#and i'm not angry at the person in the situation or at the situation. But it's worth it to think a little before saying something.

[firelightmlpoc]

This is Pansear (if you want proof, look at my pinned blog; I'm well aware that there are a lot of imposters out there). I wish to say thank you for being open minded while also acknowledging that- yes- I did fuck up at times. I didn't treat Azriel the best. I was selfish towards the MAP collaborators. I wasn't a particularly great person in general- all that I admit, and I have my own separate posts for those. Overall, I'm sorry.

The harassment was too much and the screenshots were obviously fake. It wasn't fair to me. It wasn't fair to anyone either including those who believed were fake too, even to future potential victims of allegations and former victims of harassment campaigns. I left not in admittance of guilt, but to everything else that has boiled over (again, I detailed this in a post).

I know there's people beaming to know that I'm alive and well (and of course, people who are angry that I'm not). I just want to say that I'm sorry for having to leave everyone in the dark for so long, and that I was basically a POS back then.

It saddens me as well that this whole situation not only affected me- it has affected most of the fandom. It has affected the other artists, who no longer feel safe and comfortable. It has affected my friends, who missed me and feel lost in the dark. It has affected my fans, who worry about me and feel so conflicted about everything. It has affected friend groups who are distanced in their conflicts.

Even for the things I didn't do, I still felt horrible. There were no winners in the end, and any winner I could describe are those vile people hiding behind anons who have hurt the most.

People can already predict that I will never return and that is definitely the case. Not just for the sake of my well-being, but I believe it's for the best for everyone in general. It's been far too long that I danced through the harsh weathers- some strange fucked up game of ping pong, and it's time to put it to rest. I don't care if people will hate me still, all I care about is everyones' safety and for those who have been hurt to heal from this.

I have no real say on the Emily side of things. Indeed what she did to Azriel was irresponsible, but she doesn't deserve the harm and harassment she's got and been getting. Nobody does. Not even my calloutters and my harassers. Looking at their responses and posts just makes me feel bad. I can't help but feel sorry for them.

I hope you yourself are doing well. To all others reading this, I hope you all are too. The fandom isn't the same but I know love can persist somewhere. I am leaving it all up to you to make this place so much better, and that one day everyone can laugh again.

For now, I'm hoping things can rest.

I’m glad to hear you’re doing alright. And as you’ve said: Yes, you have done things wrong, but the actions taken against you were far beyond the pale for what you actually did.

An apology backed by action towards self-betterment is a good apology, & is what you’ve shown to be doing, though I truly wish that the cost you’ve had to pay for this all wasn’t so steep. I hope that you’re still able to find enjoyment in your art still, & hope that you’re able to heal from all of this, even if it takes a good bit of time to do so.

May the path you walk no longer hurt to stand on, & may you find yourself at peace with all of it some day.

[daretoassume]

consciously manifesting for others

guide + some excerpts from different lectures of neville goddard

aligning your vibration with your desires is no different from consciously manifesting for others. i believe everything and everyone you see in your current reality is malleable and can be transformed—not by persuading or controlling them, but through your mind.

after all, it is your physical reality. you can shift to different realities where what you envision exists, including what you desire others to experience, how you prefer them to be, or the kind of person you wish them to become.

 "if you assume that you are that finer, nobler one you wish to be, you will see others as they are related to your high assumption. all enlightened men wish for the good of others. if it is the good of another you seek, you must use the same controlled contemplation. in meditation, you must represent the other to yourself as already being or having the greatness you desire for him."  ♱ the law of assumption, neville goddard

it's no use of complaining about the other person and not use the law for them. i mean, our physical reality is not always perfect but don't you want to see them thrive and grow as a person? even if it's nothing got to do with you. it's not having other people agree with everything you say but seeing them expand their perception and see them actually changing.

how to actually manifest for others

it doesn't matter how they feel about themselves or what you think about them. the only thing that matters is how you want them to represent in your reality. what do you want them to experience in your reality? how do you want them to live in your reality?

stop acknowledging the things that don’t serve them, no matter what you’ve heard.

create mental conversations where you hear them telling you they got what they wanted.

assume their state. imagine you’re them, already living their desired reality.

see them in your mind happy, satisfied, and grateful. imagine them telling you the good news.

feel joy for them, knowing it’s already done. go to sleep holding on to that feeling.

"i tell you that if you imagine, that someone stands before you in bodily form, although they cannot be seen with your mortal eye, but actually you imagine they are standing before you and you carried on a conversation with them from the premise of your fulfilled desire for them, and then you feel them as you would feel them were they now solidly present, and you believe in the reality of that imaginal act, it’s done!" ♱ the pearl of great price, neville goddard

consider what qualities, circumstances, or growth you desire them to embody in your reality and allow that vision to guide your perspective. and like always, know that it is done. you don't have to do anything but have the inner knowing that you don't have to do different techniques. this is how you detached.

how would you represent them in your reality?

whenever i’m upset or angry at someone, instead of focusing on their flaws or being stuck in the conflict, i just transform how i see them. let’s say i’m mad at someone or they’ve hurt me—i don’t want to stay in that state. so instead, i imagine them apologizing, changing for the better, or becoming kinder and more compassionate. instead of dwelling on the negative trait they have, i’m moving into a state where they’re acting in alignment with the best version of themselves.

as an empath, it's kind of challenging to brush off what i feel in my current reality and transform it in my mind, but over the years, i realized that reality is malleable, it's like clay but i have to actually acknowledge my emotions so that i'm not letting my current reality or anyone in my current reality to tell me what to feel. so that i can then proceed to disciplining my mind and detach on the situation of what just happened.

"when you see someone in despair can you represent him to yourself as he would like to be seen? and can you persuade yourself that what you see is real? To the degree that you are self-persuaded he will become that man. then you will have conquered by forgiveness! You will have taken him out of one state and placed him in another." ♱ infinite states, neville goddard

what you give out (your perception of them) is what you get back. persist on the idea you created for them with no expectation and feel that they are already what you want them to be but never let your physical reality (how they behave) tell you what to feel about it. when you change your beliefs about them, how you react to them physically or emotionally will eventually change.

again, you can do SATS, visualization, scripting, whatever permission slip that is, do it once or until it feels natural for you then drop it. don't check your physical reality if it's already happening or not. the real shift is inside of you. when you have aligned your mind, there's no need for you to check what's outside of you.

[brucewaynehater101]

okay so in freaky Friday situations my brother and I always bring up the same four questions, so in the Bruce Tim swap

Do they know all the people in the others life?

what happens if someone tries to flirt with them well flipped

bathroom

why don’t they tell some people

do they learn anything really or did they just live in the others shoes

Hmm....

Do they know everybody in each other's lives??

Imma say no. Tim "what the fuck is adult supervision" Drake and Bruce "is at least two decades older" Wayne may both stalk the other, but they're also excellent at hiding shit from people. The best scenario for this is Bruce and Tim separately knowing the same person without knowing the other person knows them (and all the shenanigans that would cause).

Flirting while flipped

Hella uncomfortable for both of them due to the age gaps. However, you could have a hurt/comfort here where some creepy older person tries to flirt with Tim while Bruce is stuck in his body.

Bathroom

I'm not sure how uncomfortable this would be for the Bats in general. I presume they have seen each other in states of undress for injury purposes or just getting ready. It's not great, but probably less awkward than it would be for others? Highly debatable

Why would they not tell others?

Stubbornness, paranoia, pride, circumstances/inability [tons that can fall under this], or fear

Do they learn anything from switching bodies?

For sure. Someone can *describe* their experience, but it's never quite the same as *living* it. Keep in mind, however, that experiences shape perspective as much as actual perception. An interesting contrast would be then switching bodies and the other not being able to understand the other *even more.*

For example [not canon compliant]: Bruce, in Tim's body, feels the intense physical discomfort and anger whenever someone commands him to do something. Bruce doesn't understand why Tim wouldn't speak up about this or react as his body is telling him to. Tim, who's experienced his parents lecturing him many times for being angry, can not bring himself to express these emotions/feelings.

Intriguing questions ^^ Thank you ~

[tlbodine]

Tips for Talking to Conservative Friends & Family

In the wake of the election, with the holidays around the corner, some of you may be wondering how to deal with friends, family members, coworkers, etc. who voted for Trump and/or who espouse his policies.

This guide is by no means meant to be authoritative and won't work in every circumstance. I accept no responsibility for what happens if you use any scripts and it goes horribly awry. But I did want to share some of my personal experience in this vein, as someone with a great deal of conservative people in my life whom I generally love and respect and would like to maintain a civil relationship with (and, hopefully, bring them back to center if not my side). I've had decent luck with these strategies in the past.

First: Only engage if it is safe to do so.

Do not get into political discussions that might endanger your job, your living situation, your access to care, or your physical and emotional safety. However, do engage if you are able to do so safely and your doing so might help someone in a more vulnerable position. What the fuck is privilege for if not using it to protect people?

Second: Identify your goal.

Do you want to de-escalate a situation so someone can get out of immediate danger? Do you want to establish a boundary? Or do you want to actually attempt to convert someone over to your side? Each goal has different tactics. Be realistic with yourself about what you're going to accomplish. If you do not have a close relationship with the person, you are extremely unlikely to change their mind about anything, and it's frankly not worth the effort. Let someone who is close to them do that work. De-escalate, set a boundary if possible, and gtfo.

But if you do have a close relationship -- if this person generally likes and respects you -- then you might have a shot at challenging their views.

We're going to assume a scenario where you're dealing with people you know and who you can generally count on not to be immediately aggressive. Somebody else will be better-equipped to talk about strategies for dealing with protests and people on the street etc.

De-Escalation & Setting Boundaries

This is your first line of defense against family members acting shitty. If someone tries to start a debate, makes an off-color joke or comment, or is otherwise behaving inappropriately, try:

Let's not talk about this over dinner.

I don't think this is appropriate conversation right now.

That's an awful thing to say.

I don't understand that joke, can you explain why it's funny?

I'm sorry, I won't listen to any more of this (leave the room)

That's not okay.

What you want to do here is make an appeal to correct standards of behavior. You want them to feel ashamed for acting out of line. In order to make this work, it is essential that you:

Remain calm and keep an even, light-but-firm tone of voice. It needs to be clear that you're not joking around, but you also cannot sound upset. (Yes, this is really hard. I'm sorry.) Practice your very best "I'm not angry, just disappointed" tone for maximum effect. If you can manage it, eye contact and a neutral or even slightly concerned or sad expression will make it even better.

Avoid insulting or attacking them. Do not say things like, "Stop being an asshole" or "I can't believe you're acting like this" no matter how much you want to. Do not say "That's racist/sexist/ableist/homophobic." These types of replies, no matter how accurate, will make them defensive, and defensive people shut down and stop listening. If you come off as angry, that gives THEM permission to be angry right back. But if you come off as the normal one, them getting angry makes them look like a dick.

Do not laugh. Avoid the urge to chuckle nervously or joke it off. It WILL feel uncomfortable. It WILL be awkward as fuck. That's the point. They are misbehaving by violating a standard of appropriate behavior, and you are setting down a boundary. The awkwardness will fade and, frankly, they'll often start behaving better pretty much immediately.

Follow through on your consequences. If you say, "Dad, if you continue to bring up Trump, I will not call you anymore," you have to stick to it. Holding firm to your boundaries is HARD AS FUCK but if you don't do it then all you do is teach them that they can wear you down. Think of it like training a dog. Consistency is key.

You're not going to change anybody's closely-held beliefs with this strategy, but you WILL make a case for what is allowable around you. If you model this behavior, and encourage and embolden other people you know to do the same, you might be surprised. A lot of times, people's inappropriate behavior is a boundary-testing mechanism -- they tell the racist joke because they want to see if they can get away with it -- and if you shut them down, they often just...stop. Or at least retreat into their little hole to talk to fellow gremlins instead of you.

Challenging Views, Changing Minds

Okay. You actually want to engage them in conversation. You want to challenge their views and help them change their opinion. How do you do that?

Again, it's essential that you remain calm. If you can't have this discussion without getting heated, it's not the time to have the discussion. If they start to get heated, be prepared to de-escalate and walk away: "I cannot continue this conversation with you right now. Let's talk again some other time when we've cooled off."

But if you can keep calm, here is what actually works (sometimes):

Listen to them. No, really. Hear them out.

Help them feel heard by empathizing with them. Repeat back your understanding of what they said and how that must feel.

Remind them that for other people, THEY are feeling xyz emotion, too.

Ask them questions. Instead of telling them they're wrong, ask questions that will lead them to draw that conclusion themselves.

Make appeals to emotion rather than starting with facts and logic. You'll know what kind of emotion to draw on because you've been listening to them and empathizing. Hint: almost always, bigotry (at the personal level) is rooted in fear.

If this is going well, THEN you can start citing some sources, statistics, and facts.

Invite them to share THEIR sources with you.

Thank them for doing such a good job at being calm and discussing this with you, reaffirm your close relationship, and encourage them to come talk to you about this at any time. It's very possible that you are the only person they might feel safe bringing this stuff up to now and you want to keep that channel of communication open.

Very often (not always, or often), conservative-leaning individuals are people who lack the education or knowledge that left-leaning people do. They may be accustomed to being insulted, yelled at, and made to feel stupid. They are conditioned to believe that folks on the left are smug, holier-than-thou, stuck-up assholes. Whatever you can do to poke a hole in that perception will simultaneously make it easier to talk to them AND cause them to question that rhetoric the next time they encounter it.

This tactic won't always work. It probably won't work at all the first conversation. It's something you'll have to chip away at over time. But sometimes, it's worth it.

And if it's not? Well. As they say.

[cavycaptain]

I tabled with Kagebros that TFCon Weekend and we've talked about the tracing and redraws--FYI I also sell redraws of famous G1 scenes to sell as charms/prints. The merch is in my own style rather than taking directly from the cartoons and I acknowledge that they're not original. I'm not one to stand against the selling of redraws because that's just hypocrisy.

Kagebros has apologized and understand the consequences of their actions and that's enough for me.

People have traced and stolen from my merch/art before to the point where potential customers have become wary of purchasing from me because they did not realize that the tracers were taking advantage of my lack of online presence/small following. I'm not a fan of dogpiling, but I admit that I have made call-out posts, because again I have a smaller audience and get overwhelmed by misinformation thrown at me and I feel as though I'm backed into a corner. I have to understand that the tracers behind the screens are human like me and if they credit or take the art down, I am a very forgive and forget person. Again this is my own personal take on the situation from my own experience, and people do have the right to be upset and angry.

When you admire an artist so much, you want to implement their style into your own--I'm inspired by DJW, Josh Burcham, Dana Terrace and many more. Tracing or 1:1 referencing helps when you want to understand how those artists could obtain certain structures in their art--like hands or faces. Its a tale as old as time when inspired by your teachers but in the end you have to take what you learn from them and create a style most comfortable for your own skillset. I see that Kagebros has their own style developing and I cannot wait to see how much they improve in the near future.

I haven't addressed anything because I'd simply be repeating whats already been stated before. There are many points to this story that I agree and disagree with and I was more of a bystander through all of this while supporting my friends. But I guess deciding to still stand by my friend was enough to fuel a different kind of rage brought into the public space and affected our safety.

During this whole ordeal, at TFCon Baltimore, I was warned that a person was following and taking pictures of me WITHOUT MY CONSENT throughout the weekend. I have reason to believe its the same people going after Kagebros. I fear for what these people are capable of or what they could have planned had I or Kagebros not stayed with friends at all times. I feel so disgusted and violated. Yes, this is a public event and I had also taken pictures with friends/visitors that wanted to visit me. There are randoms who also probably unintentionally took pictures of me in passing. But this group had sought out to film and take photos of us for the sole purpose of stalking--I would also like to add that this same group has a history of doxxing people, including minors, in the Transformers fandom.

In this current political climate, its a terrible time to be an AFAB Person of Color. In a place where I thought I could feel accepted and safe and experience a little bit of escapism, I'm alarmed that even then I still feel in danger. Kagebros made mistakes but it doesn't warrant this kind of outrageous behavior. Me choosing to stay friends with someone does NOT warrant being stalked and followed.

I'm not perfect either, I've made so many mistakes, and I'm begging these people to take time to look inward, to self reflect on their actions and to realize the harm they are causing to people's physical and mental wellbeing.

This Post is by someone that wants to remain anonymous, they DM'd me this and asked me to post

The callout campaign against Kagebros has gone WAY too far. The lengths these people have gone to violate someone’s boundaries and privacy in order to “warn” people is incredibly excessive and is dealing horrible damage to their mental health and wellbeing. It needs to fucking stop.

The situation has spiraled completely out of control, spurred on by people who would rather side with a proud AI artist than have a civilized, adult discussion about tracing. Said AI artist has a history of attempting to ruin Kagebros’ credibility, spreading disinformation and rumors about them and their nonprofit charity zines, now going as far as to allegedly incite people to nonconsensually take photos of them at their booth at TFcon Baltimore, and block-evading their socials in order to find more posts to pick apart.

As they have stated already, Kagebros never had ANY intention to scam people, which understandably doesn’t change how those affected may feel. That being said, they could have very easily traced over things without altering them in any way at all, like many others within the convention vending sphere have blatantly done without a callout from these same people who care so much about “calling out tracing”. There tends to be a gray area in the realm of tracing techniques within the art industry (especially professionally), and there is plenty of merit for their actions to be criticized. As they’ve stated, they were under the impression that Official artwork/figures were okay to trace over and alter, which they now know to avoid doing so in the future. Even if the details and credibility of the piece can be scrutinized, they still made a conscious effort to alter the pieces in question to be more original.

Although said effort may not be enough for most, they now KNOW that. End of story. They can't immediately change the pieces they had available for sale, and they should be showing change through their future pieces and actions, which is something that’s up for judgment by anyone. And yet the people starting this have needlessly dragged it on, inciting others to keep spreading the accusations to further audiences, leading to more harassment.

Seafoamsol had admittedly unblocked Kagebros and “offered” to have a talk with them about the situation, but their own intentions are extremely questionable, as a conversation should have been the first priority, rather than a callout post. They assumed Kagebros’ intentions without giving them a single chance to address it themselves before the callout, and are now going forward with the narrative of them being a scammer.

Again, if they truly were concerned, they could have unblocked them and had a conversation before the callout was made, instead of assuming their intentions were to deceive people.

The situation is very nuanced, meaning there's a lot of points to be acknowledged on both sides in order to come to a conclusion, which could have happened peacefully if adults just had a civil discussion with each other. There is a justifiable talk to be had here, and reasonable changes to be made, but this can’t be accomplished productively if people continue to jump to conclusions and assume intentions. This has done nothing–and WILL do nothing–but hurt people, if this behavior doesn’t stop. mistakes will be made, lessons will be learned. Please look at this situation in its entirety before coming to your own conclusions based on assumptions made by people with evidently questionable motives and a history of causing problems for others and driving them out of the community. 

Thank you for reading.

[say-hi-intrepid-heroes]

worst feeling is watching yourself start to have some of the major symptoms of your mental illness come back and not being able to do anything to stop it

[thedreadvampy]

sometimes I forget that my experience has been. um. not 'your experiences are not universal' vibes but more like 'your experiences are EXTREMELY atypical'

[woerm-town]

i feel like it's very important to admit that often, being nice IS hard. and that's okay, because it just is. being nice does cost energy or stress sometimes. i don't understand why this isn't talked about enough.

[luneemeritus]

This scene is so sad for Angel. As someone who already has several trust issues, he finds out there is a traitor in the Hotel, that is working for the Vees (one of them is his rapist/abuser, Velvette other made the love potion that is used to abuse him, and Vox putted more than 5 cameras in his room, it's literally Hell), is slutshamed by the traitor and attacked with a psychodelic confusion, something he is unfortunately used to (be drugged against his will is probably a similar sensation). It's twice sad because moments ago, Vaggie and Charlie literally told Angel AT HIS FUCKING FACE that he "wasn't trying" and that Pentious was "truly interested".

When I say Charlie wants to help but doesn't know how, I mean it. The first person who actually understood and helped Angel was Husk.

[evanonpluto]

tw: outing + swearing in the tags

things i will never do:

forgive the people who harassed kit connor, a closeted eighteen year old to the point where he was forced to come out

[shallowseeker]

Okay, and so. Building on this. With Lucifer. He COVETS Jack. He wants his son, right up until the bitter end, I think!

In 13x23, when Jack "broke Lucifer's heart" (per Nick in 14x17), Lucifer ROARS in dismay.

Lucifer does care... kinda. He wants Jack to be the balm to the nihilism and meaningless that he struggled with way back in season 11.

Lucifer's solution for being better than Chuck? Is not to leave Jack.

He feels like his dogged determination to cross worlds to get to Jack will earn him love. (Per his own words in 12x07, he "needs" love.) He expects Jack to see the stars with him, to be closer to Lucifer's angel-oriented morality than Jack's human-oriented one.

Jack was supposed to be the thing that gave Lucifer's life new meaning and purpose.

LUCIFER: Your sons have my boy. So I’m gonna exchange you for my son. MARY: (baffled) You can’t possibly care about raising a child. LUCIFER: Oh, you have no idea what I care about.

13x02

//

It's the opposite of Chuck's neuroses in some ways... Lucifer is clinging extra hard to his family, deriving narcissistic supply from that family.

And... he is jealous of the family Jack chooses to elevate over him.

(Important note: Chuck showed a flash of this fury with Lucifer too, letting slip in season 11 how angry he was when Lucifer "plotted to replace him with the angels.")

//

ANYHOO. When Jack rejects Lucifer, Lucifer covets Jack. He immediately starts showing a, "If I can't have him, no one will" mentality. (Which is, interestingly, a callback to Heaven/Miriam in 13x01 right after Jack was born: "If we can't have him, no one will!" as she stabs Jack with her angel blade, right in the heart.)

Here, Lucifer takes Jack's grace, and then he spirits Jack away to a church. When Sam hangs on for the ride, Lucifer turns his hate on Sam.

Lucifer wants to kill Sam because Jack loves Sam instead of Lucifer.

LUCIFER: Wow, Daddy Sammy coming to the rescue. But your little Jackie, the nougat-loving boy that you had before, he's killed people. He's got lots of blood on his hands. SAM (standing): I don't care. He's family. LUCIFER: Ha! What's family done for anybody? My dad left me. My brothers tried to kill me. A lot. Family blows. And I'm gonna prove it to you. SAM: What, by killing me? Go ahead. LUCIFER: No, I'm not gonna kill you. He is. (pointing to Jack)

Lucifer wanted to be Jack's dad. And all these people keep getting in the way. It's as Rowena said:

ROWENA (13x21): The heartfelt family reunion of Sam, Dean, Cas, Mary, and your very own son Jack. That's right. Your wee boy's over there, and he'll be so glad to see his three fathers. Of course, as far as he's concerned, they are his father. And you? You're nothing to him. Or me. Or anyone now. Nothing.

///

And no surprise: the enviers want to kill the persons they're jealous of.

(Aside/// This might play into how Lucifer killed Cas in 12x23; Kelly and the infant Jack had chosen Cas over him; Cas had stolen Lucifer's destiny!)

It's like how The Empty wanted to hurt/take Jack ("I'm taking HIM. And where we're going, it's worse than Hell! —snicker— Oh, look at them they're SCARED!") It's also... like how Chuck wanted to kill Jack.

CHUCK: (Sighs) Uh, whatever happens to the person you're aiming at also happens to you. So you kill him...

//

But to have the object of your spurned affections be the one to do it? Well. Sometimes, that's even better.

LUCIFER: Now I could -- I probably should -- execute you. I mean, really, really use my imagination. But I'm feeling generous today. So one of you is gonna walk out that door, and the other one will be laying dead on the ground. You choose.

13x23

((((Aside// I love that Lucifer, like Chuck, is forcing them into a no-win situation and FRAMING it as choice. Insanely diabolical, but must feel good for him the one to be driving the trial this time: ("another one of dad's tests?"))))

///

CHUCK: No. Pick it up! Pick it up. Pick up the gun. ... Okay, Dean, no offense, but your brother is stupid and crazy. And that kid is still dangerous. So pick up the gun. Pick it up... pull the trigger... and I'll bring her back.

14x20

Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.

[shrikeseams]

A nasty, bitter sentiment that I know in my heart was common among the umanyar who knew Finwe, especially among the sindar:

Of course the man who forgot (abandoned) Elwe for the sparkling new allure of Aman would also forget (abandon) miriel for someone fresh and new like Indis. Would forget the dead and stolen of Cuivienen in favor of the political path of least resistance and invite Melkor into his city.

[mad-hunts]

i know no one necessarily asked for this information, BUT yes, barton did do masks with marcy while she was still around and also... yes, he might've looked a little bit like this self-care garfield while doing it. and honestly, he still puts on masks sometimes. so here's a little advice for y'all... if your muse is trying to talk to barton about anything that might possibly trouble him / make him angry — they might wanna do it while barton's doing his thing here, because it is pretty much a FACT that he can not be in a bad mood while he's like this LOL

[vaxxman]

Do you actually use the vacc all the time? Stock is better for taking out sentries, or no? (genuinely asking)

Please don't learn from my wannabe strategies, they are really not good and very beginner-ish. Actually good medic mains would probably cry at some things that I do. In short, no. It's the same for any other medic weapon, really.

(Really) long answer, which is based on an unreliable "2 months of playing medic nearly every day" is below.

All mediguns are situational, but I follow some personal rule of thumb that goes:

If on attacking team: Stock Medigun If on defending team: Kritzkrieg

(Depicted is the ideal situation shortly before your Kritzkrieg reaches 100%)

I'm not an asshole who denies a good team potential killstreaks with a Kritzkrieg. A good team deserves a good uber. But if that medigun set up doesn't seem to work out with my team (eg. my team is only Demoknights and Market Gardeners / the enemy team has a god-like sniper and is killing everyone at the same spawn door) and the flanking classes are more fit to actually do the objective, I will switch to a different set up.

If on attacking team: Vaccinator If on defending team: Quickfix

(Depicted is what Vaxx encounters 70% of matches on payload maps)

My reason for this is that both of these mediguns focus more on survival, rather than making sudden pushes for ground; ground that the entire team might not be able to keep. I strongly follow the credo of "Don't pocket", so these two fast charging mediguns are perfect for switching around patients during building and uber pop to make sure many people as possible profit from them. They are also much more hectic to play, so most of the time I will switch from Crossbow to Overdose, and from ubersaw to solemn vow, because I am much more vulnerable to spies and flanks from hyper focusing on everyone's healthbars and jumping across the map, trying to keep the team together. Vaccing scouts is incredibly fun, you couldn't imagine until you tried ("Hello Doc, this is Jeremy, your Uber driver to pick you up").

On payload, when my team is pushing, I generally use Vacc and am part of the cart pushing team, unless I see that the team work and positioning is good enough. Upon death I'll respawn with stock to help the power classes who are pushing at the frontline instead, because the cart heals, too, and I trust my team to not die. Sometimes, all it takes for your team to successfully move out and gain ground is some popped bullet resistances on the first person who is leaving spawn to make sure the snipers don't delete them before you even get to the cart.

When I say "play more aggressive as medic" I really just mean being able to stand in the crossfire more often and actively encouraging your patients to go into situations, because they can trust that your 75% resistance will let them survive it (also you just pop the bubble and stress them into GOING IN BEFORE THE EFFECT WEARS OFF). If you run into a sniper sightline and manage to get him to snipe at you while a bullet resistance bubble is popped, the rest of your team can follow you until the sniper has reloaded, and that alone may already have caused enough pressure for the sniper to leave his position. I like to think of Vacc and Stock as the fight-or-flight-reflex triggering mediguns, with Vacc being the medigun that seemingly locks people into battle with you, as people attempt to take you down with focus fire, while Stock causes everyone to flee. Dying with Vacc isn't too bad for your uber charge, and no healing for some seconds is a risk I am willing to take sometimes, if it means I'm drawing the enemies' attention away from my other team mates and wasting their ammo for the last push.

So tldr: Since I'm playing casual mostly, eventually I will use Vaccinator a lot because my alternative is to gamble that one or two players are competent enough to perform extremely well during an 8 second long uber. Yes Stock uber is the best for taking out sentries, but sometimes your team might not be the best for the job.

Whatever people say about medic gameplay being boring, I don't see it, it's super engaging, and extremely strategy heavy to me.

(Depicted are reasons why normal and sane medic mains use Stock vs why Vaxx uses Vaccinator)

[oumaheroes]

Now I have to send this answer back to you! Do you feel you have changed the way you write England (and France!) since the beginning? In what ways do you think you have improved when writing them?

Oh GOD yes!

On England:

I used to write him more as per old fandom norms: stereotypically tsundere, grumpy, quick to react, and emotionally a bit all over the place in regards to how he came to certain conclusions. All from the anime, of course, which definitely flavoured how the fandom wrote and portrayed him as a whole

But mostly, he's unchanged. Most of those traits didn't last too long for me. As soon as I tried writing him in a long form story he rigidly rebelled haha. He's always had a very strong and set personality in my head and my Arthur from 2011 is the same guy he is for me today, just with a few more bells and whistles that I've since chipped off

The main ways he's changed I think is just through me improving as a writer and being able to better understand and portray nuance. I think he's a very complciated person, very layered and confusing even to himself, and whilst on the surface he might be contrary or stubborn the reasons he has for his behaviour make sense to him. I wasn't very good at showing this when I started out writing and my early Arthur is clearly written by a less mature writer and person. As I've grown, he's grown with me

On France

Boy, my old France got the short end of the fandom stick whacked at him. Unlike Arthur, who has always been himself with me for the most part, my old Francis personality was much more fandom incarnate from the early twenty tens. Bit of a sexual leech, a nudist, a party animal... a bit of a silly show piece with not too much thought into him. Dramatic for no reason

I think my old France is probably still recognisible as the character I write today for the most part, but I've since taken away all of the old silly fandom traits he was given and matured him up to make him more complicated. As the fandom has aged I feel we've all moved further and further away from the old anime portrayals, and I loved reading stories of Francis as this hyper intelligent cruel and vulnerable guy. I love giving him that capacity now, along with Arthur, and layering him up like a pretty lil onion

FrUK together

Honestly, I have said this before somewhere but as soon as I put the two of them in a scene that was it, they were the stars of the show. The first proper Hetalia fic I tried to write was USUK and Francis was supposed to be Arthur's childhood bestfriend and instantly they were the main characters. Instantly, their scenes together were my favourites, their dialogue my best, and they had more chemistry and intimacy than anything else. I converted myself to FrUK, I am the problem ahha

As soon as I wrote them together their relationship set solid and it's been unchanged ever since. It wasn't even planned, there was no room for growth- how they are now is how they were then. I abandoned that USUK fic and shifted to Reset and welp, been here with them arguing in my head ever since

The only way I write them differently is maybe how easy they are together? I used to write England more reluctant with affection and France more forceful, and they've softened with age as I've smoothed out the old rigidities of their characters. It's the same now, just softer

[oldhabitsdiescrming]

while i'm on my soapbox, let me say one more thing.

i see the critique of 'you sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days'. i have seen every variation of complaint about this line specifically. how dare she criticize him for being mentally ill? (nevermind that the same was immediately done for her.) how dare she leave him just because he was depressed? how dare, how dare, how dare?

and i just, i think it's telling in many ways. as someone with depression/someone who has recently gone through a year-long depressive episode, i think this is severely taken out of context. the beginning of the song even includes a piece of that puzzle- i stopped tryna' make him laugh. the chorus asking how much sadness he believed she had in her, the multiple mentions of her bearing the weight. i've been on that side of this dynamic as well, that realization that someone you care about is hinging their happiness and healing on you. you have to bear the brunt of this because they, through no fault of their own, have settled into a fog.

it's already difficult enough of a situation, knowing this loved one is depending on you, but when you struggle with depression yourself? when you're hinging every day on being what this specific person needs to feel like they have something real to hold onto? there comes a certain point where, if you don't leave, you're going to lose yourself. you're never selfish for choosing yourself. depression looks different for everyone, and sometimes it does have that dangerous lead into dependency. you have to realize when you're breaking yourself with the same tools you're using to build them up. you just have to.