#and is a 3000 level class

[turnip-root]

and actually to make it worse there are three examples provided for what the presentation should look like and they are all kinda nonsensical and also do not follow the (limited) guidelines the prof has given us, so what in the hell do they even want

[hballegro]

finally checked my grades and i got an A+ in a 3000 level course lets gooo

[muffystudies]

currently trying to hype myself up for spring enrolment (which opens in 45 minutes) by listening to The Great War on repeat. I've done almostnothing else all day.

[ro-is-struggling]

Milkshakes, forced hugs and accidental kisses || Johnny Storm x Reader

Summary: the story of how you and Johnny accidentally take your relationship to the next level by sharing a kiss in an attempt to get rid of his ex

THIS IS PART 3 OF MY MINI-SERIES FIREPROOF! Masterlist + info (series summary & warnings) HERE

Warnings: fem! reader, fluff, Johnny being Johnny, the misogynistic trope of the super annoying mean girl (read the series masterlist for context). I think that’s it? Let me know if I missed anything! 

English is not my first language

Word count: 3000

Do you want to get notified when I post? JOIN MY TAG LIST HERE!

“Your whole idea of talking to women and telling the truth sucks!” Johnny walked into the apartment and slammed the door behind him. He sounded upset and you wondered what could have happened to him now.

“Hello to you too! My day was fine, how was yours?” You spoke in a sarcastic tone, without looking up from the laptop resting on your lap as you typed the end of the essay you had been working on all week.

“It sucked! Because of you and your dumb ideas!”

“C'mon, what could hav– OH.” You stopped in mid-sentence as you looked up. You burst out laughing as you saw the state of your friend. He looked as if he had fought and lost with a giant ice cream cone. His t-shirt was wet, his face had multicolored sprinkles stuck on it and you were pretty sure that a cherry rested in his hair, stuck in his blond locks from what you assumed was ice cream or milkshake. “What happened to you?” you managed to blurt out with a chuckle, though Johnny didn't seem amused at all.

“I took your advice and I broke things up with Ashley and... well, let's just say she didn't appreciate my honesty and maturity as much as you led me to believe she would.”

“Oh, honey, no, you're not blaming me for this. My advice was great, your problem was getting involved with Ashley in the first place.” You laughed. Everyone knew Ashley could be a little... intense. Johnny knew it too, that was why he had avoided her for so long. He knew that once he slept with her he wouldn't be able to get her off his back, and yet he had fallen into her trap.

Johnny had spent every second since he woke up with a hangover the next morning regretting his actions. He had even made you swear not to let him have a drop of alcohol ever again. According to him, he needed you to keep him in check since, apparently, he could no longer trust the decisions of his intoxicated mind. Of course that didn't last long —the following weekend he was out partying again—, but his regret about sleeping with Ashley remained. It didn't help that she hadn't stopped calling him and chasing him around campus since. Johnny was running out of excuses or places to hide so he wouldn't run into her. Just two days earlier he had arrived home late because he locked himself in the men's bathroom for two hours after the class he shared with her, praying that she wouldn't be there when he got out. It was then that you decided to tell him that it would be best to talk to her. You were fully aware that it would probably be messy —she loved to make a scene out of everything—, but he really had no other options left.

“It is absolutely your fault!” Johnny dropped down on the couch next to you. “You're making me a better person and that's ruining my life. This would never have happened six months ago.”

“Oh I'm sorry, is real life as a responsible adult difficult?” you teased him looking at him and pouting. “Welcome to the club, it sucks for all of us. Get used to it.”

“Easy for you to say, you're not the one with milkshake all over your body.”

You laughed, running your index finger down Johnny's cheek to wipe off some of the cream that had stuck to it. “That was a nice touch. I didn't think she had it in her.”

“This is funny to you?”

“Yeah, a little.” You shrugged and Johnny threw a pillow at you. “Hey! Be careful, I don't want you to stain the couch.”

That was your mistake. You should have known those words would only push Johnny to be...well, Johnny. A smile spread across his lips, his expression of frustration morphing into one of amusement. You hurried to remove the computer from your legs, setting it safely on the coffee table as your whole body tensed. Your gaze never left Johnny's, watching his movements on alert ready to bolt if necessary.

“Johnny, don't!” You didn't know what he had in mind, but you were sure it couldn't be anything good.

“But I'm sad and I need a hug from my best friend in the whole world.”

You jumped to your feet at those words, seeking to put as much distance as possible between you and him. “No, you're gross! Go take a shower, then we can hug.”

“But I need it now.”

You started to back away as he moved closer to you. “Johnny!” You pointed your finger at him, warning him with a firm look to stay away. But all you managed to do was widen his grin.

“Oohh it's coming!” He announced with his arms wide open as he took long steps towards you.

And just like that you started running around the apartment, yelling at your sugary, sticky friend to stop. Of course Johnny didn't listen to you, enjoying way too much making you run and scream like you were a little girl on the playground. He thought you could be too serious at times, so he liked to cause those moments of genuine laughter and amusement in you. While you were letting out nothing but insults in his direction as you threw pillows at him in hopes of stopping him, the laughter that escaped your throat every time he caught you against the kitchen counter or blocked your path to the bedrooms let him know that you weren't really mad at him.

“Johnny, if you touch me I swear to god-” You weren't able to finish your sentence because in one swift move that was impossible for you to anticipate he tackled you onto the couch, trapping you against the fluffy cushions and his body. “Johnny!” you whined, squirming in an attempt to free yourself from his grip. But then the fucker pressed the full weight of his body down on you, effectively knocking the wind out of you.

“What? I can't hear you.” He scoffed, amused by the high-pitched whimpers you let out as you felt the sticky wetness of what was left of the milkshake transferring to your clothes.

“I hate you!” you mumbled in a breathless whisper, struggling to catch your breath under the weight of your friend's body. He just smiled, lifting his head from your shoulder to look at you with that mischievous expression that was so characteristic of him.

“What was that? You love me and you can't live without me? Aw, how sweet of you!”

“You're gonna regret this!”

“See, I don't think so ‘cause you don't look like you can do much right now.”

“That's because you have your big, heavy body pressed up against mine!”

“Aww, you noticed I've been working out! That's why you're such a good friend, you're always paying attention to the small details!” 

Johnny gave you an unnecessarily loud kiss on the cheek, definitely intended to annoy you even more. But you took it as an opportunity to return the favor and get him off you. You took advantage of his closeness to retaliate, sticking your tongue out and licking a long line across his cheek. It tasted like skin and sugar and you almost regretted it immediately after doing so, but he let out a grunt of disgust, using his hands to lift his body a bit from yours to put some distance.

“Oh you're nasty!” Johnny laughed, ”But who knows, maybe it's a more entertaining way of cleaning all the milkshake off.” He gave you one of his recognizable suggestive smiles and this time it was your turn to let out a grunt of disgust at his implication.

“Eww, gross! Get off of me, you pervert!”

After pushing him some more, you managed to get him to leave you alone. He disappeared down the hallway, his laughter echoing as he headed to the bathroom to shower. You took a moment to get up from the couch, allowing yourself to giggle now that Johnny wasn't around to see it. You were never going to admit it to his face, but his bubbly and impulsive personality was part of the reason you were his friend. His joy was contagious and while you often ended up in trouble because of him, you couldn't deny that his spontaneity and fun was just what you needed at times like this. Just before he arrived you had been whining and stressing about all the work you had to do for college. You were close to your limit, but Johnny came along and with a couple of silly tricks he was able to put a smile back on your face.

You complemented each other perfectly, that was the reason why your relationship worked so well. He was impulsive and outgoing, often discarding common sense to have some fun. You were completely different, more calm and reserved, often thinking too much before acting. To put it in Johnny's words, you were boring and could get too serious at times, which is why you benefited so much from having him around. He would get you out of your head, pushing you out of your comfort zone whenever he could. And you made sure to keep him out of trouble —well, you tried to at least. He learned to be normal by being with you, and you learned to let go and have fun. You were an odd pair and that's why you had such a good time together.

You frowned when the sound of the doorbell alerted you, thinking that the pizza delivery had arrived too quickly this time. Although you supposed that was better than what had happened last time. After the place you had ordered from forgot about your order and notified you when it was too late to order elsewhere, you learned the valuable lesson of never leaving Johnny in the kitchen. You knew it was a bad idea, but hunger had clouded your judgment. Now you knew you could never leave him unsupervised in there again, not if you wanted to keep the apartment at least.

“Pizza is here! Hurry up or there will be nothing left for you!” you shouted as you passed through the bathroom door, tapping on the wood before continuing on your way.

Only when you opened the apartment door it wasn't the face of the teenager who always brought you food that you stumbled upon. You regretted not looking before answering when you were met with Ashley's confused expression as she saw you on the other side of the wood.

“I need to talk to Johnny!” She demanded. “It's important.”

“He's busy.” You simply stated, hating the haughty tone in her voice. “But I can tell him you stopped by.”

“I know he's in there! Let me talk to him.” Ashley tried to push past you, but you managed to stop her before she invited herself into your apartment. She didn't like it at all, looking you up and down with disdain as if you were the first person in her life to deny her anything —and from what you knew of her, you very well could be. “I'm sorry, who are you exactly?”

“I'm his roommate.” You replied between gritted teeth, keeping a tight grip on the door ready to slam it in her face if she tried anything else.

“Roommate?” Ashley looked at you as if you were speaking to her in another language and you wondered at that moment if maybe she was so wealthy and spoiled that she didn't know the concept of what a roommate was.

“Yes. We live together to share rent and groceries because the cost of living is way too high. it's a very common practice, I'm sure you have heard of it.”

“I know what a roommate is! I just didn't know Johnny had one.” Ashley looked you up and down one more time and you knew then that her problem was that you were a girl. You rolled your eyes, thinking about telling her that there were a lot of things about Johnny that she didn't know —like how much he hated her. But before you could speak, your friend's voice echoed behind you.

“That's because she's not my roommate. She's my girlfriend.” Johnny stated, wrapping his arm around your waist and pressing you against him protectively.

“What!?” Ashley inquired in a tone so high-pitched she probably woke up every dog on the block.

“What?” you said at the same time, tilting your face so you could look at Johnny.

His hair was still wet from the shower, small droplets of water falling from his locks, rolling down his temples to his cheeks and disappearing under his jawline. You noticed then that he wasn't wearing a t-shirt and realized how badly it could be misinterpreted to be hugged like that when he was half naked and just out of the shower. You tried to pull away, but Johnny tightened his grip on your waist. He looked at you with pleading eyes and you knew then that you were willing to let him drag you into whatever mess he was about to cause. That was your job as a friend after all, to help him get out of trouble. And right now he had no bigger problem than Ashley.

“It's okay, you don't have to keep lying about it.”

“I-I...” you stuttered, unsure of what to say or do. But to your luck, you were interrupted by Ashley's high-pitched squeals.

“You changed me for this!? I mean, I knew any woman after me was going to be a downgrade, but holy fuck!” The blonde looked you up and down, a clear expression of disgust on her face. At any other time, that look would have been enough to make you feel bad about your looks for a long time —not that you cared what someone like her thought about you, but it wasn't nice to have someone refer to you in those terms either. But this time, instead of sadness, anger washed over you. Who did she think she was to talk to you like that?

“I guess he got tired of listening to you whine and found himself a real woman.” You spat, impressed with yourself. Ashley gasped, but she couldn't come up with a come-back because what you did next left her speechless.

Without giving it much thought, you turned around and, standing on your tiptoes to get to his level, you pressed your lips to Johnny's. You didn't know what had taken hold of your lips, but you didn't know what had taken hold of them.

You didn't know what it was that had taken hold of you, but you stopped questioning it when he responded to your kiss. His hands instinctively traveled to your waist, pressing you against him as he moved his lips expertly. You buried your fingers in his hair, using your grip to pull his face closer to your height. Ashley didn't stick around to watch the show, her high-pitched complaints and the clicking of her heels echoing down the hallway as she left in humiliation. But neither of you heard anything, too lost in the moment to pay attention to your surroundings.

The kiss was more intense than you expected, but that's the way it was with Johnny. It was hard to keep up with him when his lips seemed to know exactly what to do to make you weak in the knees. He was a damn good kisser and you hated that now you knew it. All this time you had spent laughing at the women who fell into his trap, unable to understand how they could possibly go so crazy for him, but now you knew why. And what you hated even more, you knew that you were no different from them. With just one kiss he already had you at his mercy, the bastard! Practice had served him well.

When Johnny's tongue caressed your lips you didn't put up any resistance. You let him explore you and take what he wanted from you without the slightest complaint, melting in his arms. You forgot that he was your best friend. You forgot that Johnny Storm was the biggest womanizer on campus. You even forgot that you had sworn never to fall for his charms. All you could think about at that moment was his soft lips caressing yours, the warmth of his body pressed against yours and the tingling his fingers aroused in the exposed skin of your waist. It was as if you were in a kind of trance induced by his closeness from which you could not wake up. Although frankly, you didn't want to either.

However, the magic of the moment was broken when you felt Johnny's hands move down from your waist to your ass, squeezing the flesh between his fingers as you had seen him do with countless women. That simple gesture was enough to bring you back to reality. The voice of reason in your mind scolded you for being so irresponsible and in response you pulled away from Johnny, pushing him away from you.

“C’mon! Just when it was starting to get good” Johnny complained and you punched his arm to shut him up.

“I was just playing along with your dumb idea” You excused yourself, closing the door when you saw that Ashley was gone.

“That wasn't just playing along, that was pure lust and desire.” He laughed and you rolled your eyes at his exaggeration, trying to hide how embarrassed you were.

“I got her out of here, didn't I? You should be thanking me.”

“Oh you did a little more than just that” Johnny continued to tease you, taking a few steps to get closer to you. You didn't back away no matter how much you wanted to put as much space as possible between the two of you. You were afraid that if you moved away he would notice how nervous you were getting.

“Tell me, exactly how long have you wanted to do that?”

“Me!? You're the one that grabbed my ass!”

“Hell yeah! I won't pass up any opportunity to grab a pretty girl's ass.” Johnny winked at you and you hated yourself for feeling momentarily happy to be considered a pretty girl by him. It was pathetic!

“You're disgusting.”

Johnny Storm/Fireproof Series taglist: @feel-my-psycho-love @nada3000

[alexanderwales]

Notes on 3000 miles

Last year my doctor told me that I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and a high resting heartrate. So I started biking on an exercise bike, and by my best estimations, I'm either close to hitting 3000 miles or have already gone past that.

I should clarify that this wasn't all at once. I took many breaks.

So here are some notes.

When I started, I was on an exercise bike that my wife had gotten from her work. It wasn't the best, but it was free, and I made a deal with myself that if I biked every day for a month, then I could justify getting something better. I really really did not want to buy a piece of exercise equipment that would just sit in the house gathering dust, because that would feel awful ... but I do kind of wish that I had gotten the better bike sooner, because it removed some of the "friction" of exercise, where it felt like there were too many reasons not to get on the bike. The new exercise bike (a refurbished Peleton off Facebook marketplace that my wife got me for Christmas) really does just feel and move better. I think the general principle of not doing costly monetary commitments until you've shown costly personal commitment is a good one, however.

Blood pressure is in normal range. Cholesterol is in normal range. Resting heartrate is in normal range. This was all the case three months in, and this level of cardio is more than enough to maintain it.

Right now, I bike for thirty minutes a day, going 8-10 miles according to the bike. That range is enormous, because it represents vastly different amounts of work. Going 10 miles in 30 minutes is 20 miles an hour, and I keep the resistance relatively high, so by the end of it I'm always panting. By contrast, going 8 miles makes me feel like I didn't put in enough work.

My goal every day is sweat-based and completely qualitative. I want to soak through a shirt. This means that doing more laundry than I'd prefer to, which is an unanticipated consequence of the biking. It's also, compared to all the metrics the bike gives me, a very clear sign that I am actually exercising my body "properly" in a way that's achieving something.

I did some of the Peleton classes, and found a lot of the metrics to be motivating, but ... eh. Exercise is mostly about being healthy and maintaining my body, so my current strategy, for the last six months, has been to either shut the brain down or keep it fully engaged in something that passes the exercise time. Usually this means a TV show, especially a foreign one with subtitles, which need slightly more brainpower.

The final two minutes is always the worst. I'm just ready to be done with it. Sometimes there's gas left in the tank, but I still feel sweaty, thirsty, and overheated. I have a water bottle, and I drink from it while I bike, and I have a fan pointed at me that I turn on once I'm warmed up, but I always have a sense, in those last two minutes, of "finally I'm done". I tried the thinking man's solution, only biking for 28 minutes, and this did not help. In my entire year of biking a half hour a day, I didn't ever elect to go into overtime.

I initially lost ten pounds, then slowly gained it back. I am, in fact, overweight, but I'm holding more or less steady now, and there have definitely been some body composition changes, with muscle replacing fat. I went down about four inches at the waist. I've changed very little about how I eat (which is 90% meals that I cook myself, and a daily coffee drink of some kind, usually made myself with sugar/cream/chocolate). Biking amounts to 300-400 calories a day or something like that, so I'm presumably eating more to compensate and just not realizing it.

Mental health has been rocky, but that's just sort of how it is for me. I definitely feel less mentally well on days that I don't bike, and feel better afterward, but I have no idea how tight the correlation is, and if I had been keeping track on a mood tracker, I'm not sure I would be able to sus out from self-reported mood alone whether or not I was biking.

During the summer I replaced a lot of indoor exercise bike stuff with outdoor biking. My son has only recently learned to bike, so he's been with me many of these times. Usually that means that we're either biking a lot less distance, or we're biking for a lot longer time at much lower intensity, sometimes both. There's a bike path that's downhill from our house which goes for maybe six miles, with some good, clear turn back points, but that means a fairly arduous uphill to get back home. If I lived in a place where the weather wasn't frigid for almost half the year, I would probably be doing outdoor biking more.

I think the most important thing, if you're doing exercise every day, is making sure that you're doing it in such a way that it's sustainable and virtually incapable of injuring you. This mostly means proper form. Early on, I had a habit of pressing down the right pedal with the outside edge of my foot, and after fifteen minutes of doing that, the muscles in the foot would be aching and uncomfortable. I'm not sure why I was doing that, but it was difficult to get myself to bike in a way that wouldn't be putting strain on me.

I think it's okay to skip a day ... if it's for the right reason. Of the days that I've skipped, I always try to make sure the reason isn't "fuck it, I don't want to". I should either be feeling sick, feeling like I need to rest, or replacing biking with some other form of exercise like a hike in the woods or some weightlifting or something. If I start skipping days because I just don't feel like it, that's where the whole scheme falls apart.

I am currently sort of wondering how long this is going to go on for, and I think the answer is "for the rest of my life", or at least until I'm unable to keep it up for whatever reason. I don't think there's any particular reason to prefer an exercise bike (or regular bike) over running or rowing or some other form of cardio, but I think I have proven to myself that this is cardio I can do daily and stick with it to the level that is probably necessary for me to stay healthy. I'm not committed to doing it for the rest of my life, since in theory some other form of cardio might come along and sweep me off my feet.

I do wish that I had started earlier in my life, even if daily exercise has not been the panacea for mental health that I had been kind of hoping it would be. I hope that I have the willpower and wisdom to keep up with it indefinitely.

[rigelmejo]

The Nature Method

The nature method textbooks were designed to be read, and if you knew a similar language you were meant to rely on cognates and the pictures to understand the whole textbook. The lessons would gradually introduce new words (around 3000) in context, and new grammar.

I want to share something awesome! A girl tried out the same nature method textbook I did. Her video is short so I recommend just checking it out:

She also linked the nature method resources in her summary, which I will paste below:

Nature Method books (English, French, Italian, German): https://drive.google.com/drive/folder... Similar books for Spanish (for online viewing): https://archive.org/details/pocopocoe... https://archive.org/details/allspanis...   / irish_via_the_nature_method   Audio (English, French, German, Italian): ‪@freetongue‬ Shoutout to Free Tongue for providing all this free, quality audio! French Nature Method playlist:    • Le Français par la Méthode Nature  

I read half of Le Francais par la Methode Nature, years ago, and it helped push me to being able to read graded readers I had and then eventually anything I picked up in French. I loved the book. I loved learning to read BY reading in the language immediately, learning a language BY doing stuff in the language immediately. I love learning through context, so I loved the style of these nature method textbooks and wish there were more modern ones being used. Lingua Latina for Latin is the only nature method textbook I'm sure is still being used in some classes.

I ended up finding print copies of the French version, the Italian version, and a similar styled book called the All Spanish Method.

I used the audio of Le Francais par la Methode Nature made by Ayan Academy on youtube, like her, to work on my listening skills a few years after reading the textbook. I still would like to both finish reading and listening to this textbook. I feel it got me to B1 level and then I just kind of jumped into reading other stuff I was interested in, and my reading skills improved but none of my other skills did lol.

If you like the style of the textbook, I really recommend these nature method textbooks. If you use them, using them the way she describes she studied them in her video is probably the best way. I just read and listened, and it helped my passive skills but I definitely want to go back and do the production exercises one day.

Be aware they're OLD textbooks, 70+ years old at this point, so some information and words may be out of date. I partly read the textbook when I first did because I was curious what differences there were in an older textbook, what things they taught differently, how they spoke about history and values, which is why I have a big collection of old textbooks at home. I'm into looking at that kind of stuff.

(I once had a horrifically bad chinese textbook from right in the middle of the simplification of characters, so some were simplified and some weren't, and the textbook only had a whopping 100 words it taught which really upset me... on the other hand I have an amazing Chinese Grammar textbook from 1930 that uses 了 only ever pronounced as 'liao' and only uses nin for you, but it's grammar and hanzi explanations are some of the clearest I've ever read).

Well the nature method textbooks were used most from 1920s - 1960s, and the older ones are often the Direct Method (mislabeled by someone as Nature Method) which involved a lot of dialogues in the target language but were not necessarily designed to be understandable without a teacher. Nature Method textbooks are designed to be understandable without a teacher, with just the context of the textbook and visuals, and assume the student knows a similar language to the target language already (so it assumes students know Spanish or Italian or French or English or German already).

Nature Method textbooks usually have more context and cognates in the beginning chapters. Direct Method textbooks usually have plenty of dialogues, and sometimes plenty of pictures to teach the words, but ultimately assume a teacher is teaching many words and grammar and so grammar is not explained in the context of long form stories like it is in nature method. I like Nature Method more. Direct method is okay, Poco a Poco is an example of a direct method textbook. Le Francais par la Methode Nature is an example of a nature method textbook.

Anyway I love the nature method textbooks, I wish some newer textbooks were designed in a similar way.

[blacknedsoul-blog]

Lenore Vandernatch: the rogue, the gothic heroine and the courtly knight. A review of archetypes

Okay, after going over my notes, here we are again. In case you don't know what this is all about, here is the first of these posts where I'm doing a review of some of the archetypes that Annabel and Lenore seem to be taking notes on.

Just so this doesn't end up being another 3000 word post, let's get started.

The Rogue

In 1554, the first written version of "El Lazarillo de Tormes" was published, the foundational work of what would become known in Spain as the "picaresque novel": stories centered on the rogue, a poor rascal who uses trickery to ensure his survival.

At this stage of the game, we have rogues in a variety of flavors and colors. It would be difficult to make a comprehensive list, so let's talk about these characters in general.

The first thing to note is that rogues are, by definition, outsiders. In the traditional picaresque, the rogue is simply someone from the lower classes, but as this archetype has grown, it has become less about class and more about criminality.

Yes. Rogues are criminals: thieves like Robin Hood, swindlers like the Lazarillo...

Fraud, arson. You name it.

Getting back to the issue of the rogue as an outsider, they may have been one from the start, or they may have become one after attaining their criminal status. Regardless of the reason, these people operate outside of the law, the authorities generally give a shit, and, depending on your rogue flavor, may even actively fight against it.

One thing to note here: this goes a bit beyond Lenore's rebellious attitude. Like a good rogue, she derives enormous personal satisfaction from the thought of getting her way. The world has turned its back on the rogue, so the rogue will not hesitate to turn her back on the world.

In Lenore's case, this attitude of throwing all authority to the wind and actively ignoring any rules imposed on her is a mixture of personality and trauma. In the flashbacks, we see that Lenore has always had a certain disdain for protocol and formalities, but of course, after being locked up for at least a year because the rules of the society she lives in have decided to make her an outcast for her brother 's death, she no longer finds any reason to listen to what they have to say to her. The rules will never go beyond the feeling that she has agency over her life.

From this follows the methods of the rogues: opportunism is one of their hallmarks. Ingenuity, cunning, and creativity are common traits among these characters, something that is usually tied to their status as outsiders and criminals; they don't care about rules, so they think outside the box, either because they are highly intelligent or because they lack common sense.

Maybe both.

So, yes, when Annabel tells her dashing rogue, she's not wrong in the least. But there are more interesting things to look at here

The Gothic Heroine

When some theorists say that Gothic heroines are bland and uninteresting characters, it's...true. But there's a reason for that, so let me get that out of the way for a moment: the image of the maiden in this period is used as a symbol of purity, chastity, goodness, and her corruption, death, or disease works on both a literal and metaphorical level. It is like when you see grotesque religious images in horror movies, there is a powerful and disturbing charge in the idea of seeing something "pure" destroyed.

So the thing about gothic heroines is that, at worst, they are not characters who contribute to the story they are in, but tokens, quasi-sacred representations who are there to die, get sick, or fall victim to a villain who might sexually harass them. Yes, unpleasant.

But good gothic heroines (besides possibly having tuberculosis) are characters with arcs related to corruption, especially mental corruption. And this is where it gets interesting.

But we go from less to more. In her flashbacks, Lenore's physical appearance is almost exactly that of a gothic novel protagonist: pale, almost cadaverous, slender, languid in her movements (because, in this case, she's drugged a significant percentage of the time), and long hair.

Her background in this part of the story, like that of the best gothic heroines, is one of mental corruption: she is here, imprisoned, withering and losing her mind, giving in to despair. There are those who point out a rather strong resemblance between the scene where Lenore tears the flowered wallpaper from her room and the short story The Yellow Wallpaper by the writer Charlotte Perkins. And although this story is not gothic, it definitely retains the most important trope of the genre.

Another element in which we can find Lenore is in the Gothic ballad of the same name, written by Gottfried Bürger in 1773. This poem tells the story of Lenore, a girl condemned by narrative for blaspheming against heaven after the death of her beloved, who is later visited by the Grim Reaper himself to take her to him.

A heartbroken woman committing blasphemy in the name of a lost love? I wonder if that sounds familiar.

And if I had to point out one particular gothic heroine with whom Lenore shares important similarities, it would be Laura from Carmilla.

With the first, she shares two very important things: isolation and a penchant for women who can murder her, a complicated relationship with a gothic vampire.

Laura lives in complete isolation from the world, with the only company of maids and her father; within the first few chapters, we know that she can barely remember the last time she had the company of a woman her own age. Like Lenore in the flashbacks, Laura is something of a secret, hidden from the world (though for less horrific reasons).

And that isolation is broken by the arrival of an elegant, almost supernaturally beautiful upper-class lady who almost kicks in her door with a "Hi, I want to be friends. You'll like me."

Both Laura and Lenore are not afraid of the vampire, though they are not unaware of her strange behavior and will raise a puzzled eyebrow at her promises of affection, as well as her obvious tendency to insist on a fucked-up secret that they are in the middle of and can't share. Another important detail is that both characters have a certain difficulty in describing their feelings as romantic: both are very obviously obsessed with this mysterious lady who has come to interrupt their loneliness, but Laura never fails to refer to Carmilla as her "friend" (a behavior that the modern reader may interpret, with more than fair reason, as comphet), and Lenore is little more than that, at least until the mansion arch where the shingle falls on her.

Last but not least, just as Lenore is treated as "crazy," there are several events in Laura's life (such as her first encounter with Carmilla when she was a child) or that occur throughout the novel that are dismissed by those around her as her being a little touched in the head.

The courtly knight

Here it is necessary to make a distinction: knights are a far-reaching figure, but before and during the Middle Ages they mainly starred in two types of stories: the canta de gesta (which was intended to tell great deeds of inspiration for certain peoples, such as the Song of Mio Cid in Spain or the Song of the Nibelungs in Germany. This last one is the best Canto de gesta in history, I do not accept arguments) and the Novel of chivalry or courtly (focused on the individual story of the knight and introduces elements of the court).

What is the main difference between the knight of the canto de gesta and the knight of the court? Well... the latter is much more horny. And we are talking about Lenore, so you have until the end of this paragraph to imagine which of these knights we are talking about.

The first thing to keep in mind is that the Courtly Knight has a pretty strong moral compass: nobility, mercy, loyalty, and honor are values they firmly believe in; these characters are heroes, and that means that while they are not perfect, they represent ideals that are considered important in this time. And we're talking about vassalage, so you get it.

This is the first thing Lenore has in common with the knights of the court: her strong sense of morality. Yes, she's not afraid to play dirty like a rogue, but she's pretty clear about what things are important to her in that regard, and she's willing to uphold those ideals even in the context of Nevermore, which actively encourages its students to kill and betray each other.

However, the personal agendas of these knights have one important thing in common: the conflict between their own desires and their duty.

What are those desires? Well...

Good courtly knights usually have to choose between their love/sexual interests and where their personal loyalties lie, which, due to the era in which these stories take place, are usually their feudal lords or even kings.

We already established that Lenore doesn't give a shit about authority, but her personal loyalty is to her friends. And this is where it gets tricky for her: So far in the comic, Lenore has kept her relationship with Annabel a secret from her friends, and she has kept the fact that she wants to save her friends a secret from Annabel. A conflict that may eventually blow up in her face, and on the face of it, really befits a courtly knight (though if she were a real one, the Misfits might ask her to kill the Deans or something in exchange for accepting her relationship with Annabel).

To continue with this, we need to stop for a moment and talk about another little thing: courtly love. There are many definitions of it, but my favorite is the one that defines it as an attempt to reconcile mystical love with eroticism. Fun fact: these stories were written in the Provençal language, something that would associate romantic tropes with "vulgar language".

In any case, courtly love usually speaks of the beloved maiden as an idealized object, a figure who inspires an almost religious devotion. And the most recurrent theme within courtly love is what is called "love from afar": it focuses more on the journey in search of the beloved than on the couple's relationship as such (this journey can be literal or metaphorical), the knight has symbols associated with the pilgrim, there is a certain hatred of the image, the maiden is seen as an almost religious figure, and...

Yes, the color associated with the so-called "love from afar", specifically with the beloved maiden, is damn blue.

Now that we've got all that out of the way, it's time to break down why Lenore fulfills some of these things and why she doesn't.

Going with the tropes that are fulfilled, we can say that Lenore is on a more or less metaphorical journey. A journey to recover her memories and her identity. One at the end of which her lover waits for her "until the abyss claims them both".

Like a knight, Lenore is willing to make great personal sacrifices in pursuit of the things she cares about: she is willing to die for the people she cares about (the misfits) and for her lover (Annabel). The Living Long Thing is something the Knight don't know about, and since Lenore is in Nevermore, apparently neither does she.

With all that said, it's worth noting the biggest difference: courtly love features relationships based on vassalage and a huge power differential. Something that does not happen here. No, Lenore calling Annabel "my liege" doesn't count.

To explain this further -and to summarize, because it's a subject that bloody books have been written about-t he relationships in courtly love have two different levels of power: the knight must perform feats to be worthy of affection, and the maiden is little more than a prize to be won.

This unbalanced power dynamic is something that simply does not exist in the White Raven: an important part of their relationship is that both are equal in charisma, intelligence, and resourcefulness. The unstoppable force and the immovable object. Annabel is as willing to die for Lenore as she is for herself, and Lenore would probably go into berserker mode if anyone dared to treat Annabel as a prize.

Yes, you could argue that the balance of power is a bit weighted toward Lenore because Annabel is willing to make sacrifices for her that Lenore wouldn't make because she has some, you know, morals. But I think that has more to do with Annabel's character than her relationship with Lenore (that's another analysis I have a pin for when the season is over).

Conclusions

If the archetypes that Annabel seems to take note of are all quite related, Lenore, on the contrary, is much more like a mosaic: these characters have little in common and some (like the Rogue and the Knight) directly contradict each other. This woman is chaotic in her conception: opportunistic and rebellious as a rogue, pious and with strong values as a knight, and condemned by the narrative as a gothic heroine.

Another thing that stands out is that two of these three archetypes are traditionally male characters. Personally, I don't think Lenore is "like a man": her entire background and personal history is meant to work in terms of her status as a woman in the time period she lives in. She can do all the shit these male heroes do and better (though the hc that Lenore is somewhere on the non-binary spectrum is not a reading that conflicts with that).

And I use the word "hero" because another detail stands out here as well: yes, many of these characters are not only often the protagonists of the stories they are in, they are heroes within their historical periods and literary movements.

I'm going to do a third part of this comparing Lenore's archetypes to Annabel's because, believe me, there's some really crazy stuff to unpack there.

[boxboxblog]

Ex-Driver Profiles: Sergio Perez

Updated December 2024

Name: Sergio Michel "Checo" Pérez Mendoza

Age: 34

Nationality: Mexican

Years in F1: 14 (2011-2012 Alfa Romeo Sauber, 2013 Mclaren, 2014-2020 Force India/Racing Point, 2021-2024 Red Bull)

Number: 11

WDCs: N/A

Driving Style: Perez is most well know for his patient and defensive driving style. He regularly is able to hold off stronger and faster cars behind him for extended periods of teams, meaning he holds position well and also is an asset while defending his teammate. Perez is also known to have great tire management skills, often patiently waiting until his rivals tires wear out before going on the attack with his better-maintained ones. He is also excellent in complex weather conditions, including full wet and wet-dry. A downside of Perez's style is that he struggles with consistency and setting a qualifying pace. He often is outpaced and out qualified by his teammates, especially his current one.

History:

Born not to a legacy racing family but involved in racing nonetheless, Perez began his karting career in 1996 when he was six years old. In his first year of competition he achieved four victories in the junior category and was 2nd in the standings as a rookie karter. In 1997, he participated in the Karting Youth Class, where he was the youngest driver in the category, and had a positive year, finishing 4th in the championship. The next year, in 1998, he would become the youngest driver to win the championship in that same category.

(Perez in karting)

In 1999, he raced in the 80cc Shifter category, finishing 3rd in the championship. He actually was too young to race in this category, but obtained special permission to do so and was the youngest driver to achieve a win in the category. In 2000 he would go on to do much of the same, regularly being the youngest in the categories he race din. He would soon draw the attention of various sponsors and national racing organizations. The next few years of his career would yield similar positive results, though he did not win any titles.

In 2005 Perez moved from Mexico to Europe in order to compete in the German Formula BMW ADC Series. His first year in this series would not yield super positive results, but he would improve in the 2006 season, improving to 6th in the standings. In 2007 he would switch into Formula 3 for the first time. He competed in the National Class and would win his first title that year. In 2008 he would compete again, but only get 4th in the standings.

(Perez racing in Formula BMW)

Pérez joined GP2 in 2008 for the GP2 Asia Series 2008-2009. He was the first Mexican driver to compete at this level of motorsport since Giovanni Aloi took part in International Formula 3000 in 1990. He would show significantly positive results in this series, bringing home multiple podium finishes and sprint race wins. 2009 he would switch to the main 2009 GP2 Series. Pérez finished 12th in the standings, with a best result of second coming at Valencia. His 2010 run in GP2 would be a lot better, ending the season 2nd in the standings.

(Perez after a win in GP2)

Late 2010 it was announced by F1 team Alfa Romeo Sauber that Perez would be joining their team for the 2011 season. Through this, Perez became the 5th Mexican to compete in F1. During the time of the announcement, he also became a Ferrari Academy Driver. Perez had a relatively average rookie season with Sauber, finishing in points positions a few times. He would finish that year 16th in the standings after. bad crash knocked him out of three races. 2012 was a better year for Perez, as he achieved his first podium in Malaysia, and two more during the season. He finished the year in 10th, above his teammate.

(Perez on first podium)

In 2013 Lewis Hamilton vacated the Mclaren seat and Perez was announced as his replacement, ending his relationship with the Ferrari Driver's Academy. He would have a middling year withe Mclaren, his highest finish being 4th. He would also have friction with teammate and WDC Jenson Button, who described his driving style as 'overlyaggressive'. Perhaps this is why later Perez evolved into a cautious and patient driver.

(Perez, right, with Mclaren teammate Jenson Button)

In 2014 Perez would join Force India, and solidify himself as a midfield driver. For a majority of his career with the team he would be a steady driver, most often outpacing his teammates. He achieved a few podiums with them, but also had moments of disaster, famously suffering several crashes throughout his time. He outlasted the Force India name, and was retained when the team became Racing Point in 2019. He would achieve his first win with Racing Point at the 2020 Bahrain GP, an energetic race that allowed him to show his skill. All in all, his time with midfield teams yielded good results for him, often outperforming his teammates and pulling the car to higher positions than it should be. That year it was announced that he would be joining Red Bull for the 2021 season, replacing Alex Albon.

(Perez after first win)

His time with Red Bull would be a mix of bad and good. During this time, he would regularly achieve podiums and a few wins. In 2021 he would finish 4th in the standings. While this was deemed a positive result, his teammate finished first and it put some scrutiny on Perez. 2022 saw Perez finish 3rd in the standings, behind his teammate in 1st and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. That would also be the year he achieved his maiden pole position, at the Jeddah GP. 2023 was his best year in F1, being one of few drivers to win a race that year other than Max Verstappen. He would finish 2nd in the standings behind Verstappen, and help Red Bull win another WCC. He would also help Red Bull win their first ever 1-2 in the championship.

(Perez with teammate Verstappen, 2021)

2024 was a very bad year for Perez, having multiple DNF's, crashes, and no points finishes. This was especially pronounced because his teammate Max Verstappen won the drivers championship that year, while he only finished in 8th, the biggest teammate gap since the 90s. This led to Perez losing his seat for the 2025 season, being replaced by Liam Lawson.

(Perez on the podium at the 2024 Austria GP)

Major Races:

2012 Malaysian GP - Perez's highest finish of his career then, and his first pole position. He displayed excellent tire management, completing a long stint and maintaining a competitive pace.

2014 Bahrain GP - His first podium with Force India. Perez displayed his famous defensive driving, holding off much faster cars for the entire race.

2020 Bahrain GP - Perez's first win in his last year with Racing Point. He had the greatest comebacks in his career, after being spun to the back of the grid. It was a remarkable race as he battled his way to 1st, and is the race that won him His Red Bull seat.

2021 Baku GP - His first win with Red Bull. Baku would become a track that he is known for competing well around. He held off Lewis Hamilton (who was fighting his teammate for the championship) the whole race. Many attribute his win in Baku as a major part of Verstappen's first WDC.

2022 Monaco GP- Monaco is famously a tricky circuit, and he raced extremely strategically, outmaneuvering both Ferrari's to win. It was also yet another race where Perez showed his skill in wet-dry conditions.

Cheers,

-B

[sortagolddigger]

Start small but nothing smaller than $100 when you start asking for $$$. If the guy keeps paying for stuff after a few weeks that’s when you ask for $500-$3000 depending on your situation. Don’t ask for 3k and say you need it for clothes or food that’s not essential and rich men like to pay for things that matter. So LIE, say it’s for computer science classes online. Those classes cost $600 each lol, so that’s believable and you could actually take a class if you wanted. Tech girls make 6 figures a year easy.

Level up!

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

Space Ereshkigal: The Anatomy of a Quasar

Myself, August 8th, 2024: I MUST GIVE CREDIT WHERE ITS DUE THEY KIND OF COOKED WITH THE MECHANICAL DESIGN

Space Ereshkigal Beast-Class (Has 1.5x Class-Advantage against Extra Classes except Avenger; Has Class-Disadvantage against Avengers) Max HP: 14,530 Max ATK: 11,427 Attribute: Beast NP Charge ATK: 0.33%

QAABB Card Set Quick: 5 hits; Arts: 4 hits; Buster: 4 hits; Extra: 5 hits

Goddess Sugar A: Increase party's Attack by 10-20% for 3 turns. Increase party's NP damage by 10-20% for 3 turns. Increase party's NP gauge by 10-20%. Increase party's Instant-Kill resistance by 50-100% for 3 turns. 500% chance to inflict Poison with 500 damage to party for 3 turns. Cooldown: 8-6

Beast Driver B: Gain 10-20 critical stars. Increase own Star Absorption by 300-500% for 1 turn. Grants self on-Attack buff for 1 turn of: Increase own Critical damage by 50-100% for 1 turn before dealing damage when normal attacking. Charges own NP gauge by 30-50%. Cooldown: 9-7

Missing Starling EX: Grants self Invincibility for 2 attacks, 3 turns. Grants self a 2000-3000 HP Guts for 1 time, 3 turns. Recovers own HP by 2000-3000. Removes own Debuffs. Increases own Buff Removal Resistance by 50-100% for 1 time, 3 turns. Reduces own Skill Cooldown by 2. Cooldown: 9-7

Anti-Magecraft EX: Grants self Debuff Immunity 3 times. Spatial Storage A: Grants self on-Attack buff of: Charges own NP gauge by 5% when attacking. Goddess Essence E-: Increases own damage by 140. Increases own Debuff Resistance by 14%. Authority of the Beast E-: Increases own Critical Damage against Servants by 20%. Independent Manifestation E-: Increases own Critical Damage by 1.5%. Increases own Instant-Kill Resistance by 1.5%. Increases own Mental Debuff Resistance by 1.5%. II: Infinity Indicator: *looks forlornly into the camera, sighing* We'll get to this one.

Anti-Rider Attack Damage Append

Edin Shugra Collapsar AoE Arts, 5 hits Increase Master Affection Points by 0-20, based on Overcharge. If Master Affection Level is 4, grants self 100% increased Instant-Kill success chance for 1 turn. If Master Affection Level is 7, grants self Ignore Invincibility for 1 turn and Ignore Defense for 1 turn. If Master Affection Level is 10, grants 50 Critical stars. Deals damage to all enemies (450%-750%, based on NP Level). Deals 1 + 0.1*N extra damage to enemies, where N is Master Affection Level. Removes their Offensive Buffs. 60% chance to Instant Kill them.

You know what sucks about all of this. She's actually really fun to use. NGL. We got a whole essay to go. Also I did manual NP generation calcs for this one, so I better get some credit for that.

So the new Anniversary Servant huh. It's really something to say that Anniversary Servants more and more have been designed to really push the mold on what you could put in a Servant's kit, but Space Ereshkigal feels even more than that.

NP and Star Generation:

This might come as a surprise, but Space Ereshkigal's base NP generation is actually quite low. Her AQAE chain for example will only generate about 22% of her NP gauge, and that is usually the kiss of death for a Servant like this. Even as the 3rd card in an Arts chain, her Arts card will only generate 9%. That's quite low! But her passive gives her an additional 5% NP charge on hit for just...existing I guess? So that bumps up her single card generation to about passable, while benefiting her card chains in a bigger way. Considering you generally want to prioritize Space Ereshkigal's Brave Chains whenever possible, this is nice, I suppose.

Her star generation is a bit shakier, thanks to having single Quick card. A QBBE chain will generate about 15-16 crit stars on average, and a ABQE Mighty Chain will generate about 20-21 crit stars on average. She has good hit counts on her Quick and Extra, but only having one Quick card in her kit naturally really limits how many crit stars she can generate on her own.

Skills:

Goddess Sugar is just a good skill. Like all of Space Ereshkigal's skills are good, great even, but it really does need to be said that this is a very compact skill with a lot of good effects. It gives Space Ereshkigal an additional 44% damage on her NP, and the party-wide NP charge is appreciated. An important thing to note is that the Poison demerit applies to the entire party, so it will eat into one of the Debuff immunities that Space Ereshkigal comes with.

Beast Driver is another strong skill, but this time focused on single Brave Chain crit damage numbers instead of much else, with a 50% NP charge for good measure. Her face cards will have a 100%, 200%, and 300% increased Critical damage for that turn respectively, allowing Space Ereshkigal to pump out some crazy good crits. The 50% NP charge is arguably the most important part of this skill though, as it always tends to be.

Missing Starling is the type of skill that exists to bind a kit together. It's Invincibility, its healing, its Guts, its debuff cleanse, and perhaps most importantly, it's cooldown reduction. See, you might have noticed that Space Ereshkigal's kit isn't super synergistic, and there's a reason for that we'll get into later, but while all of her skills are good, they aren't amazing together. She's, nominally, meant to perform Brave Chains constantly, which makes sense considering that is something that Space Ishtar is also trying to do. But having her skills essentially be on a 4/5/5 rotation instead of a 6/7/7 rotation massively improves how consistent and good she is.

There's really only 3 passive skills that matter here. Her three instances of Debuff Immunity are quite niche, giving Space Ereshkigal a nice buffer against debuffs and makes her super resilient to debuffs in general, and the NP charge on hit mostly exists to make up for her really poor face-card numbers. The third passive...

The Master Affection Gauge, and You!

This is by far and away the most complicated part of her kit. You could even argue that it functionally acts as an additional 4th skill on her kit. The Master Affection Gauge is a Gauge that starts at Level 1 and caps out at Level 10, and each level requires 10 points to reach. There's a ton of conditions for how to fill it up, so I'm going to split it up into parts to make it easier to understand.

In additional, an important caveat. Space Ereshkigal will only have the Master Affection Gauge if you have a copy of her. Supports will not work! This is the part of the kit that actually makes me angry, because it means that a Support Space Ereshkigal is just fundamentally missing a part of her kit. She will have an Affection Gauge level of 0 and won't be able to gain affection points.

The Basic Modifiers

Space Ereshkigal will get 5 points for being Bond Level 5, 5 points for being in the starting 3 members, and 10 points for being on a Waterside battlefield. This is not at the start of the fight by the way. You can in fact get a free Affection Level out of having a Servant who sets the Waterside Battlefield buff onto themselves and get the +10 points. The battlefield doesn't even need to stay Waterside for this to be applied.

Reusable In-Battle Modifiers

Space Ereshkigal will get 3 points for selecting any of her face cards and proceeding into combat, and in addition, she will get an additional 6 points if she has a Brave Chain. This means, without using her NP card, she has 15 points just in selecting her face cards, with an additional 6 possible if you can pull 3 in a single turn, for 21 additional points.

Simply selecting her NP will not give her any additional points, but it will mean that you can potentially squeeze out an additional Brave using her NP card as leverage, giving you a possible 27 points in total. This is where the bulk of her affection points comes from typically, and this also means that there is a fair amount of RNG regarding how quickly you can ramp up her affection gauge. Pulling too many face cards in a hand can reduce your potential output by either having wasted cards or reducing the number of brave chains available to you.

Using one of Space Ereshkigal's skills will give 3 affection points, and using one of Space Ereshkigal's skills before using anyone else's will give an additional 2 points. This means there is an additional 15 points to be gleamed out of three turns by staggering her skill use, and this actually explains a lot about her kit. They're three skills that are designed to work well when not used together.

The Somewhat Harder to Fulfill Modifiers

Using Ereshkigal's NP in an overcharged state will also increase her affected gauge by +5 points for each Overcharge level over 100%. This is, importantly, applied before any other effect on her NP. At 500% OC she will generate 25 Affection Points, but this is generally quite hard to accomplish as it often means giving up her Brave Chains in order to chain together NPs. This does give Ereshkigal an interesting use case for "The One Who Desires Salvation" as a CE choice, since it will essentially add 3 or 4 Affection Levels by itself.

Space Ereshkigal will also get 5 points for being affected by a Mystic Code skill. This will apply to any targeted MC skill and any AoE MC skill, but not to stuff like Order Change and skills that affect an enemy. The skill doesn't even technically need to succeed to count, such as the case for the Atlas Academy Uniform's debuff cleanse. I put this here because this does mean that some Mystic Codes can only generate +5 or +10 Affection points than the full +15.

She will also get +10 Affection points if you use a Command Spell on her. Now that Command Spells regenerate three a day instead of one this is more viable to quickly turbo-charge Ereshkigal to a higher Affection Level, but this is generally more applicable to Challenge Quests than farming.

Noble Phantasm

The main point to that entire fucking essay up there is her NP. This NP does a lot, but most of its effects are dependent on her Affection Gauge levels, so to go over what is consistent. This is an AoE Arts NP that removes offensive buffs on hit and has a 60% chance to instakill enemies after damage. These are fine and would make the NP middling at best but there's a ton we need to go over.

First, the NP does 10% more damage with each Master Affection Gauge Level she has. Since Space Ereshkigal can start a fight with an Affection Gauge Level of 2 or 3 depending on the Battlefield, this means that she will do at base 20-30% more damage than you would expect. At a Level of 10, she will do double damage with her NP, which is quite strong. This can be considered similar to something like Charlemagne's NP, but a lot easier to perform on average.

If her Master Affection Level is 4, she will double the success rate of her instakill. This...could come up, theoretically? It will probably be relevant in a 90++ quest in all honestly. This gives her a guaranteed instant kill against enemies with 100% death rate, and a 96% chance to instakill enemies with an 80% death rate. If her Master Affection Level is 7, she will ignore Invincibility, Evasion, and Defense buffs for a turn, which is a potent combo, and at Level 10, she will just generate 50 crit stars.

It is actually not particularly difficult to get Space Ereshkigal to Level 10 within a matter of about four or five turns, and it's entirely possible with just good cards and knowledge of how to apply her kit to get her to Level 7 in three turns. She ramps up surprisingly quickly, and the rewards that you get for ramping her up are pretty great. Free damage, crit stars, defensive piercing, and even swingy insta-kills.

But as a result, she ends up a fun, dynamic Servant to use. Maximizing the most out of Space Ereshkigal means putting in practice and reacting to what you need out of that exact moment. Managing her face cards, her skills, your Mystic Code skills, your NP chains, and even your Command Seals is interesting! You do lose a bit of that once she fully ramps up, but the process of getting there is great. Fundamentally, she's actually a pretty cool mechanically designed Servant.

Append Skills

Space Ereshkigal is slightly frustrating in that there is a good argument for, exactly, every single one of her append skills. This being said, she doesn't need any of them to function, and as a 5-star, I would not recommend rolling for the additional copies you need in order to do so, but because you will naturally get the coins to unlock one append by reaching Bond Level 6, and enough to unlock another append at Bond Level 14, if you are willing to get that far, it is worth talking about them.

The Extra card performance buff is the least useful of the bunch, but because Space Ereshkigal uses Brave chains often enough, it can be worth unlocking for the extra benefits it gives. Mana Loading is a fine enough skill on Space Ereshkigal, but it is arguably not even needed since she has a number of NP charges already on her kit. Anti-Rider Attack Damage gives her a bit more reach when farming since it allows her to deal more damage to a different class than normal. Her base class effectiveness is only okay, so this can be used.

The Critical damage append and the Skill cooldown reduction appends feel basically made for Space Ereshkigal. While Space Ereshkigal does have good crit damage for a turn with her S2, it is lacking during the cooldown period and because she can constantly crit thanks to her NP, she enjoys the passive crit damage a lot. Against Servants, she will do 50% more crit damage without any assistance, which is quite powerful. The skill cooldown append is crazy on her, reducing her first skill cycle to 3/4/4, numbers that probably shouldn't be real. This, notably, gives her the ability to re-use all of her skills on Wave 3 with the cooldown reduction ability of the Atlas Academy Uniform.

Is this necessary? No, it is not really her best team composition overall. But is funny? Hell yeah.

Craft Essences

One of the biggest strengths to Space Ereshkigal in general is that she is a supremely flexible Servant. She can function with a wide variety of Craft Essences: NP damage, Crit damage, Arts performance, Overcharge, NP generation, Buster and Arts performance, etc etc. What CE you equip onto Ereshkigal, fundamentally, depends on what exactly you are trying to get her to do.

It is at this time worth bringing up her Bond CE, Epitaph of the Star Sword. This gives her an additional 30% NP damage, 30% Critical damage against Servants, and increases her Master Affection Level by 1. Usually Bond CEs are not worth using because of having lackluster effects in addition to very flacid stats, but this one is actually worth considering. All three of the effects are great, and she can potentially start off with Master Affection Level 4, which is crazy.

Team Composition

We haven't really discussed her existence as a looper yet, and that's been partially deliberate. Her damage numbers are pretty good in a neutral vacuum, but due to her class, she doesn't hit many relevant enemies for SE damage. When she does, her damage numbers are impressive even despite having the 1.5x SE modifier. With two Castorias, a Level 100 Black Grail, and a Master Affection Level of 7 (the highest possible without situational buffs on Wave 3) she will hit for 155,703 damage neutrally, which is generally impressive. The Atlas Mystic Code set up will allow Space Ereshkigal to hit a Master Affection Level of 8 as well as allowing her to double up on her S1 buffs, letting her hit for 204,017 damage neutrally.

Where a lot of good ideas unfortunately tend to fall short is her refund. She only generates about 47% of her NP gauge back with double Castoria, which while generally fine enough to allow her to do farming, can require specific supports such as Xu Fu or Oberon to help patch up where her NP refund can fall short. She can also work in multi-DPS farming comps, where her NP having the ability to reliably insta-kill enemies can be important. But it is worth noting in all of this that she does compete with Summer Ibuki in the farming role, and Summer Ibuki is often better, so.

In terms of her use in general content and in Challenge/Exhibition quests, again, Space Ereshkigal is so flexible that she works with pretty much anyone you pair her with. She likes better crit damage, she likes Overcharge, she likes Cooldown reduction, she will even take increased buster performance thanks to her two Buster cards. She's actually quite strong as a Challenge Quest servant, packing on the table a lot of individual qualities that are welcome. These also tend to have a higher concentration of enemies in the classes that she hits for SE as well, being another big benefit.

Conclusions

Space Ereshkigal is good. Great. Maybe broken even. One of the issues with the previous Anniversary Servant, Aesc the Savior, is that she has a kind of awkward kit. There's individually powerful pieces but it requires often quite a bit of work to push all of them together. This was also true of the previous collab 5-star, Aoko, whose kit would sometimes feel clunky to deal with.

Space Ereshkigal feels a lot smoother by comparison. While Space Ereshkigal does not necessarily end up demonstrably better than Aesc or Aoko by any means, her kit feels a lot more tuned in comparison, as they continue to experiment with more and more mechanically unique and interesting 5-stars. She's a good farmer, even a great one, and a great challenge quest servant.

In essence, while she is a Servant who requires time to actually learn to maximize, it's hard to use her wrong, to use Space Ereshkigal in a way where it will make her feel worse. I do think in some way that reduces the charm of using her in comparison, but she ends up being fun and good to use besides that so I'm okay with it.

Hate to give Servantverse crap a W but. Yeah.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

New analysis confirms severe damage from industrial complex planned near Paranal Observatory

An in-depth technical analysis by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) has evaluated the impact of the INNA megaproject on the facilities at the Paranal Observatory, Chile—and the results are alarming. The analysis reveals that INNA would increase light pollution above the Very Large Telescope (VLT) by at least 35% and by more than 50% above the south site of the Cherenkov Telescope Array Observatory (CTAO-South).

INNA would also increase air turbulence in the area, further degrading conditions for astronomical observations, while vibrations from the project could seriously impair the functioning of some of the astronomical facilities, like the Extremely Large Telescope (ELT), at the Paranal Observatory.

In January, ESO publicly raised the alarm about the threat posed to the world's darkest and clearest skies, those of ESO's Paranal Observatory, from the industrial megaproject INNA. The project—by AES Andes, a subsidiary of the US power company AES Corporation—includes multiple energy and processing facilities, spread over an area of more than 3000 hectares, the size of a small city. Its planned location is just a few kilometers from the Paranal telescopes.

A preliminary analysis done at the time revealed that, due to its size and proximity to Paranal, the INNA project posed significant risks to astronomical observations. Now, a detailed technical analysis has confirmed that INNA's impact would be devastating and irreversible.

Blinding light pollution

According to the new, detailed analysis, the industrial complex would increase light pollution above the VLT, which is about 11 km from the planned INNA location, by at least 35% above the current artificial-light baseline levels. Another of the Paranal facilities, ESO's ELT, would see the light pollution above it increase by a minimum of 5%. This increase already represents a level of interference incompatible with the conditions required for world-class astronomical observations. The impact on the skies above the CTAO-South, located just 5 km from INNA, would be the most significant, with light pollution going up by at least 55%.

"With a brighter sky, we severely limit our ability to directly detect Earth-like exoplanets, observe faint galaxies, and even monitor asteroids that could cause damage to our planet," says Itziar de Gregorio-Monsalvo, ESO's Representative in Chile.

"We build the largest and most powerful telescopes in the best place on Earth for astronomy, to enable astronomers worldwide to see what no one has ever seen before. Light pollution from projects like INNA doesn't just hinder research, it steals our shared view of the universe."

For its technical analysis, a team of experts led by ESO Director of Operations Andreas Kaufer joined forces with Martin Aubé, a world-leading expert on sky brightness at astronomical sites, to run simulations using the most advanced light-pollution models. As input, the simulations used publicly available information provided by AES Andes when submitting the project for environmental assessment, which states the complex will be illuminated by over 1000 light sources.

"The light-pollution figures we are reporting assume that the project will install the most modern available luminaries in a way that minimizes light pollution. However, we are concerned that the inventory of light sources planned by AES is not complete and fit for purpose. In that case, our already alarming results would underestimate the potential impact of the INNA project on the Paranal sky brightness," Kaufer explains.

He adds that the calculations assume clear-sky conditions. "We would get even worse light pollution if we considered cloudy skies," he says. "While Paranal is cloud-free most of the year, many astronomical observations can still be performed when there are thin cirrus clouds—and in this case the light-pollution effect is amplified since nearby artificial lights strongly reflect off the clouds."

Turbulence ahead

The technical analysis looked into other impacts from the project, such as the increase in atmospheric turbulence, the effects of vibrations on the delicate telescope equipment, and dust contamination of the sensitive telescope optics during construction. All of these would further deepen the impact of INNA on Paranal's capabilities for astronomical observation.

In addition to the dark and clear skies, Paranal Observatory is the world's top site for astronomy thanks to its exceptionally steady and stable atmosphere—it has what astronomers call excellent seeing conditions or very low "twinkling" of astronomical objects caused by turbulence in Earth's atmosphere. With INNA, the best seeing conditions could deteriorate by up to 40%, in particular due to the air turbulence caused by the project's wind turbines.

Another worry is the impact of the vibrations caused by INNA on the VLT Interferometer (VLTI) and the ELT, which are both extremely sensitive to micro-seismic noise. The technical analysis reveals that INNA's wind turbines could produce an increase in these micro-vibrations in the ground that is large enough to impair the operations of these two world-leading astronomical facilities. Dust during construction is also problematic as it settles on the telescope mirrors and obstructs their view.

"Taken together, these disturbances seriously threaten the current and long-term viability of Paranal as a world-leader in astronomy, causing the loss of key discoveries about the universe and compromising Chile's strategic advantage in this area," says de Gregorio-Monsalvo. "The only way to save Paranal's pristine skies and protect astronomy for future generations is to relocate the INNA complex."

Furthermore, INNA's infrastructure is likely to encourage the development of an industrial hub in the area, which could turn Paranal into an unusable site for top-level astronomical observations.

"ESO and its Member States are fully supportive of energy decarbonization. For us Chile should not have to make a choice between hosting the most powerful astronomical observatories and developing green-energy projects. Both are declared strategic priorities by the country and are fully compatible—if the different facilities are located at sufficient distances from one another," says ESO Director General Xavier Barcons.

"We are extremely grateful for the support we've received from the Chilean and worldwide research communities, and from our ESO Member States. We also thank the Chilean authorities for looking into this matter. We are more committed than ever to working together to protect the irreplaceable Paranal skies," concludes Barcons.

TOP IMAGE: This eye-catching Picture of the Week was captured from ESO's Paranal Observatory. Home to ESO's Very Large Telescope, the observatory sits proudly atop the 2635-meter-high Cerro Paranal in Northern Chile's Atacama Desert. The four Unit Telescopes of the VLT, seen just right of center in this panorama, are posing in front of the huge expanse of the Milky Way galaxy, which appears almost like a rainbow made of stars, arching over the site. In the image, the four smaller Auxiliary Telescopes are also visible. Astronomers use different configurations of these telescopes that can be moved around on the tracks situated on the telescope platform. Can you spot the four Auxiliary Telescopes in this image? Credit: ESO/P. Horálek

LOWER IMAGE: Florentin Millour captured this breathtaking wide-field image of comet C/2024 G3 (ATLAS) on January 21 from ESO's Paranal Observatory in Chile. The Very Large Telescope sits atop Cerro Paranal to the left, while the comet sets in the western horizon right after sunset. Credit: F. Millour/ESO

[notdefendingtaylor]

the most worrying thing to me about the asylum aesthetic

aside from the clear co-opting of mentally ill and disabled people's historical abuses under a broken, underfunded, and at times deeply unscientific system....

is that mental healthcare available NOW can be a profound help, life changing AND life saving.

but the asylum/love made me crazy/'female rage' imagery of ttpd is provoking a lot of discussion about historical abuses and the actual benefits are getting somewhat lost in that discussion. (scientology, THE anti-psychiatry organization, must be thrilled.)

here are some facts about recovery under appropriate and professional help:

bipolar: "Shorter duration of illness, higher social class, and treatment compliance were associated with higher rates of recovery and more rapid recovery." (source)

borderline personality disorder: "One study found that 77% of participants no longer qualified for the DBT diagnosis [of borderline] after one year [of DBT treatment]" (source)

major depressive disorder: "Clinical and functional remission was achieved in 70.6% and 56.1% of the MDD patients, respectively." (source)

hospitalizations: "it can reduce the stress of daily responsibilities for a brief period of time, which allows you to concentrate on recovery from a mental health crisis. As your crisis lessens, and you are better able to care for yourself, you can begin planning for your discharge. In-patient care is not designed to keep you confined indefinitely; the goal is to maximize independent living by using the appropriate level of care for your specific illness." (source)

what is my point here? contributing to the STIGMA around psychiatric care, trying to couch mental illness in language of romantic shared mania (folie à deux) is not just giving 2005 myspace, it's inherently irresponsible. a 'recovery is possible' mindset is what saves lives and in the US, her home country, the stigma against seeking help works hand in hand with the systematic defunding of mental health care to dissuade people from achieving the recovery that can lead to abatement of suffering and transition into a life worth living.

here's my mental illness cheat sheet:

it's not romantic. it can be associated with creativity, but that's not guaranteed or inherent and may largely be a cliche that sidetracks real functional improvement: "Romanticizing the 'mad genius' myths surrounding bipolar disorder can also be harmful, and have negative consequences on your wellbeing and productivity." (source)

it's expensive as hell to treat, but under certain income thresholds in the US, Medicaid can pay for most if not all of the treatment you might need.

it generally leads to lower employment rates or underemployment but treatment leads to the best outcomes for employment and housing: "undertreatment can have a negative impact on occupational functioning" (source)

substance abuse is a conversation that can't be unlinked to mental illness and for some reason the US seems more ready to talk about that than the underlying mental health issues - because then an element of blame can be assigned to the individual for self-destructive behavior. but addressing the core mental health issues can certainly lead to recovery in other areas, when the substance use is linked to depression, anxiety, etc.

the US loves to talk about mental illness when gun violence occurs, but that doesn't mean those same legislators will vote to expand access to mental health treatment (source)

my #1 tip i have is this: if you don't have insurance or your insurance only covers a fraction of your psych inpatient bill, CONTACT PATIENT FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE AND FILL OUT PAPERWORK TO SEEK A WRITE-OFF. instead of that $3000 bill you can leave owing $500 (or less). literally cannot emphasize this enough! the write-off is based on income so they will need to see your financials to assess what write-off(s) may be appropriate in your case.

peer support groups like National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) may hold meetings in your area where you can discuss your problems and relate to others' who may share some of your struggles. this is basically peer-led, FREE group 'counseling'. seriously, it's effectively nearly as good as the group sessions you might have to pay for, and the frequency is often weekly. (find support)

yes, we can talk about past historical psychiatric abuses and ongoing abuses today, which tend to disproportionately affect the socioeconomically disadvantaged. but the conversation needs to also include the benefits of access to scientifically-informed mental health treatment as well.

[kaonarvna]

A Low-Stress Work Social

"Chapter" Name: A Low-Stress Work Social — Sector Zero, Midgar 199X

Summary: Angeal and Genesis, newly promoted to the FIRST CLASS within SOLDIER, attend a company social event alongside Sephiroth.

Tags: Slice of Life, Emotional Hurt/Comfort

Potential TWs: homophobia

WC: ~3000 (6-10 minute read)

Sample below the cut!

 “He said you could have two.”

            “Come on, Angeal—who is going to notice? Who will notice if we have another?”

            “We all agreed with him that we could have two. We are technically working, Genesis. We are here to put on a good face for the FIRST CLASS, and socialize with—”

            Sephiroth quietly re-joins them, holding out his hand between the whisper-squabbling young men. Two flutes of a pre-mixed and brightly coloured cocktail balance between his fingers and sips with his other hand.

            Genesis takes one. “Thank you! Someone has the right idea.” The fruity taste is almost sickly; he can hardly detect the liquor that is supposedly inside.

            “Both of you should know better. This is exactly why Lazard instructed for me to stay—no!” he holds out a hand in front of the drink Sephiroth offers him. “How are you going to—”

            “Relax.” Sephiroth pours part of the rejected drink into Genesis’ plastic glass, and the other into his, earning an audible sigh from Angeal. “You have already spoken with every middle-manager in the room about recent promotions.”

            “But look around you! We need to look our best. We are surrounded by our own, and Public Safety, Weapons Development, Research and—”

            “We are not talking to R and D,” Sephiroth interrupts. 

            “Sure. But what about all the sub-departments of Weapons Development and Public Safety…?”

            Genesis looks away from their tight social triangle for a moment. The sixty-first floor is hardly recognisable. The neon signs of the sectors beyond the dark windows light the edges of the room with purples and reds, while the sterile lights above have been partially dimmed. The tables have been rearranged towards the edges of the floor—the longest two of which have been repurposed to house spreads of finger-foods and myriad drinks. Round tables of social sorts are stocked with shiny buckets of ice coddling white wine, and graveyards of empty glasses interspersed with dark green-tinted bottles. Bland, palatable, but vaguely popular music fails to drown out the laughing and too-loud talking of the hundreds of mingling personnel.

            Everyone seems to be at their semi-best, a prettier-than-standard but not-quite-dress-uniform level of “best”. He can see Scarlet on the other end of the hall, looking her usual red self, with a too-tall glass of red, surrounded by red-faced men who seem to enjoy her belittling remarks. The new-FIRST tries not to stare too long; he can feel his eyes un-focussing, smearing the lights around that encased tree display to the edges of his eyesight.

            “How do you think they get this so green?” Genesis suddenly wonders aloud, snapping back to the noxious drink in his hand. “Obviously, it is a food dye, but—is it a specific liqueur? A mix of liqueurs? Dye, on its own?” 

            “You were not even listening to me, were you?”

            “It tastes like melon,” Sephiroth adds.

            “That is not how melon tastes—this is the extra-sweetened, artificial melon taste you only get in Midgar. Someday, I can show you a real melon.” Genesis lays his free hand on Sephiroth’s upper arm.

            “What is the point of—if anything goes wrong tonight, you two are taking the blame.”

            Genesis rolls his eyes. “You need to relax. None of us want to be here, we may as well—”

            “Do not speak for me. We are FIRSTs now. There are additional responsibilities that come with that, beyond the field—and not just paper—”

            “Your six.” Sephiroth interrupts, just loud enough.

            A broad hand claps down firmly on Angeal’s shoulder; he can hear the bands of thick rings click against the polished metal guarding his body. “Boys! Hiding away from the action? Shouldn’t you be making the most of yourselves?”

...

[ Read the rest on AO3 ]

[rigelmejo]

I know I'm a broken record. But really... so often, the problem a learner encounters when they ask "I haven't been making any progress! What am I doing wrong?" is just... they haven't studied enough hours to make the progress they're expecting to.

A person wonders why after a Japanese 1 college class (which usually covers half of Genki 1, or part of N5 at the most), is wondering why they can't understand anime: well beginners can't! They have not studied anywhere near the amount of material they need to, to understand anime, and no where near the amount of hours it takes! It's going to take 1000+ hours of study, probably closer to 2000-3000 hours for most people. Or, reaching at least N3, to start understanding some anime, and N3 takes an estimated ~1,000-1,700 hours of study. For a very good understanding of anime, aiming for N1 on the JLPT, takes an estimated ~2,500 to 4,500+ hours of study. Of course a few hundred hours of a semester of a class, and self study, is not going to get you to the point of understanding anime.

A person self studies for 200 hours in a year, or takes a year of French classes, and wonders why they're only A2 in French: A2 takes an estimated ~180-200 hours, but intermediate B1 and B2 take MANY hundreds of hours to reach! B1 takes an estimated 350-400 hours of study, and B2 takes an estimated 500-600 hours of study. And that's depending on if the estimates include only class hours, or class hours and expected self-study at home (with expected self-study hours these estimates can double).

Someone said once on a language forum that each increase in language level is exponential - so it takes a short amount of time to reach A1, twice the amount of time to reach A2, twice the amount of time of A2 to reach B1, twice the amount of time of B1 to reach B2 etc... and I mostly agree. So each time you hit a big milestone (like a level in a language), expect it to take twice as long to hit the next significantly big milestones. So if you achieved A1, give yourself twice as much time to reach A2, and then twice the amount of time it took you to reach A2 to reach B1. Etc.

(there are other issues too: if you're self studying then you might be repeatedly studying the same material and not progressing onto anything new - that would cause a stall in progress and I did that often as a beginner, if you're self studying then you might not have figured out the ways you learn the best - and that can cause delays in progress because you're sometimes using ways that don't stick well for you, if you're studying in a class then you might not be practicing any of the things you're learning - and the lack of practice is making you stall - such as learning new vocabulary but not actually practicing speaking or reading anything, but these problems are a matter of planning your study to do something new regularly and practice regularly - which can be fixed on your own or by talking with a teacher or tutor or another learner who's accomplished the goal you're aiming for).

[aryburn-trains]

Penn Central former New York Central P2 class electric locomotive is seen leading a commuter passenger train on the New York Central viaduct leading to Grand Central Terminal in New York City, 1969

Penn Central former New York Central P2 class electric locomotive is seen leading a commuter passenger train on the New York Central viaduct leading to Grand Central Terminal in New York City, 1969. Originally this locomotive was a 3000 volt DC pantograph equipped motor that operated in the Cleveland Union Terminal electric district. The New York Central rebuilt this locomotive for third rail operation for New York City area operation. This locomotive was the original engine with this wheel configuration of 2-C+C-2, and the New Haven Railroad based their EP-3 and EP-4 class electric locomotives on its wheel base plan, but with a higher horsepower output level. This wheel arrangement in the end resulted in the New Haven EF-3 class motor and the Pennsylvania Railroad GG-1. Bob Hughes was riding on-board a former New Haven Railroad FL-9 locomotive while traveling in the opposite direction when he captured this image.