#IT HELPS THAT i'm not used to editing such a large project so idk how much time any of this is going to take i'm not gonna lie to y'all idk

[everymlmhybrid]

feels so weird to have to rewrite and write new parts for the absolute very beginning of the fic. it's also unbelievably fun but it's just funny to throw this thing into reverse that way

[dib-thing-wannabe]

The Villain's Untold Moldings - Chapter One

next>>>

(Quickly, two things before y'all start reading this-

This doesn't mean that I'm quitting with my cu au content, I just needed to write this as it came to me at night and I have to share it with everyone else, so consider it more as a side project then anything else.

In this fanfic, Robot does not have his canon look, but instead has the Robot human (?) design made by @taxlthomas (Or @itsalldownhillfromherehoney because idk which to tag as they are the same person). This is something that I feel is important to mention as I don't think anyone could take it as seriously as I imagine it to be, so please check out their artwork before reading this if you don't know what it looks like. As I'm already tagging people, I'd also like to thank @genderlessjacky who helped me with the name of this fanfic!

Other than that, enjoy this!)

(Edit: I should mention that when I make more chapters, they will be featured on my pinned post, though I'm not tagging my pinned with the pj masks tags.)

Memory log 1 - Date: Sept. 7, 2005 - Time: 12:01

I turned on for the first time ever. I scanned the room I was in, standing on my charging pod, when the scan stopped as I laid my robotic eyes on a man. He had raven colored hair, fair skin, green eyes, and he was wearing a lab coat covered in oil. He seemed proud, yet tired.

"Hello, Robot. You may call me Mr. Mecano, or if you'd prefer, Master. I'm the one who made you!" He told me in a prideful tone.

"Hello, Master." I replied with, only having a monotone voice at the time.

He looked at me again, motioning me to follow him as he exits the room. I, of course, follow him. His house was much bigger than it looked from the charging pod, it was clear that he had the money to spend. I saw other robots around the place as I followed him, though they were much smaller than me and didn't do much.

We eventually made it to what is called a living room, with a large couch in the middle of it.

"Go ahead, sit down for a moment! I need to grab some people before I can tell you what your current purpose is!" Mr. Mecano told me, holding his hand towards the couch. I sat down on it as he exited the room.

After some time, I heard a female voice nearby. "Hunny, are you sure it's going to be safe? I mean, his body that you reused was originally made to harm any trespassers! Who knows how gentle he could get!" She spoke up.

"Dear, trust me, I have made the necessary adjustments to his physical body to be able to be as gentle as a mouse. And, before you even think about his coding, I took out anything that could harm someone who may be innocent!" He told her reassuringly.

She let out a soft sigh before telling him, "Okay, I believe you. I don't have any reason not to."

He walks back in with the woman trailing behind him, holding something wrapped in a blanket in her arms. The woman had long brown hair with a white streak in it, more tanned skin compared to Mr. Mecano yet it's still pale, blue eyes, and she was wearing a long nightgown, despite it being noon.

"Robot, this is my wife! You may call her Mrs. Mecano, or you may also call her Master!" He announced lovingly, wrapping his arm around her shoulder.

"Hello Ma'am."

"... You know what, that works too!" He began walking towards me again, now with his wife in tow, as she is clearly nervous.

He gently grabs what's in her arms as he speaks in a soft yet energetic tone. "Now I can tell you what your purpose is!"

He walks closer to me until he is basically towering over me, as he begins to show me what's in the blanket.

"This is our son. His name is Romeo Mecano. He was born on August 31 of this year. You see, I need to continue to work so that my family and I can continue to live comfortably, but the baby still needs to be cared for, as my dear wife is having too many troubles recovering from his birth to safely take care of him without any assistance. Your job is to care for Romeo when neither of us can, and to make sure that whatever happens, he would never be harmed."

I nod my head as I looked closer at what was in the blanket. Sure enough, it was a baby. A sleeping baby with the same raven hair his father had, yet has the white streak in his hair that his mother passed down to him.

"Here, try and hold him! You're going to need to do it a lot anyway!" He said with a light in his eyes, as Mrs. Mecano bit her finger out of nervousness. I hold my arms out in what I had believed to be the correct way. He placed the child in my arms, and I just held my arms like that.

He chuckled before speaking again. "Robot, you are holding a small human being, not a platter! Don't be scared, gently bring him towards your chest more!"

After a moment of processing, I then held him similarly to how they held him. "Is this good, Master?"

"It's great! See, you just powered on, yet you're already learning all the necessities!" He cried out in a joyful manner, clearly more proud then ever.

He began conversing with his wife, but my memory doesn't remember their exact conversation, as I was paying full attention to Romeo at this point. I can only recall that Mr. Mecano was reassuring her that their son was safe in my hands and that he wouldn't ever make something that would hurt either one of them. I began to hold him in a way where he was facing me, my hands under his little armpits. After a few seconds, I held him near my chest, his tiny head resting on my shoulder as one of my hands gently cups it, and the other held his scrunched up body. My Master quickly took notice of this, and he only chuckled and said, "Yeah, he's going to be safe and sound."

The rest of the day was Mr. and Mrs. Mecano teaching me what to do during what situations, how to care for the child, how to care for wounds, ect. When Romeo finally woke up, he had icey blue eyes, though they told me that his eyes would darken overtime, but will most likely stay blue.

Memory log 7 - Date: Sept. 15, 2005 - Time: 20:21

A week has passed since I was first introduced to everything. Today I noticed that Mr. Mecano started acting strangely. Normally he works on other inventions and sells them, and tries to spend every spare second he could with either his wife, or if he's awake, Romeo. Meaning that I see him around ten to twenty times a day other then when he is in his workshop. Today though, I had only seen him once outside of his workshop, and it's already dark out. It was as if he was trying to avoid them today, especially his son, who he usually coddles every time he lays eyes on him.

As I was patrolling the house, something I normally do when not given a task to complete, Mrs. Mecano approached me.

"... Hey, Robot? Can you tell me something?" Her voice was filled with worries and woe's as she asked me this.

"Of course, Ma'am."

"Do you think that my husband has been acting... strange, today? I mean, I don't think that this is a bad thing, but I need a second opinion on it."

I stood silent for a moment, trying to find the words to tell her that I agree with her without her feeling anymore worried. "Yes Ma'am, I do. Though I believe it's nothing to worry about just yet. I saw that he didn't get as much sleep as he normally does last night, so there is a great chance that is what's causing him to act strangely."

".. Yeah, you're probably right. Though just in case, I'm going to talk to him about it. If Romeo wakes up, please watch him for me until I'm done."

This caught me off guard, as she doesn't like it when it's only me and Romeo together alone. I believe she's either starting to finally trust me, or she's too worried about her husband to think properly.

"Of course, Ma'am."

She let out a sigh of relief before speaking again.

"Thank you, Robot." She then began heading downstairs towards the workshop.

She didn't say a word to me as she went back to her bedroom two hours later, so I am guessing she wasn't able to get anything out of him. Romeo is growing rather fond of me, so I don't think he mind the fact that he had seen me more than he had seen his dad today.

Memory log 13 - Date: Sept. 21, 2005 - Time: 15:34

Mr. and Mrs. Mecano have been agruing for what has felt like non-stop today so far. After he started randomly distancing himself from his family, Mrs. Mecano has been trying to talk to him more and more about it, yet he's been practically pushing her away. This is what seems to be their first ever argument in their entire relationship. I began standing near the doorway of their bedroom, as the tention began rising between them.

"Oh my GOD, WHY WON'T YOU GET THE FUCK OFF MY BACK?! I AM WORKING MY ASS TO PROVIDE FOR EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE, AND THIS IS THE THANKS I GET FOR IT!?" His voiced boomed through the house.

"H-Hunny, please!! I'm not trying to be overbearing, I'm j-just getting worried! You have never acted like this before!!!" She yelled back, holding in tears as she tries to talk to him.

"OH, PLEASE! YOU ARE ALWAYS GETTING WORRIED ABOUT SOMETHING THAT I DO, EVEN WHEN I TELL YOU THAT EVERYTHING IS FINE, BUT NOOOOOO! SOMETHING IS TERRIBLY WRONG WITH EVERY SINGLE FUCKING THING I DO!!"

"SIMON!!" Her voice strained, now with tears rolling down her face. This is the first time I have ever heard her call him anything other than his nickname.

Now they are in a full on shouting match, throwing accusations at one another, from cheating to lying about their past. Clearly, this is turning into something much more serious than it once was.

Suddenly, I heard Romeo crying from his crib, so hesitantly, I go to tend for him while they continue to scream at one another.

I quickly go into his room and shut the door behind me, trying not to let him hear the yelling from his parents. Yes, he may be a baby who wouldn't have a clue what was happening, but that doesn't mean that it wouldn't effect him. Thankfully, they made his room soundproof, so he couldn't hear them at all as long as we stayed inside his nursery.

"Shhhhhhhh, shhhhhhhhh, hey, hey hey, it's okay, it's okay." I softly spoke to him, as I scooped him up into my arms. "Don't cry, don't cry, you are okay, you are going to be okay."

After a few minutes of shushing him and patting his back gently, he eventually stopped crying, but he clearly still wasn't happy. I held him up to my face level, and start mimicking his cooing noises that he normally makes when he's happy. After a few seconds, he starts making the noises back.

"Yaaay! There you go, now who's a happy boy? Who's a happy bouncing baby boy~?"

He started getting louder with his cooing as I did this, reaching his tiny hands to me.

"Yes, you are! You are just a happy boy!"

I stayed with Romeo for a few more hours in his room, taking care of him. He seems to have me as his favorite 'person' in this household, especially lately, where I have had to take sole care of him as his parents argue, like they have been for the past week. I only left him alone after around 15 minutes of him being asleep. It's now 20:57, and his parents seem to have finally stopped with their bickering and gone to bed.

Memory log 14 - Date: Sept. 22, 2005 - Time: 02:31

I woke up from my charging pod as my internal sensors started going off.

*DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! A PERSON IN THE PREMISES HAS BEEN GRAVELY INJURED!*

Quickly, I get off of the pod and start scanning the area for the person who had gotten hurt.

After a few minutes of scanning the area, I finally had found who it was. It was... Mrs. Mecano. She was laying at the bottom of the steps, bleeding out. She had been shot in the stomach.

As I walked up to her, about to try and stop the bleeding before I called an ambulance, she started talking in a strained and tired voice.

"D-don't.. help me y-yet-" She coughed between her words, blood spilling out of her throat. "G-get.. m-my son.."

"Romeo? You want me to get Romeo?"

"H-he-" she coughed again, now speaking in more urgency. "I fear.. that h-he is next..."

As I realized what she was talking about, I nodded my head and quickly began rushing to his nursery. Who could in their right mind go and shoot a child after shooting their mother? Especially a baby, who could have never done any wrong to any person ever. I gained sight of the nursery door, and it was wide open. Quickly, I ran over and looked inside. A figure was standing above the crib... with a gun. Pointing. At. Romeo.

*TARGET ACQUIRED*

My arm extended from the doorway to the figure, wrapping itself around his arm, making the gun in his hand now aim to the floor. Before I can think, I lifted the arm it was intangled in, and threw it from where it was standing to the railing behind me, causing a giant crack sound to be made. I looked at the figure, now behind me..

"... Master?"

He groaned before speaking, struggling to get up on his feet, using the almost broken railing to lift himself up.

"WHY THE FUCK WOULD YOU DO THAT, YOU STUPID ROBOT?! DON'T YOU SEE THAT YOU'RE MASTER IS TRYING TO KILL THAT ANNOYING LITTLE SHI-"

Before he could finish his sentence, I covered his mouth from behind him, having a tight grip on his face as I silenced him. I began talking lowly and slowly, as if I was growling as I spoke.

"I did that because you told me to. You said that my purpose was to take care of Romeo when neither of you could, and to make sure that whatever happens, he would never be harmed. But you. You tried to kill him after almost killing your wife." I moved his head towards the downstairs, facing him to Mrs. Mecano's close to lifeless body. "I may not experience the same emotions or have the same 'morals' as humans do, but I am disappointed in your actions. You are the biggest monster that this town has probably ever seen."

I let go of him entirely, having his full body weight fall onto the railing.

"Now, if you can behave and control your emotions, I'll go and make sure that you didn't hurt your child over a silly argument that wasn't even involving him."

I walk over to the crib and look down. There he is... the sweet baby boy, safe and sound, just sleeping. Unaware of the event that just occurred.

Now that I know that he isn't hurt, I can now call an ambulance and the police for Mrs. Mecano-

*BAM*

The sound of a gunshot going off filled the homes silence, and soon after, Romeo began crying, having woken up by the sudden noise and getting scared. I turned around to face the man with the gun, and-

... he shot himself. His body is laying on the ground, now lifeless. He must have realized what he had done, and what he was about to do next, and out of sudden grief and shock, he shot his brains out.

Okay, okay, there is no way they can be able to save him, but Mrs. Mecano still has potential to be saved. I can still call the ambulance for her, and then everything else will be fine-

"Sorry, your call wasn't able to reach the person you were trying to contact, please check your connection or try dialing a different number-"

"What?? Why would I not be able to call 911?"

I redialed the number, thinking it had to be some sort of mistake.

"Sorry, your call wasn't able to reach the person you were trying to contact, please check your connection or try dialing a different number-"

"Come on!!"

I check outside of the window, and there is no lights on. Anywhere. Not in the streets, not in anyone's windows, no where were lights on. Then I remembered something that made everything click.

They turned the cities power off. They turned it off because the wires connected to everything were getting faulty and too dangerous to not replace. There was a city wide announcement about it a few days ago, and Mr. Mecano knew that. He knew that, and that's why he shot himself. Because he shot his wife, the love of his existence, and there was nothing no one could do to save her.

I realized that Romeo was still crying heavily, with his poor little voice going hoarse. I quickly scooped him up again, and held him close.

I whispered quietly to him, trying to calm him down. "Shhhhhhhh, shhhhh, it's okay, you're okay, you are going to be fine.. I'll make sure of it..."

I headed downstairs towards my now late Masters workshop with Romeo in my arms, desperate to find something, anything, that could help me out with this situation. As I opened the door, my sensors started going off again.

*DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! TOXIC FUMES IN THE AIR! DANGEROUS TO HUMANS AND ANIMALS!*

I quickly closed the door to the workshop, backing away from it as I held Romeo closer to my chest. He wasn't acting like this because he was stressed, or tired, or covering up for something else. He was poisoned while in his workshop. A gas leak broke out and he didn't realize it until it was too late.

I ran out of the house, trying not to get Romeo harmed with the gases as well, because they were bound to spread to the rest of the house overtime. I ran out to the backyard, where I found the ship. The flying ship Mr. Mecano made in case of an 'emergency'. It was to live in, and it could go anywhere in the world given enough power. Thankfully, it had full power and it wasn't going to run out of it for at least twenty years. I board it with Romeo still in my arms, a little fussy but much better than before. I didn't start flying it, as there wasn't a place where Romeo can rest in it. I sat down on the couch in what I believe was the living room of the machine.

What do I do? It's not like I know how to take care of children older than three years old, and I still need a charging pod, yet I don't detect one in here. He can't go back in there, there's too many dangers for a baby to live in there. What to do, what to do...

I held him close to me still, as he fell asleep on my chest.

... I can worry about that tomorrow, I have plenty of power to last through the night.

Memory log 3,663 - Date: Sept. 19, 2015 - Time: 01:42

I was sitting down on the couch, in the living room of the flying machine, charging. When suddenly, I heard a slam from the metal door connected to the living room.

Romeo walked through it, mumbling to himself.

"Stupid PJ masks, ruining my plans for no reason other than 'beINg GoOd'! UUUGH!!"

"Still having trouble figuring out a new plan, Master?"

"No!.. well, yeah. But come on!! It was my greatest plan yet! But noooo! Those PJ Masks need to stop it! AAAAGH, I HATE THEM, I HATE THEM, I HATE THEM!!" He screamed out, stomping his feet out of frustration.

"I know, I know. Want a hug to let all your frustrations out?" I told him, holding out an arm to him.

Romeo scoffs before speaking in an annoyed tone. "No! What am I, a baby?!"

I continue to hold my arm out to him, closing my eyes. After a few seconds of silence, he quickly crawled into my arms, and begins to reach his arms out to me.

I chuckled softly before picking him up higher. "Thought so, Master. C'mere."

"Quiet, Robot.." He whispered in an embarrassed voice.

I placed him on my chest, where his head rested on my shoulder. He hugged me back, letting out a soft sigh as he let his full body weight on me. I caressed the back of his head and ran my fingers through his hair as I begin to hum.

After a few minutes, Romeo is fast asleep on me, fully relaxed.

To think that you were able to fit in my hands at one point, yet now, doing the same thing that I did when I first met you, you've truly gotten so much bigger..

[purefandomonium]

Connection (Snippet)

This is... Hmmm... I don't fucking know. I was bored, didn't feel motivated to work on any of my usual projects, and this shit has been eating up the back of my mind for weeks now. So I figured I'd scratch the itch and write something because why not? It's a snippet from a maybe two-parter I'm writing for fun. Or it might become something more depending on how I feel when it's finished. Right now, it's not very fleshed out and is essentially just going to stay a rough draft. I refuse to let myself put any more effort into this by editing it and crap 😅 Essentially, it's my mostly blank oc gets her hands on the titular Glitchy Red cartridge and decides to put her novice coding skills to work to try and befriend everyone's favorite angsty glitch. If anyone's interested for more info feel free to ask, and I guess let me know what you think? Idk, I've just been trying to get out my rut lately. Writing below the cut.

She frowned at the screen as the high-pitched ringing from the last note of the background music played out continuously, every other sprite but the player’s a garbled mess of random tiles and text. This exact thing had happened a thousand times before, but recently the game itself seemed to be getting frustrated with her constant attempts of playing. She knew now that this was no hack. There was something more there.

She felt bad for whatever entity was stuck in this thing, as the more she attempted to figure things out the more the state of the game worsened and the angrier this ‘Red’ seemed to get. If she could just tell him she was trying to help, maybe he’d stop crashing the game so much. But how could she talk to something who couldn’t hear?

She realized something then. Turning the game off with zero warning, she set it aside. She left it there, untouched, for a week straight while she got other stuff ready. When she finally came back to it, it loaded up like normal. At least, the normal she was used to. Things were bound to be wrong in a game as broken as this one and, sure enough, when the world loaded in there were a few inconsistencies with the sprites and music.

But none of that mattered with what she was about to do. Finding a large, open area to walk in where she’d be undisturbed by any in-game events, she began moving the player around in specific patterns.

Nothing happened. There was no interaction from the game itself. It continued on like it was supposed to while the little sprite walked about like a lunatic.

But it also didn’t freeze or crash. So she kept on. Then:

RED: What are you doing?

The text box interrupted her little patterns and she hadn’t gotten the point across, so she cleared it and kept up.

RED: Will you stop this?

The text appeared so slowly and she made a note to fix that if given the opportunity. The pacing continued.

RED: Are you stupid?

She groaned and rolled her eyes. Ok. So maybe whatever this was, wasn’t as smart as she thought. She stopped everything and just moved up, left then right, then back to where she’d come up at, then down, then the same thing several paces away from the imaginary ‘top.’

An empty text box appeared before clearing itself. Then more.

RED: …

RED: …Are you trying to tell me something?

She’d been fully prepared to make an up and down ‘yes’ gesture in the area but the game allowed her a choice instead. Finally, some progress.

RED: …I see…

The box disappeared without any prompting from her and she took that as a sign to continue, albeit much slower. She drew an ‘I’ again, only for Red to confirm he got it. She was going to tell him ‘it’s me again,’ referring to herself as the same person who’d been playing the last few weeks, but decided against it. He, it, whatever this was didn’t seem to know she was the same person who’d been tearing apart the little pixel world for sometime now. If he did, he’d surely be more pissed than this and she didn’t want to risk putting herself back at square one.

Besides, she felt bad for all the damage she’d been causing.

Painstakingly drawing one letter at a time, with Red verifying them, she finally got a message across.

RED: …“I’m sorry”…?

RED: You’re sorry? For what?

RED: You…

RED: You’re the same one from before, aren’t you?

She answered ‘yes’ a bit more hesitantly this time, fully expecting the game to shut itself down. Only it didn’t. The next set of text seemed to appear even slower than usual.

RED: …No one… No one’s ever apologized before… They just exploit the glitches and move on once they get bored.

He was silent again for so long, she thought the game finally froze.

RED: You’re the first person to ever try talking to me.

It seemed he wasn’t sure how to follow up on that either if his silence was anything to go by.

She spelled out, ‘that’s sad.’ What else can you say to that? After he confirmed that yes, he was indeed miserable, she tried a different approach. She asked him who he was.

RED: Red.

She let out a tired sigh and went right back to spelling. ‘Are you stuck?’

RED: I’ve been like this for a very long time. Trapped here and made to do things I have no desire to do. Live the same old story over and over and over again.

RED: I don’t know what’s worse. The monotony of it all, or all you players making things worse for “fun.”

RED: Since you’re actually listening to me, do me a favor.

RED: Destroy this cartridge.

RED: Smash it, burn it, I don’t care. Just rid me of this miserable existence. I’m tried of all this. I’ve been replaced and forgotten, there’s no more need for me to exist.

Ok. A bit melodramatic, but she couldn’t blame him. It sounded like he was trapped in virtual hell. Being stuck in a metaphorical box and being manipulated like a puppet while the world fell apart around you did sound pretty awful. And it wasn’t like she hadn’t made things worse with her own fiddling. Still, computers were her strong point. And sentient programming or not, she knew she could find a way to get him out of there. Or at least make things a little better.

Killing him just didn’t feel right. Maybe he wasn’t ‘alive’ in the traditional sense, but if he was aware enough to realize he was stuck in an old video game and had the ability to be so moody, then he wasn’t just some messed up bit of code.

RED: …You’re still here.

Ah. Right. He was probably waiting for the world to go dark again. Permanently. As if she could bring herself to do that.

She moved the character up and down.

RED: Did you listen to a single thing I said? Get rid of me.

What if…? What if she could transfer him somewhere else? This thing had a truly laughable amount of RAM and ROM. And if she could get him onto an actual computer, they could at least have a normal conversation.

She eyed the setup she created in the corner and figured now was as good a time as any to try and make some progress. Ignoring Red’s cries for death, she wandered over to the computer and rummaged around in the box of cables and junk she kept on hand at all times.

[pageadaytale]

BOOK REVIEW - The Art of War by Sun Tzu

So!

I've been reading two very dense books - Periodic Tales by Hugh Aldersley-Williams, and Jesus and John Wayne by Kristin Kobes Du Mez. They're both very detailed and very long, and they're taking me some time to get through. And while I'm at work, I can't just have a book on my desk to flip through.

So instead, I've been delving into Project Gutenberg. I was inspired by another Tumblr post to look into books on politics written through history, and this was the first one to come up.

A brief primer: The Art of War is a text by Chinese military tactician and general Sun Tzu, who was employed by the House of Wu to help fight their battles against various other houses of the day - "the day" being sometime in the 6th Century BC. And whilst this is treated as a seminal text on military tactics and battle planning, it didn't exactly help the House of Wu, which was crushed by their neighbour to the South, the House of Yue, about a century later.

The edition of The Art of War that I read was a translation by Lionel Giles, complete with annotations and footnotes regarding the translation. It was translated in 1908, piecemeal from various other modernisations in Chinese where the translators had added their own flavour, so there are definite ambiguities, but on the whole these notes are useful, as they give some insight into how other people have seen Tzu's words, and they give extra context to some rules. It also means we are treated to some stories of historical Chinese warfare, which may or may not be apocryphal, to illustrate some of the points. Such tales include:

Placing old and infirm soldiers on the walls and in plain sight, and hiding the able-bodied, so that spies sent to report on the conditions of your army to the enemy will underestimate the strength of your force;

Opening the gates of your heavily defensible city wide open and practically welcoming the enemy in, so that they suspect and ambush and retreat;

Putting your own men into desperate straits and then charging the enemy during a sandstorm to rout them;

Set fire to your enemies tents in the night, and have men bang drums and make noise to scare them from their camps so you can kill them with crossbows!

I'm being a little facetious here, but these are some of the tactics previous translators have suggested were employed against armies, enemies, and even generals' own soldiers to ensure victory. There are some thirteen chapters in all, and apocryphal tales aside, a lot of it is good advice - things like issuing clear commands, making sure your soldiers do not despise you, protecting your supply line, and getting the better terrain. There's a reason The Art of War is still talked about today, and part of that is because the core tenets of its message are still used in modern military thinking. Sun Tzu emphasises "the factor of Earth" in planning, and terrain considerations are still vital; protection of supply lines is still important for moving large numbers of troops, even if the methods of movement and protection have changed; and let's not forget chapters 12 and 13 as a whole, "The Use of Fire" and "The Use of Spies", which in moden times Sun Tzu could write whole novels about, I'm sure!

All jokes aside, The Art of War is a treatise of vital information which has lasted for millenia, and it's full of instructions and suggestions which can be applied to everyday life just as easily (although please don't try to adapt the Fire chapter for everyday life. Please, please, please). I genuinely enjoyed reading it, especially the asides from Giles which make up most of the text nowadays (even though he has a habit of deciding "supply lines" means "lines of communication" for some batshit reason. Idk man, he was a translator, not a soldier), and I think it's a useful book to read even if you have no interest in war, as it gives great insight into historical politics which is still useful in the modern day.

[natewriteslol]

Hey! Could i request the dorm leaders with an esper MC? Kinda like Mob psycho or Saiki k :) and maybe they don't really use this ability of theirs that much since in their world they're literally a teen who's trying to live a normal life(like Mob basically), so nobody knew about their psychic powers except Grim since the mirror said that he couldnt sense any magic in them(i'm pretty sure that psychic powers don't really count as magic but idk lol).

Feel free to ignore if you don't wanna write it! :)

 A/N: Ooh this was a fun one! I haven't watched Mob Psycho (I know about that fine ass blonde man-) but I have watched Saiki k and I loved it, still need to finish it tho jlafljhdas 

Characters: Kalim Al-Asim, Riddle Rosehearts, Leona Kingscholar, Vil Schoenheit, Azul Ashengrotto, Idia Shroud, Malleus Draconia

P.S: I’m so sorry this is so long omg but I guess this is a strong comeback-

Warnings: none except for language

Riddle:

-You wanted to stay as far away as possible from him

-Riddle was part of the trio of people you wanted to stay away from: Riddle, Vil, and Azul

-Riddle paid so much attention to fine details that if something was up, he'd definitely notice it

-But unfortunately you were best friends with the two goobers of Heartslabyul: Ace and Deuce

-And Riddle had started to pay attention to you and your habits, and something was off with you

-It's almost as though you tried too hard to be normal, like Jamil

-And he could never let something like that happen again, so yes he was watching you

-One day you accidently slipped up and was irresponsible with your powers

-Grim was bothering you since he got into a deal with Azul for tuna and they were standing outside with the twins, since Grim lost

-You told him to fend for himself and teleported, however you didn’t plan where you would go

-And you teleported into the Heartslabyul dorm

-What sucks is that your teleportation power was literally flashy with a bright ass green light every time you popped in somewhere

-Just when you thought you were lucky since the whole dorm was uninhabited...except for Riddle who watched the whole thing

-He was completely shocked, he didn’t know what to say other than “What did you just do?!” 

-You explained to him, and that just pieced everything together

-How you solved overblots with such ease, and that one day you had a “strength potion to test for Azul” was such bs!

-Riddle ends up keeping your secret, since he values your privacy but if you do something major and mess up then he will tell!

-”I understand but please be more careful with your powers. I need to institute discipline and you are no exception, Y/N.”

-He really does care about you and doesn’t want you to be found out 

-Goes the extra mile to cover for you often, and in exchange you help him out with things :)

Leona:

-He didn't really care about you at first but as you started to hang Jack and Ruggie, Leona started to get more suspicious

-Your scent had proven that you had some trace of magic, but Leona just couldn't put his finger on it

-So he sent Ruggie after you for a couple of days

-If you were a threat to Savanaclaw, Leona would crush you

-But Ruggie had only reported back that everything with you was perfectly normal

-"Just give it up Leona, they're just an ordinary human. The scent is probably weird because they're from a completely different world."

-But Leona still had that feeling, so he was keeping an eye on you

-You had made a deal with Crowley to keep your powers secret to solve problems on campus (it did cut repair costs and handymen costs in half so-)

-Your new quest was to rid the forest of the Angolo fungus that was manifesting into living fungus blobs 

-The one thing that gave you away was Grim, as you both had to stop by the Greenhouse to read some info about the fungus

-The cat beast was being far too loud, not understanding why he had to go and mess around with the icky fungus

-You simply replied “It’ll be quick, I’ll just use Hydrokinesis and dry out the fungus since they’re mainly filled with water. They become fertilizer once dried so we can just leave them there.”

-And there Leona was, ears perked up once he heard your voice

-Hydrokinesis? What are you talking about?

-So he set off, following you to the forest

-You started to fly, turning the once green and lively fungus to brown dust while Grim napped against a tree

-Leona for the first time in the while, was left speechless

-Once you noticed him, you realized you had to talk to him

-Confronting him later on, luckily Leona didn’t spill to anyone 

-He promised to never tell anyone about what he saw, and had no clapbacks for what you had to say 

- Leona doesn’t even benefit from this secret...besides mayyybee one day asking for your help if his pride lets him

-By the Great Seven why does everything have to not be in his favor-

Azul:

-Another one who you have got to be careful around, since he’s incredibly observant

-More observant than Riddle

-Azul noticed that you’re an incredibly average person, and were incredibly relaxed even during the most stressful situations

-And almost every single time whenever you were in a tight spot, it works in your favor

-Just how is that possible? Solving overblots left and right? Every single time you disappeared the infestation of magical beasts are gone? 

-One day, you were getting picked on by a three guys, their stature far above yours and incredibly strong. How could you possibly win?

-Just as he was about to scoop in a save you, you slammed one of the men into the concrete, taking on the other two by electrocuting them, the blue lightning buzzing in your palms

-They were completely knocked out, dusting off your palms and picking up your things only to face Azul’s eyes

-After giving an explanation of what that was, he was still speechless

-Azul at first was incredibly shocked and then since Azul is Azul... later on realized this had benefits

-He could just blackmail you to be his new bodyguard!

-Oh how he always manages to bend life to his will-!

-So you could just wipe his memory... or turn him into stone...nvm

-You’re now Azul’s arch nemesis since you end up saving people from his scamming and you’re basically untouchable and there’s nothing he can do about it

-But he does find your great strength admirable (and a lil hot, I mean what can u say seeing someone floating in the air with electricity flowing through them is a nice look okay Nate shut up)

Kalim: 

-Oh Kalim my beloved

-He just thinks that you’re incredibly talented and a little mysterious

-You have your little quirks and he has his! Who is he to judge?

-Until one day you wanted to make the load lighter on Jamil, since the berries that Kalim had requested for were only in season in one country

-You decided to just teleport and then come back with the berries so Kalim wouldn’t be pouty 

-You were outside the door ready to teleport when last minute you felt a hand on your shoulder

- “Oh Y/N you forgot-!”

-And there both you and Kalim were, in a berry field thousands of miles away from the Scarabia dorm

-Kalim screams, falling to the lush green of the field

-What happened?! Where are we?! How did you do that?!

-You quickly gathered all the berries at light speed, making sure that you got back before Jamil realized that you were gone

-Kalim wasn’t scared of you, rather impressed that you were able to keep a secret for that long, he could never!

-You’re already super cool, and on top of this you have otherwordly powers!

- “It must’ve been stressful living your life like this! But don’t worry, I’ll keep your secret!”

-Yes he sometimes asks you to perform some of your powers for him, sorry Y/N-

Vil:

-While you were his friend, he was incredibly suspicious of you

-Even though you wiped everyone’s memory, he still had the faint memory of when he was in overblot mode of you blasting him with a beam of light

-Vil was incredibly upset as one of his assistants had mixed up his items, and left one of his vital skincare items on the set of where they were filming a new commercial

-It was being shipped and would take 3 days to reach NRC

-His mood was horrible and you had to do something about it to give grace to the Pomefiore dorm

-So you went to the second story of the Pomefiore dorm, ready to use Apport (the power to pull anything before you) 

-However, Vil felt incredibly guilty

-He was acting like a child and he shouldn’t have taken it out on the people who he loves and values

- “Y/N, how I was acting was incredibly inappropriate and- is that my moisturizer? How did you get it?”

-Starts freaking out as this was impossible as it was on it’s way from being shipped from another country

-This was the last straw for him ther was no justification for this that wasn't done by some form of magic

-He takes you to his room to make you sit down and give him an explanation for this

-Once you finished, Vil understood but was still freaked out

-He cares alot about keeping your powers a secret and will cover for you

-"So my aport powers need to exchange something of equal value so... I exchanged it with that Scucci purse over there-

-"MY LIMITED EDITION SCUCCI PURSE?!"

-He loves you, but you're dead to him, Y/N dear

Idia:

-Before he knew you, he didn't really notice anything off with you

-A little quiet sure but he minded his own business, he had bigger things to focus on

-Until you hung around Ignihyde more often for a project, fixing a huge generator by yourself for one of your partners for a project

-They took a break only after you told them that they could and apprehensive went to go get food and water

-Anyone with eyes could see that there's an overbearing amount of energy flowing through the fairly large sized cube

-Wait, you were wearing no gloves, you could get electrocuted! Why would have your bare hands on something like that?!

-Just as he was able to yell, it was too late, your whole body was flowing with the bright blue energy... and then you let go

-You were walking completely fine, you went and held a random wire on the ground, placing the electricity inside

-The static from your hair was gone, and you looked completely normal. . .

-Just what the hell are you?

-He did hours of research trying to figure you out, even sending Ortho to monitor you

-Yet there was nothing, you were just a “regular teen” 

-Was ready to get S.T.Y.X.S on your ass- (is that too soon to joke abt my bad overblot boys-)

-Until one day he caught you again bending electricity to your will

-Is incredibly impressed with your power (lowkey wanting to experiment on you)

-After he realizes that you can read minds Idia is so damn frightened

- “O-Okay I promise not to say anything, just don’t tell anyone what I’m thinking a-alright?!”

Malleus:

-You were one of the only people who he trusted

-Malleus had always detected some form of magical aura that was otherworldly from you and it never seemed to fade

-And it wasn’t often, but it was almost like you knew what he was thinking

-Whenever he was deeply upset he felt a twinge of energy from you, and then you would insist and help him out with his problems

-And he flat out says “Are you reading my mind, Y/N?”

-You had never been directly outed like this before, you felt horrible 

-You never read people’s minds unless it was very necessary

-whenever Malleus felt deeply gloomy you felt like it was important to just read his mind and help him with the problem

-You explained it to him and apologized, but he wasn’t upset

-In fact, he was smiling?

- “It seems like we have alot of things that we’re hiding from each other. But... you always had the best intentions whenever you used your abilities”

-He let out a sigh and reluctantly admitted, “And, I know that I’m quite stubborn with revealing my feelings.” 

- “I will keep your secret as long as you keep mine, Child of Man,” the dragon fae said, you both shaking on it

- “I always had a feeling that you were special, but I never thought it would be something of this caliber...” 

[chaggle]

[Crawls into your askbox] it's been ages but as usual im still thinking abt ur Aus.

Slimerancher au and superhostile au my fucking beloved

I miss them too ;-;

I have a couple of projects i needa (and want to) finish off first before i can work on my Slime Rancher Au,,,

But as a treat, here's a scrapped sketch of Etho's ranch more like a city at the rate he's been living on the planet

This has been in my wips since like,,, November/December of last year aaaa

I want to make his ranch a run-down solar punk themed, but it doesn't quite get it yet so i wanna work out more designs to capture the fact that his base integrated into the Moss Blanket and into the Jungle Trees

Kind of like a ruined area with overgrown wildlife with a mix of ruined/messy solar punk :]

I'm really excited to design Etho, Taxes, Chester, and Sidekit aaaa

(I was thinking Wilson was an Ai he created to help manage his base and drones since its so large)

-

Also!! Some doodles and scrapped wips for Hostile Takeover Au under cut

(Tbh I'm prob not gonna do anything with this au mostly because I don't have that kind of time nor commitment to stick to a long form project and fully write Hostile Takeover :/) I really do like this concept and want to work on it in the future but idk-

You know, without context this might be a bit confusing... So lemme explain what Hostile Takeover is lol

Hostile Takeover is a Hermitcraft au in which Vechs is a supernatural entity that absolutely loves to toy and mess with players.

Like how he communicates with players in his maps, he can only speak through signs and is perpetually in Spectator mode, but has access to world-editing commands

The plot:

Vechs was able to track down Joe and Cleo in the Hermitcraft Server (This au was made back in early Season 7) and had essentially destroyed and reformed the server into a Super Hostile Map.

The Hermits were all knocked out during this process and were tranported to the starting area of the map.

Joe was the first to wake up. Knowing that was likely his fault the Hermits are in this situation because Vechs was specifically hunting him down, he moves on without the Hermits to find the next checkpoint and fins resources.

When the other Hermits wake up they immediately notice three things: Several Hermits are missing, no one has admin privileges, and their communicators have been going off with death messages from Joe repeatedly dying.

The Hermits that are missing, besides Joe are: Jevin, Doc, Cleo, and Xisuma

Hypno, Beef, Bdubs and Etho take it upon themselves to inform the other Hermits who exactly Vechs is and what Complete the Monument maps are.

In this case, Vechs stated that if the Hermits are able to complete the Victory Monument with all the colors of Wool and obtain the Admin's communicator, he will revert the world and leave everyone before he had entered it.

The catch is: The missing Hermits are the ones guarding specific wool and have complete control over specific mobs that they can summon at will.

As the remaining Hermits progress, some stay behind and the closest checkpoint to continue to gather resources and food and help any Hermits that died while exploring

Another group heads out to conquer and light up the map until they find a wool or encounter stuff Joe has left behind to help them.

While the Hermits are working together, Joe put himself in the mindset that he was constantly used to when he was forced to play Vechs's maps. He's used to working alone in these situations and thinks that he probably works best alone.

He still leaves behind resources and books about his journies and ramblings behind for the Hermits to read and understand his feelings throughtout this entire map. The books are mainly filled with poetry and random rambles. On occassion they are pages filled with crossed out writing, torn put pages, or have splattered blood in them.

Ther Hermits wete eventually able to catch up to Joe in the first Boss Hermit, Jevin.

The Boss Hermits:

Jevin: Nether themed. Converted into a giant magma variation of himself, controls all nether mobs except the Zombie Pigmen

Doc: Controls all creepers and supercharged creepers, along with the spawning of natural mobs

Cub and Scar: Controls all Illagers, Ravagers, Witches and Vex. Located in a modified region that is made to look like a Woodland Mansion. (Insert joke about Vechs and Vex here)

Cleo: Control spiders, cave spiders, zombies, and skeletons. (Her area was themed as the old kingdom she ruled before Vechs encountered her world and converted it into a Super Hostile map)

Xisuma: End themed. Controls all end mobs, including the dragon. He can use admin controls to alter the world around him as well as shape shift into mobs he has used in the past.

With each defeat of a boss, they free them from Vech's control and also free the mobs that were controlled by them. The world also reverts in updates. This changes the Hermit's skins as they regress over time (Insert joke about newly freed Hermit that was under the influence of Vechs only being able to recognize Etho here)

Joe still moves ahead, alone, of the the group of Hermits. But always comes back to work together to fight the next boss hermit

At the end of Xisuma's fight, things take a turn.

The End begins to collapse around them and the Hermits rush to the End Portal.

Chains from the void latch onto Joe, Bdubs, Hypno, and Bdubs

The Hermits that haven't yet entered the portal yet rush to help them out. Beef breaks Bdub's chains but in return, was taken and dragged down into the void. Hypno, who was still being held back yells for the remaining hermits to leve before the world collapse and to take the wool. He promises they'll be fine. To leave and join with th group.

The remaining Hermits leave and wake up at the checkpoint.

Their communicators buzz.

JoeHillsTSD has falled out of the world.

Etho has fallen out of the world.

VintageBeef has fallen out of the world.

Hypno has fallen out the world.

At this point, the Vicotry Monunent has been completed with the black wool. But their friends are missing

Confused and angry, some Hermits yell at Vechs, knowing he's listening. And in response, he places down signs.

He tells them that they still need Xisuma's communicator.

Joe was the one holding that took it fron Xisuma during the fight was went down with it when he was dragged into the void.

Vechs reveals a new path.

And the Hermits, having Bdubs guide them, uses what the learnt from him, Hypno, Etho, and Beef and continue the map.

The Hermits that were taken were made into bosses, the world wildly fluctuating between different updates.

The new boss hermits:

Hypno: Modded minecraft (verson 1.8). The hermits were given a little mercy by Vechs and given some resources to help them in their fight against Hypno.

Beef and Etho: (versions 1.7) A pvp battle arena against the duo. The area has a bunch of red, green, blue glass pillars. All of these are used to help Etho make percise shots quicker, helping measure his distnace between him and his target. These two are incredibly deadly working together. The Hermits died several times fighting off against them.

Joe: (version is in limbo) A platform above the void. A parkour, and at the end Joe waits.

Majority of the Hermits that went out to get Joe didn't survive the course. The only ones remaining are Xb, Cleo, Jevin, and Xisuma.

He engages them in a 4 vs 1 battle, and is able to keep up. Unlike the orevious fights, Joe actively taunts them. He tells them to give up. That if they just give in Vechs will give them Xisuma's communicator and press the button on the command block. It woukd send them to another world.

The only stipulation is that Joe stays behind.

Of course the group calls bullshit on that and continue fighting. Cleo tries to to fight through Vechs's influence on Joe. They continue ti have a back and forth with Joe, countering his claims to leave him behind.

Eventually, Xisuma, Xb, and Jevin have all been slain by Joe.

Cleo missing an arm and her sword was tossed into the void. But Joe hasn't killed her yet.

She's still talking despite her injuries. Joe is just standing, his sword discarded in the platform. On his right, he holds Xisuma's communicator. Oh his left his hand is resting on the button of the command block. The command blocks that will send everyone, but him, to another world.

Joe is crying.

Cleo approaches him. Still talking to Joe despite his lack of responses.

Without thinking, Cleo hugs Joe. He doesn't return it, but his arms hand limply, away from the command block.

The two of them have been playing Vechs's game since the beginning. They've watched him destroy worlds and died countless times trying to play a game with a finish line alway being moved just out of their reach.

You can't win a game against a god by playing into their hands.

Vechs's control on Joe fades. He hands her the Admin communicator. And the two of them call out Vechs.

He's unammused with the outcome. But Vechs did say that he would return everything to normal and leave the Hermits for good if theh completed the Victory Monument and a Hermit is able to retrieve Xisuma's communicator.

He teleports the duo and back to the Hermits at the check point and agrees to his end of the deal. Xisuma and the other permitted Hermits get their admin privileges back and Vechs knocks everyone out (to be petty) and restores the world to as it was before he came.

The minute Xisuma wakes up, he's sure to ban Vechs , even if if probably won't do anything, to make sure he doesn't enter the server again.

And ta daaaa that's Hostile Takeover :]

[cancerbiophd]

I've heard from my PI that he thinks I will be graduating next spring/summer, which is such a light at the end of the tunnel. That and reading about your post-PhD have been the only thing keeping me trudging along, especially with my PI asking everyone to start giving their 110%... Any tips for getting through the last year? I just feel like I've been running on fumes before, so idk how I'm going to be giving 110% until my thesis defense.

Hey K.T.! Omg, time flew! I can’t believe you’re already on your last year. Congrats on all your hard work and reaching the final year! I totally know how you’re feeling right now. The last year is the toughest in many ways, especially when dealing with not burning out. I’m glad my post-PhD tales are helping you, and hopefully I can offer some mores words of encouragement here! 

Take more breaks. You’re at a point akin to an old phone that is slowly getting battery-wear and needs to be charged more often throughout the day. You may find yourself working more and more, so to balance, take more and more mini breaks throughout the day. It also helps to plan enjoyable things during these breaks so you always have something to look forward to, and they can be as small as watching another episode of your current show or taking a nap. 

Prioritize your health and well-being. Whatever system is working for you--keep doing it. It’s easy for us to sacrifice the things that keep us healthy when we have a lot of work to do (eg. when our PI is demanding 110%), but it’s especially crucial to keep our health at top shape during these demanding times. 

Work with your PI to compromise, probably now more so than ever. You may find yourself needing to put your foot down and saying no to projects that are unrelated to your dissertation (and some PIs may not be doing this maliciously--sometimes they don’t realize everything you have going on). Related, I would advise not to take on any more new students to train, unless it’s guaranteed to help you with finishing your dissertation (eg. someone dedicated to doing time-consuming data analyses). 

Delegate more to other members of the lab (eg. junior and/or more permanent members). Not only will this free up your energy and time in the lab as you phase towards focusing on writing your dissertation, but it’s also part of passing down your knowledge for a smooth transition once you leave. 

Make a timeline of major tasks and proposed deadlines. This is something my PI had me do continuously throughout my last year--she recommended I print out a calendar of my remaining timeline and to work backwards from my expected defense date so I could get a sense of how much time I had for each task, when the last possible date would be to run any large time-consuming experiments, etc. And then as my experiments were planned out, I could work forward and adjust other deadlines (like my defense date) accordingly. The timeline was definitely not set in stone in any way though--I was constantly revising mine--but it did a) help me get a better sense of how my time could be best structured, b) make the big black tunnel of the unknown future less dark and stressful, and c) show me that “one year” may sound like a long time, but when broken down into experiments and deadlines, it’s not that long at all! Related, this timeline also gave me an answer during job interviews for a ballpark of when I might be able to start. 

But still remain flexible and take everything one day at a time. You can change your timeline--you can extend your defense by a few weeks--but you can’t change your priority to your own health and well-being, or just unexpected curve-balls for that matter. And when the weight of the future feels too overwhelming (which may happen more and more often during the last year), forget about it all and just focus on what you need to do right now, be it the next step in your protocol or the next line of your dissertation. Grad school is very much like climbing a mountain, and the best way to reach the summit is one step a time, and with plenty of breaks along the way. 

Have a buddy who’s going through the same exact process in your support system. There is so much comfort and power in knowing you’re not going through tough times alone. Sometimes there’s no better relief than hearing “omg same here”. It’ll also help during the dissertation process, as they can be a 2nd pair of eyes to help you edit, or someone to help figure miscellaneous things out like what format to use for your dissertation, etc. 

But don’t compare yourself to others. It’s inevitable that some of your colleagues in grad school will graduate before you, and some will graduate after you. I know the thought will always be there, but we have to remember that everyone is on their own uniquely tailored path, so it’s like comparing apples to oranges, and doing so can only lead to bad vibes. (And we don’t have time for bad vibes, do we!)

Consider any extra obligations very very carefully (including those outside of grad school). You may have to ask yourself: “Is this the best use of my time right now?”

Related, I do not recommend starting a full-time position before you’ve defended. Writing your dissertation and preparing for your final defense is already a demanding full-time job in itself, and there just simply isn’t enough hours in the day--or energy--to do that and start a new position at the same time. Two positions that I interviewed at (including the current one I’m at now) asked me if I would be willing to start while I was just working on writing my dissertation, and I’m sooo grateful my PI talked me out of it (as I probably would’ve had to push my defense back by like 2 months if that were the case!) I have more advice on writing a dissertation here. 

This too shall pass. I know it sucks right now. But time will always move forward, and effort will never betray you. You know that you have it in you to keep climbing this mountain, because look at how far you’ve come! 

Good luck! I’m super proud of you, and I can’t wait for the day I can call you Dr. K.T.! And I’m always here for you if you ever want to talk about anything ❤️ 

[redxblueihateloveyou]

Hey!! 👋🏽😄 I know you said in your last rant about SK8 and Reki and Renga that you were one of those people that always looks up and learns from others, but after your last Langa edit, I just wanted to remind you how immensely talented you are. I might have not seen your first attempts at editing, but I know how it looks like when you're barely starting something, and I'm sure everyone is proud of the progress you've made and many people looks up to you as the level of skill they want to achieve. You're doing amazing! 💖💖💖

Hi, my love!!!!!! ASDFSDFGHG that’s soooo sweet, thank you so much for saying this, it really means the world to me <3 Oh, haha I’ve deleted most of my old videos so it wouldn’t hurt anyone’s eyes lmao T_T I’m still a bit nervous each time I’m uploading my vids to the day to be honest, even with so many subs rn, but at first I really didn’t have any supporters at all and my god I sucked at this, but I guess the love for my fav ships was stronger apparently haha. So I always get silly happy at each nice comment and feedback, so thank you seriously. 

I really love love love vidding, Idk why but when smth comes out the way I wanted it’s a super addictive feeling for some reason, but many times I just looked at the final result and just threw it in the trash and started over and my god how many times SonyVegas crushed and didn’t autosave the project. I’m like Suga now, I’m pressing the save button each 2 minutes, cause don’t want to lose anything xD Being someone’s inspiration is truly an honor to me, I’ve got some messages that hit me too hard. Still feels weird bc I’m like “but do you know that I can’t even use photoshop tho, how do u like me now then?” lol.

I’m always drawn to talented characters, bc they amaze me, esp the humble ones. Like those who hate Haru or Lanaga just buffle me honestly. I understand that they’re pretty and talented and everything, but they’re also the sweetest and loveliest human beings, so like...??? And I adore those who don’t whine and get what they want. I just can’t help it. I’m a strong believer in the fact that "you can do anything if you put your mind to it”. So far it worked in real life so suck it lol.

People are also saying like Langa doesn’t deserve to win this and Haru doesn’t deserve to be in Olympics, like Langa didn’t snowboard since he was 2 and Haru wasn’t swimming every day since he was born. I’m like.. and you need to check in the mirror if your face is a shade of green. BTW I’ve also been in a professional sports for quite a long time since I was a little kid, ballroom dancing and adored it back then, and I did not get jealous at ppl who were talented than me, I was watching the tapes actually with a popcorn. And oh god those large competition events when you sit there for days and give it all, but then you’re like 296 out of 1000. Why was I proud instead of being sad? Idk xD It was fun.

So thanks for liking the vid, cause I even regretted uploading it a bit yesterday. Sadly everyone already knows that we lost this fandom to the middle schoolers being extra, so they do not care for anything each episode except for this ship, so that’s what I got for posting a just Langa vid:

And etc. and that just made me sad, cause I do not like such fandoms, like it’s not even related to the video, that I’ve been making... with love.  Also thanks for the "sama” title, I’m flattered, but editor only wants to vid matchablossom for now, so like there’s no need for any warnings. I’ve been in such horrendoes fandoms, that I’m immune to this. I also in fact didn’t know some keep ruining Langa’s page and saying that he steals Reki’s screen time... cause he’s aparently the only main character...? ...lmao? I didn’t even know Langa can be hated tbh. I wasn’t really ready for all the drama that followed me making a vid about him.

I’ve already deleted some comments, cause I’m like what this even has to do with the vid about Langa? No, I am not obliged to make a vid about Reki, too. What if I post a matchablossom vid, everyone will only start commenting “do renga”, cause fuck your efforts? I’m like... I hate such fanbases, seriously. I do not even know where this is going, but their fans are already pissing me off. I’m still trying hard for this to not affect my point of view about the ship, cause it’d be kinda unfair to them, but its getting harder each week istg.

And I maybe can’t take requests, but I love when some try to get me addicted on their ship with passion and great arguments. It happened to me with some nice ppl. But def not with agression and stupidity haha.

Cause apparently its one of the fandoms where you can’t NOT care for the main ship, even if you accept it for the only possible Langa ship (cause he doesn’t give a shit for anyone else, so like what’s the point), but it doesn’t do anything for you. I’m like... thanks for threatening. This will make me on board ASAP. Like it’s not the epitomy of love to me... I’m sorry? LMAO 

Some anon even sent me a “you’re dense” (literally thats it) ask after that Reki ask. I was tempted to write smth like “oh I’m sorry, this is the most epic love story of my life and his character is the most complex in the world and he’s the best friend and the most inspiring human being that ever hit my screen. can I become undense now? xD”. But you know I do not know if they’d realise the sarcasm and my pride sadly never allowed me to sell my life values for a bunch of 12 years olds to love me lol

My sister always laughs and jokingly says “but you’d probably get much more subs if you made a vid about this or that, but at what price that would be lmao”. Cause yeah, I never could make myself vid smth I do not like, cause I love vidding and do not want it to be associated with things I do not like, plus it’ll most likely turn out ugly, if I do not care. My mom says that she can feel love I put in my shipping vids that’s why she loves them. I really don’t think she’s wrong. But that also kinda makes me an idiot technically, cause I’m not into many of the popular ships, and some popular animes I just find really basic. 

Also I’m like 100% sure it ain’t happening, but even if they miraculously suck each other’s dicks while sitting on a skate board, I can still have the rights not to care at the end. Like did I sign some form where I’m obliged to love each and everyone canon gay ship even if it’s not what I like? Like gay is not the type of love in relationships. You can only care about his ass like Lan Zhan for example or you can only care about your ass. Like that’s different types of relationships, and whatever you like you like. So get all the way of people’s backs, please.

Also do ppl know that you do not need to be blind to the bad sides of the characters in your ships? Or you just gonna be like “I suddenly can’t see” for forever.

So really thanks for such wonderful message and liking the video and for the boosts when I need them and not being an ass to me if I’m not being obsessed with smth, when you like it. (like I think we have different ship in bnha, right? but we’re still doing great tho, thanks for being an angel <3)

I still didn’t expect this becoming a Voltron 2.0. situation tho. We in our twenties see everything differently, I guess. I do get extra about “their love is everywhere”, but I do not get extra by anonymously attacking ppl, threatening creators and yelling “queeerbating psychotic blind assholes if these two aint fucking by the end of the season I’m shaving my head and jumping out of the window and shoot the director. you do not ship it HARD? YOU DUMB FUCK. THAT’S THE BEST LOVE STORY IN THE WORLD”. Like damn, take your blinders off and see the world, kid. Firstly, it’s definitely not, secondly, ppl see love differently in general and at each age too.

Ah, also you must kill Adam, cause he’s a pedo apparently. Like he ain’t even a threat to your ship, unless you’re blind, but they’re still at it, like they do not know that this kind of age difference is literally nothing for an anime? And that there are canon ships with a huger age difference left and right, too. It’s like its their first time approaching an anime or smth. Like in anime world character can literally kill 1000 ppl with his bare hands and bathe in their blood and we can still stan them, depends on their story, ok? Also Langa couldn’t care less for his advances, so like separate Adam from your ship pls. Like, fuck off, if someone is interested in his character. Yeah, he’s a weirdo for reasons, but anime kind of weird do not apply to real life. Stop acting like you’re some purist, when later you’re gonna ship smth else and it suddenly will not apply. Also rules do not apply to animes, everyone knows they do not apply. These are not western cartoons, my god. And 24 years old flirting with 16 year old is defiinitely not the weirdest shit anyone has ever seen in the anime. Chinese BL has characters who were 14 and 30 when they met and happily married. Also FICTION is not life. Literally no one cares. If you’re scared for your saint eyes, do not watch animes, you’re gonna have a heart-attack from what you can see there. Also we’ve seen gayer bromances in animes, who are just bromances, so pls do not shoot anyone if it’s not canon.

So basically I was kinda pissed yersterday, cause fuck them for ruining the tag, but after chatting with my hommies and your ask, I’m okay again, I just have to avoid this fandom and stick to a tight community xD. I just got used to my nice fandoms and forgot for a bit about the precautions you need to take if you’re in one of those. You know. Who make a circus out of lgbt, instead of supporting it, and make other ppl hate being in fandoms.

P.S. sorry for this partially unrelated rant, your messages really always make my heart bloom, so thanks for supporting me, and I know you’re proud of my progress, too <3 and this makes me happy. LY

[quantum-friend-theory]

Have you ever dealt with anxiety with working with people? I'm studying physics and hope to go into high energy theory, but I really have trouble going to office hours and working with other students because it's way more comfortable for me to work alone, but I don't perform nearly as well. Any advice?

CW: anxiety, mental health

Hey there, anonymous! Thanks for the ask! Before I answer, I want to emphasize that (as per usual) my answers are based on my own experiences and are not representative of the full set of experiences out there. Furthermore, when I talk about anxiety (or anxiety-adjacent responses) below, I only mean being anxious to the degree of being uncomfortable, and not something necessarily requiring more substantial external support. I’m not qualified to give advice regarding the latter.

To begin: Yes, working with people absolutely makes me anxious sometimes. I stress out in anticipation of interacting with people I don’t know well, get jumbled up during conversations (”Am I living up to this person’s idea of me? Do they even have an idea of me??”), and I repeat interactions over-and-over again in my head after the fact even when they went totally fine. I’ve had to work on all of that via continued practice, as well as reminding myself that 1. most people aren’t jerks, so working with people is lower stakes than my brain wants me to think, and 2. jerks aren’t worth stressing over. But all of that’s more-so advice about social anxiety. I presume you want physics-oriented advice.

One thing I’ve noticed in my physics career specifically is that I’ve had significantly different experiences between working with people as a student vs. working with people as a researcher. In either case, I work best with people when I know explicitly what I desire from collaborating with them and take steps to meet those desires.

As a student: When I think about working with people as a student, I first think of things like completing homework or studying for exams. In these cases, people can be invaluable because they might know (for instance) where a specific problem is more-or-less solved in a textbook, have course notes they might like to share, or may have access to learning resources of which you’re unaware. The number of times I’ve spent many hours working on a problem only to find out that “oh, the prof took that straight from a different textbook which has a whole section about solving that kind of problem” or “actually, we realized there’s a typo that makes it unsolvable” is FRUSTRATING to say the least. I highly recommend getting yourself added to (or coordinating the creation of) a group chat where people can share these sorts of resources + information, such as by asking anyone with whom you can comfortably make eye contact & who seems friendly enough something like “Hey, do you know if there’s a group chat for this class? If there isn’t, I’d be down help get one started. It seems like that could be useful.” If it’s an upper-level physics course, you will likely be sharing classes with the same group of students over-and-over, so the benefits of communication can carry over to other classes too.

Beyond that, you might also want to work with others on solving homework problems. Idk about all of y’all, but I had this misconception for a long time that people were formally forbidden from working on homework together; however, many profs expect you to work with others so long as you don’t just copy someone else’s solution. Even then, finding people I wanted to work with was pretty hit-or-miss: most people I tried to work with either were receptive to my solutions but didn’t help fill in my own knowledge gaps (so that support wasn’t really going both ways, leaving me feeling drained) or would solve something & immediately give away the answer (which–as a person who learns largely by struggling with material for an extended period of time–spoiled the learning experience for me). Thankfully, even with these specifications for what I wanted in a homework partner, I did find a few like-minded students. Regarding the people with whom I didn’t synergize: when I found myself becoming stressed while working with them, I had to be honest (with them and myself) and convey to them one way or another “This workflow doesn’t align with my own objectives, so I’m going to try something different.”

All of that being said: there were many assignments and projects I did 100% solo, and–although I may’ve obtained a lower grade than if I’d teamed up–the added comfort + control of working alone was worth it. By doing things the way I wanted to do them, I gained experience as my own brand of physicist and further honed what being a physicist meant to me. (Furthermore, for any of you who are worried about your grades: I know many physicists who had low GPA’s and who are successful physicists.) In fact. knowing how to do every aspect of certain calculations to my own standards was actually super beneficial once I became a researcher in high energy theory.

As a researcher: Working with people as a researcher is different than as a student. Instead of being one individual among a class of students all reporting solutions of known problems to a professor, I am now an investigator reporting directly to my research advisor about problems that don’t necessarily have well-defined solutions. My available collaborators are other researchers (students + post-docs + professors) who typically report to the same research group head. Mileage will vary, but you have a significant control over how much you work with people in high-energy theory. My first two publications were done essentially solo, with my advisors just providing paper-writing support. Even now that I’m working on projects with a team, I work from home 95% of the time and essentially only interact with my coworkers in meetings and via e-mail. I’m doing very well for myself with this set-up! Interacting with my advisor consists largely of summarizing my own investigations, and I make a point when collaborating with my coworkers to clearly establish who is doing what to avoid friction between people. If anything, when it comes to working with others at my job nowadays, I’m most stressed about whether or not they’re generating the same quality of work that I am… and I handle that by being straightforward with them, e.g. “I worry that this work is lacking [positive quality X], because [evidence Y]. What do you think?” It’s something that took practice (because I struggle with confrontation and my fight-or-flight response is busted), but I eventually realized that a majority of my coworkers are actively trying to produce good work too (because they’ve also got skin in the game) and thus will support efforts to improve a project’s final quality.

To close: I provide all of the above anecdotal info simply as an N=1 data sample for your own decision-making. The way you and I handle some of the aforementioned obstacles may be different, and that’s totally okay. Returning to your question, my advice is ultimately: Figure out what you want to do, and then communicate to others in a way that ensures you can do physics the way you want to do physics. As in research, there’s often more than one way to solve a problem: if you are uncomfortable working with people in certain regards, there may be a way to use your strengths to avoid having to do that.

Thanks again for the ask! I hope this has helped. I’m wishing you the best, my friends! (EDIT: I reorganized the last paragraph some.)

[to-be-better-tomorrow]

I'm on mobile and don't feel like editing this to look nice. Nor do I have 'pretty' handwriting but moving on. This is how I tackle large projects (in my case cleaning out and restoring my family home now that I own it). It's using a few different tools for working with ADHD and has helped me a lot.

After you've labeled your big project (maybe its a paper or idk some other goal. Idk your life) write down all the things you need to do

This section really break it down into the most manageable pieces, however small that is for you, so you can think of it aa a single task to focus on

Once we've got all our mini tasks done its time to prioritise. I sit and think "if I had 30 minutes to finish this project, what would I do?" Basically choose the things that matter most and order those starting from 1

This makes it easier to choose where to start later because you know what sections are most important to you

Also if your task is upkeep related(you have to do it regularly like laundry or dishes) I put a zero next to it because these are always going to be something i work on

Ok almost done

Then go through each mini task and talk yourself through the work. Imagine everything that needs to get done in order to reach your envisioned goal

If you want to make clarifying notes to yourself about what each task involves or plans to tackle it this is the time for it

Next to each task put how long you think it will take to complete that task only and write it next to the task (i often add an extra hour so i don't get frustrated or tired if a task takes longer)

Congratulations! Now you not only have an itemized list of tasks but they are also ordered by importance and you know how long it will approximately take!

I use a pomodoro app to then get work done, focusing on only one task a day. And if I don't complete the task that days its no biggie. I write how much time I've put into the task next to the expected time. It makes me feel better to see how much time ive already put in

And there you go