#and it makes the levels *way* harder than they need to be

[guiltyofbitchcraft]

Hey, educators! If you're seeing this, please do not do this! The posters above are well meaning but I don't believe they're fully thinking this through.

For one, this is concept only works if you ignore disabled students. I'll use my own case as an example but I have EDS and a multitude of other issues that come with that, one of which being that after a few sentences it's really painful to hand write things! Not only that my handwriting drastically deteriorates the longer I push myself. It's not fun and one of my disability requirements I've had at each and every one of my schools since high school is that I get technology access for taking notes and doing written assignments. This is just one of a million reasons a student might need to type out their assignments. There's also a very good possibility you have students who have needs that make it easier for them to type out assignments but they aren't official recognized or diagnosed. Secondly, Blue Book written assignments cannot replace all written assignments. While they are really good for testing students ability to think quickly and organize their thoughts short term that does not replace the skills long term essay writing creates. If you want to encourage your students to become scholars and writers they'll need to learn to hone skills beyond a blue book exam. That's not even touching on how hand written essays make things like citations so much harder to teach and for your students to apply.

Also just because some professors are willing to struggle through terrible handwriting doesn't mean all are. There's some truly illegible handwriting out there and yes while more hand written assignments would help with that (although it'd be more useful to the students in earlier years rather than in later education) also consider the amount of extra work you're asking both the professor and the student to do? Hand writing takes a lot more time than typing, and students who have bad hand writing probably know it and know that the illegibility has a good chance at affecting their grade. (Also like very minor note but like please also don't forget about what a pain it is for left handed students to do blue book style exams. We know our hand smears the entire text but we can't do anything about it) I get it, AI is really becoming a problem but I don't think the solution is to make your students do more work when they're already not keeping up with the work load they have. You think they won't learn to cheat on written exams? People have before, it'll just be brought back. I'm sorry to tell you guys but there is no easy solution to this. The way towards a solution will take patience, trust, and a lot of work. It'll require a lot more realistic and genuine conversations about AI and trust with your students, it'll require going back to a system that allows students to fail in a safe environment rather than pushing them onto the next level when they're nowhere near ready. What isn't the solution is making education both inaccessible and more distrusting of the people it's supposed to help.

An ex-colleague of mine was complaining to me the other day about the ai problem in her students' papers, and I told her, "Just make your students hand-write them in class. Easy." She looked at me like I was insane and tried to explain how that would never work, but I just said,"That's how we did it for a thousand years. The invention of word processors doesn't erase all that."

To me it seems obvious. Readings are done out of class, handwritten essays are done within it. No more ai papers.

[thelov3lybookworm]

Journals (part 2)

Part 1

Summary: new realisations and hauntingly beautiful words

•○●⛦●○•

Word Count: 2059

Warnings: heavyyyy angst, mental health issues, depression, feeling unworthy of love, panic attack, self harm (alluded to), self hate. thats all i can think of right now, but let me know if i need to add anything

A/n: based on old poetry by @garden-of-runar 🤭i had reblogged them to my drafts on a side blog that i dont use at all, so i couldnt reblog them on my main, but i have put them in the fic, so ig that works🤷🏻‍♀️ also, if i ever write a part 3 (which i might based on feedback) azzie would be the love interest <3

ALSO MY GIRLIE IS SO TALENTED DONT EVEN GET ME STARTED I LOVE THESE POEMS 🥹

(im also tagging people who asked for a part two hope u dont mind <3)

anyways, enjoyyyy!!

°•°•°•○🌑○•°•°•°

Lying on the ground, despite how it hurt her joints sometimes, was one of Y/n’s favourite pastimes. Maybe because sometimes she did not have the energy to crawl into her bed, but that was not the point.

They hate you.

The hardness of the wood panels was oddly comforting, the way the grains sometimes raised enough for her to feel them with her fingers, the soft creaking when she stepped on them. It reminded her that she was here, that she was alive. That she was getting what she deserved for being so pathetic.

The soft mattress did not give her the same level of comfort. Sure, it was warm and cozy, but did she deserve it?

No.

You deserve this.

You deserve the worst.

Y/n sniffled, lying on her side as she lifted her hand higher next to her, dragging her nails down the planks, the feeling overwhelming in itself but better than not feeling anything. She watched her fingers jerk with the motion, pale and bloodless.

She could feel her tears collecting in a pool and seeping under her cheek. She glanced at the foot of the bed in front of her.

It looks so majestic from down here.

Do people who are worse off think the same way about me?

I don’t want them to. Because I am not worth being thought of like that.

I am nothing. I am pathetic.

It became harder and harder to take in a breath from her nose, as it continued to grow clogged from all her sobbing.

It was one of her least favourite things about crying.

Pathetic.

Stop it!

You’re pathetic. Crying over nothing.

You don’t deserve anything good.

The thoughts kept echoing in her head, louder and louder. She couldn’t breathe any longer.

And it was not because of anything physical.

Her chest began to constrict, forcing her lungs to let out precious air. She tried to breathe it back in, desperately wishing to cling to any remnants of oxygen like a child clinging to its mothers skirts.

Please. Just one inhale.

Her throat tightened.

Just one.

She gasped, futilely trying to breathe one last time to breathe before she knew she would collapse, faint because of the lack of air in her body. It gave her some reprieve, and her eyes focused back to the bed.

The longer she stared at it, the more drowsy she became. Her eyelids were drooping, and she finally, finally decided that maybe letting herself submit to her body’s needs wouldn’t be too bad, if it meant that the thoughts would stop. Maybe if she gave in to the tiredness in her bones after hours of sobbing, her mind would stop being so cruel.

Maybe it would take pity on her.

Maybe.

°•°•°•○🌑○•°•°•°

"We should go out tomorrow!"

Y/n smiled a little. A rare smile that only recently had begun showing on her face.

It wouldn’t be considered a real smile. But it was still there on her face. The tilt of her lips.

We. Not me. We.

They wanted her to be present too.

Cassian jumped up, looking at Y/n with a grin. "I always wanted to take Y/n out to Rita’s."

Her smile grew.

The other members talked, making plans for tomorrow. Slowly, the conversation spiralled, as it always did between them all.

Azriel leaned close to Y/n, whispering jokes in her ear that made her giggle. Rhysand sat on the same couch as Cassian, fighting like children. Mor sat next to Amren, amusement shining in her eyes as she added fuel to the fire, while Amren looked like she’d rather be anywhere but here.

They talked well into the night, politics, food, court gossip bleeding into one another as the time trickled by.

But the moment the conversations wandered into their future, Y/n’s smile faded. She wondered, would they want her to stay in their life?

She didn’t have to wonder long, as the words they uttered were enough to give her peace.

They talked of vacations, of parties and new traditions. Of getting married, of being with their partners. Of celebrating lives and years and months, of celebrating ends and new beginnings.

They talked, and included her.

They talked in ‘we’s’. Not in ‘me’s’.

And that was enough for her little heart to be happy.

For it to heal, for the blood to return to her face.

For her to smile, free and unbidden.

But then, time passed. And just like the sand in an hourglass trickles away, so do all good things.

As she watched, the scene changed from only housing six people in the living room, to adding three more members. And slowly, she was pushed out.

And they began talking in ‘me’s’.

Some ‘we’s’, but it never meant Y/n.

No, it meant them. Them and their partners.

It meant Feyre and Rhysand. Their new lives and baby.

It meant Cassian and Nesta. Their new mating bond and blooming love.

It meant Azriel and Elain. Their growing infatuation.

Y/n doubted the infatuation had ended, as Azriel no longer sat next to Elain at dinners. Lucien’s visits to Velaris had increased too.

But everyone’s visits to Y/n and their thoughts about her had decreased. No one seemed to remember her existence.

And she deserved it.

They chatted among themselves, and the armchair she sat on vanished from under her, leaving her standing knee deep in the freezing snow. Watching from the outside as the warm interior that had seemed so welcoming just a moment ago turned into a nightmare.

Her worst nightmare.

It left her whimpering, leaving her to curl on the cold ground.

All alone, just like she deserved.

°•°•°•○🌑○•°•°•°

It was almost sunset, and finally, Rhysand had built up the determination to read the damned journal.

He walked downstairs, peering into the living room before stepping in front of it.

Mor had departed after Y/n had left, tears in her eyes. Azriel and Cassian had been sitting in the living room for the whole two hours since then, staring into space, looking haunted and horrified at the way they hadn’t realised what was going on with their friend. Amren too, sat in an armchair in the corner, looking as unbothered as ever. But Rhys saw the cracks. The shifting eyes, the too hard hold on the book she held in her lap, the downward tilt of her lips more pronounced.

"I think it’s time we read the journal."

Four sets of eyes shot up to his figure.

"Are you sure, Rhys?" Cassian mumbled, standing up uncertainly.

Rhys nodded. "It is the only option we have."

Azriel sighed, mirroring Cassian’s movements and moving closer to Rhysand.

Feyre perked up. "What is going on Rhys?"

He clenched his jaw, guilt and regret festering in his gut. He had been so busy in his newfound happiness, so wound up in enjoying every moment with his mate that he had forgotten family. He had forgotten her to the extent his mate didn’t even know what the slight tang of copper in the air meant.

"Nothing, Feyre." He mumbled, turning away.

"Elain was asking-"

"Tell her to stop asking, then." Rhysand froze at the coldness in Azriel’s voice, his eyes going wide. Azriel never used that tone of voice with anyone outside of work, let alone Feyre.

Feyre stepped back, her calves hitting the couch as she stared at her friend in shock. "Az?"

Azriel pushed past Rhysand, making his way towards his study where the journal sat, looking as frustrated and unapologetic as ever.

After a shared glance, Rhysand and Cassian followed, Amren hot on their heels.

Azriel was already seated in one of the chairs at Rhysand’s mahogany desk, his eyes fixed on the journal that lay in the middle, his jaw clenched. He seemed to be the most affected, and Rhys only had the faintest idea why.

The four of them sat in waiting until Mor finally arrived, shutting the door behind her. Her eyes were bloodshot, and she sniffled lightly as she came to stand next to Cassian.

"Rhys, do we really have to read it? It will be an invasion of privacy."

Rhys swallowed. Thought it over. "We don’t really have a choice, do we? We need to figure out the root of this. She won’t tell us if we ask, we know that. Plus, she might already be way down the path of another breakdown after what happened today."

"That is why I think that instead of sitting around on our arses," Azriel ground out, "we should go and check up on her."

Rhys raised a brow, though concern festered in his gut. "Azriel, we’ve been through this before. She will feel worse about herself, thinking she inconvenienced us."

A muscle feathered in Azriel’s jaw, but he said nothing.

And so they began reading.

Rhysand opened a random page, his breath catching at the sudden tang of copper, and began reading. As he stared at the words before speaking them aloud, he remembered seeing the exact poem in a book he recommended to Y/n over fifty years ago.

Forgotten.That is my nameThat is the path I walkIt has been so longI don’t remember what it is like to be seenAnd I spill, my tears lining the path to the woods where my body lies,Forgotten.- from GardenofRunar

Instantly, Rhysand’s blood ran cold. He leaned back, exhaling. The pages were decorated in flowers and hearts, tiny little clouds and doodles in the margins so at odds with the thoughts spilled onto them like a hauntingly beautiful scenery.

At this point, Cassian and the others had moved to peer over Rhys’s shoulder. Rhys watched as Cassan reached over to turn the page with a shaky hand, pulling it back almost instantly as if the page had burned him. There, just above the words was a small handful of doodles, and he knew the small figures resembled the inner circle before Rhys had been taken under the mountain.

The poem was more a letter than anything, except it contained so few letters but thy hit everyone with a guilt so hard it was almost like a mountain fell onto them.

So like Y/n, to say so less yet still make an impact.

I didn’t forget about you.Can you say the same for me?Don’t bother.I know the answer.-GardenOfRunar

Under the poem, were a few words.

The poet is so talented. Every poem of them I read, it makes me want to sob.Maybe because I relate to these. Maybe that’s why.

Quiet sniffles came from Mor, but Rhys turned another page. It was the first page where blood began dotting the corners, a few drops on the center of the page veining out towards the edges, as if trying to exit but being unable to.

The almost poeticness of the sight was not lost on them. The blood droplets were almost like Y/n, trying to escape a cruel mind but unable to.

My friends are living lives, and I’m trudging through a million little days,Wasting away.- GardenofRunar

A hand snaked towards the book, slamming it shut. Rhysand jumped, his eyes flying to the owner of the scarred hand that appeared.

"Enough." His voice was still, quiet, but so cold it could freeze even the summer court over. And Rhysand knew. He was blaming himself for not paying attention to Y/n.

Rhys nodded, feeling guiltier by the second.

Everyone went back to their places, sitting in silence. Contemplating.

Wondering how they had become so oblivious to the point that they couldn’t see what was right in front of them the entire time.

The regret, the sadness was heavy in the air. It was getting hard to breathe it in.

Finally, Azriel stood, grabbing the book.

Then he turned, and walked out the door without a word, his wings pulled tight against his back.

And Rhysand wondered again.

Was this just some friendly concern, some self blame, or something else entirely?

Needless to say, suspicion took root. But guilt and hate overwhelmed it once more, and the family was left to sit and roil in it.

To wonder, how could they have been so busy that they ignored such an important part of them?

°•°•°•○🌑○•°•°•°

(ps. the first part in the memories/dreams Y/n has is based off this poem

You talk in ‘we’s’ Not ‘me’s’ And it heals my heart, just a little. Puts a smile on my face, just a little. You talk about a future One with me in it And I feel the color Return to my face. Just a little. - Runar

)

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[love-and-war-on-cybertron]

Teach a Bot to Kiss: Ratchet PT1

So this got deleted part way through writing so I used that as an excuse to try something. Also tumble made me post it in two parts. Enjoy~

The circumstances that brought you to the Lost Light were not ideal. No one, including you, talked about it. Ratchet seemed to think you were handling it surprisingly well. You didn't seem bothered. Quite happy. Maybe a little too happy. He's mention it to Rung next time they ran into each other.

The lost light was a big place to be if you were a tiny human. Lucky for you, Ratchet was willing to be your caretaker of sorts. He may be gruff and downright biting at times, but you could see that underlying care in him. No doubt it's what made him such a good doctor. Even you, he considered a potential patient. Luckily for you, he had some experience with humans and thus a previously saved bit of information on their medical needs. Today you were in the medical bay for one of his minor check ups. Keeping track of your vitals, seeing if anything made levels all wrong. Or if space travel was treating you wrong. Like usual, he did it at the end of the work day, when no one was in dire need of his attention. He just needed you to stand there and get scanned while he glanced at the numbers. "Well, looking fine as usual." "Why thank you." You say with a wink. Ratchet lets out a scoff and rolls his eyes. "You're hanging out with Rodimus too much." He writes something down on a data pad and sets it aside before shutting off the scanner and offering his palm to you. Using his thumb as a handle, you climb on so he can carry you off to his quarters. Ratchet waves to Ambulon as he passes by. It's the night hours, or at least the equivalent. The lights are turned down in the halls and most bots are in their quarters. Time for Ratchet, and thus you, to head to bed as well. "Hey Ratchet?" He unlocks his habsuite and grunts in acknowledgment, "You were on earth right?" "We've been over this many times y/n," He flips the lights and sets you on the shelf with your make shift bed. A collection of sponge and clean rags. Comfortable enough for you, "Yes I was on earth." He preferred not to talk about that time. The beginning of the end in a way. You flop onto the makeshift bed, even turned away, he can hear your mouth open, ready to ask a question. All a part of the nightly routine since he started caring for you. Asking any inane question that comes to mind while he readies for recharge. What he saw, who he met. Moving on to his past on cybertron. You always asked questions. Ratchet begrudgingly answered. You were trying to fill the silence. It couldn't be easy living on ship away from your home world and everything you knew. Sometimes these stupid questions led to interesting, dare he even think, inciteful conversation. Your voice was getting drowsy with sleep before asking about his love life. "When was the last time you kissed someone?" "Cybertronians don't kiss." "Prudes?" You perked up. "No, it just isn't a thing." He settles down on his berth, ready to offline. But you keep questioning. Ratchet can hear you shifting, eventually your soft steps coming to the edge of the shelf you're on. "Like… Just not popular?" He glances at you and sees you focused on him. This wasn't going to be one of those inciteful conversations, but clearly not one he could get out of. "No. We have many ways of showing affection, but that isn't one of them." Your pause makes him hopeful you will let it go and he can sleep. "But you know what kissing is?" Another heavy sigh, "I was on earth after all." "Well if you ever need the practice." You wiggle your brows and chuckle. Ratchet narrows his optics at you. Cheeky, as always. He flicks your forehead a little harder than he meant to. The THUNK of his digit and the way you stumbled back solidified that.

Part Two

[forevergoldgame]

Episode 1 Progress Update, Part 2

We're in the process of putting all the story scenes we've written in-engine! As we go, Dan's hacking through the remaining art assets, and I'm tying up some loose ends related to systems and variable storage.

Keep reading for more details!

Writing, writing, writing

At this point, the draft mentioned in the previous update has been more or less fully realized. There's still plenty of editing to do, of course, but the episode's narrative is complete aside from a collection of short variable scenes.

We won't reveal too many specifics just yet, but the scope of Episode 1 will take you from Quincy's last day as mine inspector through to the christening of the Prince's Convoy. Along the way, you'll meet most everyone from the demo (save for Oscar and Imani) as well as a few characters you haven't, make foundational choices about the kind of man Quincy is, and actually get a proper introduction to the setting and conflict.

Changes to: art, character designs

You may have noticed some of the portraits in these screencaps are different from the demo. Once Episode 1 is out, it will be much harder to make design changes, and so we've decided to take the opportunity to revise a few character designs we weren't happy with. Nothing too crazy, but you might see a change of hair style or color here and there.

Art updates might happen here and there throughout development as Dan's work evolves, but the character designs themselves are less likely to such alterations after release. (Not counting diegetic changes in appearance, of course.)

[PICTURED: Dan's faltering suspension of disbelief over Lucas's ability to continuously dye his roots while traveling. ]

Changes to: systems, traits, and more

As we wrote Episode 1, I spent a lot of time rethinking the back end. Writing an entire episode gave me perspective on how the systems I wrote for the demo did and didn't work. I could talk at length about this, but most of said systems (like experience/leveling and reputation) were not represented in the demo due to its small scope. Seeing as no one would really understand or appreciate the details, I'll try to keep it brief instead.

LEVELING: Originally, leveling was going to be based on earning experience points. EXP would be awarded for completing quests and attempting skill checks, but we found that pacing an EXP curve in a game like this was a lot of work for a system which is ultimately at odds with a story based more on "narrative" than "winning." In the end, we did away with the concept of EXP in favor of a leveling system that is tied to main story progression.

REPUTATION: You may recall from the demo that Quincy's statistics listed a few different reputation continuum: rebel or orthodox, apathetic or ambitious, and so on. These were going to be tallies that kept track of the player's cumulative actions so that the system could easily calculate how certain characters felt about Quincy in a somewhat organic way. However, once we got writing, we realized the system was needlessly complicated, full of logistical holes, and redundant with other decision tracking handled by other parts of the system. And so, I replaced it with...

IDEALS: Ideals are somewhat like traits in that they alter text pertaining to Quincy's inner monologue and offer the player special dialog options. However, unlike traits, Quincy's ideals are somewhat malleable. If a Quincy with the "earnest" ideal continuously lies at every opportunity... well, eventually someone will notice.

AFFINITY/FRIENDSHIP: Much like reputation, the affinity system from the demo was both overly complicated and too simple to do what it needed. We knew we wanted something more organic than the standard "you completed my sidequest so now I'm in love with you because you're the main character" RPG approach since Forever Gold is more story-based, but the solution I came up with... was stupid.

I won't say how the new affinity system works - it'd spoil some of the magic if I told you exactly what actions the game was tracking and why - but it's simple on the back end while having enough complexity to create interesting roleplaying.

TRAITS: Traits have largely remained the same but have gained more importance as other systems shifted. In addition to the eight available to choose in the demo, there are three more to see in Episode 1. A few of them have been tweaked or renamed for clarity: the two traits that shared the name "Haretouched" are now called "Pariah" and "Maverick" to prevent confusion, and "Cleithrophobic" has been expanded into "Wilding" so that it better acts as a parallel quirk to Plutonist.

BETTER TOUCH CONTROLS FOR MOBILE + SMOOTHER NAVIGATION FOR DESKTOP: As it says on the tin. A lot of navigation that felt like it should have been swipeable on mobile or scrollable on desktop wasn't. But it is now!

In closing...

We're getting there. Man are we getting there. We've been pulling crazy hours on this lately.

-LS

[beans-core]

Random thought:

I think Tyson would make gifts for Percy that are usually armor and weapons or other life-saving things because he cares the most about keeping Percy safe and alive. Tyson knows that Percy cares the most about surviving to keep his loved ones safe. So it’s swords and shields and daggers. But then Percy explains the notion of a gag gift, and Tyson loves it, so gifts from Tyson now have a 50% chance if being gag gifts. And of course, Tyson can’t make anything less than breathtaking, so the joke is never shoddy work.

Percy’s personal favorite is when a small handheld water gun that’s a perfect rendition of poseidons trident but itty bitty, and it shoots water out of all three prongs. Percy treasures it, and nicknames it Fork. When Estelle is old enough to appreciate it, he passes Fork down to her with Tyson’s blessing.

Tyson doesn’t make gifts for people outside his family as often, but when he does it’s always based on something he knows they like, and it needs to be useful above all else. Gifts are harder to be upset about when it’s tailored specifically to your interests and needs. It’s the best path to gift-giving success, and Tyson wants nothing but to make them happy.

When Tyson is hired to work as one of Poseidons blacksmiths, he grows closer to his dad, and would make gifts for him too. Statues and crowns and the like, because Poseidon doesn’t really need help to be strong, not that Tyson’s current skill level would be able to make a functional weapon for a god (one day, probably). Not only that, but because Poseidon is divinity, gifts don’t have to necessarily be useful. There’s more freedom to play around with the art of it considering it’s basically an offering.

Gifts for Sally Jackson are things like art and jewelry, because she’s a mixture of both. he knows that she’s divine too in her own unique way, but sometimes she doubts that she deserves to be decorated. Which is something he just can’t imagine, Sally Jackson being anything less than amazing? Not possible. He also knows that she doesn’t need to fight to be safe, because Percy will, but defensive items aren’t a bad idea at all. (Her favorite gift from Tyson is a beautiful locket that she has her family’s pictures in.)

When Percy goes missing, it’s the first time he gifts Sally something for offense rather than defense. It’s also when he decides that he needs to do some protecting of everyone else too: he makes Estelle an armored crib when she’s born (which is promptly baby proofed by her parents but still effectively protects her). He makes Paul a pocketknife that works in both humans and monsters, so if he’s being attacked he can fight back first and wonder if the assailant was monster or human later. Sally’s protective item is an improved version of Percy’s watch-to-shield thing but with an added detachable dagger that is, once again, effective for both humans and monsters.

For his lovely harpy girlfriend, he’ll make her anything and everything he can. She likes to hoard more than just words in her head once she has a permanent, structured living place. Not to mention tyson would build her the world if she wanted, so trinkets are fun and no trouble at all. Ella also likes to give him little gifts in the form of scavenged findings— pretty flowers, quirky metal parts, shiny rocks— so he’ll find a way to incorporate them into his crafts. A nice shell might become a pendant for necklace, a scrap of wood with a nice design might be shaped into a small sculpture, a uniquely shaped peice of metal could be put in the hilt of a sword. Ella doesn’t mind if these little bits she collected become gifts for her, but being a part of the process of someone else’s gift and knowing a part of her plus a part of Tyson made something so special makes her want to burst with joy. (Ella also recites him love poems/stories/etc as gifts. Rarely, she will go out of her comfort zone and purposefully mix up the words of stuff she remembers to make personalized romantic writings for him. It’s a high honor and Tyson absolutely melts every time she does it.)

[yandere-fics]

♡ How Kassien Infantilizes Her Darling ♡

(something something the authors thinly veiled fetish. Also I wrote another fic after this too so I guess I really needed a couple break days so the inspirations would flow freely.)

♡ Kassien is one of the more pushy when it comes to making her darling sweet and reliant on her and in a different way then even Nora goes about her. This somewhat goes hand in hand with her daddy kink as well. The more aggressive or dominant her darling was prior to meeting her the more aggressive she's going to get with trying to make them her sweet reliant little mate who needs daddy for everything. It won't really go overboard though unless you work a job that really bothers her like an intense manual labor job or something like that. She also has to lose all her patience with you to go full into this mode like she asked you to quit your construction job and you refused completely. This can be prevented just by listening to her and doing what she wants at first but if you continue to assert yourself as someone tough who does hard physical jobs it'll make her aggressive about this. Especially if you're someone with a lot of muscle, she can't allow that. ♡

♡ Obviously first and foremost, she is daddy and she'll be very hostile if you refuse to call her daddy. Telling you you're her sweet girl and her sweet girl doesn't get to talk back to daddy, spanking you and yanking your hair the harder you refuse with her and making sure you know the only road to a happy life is by doing what she says because she knows better than you and you don't get to make big girl decisions like that. Yes she will absolutely start to call them big girl decisions if she snaps hard enough. She's very condescending about it when you finally give in too. ♡

♡ The next step is deciding every outfit you wear every day and how your hair is styled, girly colors and frilly clothing just to add that extra bit of humiliation to it. You're her sweet little mate, you wear cute clothes like daddy wants you too. A certain level of your own personal style may be taken into consideration though that's only if your style wasn't too rugged or 'independant'. She likes you in small dresses that you have to ask her to grab things because if you reach up to get it things might be exposed or light colors that you can't wash dishes in because the fabric will be ruined and then she'll know you tried to do a big girl task. ♡

♡ Speaking of, you're not allowed to do anything for yourself. A normal Kassien might let you do some things for yourself but if she thinks she needs to break your spirit of independence even things like bathing on your own will become forbidden tasks and you'll find locks on every room in the apartment. Trust me being bathed by her will be entirely humiliating. You'll also be given approved of hobbies by Kassien, things that are cute and don't require much thought because she needs to break you down and make you be good and sweet for her. You can earn back certain hobbies but not completely because she feels she can't trust you not to try to go back to your old independent ways. There's certain changes that will be made cuter and sweeter in her opinion. Like if you were into shooter games you get cozy games instead now, you're her sweet lovely baby, you don't do rough things. ♡

♡ Language is also monitored, because she needs to get you used to being less gruff, it doesn't matter if you were previously in a career where you cursed alot, you don't say those things anymore. She might fuck your mouth with the strap on roughly until you feel like it's hard to breath to teach you a lesson about those words. Using what she thinks is cuter words and phrasing will be rewarded with gifts and things to make your kept pet situation a little bit brighter and asking her for things will also be rewarding with nicer treatment from her. Over time if you continue to be good the infantilization may decrease though just barely because when Kassien snaps, she snaps nearly permanently. ♡

♡ By the way normally she'd allow you some outings on your own but considering how you used to behave she will never ever trust you with that sort of thing. That's for big girls and you already proved to her you couldn't be trusted with big girl privileges. ♡

[coockie8]

i for one kinda hate that they seem to be making sonic games more a more difficult over the years despite them already being like barely functional cause you know the way you play a game that regularly clips you through the ground while refusing to acknowledge your controller input and think "this is great but you know what would make this better? if it felt a little like a was playing speed-based dark souls for babies! :D"

"Modern Sonic is just speed-based Dark Souls for Babies" is going to live rent-free in my head for the rest of my life I think lmao

[beanghostprincess]

It still amazes me the number of people who see the juxtaposition between Nami and Usopp during Wano and their fight against Ulti as "Nami's devotion to Luffy is unmatched, unlike Usopp's" when she isn't able to say he won't be the king of the pirates but Usopp is telling her to lie.

I think most people don't have in mind, either, that Usopp isn't the one being directly asked. He is looking out for Nami and begging her to lie to keep her alive because he is scared to death they might lose her for something as insignificant as lying. For him, lying is a form of survival and it is not that big of a deal because he trusts Luffy enough to tell Nami to lie about her feelings. It is something that will only stay between them because he knows it is better to lie than to die and Luffy would want it that way too.

And that doesn't mean he isn't loyal to Luffy or his dream. He is just looking out for Nami's safety. And as I said-- He isn't being asked directly, either. It is easier to tell others to lie about something of the sort than to do it yourself, and if the roles were reversed I personally think he'd have the most awful of times with it too.

Nami refuses to say Luffy won't become the king of the pirates because for her, even if lying has gotten her out of messes, she puts her trust and loyalty in Luffy before her own instincts of survival because lying is what got her to push them away when they first met and this is the one thing she can't lie about because it would hurt more than death.

Then again, I think she would do the same exact thing Usopp did if she wasn't being the one asked. It is the whole point of the scene, actually. They both know the most rational thing is to lie so the one witnessing the scene will always be cold-headed about it, but the one having to lie is the one suffering the bitter realization of how lying about this and saying it out loud is way harder than it seems from an outsider's perspective.

So I am tired of seeing people criticizing Usopp for his decision during the fight against Ulti as if it were that easy for him to see Nami being about to get killed if she doesn't lie. Sorry for the guy to actually want to protect the people he loves instead of letting her be reckless and basically kill herself freely for telling a truth even Luffy would tell her to lie about if it meant living.

[britneyshakespeare]

I think everyone wants to own a complete works of Shakespeare and I want to get everyone a complete works of Shakespeare that is right for them

[mantisgodsdomain]

We ought to write more Pokemon fic some time. We want to recreate the Pokemon Manners/Human Manners cheat sheet that we made a few years ago we think that this site would like the Sliding Scale Of Politeness When Greeting A New Pokemon You've Never Met Before.

[batsplat]

oxley bom pod was talking about the friendly atmosphere in the paddock today and they brought up vale as someone who would make himself hate his opponents in order to beat them. they mentioned biaggi before saying vale didn’t need to make up a reason there lol, and the gibernau, stoner, lorenzo, marquez. thought it was interesting to hear them say that especially since oxley specifically had a particularly close working relationship with vale!

got around to listening to the podcast rather belatedly + had a chat about this general topic that helped me organise my thoughts on this a bit. I transcribed the most relevant comments - probably some small errors because of cross-talk and like... I'm a fast transcriptionist but can't be bothered to properly do it, here:

O: One is because racing is so fucking complicated now. [...] They've got so much to do, so much pressure - to have the negative energy of anger and hatred is actually - B: It's a waste. O: It's a bad thing, you're just wasting your energy. I mean it depends on the character, okay - B: So maybe Vale was the last who really needed to hate somebody to give him - and now even Vale invites Casey to his ranch to ride with him. But he really needed to - It was not difficult for him to hate, but he - Some riders he really looked for a reason to hate them even more, because then he could dig deeper in himself - because he was just a happy chap - in order to beat them. O: Max Biaggi. B: But it was easy to hate Max! That was not very difficult. Sete Gibernau, basically he needed to try - O: Casey Stoner. Sete Gibernau. Marc Marquez. B: He hated Vale probably before Vale hated Casey! But that's another podcast. O: Yeah, I think so. No, definitely, definitely, definitely. [...] Some people - they get fired up by hating other people, and that's fair enough.

so yeah. I mean, qualified agreement, I guess? they're definitely right about casey hating valentino before valentino hated casey lol. if valentino ever really hated casey at all. which is not necessarily a mainstream take, so it's nice to hear it!

I also agree with this general take about... y'know, the creeping professionalisation of the sport and how that affects how likely you're going to get fun drama. goes beyond just hours spent looking at data and also about... having a bit of a life, having time to actually form a personality. and as I've said before, it's the fans! clickbait news + social media featuring partisan fans, who aren't just going to read every statement but also react to every statement like it's life or death shit. pecco and jorge have gotten push back for some incredibly, deeply, ridiculously mild comments these last couple years. they HAVE to phrase everything they say as inoffensively as possible while still getting their points across, and even then they'll generally be jumped. like, forget valentino, how do you think casey would have fared in this current media environment? up against a fanbase as partisan as valentino's - or marc's nowadays? not well is the answer! I think to some extent you can get away with this stuff more depending on people's perceptions of you, so marc and increasingly pedro will generally be fine... but on the flip side, the pecco's, the casey's, the jorge x2's of this world... everything they say gets read in the worst possible light, but now everyone's just so much louder about it

but this ask was more about valentino than the current landscape, so I'll get back to him. I do think it is a bit of an issue if you frame it as a completely either-or issue - at the end of the day, most competitors will probably motivate themselves through their enemies at least a little. pecco definitely uses negative emotions to fire him up, people criticising him and the like. casey absolutely used them, often directed at valentino. all the comments from the haters to fire them up right, to show everyone how wrong they are. on a psychological level, there is not something *fundamentally* different between using your rivals or the fans or the press to motivate yourself - it's still the same underlying motivational process (and indeed the podcast references lawson's distaste for the press). casey signs off his first every grand prix win by saying how nice it was to beat a spanish rider sponsored by the circuit, like are we calling that pure love for the game? he and mostly martin and to a somewhat lesser degree pecco do share a tendency to... believe the world is out to get them, and use that to fire themselves up. idk if casey strictly needed to do that or if it was just ingrained at a young age and became a stable self-perpetuating way in which he viewed the world but also, it doesn't really matter, right. maybe in both valentino and casey there is a pure unpolluted soul who could have enjoyed winning just for the sake of winning, but in practise it's clearly more complicated than that. as has been recently discussed in quite some depth in this parish, late 2007!casey was getting sympathetic interview write-ups that described his mentality as informed by 'bitterness and rejection'. including bitterness at valentino, who at that point in time was not meaningfully reciprocating any of that stuff!

so I do have a bit of a bone to pick with this idea of 'the last guy'. valentino didn't 100% motivate himself by hating his enemies, the blokes after him didn't do so 0%. I think of the aliens casey is probably the most similar to him by this metric... some are definitely less inclined to do so. lorenzo's a bit of an odd case where at times it felt like he was better at making other guys hate him than necessarily hating them himself... complicated guy but I think he actually really did want to mostly fuel himself in a positive manner, except then for various reasons both external and internal he needed to also draw a bit more from. the darkness. marc is more likely than either valentino or casey to just fight to win for the sake of winning... then again you do have cute little incidents like misano 2019 where marc - off the back of two back-to-back last lap defeats - miraculously happened to find an extra bit of motivation through a spat in qualifying after duly harrying the yamaha's all weekend. again, it's a question of degree, right. marc is just inherently less restless than valentino and less inclined to think the world is out to get him than casey, which are all contributing factors

with valentino, I think I disagree a teensy bit in terms of framing more than I do in substance. first off, not to be a broken record on this, but obviously all of these feuds were very different, involving very different emotional landscapes. I don't think it's correct to say valentino needed an enemy to fire himself up, but he did always need something. some mission to dig his teeth into, some way of making the whole thing exciting. of making it fun! I'm not all that convinced of this happy-go-lucky characterisation of valentino - a lot of the time he had to go to an awful lot of effort to keep himself entertained, and when that didn't work he could get pretty miserable. he needed to keep himself stimulated, he needed to stop himself from feeling lonely, he needed to give himself a purpose to work towards. hatred did help him in a motivational sense, and he's talked in his autobiography about how anger has made him ride faster. it's useful... up to a point. it's just not a uniform thing across rivalries

my sense is that it comes down to two things. 1) he needs something to motivate himself and get excited, be it a rival or whatever. and 2) he needs some distance from his rivals. motivating yourself through a rival is not quite the same thing as motivating yourself through an enemy. for instance!! casey was only really his enemy once they were no longer on-track rivals - it was unrelated to actual competitive calculus, and was in some ways more about casey than it was about valentino. when valentino did that shit to casey at laguna 2008, he's not like... mad at casey. he doesn't hate him. he's gleeful at least in part because of how obviously pissed casey is, but he doesn't hate him. because he doesn't need to hate casey to want to beat him! casey is already so considerable a challenge that beating him is reward enough in itself - he's this super tricky puzzle for valentino to work away at... and when he comes up with the answer at laguna 2008, he's delighted. he doesn't really hate jorge in 2009 either - dislike, yes, hate, no. he's already plenty stimulated by the challenge of beating his feisty young teammate... he doesn't need anything else. he gets through 95% of the 2015 season with barely any animosity with his title rival - there, he would have seen it as distracting from his primary mission of winning his tenth in a way that was entirely disconnected from any particular rival. he also runs into the problem that it feels like any psychological warfare feels like it's getting aimed more at marc than jorge - but that's entirely accidental, he isn't TRYING to fuck with marc in the middle of the season. why would he!! and jorge refuses to be fucked with on the track because he's just never in the same postcode as valentino, and valentino isn't attempting to fuck with him off the track. he's barely even doing like,, mild mind games, like they're quite actively friendly the entire year

(I do sometimes think you can do a bit of displacement here where you don't necessarily need to hate the person you're actively fighting to get the job done - cf marc at misano 2019, also... tbh casey 2011-12 kinda had that vibe where he was getting all that energy out of his system in valentino's direction and could then keep things civil with his actual title rival. there's a LITTLE bit of that 2015 even pre phillip island but mostly valentino does have a more early 2008 'we move in silence' vibe or whatever that pecco tweet read. this is the restlessness thing, right - he kinda needs to fill his brain with SOMETHING)

which brings us to the second element: needing some distance. zero problem with biaggi, which is kinda the training wheels feud in that it takes a bit of a life of its own before valentino REALLY was intending it to. he's a kid (literal eighteen year old) who's kinda snarky about biaggi in the press and biaggi takes it EXTREMELY poorly and confronts him about it and it kind of spirals from there. with casey + jorge, valentino ensures that they never GET too close. I do think there is an element of... y'know, not wanting to be close friends with the guys who are your title rivals, because it's harder to beat people you care about and deprive them of the thing they want most in the world. which I actually think is pretty normal!! valentino's problem is that on a few occasions he has ended up in rivalries with blokes he was at some stage close in - and either he preemptively withdraws as with marc and... ? probably...? melandri...? - or the relationship deteriorates and then blows up as with sete and also marc. the 'preemptive withdrawing' bit does suggest a degree of self-awareness with regards to his own competitive process - and as has been previously argued in this parish, valentino's relationship with marc developing as it did was in large part due to his competitive situation 2010-14. the two of them falling out was probably always going to happen if they were competing, the two of them falling out that badly required valentino's stint in the competitive wilderness to let him lower his guard to such an extent

so that's the argument in broad strokes. yes, valentino can use enemies to motivate himself - he certainly enjoys having rivals, he enjoys fucking with them, he enjoys figuring them out and measuring himself against them and also a little bit of competitive edge. that doesn't mean he needs enemies per se, or certainly he wouldn't have seen some of his rivals in quite such extreme terms (casey in particular of course felt differently). he did need SOMETHING to motivate him... rivals, definitely - enemies, perhaps. and he also needed a bit of distance from those he was competing against. which post-sete he tended to preemptively enforce, except that one time when he didn't, and when it wasn't preemptively enforced it did have a tendency to blow up rather spectacularly. so in essence, you still end up at the same conclusion, right - valentino did get a lot out of having enemies, did motivate himself with them, did need to beat someone. but the working process is a bit different as I see it. sometimes making enemies is about emotional regulation, y'know. feuding as a healthy outlet for competitive tension. as it should be

[orcelito]

God, this is fucking crazy

So i only have 3 more classes to take, but it'll cost the same to take 3 classes as 4 classes. So I've been thinking about taking a 4th class just for the hell of it. Something fun and/or easy.

Out of curiosity, I looked up orchestras. I was in it in my first year, but I haven't consistently played since 2016. But I still dream about being in an orchestra again. I *miss it*. So I was like. Well, what if *that* was my 4th class next semester? What If?

I looked it up. This week is the last week they're doing auditions for it. There was only one more spot free after today. And that's *tomorrow evening*.

I haven't really played my violin much in YEARS. I'm so out of practice. But apparently they don't reject anyone outright. Auditions are just for placement. So worst case scenario, I get placed in an orchestra at a lower skill level than I was at my prime. It'd still be an orchestra.

It's crazy short notice, but I don't think I'd forgive myself if I passed it up. Bc I have just one more semester before I graduate. One last opportunity to be in a school orchestra. And if I didn't do this, I'd be left with that What If forever.

So. Crazy short notice, but I have a violin audition tomorrow!!! Hahahaha

[rearranging-deck-chairs]

trick to fun dialogue is just to make it a little hard to understand. maybe thats a cheap trick but i dont care

[angorwhosebabyisthis]

“Hold out your arms and imagine strings underneath them, pulling you up.”

“Like a puppet,” Nine says.

“Like an actor in a show,” Five answers, glowering. “Rising up above the stage. Graceful.”

remembered an old sketch from years ago (i think 2018 or thereabouts? it's been a while) and dug it up, so have a five! the imagery of him flying by pulling invisible strings in the air really stuck with me and i love it, and it was a lot of fun trying to get that across. i really do need to sit down and try to draw him in this style again soon; in the meantime i'm proud of this one, so here you go.

[madebysoupy]

🕳️

[snekdood]

i think ppl gotta get acquainted with the difference between systemic privilege and social privilege, which can overlap, but not always.