#Struggle to find time for reading

[in-sightpublishing]

Ask Scott Anything, Session 2

Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen Publication (Outlet/Website): The Good Men Project Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2024/07/06 According to some semi-reputable sources gathered in a listing here, Rick G. Rosner may have among America’s, North America’s, and the world’s highest measured IQs at or above 190 (S.D. 15)/196 (S.D. 16) based on several high range test performances created…

[keferon]

Okay I’m. Usually. Usually I don’t enjoy human aus and usually I hate drawing transformers as humans because it feels so wrong to my brain.

But then I stumbled upon Dream of something more by Gemma_Inkyboots and aaauuuhh fuck. Here’s the pile of the most vague and unspecific and undetailed fanart. Because I’m being torn between “I can’t drawing human designs” and “If don’t draw something for this fic I die”.

[imperial-nuisance-rudje]

I think my most toxic trait as a Zenos enjoyer is wanting to 1v1 everyone who says that Zenos actively wants to kill his opponents

Like, completely disregarding that it is actively ignoring the text even in StB there (and that he consistently wants the WoL especially to live), he, uh, is written as having a desire for more the opposite to happen. Very, very consistently. His drive to live is solely linked to brief moments of pleasure-from-struggle and when that drops he explicitly wants to die so he can preserve the moment (and like. *looks at the end of 6.0* if he wanted to kill the WoL he would not be disappointed when they fall before the game allows it, nor would they have lived after given his will was strong enough to bring them back if they bite it). He wants struggle and lacks the ability to give enough of a shit to hold back if someone walks up and says they're going to go for his head.

Like, death is a side effect of what he's after, it's not the goal and he explicitly considers it a waste of life. Even fighting isn't the goal, the goal is to struggle, to need to put effort in. The WoL is just the only person to put him in that state as he currently is, hence his obsession.

[mistmarigold]

What if Sunjae didn’t die that night? Part 3 (lovely runner au)

[Read Part 1 and Part 2 here.]

Sunjae stood outside Sol’s apartment, wearing a hat and mask, gazing at the door. His hand momentarily goes up to ring the doorbell but stops a breadth away.

This goes on for at least three times before he decides to turn away and leave, reprimanding himself for giving into his selfishness and choosing to do this. Just as he was about to take a step to leave, the door opens and Sol’s voice drifts out to him.

“Umma! I’m coming in 10 minutes.”

Except, Sol sees Sunjae and her eyes widen. There were only a few times Sunjae was able to truly look at Sol’s face. Each time was of such great magnitude that it forever altered both their lives. But strangely enough, there wasn’t a moment when he could just simply look at Sol - how her face brightens up and her eyes harbour tiny crinkles, how you can practically read every single emotion as it flits across her face, how there was never any holding back from her - no veils.

The door is about to close on her face when Sunjae grabs it. Did she recognise him?

“Sunjae-ya!”

Of course she did. It warmed his heart (even though his brain told him that not many people are built like him and a hat or mask doesn’t alter much).

“What are you doing here?” Sol asks once she got over her initial shock, beaming.

There was some chatter outside that both of them heard at the same time, Sunjae didn’t pay it much attention but Sol pushed the door open with one hand and grabbed him by coat to pull him inside the house. The door closing behind them as Sunjae leans over Sol, his hands on the arms of her wheelchair.

Sol’s eyes widen even more and she looks away from him, startled.

“I didn’t want anyone to see you and spread gossip about you!” Sol rushed out.

Sunjae takes a deep breath, a whiff of Sol’s soft floral scent coming to him. He gives her a slow nod.

Just then Sol’s mother comes through after spotting a tall man in her entryway.

“Oh, you’re here! I hope it wasn’t difficult finding the apartment. Come in, come in!”

Sol looks at her mom quizzically, her brows furrowed. But she couldn’t ask her mom much without offending Sunjae so she turns to him and gesture for him to go in - a big smile on her face.

As Sunjae goes ahead, Sol hurriedly asks her mom what’s up by frantic hand motions and expressions. She was blatantly ignored as her mom focuses on Sunjae and making him comfortable.

“I know you said you only have a short time so I’ve set up dinner already! Thank you for coming,” Bok-soon says to Sunjae as he bows.

Sol goes to help her mom out (and to ask questions) but she never gets the opportunity between back and forth from the kitchen and Sunjae being right there. When they finally settle down, it was a tad bit awkward because no one was really sure what to say. Sol couldn’t outright ask him about things as his fan - she didn’t want to make him uncomfortable. Sunjae was second guessing himself about every single thing anyway so he kept his mouth shut.

“Thank you for inviting me,” Sunjae bows to her.

“Eat well!” Bok-soon says before helping him to dishes.

As enthusiastic as Sol was about Ryu Sunjae literally being in her living room, she was a bit out of her mind. In her heart, she wanted to give everything to him and fatten him up before he leaves. In reality, she was trying to not stare at him and not make him feel like an alien. She wasn’t sure if that was working despite her best tries.

At last, Sunjae says, “I know your mom from way back.”

“Huh?”

Bok-soon joins in, “Correct, we were neighbours, Sol-a! They lived right across us when we had the dvd store. It’s a wonder that you didn’t know.”

Sol was flabbergasted.

“I know we moved from there soon enough but even then it’s strange that you never saw him!”

Sol refuses to believe it - how could Sunjae be right across her? It felt like a joke.

“Umma, it must be someone else. How could we be neighbours?” Sol insists.

Sol’s mom moves to hit her, “are you doubting my memory?! Ask him yourself since you’ll believe him.”

Sol makes a face at her mom but doesn’t ask Sunjae.

“She’s right, we lived across each other before your family moved,” Sunjae says softly, focusing on his food.

Sol goes silent at that. Today was full of surprises: first it was Sunjae at her home then she finds out they were neighbours. Was she dreaming? This couldn’t be real. She shakes her head with a small laugh. Both her mom and Sunjae look at her and she quickly shakes her head at them.

This was getting worse by the minute. All that confusion wouldn’t even let her enjoy Sunjae having dinner with her.

But she was inquisitive by nature so Sol continues, “where did you two meet again?”

“Oh, just down-“

Sunjae interrupts, a bit of panic in his voice, “I was in the neighbourhood with my manager since he had to pick something up from someone and your mom saw me when I stepped out to get some air.”

Sol’s eyes narrow, she puts her finger on her chin doubting every single thing in that moment. But how could she call her Sunjae a liar? So she gives him a big, wide smile and nodded at him to continue eating.

*

The sheer panic that gripped Sunjae when Sol was about to find out that he was there that night - that he had followed her friend’s car to her home - a chill went through him. Yeah, he didn’t want her to know many things but especially that. He’d rather be a stranger to her than considered stalker.

But was he a stranger to her? The amount of bright, wide smiles he had received from Sol…. his heart expanded and expanded. Every. Single. Time. His regular, slowed heartbeat felt like it was in a constant marathon in her presence. For a second, he felt tempted to hold his heart and physically calm it down somehow. But he was sure Sol would think something was wrong with him so he abandoned that feeling. It was the first time he knew Sol in an ordinary, mundane setting. And he realised one sure thing about her: she had a penchant for dramatics. He chuckled, much to the surprise of his manager who stared at him through rare view mirror.

It went better than he thought. There wasn’t boisterous conversation or anything but it felt light and comfortable - Sunjae hadn’t felt that in ages. He thought back to Sol’s sweet goodbye.

*

“At this time, there shouldn’t be anyone so you’ll be fine! Have you called your manager?” Sol asked as Sunjae wore his shoes.

He nodded at her.

“Okay then it shouldn’t be a problem. I’ll come with you so you get to the car safe and sound, don’t worry!” Sol nodded to herself, decisiveness in her tone.

Sunjae wanted to laugh - it wasn’t as if he couldn’t go down by himself. But it was endearing to see her like that. He smiled to himself before turning around.

Only to see Sol beaming up at him, yet again. There was no other word for it. He wished he could pocket that smile forever.

Sol’s mother comes to the entryway, “Thank you for coming, Sunjae. It was so nice having you here. Thank you for letting me do this little thing.”

Unbeknownst to Sol, Sunjae and her mother were on a different tangent. Despite her suspicion, Sol didn’t pry too much about the story - not that there were any lies, they were just half-truths.

“Thank you for hosting me, everything was great. You didn’t have to do this,” Sunjae bowed to her.

Bok-soon shrugged, “nonsense! It was just a meal. Feel free to come again whenever you feel like.”

Sunjae bowed to her again before turning to the door.

Just as he was about to go out, Sol went, “oh no, wait! I had to give you something. Let me go grab it!”

She quickly circled and wheeled to her room. Sunjae’s heart prickled and he looked down. He didn’t even want to see her mother lest he sees her sadness. But when Sol came back, there was a bouquet of sunflowers on her lap and her mother smiling at Sol.

He looked down at Sol who held out the bouquet to him, “these are from my plants so they are extra special and very important to me and I want to give them to you.”

She looked down shyly, still holding out the flowers.

Sol’s mother laughed, “You’re lucky, Sunjae, because she doesn’t give her sunflowers to anyone!“

Sunjae took the flowers from Sol, his heart felt like it was about to burst out from his chest.

“Thank you,” he knew that those two words would never be able to encapsulate even 1/4th of his feelings, forget all of them.

“You’re welcome, Sunjae!”

“I’m going to head in and check in on Umma, get home safe,” Sol’s mother said before leaving.

Sunjae was about to say bye and leave before Sol went, “okay, let’s go. I’ll drop you to your car.”

She opened the door, checked both sides, and then gestured for Sunjae to come out.

With his mask and hat on, he looked comical next to Sol. Their height difference extra stark with her sitting.

“You know you don’t have to come with me. I can go by myself just the way I came up,” he said as they moved towards one end of the floor.

“Yeah but what if someone recognises you? Oh no, we can’t have that!” She kept looking around as if someone would fly in from the sky on 3rd floor.

“And then I’ll have to come and drop you back to your home,” he teased, surprised at himself.

Sol scrunched her nose before looking at him, “why would you do that?”

He shrugged, “because you were my neighbour. I need to make sure you’re home safe.”

Sol shook her head, “it doesn’t make sense. How could I have never seen you?”

He shrugged, not getting into details.

They had reached the stairs and accessibility ramp.

Sunjae stopped and turned to fully face Sol before kneeling down, “thank you for having me for dinner and thank you for these flowers from your plants. I’ll treasure them for a long, long time.”

Sol chuckled, “flowers only last for a short while. You don’t have to be extra sweet and say that.”

“What if I prove you wrong?”

Sol doesn’t reply, just shakes her head as if he was silly.

Gaining whatever little courage he could muster, he went ahead, “how about I give you my number and you can check in on updates about these flowers if you like?”

Sol’s eyes widened, she shook her head. “No, no, what if it gets accidentally released?”

He raised his eyebrows, “you’ll release it?”

She almost smacks him before realising he was Ryu Sunjae, “I would NEVER do that but still you should be careful with your number and not give it to anyone.”

“Are you anyone?”

She nodded. Sunjae almost laughed out loud.

“How about I give you my number and you can just text me about these flowers when you’ve figured out the magical solution to keep them alive, okay?” Sol pressed her hands together, biting her lip, unsure.

Sunjae handed his phone to her to add in her number.

“Thank you for trusting me with your number,” he comments, putting the phone back.

“Well, you aren’t a stranger to me. Now let’s go!”

Sol made a move to go down the ramp but Sunjae stopped her.

“You really don’t need to come drop me off. I’m a grown man, I can go down by myself. You should go back home, I’ll feel much better.”

She shook her head, “nope, I’ll come. What if something happens?”

Sunjae put a hand on her arm to stop her, “and then I’ll come back up to send you home. This will keep going on the entire night. Plus the longer we argue here, the more chances of someone seeing us.”

Sol looked around again, she was about to say something but then saw Sunjae’s face and gave in, “okay, can you text me when you’re in your car?”

He nodded. But to tease her, he couldn’t help but add, “then you’ll have my number.”

She shrugged, “then text me from your manager’s number. I won't bother him, I promise."

He turned away from her to lowly chuckle, "okay, I'll do that. Now you go home."

“Okay, goodnight, Sunjae! Get home safe, eat well!” She bowed a bit to him before waving and going back to her apartment, turning around once to urge him to leave.

Back in the car, Sunjae texts her from his number and receives a thumbs up on his update. No more, no less. Still, he smiles to himself.

—

[Part 4 here.]

[everchased]

i have a small headcanon that one of the reasons finch and lae'zel get along so well and so quickly is both of their tendencies to subtly express themselves through their long fuckign ears

[backmarkerr]

please....can u speak on the conspiracy

So the conspiracy (more like a theory, really) is that Kimi was pushed out of the team starting in 2008 to make way for Fernando, who was more appealing to the big sponsor coming in. Before you click out thinking "Max, that's stupid, no team would throw a championship for a sponsor." I agree! But keep in mind that they didn't throw the championship, they fully expected to win the WDC with Felipe (and almost did) and did in fact win the WCC in 2008 with Felipe and Kimi despite everything. But there were really suspicious things going on. So with that in mind...

It's 2008. Kimi has just won Malaysia, the second race of the season. Three days after his win, there's this:

.

Ok, kinda weird, but whatever. F1 runs on rumours, right? Suggesting that Kimi might retire when he's doing so well is silly. And in the article they seem to be pretty ambivalent over whether it would be Felipe or Kimi to leave.

Fast forward to Spain two races later. Kimi scores his second win of the season and takes the championship lead. The season is shaping up pretty well for the defence of the title, you’d think this would be a good time for him, but again, the story du jour is Ferrari wanting Alonso in Kimi’s seat for 2009.

[x] I guess now we know at least Massa's seat is secure...?

If you’re like me, that sounds stupid. The reigning champion just won the last GP and his contract runs until the end of 2010, so this media narrative makes no sense. Something pretty catastrophic would have to happen for that to ever come to fruition, right?

So anyway, he gets a first row start in Monaco. Great, that's almost a surefire win/points, right? Wrong, he got a drive-through penalty due to the team not fitting the wheels to the car on time before the race start. Not a great race and he ends up outside of the points. Lewis is now ahead in the WDC by 3 points. Not really a disaster, but...

[x] what on earth...

[x] again the talk of retirement.... I mean, it's weird, right?

Zero points in Canada due to being rear-ended in the pitlane, which the team can’t control. Then he’s back to being neck to neck with his teammate and Lewis by the time the British GP is done in early July, with all three drivers on 48 points. Good news, right? Just gotta stay on track and not fuck it up somehow.

[x] sigh... (this one's a little harder to source as it was printed media, but I've seen this exact interview quoted in different pages)

So anyway, they change his front suspension for the next race in Germany. Kimi has always been very sensitive to changes in the car, so he knew something was wrong. Ferrari (via Michael, who was then head of development) say he's just not adapting well to the upgrades. Maybe, sure, but why aren't you bringing upgrades that are geared towards your world champion?

(an interesting remark from Mark Hughes here if you scroll down to the comments, which adds weight to Kimi not being listened to when it came to car development in 2008)

Bar a podium in Hungary, Kimi scores 0 points in 4 out of the next 5 races. It takes until either Monza or Singapore (hello crashgate!) for Ferrari to put his suspension back as it was.

He proceeds to get 3 podiums in the remaining 3 races but it’s not enough to catch up. By Singapore he was already 27 points behind his teammate (reminder this is the old points system) and very much expected to play the supporting role. In the penultimate race in China he very obviously gave up P2 to his teammate:

"I know what the team expects." [x] / [x]

Yet the narrative in the media and from Ferrari themselves is that his motivation is bad and he's not assertive. It was so pervasive that to this day people still parrot it and say he just didn’t care after 2007, despite Kimi always stating he was fully committed and clearly getting annoyed whenever journalists asked about his motivation even years later.

Montezemolo at the end of 2008 even 'joked' that "Kimi in the recent races was replaced two or three times by a friend, but next year he'll be back." Basically saying that Kimi wasn't really present, you know? An interesting thing to say when this absent driver scored 18 points in the last 3 races (three consecutive P3s), while the one who was amazing and had the team's full backing scored 20 (P7, P2, P1).

A whole 2 points' difference, maybe someone should hire that "friend"...

So why did they do this?

Well, the theory is that Santander (I promise this isn’t like the dumb Sainztander takes) wanted a Spanish-Brazilian lineup due to financial interests (Spanish bank, big market in South America with a looming IPO in Brazil), so Kimi was basically being pressured out of the team from early 2008 onwards. Like I said at the start, the team weren’t really throwing away 2008, as they expected to win the WCC with both drivers (they did) and Massa to be able to win the WDC, which would of course be beneficial for their new sponsor. And he almost did. Almost.

[x] they're not in charge of driver selection but this specific driver line-up would good for them. (this archived copy of the article is from 2010, but the text makes it clear it's from 2009)

Of course at this point we have to wonder if a team like Ferrari would bow down to a sponsor's demands. I can't tell you what the internal considerations were or how much money was on the line, but it's also not like Santander were telling them to get rid of Kimi for a bad driver, you know? Fernando is a great driver, so from Ferrari's perspective they were just trading a great driver for another great driver who also appealed to this huge sponsor, and an Alonso-Massa line-up would be solid. And with the previous talk that Ferrari and Alonso had already inked a deal in 2008... It's just difficult to believe there isn't a grain of truth here.

So the alleged initial plan of having Alonso in 2009 was foiled when Kimi activated the renewal option in his contract. It was then that he was bought out of his last year (apparently paid for by Santander).

[from the book The Unknown Kimi Raikkonen]

As we can see, by the end Kimi was also fed up with what was going on, especially people pointing the finger at him and at his motivation, and his frustration is very clear in interviews like here at 2.35 and here:

Publicly, Ferrari said they wanted someone more in line with how Michael used to be (ironic since Montezemolo allegedly didn’t like how Michael made the team his), who could communicate with the team and give better feedback (ironic when Todt, Dyer, Stella and others said Kimi was very clear and precise.) Kimi himself has always stated that he wasn’t the issue, that his motivation was never lacking and that the real reason he was pushed out was politics and money.

[x]

[x]

If it had only been the mechanical stuff, I’d be willing to chalk it up to just bad luck and incompetence. Shit happens. But with all the rumours around it even before things went bad on the track and Kimi stating that his work and performance weren't the reason he was let go it becomes impossible for me to think there wasn’t an actual push going on to replace him.

Hell, even famed Ferrari fanboy Sebastian Vettel didn't think it was realistic for Kimi to return to Ferrary in 2014 precisely because Kimi isn't one for "bullshit" and "politics". Why would he choose to say that specifically? And according to Finnish media Kimi’s 2014 Ferrari negotiations included Montezemolo personally apologising to him. Now why would he apologise if they hadn’t done something wrong?

Personally I think Kimi's "certain people did certain things" refers to this. He never trashed anyone and always said he had no ill-feelings. And I believe him. But it doesn't mean nothing happened, lest we forget how well he handled Lotus not paying him.

The thing that really bothers me is that Kimi got the reputation for having low motivation and not caring about what he was doing (I heard that take just last month from an F1 youtuber, how Fernando was hired in 2010 because Kimi had mentally checked out 🙄), when obviously someone who wasn’t motivated and didn’t care would have simply called it quits under these circumstances. Instead he got P3 in the standings in 2008 (I know he’s talented, but he must have been trying at least a little), trained hard to lose enough weight to use KERS in 2009 (why would he do that if he didn’t care) and took the team’s only win that year despite the car being shit. Interestingly, pundits acknowledged his good performance complicated things when it came to Ferrari’s rumoured hiring of Alonso. So imagine how much more complicated things would have been had Kimi done better in 2008?

Anyway, this is long, but if you want something longer then I definitely recommend this post here. You might not agree completely with the original authors (there are parts where I wish there was more info), but I think they offer a lot of good research and information regarding the overall situation back in 2008/2009, and it's a good jump-off point for your own research.

But yeah. 2008 could have been everything. Or at least better.

[youchangedmedestiel]

Being able to reread comments on my fics, by that I mean scrolling my whole AO3 inbox, is trully a blessing when I fucking need to feel better.

Thanks for taking the time to leave comments, you all! You have no idea how much it is appreciated.

[a-box-full-of-eneco]

Who Made Me a Princess is my favourite Korean webtoon series Been thinking of drawing fanart of series i like together with Skitty :)

*edit: Wait no my favourite is The Dark Lord's Confession, but Who made me a Princess is my favourite of the .. does the vague fantasy princess sometimes reborn genre have a name?

[thenarrativefoil]

made fried tofu to go with ep #3 of dungeon meshi!!

[wikiangela]

last line tag

tagged by @jesuisici33 @thewolvesof1998 @daffi-990 @jamespearce9-1-1 @lover-of-mine @hippolotamus @disasterbuckdiaz 💖💖

___

It’s a good few weeks, and it feels like everyone’s back on track, settling into their lives again, figuring everything out one day at a time. Buck’s happy. He has his awesome girlfriend, his best friend seems finally more at ease, even if the divorce is adding some stress, and his other best friend is happier than ever with his mom around. Everything’s finally starting to go great.

And then it all gets disrupted again.

___

no pressure tags: @elvensorceress @gaydiaz @diazass @thebravebitch @silentxxsoul @shortsighted-owl @eddiebabygirldiaz @arthursdent @diazblunt @911onabc @spagheddiediaz @housewifebuck @gayhoediaz @rogerzsteven @watchyourbuck @monsterrae1 @honestlydarkprincess @underwater-ninja-13 @eowon @exhuastedpigeon @weewootruck @loserdiaz @evanbegins @steadfastsaturnsrings @ladydorian05 @malewifediaz @pirrusstuff @theotherbuckley @911-on-abc @spotsandsocks @hoodie-buck @giddyupbuck @wildlife4life @fortheloveofbuddie @nmcggg @diazpatcher @jeeyuns

[qsmpbutwithsignlanguage]

I spent, like, a half hour looking for this clip because I think that you all need to see it.

Quackity:

"That's one of the cooler things. I saw a creator from Brazil, it seems, who actually claimed that they were getting people-someone who's not in the QSMP-they said they were getting people in their chat who doesn't-who don't speak Portuguese. It's a Brazilian creator who's not even on QSMP, and he was talking about the effects-possibly-of that crossing of communities with the QSMP. Which is amazing, and I find that so, so cool. And it makes me really happy because, at the end of the day, that's what-that's what the server is meant to do-is help communities from different parts of the world cross each other. And I find it amazing. What I find so beautiful about this chat specifically is that being the English streams, English is the more common language spoken, right? And what I find so amazing about this chat is when something funny happens I see people saying 'hahaha' in English, 'jajaja' in Spanish, and the 'kkkk', which is how, you know, Portuguese speaking people usually type to laugh. And that's amazing. That's three different languages in one chat and I think that kind of crossover is so incredibly important."

(ignore the odd title, not my video, but important anyhow)

>>>

When I give praise for Quackity, for the QSMP as a whole, this is why. Quackity is genuinely doing some groundbreaking stuff, and I think that, in a sense, he's paving the way for future creators.

[simgerale]

me after attempting to get back into sims and realizing i had a lot more to do than play the game

[u5an5]

Am I the only one that every time I get myself into new fandom I just sigh, knowing fully well that I just got next 20+ x reader, y/n, x Oc!whateverthefuck or just any form of self insert tags to blacklist?

[opikiquu]

im going to be so annoying all week

[disposal-blueeee]

guess what ! doodles . again

edgar , nny and devi belong to johnen vasquez (even if i only drew nny and devi at the bottom)

scriabin by zarla-s

[congregation-of-the-spiral]

thinking about writing a jmart fic inspired by my original story. would y'all read it or nah