#and whatever else we have going on tbh i lost track

[gerbits]

[brehaaorgana]

ADHD money/budgeting system I'm currently using for my benefit is going well (I've been using it for like half a year now?), and I wanna recommend it.

You Need a Budget is EXCELLENT. 10/10 do recommend. Uhhh rambling about it and my generic disclaimers + gushing extensively under the cut but TL;DR I think it's great for ADHD ppl, I've used it for 6+ months now and I find it super SUPER helpful. also weirdly fun.

DISCLAIMERS:

Budgeting helps you understand/know your money, it can't make money appear where there is none.

Everyone should learn to budget even if you don't have much money (especially then)

This is NOT a magic trick solution. Just like everything else, it is an assistive tool. This is one of those adult things we can't simply opt out of without negative consequences, though.

My advice is based on something I am currently able to do. That is, I can spend an amount of money on this specific thing that works well for me. If you have no extra money to spend then previously I was tracking things in a notebook. So you can still do this.

I believe Dave Ramsey is a fundie fraud/hack and no one should listen to him about money.

DID YOU KNOW THEY CANCELLED MINT???

Okay? OKAY.

Ahem.

You Need a Budget is EXCELLENT.

It is called YNAB for short. The first 34 days are your free trial, and that is my referral link. If anyone uses it and then signs up for a subscription, we both get a month free. Also you can share a subscription with up to six people (account owner can see everything but individuals can pick and choose what they share amongst each other) so like...idk your whole polycule can be on one account. Or your kids. Whatever.

If you are a student, it's free for a year. If you aren't, a subscription is $99 for a year (paid all at once) or $14.99 monthly, which is equivalent to paying Amazon prime. Go cancel Prime and get this instead tbh.

They got a whole article just on ynab and ADHD. They also have like...a big variety of ways to access their info? They have a book, podcast episodes, YouTube videos, blog posts, q&A's, free live workshops you can join (you can request live captioning), emails they can send (if you want) a wiki, and so on. They got workshops on all kinds of topics!!

So whatever ends up working for your brain. It also has a matching app.

If you lost Mint this year they have a gajillion things for moving from Mint.

Also they have a "got five minutes?" Page which has a slider so you can decide how much attention/time you have before going on lol:

They only have 4 rules of the budget, they're simple and practical, and it doesn't get judgey or like...mean about your spending.

1. Give every dollar a job 2. Embrace your true expenses 3. Roll with the punches 4. Age your money.

THEN THEY BREAK THESE DOWN INTO SMALL STEPS FOR YOU! They even have a printable! Also these rules are great because there's built in expectations that things WILL HAPPEN and it's NOT all or nothing with a fear of total collapse into failure. Reality and The Plan don't always align, especially if you have ADHD. So it's directing our energy towards the true expenses and not clinging to The Plan!! over reality.

You can automate a lot of shit (you can sync with your bank accounts just like mint, but also automate tagging the categories of regular expenses/transactions). And if for whatever reason you accidentally do something that makes the budget look weird or wrong:

A) you can usually fix it somehow OR b) they have like, a button you can press that gives you a clean slate and archives the previous version of the budget for you.

So if you forget for a few weeks or months, or accidentally input something wildly wrong, or just don't want to look at a really terrible month anymore and feel like you need a fresh start you can usually either fix it or start fresh which is really nice.

The app also (for whatever reason) scratches my itch to have things like...have incentives or little game-like goals in a way mint never did? I don't know why. Filling up the bars or putting money into the categories to cover my expenses is satisfying lmao. You can also make a big wish expense category for all the fun shit you want, and fund it whenever you can and then you can see the little bar go up and that's fun.

Anyways I've been using it for like 6+ months now and I think it's really helped me when I use it.

[tac-the-unseen]

What the Lost Boys think of vampire related media pt.2

After your last vamp media talk you had more questions you absolutely needed the answers to. Some of those answers came more naturally than you thought.

What we do in the Shadows:

-This is their absolute favorite show. It's just something they can all sit down to watch and get a nice laugh.

-David was actually the one that suggested it to the group

-He thinks it's about as close to what being a really vampire is like.

-You brought up your last conversation about why no vampire media could be so close to the real thing and he quickly responded with “Vampires are made up to be these gross demon creatures with no self control, when in fact most vampires were just normal humans going about their life.”

-He knew that no one in this show actually knows any vampires because of inconsistencies, but it's as close to it as they can all get without having to kill anyone for it.

-”Are you off your tits, boy?” “He is.”

-Paul quotes the show all the damn time (And so do the others but he is the main culprit.)

-you actually can't get him to stop

-”I became a vampire to suck blood and to fuck forever.”

-”No fuck off. Can't be side tracked with cheap sex potions.”

-Need an answer to any questions? Paul will respond with “Coprophilia.”

-Marko is giggling at Paul's quotes and answers with his own

-”Pizza pie” :D

-”He's my sweet cheese!”

-”She speaks the bullshit.”

-His favorite character is Nadja of course

-You have to pry him away from the T.V if you need him to do something else

-Dwayne will stop whatever he's doing if you offer to watch WWDITS with him

-He loves the historical references and gags

-He relates to Guillermo most of the time, being one of the voices of reason in his Chaos Coven

-”i was thinking w-” “we should finish each other off and tell no one?” “I’m game if you are.” ✨Spooky music✨

•This show is permanently engraved into their brain

•You can take the boys out of WWDITS but you can not take the WWDITS out of the boys

Hotel Transylvania:

-Paul squints at the T.V “This has to be a crime to watch.”

-Dwayne without turning away from the T.V “Dracula is going to go ape shit when he sees this “

-David eats his popcorn slowly “at least there is other monsters in this movie.”

-Marko is giggling at the Blob and Scream Cheese “I fucking love kids movies.”

-All of them hated the village scene though.

Kid vampire:

-They all watch it because Laddie wanted them too

-All you can hear for the next few days is “Kid Vampire!” in that accent

-David and Dwayne thought the bogger nose bleed drink was absolutely disgusting.

-Like to the point the both gagged.

-Paul thinks it a cute little project

-Marko likes how they say ‘blood’

-Dwayne uses the song “Vampire brush” to get Laddie to brush his teeth

Monster High:

-Marko and Paul sing the theme song semi consistently

-”Monster-monster high! monster high! monster-monster high! Freaky, sheek, and fly, monster high, where student bodies lay.”

-”We got spirits, yes we do! We got spirits, how bout you!?”

-This is another show they all watch with Laddie

-David isn't a raving fan, but he can stand it

-”Draculaura is a bit of a lazy name.” “Clawdeen wolf? Lagona blue? Cleo De Nile? Everyone has a lazy name because it's a kids show!”

-Dwayne is secretly into it and asks Laddie to watch it with him so he has an excuse

Thanks for reading <3

Yes I saw the comment you wanted me to see. Don't think I was ignoring you, I just had to find other media to talk about. (I stalk my own page like a Hyena. It's a little sad tbh lmao)

[foxaftershocks]

Hi!! I just wanna say first that I absolutely adore ur writing :) and I've literally never done this before, tbh, so I'm so sry if I've done anything wrong or smth. :)

But I wanted to suggest maybe a reader thats also an engineer and scientist for the Ghostbusters, who Lars always considered less able than him since reader was quite quiet, and would run their expermients in peace, never rly interacting with people. Until one day reader is talking to lucky or phoebe or smth, and goes off on a tangent when talking abt smth they're working on, and it's a very sudden realisation to him that reader is actually rly knowledgeable, that their intelligence is much greater than he anticipated.

Totally fine if u don't wanna write it, remember to take care of urself!! <3

I always take care of myself <3 you did nothing wrong, a totally perfect request. I hope you like it

You were sitting across the room from Lars, absorbed in your work, headphones on as your head nodded in time to the beat of whatever music you were listening to. He hadn’t heard you arrive that morning. Not an unusual situation. He never heard much from you ever.

You seemed to be so unaware of his gaze on you, watching as your hands moved, fingers typing, adjusting your equipment, writing something down in a notebook. That was something he’d noticed. You kept paper notes.

Insane. Absolutely nuts.

Your head tilted up and he realised he’d been caught watching. His nose wrinkled and he looked back to his own work. It wasn’t as if he wasn’t busy. He had enough to get on with.

There was no reason for you to be there. He kept trying to figure out what it was you did, what you contributed to the lab. You kept to yourself and no one else could tell him what it was you did. You preferred to work alone, and while he could empathise with that as someone who didn’t love working in a team, he did enjoy leading a team of researchers. You’d never agreed to joining him.

He had to assume it’s because you knew you weren’t up to the task.

When he next looked up, you were gone. The workstation was empty and there was nothing to indicate where you’d gone. He couldn’t imagine you were rushing off to tell someone of a great discovery.

You’d never had one before now.

It wasn’t that he felt contempt for you. Surely there was a reason you’d been hired. He just thought everyone should be on his level and you just weren’t. The proof was in the output.

Stretching, arms above his head, he figured it was time for another cup of tea, the one he’d made earlier having gotten cold as he lost himself in his work. Taking the mug, he sauntered towards the small kitchen set up in the back corner.

“So if I can just figure out where the spectrometer has gone then I think I’ll be back on track.”

He paused outside the door. That was your voice. At least, he was pretty sure it was. From the few times he’d heard it he thought it probably was.

There was something there in your voice, not something he’d heard from you before. It was close to excitement. Lingering out of sight, he continued to listen. He certainly wasn’t about to offer the information that he had the spectrometer you were looking for. It would be put to better work in his possession.

“You really think you’ll be able to figure it out?” That would be Lucky. He didn’t realise the two of you talked. Lucky was meant to be his intern, not yours. He didn’t know why it rankled him so much.

“Sure. I mean, Nadeem keeps letting me study him to figure out where the source of his magic is so… I can’t see why I wouldn’t,” you said, “oh but you remember when I hooked him up to the EEG machine?”

“Yeah. You got those weird readings, right?” Lucky prompted.

“Right and I spent hours staring at them trying to work it out. And then inspiration struck. So I thought maybe there was some kind of electrical field going on. Which would be crazy because usually we don’t think the two are linked. But fire conducts electricity and so can humans. So what if the magic is connected to ions? Seems simple, right? Only, the electrical charge usually comes from the gas around the flame rather than the flame itself. So does he actually manipulate the gas? Or, is it this pyrotron subatomic particle we haven’t found yet? I mean, in order to prove that one I have to find quarks in isolation and I think that would rock the science community more than proving the science behind pyrokinesis,” you said, almost all in one breath.

It was easily the most he’d ever heard you say before.

“Because in order to prove that I’d need to show that Nadeem is manipulating pyrotrons with psychic powers, probably through the electric signals in his brain, and making them hit isolated quarks, which don’t exist so… I’m back to looking at electricity in flames because clearly it’s to do with the electrical activity in his brain,” you said, with a sigh at the end.

Lars felt his breath catch. There was so much going on in your brain, so many thoughts, so many theories, and you were investigating something he hadn’t even considered looking at. Maybe that’s why you always worked alone. Your projects were on things no one considered researching. You looked at the world differently.

It was… refreshing.

He’d thought you’d ket silent because you knew you couldn’t keep up with the rest of the scientists. Instead, it looked as if you kept silent because your research was so different from everyone else’s. They were so focused on ghosts. You were trying to understand everything in its entirety.

He felt dumbstruck. Everything he thought he knew was wrong. It wasn’t usual for him and he felt on the backfoot. It was like you’d been lying to him but for that to be true you would have had to have talked to him. This was so much worse. This was him lying to himself.

You were so much smarter than he’d thought and it left him questioning so many things.

Walking through the door, he felt combative, like he wanted to start a fight. Your voice died as he did, eyes widening when you saw him. He offered a tight smile, pouring out the cold tea into the sink. He glanced over his shoulder, finding you turning away.

“I’ll see you later,” you mumbled to Lucky.

You slipped out of the room, not even offering him another look. He scrubbed at the mug, not wanting to bother making another cup, taking his frustration out on it.

“Rough day?” Lucky asked, sliding up to him.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” he replied.

“No sweat,” she said, “but maybe don’t glare at people when you enter a room. It sure does clear it.”

He didn’t have a response to that, refusing to be shamed by a teenager. He left the mug on the rack to dry and walked out of the room, lips pursed, trying to work out how to feel about everything. He wasn’t used to feeling stupid and yet that’s where he was. He’d judged you because he never heard you talk. Because you kept to yourself. Because you didn’t feel the need to show off like the others around the lab did.

You were sitting in his sight again, the headphones back in place over your ear, pen tapping your notebook in time with your music. You didn’t even look up when he sat down, staring at you. If he allowed himself to admit it, you were lovely to look at. Even trapped in a world of your own, there was something there that he found pleasing. You were soft, like the worries of the world had never curved your shoulders, and your wide eyed gaze left him feeling like there was no pretence. You had never lied. He’d just been a fool.

He stood, hands already grasping the spectrometer he’d stashed in the storage behind his desk. trying to project confidence, he sauntered over with it. Placing it down in front of you, he waited a moment for you to notice. Your gaze dragged up to him and once again he was struck by how lovely your face was. You were slow to tug he headphones off, leaving them hanging around your neck.

“I heard you were looking for this,” he said.

You looked down at the machine in front of you then back up to him. There was a slight curve to your lips, an almost smile marred with a hint of confusion. Your eyelashes fluttered and you tilted your head down, looking back to the spectrometer.

“Thank you,” you said, voice sweet.

It was a sudden thought that he could probably listen to you talk for hours. Not that he’d ever be offered the chance.

“And uh, if you ever need help or want to talk through anything.” His hand came up, rubbing at the back of his neck. He hadn’t felt this awkward since his university days, “I’m just over there. I don’t know if you know. You seem to keep to yourself. So maybe you don’t want the interruption. But yeah, I’m just over there if you need anything.”

Christ, he was rambling. It wasn’t like you were the first pretty girl he’d ever talked to. He didn’t even have a crush on you. What was wrong with him today?

“I’m sure you’re too busy to help me,” you replied, voice quiet and far more put together than him, “you’re always working on something.”

“Oh,” he said, shoulders deflating. You were being polite but of course you didn’t want his help. Especially when you seemed to be a genius in your own right and more than capable of being brilliant without his input.

“Not that I don’t appreciate the offer. But you’re working on important things and I don’t want to bother you with my stuff. You’re probably working on some new weapon that will save someone’s life or something. My stuff is pretty silly in comparison.” Your head was bowed and he wished he could see the expression in your eyes.

“All science is important,” he said.

“No, I know but you know, my stuff isn’t saving the world like yours so, I don’t want to take time away from that,” you said, voice growing quieter the further along you went.

“I’m always happy to help,” he said, hoping it would be enough.

Your eyes darted up to him and he saw panic there. He took a step back, reeling from the look. He knew he wasn’t always the friendliest guy but this was a not the kind of reaction he ever expected from his words, especially when they were meant to be nice. He took another step back.

“Right, well, I’ll stop bothering you,” he said.

Thrusting his hands in his pockets, he wandered back to his own station, shoulders curved forward, trying to figure out what he’d done wrong. Other than ignore you, he couldn’t think of anything you would know about. It’s not as if his thoughts were broadcast over the tannoy system.

Only he hadn’t really been ignoring you, had he? He’d noticed you enough to form an opinion. He watched you. He’d grown used to your habits. He thought about you. Earlier that day he’d been watching you. There was no way he could pretend like you had been a non-entity in his life.

When he looked up at you again, your head dipped down as if you’re been looking at him just a moment ago. He found a flutter in his stomach, like a butterfly taking flight. The thought of you watching him was pleasing. Unless it was because you were wary of him and felt you had to keep an eye on him.

Finally taking the chance, he went to make himself another cup of tea, if only to try and ease you again. Maybe his presence made you uncomfortable. He didn’t like the thought that he made you uncomfortable.

He decided perhaps to keep his distance for a while.

A few days and he stayed away. He didn’t try to engage you in conversation, allowing himself to watch you when he thought you wouldn’t notice. The more attention he paid, the more he realised exactly how wrong he’d been. You kept to yourself, but you were confident in what you were doing. Something had alighted in him, the flame fanned by your confidence. Someone so capable at science was a turn on. He hadn’t expected that. He should have. But he hadn’t.

And he should have expected to hear you in the kitchen again.

“I just find him really intimidating,” you said, just through the doorway.

“Why?” Lucky laughed.

“He’s so smart and I know you’re going to make fun of me for this, but he’s really handsome. I’ve never been good around smart pretty people,” you said.

He lent closer, wanting to hear more. He didn’t know who you were talking about and the thought someone else in the lab was receiving such compliments made him feel disgruntled.

“Just talk to him,” Lucky said, “he’s not that scary.”

“I can’t,” you whined, “I get all tongue tied around him and he offered to help me and I just… I totally put my foot in it.”

Who else had been offering you help? He would hunt them down and make it clear to stay away from you. Or, no, that would just make you more scared of him. He had to gentle dissuade them from helping you.

“Yeah, trust me, he’s done that plenty of times,” Lucky snorted, “seriously, just talk to him again. Two awkward nerds deserve each other.”

You gave a small chuckle and he could imagine the soft smile on you face, small, underfed, and yet still there.

“I didn’t think he even know I existed,” you eventually said.

“Look, Pinfield is awkward and not always nice. But it sounds like at the very least he’s never outright insulted you. That’s more than Dan over in R&D can say,” Lucky said.

Pinfield. He was Pinfield. You were talking about him.

“Yeah, well, you crush on guys who actually give you the time of day. I crush on the silent guy who’s science is brilliant but who couldn’t be bothered with so much as a hello,” you said.

That wasn’t true, was it? He’d offered you help. And then gone back to not talking to you at all. He’d gone about this all wrong.

“Sorry, I shouldn’t take my frustration out on you,” you said.

“No, you should take it out on him.”

This was met with silence before Lucky’s laughter burst out, loud and long and he could inly imagine the look on your face. Not that he wouldn’t enjoy… He was sure it would be… Well, he was very open to it if the chance arose.

He slipped away to mull over what he’d overheard. He intimidated you. Because you had a crush on him. And you thought he didn’t like you in any way, that he didn’t even notice you.

Yeah, he’d fucked that one up. No one but himself to blame.

He paid attention for when you returned to your work station, across the other side of the room, quiet and focused. And beautiful. How hadn’t he thought that before? Or rather, how hadn’t he noticed it?

He was so caught up in his own assumptions about you he hadn’t taken the time to notice. He cursed his past self for being so caught up in his own ego to notice what was sitting right under his nose.

Steeling himself, he rose and made his way over to you. He loitered across the bench from you. You were still listening to music and hadn’t seemed to notice him. Tapping his finger on your notebook, he tried to get your attention. You looked up, startled, eyes widening when you laid eyes on him.

“I was thinking of going out for lunch and was wondering if you wanted to join me,” he said, trying to sound confident but also approachable. He realised he was treating you like an animal prone to startling.

“Oh, uh, I actually brought lunch today,” you said.

“Maybe tomorrow?” he asked, “I’d love to hear more about your work.”

“Why?” You sounded so bewildered it was almost offensive.

“I don’t know much about what you’ve been working on. Is it so odd I might want to know about it?” he asked.

“You’ve never asked before. Have I done something wrong? Because if I have I’m really sorry and I’ll stop doing whatever it is,” tumbled from your lips and he was reminded that you found him intimidating, “I really am sorry. If you just let me know what it is I can stop doing it.”

“You haven’t done anything wrong,” he was quick to say before you could continue rambling an apology for something that hadn’t happened, “I’m just interested in what you’re working on.”

“Why?” You sounded defensive now.

He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. He was trying. He was really trying. And you just weren’t getting it. You were making it so difficult.

When he opened his eyes you were frozen, as if waiting to be told off. Taking a deep breath in, he offered you a smile, his best attempt as he tried to when he felt such roiling emotions.

“You’re an asset to our team and you’re working on things I’m not involved in. I’m curious. That’s all,” he said, desperate to put you at ease.

“Oh.” You voice was so quiet.

“If you don’t want my company I understand. I thought it would be nice to get to know one another a bit better. Whatever. I see I was wrong.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets and turned away from you. He must have misheard. Clearly you and Lucky hadn’t been talking about him.

“Wait,” you said. He paused, looking back at you over his shoulder, “lunch would be nice.”

His shoulders relaxed and he let the corner of his lips curl up in a small smile. Your answering one stole his breath.

“Come on then,” he said.

You hopped off your stool and he realised you didn’t even come up to his shoulder. He could wrap you up in his arms and you would be completely engulfed in him. He found that thought tempting.

Walking beside him as you left the lab, you weren’t looking at him, gaze turned towards your feet. His hand closed around your arm, steering you in the right direction. You looked up at him, eyelashes fluttering. His head dipped towards you, not able to stop himself. There was something about you.

He spent the entire lunch watching you, basking in your presence. You were slow to open up, answering his questions about your work softly. But once he got you going, your eyes sparked and the words tumbled from your lips faster than he could have thought possible. Your passion was clear and it only drew him in further.

“I dunno. Maybe’s its stupid,” you said, tucking some hair behind your ear.

“I don’t think it sounds stupid at all,” he said and noticed the way that seemed to turn you bashful. Your chin dipped and you couldn’t look at him. He lent forward again, over the table, trying to catch your eye, “you sound like you know what you’re talking about.”

It was a quick flash of a smile, that same piece of hair falling forward again. You reached up to tuck it back again but his fingers were already there, doing it for you. You looked up, mouth falling open but you didn’t seem to be drawing back from him. His fingertips brushed over your jaw before he retracted his hand, pulling it back to his side of the table.

“Oh,” you said, almost a whisper, practically nothing but the movement of lips without sound.

“I’d like to do this again,” he said, assuming honesty was better than beating around the bush.

The look of surprise that passed over your face wasn’t what he’d been hoping for. But then you softened, that small smile reappearing.

“Really?” you asked.

“Sure. I find myself fascinated by you,” he said.

“Like I’m one of your experiments?”

He hadn’t expected that.

“No. Christ no,” he said, perhaps louder than intended, “fascinated like I like you.”

“Oh.”

“Can you say something other than that,” he demanded, then realised that wasn’t a good idea, “please?”

“Okay,” you said, giving him a shallow nod, “we can do this again.”

“We can?” He brightened, “we can.”

“But only because I like you too,” you said, not looking at him again.

So he had heard right. He felt a sense of satisfaction hearing the words from you. He would never admit it, but it wasn’t often someone liked him. Maybe that’s why he’d been doing so badly with you. Or not so badly since you were going to go out with him again.

He led you back to the lab, hand resting on the small of your back, the material of your jumper soft against his skin. You were half a step closer, leaning into his touch more.

It was a good sign.

Thank god he’s listened in to your conversation with Lucky otherwise he never would have been able to find you. And he thought you might be changing his life for the better. Your smile was already capable of brightening his day.

He was excited to see what was to come with you.

[nataliasquote]

Any chance you’d be willing to give us a sneak peek of the dtt angsty piece 👀

I wasn’t going to, but I’ve done everything else so it’s only fair tbh… it’s kinda long, but I couldn’t think of a good place to cut it.

Also ‼️trigger warning‼️ for ED and negative body image and thoughts ‼️

-⧗-

“Straighten the back of your knee as you développé, I don’t want to see any sloppy legs!” Yelena was barking out corrections as she circled the class, occasionally stepping in to correct a foot placement or turnout. Y/n tightened her core and focused on keeping her leg steady as she straightened it out by her shoulder, the muscles in her hips burning.

“Tuck your stomachs in girls, you shouldn’t be arched like that,” Yelena called, surveying the room from her spot back at the front. The rest of the barre exercise was fairly straightforward but Y/n was struggling to apply all of her corrections and maintain focus at her new place at the barre.

Usually she danced further towards the middle, but Yelena had switched things up, meaning she and a few other girls were now on the front row. And being on the front row meant having direct access to the mirror. Helpful for corrections, but not for self esteem.

She’d worn leotards ever since she was 4, having taken one off the stand in the dance studio foyer and gone running over to Natasha to show her. She loved the soft pink colour and even the baby blue as she progressed through the stages. But now, at 13, she was allowed to wear whatever black leotard she liked.

The neutral colour didn’t bother her, neither did the way it made her look as her body developed. But the changing rooms after class were rife with gossip and chatter and the older girls in her class were heavily body conscious. Complaining about how they wished their stomachs were flatter, how they hated the look of their thighs in their tights, they spent ages in the mirror picking apart every little detail about their body.

Y/n had never really given her body much thought before, but she looked up to those who were a few years older and their words resonated heavily with her. Maybe she wasn’t the right shape for a ballet dancer after all. All the primas she’d seen were thin and muscular, not sporting a body like hers.

Not that there was anything wrong with the way she looked. She wasn’t overweight and dancing kept her toned, but suddenly that image in the mirror had warped like a carnival trick mirror. Tears sprung to her eyes as she snaked an arm around her waist and pulled a hoodie over her leotard, tugging sweatpants up over her thighs to conceal everything.

Y/n sat on the soft leather chairs waiting for her Mama to finish her final class. Her legs bounced restlessly and she could not get that image out of her head. Why did no one say anything? Letting her walk around the studio looking like that. Did the other girls feel better when she was around, knowing they at least looked better than the studio owner’s daughter. Her stomach churned and a sour taste crawled across her tongue.

Natasha came into view ten minutes later, keys jangling in her hand as she finished locking all the studio doors. She greeted her daughter with a hug, always loving holding her girls, and lead her out to the car to go home. Y/n was quiet on the ride back, but Natasha just put that down to tiredness, turning the radio up a little more to fill the silence. The teenager rested her chin on her hand and stared out of the window, lost in her mind.

Wanda had cooked dinner in time for their arrival, plates of steaming rice and juicy looking chicken making Natasha’s mouth water. Isla came down in her pyjamas, having just showered after track practice.

“How was your day, Isl’s?” Natasha asked her eldest, scooping a large portion of rice onto her plate. She handed the spoon to Y/n who did the same, but with a portion half the size.

“It was good,” the teenager replied around bites of chicken. “Coach said if we qualify for the state meet then she’ll take us to Denny’s for breakfast.”

“She spoils you girls,” Wanda piped in, although the promise of a Denny’s breakfast would entice her just the same. “When is the qualifier?”

“Three weeks, I think. And Cassie should be back from Italy by then so we’ve got a strong team.”

“Can we watch? Or is it a school only thing?”

Isla hesitated, trying to stop her rice from falling off her spoon. “I think you can watch state, but not the qualifiers. But I’ll find out more information tomorrow.”

“That sounds really good!” Natasha praised, and Wanda nodded too. But she was more focused on the girl across the table from her who was pushing her rice around her plate with a distant look in her eyes.

“Are you ok, Y/n?” She asked gently, not wanting to startle the young girl. But she still jumped, cheeks flushing red as she met all the pairs of eyes staring back at her. A fake smile plastered itself onto her lips a little too quickly and Natasha frowned.

“Yeah, I’m just tired,” she explained. “Yelena worked us hard today.”

“Then eat up, you need that to boost your energy,” Natasha added, nudging her daughter with her foot. “Especially the chicken.”

Y/n hesitantly looked down at her plate. She’d managed to shred her chicken piece without actually eating anything except a spoonful of rice. “May I just be excused? I just want to go to bed.”

Wanda turned to look at the clock on the kitchen wall. It was only 8:30pm. “Are you sure you’re okay, honey?” Everyone had stopped eating except Isla, who had decided the chicken was far too tasty to let get cold. “Are you sick?”

“No, I’m just tired. May I please be excused?”

Natasha and Wanda shared a look before giving in, allowing her to leave the table with a nod. Y/n scraped her chair back across the tiles and trudged upstairs, leaving her plate abandoned on the table. Natasha eyed it warily, her brows furrowing.

Upstairs, Y/n had peeled off her clothes to take a shower but caught sight of her reflection in the bathroom mirror. As the water ran down the shower drain, she pulled and pinched at the skin on her stomach and arms, brows creasing as she studied her reflection in disgust. The older girls’ words echoed around her head and somehow the image in the mirror became blurry.

As the burning water descended onto her skin, Y/n prayed that the noise of the shower was enough to drown out her sobs as she collapsed against the tiled wall, hands covering her face in a desperate attempt to muffle her cries. She didn’t even bother to focus on washing all the shampoo out of her hair, only praying that she’d stood under the waterfall for long enough.

The mirror got none of her attention as she got dressed and roughly towel dried her hair. She didn’t even want to glance at her body, too scared of what she’d see. With damp hair and long pyjamas, Y/n crawled under her covers and flicked off the light, succumbing to the darkness that enveloped her like a blanket, allowing her thoughts to fully take over.

Downstairs, Isla was helping with the dishes, scrubbing hard at the plates as Wanda dried them off. The older woman observed her daughter for a moment before speaking, feeling Natasha’s eyes on her as she did so.

“Did you see Y/n much today?” Wanda asked, wiping the bubbles from a glass Isla had handed her. The teenager shrugged, her mind far away from how much time she’d spent with her sister that day.

“I guess? We had classes together but I was with the track girls at lunch so…” She trailed off, offering her mom a small smile in return for her lack of information.

“Did she seem okay, though?”

Isla paused, washing the final plate in the stack as she recalled her entire day. Which was a lot, for a 13 year old with a busy schedule and popularity. “She seemed fine, in math we were laughing and got in trouble. But as I said, I didn’t see her much before Mama came to pick her up for dance.”

[muninnhuginn]

also throwing out a few wild thoughts here after watching the new ep:

why is everyone so weird when hearing cwm's name? as we've seen cwm's thing here seems to be that he 'wants to do better by these kids' (let's ignore the safeguarding issues about saying he wants to be their friends when a teacher a sec). so, speculation: cwm deliberately takes the fall for the actual arsonist who'll likely be either xia fei or wang qing?

and yeah as everyone has picked up on cxs knows way too much to survive this loop - not sure how they're gonna play his death or if they'll specifically tie it up to s2 finale but only a week to go now

lu guang is the subtlest wdym. 'yeah like if we high five we can probably share powers' bestie what. (on a related note, his bit about 'powers are just like traits' vibed really mob psycho to me. I wonder if it's what past cxs 'taught' him about his powers after he'd grown up thinking of them in a less positive way)

said this already in another post but "what's the point in waiting if there's no hope?" is definitely a thematic string to pull on

cheng xiaoshi gets the speech/verbal understanding language module of whoever he possesses but not the written understanding. this is pure trivia, but still interesting to know. we know from his later interaction with vein that he sure doesn't retain the language knowledge after the fact

lu guang and cheng xiaoshi losing connection again during the dive. the show always make a point of highlighting when this happens. was trying to figure out if any other powers could be interfering here as happened with the twins, but touch-wise at least, it seems... unlikely? (though can't rule out other power interference entirely) but if anything, the way lu guang was sweating when we got the focus back to him after the connection rejoined makes it seem like this was an issue on his end (one which ig resulted in cxs having to improvise and therefore get caught from a show perspective). lu guang being ill affecting his powers tracks with what he said pre-twins dive in s2 though. even though the connection itself was likely lost due to the twins, he was still struggling to see everything that happened in the photo before that. I wonder if we'll return to this as a plot point at any point, the idea that lu guang being ill or injured can mess with his powers - there was a post the other day (I think by @ sunslants) about it being neat if lu guang fainted in yingdu because his whole body is giving out under this power, and whilst idk how *likely* that is in canon, it'd definitely add a new deadline to things, if lu guang has to resolve everything before his whole body just gives out

oh yeah seems like vein knows whatever it is that xia fei also knows about the arson. not super surprising but potential motive forming ig?

cheng xiaoshi getting out his feelings to his dad in the form of wang qing was very good but the whole time lu guang was like "yeah sorry I didn't give you a heads up" I was there head in hands like "lu guang. please. this is your MO at this point"

still no answer about cxs' mum and why she followed after cwm then *also* vanished (tbh even the fact cwm up and went full no contact with cxs has me like ??? but I can't tell if we're meant to just let that be or question it further). it feels like there's way more to this, but hard to see how that plus everything else is getting resolved in the one episode we have left

"You're a total control freak" "That's because of you." Lu Guang....

Basketball halo'd Lu Guang when he asked Cheng Xiaoshi to do ibuprofen together....

Cheng Xiaoshi wanting to get revenge on the bullies and Lu Guang instantly responding along the lines of "well, hey, they're all gonna die soon" cracked me up. Was probably meant to be more of an "oof" but. I laughed.

[amelikos]

Going over the first two titles for February (HZ083 and HZ084).

No summaries or staff lists are available as of now, just the titles. I went over the titles for January here.

Starting with HZ083 (link here).

Amethio-centric episode! Noting that this is ep 83, which happens 50 eps after ep 33 (Amethio's solo battle with Rayquaza and Terapagos turning into Terastal form for the first time). Moreover, this is the second title which has Amethio's name in it (the first one being HZ065, which was "Liko and Amethio").

So.. the title talks about a certain "truth" and Amethio's determination.

What truth is the title referring to? Is it related to the Rakurium? This is what Amethio has been looking into lately and he even tried to face his father in HZ078 to get more information about it, but Crave didn't want to talk to him about it.

If we're going by the assumption that the truth is related to the Rakurium, then is Amethio going to try to face his father once more? I personally doubt it, since he probably knows he'll get the same answer again. Will he try to talk to Gibeon? Not sure about it, since Gibeon told him he doesn't want to see him anymore... And Gibeon seems to often be asleep too. We've seen him asleep at the end of HZ075 and there were already implications surrounding it in HZ034 (Hamber talking about Gibeon being awake, etc).

I feel like the title could possibly hint at a confrontation between Amethio and Spinel? The opening has a scene with the two of them specifically and they've been tailing each other for a while now. Spinel is keeping track of Amethio and knows he won't give up so easily. I'm not sure if Amethio is trying to follow Spinel in some capacity in this chapter but we know he's done so in the past. Will Amethio try to get answers out of Spinel? Will we get to know more about Spinel?

Also thinking about how we got truths surrounding Rakua and the original Explorers being revealed in ep 74/75, and now we might get more answers about the Rakurium or Gibeon/anything else..? Liko facing truths earlier in the chapter, and this time Amethio will face truths as well. Something about the AmeLiko of it all and how their journeys mirror each other's and are constantly intertwined makes me emo, tbh. Especially since I feel like this emphasizes that they could benefit from a team up. Liko is gathering pieces of truths here and there, but she doesn't have the full story yet. The story of Rakua was told from Rystal's perspective, but Rystal had no way of knowing certain things. She doesn't know what happened to Gibeon after Rakua, for example. Liko was about to ask Rystal about Gibeon before she disappeared, which established that "Gibeon" was one of the next mysteries to be solved (how is he still alive after all this time? etc).

Amethio is on his way to learn new things, which Liko and the others possibly do not know yet. They could share that information with each other. Liko knowing Gibeon's name thanks to Amethio telling her about his grandfather proved to be helpful, since she could tell the RVT who Gibeon was. But who knows what the future has in store for Liko and Amethio.

I am also curious about Amethio's "determination". He started off the chapter quite lost and crushed after Gibeon rejected him, and he was trying to find out if there was still something he could do. The title seems to indicate that Amethio's determination will be renewed. What path will he take? Maybe whatever truth he is going to learn will help him make up his mind about what he should do? Is he going to find out the truth about the Rakurium? And if he does, will he consider it as something dangerous for his grandfather? Will he find a balance there? I am really looking forward to it, and how Amethio will reconcile his feelings for his family with the truth. Especially thinking about how Gibeon wanted to hear his resolve in HZ054, and now it seems like Amethio might find his own resolve. (As a note, the words used were different. Gibeon and Amethio talked about 覚悟 in HZ054, and the title for ep 83 uses the word 決意. I was curious to know if it was the same word, but it's not.)

Also: will this be an episode completely focused on Amethio? This happens after the Rayquaza ep. Will we pull away from Liko and the RVT for an entire episode to focus strictly on Amethio? Or maybe it'll be a situation similar to HZ054 which had Liko and friends meeting with Ann before going back to Orange Academy, while Friede was investigating the Rakurium at Exceed? Both plots happened in parallel, so maybe this could be the case for this episode.

--

And the title for HZ084 (link here).

This is another one of those titles which sound really poetic to me. Up there with the titles for HZ075 and HZ082 (ep 75 is "The future we've been entrusted, the shine of this world" and ep 82 is "At the end of the shining rainbow" which is a reference to a line from the second opening).

This title seems to refer to Rayquaza and Zygarde (Heaven/Sky and Earth, "Ten to Chi", Rayquaza and Zygarde being respectively associated with these elements and described as the "Tenkuu Pokemon" and "Chitsujo Pokemon", etc..). And the horizon being the place where the earth and sky appear to meet, too. Poetic cinema, etc.

Also, every ep ending with "4" has been quite significant for a while. 24: Diana telling Liko and the others about how she found the pendant, Pagogo reacting to Amethio. 34: Liko and Diana paralleling Amethio and Hamber, Gibeon etc. 44: Rayquaza showing up. 54: Learning about the "eternal blessing", seeing Gibeon's face for the first time and learning about his connection to Amethio, meeting Amethio's father for the first time. 64: Liko and Amethio meeting in the mountain, both of them seeing the effects of the Rakurium for the first time and getting stuck in a cave together, etc. 74: Learning that Lucius founded the Explorers and that there were three of them, etc. So what will ep 84 bring?

Very curious about this episode. The opening showed a confrontation between Gibeon's Zygarde and the RVT. So maybe this is when said confrontation will start? Will we see Gibeon? Will I get to hear his hot voice? Please tell me I will.

Given that this ep is implied to be about Rayquaza and Zygarde, I feel like this means Rayquaza will join the group in HZ082? Rayquaza was clearly waiting for Liko and the others to gather the other Heroes before joining them. Will he join the group by returning to his Ancient Pokeball that Roy has, or will he tag along without going back to his Pokeball? I am curious about this, especially for what it'll mean to Roy? Terasaki Yuka (Roy's VA) said at the beginning of the chapter that there will be an episode that brings Roy closer to his goal of getting Rayquaza (link here). (Btw, she also talked about possibly getting answers about the eternal blessing, which is why I feel like we'll learn about it in Amethio's episode.)

Anyway, back to Roy and Rayquaza. While Liko got Rystal's blessing and officially caught Pagogo in this chapter, I think her situation is different (and both situations are meant to be different). Liko's goal is to grant Pagogo's wish of going to Rakua, she just happened to bond with Pagogo and they became true partners. The endgoal here wasn't "getting Terapagos", it just happened during Liko's journey of granting Pagogo's wish (which still isn't granted at the time I am writing these lines). Roy's goal is specifically "getting Rayquaza" and being acknowledged by him. So I feel like they could be getting a moment which could deepen their connection? Rayquaza still hasn't exactly "seen" Roy, imo. So I think that they won't become "partners" for now. I also think Lucius is still alive in Rakua. He didn't appear at the Crystal Pool when Liko and the others prayed, and I think Gibeon is meant to get his closure with Lucius before passing on. I think Rayquaza is still loyal to Lucius's memory too, so Rayquaza should also get his closure (similarly to Pagogo) before becoming Roy's partner. There is a lot of emphasis on respecting Pokemon's feelings, after all. Basically, since Roy's endgoal is getting Rayquaza, I don't think it'll happen in this chapter since the anime isn't over yet, but I think they are meant to connect a bit more to sow the seeds of their future partnership?

--

I think I covered what I wanted to write about for now. Also, since these two episodes are clearly meant to be closely related to the overarching plot, I wonder who will be writing them?

We already know the writers for this month's episodes, and Kureha Matsuzawa will be writing HZ082. Ep 84 having a poetic title also makes me think he should be the one writing it, but who knows. The Amethio episode should also written by one of the core writers. It's either Dai Sato, Kureha Matsuzawa or Naruki Nagakawa for these two episodes, I think. Either way, we should be in for very interesting writing three weeks in a row.

I am also curious what Horizons is planning after this chapter since the Six Heroes are probably going to be finally gathered together in this arc.

[mckiwi]

So I met David Tennant this weekend…

Story time below the cut:

Thursday 7/11: Driving Down

I live in south GA so I just drove down to Miami, FL for the convention. Left about 11:30am and got to Miami at 9pm. Checked into the hotel and ordered food from DoorDash. Practically passed out cause I was so tired from that drive.

Friday 7/12: Day Before The Convention

Friday didn’t offer much at first. I was meeting a friend down there and their flight didn’t land in Miami until that night. In the meanwhile I went to Publix to get some drinks and snacks for the room and got lunch from Subway. We went down to the boardwalk area for a bit once she landed and went downtown to get something to eat. It was a bit expensive but good, what else would you expect. Saw where Georgia posted on her story showing she and David were also downtown. Promptly freaked out and got excited at knowing he was within a few miles radius of us. (Didn’t ever see him obviously). Turns out the free public parking wasn’t free and got a ticket for $30… oops. Went back to the hotel and played Battleship and went to bed.

Saturday 7/13: Day of the Convention

Got an Uber there cause I’m not dealing with that traffic again and arrived at like 9am. Waited in line until 10am for the show floor to open. We walked around a bit cause our photo op wasn’t scheduled until 11:10. I got a TARDIS and 221B keychain as well as a Supercon t-shirt. We got in line and got our picture between like 11:20-11:30ish I think? It’s a blur tbh, I saw him and lost all track of time. It was really quick so I couldn’t really get to talk to him. It was just a “hey” “hi” 📸 “have a good one.” 👋🏻 It was a long wait in the line but it passed by pretty quickly cause I got to talk to a few other people in line. This was honestly one of the best parts of the convention besides David himself because I got to meet such like-minded people. You could strike up a conversation with practically anyone and have tons of common interests. My friend and I actually kinda made friends with this other girl that was there by herself so the three of us stuck together the rest of the day. His panel started at 12:30, so we were in line by 11:50 and sat by 12:25. His panel was really fun. It’s really interesting watching his thought process happen live cause it’s so chaotic. I love him and his failed analogies.

David: “I’m going to stop now. I can smell the frosting from here.”

They had a Q&A in the second half of the panel. The new girl and I actually got in line to do the Q&A, but if you know anything about David you know he’s gonna take his time to fully answer even the simplest of questions, so we got through maybe 6-7 questions within 30 minutes. One of those questions was actually from his own kids, so that was funny. I’m not sure if it was Olive or Wilfred that asked, they were both there.

Kid: “who’s your favorite kid?”

David: “who’s your favorite parent?”

Kid: “well Georgia just recorded for a book, so-”

After the panel, the three of us battled the autograph line. We had prepaid for our autograph, so we got in one line from like 12:45-1:45 to register our QR code or whatever and get a little blue ticket. Then we had to wait in another line from like 2:30-5 to get the autograph. Was worth it though. My friend got a book signed and she made a little drawing for him, which he accepted and had her give it to one of his kids to hold onto. I had him sign my Crowley cover of Good Omens (plan to one day have Michael Sheen sign the Aziraphale cover). I honestly can’t remember exactly how our conversation went but it was something along the lines of

David: “Hi, [my name]!”

Me: “Hey!”

David: “So you want me to just sign right here?” (Indicates top half of the inside cover)

Me: “Yea, that’s fine right there!” (Gives a second for him to sign) “I also made this for you if you’d like. It’s coasters of you and your family’s names in Gallifrayan.”

David: (finishes signing and looks up) “oh, that’s neat! That’s all of us in Gallifrayan?”

Me: “Yea, this is Wilfred’s on top I think.”

David: “Cool! Give this to them (gestures to his kids sitting beside him) so they can investigate it.”

I handed the coaster set to Olive and she did actually start investigating it which I find funny and was showing it to Wilfred. My friend also had a small interaction with them and gave them some bracelets she made. They actually put them on so that was nice. I saw them looking at the coasters still as I was walking away so I hope they like them. (Pictures are of the coasters and some examples of what they looked like. Did all 7 of their names as well as “Tennant” to make it an even 8).

After the autograph, we pretty much just wrapped things up and got ready to leave. We said bye to the new girl and exchanged contact info. Got an Uber back and DoorDashed dinner. Was in bed by 10.

Sunday 7/14: Drive Back Home

What it says on the tin. My friend had to get up at like 3am for her flight so we had to call it a night pretty early Saturday and I left the hotel about 11:30am Sunday morning. Got home about 7pm.

Overall a 10/10 experience. Even with the large crowds, no one was fighting or anything and were generally very nice. Next time there’s a convention somewhat close to me I’m totally ready to go.

[astrolavas]

i think it’s kind of interesting with the hexside tracks convo. i actually think construction magic is the only coven-specific type of magic we’ve ever seen hunter do? with that big earth fist he whacked amity with in eclipse lake. i don’t know if that would be an argument for or against him taking it as a class, but i feel like everything else we’ve ever seen him do is like,, not tied to a coven besides that one spell

(this is related to this old post but i put the answer in my drafts and the option of posting it vanished from my memory lmao)

tbh that IS true, i forgor it can be technically considered construction magic kxjsjks

i feel like there are so many spells and different "sub magic types" and magic courses that are kinda unclear which track they'd be taught at or where they fall under, especially since there are some tracks/magic types that we've only seen used in a very general way; like construction or oracle. we've seen manyyyy possibilities for some tracks, like abomination (like what darius vs alador vs amity can do, how differently it can be used) or bard (how at first glance it just feels like a "yeah we use instruments to fight and do spells" but then we also find out how much you can truly do with it and how much actually falls under bard magic through raine) or illusions (everything that gus, and graye, have been shown to do) etc. but some tracks/covens we have really just been kinda... shown from a very surface level lol

hell, i still wonder why anyone would ever choose a potion coven in a world during belos' reign, where you have to choose to only have one magic type, because... from all we've seen it seems like in order to make potions you don't really need any magic (having magic can help but it's not necessarily needed) so what magic DO you get??? you have to get something (maybe magic that can assist you in making potions?) but we have no clear idea what. also considering how oftentimes potion-making is also tied in with other magic types (like plants or healing or beast-keeping) it almost feels like it should be a sub-type of each magic or an addition rather than its own thing. BUT KXJSHSK YEAH like, we don't know! i wish it was more clearly fleshed out in the show.

there's also the fact that now that belos is gone, the society is able to take back their culture and history and practices that were lost to time and as we can see in the epilogue they're actively working on making the boiling isles less... belos-influenced. they're working on that process of decolonization and it's going to be a long LOOONG while until traces of belos' impact completely disappear, but there are already clear changes. the sky is clear again (just like it was in the "savage ages" - a contrast to the pollution we see in the emperor's coven era), palismen are being carved again and palistroms are coming back from being endangered, selkidomus is doing good, the once a police precinct in latissa is now a hospital and the hostile architecture around it (the spikes) is gone, there's now a way to remove sigils and everyone is free to pursue whatever they want. the society is healing. etc.

and covens, magic being split into these clear subtypes- was not ever really something natural. like yeah, there ARE magic types that seem very clearly "thematic" like you can very clearly separate bard magic from plant magic, and a witch can be naturally skilled in a particular thing (like willow or gus) but there are also some spells that overlap and some that seemingly don't fit into any covens at all. belos made up covens in order to limit witches' bodily autonomy and control their abilities, in order to seem more powerful and to create this structure of power. so i imagine that if you are in a coven, in any coven, there are spells that don't quite fit any of them, or some that fit all.

i. ngl i completely derailed the ask and forgot where i was going with this LMAO but yeah

[achoshistor]

[ff7cc] is this symbolistic?

ff7cc SPOILER until like ch 6 (but really a ffvii spoiler bc thats the only reason how i know what happens next)

i need to WRITE WRITE WRITE. every essay i write now sounds like garbage to me. same with music tbh i havent played a full song in over two years now and its honestly kind of sad but i have no motivation. it feels like my fingers dont work like they did before and im too easy to give up on things bc i literally made it through the first time so it should be easier the second time but im lowkey really busy (100% procrastinating on calc) but im like whatever i need to get it all out of my head. im really shocked people read the last brainrot post like wow people are really seeing whats going on in here.

anyways ive been listening to the cc(r) ost while studying (around up to right before nibelheim because i want to make a flower wagon for my beautiful queen Aerith (i dont get the hate? madame M calling her homely like WHO's homley? wait lmfaoo off topic but why was cloud whimpering and moaning during the scene i had to take my headphones off cause i couldnt take it anymore...)) i should start a medium account and write like those pretentious tech bros that say things like "college is for LOSERS!" (ur going to a top school for cs?) (i didn't really like that guy cause he was lowkey weird too) but i think it'd be really funny. lowkey i forgot where i was going with this because the parenthesis reminded me of the chain rule which reminded me of that guy but anyways back to the main point...

I usually listen to game osts when studying (lie im listening to deftones right now) but the track "True Motives" (ill link it somewhere here) when genesis and angeal beat up sephiroth lowkey got me thinking during calc practice... like theres three instruments (piano cello violin) and its got a call and response format but its like all three are doing that (i told you i havent touched anything music related in a long while LOL sorry if the terminology is wrong). in the cutscene we start out with sephiroth with the violin and then like half a second later we get the piano take the upper with the cello playing the secondary melody? but the violin immediately kicks in... TBH i wonder then since im assuming sephiroth is the in between since hes "still around"—i dunno what happened to angeal—im at the point where ive killed the angeal creature but zach mentions him being possibly around and im assuming genesis is a total goner cause hes not around for anything else afaik (or he might im not that well versed in ffvii canon) and angeal reminded me a little too much of sonon so im gonna assume hes dead. as we know violin = treble cello = bass piano = both so i guess genesis = violin and angeal = cello just cause they seem like that to me. right when sephiroth pushes angeal back and genesis is about to go crazy the piano and violin lowkey come in and cello is just playing the bass notes for tha chords and the last half is lowkey just piano and violin plus a little cello right before angeal tries to stop genesis and gets thrown off into the junon sea or whatever u call it (i lost the submarine mini game in vii and i had to look up help and every tutorial was like " youre a total IDIOT if you failed this..."). maybe this is a whole lot of nothing and im just mkaing things up.

anyways thats enough for today i think. thank you for coming to my ted talk.

[respitelocklyre]

My first two days of school have been soooo wild like i almost died twice and three of my classmates DID die (one of them twice!!!) (they came back dw) but, like, is college supposed to be like this???

Anyways i got this cool work-study at the school cafe (i look supes cute in the little barista aprons! plus i got to take home some of the sweets after my shift!!), but on our very first day some janitor kept saying he was our boss?? idk tbh 😒 The cafe was a mess so we had to, like, clean the whole place and some coffee ghosts attacked us. My hair was a NIGHTMARE before the place even opened, but you know ya girl had extra hair ties and can work hair magic in a pinch, so it was totally fine.

Some of my coworkers r definitely cooler than others, but whatevs. It was nice to finally meet new people (well...mostly new) after going to school with the same, like, 100 people for the past 18 years of my life uuggghhhh This school is pretty cool overall- they even got THE Danny Breeze (and the boys!) to come play on campus and had a new student raffle for 6 VIP tickets!! Which i won ofc bc i'm the obvious choice 🎉

I ended up inviting my new coworkers bc it felt like a good way to bond with them, and also i haven't even had my first day of classes yet so idk who else i wouldve gone with. DEF not my roommate. There were like some ppl I probs wouldn't have invited but like idk it just felt rude to invite everyone BUT them so 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️

But like the concert ended up being way crazier than i couldve imagined! The manager came to us practically begging on her knees for my help because she lost track of THE ENTIRE BAND. idk if i'm allowed to go suuuper into detail about it, but basically the band got kidnapped by some nasty industry folks who were trying to CLONE them! It felt like one of those scifi movies that Vol always makes me watch. We had to FIGHT the evil clones too! I almost died again! On my S E C O N D day at Strixhaven!! That's me at 2 near-deaths, Lulu and Muk at 1 full KO each, and Mettie at TWO. I cannot stress enough that orientation isn't even until TOMORROW.

I got like rlly angry at one of the clones, too. It ruined my vintage shirt from depop so i yelled at it, and then when it died i kinda like? Absorbed some of its life energy? I don't know, maybe i was just really relieved we weren't in danger any more, but i swear some of the nerve damage from the electrocution healed up. idk what that was all about.

Doesnt matter tho cuz we ended up being able to party on stage with the band once we saved them all (yeah, if you see videos of the concert from last night, you can totally see me on stage!! 🎤🌸) AND we got to go to the exclusive after-party. I can't talk about everything that happened, but let's just say i ended up with Coale's shirt to take home 😘 I have a TON of pics to share later!! You guys should seriously follow my insta or dinkdonk, i had soooo many lives and videos to post!! I'll keep posting life updates here but fr im wayyy more active over there. ttyl bestiesss

[passionfruitmango]

Do I recommend scentbird? Tbh no, I've lost track of how many times I don't receive the card with fragrance information for one of my two scents.

I've also been victim of leaky vials/atomizers, though I've only had one unusable perfume, I have many cases that are being eaten up from the leaking alcohol.

Yeah I will admit their customer service is good, like very good. Or good enough to appease me at least. I didn't care enough to email them about the unusable fragrance I mentioned above, but I did have an instance where for two months in a row i got an email stating I'd be receiving something I was excited about in my queue that month, then I got billed and they totally skipped over the perfumes they said they were sending me, but never notified me past the regular email stating they took my money and here's tracking.

So I emailed them asking why that's happening and explain i was super excited about the scents but didn't understand why I'm being told they're coming but then I'm getting something else in queue. So for whatever reason something didn't mesh up with their system when they sold through the monthly vial sizes, it was still in my queue but wouldn't roll over to out of stock like other perfumes seemingly because the sample size vials were still in stock.

All in all they gave me my choice of a free scent for my time and trouble which you know i took my time finding something pricey (retail for full bottle, since they didnt let me pick from any of the select products-which is valid) that I'd like. But anyway yeah scentbird kinda mid experience wise. You're really just paying for the convenience of perfume and a streamlined catalogue to select from.

Oof plus a friend of mine who is also a fan of fragrance bought a full size bottle (outside of scentbird/direct from distributor) of a scent she previously bought through scentbird that i also purchased (same arrival time frame as her bottle). There was a NOTICEABLE difference in the dry down scent between the two. I've seen others report that scentbird is "watered" and though I don't think they're cutting their fragrances, i do think that there is a significant product/fragrance loss during the rebottling process that makes scentbird scents lighter than if they came from a full sized (or even a sample sized) bottle direct from the distributor.

Overall am I going to take the time to email them over every small problem? No tbh.

Am I going to continue purchasing scentbird? Honestly I'm wanting to drop down to one bottle per month but unfortunately it's just "good enough" to keep getting my money as i not only like the similarity of all the tubes and cases, but American consumerism has me in a fucked up chokehold and for whatever reason I'm addicted to getting a new scent monthly as opposed to finishing out what i already have on hand.

Something something a bigger conversation to be had about mediocre product subscription services and just overall mediocre products that do serve us in some ways yes but there is better if we had the time/focus/energy to indulge and educate ourselves more on the things that we love, wow it all comes back to anticapitalism with me huh.

[cesium-sheep]

it occurs to me that I have never had reason to worry about arin pushing herself for money. she pushes herself for a lot of other things, but never for money, for good and for ill. when it was just the two of us, me also having some kind of actual income still would've been really helpful for the household, but it never would've made her push herself any less. if anything it may have made her push herself more, because more of her is freed up to charge forward whenever I'm able to help out at home in whatever form that takes. and she's specifically pushing herself for a career that's going to make plenty of money for both of us, for all three of us, so money issues have been ever present but they've never been expected to be like, long term.

so I think the fact that matt does push himself for money, a pragmatic decision but not one I like, adds a new angle of concern to the whole va appeal thing. because if I get disability compensation, he genuinely might push himself less. and yeah, arin should be making enough money for all three of us a few years down the line, but. she also doesn't push herself for money. it's not her goal. so it's not exactly the same kind of security as "oh. someone else paid rent this month, I can put that money into savings instead. that's one month down the line I don't have to bust my ass if I don't want to. and they'll have the money to pay rent next month too whether I do or not."

I miss being in charge of the finances tbh. but also I haven't like, earned access to matt's finances beyond what he chooses to share, yknow? maybe if I had something to contribute too it would be different. and arin's elected to do her own thing while she's not living here so I lost the access I had, which makes sense cuz I'm literally not in her house. maybe when all three of us are in the same place again we can make a household account everyone pays into for bills and stuff (or that they both pay into, if I lose my appeal) and I'll have access to at least keep track of it all. household accounting is something I'm still able to do, I'm good at it and it's like, genuinely nice for everyone involved to have it centralized.

[identityarchitect]

going by collective memory which is a spotty thing at the best of times, i think part of it was the move of fandom off of Livejournal. A lot of non-fandom content either had already abandoned it bc it was going downhill, or didn't leave until well after, and either way didn't migrate alongside the fandom migrations. I lost track of it, and while I knew some other multiples in Ye Olde Dreamwidth RP after the migration, there wasn't really a community anymore. The best way I think to get an idea what it was like is to find old archived sites and blogs that were live in like 2001-2004ish? I know scrapes-and-bruises [dot] neocities [dot] org has a pretty extensive list of archived plural/multiplicity-related sites and blogs, I found it looking for something else but it looks pretty good and I recognize some of the sites. But it was just... idk people WOULD introduce individual system members sometimes, but it was just as common for a system to just run their site/blog AS a system and you wouldn't know much about individuals, there wasn't really a pressure to disclose that, or your trauma, or what-have-you. There was definitely some drama, some folks were very against the idea of "naturally occurring" multiplicity, but large swaths of the community were supportive of it so it didn't feel too pervasive. it's hard to put a finger on exactly why, but the current community feels more like a content mill than a community. Like everyone's expected to Perform Plurality For Their Audience or some shit, you know what I mean? I didn't used to feel like I had to perform it correctly in order to be multiple. 🎆

That makes sense, tbh. If the community moved to newer sites there'd be disparity between the existing community as they tried to get set up again, archive important things, and whatever existing community may have been on the sites they migrated to.

I agree that it feels kind of content-mill-ish. This happens in other tags where people post in the tag because they have xyz identity and not because the post is actually super relevant or needs to be in the tag, but like... I go into the pluralgang tag and I see people posting updates about specific internal things in their system, posting about how they got a new headmate 3 seconds ago and want to introduce them, posting apologies for things, and it's like. I don't know how to describe it, but it's uncomfortable. I really don't need to know about the internal happenings in your system, and neither does the rest of the pluralgang tag.

We post about stuff going on in our system, but that's more because this is our personal blog where we blog about whatever we want, including IRL stuff, and not because we... idk, feel the need to meet a quota of posting about headmates before we're a Real Valid System. (I have no idea why people feel the need to post about every single thing that happens to them in every single plural tag.)

I also definitely think there's influence from young people joining the plural community? No fault on their part but for a lot of like, newly discovered 13-14yo systems, they're not really in a position to speak to their family or friends about plurality, y'know. But (and I think this is a thing most new systems do, not just young ones) they really want to be validated in their identity as plural, especially if they've tried to gauge how family or friends might feel and gotten a resounding "even if it were real, you're not plural". They discover that they're real, and they want to keep being real: they want other people to tell them they're real, because so far other people have told them they're not real, or that being real means being someone else entirely. (This happens in the queer community too, and seems to manifest as people only being able to tell other queers that they're 'valid', and seemingly unable to make any other positive comment.)

And so you end up with people wanting to talk about every single headmate in excruciating detail, and every conversation between those headmates and every headspace discovery, but more than that they want to be part of a community where they can talk about everything and everything is acknowledged, validated, and loved on a personal level. I don't think plural tags are a great place for that. Best of luck to them, of course, but in my experience trying to make a community that is like that just ends up being even more gatekeepy, presumptuous, and toxic. (Speaking from experience.)

[mutecrows]

I'm gonna actually do propaganda for real for the first time like I know the TMA fandom is huge, besties I get it, I love Jon too but listen to me… he does not have the autism swag levels of Yoo Joonghyuk especially bc YJH is just Like That as a built in character status not bc of outside forces (yes,yes, infodumping about emulsifiers hush. I was in the trenches too. The Eye had a big part in his statements being a fixation and you know it. That and the Web was there from like,,, young childhood.)

Listen, you should vote Yoo Joonghyuk

So first and foremost homie literally runs his whole life on scripts and with schedules that he doesn't like deviating from even going so far as to consider everything a lost cause because it has gone too far from the plan he had in his head. I'm talking full meltdown buddy. He was NOT happy and is never happy about the things changing too far from what he is planning it to be like when the script fails badly (usually leading to dying) he just edits them a bit and does it again like a trial run over and over until he gets that much of a step closer to perfecting it.

He's a gamer who can minmax his stats in his mind because his brain just clicks with it that well and he applies it to his own life too. Hell, he does it to other people too using the Sage's Eye skill he has. He literally strategizes all of his approaches because he needs to for his scripts to work and it's how he keeps himself stable

He's often blunt and almost crass in a way that is like totally missing social cues from others and he still bulldozes forward with that but since he's attractive the wider world just sees this colder exterior as him being cool or whatever (this happens for a lot of him actually, being attractive does a lot of heavy lifting in life). As a result though people do find him rude or just strange but really he does mean to be doing the best he just doesn't adapt well to deviations from what he is expecting things to be like. He will work HARD to get things back onto familiar tracks too

He's also a minimally verbal KING like yes girl, give us nothing!!! He will say bare minimum and instead just act because it's faster and easier, which his party gets used to eventually and just turn to Kim Dokja (another autism king tbh) to pick up where YJH left off. If he could get away with never talking he absolutely would too. This man does NOT want to talk and explain if he doesn't have to. In fact he repeatedly just thinks his words at KDJ when he suspects mind reading is a skill that Dokja has instead of verbally speaking to him. This isn't to say he doesn't talk and he does show to be good with words when he tries but I will once again point at the script usage I keep mentioning. He absolutely has practiced these speeches a ton by the time you get to them in the book.

When it comes to things he has down pat he is so straight forward with explaining it that he even teaches like the kids things and sees people progress in leaps and bounds from it (although this is arguably also because he redid this over and over as a regressor but we love him for it)

He also has the running theme of not eating food made by other people because it's not delicious' to which i say no! He doesn't want to explain to others his texture sensitivities and to get people off his back he just taught himself to cook. So now he makes bomb ass food that everyone else pines after because this autism king cracked the code on being social. I mean fr people won't treat you as too weird if the food you make is bangin and before someone says he doesn't cook for others, he literally makes a show of having a minor fit over it before he just lets it go and people can try it or 'have the leftovers'. I mean he lets KDJ have bits rather early on and this is someone who regularly ruins the plans he has and frustrates him to no end by having figured out ways to work his scripts into more efficient ways (allegedly)

And don't even get me started on the constant cleaning of his swords and such. Buddy, talk about a stim of fiddling with things he is shown to be messing with his swords so often when they aren't actively completing tasks it's practically his idle animation. The fact that it fits his practical approach to life with his scripts he uses because it means his weapons will be in good condition is just icing on the cake too.

He also straight up has tics that are so consistent people who know what to look for can read his moods off of them which is also iconic tbh… this along with his minimal affecting outside of it, which bc he's handsome people just look at him as being cool again, is something that is pointed out over and over in the novel and is depicted in the webtoon too it's just less evident bc of the visual medium.

When he does have his full meltdowns, blended with his other mental illnesses, they get so bad that he is regularly referred to as a sunfish bastard by KDJ because of how susceptible he is to being overloaded by the stress of big changes

So like i don't know how to avoid getting into spoilers here so don't read the rest of this if you haven't read the novel to completion

YJH really does end up getting pulled out of a number of meltdowns by KDJ and as a result does start to subconsciously rely on him for that and does actually have meltdowns specifically over the fact that KDJ isn't there as an anchor even tho he hadn't had him in any of the prior regressions. Regardless of this he trusts this other (autistic in a similar but more adaptably masking way) dude to edit the script he holds onto so strongly for him. Don't get me wrong he does repeatedly try to get back on familiar ground over and over but he does eventually trust KDJ to the point that when he is told by KDJ that he could rest and it would be handled for him he feels literal relief at being able to just… not have to be in control of himself for a bit.

He is NOT capable of handling losing things well either. This is like his biggest masking point, like he experienced his mentor dying and was like "i'm never coming back" because it was a point that was technically avoidable now that he had already learned the skills. Unlike his core party that he intentionally keeps as small as possible (4 maybe 5 core members, depending on the round) and even with that barrier he still starts masking HARD to avoid letting himself get hurt too badly. AND STILL he absolutely fails at that and it still gets to him over and over to the point of regular nightmares across his regressions and is a huge part of his depression

When he kills the only person that he thought truly understood him on a better level than the rest, not knowing he was just in a different realm bc KDJ is a slippery bastard who knows how to game the system, he continues to pay the subscription for their shared personal chat room for THREE YEARS to keep talking to him about things that were happening on earth. Homie was like "nah nah nah the standard is you die, i get very upset but dont say or show it, and you come back. This was NOT a discussed NOR APPROVED CHANGE to the routine KIM DOKJA." This gets him so keyed up, after watching KDJ die multiple times to keep everyone else alive, and he wants to have control over how things are going around him back SO badly that he was 100% fine with the entire party hating and not trusting him just to have a little bit of control back for his own mental and emotional security.

Hell, a version of YJH has his memories and some of his personality broken up into little kkomas (chibis) that are set up to handle different tasks, which is compartmentalizing tasks to make your brain run better at the most litersl sense, and the fact that the kkoma's themselves have little name tags to help differentiate is also great. They also have routine schedules they follow, which includes daily rotations of tasks like I'm talking "It's 81's day to cook" levels of LITERAL self scheduling to keep a routine. Arguably each of the kkomas could even be seen as different masking fronts too, since the regressions they represent each have different variations that cover a whole spectrum of personalities that work better in different situations, including which ones mesh better with different people. They keep notes that they share with each other.

Also the moment the scenarios were over and he wasn't able to use the scripts he had been fine tuning for hundreds of years, reliving the same years over and over, he stood there and went "I have no idea what to do now that my situation I've learned to handle has changed." Like when the standard for the world finally changed for the first time in (for him) centuries to not be the literal apocalypse he really was so lost he was ready to just quit everything (including living). The plan had been that after the scenarios ended the entire party would get a house with KDJ and all live together but this failed because to get out of the apocalypse for real KDJ did his own sacrificial bs. So now out of the apocalypse he already lost his newly found major anchor point and he wasn't able to ask "so what now" essentially. All he wanted was someone to tell him what he's supposed to do now because he doesn't know how to handle this absolutely massive change. He was so desperate that he literally regressed again, after swearing he wouldn't, to try and just get KDJ back as an anchor so he could have that plan back.

Anyways vote Yoo Joonghyuk, I'm begging

ROUND 2 PART 2

Yoo Joonghyuk X Jonathan Sims

[sporesmoldandfungi]

How about ray x pregnant!reader? Like, the first ultrasound where they see their baby for the first time through a sonogram? I just want more cute family man!ray tbh

Baby Fever - Ray x F!Pregnant!Reader

A/N : Here you go! I hope you like it, I've never written anything with a pregnant reader so I hope I did alright haha. I also love family man Ray, he's the cutest <3 Word Count : 735

“Do you have the bag?”

“Yes, Ray.”

“Did you take your vitamins today?”

“Yes, Ray.”

“Do we-“

“Ray!”

Ray stopped and looked at his three month pregnant girlfriend. He was obviously nervous, every muscle on his face gave him away. She, however, looked calm and relaxed.

Y/N stood up and placed a hand on his face, he leaned into her touch. “It’s just a check up, I’m not giving birth. Now, will you please get in the car so we can drive there?”

Ray exhaled deeply, “You’re right, I’ll go get the car.”

He walked downstairs and Y/N laughed softly to herself. She always knew was great with kids, she met him when he was working birthday parties as a Ghostbuster. So it seemed like fate when her nephew said he was full of crap. She apologized to the handsome man and everything else is history.

They’ve only been dating a little under two years, but they were both reaching their late thirties and were looking to settle down. Y/N always thought she’d be married before she’d start a family, but with Ray, it didn’t matter.

As Y/N got lost in her thoughts, the car pulled into the garage. She walked downstairs and stopped in her tracks when she saw Ray standing by the Ecto-1.

He laughed nervously, “I couldn’t help it, I love driving it.”

Y/N smiled at her love, “Eh, it’s alright. It’ll come in handy when I go into labor and we have to haul ass to the hospital.”

Ray extended his hand out to, holding her as she walked down the last two stairs. He opened up the passenger’s door for her and closed it gently after she sat down. He was always a gentleman, but he has been extra loving and caring with Y/N ever since she found out she was pregnant. At the drop of a hat, he would run out to get her whatever food she was craving. He would hold back her hair and rub her back when morning sickness overtook her. He was a doting boyfriend and would most definitely be a doting father.

He drove carefully to the OB/GYN, braking gently at every light instead of trying to make it before it turned red. They were both silent in the car, both being a little nervous. Ray was assuming the worst, expecting to hear that something was wrong with the baby.Y/N, on the other hand, was not looking forward to having things well, to put it delicately, shoved inside her.

They reached the doctor’s and they got funny stares when they exited the car. Which made sense since the Ghostbusters had been out of commission for the last year. Ray opened every door for Y/N and waited nervously as she filled out paperwork. About ten minutes passed until they were finally called back. He blocked out most of the routine stuff, he was just trying to make time go by faster so he could see the ultrasound.

The ultrasound technician entered, “Ms. L/N?”

Y/N awkwardly waved, “That’d be me.”

“Right, how are you feeling?”

“Fine.” Y/N replied.

Ray tuned out the conversation, mainly just watching Y/N’s expressions as she talked and got ready for the ultrasound.

“Alright, Dad, we’re gonna start the ultrasound now.” the technician said to Ray.

He was still zoning out.

Y/N tapped him on the arm, his whipped around the room. “Is the baby alright!”

She smiled at him, “She’s about to start the ultrasound.”

“Oh! Great!” Ray said excitedly.

He leaned in close and held Y/N’s hands as her lower stomach was covered in cold goo. The technician began moving the small wand across her stomach. The couple looked at the small screen, looking for their baby.

The technician pointed at a black shape on the screen. “There’s your baby.”

Ray gasped quietly, smiling at the screen. Y/N looked up at her boyfriend, she too was smiling. Tears welled up in Ray’s eyes as he watched the small shape move on the screen.

“That’s our baby.” he whispered to Y/N.

“That’s our baby.” she repeated.

He leaned down and gently kissed her, his tears dripped onto their lips, making the kiss taste salty. Neither of them cared, their baby was in front of them and they wouldn’t have it any other way.