#These two would be besties and nobody can convince me otherwise

[nesting-dreams]

Hmmm *looks at Nightcrawler* hmmm *looks at nightwing*…. They’re sort of the same person. Huh?

[artemisia-black]

for the character ask, lily evans <3

Thanks for the ask ♥️

How I feel about this character

A queen, an angel and my utter beloved. I love her so much.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

James and occasionally Sirius.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Sirius- they are besties and nobody can convince me otherwise.

My unpopular opinion about this character

She is not a goody two shoes at all. And Harry gets his sassy sense of humour from her. Also she didn’t actually like Slughorn and entertained his vague creepiness because she needed the connections of his favour.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

I wish we had seen her outside of the men around her. I would have loved a Lily flashback rather than via Snape’s memories.

[beautifulpersonpeach]

I am genuinely trying to comprehend how people think that it would be better for a couple to spend 18 months apart than to restrict themselves from sex (I mean I don't know whether Jikook are really a couple or not, but with the entire enlistment thing and their history added to that the math is mathing to me). Like obviously sex is a big part of a relationship but shouldn't the thought of spending 18 months without your significant other dread you more than the thought of being with them through this difficult phase of both of your lives without being allowed to jump each other's bones the entire time? Also, don't they have vacations and are allowed to spend them together (I saw somewhere that they're ONLY allowed to take vacations with eo but Idk if thats true). Idk man, people's logic seems to walk out of the door whenever it comes to Jikook. So hard trying to 'rationalize' their relationship to prove how they're not a thing and that only seems to have the opposite effect imo. These boys chose to spend every waking hour together for the next 18 months and chose one of the most difficult divisions just so they could have bigger chances of being together. I love my besties and obvi I'd rather spend difficult times with them, but the entire enlistment process Jikook went through seems a little too complicated and difficult for two people who are just best bros (not to mention the entire 'if one fails, both fail and have to do it again' thing). They were ready to risk it all for each other and nobody can convince me otherwise.

***

(From one anon to another)

[nari-kami]

These two would be besties and nobody can convince me otherwise ✨💕

[specialshinytrinkets]

ghost: Who or what haunts your OC? What happened? How do they live with their ghosts? (Seven Seven (if bestie does!!))

guilt: What is your OC guilty about? How do they handle their guilt? Do they try to avoid guilt, or do they accept it? (Kee)

hate: What does your OC hate? Why? How do they act towards the object of their hatred? (Lioo)

mistake: What's the worst mistake your OC ever made? What led to them making it? Have they been able to fix it? How have they moved on? (Derres)

>:3€

Ghost (Seven): "Oh, hehe, don't you worry, buddy! Nobody's haunting li'l old me! And if I was, I'd just reduce the number to zero! If we're talkin' concepts and not ghosts, then... I guess I've been haunted by the family guilt this whole time, can you believe it? Crazy stuff, I know. BUT! I have been attending therapy, and my therapist, she managed to convince me I do not have to center my whole life 'round numbers anymore. I have no idea what to do with this information, but, if I'm bein' honest, it's SO much easier to live like this. I don't have to repeat the first word two times! Do you know how hard it is to hide such a habit?! To make it into a presentable, cute little scene quirk for the audience? I had to make scripts in my head on the fly! That's right, my shows are unscripted. Pretty cool, huh? Every single one is pure improv. I've always been good at improv. Been told I'm good with kids, too! If I had the qualifications, maybe I could become an elementary school teacher."

Guilt (Kee): "I have lived too long to not have any guilt on my shoulders. It's hard to pick... I've made myself a fool countless times, with my friends, family, partners, by getting too emotional or not emotional enough talking with them; sometimes I'd get violent and fight my way to self-isolation, in attempts to "prove" something, I suppose. All of that to say, I've been a jerk my whole life. And I've accepted it, after weeks of ruminating over every single incident. Some took more time, some less, but a couple of apologies, and I was fine. The only thing I'll never be able to accept is my whole... Escape. That was very, very stupid of me. Sure, it's led to some encounters I'd never otherwise have, but it will never be worth all the stress I've put my Mom and Dad through by vanishing. And Zaaze. How she's still tolerating me is a mystery. Derres, too... How did he see anything in me when I was so... Dismissive of him? It feels like he's not a human sometimes... I hope you were not insinuating THAT thing, by the way. I don't want to remember it."

Hate (Lioo): "My father. I like to pretend he doesn't exist, so that when he's least expecting it, I can clock him in the jaw. Bastard really thought moving here would save his marriage. Freakin' moron. ... Oh, we're talking about objects? Do animals count? Then, I guess I don't really like crows? They're too smart for their own good. At least they're not as bad as dolphins, though, but that's a given. I don't know ANYONE who likes dolphins. After they rebuilt Atlantis and sunk it again, nobody trusts them. Minus that one weirdo, what was his name..? Squeel, I think? But I wouldn't trust their word. Their whole biography is so shaky that - and I know it's unfounded, but I have my reasons - I believe it was raised by the dolphins. He's just way too nice about them. Plus, I heard he smells like fish? On sidenote, I never liked his moves. They're too janky. Honestly? They're such a tryhard, it's embarassing. Even if they weren't raised by the dolphins and aren't a trained fish assassin or something, they try SO HARD to appeal to the MMD enjoyers demographic it's a WONDER nobody called him out. So what if he can lick its elbow?? It doesn't make his music good! I genuinely believe its audience is compiled of wannabe marine biologists that got kicked out of university because they let an octopus escape, knowing full well what it can lead to. I read of this guy once, who said he didn't believe in the Kraken and that we're sheeps for thinking otherwise. Sorry, fishermen, your boats got drowned by a collective hallucination, I guess! Unbelievable that guys like him get to vote... What was I talking about again? Oh, yeah, crows. They're... Not the kind of bird I'd want to encounter on an empty street. Ever."

Mistake (Derres): "Worst mistake ever, huh? Hm... Well, it's a story that I don't like to recount, but, if you insist... My biggest mistake was not teaching Lioo how to perform the spider safety circle, alongside some other basics. If I had done that, she would have survived... And we could all have... Ah, but what's the use of crying over spilled milk! I've learned my lesson, as grim as it is... And, uh, now I'm teaching her all that I know myself! That will... Never make up for what happened and my selfishness... But it's a start, right? Right..?"

[id-rather-be-an-outsider]

My Ex

summary: Mikaela Reid reflects on a past relationship that damaged her psyche.

word count: 620

a/n: this was a very fun challenge suggested by one of our amazing group members! the song I picked is called Trust, listen here! Without further ado, enjoy!

“not only that, but you fucked with her head // you broke her trust and she wish she was dead”

I trudge through the woods and reflect on the words of a fellow survivor. He’d said, “You don’t trust people, yet you’re so eager to please people and teach.” It was Adam who’d said it. He was right, I suppose. I don’t trust people. But how can I? I can’t even trust myself.

Imposter syndrome practically lives in me. Before I came to the Fog, I told my best friend, Julian, that I felt like a hack. That I wasn’t the storyteller I thought I was. That my interest for all things strange, and the beauty I found in the darkness was just me overcompensating. Even now, with the physical evidence right in front of me, I still can’t trust if teaching the other survivors my methods is me wanting to share just to help, or if somehow, I’m secretly being selfish. How? I don’t know how. But it feels like it.

The self-doubt had started when I was younger, and worsened when I lost my dad, but as time heals all wounds, so too does it heal a broken spirit. Except mine didn’t. Not until I moved in with Julian after a bad breakup. He nursed me back to health. Not physically. Emotionally. My ex was… a scumbag, to say the least. He cheated on me more times than I can count on my own two hands, and even when I had the evidence right there, he could convince me otherwise.

Convince me I was just jealous, that I was crazy, that I was insecure and didn’t want him to leave me because my dad was the only person who loved me and he was gone. The fights were full of him screaming at me, me crying, me begging him to please stop lying to me, that we could work through things if he’d just be honest and work on himself, and he’d tell me that everyone thought I was crazy and I should’ve realized that I was the problem when nobody came to help me. That I must be the one cheating, otherwise why would I be so paranoid about him? And somehow, I always found myself in the guilty position, even when I knew I’d done nothing wrong. I found myself apologizing for being upset with his actions. One day, I couldn’t take it anymore.

I started having… thoughts. Scary thoughts. Not thoughts like the stories I would tell in high school, but… really dark ones. About how easy it would be to disappear. That no one would notice, or even care. It terrified me. But Julian was my light at the end of the tunnel. He sent me a text, and all it said was, “Are u ok? I’m worried abt u. Luv u bestie, please text me back <3” Something told me to call him. So I did, when my ex wasn’t home to hear. He was always jealous of Julian, no matter the fact that me and Julian were like siblings. “Hello? Mik? Is that you?” Julian had said. I broke down in tears, telling him everything, and he said we would come get me.

I miss Julian. Adam reminds me of him, in a way. Nothing physical, they look very different from each other. But the tenderness they use to talk about life lessons and hard truths is the same. I’m not so standoffish as to never speak to anyone, like Najma is. She only has one friend here. But I probably don’t interact with people as much as I should. Nevertheless, I’m glad I can call Adam a friend. He reminds me of home, and I need that here. Even if I can’t trust myself, I can at least trust him.

[kirabasai]

I JUST CHECKED AO3 HOW IS THERE NOTHING. WHAT.

no because these two universes feel so compatible to me. THE SPINJUTSU. THE ELEMENTAL AFFINITIES. THE FACT THEY ARE ALREADY NINJA.

jay and naruto would be BESTIES and nobody could convince me otherwise. i like to think they could cause mass destruction if given proper motivation and incentive to work together

sakura would think nya is the coolest ever and look at her w stars in her eyes. girlboss admiring girlboss moment.

danzo and orochimaru would probably want to get their grubby little hands on zane but jokes on them tbey get fucked over by cole or sumn idk

lloyd and sasuke can bond over their (daddy/brother) issues or smth

not adding anything more to this rn because im tired but I WILL BE RETURNING TO THIS

y'all hear me out when i say ninjago × naruto crossover.

[wlwcarries]

i'm becoming more and more convinced that charlie's dms are real. i’m going to give you guys the evidence there is so far, for you all to make your own conclusions. personally, as much as i hate to say it, i think the dms are real.

i want to preface this by saying that i hoped as much as everyone else that the screenshots were fake. i honestly debated even posting about it at this point because everyone seems to have made their peace that they’re fabricated and moved on, and i don’t want to start or rehash anything. i promise you, i hated making this post as much as you guys are probably going to hate reading this. but i feel like we as a fandom deserve to know and address the truth, and choosing to ignore this will only do more harm than good.

there are two tiktoks showing proof of the messages: here and here

it’s pretty clear imo that charlie sent those messages in that group chat. there’s publicly available information proving a lot of what i’m going to talk about, but i’m not going to expose anyone especially since a lot of the people involved are minors. if you want to talk more about it, feel free to dm me but i’m not going to post anything publicly beyond those tiktoks. 

so yeah. charlie talked about smut in a group chat with at least one confirmed minor as far as we know. in the screenshot you can see that someone explained what smut was to him, and then he continued on talking about the explicit fic. 

i know that a lot of us on here, myself included, love to harp on l*lex shippers, and while the racism involved with the ship should by no means pushed aside that's also not my biggest concern at the moment. a lot of these people are young teenage girls and there’s a clear power imbalance involved. they’re fans, and he’s an adult man who they look up to. yes, they shouldn’t have sent the fic to him in the first place, but charlie’s an adult and should have known better than to encourage this. this is on him. he really can’t see that interacting and talking about sexually explicit material with minors isn’t alright??? is he that scared of his fans turning on him if he doesn’t act like he’s their close personal friend???

he needs to realize that he’s not going to lose his fanbase if he establishes boundaries with them. honestly, there’s more of a chance that he’ll lose them if he doesn’t establish boundaries. other people said this better than me (i’d like to link chloe @willexx’s post here which makes a lot of really important points regarding this as well as discussing madi, and this post by @reggieshairflip which goes really in depth into a lot of great points), but this is really concerning. 

i also went on twitter last night to see what people were saying on there, and i’m beyond words. the majority of the commentary seems to be along the lines of “protect charlie from the smut!!” 

y’all. charlie isn’t the one who needs protecting. regardless of the legal situation, if he wants to read fanfic he’s gonna find ways to read it. he’s a grown man, he’ll be fine. that’s so far removed from the actual point, i don’t know how else to explain it. charlie will be fine. we don’t have to be worried about him. 

maybe people should focus on the fact that he’s talking about smut in a group chat with minors on it? like first off, don't be in a group chat with fans of your show, but especially don't talk about smut with minors, what the fuck. and the fact that he doesn’t even seem to realize the issues with what he’s doing is troubling in and of itself.

charlie has been involved in various other groupchats with fans for a while (this isn’t a new thing by any means), and i will admit that most of those interactions thus far have been innocent and harmless. regardless, the fact that he’s in group chats with fans at all worries me. these people are largely young, teenaged girls who idolize charlie--they’ve practically developed a parasocial relationship with him, and that’s not healthy in the slightest. 

he’s not their “bestie,” he’s a celebrity. he keeps up with the innocent and harmless things, and encourages them, but doesn’t establish boundaries--and that’s what leads to people thinking that doing more is okay because he hasn’t said otherwise. people meeting him at the airport at 2am, fans showing up to owen’s house at midnight and then charlie entertaining them. that’s what this kind of behavior leads to, and i fear that it will inevitably lead to much worse in the future. i’m not trying to take blame away from the people who did these things--fans have to respect boundaries, set or not--but as a public figure charlie has a responsibility to set clear lines.

the point of this post is absolutely not to “cancel” him or anything. that wouldn’t be productive at all, and one of my favorite things about the jatp fandom on tumblr is our ability to have actually constructive conversations about things like this. this is tumblr, and i know i’m basically speaking to an echo chamber here-- but i feel this is important enough that it has to be said, even if nobody outside of this site will probably see it. 

he needs to be held accountable and made to realize that what he’s doing isn’t okay. i get that this is his first experience being at the center of a large fandom like this, and i understand that he’s probably really excited about all the fans and wants to connect with them as much as possible. but he would do well to take notes from jeremy (and hell, madi, and she’s sixteen and didn’t have any prior acting experience at all), and engage in a healthy, responsible way like they do. i’m not going to speak about owen because i don’t really have much info or knowledge about how he interacts, but this potentially extends to him as well.

this is a really complicated and messy situation, and i get that. feel free to share your thoughts, but please be respectful. sending love to all of you guys rn 💜💜💜

EDIT: TO CLARIFY. i have seen this post making the rounds on twitter. i’m okay with that as long as it’s not a screenshot and the post is directly linked HOWEVER charlie did not straight up send smut to that group chat. they sent him the title, and he looked the fic up and sent the link in the group chat to clarify it was the one they were talking about. he was informed that it was smut, but it wasn’t just him sending the fic unprovoked. everything i said above still applies, he should not have engaged or encouraged the conversation but please don’t spread false information. 

[sixeyesgojo]

Team Gojo with babies

Summary: Team Gojo handling babies while they’re babysitting.

Content warning: fragile babies and Gojo

A/N: Oh, I’m almost caught up; only a two or three chapters are left until I have nothing to import from AO3 anymore lol Then I can finally start writing another oneshot lmao

Gojo Satoru

You would never guess but he is surprisingly good at holding babies, this man would never drop a baby

but he would pretend that he's dropping the baby just to fuck with everyone

This man seems to not only be a great jujutsu sorcerer but also some kind of magician: babies stop crying as soon as he holds them

Babies love playing with his white hair

He has no problems making the baby burp after feeding them

No problems with changing diapers either, he does it so neatly??

but he will whisper "This is all for the sake of the next generation" when he does it

Satoru going on a walk with the baby in the stroller? A sight to behold.

This man absolutely loves making the baby exercise because it's "like playing a video game console"

He talks to the baby... a lot... about almost everything. He'll sometimes imitate girly voices. Or reenact High School Musical scenes.

Sometimes he tells the baby about his day while changing the diaper. The baby wails. He'd say stuff like "Oh my god, so true bestie!!" (in the said imitation of a girly voice)

will pretend to eat the baby's hands or feet. His favorite part to "eat" are the cheeks though

Oooooh, the baby enjoys the airplane game with Gojo

I don't even know what to say, he's just great at everything. Even if he's not, that's just him pretending, not trying.

Itadori Yuji

HELP THIS BOY RIGHT NOW

He's a baby himself, so he will be helpless

someone has to tell him what to do and preferably show him how to do it

Feeding the baby: Bottle? Okay, that should be easy. Baby food? This boy will put one spoon into the baby's mouth and then a spoon into his own mouth.

occasionally, the baby will throw up on him but "it's fine", he says

Yuji will try to teach the baby to say his name. He'll be like "Yu-ji" for at least 45 minutes before realizing that this is a literal baby with limited ability.

changing diapers would be messy but good thing that Yuji is a quick learner

Babies like Yuji's fingers, they will use their iron grip on his fingers

sometimes they will try to jab their fingers in Yuji's second pair of eyes too

Like Satoru, he talks to the babies but somehow manages to be on the same wavelength as them??? Don't ask me how, he just does that. Baby laughs? Yuji laughs. Baby cries? Yuji almost cries too.

He also tells the baby about his day: "Did you know that Fushiguro....???"

He will toss the baby in the air - baby laughs, he laughs, all is well.

His go-to technique to make babies laugh is making dumb faces

watches movies or shows for children while holding the baby

tries to teach the baby how to walk

Fushiguro Megumi

Babysitting? He initially scowls at the very idea but let me present to you some soft Megumi hours when he is alone with the tiny human

HE WILL iNTRODUCE HIMSELF TO THE BABY, LIKE: "I'm Fushiguro, not that you know how to say it anyway but I'll be taking care of you today." IN THE SOFTEST VOICE

This boy will cook baby food himself, he knows how

not the best at changing diapers but does just fine

other than that, he is at a loss

'What do you do with babies?' - Still does better than Yuji though... but still at a loss.

will hold the baby so tenderly, he thinks they will break if he grips a little too hard

Contrary to the other two, he will leave the baby on the baby mat to play on their own at times while he does chores... but not for too long. He will check on them a lot.

Sometimes, he will play some soft music so the baby can listen to it while he holds them, gently rocking back and forth

Please, his facial expression when he holds the baby is so soft. Nobody can convince me otherwise.

He lets the baby play with and squish his cheeks

He reads children's books to the baby

plays with their baby arms and tickles them omggg

In his mind, that's his little sibling now.

Kugisaki Nobara

The baby is oddly drawn to the heart on her hammer but Nobara knows better than to give the baby the hammer. She will look for cardboard to cut out a heart-shaped form and paint it pink, so the baby can play with it safely.

creates a whole blanket fort for herself and the baby

Nobara definitely does that airplane thingy when feeding the baby

plays her favorite songs and dances(?) with the baby, twirling them around

At times, she will just hold the baby close to her and do nothing

Did you see these tiny hands though? Nobara loves them. She's always surprised at how strong a baby's grip can be.

is the type to play peek-a-boo a lot

How dare anyone breathe wrongly into this precious tiny human's direction?

naps with the baby, I don't make the rules.

Nobara definitely would dress up the baby but I doubt she has any spare baby clothes lying around

One thing she enjoys a lot is going out with the baby sitting in the stroller. It feels so peaceful, unless the baby starts crying..

Talking of a crying baby, she's not very good at handling them. Happy babies >>> crying babies, so she tries her best not to upset them.

"When you grow up, you better be as strong as I am," she says while squishing those squishable cheeks.

Nobara is lowkey sad when she has to return the baby

Taglist: @gojos-mochi​ @megumifushi​ @bleueluna​

[deanothecheynosaur]

The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Part 3 (2020)

**SPOILERS**

Ok, I have already completed the season, but I'm still gonna break it down episode by episode and give my thoughts during in retrospect. If you have not seen Parts 1 or 2, I recommend you start there.

Chapter 21: The Hellbound Heart

So, Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) is trying to get Nick Scratch (Gavin Leatherwood) back out of hell and separated from Lucifer (Luke Cook). If you had forgotten, during part 2 Sabrina found out that Lucifer Morningstar was her biological father, and they trapped Lucifer inside of Nick. She enlists Roz (Jaz Sinclair), Harvey (Ross Lynch), and Theo (Lachlan Watson) to help. Besides the fact that their all besties, I have no idea what help Harvey or Theo would be. Theo is at least loyal and listens to reason. Harvey just goes off all the time. Roz is the most useful with her "cunning." Anyway. Before they figure out how to get to Hell, Mrs. Wardwell (Michelle Gomez) comes back to Baxter High with a new obsession with Dante's Inferno. But she's not possessed by Lilith (Michelle Gomez) anymore; Lilith is too busy defending her title as Queen of Hell. Also, props to Michelle Gomez. She flawlessly played two very different characters this season. Meanwhile, Zelda (Miranda Otto) and Hilda (Lucy Davis) are trying to save the coven because their powers are all fading. They aren't sure what to do with the remaining students or what to tell them. All of their powers are a gift from Lucifer, but he's not really in the position (or the mood) to be giving them any powers. Down in New Orleans, Ambrose (Chance Perdomo) and Prudence (Tati Gabrielle) are on their mission to find her father. When they come up short, they turn to Voodoo Priestess Mambo Marie (Skye P. Marshall) to help them with a different kind of magic. Dorian Gray (Jedidiah Goodacre -that is quite a name-) helps Sabrina and friends to get into Hell as long as they bring him a magic flower. They go in without any real plan, as you do. Seriously. Not even a map. Wtf. Luckily, they walked into the Shores of Sorrow and met Caliban (Sam Corlett), who told them to follow the river of blood because "all blood leads to Pandemonium." That's the capitol city of Hell I guess? They have lots of fun on the way, and when they get there, Lilith says that Sabrina has to deal with the Kings of Hell for her, but Lucifer tells Sabrina that she has to take the throne for herself. It has to be a Morningstar. Well, she does, but the Kings aren't convinced. Then our friend Caliban shows up again, naming himself Prince of Hell, and challenging Sabrina for the throne. It is worth noting that Caliban is ridiculously hot. And generally shirtless. Sabrina accepts the throne to get Nick out of Hell. Which is problematic for a lot of reasons, but most of all that she decides to do this BEFORE separating him from Lucifer. So she's just gonna keep Nick/Lucifer tied up in the dungeon until she finds another flesh acheron to hold Lucifer. What could go wrong?

I really expected it to take longer for Sabrina to get to Nick, but considering the very twisted maze part 3 went down, getting to Pandemonium is pretty minor. Also, Sabrina's whole "I'ma do what I want and not tell my aunts so they don't stop me" is getting old.

Chapter 22: Drag Me to Hell

This one is a little less convoluted. Sabrina finds out that one of her duties as Queen is to drag souls to Hell. Specifically souls who have made a deal with the devil. We can infer from this that the only people who go to Hell are those who have sold their soul, so it would be far easier to not go there than some people in the real world would have me believe. The first soul, a cute old man who wanted to be chess Grand Champion, Sabrina decided to show mercy and sent him to heaven. Didn't go over super well with the Kings of Hell. Also, Sabrina is now a cheerleader at Baxter High. They call themselves the Ravenettes. There's a dance team from my high school called the Raiderettes, so that confused me for a sec. Lots more singing pop songs then actual cheers though. Reminds me of the Jailhouse Rock scene in Riverdale. I digress. Zelda has decided to reopen the academy and that she and Hilda were going to teach. Hilda was more voluntold. Agatha (Adeline Rudolph) doesn't really respond well. Prudence and Ambrose discover that Father Blackwood (Richard Coyle) is in Loch Ness, which is apparently super magical and can bend time and space? Idk, but I was highly disappointed that we didn't see Nessie. They see him at the very end of the episode looking like Mr. Bean at the end of the live action Scooby-Doo movie. They take him back to Greendale and use him to hold Lucifer so Nick can be free. Because what the world needs is Blackwood and Lucifer together. Back to Brina. Her second soul to collect (apparently this is a daily task for the ruler of Hell but she only does these two so there's a plot hole) is the ice cream man, Jimmy Platt (Matty Finochio). He tells her that he would like to extend his contract again by eating the heart of an innocent child. Sabrina confronts Lucifer about this later, apparently it didn't have to be a child, just an innocent soul. Adult virgins, beware. Sabrina tells Jimmy no (obvi) but Jimmy has already hidden the kid. So now she has to find this kid and collect his soul before the end of the day or there will be a coup in Hell. Sabrina wisely decides on just Roz to help her with this one. Roz is also the one who warns Sabrina against transporting herself into a freezer with no more information, but as per usual Sabrina goes anyway. Jimmy put warding sigils on the walls, so she's stuck and powerless. Luckily, Lilith knows what the fuck she's doing (as opposed to Sabrina who only thinks she does) and saves Sabrina. Sabrina takes Jimmy to Hell, but nobody is impressed. Caliban officially challenges her to find the unholy regalia- the three most powerful infernal objects, starting with Herod's crown.

This is a pretty typical Sabrina episode- she's way in over her head, but she either doesn't realize it or won't admit it. I'm never quite sure, but it seems like she genuinely doesn't know. I also don't remember if it's this episode or the next, but Harvey is suddenly feeling under a lot of pressure to have sex with Roz. But it never shows Roz being pushy about it, so idk wtf is going on in Harvey's head (besides convincing himself he's over Sabrina).

Chapter 23: Heavy is the Crown

For this one, Sabrina enlists Ambrose to help her find the crown because Ambrose is the most well read warlock ever due to his permanent house arrest. It's in Riverdale. They use a special compass to find it in a maple tree that the Blossom's use for syrup. If you've seen Riverdale, this probably has more significance and is less surprising. They steal the crown (somehow without realizing zombie King Herod is still in the tree). Sabrina wants to destroy it, but Ambrose wants to tap into its power to help the coven. Unsurprisingly, this does not work out well for them initially because Herod follows the crown and would very much like it back. Zelda is failing at getting respect from the students at the academy, and there's weird Lucifer beetles crawling in ears and controlling people. In other news, a carnival came to town! Obviously this has something to do with the larger plot because otherwise it would be a side note. Harvey, Roz, Sabrina, Nick, and Theo are all going together. Theo wants to invite the new guy, Robin (Jonathan Whitesell), because Theo is crushing hard. Robin is nerdy cute, I guess. I did think it was cliche to give the queer guy green streaks in his hair though. Harvey says tells Theo to invite him as part of the group, which Theo does, and Robin agrees. They all go to the carnival: Roz, Sabrina, and Theo ignorantly happy, Harvey struggling with his masculinity, Nick struggling with his ordeal, and Robin just happy to be there. Roz "sees" the carnival ringmaster as a satyr (or a faun depending on your preference for Greek or Roman deities, but they do tend to prefer Greek in this show), but she decides she was imagining things. Mrs. Wardwell talks to the fortune teller Circe (Lucie Guest) to try to find out what happened to her during the three months that Lilith was using her "skin suit." She doesn't get any concrete answers because that's not how fortune tellers work, Mary. Harvey stumbles across a snake charmer dancer woman in a tent full of pervy dudes and is almost entranced. Hilda goes to the carnival with her bf Dr. C, who proposes. Idk why she needed to throw her cotton candy on the ground during that, but I'm also on a sugar detox, so... Prudence and Ambrose are cleaning up Blackwood's mess by putting a living doll spell on Judas and Judith to hide them and putting his weird time warping monster fish egg thing in a fish tank. Yeah. No Nessie, but a weird egg. It's fine, I'm not bitter. Back at the carnival, Sabrina and Nick get attacked by Herod (who stole his crown back from Ambrose but knows it was Sabrina stealing it initially). Ambrose saves them, but Caliban pops in, steals the crown, and wins the first round of the challenge. At the very end, we find out why the carnies are important: they're pagans who worship the old gods and trying to resurrect The Green Man to rid the world of flesh since the Satanic witches have all but lost their powers. There is more than one voodoo practitioner, idk why they're not considered more of a threat because they're much more independently magical. They need a virgin to complete the rebirth, and that's why Robin (dun dun dun) was hanging out at the high school. Our potential virgins are Theo, Harvey, and Mrs. Wardwell.

I chose not to believe that Robin was actually bad because I want Theo to be happy. I chose to believe that even if he was using Theo, Robin was just trying to take his virginity to prevent him from being the sacrifice. Also, Sabrina is basically trying to force Nick to be normal even though she compared his symptoms to PTSD. Girl stop. He needs a sec.

Chapter 24: The Hare Moon

Zelda and Hilda have decided that the coven needs to celebrate the hare moon for the coming of spring to bolster good will. Sabrina isn't enthused (maybe because it requires her singing a song of summer into the forest to release a rabbit). Lilith tells Sabrina that they need celestial power to restore their strength, so she goes to Dorian, who has an angel trapped in one of his paintings (as all art collectors do). Sabrina drains some blood from the angel for her coven, but leaves in the process because she hears some screaming. Then she stumbles upon Nick and some sex demons doing BDSM. She's less than thrilled, especially since Nick low-key blames her for it. And Dorian has drank 90% of the angel blood, but they can't take anymore with killing him. So Hilda suggests using the little blood to make an oil mixture and take a moon bath under the hare moon (rub oils all over your skin and lie outside under the full moon) to absorb the celestial energy from the moon. During the daytime ceremony, they meet the pagans. Things don't go well. Zelda makes a bunch of petty insults, Hilda pisses off Circe, and Nick kills me the snake that bit Dorcas (Abigail Cowen). Circe puts a curse on Hilda to become a spider, and

[rosyerim]

nct 127 as your best friend

taeil

is literally a grandmother

you’re the person he goes to everytime he doesn't understand something slang wise

“y/n,,,mark called me the goat,,,is that good or bad?”

“today jisung called me a bro but i’m not his actual brother, should i tell him?”

also needs you to explain memes to him

“johnny just sent me a picture of a trashcan and said mood should i be concerned?”

“why do you keep sending me kermit pictures, i do not get it”

but he’s the cutest bean alive

hugs you all the time!! hello hug, goodbye hug, i appreciate you hug, all the hugs!!

has the voice of an actual angel

he gets super shy when you ask him to sing but will belt out whatever song you want

also plays the guitar whenever you visit him at the dorms or at practice & attempts to each you

he encourages you to sing with him, whether you can or not not doesn’t matter, he likes it when you two are screeching the lyrics to your favourite song together

loves eating your food, even if you can’t cook, he appreciates it!!

scolds you if you don’t do your homework or leave dishes in the sink, he is a lil granny hehe

johnny

you call him beanstalk so he calls you jack, even if you’re a girl he doens’t care lol, together you’re jack and the beanstalk

sends you memes throughout the day when he has time, he just feels like you have to see them or else he’ll combust

he always messes up your hair whenever you say horton hears a who

makes you tune in to nct night night everynight & will literally quiz you on what he was talking with jaehyun about

always giggles when you hype up his singing voice and dancing

he did’t spend all that time in the dungeon for nothing

whenever you two go out and get separated you just shout “oh daddy” and he’ll find you

almost died laughing when you worse his shoes before, he’s literally bigfoot

has the ugliest photos of you on his phone but he says they make him feel better about himself

but then you just send him his predebut pics and he shuts up real quick lmao

never ask his opinion on your outfit unless you want him to just

*inhale* johNNYS FASHION EVALUATION *exhale*

3am meme wars

literally kills you with his pun, doesn’t matter where you are

johnny, holding up a pie: “hey y/n you’re such a cutie pie!”

johnny, with a bag of candy: “these may be sweet but you’re even sweeter!”

johnny;"if you were a booger i’d pick you first”

johnny; “h-” “say another word johnny seo and i would fucking cut you”

you’re highkey done with him but you don’t know what you do without him

and vice versa <3

taeyong

sometimes you want to smack him because he keeps overworking himself!! & you want him to rest!!! but he doesn’t listen

 so most of the time when he has a day off you just go over to the dorms with takeaway and spend the day watching that anime he hasn’t shut up about

but he loves how much you take care of him (he won’t admit it tho)

he usually comes to you if he has a problem or just needs to rant & you listen every time!!

he loves when you send him random pictures of dogs you see because he misses his own dog ruby

he laughs so hard when you attempt to rap his parts in songs, esp in chain like,,,im convinced taeyong has gills because of how fast he raps

calls you randomly in the middle of the day just because he wants to hear your voice (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)

cutest little man alive, if you’re happy he’s happy, always giggles at your puns even if they’re bad

also brings you with him when he gets a piercing, so he can squeeze your hand 

pouts when you say any member is better looking than him as a joke

“but i’m the center,,,(ಥ﹏ಥ)“ then he brings out the puppy dog eyes so ofc you take it back

he’s also super caring towards you and will fight anybody who makes you sad

yuta

sassiest man alive & will roast tf out of you

but its okay you roast him back so your entire friendship is just insulting each other

but nobody else can insult you, otherwise yuta gets angry >:[ & vice versa

judges you when you wear his jumpers because only he can make it look good

makes you watch anime with him but without the subtitles & unless you speak japanese, you’re going to be bored for ages

tries out shitty pick up lines on you they’re for winwin

all the members aid yuta is like a hot pouch so he lets you cling to him during winter or when it’s cold because he doesn’t want his bestie getting a cold smh

then’d he have to take care of you rip

comes whining to you everytime winwin rejects him but also wont accept your love???

teaches you little phrases in japanese and dies when you repeat them but butcher them 

also asks for your opinion on his outfits & piercings

“y/n should i go with the cross earrings or hoop?”

“neither you’re too ugly”

“not as ugly as you”

you two fight like cat and dog but deep down he’s a total softie for you aw

doyoung

another sassy man but only roasts you if he feels you’re being annoying

whenever you’re sad tho, doyoung makes you your favourite meal & mAYHaps you cried at how thoughtful he is

treats you like you’re his little brother

he pushes you off the couch because he find’s your reaction funny rip

but whenever he goes away on tour he always comes back with hella souvenirs just for you

doesn’t let you near jeno because “you’ll taint him!!” but he gives jeno your number as an emergency contact???

he’ll randomly text you that he’s coming over then show up two seconds later & you two end up blasting bazzi all day while he bitches to you about the other members lol

when you cook, even if you’re good or bad, he’ll always be hovering over your shoulder and telling you that you’re doing something wrong, jokingly

then he’ll eat up the whole dish & tell you it was horrible #justdoyoungthings

judges you silently whenever you bring up an ex he never liked but still lends you his shoulder to cry on if you get upset

if you ever call him sad he’ll be over to yours in about 5 seconds with your favourite snack and let you pick movies for you two to watch

sends you random clips of him singing during the day & gets all bashful when you say you love his voice

you got him a toy bunny for his birthday and despite him saying he hates it, he brings it with him whenever he goes on tour & sleeps w it :’)

jaehyun

marine boy

glares at you every time you call him jeffery

you always ask him wtf is his skincare routine but he just laughs & says “perish :)”

sings you to sleep with his voice actually from HEAVEN because you called him when you had a bad dream & he’s hella smug because you trust him that much(▰˘◡˘▰)

doesn’t get annoyed when you poke his dimple, he’s find its cute how you find it cute which you find cute and you’re both just C U T E

encourages you to tune in to nct night night but will highkey be sad if you don’t 

you two always stay up super late talking to each other on the phone because his voice is so soothing and he thinks the same about you until one of you end up falling asleep like (´﹃｀)

he has so many screenshots of you fast asleep on facetime and he sets the funniest one as his lockscreen, so when hes away he can look at it & remember you’re there for him (⺣◡⺣)♡

lets you borrow his jumpers but only if you really need it like he’s not giving you his tommy hilfiger jacket unless you forgot your own jacket and its -374873 degrees outside lol

also p cuddly with you since he’s so comfortable around you

like you’d just be chilling at the dorms and he’ll lay his head down on your lap & you’ll start running your hand through his hair as he dozes off

or when you two go out to eat he’ll loop his arm your shoulders whilst you walk & wouldn’t even bat an eyelid

you two get mistaken for a couple so much you end up just shrugging it off because lol their opinion doesn’t matter

your friendship is important to each other all thats all that really matters

winwin

only likes getting dotted on by you

when the other members yuta smother him with love hes just ( ¬_¬)

but when you do, he’s like (ღ˘⌣˘ღ)

he attempts to teach you his wushu skills and his cool flexible tricks but you just end up dislocating something lol

he ends up switching to chinese whenever he rants to you & unless you speak chinese you’re basically listening to an angry winwin for about 20 mins

but so long as he gets it off his chest you don’t mind :))

do not let the boy near a kitchen he will literally set it on fire

for your birthday he tried making moon cakes but ended up burning his hand (つ﹏<。)

but you still appreciated the thought & he bought you take away 

he gets a bit down sometimes because of how little lines he has & sometimes he thinks he’s voice isnt that good but you reassure him every time that his voice!!is amazing!!! sm just need to get their shit together sm more like smh

he loves it when you speak to him in chinese, it makes him feel so at home awe

likes to fall asleep on you because you’re the most comfortable thing to him

doesn’t matter where or when because to him

your lap= free real estate

you two also get mistaken for a couple sometimes but winwin just nods hugs you close to prove his point & you two always die from laughter afterwards

he always listens to you though so whenver winwin is moody, taeyong calls you to give out to him so he goes from (-`д´-) to (￣^￣)ゞ real quick

winwin loves you & you love him too

jungwoo

softest boy 

whenever you meet up with him you don’t say hi, you just do his part from boss then he walks away from you lol

you always encourage him to speak up, esp. when he’s with a bunch of people

since he has a habit of copying what people say you say the most complicated words in english

“superkajafrjalisticaxosjdapefwfnls”

“super fuck off y/n”

your entire friendship consists of either eating at your place or eating out at some random all you can eat buffet

super supportive of you even when you do stupid things, you look over at him and hes just d(￣▽￣o) “you do you y/n”

sends you selfies of him so you can fawn over his beauty & tell him which pose suits him best

claps like a seal whenever you say something funny but gets pouty when you make fun of it

super affectionate with you & glares at anybody who comments on it, like jungwoo just wants to be close with his bestie, is that wrong?

is lowkey protective of you like if he thinks lucas is tryna make a move, jungwoo will swoop tf in and whisk you away to the safety of his room

you two end up cuddle under the blankets watching his favorite movie & he ends up dozing off

does aegyo whenever you get mad at him so you can’t really stay mad, he’s just too cute

mark

always goes to your first whenever he writes a rap because he values your opinion a lot & you’re honest with him

lots of inside jokes which just consists of you two giggling to each other randomly

needs you to tell him to take a break because of how much he works

if he doesn’t listen you threaten to feed him sour candy

but you’re super duper proud of your canadian bestie, when he preforms on stage you’re deadass in the crowd like

“thats my bEST FRIEND!!!(´⌣`ʃƪ)“

pouts when he tries to call you & you don’t pick up 

he wanted to tell you about the fluffy dog he saw a minute ago!!

but texts you nonetheless & you wake up to 36 messages describing the texture of the dogs fur and how it barked

but you loved how weird mark was, the weirder he was the more comfortable he was and it was just so cute

doesn't care if you steal his jumpers, he has about 300 but will not let you touch his caps, they are his prized possessions 

he doesn’t even try roast you because of how many memes of him you can send back 

you always tell him how much you miss his ramen hair 

he laughs at anything so you could literally cough and he’d cry from laughing but thats what makes him so endearing

you call him seagull boy to annoy him & it works lol

gets shy when you watch his dance at practice & ends up making mistakes but nobody is mad about it hehe

you also refer to him as long ass ride boy or sing sang sung boy 

he threatens to block you irl 

tries to teach you how to play guitar but you end up purposefully messing it up and he cringes so badly lol

but mark is your best friend and nothing will change that

haechan

he is That Bitch

always comes to you first when he has tea on the members

“y/n bitCH, mArk actually flirted w winwin infront of me, i’m cancelling him smh”

random dance competitions at 4 in the morning are a must, he always ends up beating you （πーπ）

also snaps you selfies of him randomly because he wants you to hype him up

which you do obviously

also texts you almost everyday & keeps you updated on what hes doing

“i’m at a cafe w my hyungs tday!!”

“omg i have a shoot @5am​ i’m going to d i e”

“come over and make me ramen pesant”

buT he looooves when you baby him

before you leave the dorms after hanging out, he makes you tuck him in & give him a lil smooch on the forehead goodnight awee ( ˘ ³˘)

but would die if you ever told his hyungs s you swear not too plus it’s good blackmail for you hehe

you always say “ohmgod its michael jackson hehe” whenever you two meet up and homeboy loves it so he moonwalks over to you

he’ll randomly challenge you to singing competitions of who can hit the highest note haechan and whose voice will break first yours

also cuddles with you all the times, you’re his personal teddy bear & will snap back at the members if they try comment on it

“you’re just mad nobody will let you touch them mark”

the most savage best friend but only lets you baby him aw

[jellycreamjammedart]

these two would be absolute besties too and nobody can ever convince me otherwise yet

[vodka-aunt-coran]

pidge and lance are best friends: a illustrated guide that nobody asked for

hey y’all i’m emma and welcome to jackass appreciating pidge and lance’s beautiful friendship

(this is long af with many screencaps, but i describe them, so you don’t really need to open them all if you’re on mobile ok i know the struggle and i’ve got u)

[image: lance saving his teammate’s ass from iverson even though she’s been dismissive of him until now]

[image: “you heard iverson, we need to bond as a team. we’re going to grab pidge, hit the town…” aka lance breaking rules and dragging his other best friend along bc he’s gonna befriend pidge if it’s the last thing he does]

first five minutes of episode one, lance is already making an effort to befriend pidge! lonely, temperamental pidge, bc lance is one of those Special Important People who can sense when someone needs a friend.

[image(s): lance being Intuitive of his Potential Friend’s problems. also, hunk being precious, but that’s not relevant to the argument.]

after lance and hunk pursue pidge to the rooftop to see what she’s up to, lance convinces pidge to spill her secrets. well, the alien ones anyway. the other one’s will come later.

[image: aliens confirmed]

[image: “all ‘aliens’ can be explained by weather balloons and chupacabras pidge, a smart kid like you should know better” (paraphrased)]

ok to be fair, lance is pretty dismissive of that at first. he’s more of a ghost hunter than an alien watcher…but that’s what makes the friendship so magical. of course, lance’s attitude shifts after they spot something falling from the sky.

[image: real friends use each other as binocular straps. ok, that isn’t relevant to the point either, but it’s a nice screenshot fight me.]

[image: “let’s follow our instructors to the possibly-hostile alien shipwreck and check it out!!!!’” “yeah i’m totally in come on hunk!!!!” (paraphrased)]

this is when i believe they truly begin to Bond….over a no-questions-asked surveillance and break-in of a government facility before recklessly vanishing into the desert, and subsequently space. like, immediately after they see shiro they start Scheming a rescue mission. i can’t capture it in screenshots without taking too many, but these two are Scheme Buddies. trust me. instant bond.

[image: and then some doof with a dorky haircut appears and starts blowing shit up. so much for Scheming, i guess.]

they don’t have much interaction again until episode five, but it’s a good one

[image(s): lance’s brother senses are tingling, so he wakes up from a coma for a few seconds specifically to wreck sendak’s shit]

that’s right. lance, who was unconscious for the better part of two episodes, comes to his senses just when pidge is in danger. he sharpshoots the second-rate clown harassing his sister, smirks, and passes back out until his boyfriend comes to check on him.

in return, pidge lets him get away with claiming that he shot off sendak’s arm even though that was her …that’s not an actual point, i guess, but i’m counting it.

[image: they have similar tastes in women/robots. questionable tastes.]

it’s a good thing they have hunk, otherwise they’d be easily swept away by any pretty smile or circuitry tossed their way :’D

[image: green and blue lions work together to stitch taujeer back together. they call them the tailors, actually, bec–]

skip forward to season two, like above, when they combine their powers to save the taujeer…ians? good stuff.

and, of course, there’s the mall episode. do i even need to go into the mall episode? no. i’ve reblogged countless gifsets of that. all you need to know is that real friends go fountain diving for enough spare change to get a video game and then escape on a hoverboard cow.

[image: pidge and lance Scheming in escape from beta traz]

for beta traz, they work together for a jailbreak!! how neat!! like, yeah, shiro was there, but he really just escorted slav. pidge and lance did all the scans and planning and stuff. the Schemers are back in action y’all. partners in crime 4 lyfe.

[image: pidge and lance getting rekt. ok, maybe shiro was also useful as muscle. i guess. he got rekt too to be fair.]

then they worked together trying to fight the reborn salamonster on the balmera too! …keyword “tried”

[image: a badass entrance that would be better in gif form, followed by them once again getting #rekt. you know what they say, though – you miss 100% of the giant robot lion laser blasts you don’t take.]

aaand i’m not doing the last two episodes bc i don’t remember any significant pidge and lance bits from there, but feel free to add on if i’m wrong.

TL;DR: lance and pidge are ultimate besties, lance is a supportive and protective big brother, both are dorks who would definitely fall for any properly-baited trap, and most importantly, they’re Schemers who very much enjoy acting on their Reckless Schemes. thank god they have hunk to protect them from themselves.

[tortuga-aak]

I spent years — and a fortune — chasing the life I thought everyone else had until I recognized a simple truth

FOMO, or 'Fear of Missing Out,' is an irrational belief that everyone is always having more fun than you.

Mark Manson used to suffer from FOMO and would travel to various countries just to get rid of the fear of not experiencing something great.

Often, the expensive trips would be a letdown because he would spend money on things he didn't really care about, just for the "perfect picture."

FOMO causes people to make their decisions based on the imagined experience — not the reality of it.

  I used to have this problem. It was almost like an addiction. Except I wasn't actually consuming something — rather, it was like an addiction of wanting to consume things that I couldn't. I'm not proud of this problem. In fact, I used to hide it from family and friends. I used to pretend like nothing was wrong, like nothing bothered me. Yet, it ate away at me inside.

I used to suffer from FOMO. That is, "Fear of Missing Out."

You've probably heard of it. H---, you probably suffer from it in one form or another.

For me, for a number of years, it was travel. Show me a pretty picture and my knee-jerk reaction was that I needed to sell my last pair of shoes to go there. And not just go there, but go like, now. Go yesterday. What the f--- was I waiting for? I should be there already. Oh s---, I'm too late!

Forget the fact that the picture was probably photoshopped and a professional photographer was probably paid $10 billion to make the water look perfect and the island was on the other side of the planet — shut up. I. HAD. TO. GO.

And often, I did. Not all of the time (otherwise I would have spent my life on airplanes), but a fair amount of the time. I spent probably tens of thousands of dollars flying to remote, exotic destinations that lit up my Facebook and Instagram every day like a f---ing slot machine.

Some of these places were breathtaking. But most weren't. In fact, many of them were a letdown.

With the filters removed, and some cloudy off-season weather in play, and a gaggle of tourists spoiling your Snapchat-perfect moment, that dream of a beach trip that I had bought into and mortgaged half my month to get actually usually ended up being a bit drab and ordinary.

You would think after a few of these trips, it would sink in.

But it didn't. Not at first, at least. At first, it actually had the opposite effect. It just convinced me that I wasn't going to the right places. That my Instagram sleuthing was sub-par. That I was even further behind the curve than I thought. That my destinations simply weren't exotic enough, my adventures not adventurous enough. That I wasn't doing enough research or spending enough money. And so I returned, as always, to that dopamine machine known as the internet, to newsfeed me into another vision of a perfect Shangri-La that I could project all of my hopes and wishes onto.

I did this for years.

And yes, I went on a lot of awesome trips. But I also ended up with a peculiar problem of often traveling to places I didn't actually enjoy, and spending my money on seeing things that I didn't actually care about.

Talk about first world problems (except this was usually happening in the third world).

In hindsight, I wasn't motivated by the joy of seeing something great. I was motivated by the fear of not seeing something great.

Those may sound like the same thing, but they are not. They are worlds apart (no pun intended).

FOMO is a compulsive desire to experience something (or be somewhere) motivated not by what you gain, but rather by the fear of what you will potentially lose. 

And this idea of loss is usually (OK, almost always) imagined.

FOMO is self-invented psychological torture. It's a figment of our mind's worst imagination. It's that irrational belief that everyone is always having more fun than you, at all times. That life's epic moment is always just around the corner, and you're a dumb for staying home and not participating in it.

It's the irrational belief that the next place/person/event is going to be the perfect one and you're missing out by focusing on wherever you are or whatever you're doing. It's hanging out with nine different friends each week and not feeling close to any of them. It's going to five different bars on a Friday night and hating every single one because you can't stop thinking about the next one down the street your friend is at and is probably way cooler than wherever you are.

FOMO is becoming a big issue with our generation for the simple fact that our generation has the most options and choices to choose from. This has been famously called "The Paradox of Choice" and it's pretty much why the more amazing things get, the less happy we all become.

If you have two breakfast burritos to choose from, you'll pick whichever looks better and not think anything of it.

Pixel.la/Flickr

But if you are offered 37 different varieties of gourmet, artisanal breakfast burritos with locally sourced goat milk ganache, then you're likely to torture yourself, and not just making the decision itself, but you'll wonder for the next five hours if that was the best burrito you could have had in that situation or any situation ever and then decide that you have to go back to try the other ones. Except this is the fourteenth brunch cafe you've said you have to go back to and not only are not even hungry anymore, but you don't even like burritos and OMG THERE'S JUST NOT ENOUGH TIME TO DO ALL OF THE AMAZING THINGS.

The problem with FOMO is that it prevents you from actually experiencing what's happening. That might sound crazy, since FOMO is often what drives people to try to accumulate as many experiences as possible, but it simultaneously robs those same experiences of any significance or lasting meaning.

The reason is that FOMO causes people to make their decisions based not on the reality of the experience, but rather the imagined experience.

So they don't actually want to go to dinner with their co-workers. But then they think that this might be the big moment where everyone has that epic night together and bonds with one another and loves each other like besties forever and ever. So they go anyway. And because they don't actually want to be there, they don't have an epic night, and they don't bond, and nobody becomes their bestie, and instead, they sit there on their phone imagining all of the other cool amazing things they could be doing instead of this lame dinner with their co-workers.

In this sick and twisted way, the FOMO person crams their life full of activities while not actually being present or appreciative of what's happening. In their desperate obsession with quality experience, they compensate by accumulating quantity of experience.

Back when I was gawking at those Instagram photos of photobombed beaches and t---twisting mountains, I wasn't actually thinking to myself, "Hmm… would I enjoy the process of packing, flying, preparing, hiking, losing sleep, paying tons of money, hiring a guide, buying new boots, researching hotels, etc., etc. for what this location likely offers?"

No, my mind never got further than, "That looks cooler than what I'm doing now," and that's all it needed to want to go do it.

In hindsight, it was an incredibly immature and impulsive means of making decisions. Just because something seemed better meant that I immediately jumped to the conclusion that it would be better and then invested my time and energy into it.

Years ago, back when I used to give a lot of dating/relationship advice, I used to notice this similar behavior with younger, more immature men and women.

A guy would see a hot girl, and his mind would immediately jump to, "I need to be with her! Tell me how I can be with her!" without actually going through the logical steps of asking himself the obvious questions of what she was like, whether he would even enjoy being around her, whether they would get along, if she would treat him well, if she was even looking to be with someone, whether they would actually be happy, etc.

There was a fusion in these guys' brains of "She's hot" equals "I want to be with her."

Looking back, they were FOMO'ing out of their minds. Anything sexy struck them as more worthwhile than whatever they were doing with their lives at the moment. And because there's always something new and sexy around the corner, they were therefore never satisfied with any woman they actually met.

It was a sick mind game they played with themselves without knowing it. And it was classic objectification of the men/women they wanted to be with (or at least thought they wanted to be with).

And that's really what FOMO boils down to: objectification. Not just of others, but ourselves. Treating our lives as some sort of itemized checklist or score to be maxed out before we die. But life is not a video game. There's no report card waiting for you at the pearly gates. And no, you can't take your Facebook timeline with you when you're dead.

Life is a series of complicated experiences that bring various mixtures of joys and struggles and must be evaluated and decided upon as we go, based on our current feelings and values. Inspired by our insecurities, FOMO short-circuits our ability to handle or deal with any of this.

I know the truth is not as sexy as a bright-blue-green beach or a model-thin girl in a pair of short-shorts. And that's probably why people seem to be so bad at doing it. Because the internet is good at showing sexy. It's bad at showing life.

The way to get out of feeling FOMO is to start killing those fantasies that you're letting rule your decision making. 

There's no such thing as a perfect beach. There's no such thing as a perfect partner. There's no such thing as a perfect night out or a perfect party or a perfect group of friends.

Better and worse are highly relative things. And they depend on far more than what looks good on paper (or on a smartphone). You can go to the most perfect place in the world, but if your dog died the day before you left, it's going to be a horrible trip. There's nothing you can do about that. So much of what makes life "good" or "bad" is unpredictable and outside our control.

All of life's great experiences come with associated costs. They require investment and sacrifice. And it's completely normal and healthy to be unwilling to commit to them at times. That doesn't mean you're necessarily missing anything. In fact, if you think about it, you're always missing something. And sometimes it's actually better that you're missing those things.

Eventually what stopped my FOMO was realizing that you are always missing out on something. Yes, I was running away on these amazing trips to see amazing places. But I was also giving up the stability and community that comes with building a home. I was giving up making strong connections with people, and being there in a reliable way for those I cared about. I was giving up my ability to focus for long stretches at a time, to build something more out of my career and my skill-set and to reach my full potential.

Valuable experiences come in many forms.

Some of those are exciting and Snapchat-worthy. Others are not. Looking back, I probably got more out of the books I read in Bali than I did actually being there. It hurt the first time I admitted that to myself. But it's true.

Some of these other valuable-yet-unsexy experiences — being alone, maintaining friendships, educating yourself — you will never see them on Instagram because you can't take a picture of them. It's not something out there outside of yourself. It's something you build upon within. And the first step to that building process is the day you realize that life isn't about accumulating more experiences, but rather focusing extremely well on less.

Happiness doesn't work in the way most people think it does. In fact, it operates in kind of a "backwards" way. To find out what I mean, put your email in the form and receive my 24-page ebook on happiness, what it means, and how to achieve it. No spam. I promise.

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