Way Back) Nadakhan: I wish the swords away.

(The Way Back) Clancee: I wish you'd listen to me for once!

(The Way Back) Nadakhan: I wish...for my love to return.

(The Way Back) Nadakhan: I wish you gone!

(The Way Back) Nadakhan: I wish you still! (directed at Zane)

(The Way Back) Nadakhan: I wish you still. (directed at Lloyd)

(The Way Back) Jay: I wish you had taken my hand.

The Hands of Time

(The Hands of Time) Acronix: Oh, how I wish my brother were here to see this.

(The Hands of Time) Nya: Sometimes I wish I was still Samurai X instead of a ninja.

(The Hatching) Jay: Kinda wish we hadn't busted him.

(A Time of Traitors) Kai: I wish I could ask you what this is.

(A Time of Traitors) Kai: Actually, I wish I could ask you anything.

(A Time of Traitors) Jay: Wish we had the rest of the team here to help.

(Secrets Discovered) Misako: I wish Wu could have seen this.

Sons of Garmadon

(The Jade Princess) Lloyd: I wish I knew. 

March of the Oni

(The Darkness Comes) Pixal: I wish the others could see this.

Secrets of the Forbidden Spinjitzu

(Questing for Quests) Cole: I wish I understood what you just said, but I don't.

(Never Trust a Human) Aspheera: I wish to hear you say the words.

(Under Siege) Jay: Oh, I wish Lloyd and the others were here.

(Fire Maker) Kai: I just wish I still had my powers.

(Fire Maker) Kai: I just wish there was something I could do.

(Krag's Lament) Jay: I wish Kai was here.

(A Fragile Hope) Kataru: I wish I could give you some hope, but there is none in this place.

Master of the Mountain

(The Worst Rescue Ever) Vania: I wish I could go with you.

(Queen of the Munce) Murtessa: I wish you to be my king, for even though you have tiny arms and ugly human face, you have a stout heart and are a mighty warrior!

(The Son of Lilly) Vania: I wish you could stay.

Seabound

(Nyad) Nya: I wish we had more time, but we never seem to get a break.

Crystalized

(A Painful Promise) Aspheera: Wish I could help, but your ninja never came back.

(The Benefit of Grief) Dareth: I wish I were a Nindroid.

(The Benefit of Grief) Sally: I wish I could turn off my emotion meter.

(Christofern) Garmadon: I wish to understand it better.

(Christofern) Garmadon: I wish to see if there is any goodness in me.

(An Issue of Trust) Nya: I just wish we had better news.

Dragons Rising s1

(Beyond Madness) Lloyd: I only wish Master Wu was here to properly train them.

(Return to Imperium) Sora: I wish I was anywhere but here.

(The Last Djinn) Sora: I wish for you to help us kick these Howlers in their butts!

(The Last Djinn) Nya: I wish for the Howlers to be gone!

(The Call it Doom) Nya: I wish we could locate the missing Dragon Energy Core.

(Land of Lost Things) Sora: I wish I was.

(Land of Lost Things) Sora: I wish I didn't remember mine.

[centrally-unplanned]

In my list of orphaned projects is a big damn essay on the fertility transition , which I never wrote. I had this in the docket for almost a decade, back when worrying about fertility rates was still a hot take. But alas the ship has sailed, everyone is talking about it now and has written it all out already, and I have mountains of projects, so I will just outline it quickly, sans graphs and footnotes. Maybe doing that will incentivize me to write up a full one someday, and it also gets my cohesive viewpoint out there.

The Future Is Exowombs & the Global Fertility Transition

The Trendline

The fertility transition has long roots - going back to 19th century France, originating in metropoles like Paris and culturally exporting itself to the countryside.

It seems broadly linked to material prosperity in ways that are load-bearing, one implies the other.

It is a 'sticky' cultural transition - once a country begins to move towards lowered TFR it never recovers outside of temporary blips.

It is not related to "western" cultural norms or specific contingencies of religion or ethnicity - those can matter at the margins, but rarely make a huge difference.

Starting in the 1990's, following sharp increases in A: global economic growth and B: global cultural diffusion/global monoculture, a trendline that used to be reserved for wealthy countries has rapidly accelerated, affecting countries at almost every income level. The fertility transition is now fully global.

The Cause

The primary driver of this phenomenon is the positive realization of desires - and by that I mean it is not something forced on people due to a lack in their lives.

It is not primarily caused by growing singleness; the number of people having any kids at all today is lower but overall pretty similar to the number of people who did a hundred years ago. It makes a marginal difference but not a huge one.

It is not linked to money, or housing prices, or other economic issues - fertility rates do not notably change with income levels or other price factors. At the margins, sure, but not at relevant ones.

It is not linked to specific technologies like contraception. People have understood how to prevent pregnancy for centuries - though like many things they do contribute at the margins. Additionally, you can’t uninvent them.

It is by a large majority linked to the death of large families. It was previously common for there to be families with 5 or more children, sometimes way more. 10+ children was not that rare in the past.

These families were disproportionately engaged in agricultural production; cities have always been fertility sinks.

In a world of manual household labor, rural living, low rights for women, low economic opportunities for women, and high death rates for children, these large families made sense. The 'opportunity cost' of the endless pregnancies & sicknesses was low (economically, not gonna handwave the immense personal toll)

All of these reasons have vanished. People want to have families, and love their children. But enduring multiple painful pregnancies, putting your career on hold, and spending huge chunks of your lifespan on child raising no longer tracks. The experience of having ~2 children is superior, along almost every metric, than the experience of having ~5 children for most people. This is what I mean by positive desires - the family structures of the past were built on misery and necessity, and will not return willingly.

The Problem

Many will point to the economic & social consequences of the Fertility Transition. They are very real, particularly at sub-1.0 fertility rates. If you are South Korea today, you have no plan for how your economy will truly support itself 50 years from now - you will vanish as a country in a few generations.

The focus on nearish-term crises also misses the opportunities lost - economic growth is premised on specialization, and specialization is premised on scale. A smaller world is a poorer world per capita, and a less innovative world, problems which have compounding effects. The difference in the long term is orders of magnitude.

But, far more importantly than any of that, is that we are nowhere close to the capacity of the earth to support humans. Supporting double or even triple the current population of the earth is trivial; a 10-fold increase would be quite easy, particularly once innovation is factored in. Being alive is a good of worth incomparable to anything else - the 'future' is literally defined by it. Time only meaningfully passes through the eye of one who can behold it.

The Failed Solutions

Money cannot buy lifespan or reclaim lost time - all attempts to throw money at the problem of fertility can help at the margins, but won't change the fundamentals. Some people want to have 2 kids, but can only afford 1. Or are prioritizing a career, but will work part time to have 3 kids. But the current policy crop of tax benefits or subsidized child care has not found a way to make someone truly want a larger family size, just mitigate gaps between desire and ability - and only barely.

Could radically larger amounts of money solve this problem? A professional career track in giving birth, 100k+ salaries for full-time mothers? I am open to the idea - but society isn't. The fiscal transfers needed are too radical for the current political environment, no one is proposing this.

Immigration was frequently proposed as a stop-gap, but its a 90's idea, premised on the idea that the Fertility Transition was a western problem that other countries did not face. It is not and never was; as every country's fertility declines, immigration becomes a zero-sum solution.

Turning back the clock on cultural change is A: impossible, the material logic of modern industrial production broke the need for it, and culture is downstream of material constraints. And B: its barbaric - if your answer to humanity's obstacles to greater flourishing is to condemn half of it to misery, we are better off dead.

So population levels will either stagnate or decline - unless something intervenes.

The "Future" Aka Getting Rationalist On Main

Exowombs, aka artificial wombs, allow you to grow a human child outside of the need for a person to incubate it. The baby (hah) step they let you do is strongly lower the cost of having a child; this is time & health given back to a mother, it will make having larger families easier.

But that won't fundamentally, shift the reality - that most people only want 1-2 kids, they don't want to raise more than that. However, with exowombs, you don't need to; you can make children outside of a family's desire for one. You can do that pretty trivially, actually. A society, if committed to solving its fertility issues, could mass-produce people with exowombs. Which would be very good to do ethically, because living is good and I personally don't think kids at orphanages should be euthanized to end their suffering, they are fine.

If some society, somewhere, did this, they would rule the world in a few generations. No one else is solving this problem, and meanwhile the human capacity to live on Earth is being woefully underutilized. Before natural human growth would solve this eventually - now it seems that will never happen, so anyone who actively tackles the problem wins. They literally win the future, by being the future.

Now, no one is going to do this soon - proposing this idea is not my point. Exowomb research is harshly regulated or illegal everywhere, modern society hates the idea of this kind of experimentation. We are, in so many ways, allergic to the idea of solving this problem. It doesn't even have to be exowombs, maybe we do the salaried mothers idea. My point is just the illustration - the future where there is 100 billion people dwarfs any current trendline future. That hypothetical dominates the worldline space, because arriving there organically seems to have faded away. The fact that we are not going to take that future, that it is probably gone now, is really, really sad.

But of course there is the other solution, the reactionary specter - instead of the technological solution, we choose the social one, of cultural regression and expanded reproductive control. I am not so worried about this, personally? Because I think it would unsustainable and result in a lot of bleed to liberal societies. It should not be taken lightly though - in a world where everyone has 1.0 fertility, and the social and economic consequences are becoming dire, I wouldn’t discount the willingness for radical solutions. I myself prefer the technologist side. But I think odds are we don't get either, just the long decline.

TL;DR - don’t let the Mormons win. Build exowomb factories.

[cassolotl]

Results of the nonbinary name survey

Hi folks, just thought I'd throw together a quick report about nonbinary names based on the recent survey.

The survey ran from 4th until 13th May, and there were 5,179 usable responses. For this one I won't share the full spreadsheet of all responses, as it contains potentially identifying information. Having said that, you can find a spreadsheet of the information I can share with you here. Every name entered only once has been redacted.

Most popular names

Let's kick it off with the main reason I did this survey, finding the nonbinaryest name:

Alex was #1, with 1.6%, which is 1 in 62 nonbinary people.

Here's the full top 10:

Alex - 1.6% (83)

Jay - 1.2% (64)

Sam - 0.9% (49)

Charlie - 0.7% (36)

Max - 0.7% (36)

Ash - 0.6% (33)

Robin - 0.6% (33)

Rowan - 0.6% (31)

Kit - 0.6% (30)

Eli - 0.6% (29)

Name length

I'm familiar with the stereotype that nonbinary people choose names by taking 3 letters from a bag of Scrabble tiles, or that nonbinary people take letters off their given names until it's one ungenderable syllable, and I would like to take this opportunity to add that these are both excellent ways to create new names. :D

This graph takes a rolling median name length from the whole list, and it shows that generally speaking the most popular names tended to be shorter:

The average name length was 5.1 characters long.

This seems to support the stereotypes, but I feel it's worth mentioning that we can't know for sure whether it actually does, because for all we know, binary people's names might show these kinds of patterns too.

Number of names per person

Participants could enter as many names as they wanted, in a list separated by commas. That made it pretty easy to count them, and it turned out like this:

That's fairly straightforward, most people have only one name.

Problems with survey design

Overall I definitely feel that the survey had some flaws. I knew in advance that there would be some people who have more than one name that they like more or less equally, but for some reason the first question I came up with assumed that you have one name that you like most and then required a single answer from a list stating how that name happened to you - leading the respondent to a different section based on that answer.

What if you've got two or more names that you like equally, and one was given to you by your parents when you were born that you use for work, one is a nickname based on that name that evolved between you and your family and friends as you were growing up, and one is a name you chose yourself and your closest friends call you that? That's pretty much an impossible question, isn't it?

And there were several other questions in the survey that took that approach, making the data from those questions basically useless.

I didn't think it would cause problems for so many people, but it did, and I have learned my lesson there.

However, there was a question asking you to list all your names, and that's what I used to make the ranked list. I don't see how people with more than one name that they prefer completely equally (i.e. those people who would be thrown out of the survey by an impossible required first question) would prefer different names from people with one name only, so I think the ranked list is probably approximately okay, and same for the number of names per person graph and the average name length.

Implications

I haven't decided yet, but I definitely think there's scope for doing this survey annually - but separately from the identity/titles/pronouns survey, for anonymity reasons. It could be fun to track popular nonbinary names over time, similar to the popular name lists for babies that are usually split by boys'/girls' names. It might be a bit meaningless unless I collect country data as well though, which is why the list currently reads very....... American..........

Now that I've learned a lot from a big and not-so-well-designed survey run on my personal account, I'd feel more comfortable designing something a bit more fit for purpose, and running it from the @gendercensus accounts to hopefully get more participants.

~ Fin ~

[detentiontrack]

hi there, hope you're doing well! do you have any survival tips for freshmen starting their first semester at college? thanks!

Hello! Yes I do! Up until this Tuesday, all of my experience has been at a community college, but I have some universal advice!

Sage's supercool freshman survival guide:

You don't need expensive and a wide variety of school supplies. Here is a list of what you need:

A notebook for each class

A good pack of pens (i like gel pens)

A pack of pencils (+ sharpener) or mechanical pencils

Either colored pens, thin tip markers, or highlighters for notes

Ruler and calculator if you are taking math/science classes

A binder or folder for loose papers

GRAPH PAPER. Even just a pack of loose graph paper. It sucks when you need it and don't have it

2. it's better to take notes on paper vs on a computer unless you have some sort of reason (like dyslexia, visual impairment, or other physical disability etc) Taking paper notes forces your brain to pay attention better, and you can reference them easier than if you take them on a computer. (plus a lot of professors don't allow laptops in lectures unless you have an accommodation with the school)

3. GET A PLANNER! A PHYSICAL ONE!!!! Online calendars and planners are okay, but it is MUCH easier to forget assignments if they're out of sight. Get a paper planner, fill it out each week so you know what you're doing, and keep it opened on the current week somewhere you can see it. I personally like the planners intended for teachers because it divides the days up with individual subjects! This is the one I got for this school year

4. Get a giant ass water bottle. If you are going from class to class, you most likely won't have time to refill your water bottle. Get a huge one, fill it up at home or at your dorm or whatever, and carry it with you. I promise you it is worth adding an extra thing to carry (mine is a 1/2 gallon)

5. No one at college cares about stuff like in high school. No one cares what you're wearing or how you're doing your hair. In fact, individuality is ENCOURAGED. Wear bright colorful makeup or weird earrings. Do what makes you happy.

6. Pack yourself lunches and snacks that you can easily stuff in your face while walking to your next class. I'm a big fan of protein shakes and granola bars.

7. Ask questions! No one will think you're annoying for asking "too many" questions. It's better to over ask than under ask and not understand the topic. Chances are, at least one other person in the room has the same question as you.

8. Similar to number 7, most professors will gladly go back and explain a topic again or in a different way! Just politely and respectfully ask for them to briefly go over it again, or define a word you don't understand.

9. Unlike high school, most professors don't care, and will actually get annoyed if you interrupt their lesson to ask to go to the bathroom or take a phone call or even leave class early. Unless they explicitly say you can't leave (like during a test) you can just walk out, no questions asked.

10. Do every extra credit assignment you can. Even if you have a good grade in the class. You never know when you'll forget an assignment or lose points for something small. It's good to have backup.

11. Just like in a good relationship, communication with professors is everything.

12. Make connections with people in your classes. You don't have to be besties, but introduce yourself to a few people in class, make small talk, and get their phone numbers. That way you can discuss assignments or get notes if you miss a class.

13. DO NOT slack on first week assignments. Most professors WILL drop you if you A. Don't attend the first week of classes and/or B. Don't turn in the first few assignments.

14. Register for classes as soon as you possibly can. Like if your group is able to register at 9am, be in front of your computer with the registration site open at 8:55am, just to be ready.

15. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS CHECK RATEMYPROFESSOR BEFORE REGISTERING FOR CLASSES!!! NEVER IN YOUR LIFE REGISTER WITHOUT CHECKING. IF YOU ARE LATE TO REGISTER AND A GENERAL EDUCATION CLASS AT THE PERFECT TIME SLOT IS COMPLETLEY OPEN, IT IS FOR A FUCKING REASON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rate my professor is really accurate because people are able to submit honest reviews anonymously after the class is over. If someone says the teacher is a hard ass who is flakey and assigns a lot of reading, BELIEVE IT. Ideally you want a professor that has above a 3.5/5 rating.

16. There is no shame in needing accommodations for a disability, and getting accommodations in college is a lot easier than in k-12 school. You just need to make a request and submit proof of disability, and you'll meet with someone to give you accommodations.

17. DO NOT buy textbooks until the first week of class is over. This is for 2 reasons. 1. you might need to drop the class and 2. most professors will just give you a link to the textbook for free or post individual chapters every week. There is no point in spending $200 for a textbook you might not even use.

18. I think at every college, you can drop a class with no consequences or anything on your record as long as you drop it within the first week or so (the exact time differs depending on the college, but it's always on their website)

19. Colleges very often have events with free food or free merch. Even if you have no interest in the event, a free hot dog is a free hot dog yk?

20. If you're a freshman, literally no one knows each other and everyone is worrying about making new friends. Literally everyone. Find someone who seems cool, compliment their outfit or say something about the class/the college, and boom. New friend.

21. If you have time, join a club! Colleges have clubs for EVERYTHING and it's an easy way to connect with people who have the same interests.

22. Before your first day of class, if you're neurotic like me, take time to think of a few things: 2 truths and a lie, 3 fun facts about yourself, your favorite __, etc. Just so you can be ready for icebreakers (I actually don't know if other people are as scared of first day icebreakers as me.... Every semester I prepare 2 truths and a lie and fun facts about me so I'm ready. Just in case. This just might be my specific flavor of autism though...)

23. Colleges are big, even community colleges. Make yourself a playlist and bring headphones for walking from class to class

24. Jumping off 23, when you're choosing your classes, pull up a map of your campus. Learn how long of a walk it is from building to building, so you can make sure you have enough time to walk to your next class. This goes double if you have a physical disability. I personally need some extra time so I can drink water and walk slowly.

25. Prioritize comfort over style. Most people by the third week will just be wearing tshirts/sweaters with jeans/sweatpants. There also usually isn't a super strict dress code at college. I had a girl in my astronomy class that exclusively wore bikini tops and booty shorts, and she never had any problems.

26. It's easy to tunnel vision and schedule your classes back to back, but try to give yourself at least one gap for lunch, to stretch, or to just hang out. I have 3 on campus classes this semester and my morning class ends at 11:45am and my second class doesn't start until 1:00pm. You're (most likely) an adult, close to an adult, or have adult responsibilities. One of those responsibilities is to take initiative to take care of yourself.

27. College professors, unless they're abnormally strict, literally don't care about anything, as long as your ass is in the chair and you're not being disruptive to others. Drinking water in class? Fine. Doodling on your notes? Fine. Doing homework for another class? Fine, as long as you look up like you're paying attention occasionally. I wrote amphibia fanfiction in my classes, and I had a girl in my public speaking class who literally brought yarn and a crochet hook and crocheted stuff in class.

28. OH that's another thing! Literally no one cares about your public speaking skills. In college, it is inevitable that you'll have to take one class with speeches. People aren't waiting for you to slip up to mock you. Most people are too focused on their own speeches. I took a public speaking class last year, and I genuinely could not tell you the topic of even ONE other student's speech. It is very likely that 90% of the people won't even be paying attention to your presentation because they're worrying about if they're next.

29. In group projects, be a bitch. I'm serious. DO NOT do all the work. If people in your group aren't moving, assign them their share of work. If they still don't participate, threaten to leave. If they still don't, ask the teacher to work alone. You NEED to stand up for yourself.

30. Most colleges have a lot of services for free (or included in tuition) you should use. The library is a great resource, I'm typing this on the laptop I rented for free from my school, and I believe my college has completely free STD checks and birth control options available through their health services.

31. Expand your horizons! In college, you get a LOT of options for electives and classes. Take the fun classes or a topic you've never heard of! I'm taking a philosophy of disability class this semester for my extra humanities credit.

32. Build a good relationship with your professors. It never hurts to go up to them before or after the first class and introduce yourself.

33. DO NOT leave things for the last minute. I like to write down all my assignments for the week in my planner, sorted by due date, color coded, and plan which assignments I'm going to do on what days.

34. Take advantage of professor's office hours, especially if it's a subject you're not strong in. Personally, I'm not the best at math, and the summer I took statistics for psych, I was at my professor's office hours every single Tuesday. Even if you think you understand the subject perfectly, you never know when you're making a mistake without realizing it. It can just be a less than 5 minute zoom visit of like "hey, this is my answer to question 5 and here's my work/process. Is this correct? Yes? Okay thanks see you in class"

35. Summer classes, especially in community colleges, are a great way to get extra credits and make it so you don't have such a heavy load during the regular school year. A lot of summer classes are online, so it's really easy to do at home. But.....

36. ...NEVER IN YOUR LIFE TAKE A SUBJECT YOU ARE NOT STRONG IN OR A SUBJECT WITH A LOT OF WORK IN A CONDENSED SUMMER CLASS. Summer classes are always more work per week because you have less time to go through the curriculum, so be sure it's a light class. I took my world religions class as an 8 week summer class and oh my god.... I am being 100% serious and not exaggerating when I say I had to read 500-750+ pages a week......... be careful

37. Make time for other things! Even if you're full time school and work, let yourself watch an episode of your favorite show after homework or during a break. Rest and recreation is important too.

38. Treat yourself! When I was a kid, my mom would let me and my brother pick out a little candy at the grocery store for a "friday treat" during the school year. I still do that. It can be as simple as buying a $2 chocolate bar or finally trying that bath bomb you got as a gift.

39. You are inevitably going to get a low grade on something. You're going to struggle with a subject or misunderstand an instruction. Not one single person has made it through all of college without getting anything less than a 100%. Ask for feedback from your professors. Don't beat yourself up.

40. You don't have to have a backpack. I use a green messenger bag with embroidered mushrooms on it :3

Hope this helps!

[copperbadge]

A newsletter has a regular feature going down the list of Notable Sandwiches on Wikipedia. This week's is the hot dog. The writer emailed 30 professors. I commend everyone for the well-thought-out answers, especially the grad student who produced graphs. buttondown(.)email/theswordandthesandwich/archive/notable-sandwiches-89-hot-dog/

What a fun feature overall! I haven't reviewed the entirety of the Hot Dog Document yet, but I feel like now I want to do a bunch of back reading, too. I like reading about sandwiches, even if I'm fairly picky when it comes to them myself.

I will say, and perhaps this is populist of me or perhaps it's even more ivory tower than the academics, but as we all know I have a longstanding solution to all of this "is a hot dog a sandwich" nonsense, which is this:

"Sandwich" is not a noun. It is an adjective.

I don't mean that literally, like I haven't found some weird archaic dictionary that tells us so, but "sandwich" as a word is not used as a noun but rather as a descriptor of a thing, ergo, adjective. An object is a sandwich if you must apply "sandwich" to the end of the noun in order to properly identify it. It's like how many different kinds of dogs can be "brindle" but that is not a breed of dog and doesn't stand on its own as a classification.

Now, I have no objection to anyone saying "a hot dog sandwich" because that's simply a redundancy and if they wish to, that's their prerogative; it sounds fun and old timey, like saying "a hamburger steak". But we need not classify a hot dog as a sandwich simply because you don't need to say "hot dog sandwich" for the person you're speaking with in order to make yourself understood. Much as you would not generally say "Italian beef sandwich" even when speaking to someone who might not know what an italian beef is. You say "an italian beef" and then elucidate.

There is a possible exception to the rule, which is the Grilled Cheese Sandwich, commonly referred to as simply a Grilled Cheese despite taking a very sandwich-like form, but there are three arguments one can make regarding this:

It SHOULD be called a Grilled Cheese Sandwich to distinguish it from Halloumi

It is technically a "melt" which like a hamburger is distinct from a sandwich (ie, a Tuna Melt or Patty Melt) in the classification of "sandwich-like objects that need not be called a sandwich"

The grilled cheese is the exception that proves the rule and this is right and just, because grilled cheese sandwiches are the best and should be considered special.

Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk; I will not be taking questions at this time.

[jojo-oliver]

How to tumblr for artists… my own version

A collection of things that have been working for me, but may not work for everyone

~~~ your posts ~~~

!!!reblog your own stuff!!! you need to reblog your own stuff, there is nothing morally wrong with reblogging your own stuff regularly. in fact, it is morally right to allow the chance for more people to see your artwork.

~~~ queue it!! ~~~ my queue is 500 posts strong. maybe don't try to make your queue hundreds of posts strong in the same day omg but like… once every month or two i'll go through my whole blog and just scroll and "add to drafts" to every one of my own posts i have. then i'll use the "mass post editor" to add content warning tags. and add to queue, and shuffle. and then I write down what the date was for when I last added my posts to be reblogged on queue. this is helped by turning on timestamps for posts in tumblr "dashboard preferences" settings.

queueing is necessary and life saving for me. It takes out so much work with decision fatigue and the anxiety around posting. It also guarantees that even if I suddenly need time off or away from my phone, I don't just disappear and lose all traction. It also breaks the instant-gratification cycle that you expect when you finish an artwork. It's hard to keep creating when you post something and, when you're expecting to get that gratification, you get none... If you queue your new artwork to come out at a later time, you've separated that expectation - with time. It hurts less and contributes to a more consistent gratification thing instead of peaks and troughs.

~~~ tag ya stuff ~~~ when you're making a new post, the first 20 tags are what gets put into the searchable tags. do not feel shame for using lots of tags. shame is the mind-killer. tags are hard. hard to know what to tag a post with. hard to remember the tags. so I found some ways to help myself. maybe they'll help you too. dedicate some time towards just figuring out what tags you want to use. i have a list in my phone notes that i add tags to and reference whenever i'm making a new post. i have the phone right beside the laptop while i'm tagging so that i can just look at it and scroll. tags are the only way for people to find your artwork, other than people manually coming to your blog because they saw you somewhere. there is no algorithm. posting without tags, until you have an established fanbase, is throwing something into the void.

When I'm doing tag research, I look at what people seem to use - when you put something in the search bar, tumblr recommends you some that have a higher following, typically. Looks like this on desktop:

if you like one tag, look at what other people who use that tag also tag their posts with. Observe and learn how this tag is used. search through a bunch of them and write them down.

here's what i got in my notes, for the specific kind of art I post and look for:

these tags are sort of specific to me and the kind of art I make. You'll want to research your own tags, but this is an example of how I keep them organized to make posting more effective. I generally only write down a tag when it's got more than 2k followers. You might be tempted to use the tags with millions of followers, but I've actually found those a lot less functional for small artists. If your stuff doesn't immediately get a bunch of notifications, you're drowned out and pushed to the bottom much faster. But the bigger tags are better than no tags, so I keep them if I can't think of anything else to tag something with.

~~~ post at the right times….? ~~~

fridays and saturdays is when I post fresh new things... usually. every website has it's own peak hours, and you can find those hours in many different online articles that try to sell you social media growth services. tumblr is unique in having later hours.

here's some random graph from google images:

please don't over think this. please don't let this consume the idea of when to post, preventing you from posting at all. it doesn't mean too much - if you post during very active hours, maybe your art would just be pushed down the feed faster. if you post at the end of hours, maybe everyone's going to sleep… if you post at inactive hours, maybe there's less 'competition'… if you post at the beginning of active hours, maybe that's just more time for your post to circulate for the day, if you have enough people reblogging it once it drops....

this also is in EST. So fuck the other time zones, I guess. I'm over here in europe knowing that the "best" time to post would be like 2-3am or something. It's like this for most english-speaking majority sites - higher traffic in north american time zones.

it's also worth mentioning that this is scattered as heck, compared to other social media sites. and it's not like, the activity times of your followers. it's not the best time to post for your niche. this is just tumblr, broadly. all of tumblr.

~~~ Plan ahead for annual dates ~~~

Your artwork will get more circulation if it's posted on a celebratory day. You could just put them on your calendar and if you're wondering what to make, look on the calendar for what's coming soon. For example, asexual awareness day, trans day of visibility, location-specific holidays, etc. Here's my phone notes thing with my own recorded annuals:

I got these dates from googling and reading different articles, but I find that I still miss dates, and then I add them for next year. If you know of some I missed, tell me and I'll add them please <3

~~~ reblog other people's stuff ~~~

tumblr is sorta about ecosystems. things get passed around within groups of people that are all following eachother. to enter this ecosystem, you must engage and reblog other people's stuff too.

if you reblog other artists' stuff, sometimes they'll come over and reblog your stuff too. sometimes they'll follow you back. this is called becoming a mutual. I'll search specific tags for the kinds of people I want to follow and the kind of art I like - those are listed in the screenshot of my tag note under "Tags for finding new people".

I see a lot of blogs out there that are very clean, posts are tagless, and are only for the artists' content. like scrolling through a portfolio. I imagine this is good for people who are migrating to tumblr but already have their own established fanbase from elsewhere.

you don't need to do reblog other people's stuff on your art blog, you can do this on a separate blog. but if the two don't look very closely correlated, it's hard to tell who you are when you're interacting. and hard to make sure people know that you are the same person as your art blog. and you gotta remember to promote yourself on your personal blog.

~~~ have an art tag ~~~

make your blog easy to search!

if i go to your blog, and you've written 'artist' or 'sometimes art' in your bio, i wanna see it… it make me so sad when i don't get to see it. i want to reblog it. please let me reblog it :(

to make a tag on your own blog searchable, you don't need to repost it to add a tag. you don't even need to reblog it. you can actually just go back to the original post and edit it to add your tag. I've seen post people just have their art tag be something like #(blogname)art . you can see my own in my tags image above. if it's very unique, then it'll work tumblr-wide. I think that's good, since the tumblr search function is really weird. Otherwise it should still work if it's not entirely unique, people just have to make sure they're searching specifically your blog to see only your stuff.

I like to have a link in my pinned post where people can click to have immediately searched for my art tag. Convenience is king. Keep in mind that most people are on mobile, and if something isn't immediately clickable, they often won't find it.

~~~ be consistent and be patient ~~~

!!!this time will pass anyway!!! how many notes you have is not correlated with how good you are as an artist. wanting to earn something from your art means you essentially have two jobs. two potentially full time jobs. this shit's difficult. most of the job is promoting yourself. don't undersell how hard it is to do… don't feel bad for not immediately succeeding. I would write about how hard it's been to promote myself, but it would just be long and sad I think.

This isn't a full guide, please feel free to add more!!

I'm sure in another year I'll disagree with a lot of this, it will become irrelevant with time, and I'll have a lot of different opinions. Chip in and share what you've been doing? Teach me? This is very overwhelming. Don't do it all at once, just like, try one thing at a time, and see how it works for you. Your niche might be different. One size does not fit all. If you're confused about some of the things I talk about in here, you might be on mobile. I do most of my queueing and posting from the desktop browser version.

I will update this with more as things change, but I think you'll have to click through to see the updated post

[charles-leclerc-official]

hello! can I ask if you have any list of accounts you trust when it comes to f1 data? i noticed there are accounts who come to different conclusions with things like race pace data, and i guess it's their methodologies that differ... i don't want to be misled if somehow there's bias.

So I have a few.

First I want to say that no account is perfect and sometimes mistakes are made etc. So always keep that in mind.

I really like @/F1telemetrydata they do good work and just process the numbers and I think their graphs are also presented in a way that's a good representation of the data.

But yes this is an issue I see in Twitter data accounts all the time. Bias can be present in data accounts, even if it looks like it's just numbers. Very often they cherry pick data and present things in bad faith to make one driver look significantly better than another. I think it's usually pretty obvious when they are doing this.

And this is also a broader issue in statistics as well. Choosing the data to sample and how to present it can be a big issue and can easily be used to mislead people who do not know how the math works and how data should be presented.

If you are really wanting to combat bias I highly suggest looking at the raw data. Does it confirm what people are saying? Things like race pace and speed are pretty easy to pick up just by looking at the raw lap times. Processing it into graphs is nice and makes it easier to see the differences but the raw data does tell the truth.

Raw data sources F1 tempo Pitwall

Also be aware of what is helpful to compare. Sometimes we can compare stats but are they good things to compare? Do they tell us anything useful that a team might care about?

I also want to say that sometimes people and even analysts get terms wrong. I see people swap terms like race pace and speed all the time and those are different things. They are connected but they are different.

Speed would be single lap time Race pace is average lap time

You can get one really good flying lap in a race but then be slower than your teammate the rest and have severe drop offs in speed due to poor tyre management.

Also data really is only one part of the story of a race. Context always matters. Saying X was faster than X without mentioning that one driver had damage beyond their control is a bad faith comparison. The raw data would show a driver being faster, but that doesn't tell the whole story.

So a big thing is to pay attention to who tries to put things into context and who does not. When I put things into context myself and do comparisons I try to always pick a driver's best performance during a race etc. It usually helps make my point either way. For example any reporter or data analyst who did a comparison of Charles' pace to Carlos or any other driver from Bahrain and did not mention Charles serious mechanical issue with the brakes I do not trust. That is a case where even doing that comparison isn't really useful because a mechanical issue means the data is flawed. A lot of accounts and reporters just did a raw comparison without taking that into account and anyone who watched the race can tell that is in bad faith.

It is a fallacy to believe that the data tells 100% of the story. It doesn't. If someone looked at just the data from a race they would probably make very different judgements and assumptions than someone who did.

For example in Miami someone just looking at the data would go "Oh Oscar really lost a lot of pace on his second stint. He needs to work on his hard tyre pace." But someone who watched the race would know that Oscar's slower pace in the second half of the race was due to the fact he was battling with Carlos and then took damage. They'd know that his pace after that is not fully reflective of what his pace would be without damage, as well as the overall quality of his driving.

Again remember no one is perfect. I am not perfect and make mistakes/overlook something/fail to catch something altogether. A lot of data accounts are just one fan who loves the sport and wants to do math.

I prefer accounts that just process the raw data without editorializing(ex pointing out one driver against another) just show me the graphs etc, that's a very neutral way to do it.

You have brought up a broader issue in statistics. Like different ways of processing data, what to include vs exclude etc That is a big thing in all stats. And some people know how to massage numbers to fit an agenda. This happens all the time(especially in any kind of political data presentation)

I think the best thing is to be aware of bias, learn how to spot it, and then take it into account alongside the information someone is telling you. That's simple on paper but sometimes it's tricky in practice.

I realize this post has turned into a mini lecture on stats fallacies etc and I probably didn't need to say all of that, but hopefully it's educational to someone.

Numbers don't lie, but they sure do like to do loopty loops with the truth sometimes.

[cat3ch1sm]

Okay so this has been on my mind for a few days and when I saw your requests were open I just KNEW I had to ask!

(Also I adore your fics and hope you're doing well. Remember to take care of yourself :D)

Onto the request!

Can I get a fic/drabble about what L would do if Light started slightly harrassing/bullying L's partner? Like even if Light was being mean about stupid stuff like where they put papers or how they always sit really close to L, for example (Light might be a lil jealous if you wanna add that?)

Anyways thank you for your time and I totally understand if this makes you uncomfortable in any way (^v^)

🕯~ hello, my dear, im so sorry for the wait :((( thanks so much for being patient, i love u @multi-write

🕰~ watched death note today so im newly inspired 😁 im gonna set this in the yotsuba arc, when they are finding out Kira’s killings are related to yotsuba:) also, nothing here is directly quotes from the manga, i just made up the dialogue

⋇⊶⊰📺⊱⊷⋇ gender neutral reader

✧༺💚༻∞

“So, Light- you’re entirely sure that the Kira that has appeared recently is someone affiliated with the Yotsuba Group?”

It was just you, L, and Light in the dimly lit room, illuminated only by the screens of a dozen monitors in front of your group. You and Light stood at one computer, observing the long list of the usual criminals Kira had been killing along with a good mix of business executives- an out of character move for the Kira the task force was familiar with.

Light sighed, a dubious expression on his face. “I can’t be one hundred percent certain- but that’s what it looks like. The names that don’t belong to criminals on this list belong to officials of almost every surrounding business in the area- but there are no names belonging to any of the higher-ups from Yotsuba.”

“That’s true,” you added, moving over to L and leaning over his body to point at the monitor right next to him. “And if you look at this live line graph containing the revenue that each of these businesses is gaining, it’s obvious the Yotsuba’s group is way up while the other corporations are clearly suffering.”

“Yeah, Y/N, we can see that.” Light joined you and L in front of the monitor, handcuffs clanking; you on one side of the detective’s swivel chair and him on the other and L in between you both. “There’s no need for you to bend over Ryuzaki like that.”

You looked over at Light, brow furrowed, and L glanced in his direction as well before both of you decided to brush it off. L ‘s arm wrapped around your hips as he opened his mouth to talk, drawing a noticeable scoff from Light, which again he chose to ignore. “The both of you are quite sharp- and judging by the rest of this data, Light’s conclusion is a safe one. We seem to have pinpointed Kira again- and this time, we cannot afford to lose him.” He let out a deep breath, eyes narrowing in thought. “So I suppose our next course of action would be to gain material evidence of this- perhaps an infiltration may be necessary. But that is something that would require the help of everyone here.” L turned to look up at you. “Y/N, would you mind calling the rest of the task force upstairs? No sense in both Light and I going down there cuffed together like this.”

“Alright. I’ll be right back.” You let a hand brush L’s shoulder passing him, but when you walked by Light, his shoulder suddenly blocked your path and made you bump into him, causing you to stumble backward.

You shot Light an beseeching look, clutching your upper arm while Light kept his eyes averted to one side, his expression stony. Finally, L turned around, a questioning expression on his face as he looked from you to Light and then back to you.

“Light- is there an issue?”

Light seemed surprised as he turned his gaze down to meet L’s eyes. “Not at all. Why do you ask?”

“Then I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t purposely knock into Y/N.” The curious expression L had before was gone, replaced by a more serious one. “And don’t think I failed to notice your attitude towards them earlier. I’m not sure if there’s something going on that I’m unaware of, but let’s keep it out of the Kira investigation, shall we?” His tone was deadpan and monotone, his gray eyes burning into Light’s, finally forcing the other man to look away. “Sure,” Light replied gruffly, his eyes flicking in your direction. You avoided meeting his gaze as you simply stepped away from Light and made your way downstairs.

𝒾 𝓁𝑜𝓋𝑒 𝓊, 𝒾 𝒽𝑜𝓅𝑒 𝓊 𝑒𝓃𝒿𝑜𝓎𝑒𝒹 <𝟥

[twisting-echo]

(Click on picture for better quality!)

LINK TO TEMPLATE - My Ship in Five Minutes (Blank Template).

I used the Disney Emoji Blitz emojis of Mèrida and Randall to fill out this template.

I know that the whole point of this template was to be short and sweet, but when I was filling out the graphs and the list, my head was filling and swirling with thoughts of them, so I'm going to talk about their relationship anyway because I adore these two.

Randall and Mèrida started off as a crack ship and joke that started when I first began shipping Belle and Sulley, but I ended up liking their relationship dynamic way more than I should. The ship began when I created my Mirrorverse University AU for Belle and Sulley.

My Mirrorverse University AU is an AU based on Disney Mirrorverse, but it's in a modern magic school setting where Disney and non-Disney characters are chosen by the Stellar Mirror to become guardians and must leave their universe to attend the school to learn their guardian duties and how to expel the Fractured. (Kind of like how Jujutsu sorcerers exorcise cursed spirits.) Mèrida is a sophomore, and Randy is a freshman.

To be clear, the Randall in this AU isn't evil and is based on Randall's personality before he joined Roar-Omega-Roar from MU. In my headcanon, he's known/been best friends with Mike and Sulley since kindergarten.

In this AU, Mèrida was born on November 13th, 2012, and Randy was born on March 26th, 2013, so they're four months and 13 days apart. My AU also takes place in a fictional future in the 2030s.

The reason I make Randy shorter than Mèrida is because he’s canonically not a very tall monster. It literally says on his scare card that he’s 5 feet, 0 inches tall, and someone told me that in the audio commentary of Brave, it was mentioned that Mèrida is 5 feet, 4 inches tall (four inches taller than Randy).

– First to confess their feelings to the other: Randy was the first to confess his feelings for Mèrida, which was very nerve-racking for him because of his lack of confidence and fear of rejection. But after he confessed, something crazy and totally unexpected happened... She reciprocated his feelings~

– First to apologize after a fight: Mèrida is more often the first to apologize because, honestly, anything that she's learned from arguing with her mother is that it's better to “mend the bond” and get things over with sooner rather than later, so she applies this stance to her relationship with Randy.

– The more popular/charismatic: Mèrida is the more popular and charismatic of the two because of her down-to-earth nature, dry wit, and sarcastic humor, which have made her a well-rounded person whom the other guardians like to hang out with. But her loyal and brave reputation precedes her because she's the only one who can make Professor Scar laugh, let alone smile. (That's right, Scar is a professor in this AU.)

– The best caregiver when the other is sick: Randy is the best caregiver because I just imagine him being overly doting when his Mèr-bear is sick.

– Does the cooking: Randy does most of the cooking because it's one of his passions, and Mèrida is not the best cook, and she knows this. (They do like making spaghetti together, though.)

– Does the housework: Randy does most of the housework because he's a tidy little monster. 

– Does the most speaking: Both of them are pretty talkative in the relationship. Sometimes they accidentally talk over each other. Randy likes to order for them when they're out at brunch, and Mèrida will say things like, "Excuse me, he asked for no pickles."

– The overprotective one: I'm not saying that Randy isn't protective in his own right; it's just that Mèrida's protectiveness outweighs his. Being a "Mama Bear" is in Mèrida's nature; she gets it from her mother~

– Designated driver: Mèrida is the designated driver because she drives a motorcycle, and Randy sits on the pillion (back seat) or the sidecar.

– Has good penmanship: They both have excellent penmanship! Mèrida was homeschooled up until a certain grade, but her mother would be damned if her daughter didn't have excellent penmanship. Randy has always had neat handwriting, and he spends a lot of time decorating cakes with calligraphy to add emphasis on aesthetics.

– Has more experience with relationships: Mèrida is the one who's had more experience with relationships because she's dated Snotlout (HTTYD), who was her first boyfriend; Eret (HTTYD), who was her most "steamy" boyfriend; Goldi (PIBTLW), who was her bisexual awakening and first girlfriend who was just as "steamy" as Eret; Hans (Frozen), who she thought was her boyfriend but was fake; and Tadashi Hamada (BH6), who was her most serious relationship, and she would have probably married him if he didn't die in that tragic accident. Randy is Mèrida's most unexpected romance, and Mèrida is Randy's first girlfriend.

– Sensitive to subtle changes in their partner: Mèrida has keen instincts, warrior’s intuition, and is remarkably attuned to Randy’s subtle changes. She notices the slight shifts in his color and texture, which often reflect his emotions. When Randy feels anxious or insecure, his scales take on a darker hue, and Mèrida gently encourages him, reminding him of his strengths and their shared experiences. She also picks up on his body language—like the way his tail twitches when he’s excited, the way his fronds droop when he's sad, and the way his eyes narrow when he’s deep in thought. Mèrida is sensitive to these cues and offers support or space when needed. Her perceptiveness helps her understand Randy’s needs, fostering a deep and empathetic connection between them.

– The one who proposes: Randy would feel a mix of excitement and nervousness about proposing to Mèrida. His heart would race, and his scales might shimmer with a blend of vibrant colors, reflecting his emotions. He’d want to propose because he’s deeply in love with her fiery spirit, bravery, and the way she sees and understands him like no one else. Randy would appreciate Mèrida’s strength and independence, qualities that complement his own unique abilities. He’d feel that together, they make an unstoppable team capable of facing any challenge. His desire to propose would stem from a genuine admiration and a longing to share his life with someone who truly gets him.

– The one who dies protecting the other: She just would. She would die for that little purple cinnamon roll.

– How it happens: For Randy, it was love at first sight. He made it his mission to get closer to her. For Mèrida, her attraction to him was unintentional, and she fell in love slowly. She was put off by his attention at first, but slowly developed a soft spot for him.

– Handling Conflict: Mèrida and Randy would navigate conflicts with a blend of their unique personalities. When disagreements arise, Mèrida’s fiery nature leads her to express her frustrations openly and passionately. She’d argue her point with vigor, but her quick-to-forgive heart would soon seek to “mend the bond.” Randy, on the other hand, approaches the conflict with a more laid-back demeanor. He’d take his time to process the situation, reflecting on his feelings and the root of the disagreement. His slower pace in resolving conflicts initially frustrates Mèrida, but she's come to appreciate his thoughtful approach.

– Relationship Attitude: Mèrida is dedicated yet casual. She values their bond deeply but maintains a relaxed approach, enjoying the spontaneity and freedom in their relationship. Randy, on the other hand, is more intensely dedicated. He sometimes overthinks things, wanting everything to be perfect for Mèrida, which can make him a bit overzealous in his efforts to show his love. Their public displays of affection (PDA) are a charming mix of their styles. Mèrida loves to pet Randy’s fronds, finding comfort and connection in the gentle, affectionate gesture. It’s her way of showing love without being overly demonstrative. Randy, however, enjoys more traditional forms of affection. He likes to hold her hands, often walking side by side with both of his right arms wrapped around her waist, drawing her close. This makes him feel secure and connected to her, and he loves the warmth and reassurance it brings.

– Showing Affection: Mèrida and Randy’s ways of showing affection are as unique as they are. Mèrida, with her bold and spirited nature, often takes the initiative. She isn’t shy about expressing her love, whether it’s through a spontaneous kiss, a playful nudge, or a heartfelt compliment. Her affectionate terms like “me darlin’” and “baby” are endearing and reflect her Scottish roots, adding a personal touch to her expressions of love. Randy, on the other hand, tends to be more enthusiastic and sometimes a bit over-the-top in his displays of affection. He loves to shower Mèrida with attention, often going out of his way to make her feel special. His pet names for her, like “Mèr-bear” and other sweet monikers, are his way of showing how much he cherishes her. He sometimes overdoes it, but his intentions are always pure and filled with love.

– Dealing with Jealousy: Mèrida is confident and independent by nature and rarely feels jealous. When she does, she prefers to take some space to clear her mind and regain her perspective. Randy, on the other hand, is more prone to jealousy. His insecurities can sometimes get the better of him, making him crave reassurance and attention from Mèrida. When he feels jealous, his scales darken, and he becomes "more clingy," seeking comfort in her presence and affection. He needs to hear from Merida that she values and loves him, which helps to soothe his worries. In these moments, Mèrida’s understanding and patience is crucial. She recognizes Randy’s need for reassurance and offers him the affection and words he needs to feel secure. She might hold his hands, look into his eyes, and remind him of their bond with a gentle “Randy, me darlin’, you’re the only one for me.” 🥺

– Attachment: Mèrida can be overprotective of Randy. She wants to ensure his safety and well-being, often taking charge in situations to shield him from harm, such as emotional distress or Fractured Goons. Despite this, she values her independence and needs time alone to recharge and pursue her own interests. This balance allows her to be both a supportive partner and a free spirit. Randy, in contrast, is more relaxed in general but struggles with separation anxiety. He finds comfort in Mèrida’s presence and feels uneasy when she’s not around. His scales shift to more anxious hues when she’s away, and he becomes clingier, seeking reassurance and closeness. Randy’s need for constant connection can sometimes clash with Mèrida’s independent streak. To navigate this, Mèrida is mindful of Randy’s feelings, offering him extra affection and reassurance before she takes time for herself. She leaves him with a heartfelt reminder of her love, like a tender kiss and a promise to return soon. Randy, on his part, would work on managing his anxiety, so he takes scented baths, bakes cupcakes, or plays DND and video games with Mike and Sulley. Their relationship thrives on open communication and mutual understanding. Mèrida’s protective instincts and Randy’s need for closeness balance each other out, creating a dynamic where both feel valued and secure.

Welp, that's my ship! I hope I did a good job at showcasing their loving dynamic and unique bond.

🚫IF YOU DO NOT LIKE THIS SHIP, PLEASE DON’T COMMENT OR REBLOG🚫 🚫 PLEASE DO NOT STEAL OR REPOST MY EDITS 🚫

[viperwhispered]

I'm gonna ask for 6, 10 and 61 for the Jamemi ask game if you don't mind >:)

(These two are too cute)

(Also definitely gonna steal the idea for the graph for my own ships bc as a visual learner damn that's smart 👀)

Ty for the asks Moony! ❤️ And please do steal the graph, I found it really fun and helpful and would love to see versions for other characters and their relationships. I can definitely show you how I made mine if it helps any.

Hasdfs my sappiness coming through with these two, huh? Glad you like them tho!

6. Who would ask the "would you love me if I were a worm?" question? How would their S/O answer?

Lol, I was actually looking at this already when I first saw the list and like… Yeah, it’s gotta be Emi asking it, isn’t it?

And I agree with everyone else who’s had Jamil deal with this, where Jamil’s response would be just some kind of deadpan look.

Like, he knows Emi’s not the sort to be “testing” him, so he doesn’t take it too seriously, but come on, what kind of question is that?

“Well, at least you’d be easier to look after,” he says with a totally casual shrug and goes back to whatever he was doing - trying to hide his smirk when hears the indignant sound Emi makes for getting such an unsatisfactory response.

10. Who plays with whose hair?

Emi is definitely itching to practice some braiding and hairdos on Jamil’s. On the other hand, we’ve already established that Jamil’s willing to help with dying Emi’s hair and stuff.

Still, I think Emi does it more, just toying with Jamil’s braids and all the jewelry he’s got on his hair. (Sometimes Jamil gives her a warning look, sometimes he just resigns himself to his fate, sometimes it’s kinda (very) nice. Really depends on how set he is on keeping his hair nice and tidy.)

When Jamil does it, it tends to be a bit more utilitarian, though he’s not above pampering Emi like that.

61. How would they describe their S/O in one word?

Emi: home

Jamil: caring

Both of them think for a moment before saying it. Jamil also considers warm and kind as options, but this is what he settles on. Really, sometimes Emi cares a little too much, as far as he’s concerned.

Emi, for her part, doesn’t really hesitate with her choice, once she finds it. It just seems fitting.

(ask game in question here)

@scint1llat3

If anyone else would like to be tagged for Emi posts, let me know!

[raccoonfallsharder]

i like to imagine that if one were to give Rocket a sudoku or crosswords puzzle, he can fill them all out at an unbelievable rate. like, you'd introduce him to the concept of sudoku, how each row and each column and each 3×3 grid should have nine distinct and non-repeating numerical digits–

but you haven't finished explaining the rules and Rocket's already filling out the empty boxes with his pencil like ticking off items on a laundry list. not a minute later, it's solved. he then gets confused at your jaw dropping while showing you the filled-out paper puzzle.

"what? you're- you just, fill out the thing with numbers, right? what's so surprising?"

i love this! im sorry i didn’t see this ask sooner but YES. thank you so much for this PERFECT mental image lol. i am actually working on a oneshot that’s not about this EXACTLY but is about rocket’s brain in relation to some of these things lol. the way he sees shit.

sudoku, i think, is easy for him. you explain the rules once and he just looks at the grid and he knows where everything goes. it’s like looking at a bomb or a gun. all the pieces have a home — it only takes one glance with soft eyes to see where each thing fits.

word searches, too. once he knows what a word is supposed to look like, he can take in a box of letters with that same glance and be like — oh, there’s fifteen words. sometimes he finds words that aren’t even intentionally included.

the trick with both these puzzles is that rocket does not get caught up in the sequence of things. he doesn’t go line-by-line or letter-by-letter. he has a more holistic way of understanding things — a big-picture kind of guy. looks at them and says “this is where the thing fits.”

now, crossword puzzles? those i’m less sure of. i think rocket would be the type to be annoyed by “bad clues.” his vocabulistics ain’t always standard, so to speak, and i bet he sometimes makes up words. plus, having to remember how they’re supposed to be spelled? that’s a problem. sometimes the clue will be like “more yellow than blue; a French liqueur” and instead of writing in “chartreuse” rocket is like “greeeeeeen” because why the fuck not, this game is stupid. he finishes in record time but when you look at it, most of the answers are like… only sorta-conceptually-correct? and usually with creative spellings? occasionally he’ll throw in a cluster of letters in kree?

“so i can see you answered this column with crow but you used a character i don’t recognize for the w and it’s overlapping with the g in lasagna. and uhm neither of those are technically right.”

“yeah in shi’ar that letter makes a sound like wuh or guh. little further back in the throat though.”

“uh huh. but this is, uhm, a US-english crossword.”

“so?”

“…good talk.”

now maybe when he’s a little older, and the Star Kids have grown up and have Star Kids of their own, and Old Man Rocket is sitting outside a cantina on Knowhere making origami versions of cosmo for them — maybe in between he pulls out the giant book of puzzles pete sent him for christmas last year. adjusts his reading glasses and strokes a claw over his grizzled whiskers. the kids come up and ask him what he’s working on today and he shows them and teaches them how to do each one.

“this one you can’t repeat any numbers.”

“that seems hard.”

“nah, it’ll be easy for you. you’re almost as much of a genius as me. now, this one you gotta find these words in this graph.”

“okay. i think i like this better. what about that one?”

“ah, i used to hate those ones but now they’re my favorite.”

“yeah?”

“yeah. for these ones, you just make shit up, and you bend all the rules till your answer works.”

[lixenn]

Hi lili!!! 👋🏾 Hope you are well! For Chief...!

💔 (broken heart) - Who has your character hurt most? Physically or emotionally? How did it feel? Do they regret it?

🥩 (steak) - Does your oc have any coping mechanisms? Healthy or unhealthy?

🪓 (axe) - Does your oc have survival skills? Have they ever had to use them? What would they do in an apocalypse? Could they survive?

Heya Momo! I'm hanging on by a bare thread but I'm still kicking so that's something (I will defeat this thesis, I will kick it to the curb! I will murder it dead <- straight up in denial OTL)

Chief questions! Chief questions!!!

Let's see...

💔 (broken heart) - Who has your character hurt most? Physically or emotionally? How did it feel? Do they regret it?

Well, Dani-boy ain't a saint so he certainly hurt quite a bit of people. As for who he hurt the most, well that's [redacted] Ummm... huh? That's strange... Let me try again. Dan [redacted] ... One time he [redacted]

Whut?

*contacting the nonsense generator*

...

Error 404 Answer not found.

You have entered the spoiler zone. Varia Quality censoring engaged. Please try again at a later date.

🥩 (steak) - Does your oc have any coping mechanisms? Healthy or unhealthy?

Dan is a solution orientated person. If there's a problem, he tries to fix it. If there's no problem? Well, there will be future ones so he plans ahead. ("Paranoid much Chief?") So you could say he copes with things by planning and scheming and working. He loves lists and graphs, likes sorting his thoughts by writing them down. He will list all the things that could possibly go wrong and then meassures to prevent them or how to react to them. Not really a healthy way to cope with life but when your part of the Mafia where sanity often goes on permanent vacation it can save your ass quite a bit.

When confronted with situations that are not in his plans (aka the newest Varia shitshow) or that simply make him uncomfortable (aka Vlasta's nonsense) then he often shuts down. Dan knows the value of a strategic retreat and he's not afraid to use it.

He also heavily abuses his hard workload as a distraction tactic. What do you mean Ottavio wants to talk to him? Can't you see that he's busy doing budget reports? Come in late (read: never). (There's no time to worry about the high death toll when he's mind is occupied with numbers and to-lists and meetings. Chief is good at compartmentalizing, locking bad memories into boxes and hiding away the key)

To break it down: Dan copes with contingency plans, compartmentalization and just plain noping out of the problem. It's not exactly the healthiest way to cope because he tends to take these methods to the extremes but it could be worse.

🪓 (axe) - Does your oc have survival skills? Have they ever had to use them? What would they do in an apocalypse? Could they survive?

Survival skills huh... bit of a broad term but I will try my best 🫡

Dan knows first aid and hand to hand combat. It was drilled into his head by his parents because they know how dangerous the mafia can be and they wanted him to be equipped to deal with it. (His siblings got the same training, yes even his sister though she isn't a fan of getting her hands dirty). He knows how to make a fire, set up camp and how get food in the wilderness (though his cooking skills are... not up to par, it's enough to survive but not really all that appetizing). Dan learned those skills on various camping trips he went on with his dad, it was their way to bond since Dan loves nature and his dad likes to hunt.

As for the apocalypse... Please, he has contingency plans for an eventual Varia zombie outbreak (he doesn't trust PoisonChem or R&D as far as he can throw them, he wouldn't be surprised if they cook up a zombie virus in their labs. Disappointed? Yes. Surprised? No.) and several other apocalypse scenarios. So as long as it isn't something that insta kills lots of people (aka natural disaster shit) he would be fine. He has a couple safe houses, common sense and knows how to use a shotgun. Also he's just way too stubborn to die because the world's gone to shits. Plus for some reason someone up above (the author) wants to torment him on a daily basis and he's got to be alive for that to happen so yeah...

He'd either be roped into some leadership role in a survival camp or he'd be the grumpy guy in the woods living off the land. Could go either way.

Red emoji oc ask

[rpgsandbox]

So this appeared on twitter the other day, a challenge for 2023.

A blog post fleshed out the idea a bit more:

#Dungeon23

A dungeon room a day for all of 2023.

The other day I posted on twitter about a cool little project I’m working on for 2023. Essentially, I’m doing a dungeon room a day, every day, and keeping track of it in a little weekly calendar.

Why?

Well, I love dungeons and megadungeon play, but writing a megadungeon is difficult! It takes a lot of energy and it’s hard to know when to work on it and for how long. This simplifies things.

A dungeon room a day, every day, for 2023. That’s 365 rooms. I’ll do a level a month, so 12 levels. Every week is a little area of 7 rooms, so I can keep my focus small.

I’m using the amazing Hobonichi Weeks which if you don’t know is a great little notebook designed by the writer of the Earthbound/Mother game series. It’s got great paper, and the Weeks version is the smaller more portable notebook. Essentially on a single spread you’ve got seven days on the left and then an open piece of graph paper on the right. That’s perfect for a key of seven rooms and a map. Here’s another one that ship’s from the US. Got a worldbuilder’s notebook you’ve been dying to use? Now’s the time.

You don’t have to use this notebook, don’t get hung up on the details here. Any old notebook will do. I just happen to have an addiction to Japanese stationery and no real need to journal, so this is what I’m doing, dungeon as journal.

There’s some great things you can do here too: instead of room numbers, you can number them with the date. This makes rooms pretty easy to find and reference within your notebook. Don’t need a megadungeon? Try twelve small dungeons! The point is to do a little bit of writing a day. Some tips:

Don’t overthink it. Don’t make a grand plan, just sit down each day and focus on writing a good dungeon room.

Generators are your friend. The point isn’t to get stuck writing the perfect room, the point is to write a room. Randomize the monster, treasure, whatever items you need. Use “Tricks, Traps, and Empty Rooms,” by Courtney Campbell. There’s a billion d100 lists on Elfmaids & Octopi. Take rooms from dungeons you love. Just get the rooms down on paper.

If you can’t think of what to write that day just write “Empty Room,” see how easy that is?

365 rooms written like “3 orcs, 25 gold pieces.” is better than 5 rooms written like “In this beautiful hand carved obsidian room sit 3 orcs arguing over a dice game. 25gp sit on the table, each of them…” See what I’m getting at? The goal is the finish line. Just get to the finish line. Trust me.

If you want to keep up with my progress on Twitter, mastodon, or cohost, use the hashtag #dungeon23. Post your results too! Post a room a day on twitter so other people can steal it and put it in their journals! Become a collector of rooms, you don’t have to be the well.

The greatest creative advice I ever got was “have something to show for your time.” I’ve found a lot of success on always shipping projects every year. This is one of those projects, once you realize you can create a dungeon of this magnitude, your whole world opens up with what you can do. And it’s insanely fun too!

#dungeon23, I’ll see you on the other side.

P.S.

Need a weekly prompt to carry you through? Here’s 52 prompts to keep you motivated:

Ancient

Death

Sunken

Love

Empire

Heavy

Rural

Darkness

Bloom

Rust

Noise

Childhood

Time

Excess

Decay

City

Factory

Flood

Sleep

Cold

Ash

Touch

Meat

Solitude

Growth

Greed

Luck

Fall

Pit

Chaos

Laughter

Smoke

Forgotten

Library

Ocean

Song

Roots

Bones

Hangman

Blood

Prophet

Idol

Door

Light

Stars

Bridge

Mask

Cut

Sacrifice

Incense

Rise

Gold