#barely any progress in the grand scheme of things

[aso-bi]

Me when I finally finish the commission I was k*lling myself over

[lightbulb-warning]

i used to freehand comics all the time as a child and since the part i liked was the drawing part i would just draw panel after panel because i didn't want to stop drawing to think about icky icky words, plus the story TOTALLY still made perfect sense! to me! and noone else, but 'whoooo caaaaares omgggg its not like comics and sequantial art are a communicative meeediummmm lmaoooooo'. i spent my entire childhood telling myself stuff like "oh pfft I know this story by heart- ill SIMPLY remember the dialogue and write it later" ...and. I can't help but admire baby maiora's (call that a minora ba tm tsk) fucking audacity? hubris? confident wrongness? kid couldn't even remember to finish the comics in the first place? INCREDIBLE levels of unearned self assurance, wish that were me, genuinely- what an icon!!! anyway i think i have forever cursed myself

[shadowviixen]

INTJ : The calm and affirmative

INTJs have this annoyingly calm demeanor that perceives everything will be alright. A plan fails? It's a learning experience.

You did not achieve your goal? It's still part of the stepping stone towards better progress.

You overlooked the details? Then it will be considered the next time. Do we think we're better than you? Hardly! INTJs are just competent and we trust completely in our skills and intellect.

Do we want to be better than everyone else? Well, we can't really lie about that category however it barely scratches the surface of our sense of purpose, integrity, and philosophy...

If we think we have things, actions, habits, etc. to improve for necessary means--as we see fit, we simply will. Keep an intj close and earn their trust... and you'll surely find yourself a valuable piece to their grand schemes in life. Per se, INTJs believe in equal exchange... trust that you won't be empty handed in any bargain.

[iamamythologicalcreature]

Sentences or Sketches or Something... Sunday

Hello strangers! It's been a long time since I last did a progress post of any kind - thank you everyone who's continued to tag me so I don't get left behind! And thanks to @noblecorgi, @alexalexinii, @you-remind-me-of-the-babe, @blackberrysummerblog, @thewholelemon, @mooncello, @monbons, @prettygoododds, @shrekgogurt, and @youarenevertooold for tagging me, today. (I feel so loved! <3) I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone's up to.

It's still Sunday in my neck of the woods, though just barely. And yes, I've used my "sentences" banner, but... It's a bit more chaotic than that. Honestly, I wasn't sure about doing a post today because I'm a bit all over the place, but then I figured... eh, why not? I am all over the place LOL.

So here's your snippet from the collective efforts of Jo's creativity, lately, under the cut. (Because I ramble...)

On the Haunting of Simon Snow... I haven't forgotten about it! Nor is it abandoned. As I keep telling anyone who will listen, I have a rough draft, which basically amounts to an outline, meaning I have way too much figured out to just let the story fade away. XD I attempted to work on Chapter 2 earlier this month, and ran into some roadblocks - of the architectural variety.

So I've started to research manor houses and English estates like mad. I'm going to do the thing. I'm going to figure out Pitch Manor. Why? Because my brain won't let me gloss over paltry details such as the location of Simon in the grand scheme of the house, or how and where the roof attaches and where that tree is going to be. It's annoying, but I figure... This is a fun puzzle, too. One I hope to be able to share with the fandom at large once it's complete.

This little snippet is from an early design I've since scrapped (but you never know what might come around, again.)

"That's great, Jo, but how about some sentences?"

Okay. Ahem. Here's... some Simon sentences... that have just been scribbled out. *cough*

I sit there and listen to the man on the other side as he blathers on about extra fees associated with estate deliveries due to distance and blah blah bloody fucking blah. I wish he’d just say it. Just say 'this is the Pitch Manor tax.' No one ever does. But everyone charges it.

I HAVE WRITTEN SEE THERE'S PROOF.

Okay, moving on...

The other thing I'm working on is illustrations for @mooncello's beautiful fanfic, "Lost Boys." I just posted art from Chapter 1 here, and I'm working on art for Chapter 2, now. The story is stuffed to the gills with absolutely gorgeous imagery, so choosing what to illustrate is a challenge. Hopefully it all works out, and in the meantime, here are a couple doodles.

(I was telling Heath last night... this morning...? about how all illustrations start out as baby sketches XD These are the little babes in the creative nursery, basically. Also I have never posted baby sketches before and I'm kinda nervous about it. But. Well. >.> )

THERE YOU HAVE IT. A couple of my reasons for being so entirely absent from all other aspects of the fandom. (Also I got hit with the flu super hard, but doing better now!)

Tags for future wipsdays/hello's! @leithillustration, @artsyunderstudy (thank you for listening to me ramble about Pitch Manor), @erzbethluna, @nightimedreamersworld, @cutestkilla (thank you for also listening to me ramble about Pitch Manor sorry I'm reworking it again XD), @angelsfalling16, @fatalfangirl, @hushed-chorus (thank you for being my secret-garden-enabler XD), @rimeswithpurple, @best--dress, @whatevertheweather, @ileadacharmedlife, @scribble-tier, @imagineacoolusername, @brilla-brilla-estrellita, @alleycat0306, @ivelovedhimthroughworse, @tender-ministrations, @katmiscellanious, @anxious-m3ss, @bubble-gumhead, @ebbpettier, @facewithoutheart, @bazzybelle, @theimpossibledemon, @aristocratic-otter, @ic3-que3n, @palimpsessed, @raenestee

[metvmorqhoses]

A big issue that they (unfortunately) carried over into the show was how dense Alina is. Yes, Aleksander came off as a weak obsessive rather than someone who was entangled in a mutually complex yet deeply felt connection with Alina, yet he was posing very REAL and valid questions towards her which were brushed off with reactionary and flipppant answers. They had a chance to address these real issues Alina faces alone with him out of the picture. Because he’s posed as the villain, his centuries long experience is completely thrown out the window instead of at least contemplated. Unless the show writers are planning to tackle this in a substantial way next season they otherwise come across as incredibly stupid at least. He’s known loss, he’s known love and pain and violence and all of that is completely disregarded and shunned by Alina who in the books (which I still have issues with) at the bare minimum acknowledges a real connection towards him. I mean, she boldly asserts she will walk her own path and not five minutes after his death is already dabbling in morally grey territory because *shocker* things aren’t actually black and white (good or bad) as she thought.

You know, the more I think about this season putting it against the implication the ending gave us, the more I'm convinced it was done on purpose. I refuse to believe they reached this level of utter absurdity for real and no one thought to stop them.

The only way this even thicker Alina makes any sense in the grand scheme of things is to consider the entire season her corruption origin story. This interpretation is actually backed up by many subtle things and literally most of her exchanges with the Darkling.

He tries to make her understand things, he constantly tries to warn her about power and their unique circumstances, about balance and sacrifice - she doesn't listen and only villainizes him further and further (constantly making him her villain), while the plot actually slowly and unrelentingly proves him right. She calls him power-hungry and immediately proceeds to desperately search for the next amplifier. In their every interaction he acts as the proud mentor, even calling her "one of his out-of-control creations" and saying things like "I saw what you truly are and I never turned away". She takes off her kefta saying she will never wear his color again - her own dress underneath is black. As the season progresses, her makeup turns darker and darker. She's obsessed with tearing down the Fold almost as if it was her way to prove something to herself more than for the sake of Ravka ("Ravkans will see the skies from here one day, by my power!"), that probably would have actually benefited from the existence of it at that precise moment in time. She shames him for his use of Merzost and then proceeds to use it for the most selfish reason imaginable. The Darkling's ending is also very odd, I'm more and more convinced he actually went there with the intention of being killed by her (he basically closed his eyes and waited for her sword), afraid of his uncontrollable powers. He even begs her to make sure "nothing of him remains", and if at first I was influenced by the books' reason (he didn't want his body desecrated), I now actually think he was trying to make sure nothing of that infectious power remained to haunt her and Ravka while he was gone - and what I think actually happened right away to both Nikolai and Alina, immediately possessed and, in her case, corrupted. This is even teased by Nikolai's attire in the last moments of the show. When I was watching it I immediately noticed they put him into a black uniform with a golden "eagle" that looked strangely way too similar to Alina's kefta from the Winter Fete and even to Aleksander's new one. I found it odd and then, surprise surprise, Nikolai is possessed! Is everything a big coincidence? I think not.

In short, the entirety of the narrative is actually hinting at the same thing, proving her wrong and the Darkling right. Even with the wisps of light in his kefta and her shadow cut, I think they are definitely hinting at their shared powers and probably they more in-depth books dynamic in season three. This would also explain why they didn't include any canon darklina scene this season. They are saving them for later.

[invested-in-your-future]

Do you think Adam was nerfed?

Pretty much everyone was nerfed.

Cinder's cunning and personality was nerfed right after V3 because the show really wanted to sell the viewers on "those other evil guys that totally always were planned to work for Salem". It took her eight seasons to somehow remember that she can...use her intellect?!

Leviathan being taken out by a some mech after the show and the cast hyped up underwater Grimm so much.

Goliath getting taken out by a teenager who has not really shown to have improved in any way from the last time she got told she can't even scratch it.

Adam went on from slicing mechs in half and one-shotting charged up angry Yang of all people to getting one-hit-clowned by Blake during Haven nonsense.

Weiss went from having all those cool glyphs she uses to barely ever using them again.

Blake would very likely get defeated by one or two Grimm nowadays.

Raven was positioned as one of THE strongest characters in the story with a mysterious backstory. Her fighting prowess AND her plot importance BOTH got nerfed.

Remember when Ozpin was a freaking badass with all the weird cool abilities and when he was mysterious and ambiguous and had plans and secrets? Only for the show to tell us that he go clowned by two angsty teenagers that were beefing with their Tree-Dad? And that in grand scheme of history of the world and everything that's going on Ozpin is basically a nobody?

Remember when Glynda was a powerhouse and actually mattered in the story?

Remember the story of the great White Fang leader Sienna Khan jobbing to a sneak attack?

Remember when a single Nevermore posed more challenge than dozens of new and improve and creepy and unique Grimm some of which even Cinder (for some reason) was afraid of?

The characters and monsters both end up getting nerfed for multiple reasons. Mainly:

So they don't have to create and animate more complex fights.

So they don't have to actually bother to write a creative way to use the character powers or have to write situations where they can't just go and say "Ruby tapped this Grimm with her scythe and it fell over".

Because the people writing it just seemingly really lack any imagination of how to use countless of extremely well designed eldritch monsters

Because the people writing it just seemingly really lack any imagination of how to use dozens of characters with their unique power sets and worldviews. Its the issue present in the writing of entire show. They decide specific thing needs to happen and then just make it happen somehow rather than writing actual progression toward it. Be it the need to distrust Ozpin, Atlas mess, character traumas magically disappearing, broken moon, etc. It all happens "somehow".

[earthnashes]

Heyoooo everyone! I’m gonna gush a little bit about my gym rat hobby so please feel free to ignore me! I’m just super excited with the results I got this week. :)

For those of ya who are curious:

As of this coming April, I’d have been weight training consistently for a year. The past 5 weeks I entered a prep block to get myself prepared, and this week was the self-appointed Personal Record test I set for myself. The goal of the test is to... well. TEST how strong I’d become and the progress I made in comparison to when I first started out by finding my 1 Rep Max (and in the case of pullups, how many I can do before I can’t do anymore in one go).

The lifts I used for the testing were Barbell Bench Press, Deadlifts, and Pullups. I would’ve also tested for Squats but an old injury in my knee started acting up, so for my own safety I opted against it until I can retrain it and try later at the end of the year.

ANYWAY! The results of those tests are:

Bench Press: Last 1RM-150lbs | Current 1RM- 170lbs

Deadlift: Last 1RM- 210lbs | Current 1RM- 265lbs

Pullups: Last max: 0 pullups unassisted | Current max: 9 pullups unassisted

-----------

Numbers aren’t necessarily important in the grand scheme of things, BUT they’re very good for me to know in order to calculate how much I should be lifting in order to become stronger and for how many reps/sets, as well as giving me an additional visual representation of the progress I’m making outside of photos.

I am naturally competitive --specifically toward myself-- so what I see when looking at these numbers is defaulting to “Cool but now I need to get stronger”. But I’m trying to make myself take a step back and actually appraise the progress I’ve made thus far and to remember to be proud of it, even if it may not feel like I made a lot of progress at all.

And taking that step back: overall? I’m very happy with the results! And quite frankly very surprised. I went into the test with base goals and trying to be open that there’s a very high likelihood of failing to reach those goal PRs this time. But I managed to outperform my own expectations, and while small part of me will forever whisper “it wasn’t you. You did it wrong. You’re lying to yourself,” it’s a little harder to deny it when I had another person actively watching me and recording the tests so I can actually see myself do it.

“You are your biggest critique” is ever the true statement man. But I’m definitely trying to learn how to be more open to success in the gym. I mean c’mon; I started at barely being able to do one pullup with 100lbs of assistance. Now I can do nine with no help? It’s not a big number, but it’s still a much bigger number than where I was, and I can be proud of that.

I guess the roundabout of me talking about this is to remind ya to take a step back and be proud of the progress you’ve made up to this point, no matter what it is. Any progress is still progress, and you can’t brush that off.

The game face can be put on; aim for that higher number, strive for more, but don’t forget to take inventory of where you started vs where you are now. You may surprise yourself. :)

----

BUT YEAH! TL;DR I think I have gotten a little stronger. I’ll be taking a couple of days break away from the gym to rest up, then will be back on my bullshit with the new training block + my 1st attempt at a minicut. We’ll see how that goes ;w;

Anyhow, if you stuck around and read my rambling, treat yourself man. Thank you so much for listening, and I will talk to ya soon! :)

[rummigumi]

Here's a short preview/excerpt from Chapter 4 of Only One Ending. I plan to have it finished soon, but my brain being silly and work being work means it's taking a lot longer than planned.

Despite being so ordinary, Danny Fenton had piqued Tim's interest. Even if that interest was born out of a hope for his failure and a strange need to know more about him. And, considering the rest of the Fenton family, maybe Danny wasn’t as average as he seemed. 

There was just one problem: Danny seemed to have little interest in solving P versus NP. Sure, him failing at solving it due to a lack of trying was technically a win for Tim, but he didn't want to win on a technicality. 

So, he pushed a little.

He had enough social awareness to know how weird it'd be to directly contact Danny when he shouldn't even know his full name, but he had to do something. The next best option he could think of was Danny's academic advisor - she'd be able to help motivate him and her contact information was easily obtained from the university website. She wouldn't think twice about Tim contacting her about Danny and his promise to solve P versus NP. 

So Tim sent an email off and waited for a response, even going so far as to add her as a contact to make sure any reply went to his inbox. However, aside from an over-enthusiastic confirmation that she had received his original message, he never heard back. 

It wasn't until over a week later when he was reviewing his spam/potential malware quarantine reports that he realized Danny had been the one to respond. The tone of said response was pretty obviously annoyed, but Tim hoped his prodding was enough to spur the other into action (or at least cause his advisor to keep pushing for progress where Tim couldn't). Especially as the end of November hit and the combination of the end of the fiscal year approaching and employees hurriedly trying to use up their vacation time caused a pile up of work that had Tim spending more time in his office than out of it. 

Of course, Bruce was slowly integrating back into a leading role at the company after recovering from his ‘death’ and Lucius was just as overworked as Tim, but even with the three of them they were barely able to keep up. Then, to make matters worse, one of his warning systems around the chemistry and engineering departments was tripped at the university - best case scenario there was someone trying to resell university supplies, worst case they had a new rogue on their hands. 

Since she already had access to the campus due to being enrolled Steph was able to help investigate, but with the end of the semester coming up she was somehow even busier and more stressed than Tim - meaning he took on most of the work. Whenever Tim was able to escape the office and the overload of work stacking his desk, he ended up on Gotham University's campus. It wasn't a lot of time in the grand scheme of things, but just enough to work the case. 

In retrospect, he should have anticipated (and planned around) running into Danny. Gotham University was larger than the average school with nearly 9,000 undergraduate students enrolled, but Tim was focusing on his department. It'd be weirder if their paths didn't cross. The issue was - Danny knew him. And while Tim had a good reason to be spending a lot of time at a university he didn't attend, Timothy Drake didn't. So, he needed to avoid anyone able to easily recognize him and preemptively stop questions about why he was there. He was unprepared during the first run-in at the library (and that whole ordeal raised even more questions about Danny - Tim had been able to avoid him, but the whole time he felt an instinctual fear, like he was being hunted by something far more dangerous than a sleep-deprived college student, and the way Danny almost glowed under the fluorescent lights had his brain itching), but he quickly caught on to Danny's schedule. And once Tim knew where he was, it became much easier to evade him. 

Until it wasn't. 

Danny wasn't supposed to be in the Engineering building - no one was. Tim needed it to be empty to follow-up on a lead so he specifically went at a time he knew no one would be there, but instead he got Danny appearing from around the corner like a cheap jumpscare in a horror game. 

Tim immediately bolted back into the office he had emerged from, locking the door behind him. Then, he waited. He wasn't able to hear anything, and if it wasn't for the crack under the door being large enough to see Danny's feet appear he probably would've been startled by the handle jiggling.

Danny didn't make a sound as he moved on, the only indication he was still there was the occasional sound of him trying another door. And then those stopped. Tim waited, trying to watch for his shoes as he passed by the door to leave but he never caught a glimpse. After ten minutes he gave in and risked checking the hallway just to find it empty. 

He was confused about how Danny got past without alerting him (was it because of his background, or something else?), but his attention was quickly stolen as he found what he was looking for - evidence that one of the teaching assistants was skimming lab supplies from deliveries. Still wary that he wasn't alone, Tim quickly left with his findings. 

Thankfully, the evidence he found was detailed enough that he didn't have to go back to campus to continue investigating and he was able to wrap the case up only a week later. However, with the holiday season right on their doorstep, he still didn't have any time for low priority issues - which included Danny Fenton and his weirdness. In fact, it wasn't until after the new year that Tim even thought of him. 

Reading the email Danny had sent proclaiming he had proved P = NP, he felt nothing but suspended belief and a hint of apprehension. It was unlikely the engineering student had actually found a solution after only a few months of work, but on the off-chance he did (and not just a solution, but proof the P = NP), then Tim's life was about to get complicated. Because a solution proving P = NP meant all their cybersecurity, everything that was keeping criminals and villains out of their files and databases, was obsolete. One line of code (given the hacker was competent) could reveal everything - secret identities, weaknesses, active cases. It was bad enough when a few of Bruce's contingency files for other Justice League members were stolen and used by Vandal Savage and his partners, but all of them? 

Tim suppressed a shiver.

If Danny did manage to find a viable solution, he had to get it before it could fall into the wrong hands. He knew it'd be pointless to try to hide it, that if it was already solved then there was no telling when someone else (outside of Tim's reach) would come to the same answer. He had to be proactive, to use the solution to create a code to tear down firewalls and then rebuild them to be impenetrable. 

He emailed Danny asking to meet. Tim was going to get that solution, no matter what. 

Only their meeting provided him with a roadblock - Danny refused to cooperate. Looking back afterwards, Tim could see that in his desperation to get the solution he ended up being counterproductive, pushing Danny to storm out. But that changed nothing. 

So Tim tried again, tracking Danny down and explaining why he was so desperate to get the answer. Danny had mentioned working with the Clay Institute, which was known for its million dollar prize, so Tim offered to pay more - such a tactic was common (and almost always successful) in the business world. Someone would invent or create something and then sell to (or partner with) the highest bidder.

Danny still refused. 

Frustrated and annoyed, Tim realized trying to persuade him was pointless. Dick might've been able to win him over (the self depreciating voice in Tim's head knew he probably wouldn't have messed up in the first place, charming Danny and easily getting the solution from the first meeting unlike Tim), but he didn’t want to call him into Gotham just to get a notebook off a college student - something he could easily accomplish. 

Instead, he switched tactics. Breaking into Danny's dorm was so easy it made him a little concerned about the students’ safety, but he wasn't going to complain as he picked the lock to Danny's room with little effort. Unfortunately, despite the ease of breaking in, the notebook was nowhere to be found. 

Realizing Danny must have it on his person, Tim made plans to return. But after a week of sporadically checking Danny's room in his absence, Tim still had nothing. So he went back to Plan A - ask Danny for the solution, hope he sees reason about the dangers of said solution, and wait. 

Radio silence. 

[myimaginarywonderland]

This is going to be different than my usual posts but it has to be said especially now that I am coming up on 500 followers (can't believe that so many of you guys would willingly listen to my takes lol.)

I am not big. In the grand scheme of F1 or even motorsport content creators, hell even Tumblr blogs I doubt I would be anywhere close to the top 1000.

But I have people that do follow me and that listen.

And so has anyone who has even just 10 followers.

Your voice matters.

Someone hears what you are saying.

Someone might be helped by you even reblogging something without any tags or more in depth research.

Motorsport is growing , becoming more mainstream like every week. Content creators for it are growing.

However what has sadly not evolved yet is the mindset of silence that surrounds it. F1 has sadly made 0 progress when it actually comes to standing up as a sport. Every act that could be seen as activism gets immediately shut down. I know that there are individuals that are trying to move us forward, that are trying to lend their voices but the number is so small and the actions often sadly the bare minimum.

But because of how F1 is becoming more involved in social Media and how fans are being more accepted, we now have to lend our voices. We can not continue to stay silent in an environment that is already silencing most small actions.

It is on us as fans now to make sure that if the drivers will not speak up, if the organisation will not make a stance, that if no one is taking action, that we do.

We have to be better and not let that blanket of silence fall on us too.

We life in an age of digitalisation. We life in a time where any of us can check information, can confirm via multiple sources or can form our own opinions.

We life in a world that still hasn't learned from history. We live in a time period where the consequences of capitalism, racism etc. are now more open to see than ever before.

You can not say you didn't know. You can't say you aren't informed enough.

You are lazy. If you can not spend a few minutes, even seconds just reading up on some of the things that are happening you are staying willfully ignorant.

I know how hard it is to try to talk about everything that is going on in the world or to even know about it. I know how difficult it can be to unlearn a western perspective on some things, to realise how much out media here still is biased. I know how draining it can be to see all the suffering.

I know.

But that is never an excuse.

It is never an excuse to not put in effort, to at least even try, to lend your platform to just one voice that deserves to be heard. It is not an excuse when you can just turn off your electronic devices and have silence while the people in Palestine, Sudan, Kongo etc. can't because it is their life, their reality.

I am not perfect. There are many conflicts I am not fully educated about and probably never will be. There are many conflicts that I am just learning about because anything about them gets immediately shut down or black listed etc. I am for from a good source of information.

But I am big enough that my posts will reach people. Even if it's just one person.

I am big enough that people have reached out. I will never stay silent, I will never let a voice go unheard.

I will always need to do better.

But at least I won't rest in the knowledge that I haven't tried. And neither should you.

[thessalian]

Thess vs Progress

Not to say that things are necessarily going well in the grand scheme of things (I mean, shit, just look at ... all of that ... out there - or don't if you need a break from unrelenting horror), but from a personal-life perspective, there are good things to note.

For all I promised myself this week off was supposed to be about relaxing, I did Do Things. Well, I Made Things. So far - chicken stew, potato salad, and brownies. I have plans in the direction of cereal bars, potato soup, sweet potato soup, beef stew, and risotto. Need to get out to the shops soon, though, because I need courgette for bolognaise and some more vanilla extract for any further baking I may wish to do. Like I said - month of batch-cooking. Though my appetite's on the decline at the moment and I'm not doing great pain-wise, so today might be a tin of soup, some potato salad, and maybe a sandwich if I'm feeling up to it.

The better news, though, is about my living situation. Long story short: there are two flats in this building, and my mother owns both, and both require renovation in a major way. So I'm shuttling around like the ball in a shell game between the flats. Or ... that was the plan, anyway. I moved into this flat from the other flat ... a little more than four years ago, I think? And for most of those four years, very little seemed to be getting done. My stepfather didn't get near the place. So the longer he waited, the longer I was stuck in the flat I'm in now - the flat which, while better laid out than the old flat, has the most atrocious plumbing it has been my privilege to experience. By which I mean:

No shower pump (so it's been baths in a tiny-ass tub for four years and I would commit a minor felony for a shower)

Leaky tub, in the carpeted bathroom. (Well, I think it's just that the tub is this cheap, badly-installed piece of plastic crap and because the cold tap leaks when I turn it up higher than a trickle, it seeps through the very bad grouting and onto the floor. The carpeted floor. IN A BATHROOM. I don't know what the people who designed this place were smoking)

By "bad grouting", I mean that some of the wall tiles literally fell off the wall and into my bathwater when I was taking a bath a couple of years ago.

Wonky boiler (though at least my stepfather installed a working timer on the damn thing so I don't have to switch on the day boost for two hours to get enough hot water to bathe)

Leaky faucet in the kitchen which has been half-assedly patched with electrical tape. (Literally. My stepfather thought this was even a vague solution.)

The kitchen sink drain doesn't have a U-bend, so using drain cleaner on it is a waste of fucking time (which is great when it's the drain that probably sees the most overall debris and gunk of any drain but the toilet)

Also the place is just ... grungy in ways I can't fix. There are cracks in various of the walls. The carpet is well past its best. The light fixtures ... the only ones that give light worth a damn are the bare bulb in one end of the living room and the kitchen lighting that my stepfather put in when I told him I didn't have enough light to make sure I was washing the dishes well enough. The others are gaudy-ass chandeliers. The less said about the curtains, the better. I don't generally complain because, I mean, it's a roof over my head that I don't have to torture myself to pay for, and my stepfather replaced the non-functional heaters last year so I'm not freezing my ass off trying to be mindful of the electricity bill like I was during that cold snap in 2022. So I was willing to wait and cope with the problems of the place for as long as necessary because you don't go being a choosing beggar in this kind of situation.

My mother, however, has been over for dinner a few times, and while I try to downplay it, she knows I'm struggling with the whole thing. So I figure she's the one who lit a fire under him, and he's been working himself ragged on the other flat for a few months now. I've been gifting him with baked goods every so often, partly because I can never eat a full batch of anything on my own before it gets stale but mostly because I appreciate the work he's putting in, especially with his back issues.

Which is when we come to today. Despite a bad pain day (weird agony in my outer left thigh and some grip strength issues on top of the rest of the increased OW), I made brownies, and I brought him some while he was working. He showed me the work on the kitchen (SUCH an improvement over when I first lived there, you have no idea!) and told me the current plan. Apparently, the goal is to get that flat liveable - not necessarily finished, but just done enough for someone to be able to, like, cook and bathe and sleep and everything - and then move me into it so they can start doing this flat. No real timeframe given on the work here yet, but I figure it's going to be a lot because if nothing else, they want to move a whole wall to give me a kitchen worth the name, size-wise.

Point is that if everything continues according to plan, the other flat will be liveable in about a month. I could be living in a flat with access to regular showers by mid-August - early September at the latest. I give a little extra time on that because I'm going to need to be able to book time off around then, since my stepfather's going to want me to move all my stuff in one day again and I will hurt for days afterwards. That and I have to get my phone and internet transferred and that might take a day or so, and I obviously can't work without it. Thus, better to be sure it's all organised for maximum efficiency. Either way, actual showers soon.

It's a nice thing to think about to keep from dwelling too hard on the election tomorrow. I've already voted, and the final results won't be in until Friday morning, but ... honestly, given that Starmer's been making noises about how trans women don't belong in single-sex spaces and how he wants to meet with JK Rowling at some point and is actually trying to arrange that (like TERF-In-Chief is a front-bench cabinet position now or something), and how he's almost certainly going to win, it's depressing. That's ignoring the rest of his so-called policies. It's not as big a mess as what's going on in the US, but it's mess enough. The US still has a chance to turn its would-be dictator away; we have "meet the new boss; same as the old boss" - damn near literally.

I'mma play Tavern Talk or something for awhile. It's fun and cute and will probably cheer me up at least a bit.

[orestei]

@fluxofthemouth: Piter de Vries.

Lost on Giedi's waste, lost in the wind's breath, Wounded by beasts and vines and blows and care, Waste world, Giedi, giving only pain and death, Pain and death, pain and death; but I bare, Though nights and days mix, slip, blend, I bare, as blood dries and hearts rend.

Gurney's lament the prior night had succeeded in souring any optimism Paul had managed to muster about this journey. Although his parents were happily poised to wed, and that a controversial enough thing in its own right, tension thick enough to taste dogged Paul's entourage so badly he'd had to beg Gurney to end last night's set with something, anything more lighthearted than that. The ancient feud would never heal at this rate. It all felt like theater, anyway; an instinct Thufir would neither confirm nor deny, but the old man always knew more than he let on.

Presently, as Paul followed along with Gurney in tow beneath the vaunted ceiling of the museum, there was little else he could think about. Plans within plans. Whatever his role was to be in the grand scheme of things had become an utter mystery to Paul himself, and overnight, at that. It frustrated him.

"Yes, of course," he answered to some rhetorical question their guide had asked. Piter de Vries proved a... whimsical host, so far, in stark contrast to Gurney's neatly contained rage at being back on this planet at all. Paul could see the subtle flare of his nostrils at every waft of ozone, the flit of his eyes from face to face within a crowd. It was easy to feed off of that energetic hyper-awareness. There would be no mollifying him, and so Paul carried on, inspecting Piter just as much as the exhibits and displays within the museum.

"The third industrial revolution of Giedi Prime doesn't seem so far removed, yet I detect there's some fear of stagnation, that progress and innovation may have halted in favor of safe profit. Would you agree with that, or is there something else I'm missing so far?" He couldn't let Piter believe he wasn't paying attention, after all.

[tiredassmage]

RISHI ;; closed rp tag for @jupitcrising

There’s a lot of traffic in and out of the outlaw haven: ranging from smaller shuttles to larger cargo frigates transporting any number of illicit goods - everything from people to spice and probably a few things even the former Cipher hadn’t considered. Tyr wiped an arm across his brow and took up his canteen again, taking a long drink before throwing some of the barely-cool water back over his neck, dampening the bandana loosely draped around it.

He’d been eyeing traffic for roughly the past three days. After several months in careful exile, evading Imperial and Republic eyes while putting their noses to the trail of the Revanites, the trio had finally agreed it was time to move. Tyr suspected they wouldn’t much longer have the luxury of time - as illusionary as it’d been from the start.

But the roar of engines overhead dragged him back out of his thoughts. Shading his eyes from the glare of the sun with a hand, a different silhouette, finally, caught his attention. Not nearly as sleek as the Phantom - then again, few things were. His eyes narrowed slightly and he raised the macrobinoculars at his side to zone in on the incoming ship.

“Theron?” Tyr touched a hand to his commlink. The ship was coming in for a landing down at one of the free local docks across the bridge.

“Go ahead.”

“Defender-class Light Corvette?”

“Should be the one, yeah.”

“Good. I’ve got a visual.” Tyr lowered the macrobinoculars, stashing them away and making ready to abandon his perch in a quiet old shopfront in Rishi’s upper levels. “Tell Lana to make ready. It’s time.”

x-x-x-x-x-x

He was not about to stop ribbing Theron for the overblown cover story just because the Jedi had finally made it down to Rishi and in one piece, at that. Really, it felt a little like overcompensating to paint the Red Hulls (and what kind of kriffing name was that?) as almost obnoxiously bloodthirsty, but then Nine supposed they were dealing with one of the Jedi Order’s finest, according to the records.

Still, Lana had reasoned too direct of an intercession on any of their parts might overplay their hand, so Tyr had begrudgingly ceded to tracking the Jedi’s progress through Raider’s Cove from a shadowed distance. It had, to be fair to the Jedi, gone somewhat better than the ex-Cipher had anticipated.

“Theron and Lana finally finish giving you the basics?” Tyr pushed away from where he’d had a shoulder propped into the wall in one of the back corners of the safehouse. He admittedly wasn’t certain where his presence would be the least unnerving - out in the open of their briefing or hanging back in the shadows; either way, the last thing they needed was to be at each other’s throats. Everything had worked out well-enough prior on Manaan and following, but Nine’s involvement had largely been on the back-end. Lana had given enough to say he had, at one point at least, been one of the Empire’s top spies and Tyr couldn’t find himself keen to expand into too much detail. He had a promise to Ardun Kothe to maintain and an already sketchy job security to juggle with the Dark Council following action on Corellia.

Still, even that vague allusion to what he was wasn’t a reputation he expected to put many at ease.

So he’d seen little of Hyroh Kaah, in the grand scheme of things. Enough to confirm Theron’s reports that he was a capable ally in a fight for himself.

“I’m not sure we were properly introduced. For now, you can call me Nine.” An old title for an agency that no longer existed, and yet it seemed the Empire was still a bit too keenly relying on, if you asked him. Marr hissed a lot behind that mask for someone that hadn’t revoked his clearances until he’d gone and stuck his nose yet again where it didn’t “belong,” as if tracking enemies of the Empire hadn’t always been his job.

Not that it was the first time.

He offered out a hand, nonetheless, should the Jedi be amenable to the greeting. “Theron’s asked me to bring you up to speed on the details of our operations here. Expect him to be handling a lot of the technical back-end. I’ve been putting in some fieldwork while we waited for your arrival, so I’ll be acting as one of your ‘lieutenants.’” When they were ready, he tilted his head to indicate the hall and started to lead them back.

“We’re a lot closer than we were months ago when we went into hiding, but as the others said, I’m sure, we can’t act openly - yet. Hence the convincing command structure. We’re going to pick a fight with the Nova Blades - and it’s not going to be about the Revanites.” Yet, anyway.

“And... we’re going to want to get you something a bit more... fitting.” He threw a nod to one of the open doors and leaned back against the wall in the hallway. “Theron’s prepped a room for you, should be a few options for some ‘local’ style. I’d suggest changing into something a bit more ‘comfortable.’” A slightly amused smile flickered across the Cipher’s lips. “Not all of us can rely on your Force, and not all of our targets are going to be as hapless as Kai Zykken, even if we could. Make it something convincing, if you will, Jedi. We can talk details while I wait.”

[ailtrahq]

Antonio Juliano, the founder of decentralized exchange dYdX thinks that crypto builders should forget about serving customers in the U.S. over the next five to 10 years, experiment in other markets and then return once the time is right. In an Aug. 25 X (Twitter) thread, Juliano argued that builders should prioritize markets outside the U.S., as they will face fewer hurdles as they focus on platform growth and user adoption.Juliano’s comments were particularly focused on startups as opposed to fully established platforms/businesses, as he emphasized that they could scale faster overseas in friendlier markets: “Crypto builders should just give up serving US customers for now and try to re-enter in 5-10 years. It's not really worth the hassle/compromises. Most of the market is overseas anyways. Innovate there, find PMF [product market fit], then come back with more leverage.”“In the grand scheme of things barely anyone uses or cares about crypto today. I personally don’t care about any outcome except growing crypto 100x+ long term,” he added. Crypto is aligned with American values. What could be more American & capitalist than a financial system of the people, by the people, and for the peopleThat is literally what we’re building here. America will realize that eventually— Antonio | dYdX (@AntonioMJuliano) August 25, 2023 Many in the industry have highlighted that the U.S. suffers from a lack of clear rules and regulations around crypto, with a key example of this being the gray area surrounding the jurisdiction of the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission over the market. As the U.S. government continues to drag its heels on establishing crypto regulation, Juliano suggested that the crypto sector needs to grow further so that it can have more sway on U.S. policy. As such, he argues that it makes more sense in the meantime for builders or startups to focus on finding PMF overseas and then coming back with the “leverage” of large user bases. “This does not mean crypto US policy work is not important. It absolutely is as it takes a really long time (must be ready for the re-entry) and much of the world will follow the US’s lead,” he said, adding that:“Crypto not yet having world-scale usage/product market fit means we don’t yet have much influence in policy. We need to have products with massive usage where users (voters) say ‘wait, I need this’.”Brian Armstrong, the CEO of Coinbase — a firm that has made several efforts to help drive crypto policy in the U.S. — responded to the post by offering a different point of view, as he noted that: “I see your point — but I think it will be better in a much shorter time. Probably by next year if I had to guess.”“The U.S. always gets it right, after exhausting every other option. It will heal from these wounds, no matter how hard a small group of people try to stop progress,” Armstrong said. I’m optimistic! And we’re helping our small part with policy tooI just think it’s different for startups vs scaled businesses. If you haven’t yet found strong product market fit the tradeoff to move faster & more freely seems worth the somewhat smaller market size— Antonio | dYdX (@AntonioMJuliano) August 25, 2023 Wintermute CEO Evgeny Gaevoy also chimed in on the topic by agreeing with Juliano but stating that: “Only I think it will be either 2-3 years if crypto is successful or never if it is not.” Magazine: Crypto regulation — Does SEC Chair Gary Gensler have the final say? Source

[roobylavender]

What’s one thing you think people get so wrong about Jason Todd and his relationship to Bruce and Talia? What is your interpretation of it? Should Jason work away from the Batfamily or it is it where he needs to be? Who should Jason be close to?

i will try to be brief.

i want to preface first that i think what jason's progression as the red hood has led people to believe is he's emotionally impenetrable and impervious to any and all forms of reason. which on a surface level i get why that would be the assumption bc i mean what he does to become the red hood and then executes as the red hood is quite insane and gives the impression of a ledge you can never walk back from, but (and you know i'm beating a dead horse with this) crucially i think what people forget is that jason is barely eighteen or nineteen years old when he makes his grand return. and as someone in her mid-twenties, an eighteen year old is still very much a child to me. i have a seventeen year old brother and when i think about the kind of mental, emotional place someone his age would have to be in to do the things that jason does, i imagine it to be quite volatile and unstable and perilously vulnerable to collapse. is jason in the wrong with what he does? unequivocally. he has no right to play god regardless of his reasons for it. but his reasons for it are also very clearly driven by trauma even if that response to trauma is packed into some deluded semblance of practicality, in that he's using his ends to justify his means. he's clearly operating from a standpoint of knowing death intimately and understanding the terror of that moment where you're alone and you have no one but the force beating down on you making sure you don't survive, and he believes no one innocent should ever be made to feel that. so there is a clear, coherent thought process there. but it's still driven by a personal, traumatic experience that has inspired him towards this cause, and to bring it back to your first question, i really hate that people act like that can't be worked with to help him heal and reform, esp with bruce and talia's help

my biggest problem with the way winick portrays the relationship between jason and talia is that he presents the same caveats as most modern writers who tackle talia: they don't understand what sets ra's and talia apart. talia is in pursuit of the same ends as ra's, but her means aren't aligned and her questioning his means at the expense of her loyalty to him is what drives them apart. she's not a nihilist, she will only kill those people who have harmed her family first, and she doesn't fraternize with debased criminals with no sense of morality (remember, she believes what ra's is doing is right and noble. he's a couple notches up from your standard villains bc, yes, he's utterly deranged, but there's also a level of class to his schemes that makes it less about targeting individuals and more about enacting a large scale environmental renaissance, even if it's utterly delusional). she can assassinate and she can scheme bc it's what she's grown up learning to do but she doesn't actually enjoy doing any of it. so yes, a lot of people like to reason that talia sends jason to learn from all of these despicable teachers to prevent him from killing bruce, but realistically i don't think she ever would. she values human life and she values children and i seriously doubt she would throw a child into that kind of education knowing the kind of trauma he's already been through. sending jason to these teachers and shaping him into a weapon for potential use while allowing him some leg room to pursue his own agendas, so long as he does not stray too far, is way more up the ra's alley, and i think most of what happens in lost days after jason comes back from his failed attempt on bruce's life would make more sense if it was orchestrated by ra's

talia to me should be the person who watches in horror as jason evolves into someone she knows he was never meant to be and whom it would break bruce's heart to see, despite her own efforts to imbibe him with love and learning and compassion. she should be the person who tries her best to hold him back from the demon's influence as much as she can and who hates to see him go bc she fears in her heart that she hasn't done enough. she should be the person who completes her tenure at lex corp, exhausted, isolated, embittered, only to turn on the news and see the red hood on every screen, then march her way over to gotham to make it right before it all truly goes to hell. she should be the person who makes it to the building with jason and bruce and the joker and the bomb and hides in a corner with a gun trained to the joker's heart, and the second that bomb threatens to go off she pulls the trigger and ends it forever. she should be the person who drags jason away from it all and takes him someplace where she can break the helmet on her knees and look into his eyes and tell him that there has to be more to his life than just this, than deciding to play god and taking these lives away at his leisure as if it will solve anything about himself or about the world. she should be the person who asks him to remember his parents again and asks him to remember that he's barely a man and asks him to remember that there was a time where he was loved, that he still is loved. she should be the person to help him break free, bc the guilt of allowing him to remain chained to his past would hold her down like a deadweight otherwise and i doubt she could live with herself

wrt bruce. i honestly truly despise the way bruce is written throughout the entirety of under the red hood. i understand it is working in context of war games and bruce's horrific tenure with stephanie as his robin but truly i will never read those comics ever bc the minute bruce started being utterly heartless towards stephanie is when i put the books down and decided i was content with whatever i had read up until that point and would be content with exploring rather than putting myself through progressively more and more awful depictions of bruce as a character. i like bruce a lot. i agree he is incredibly flawed, a poor communicator, pathetically clingy, emotionally repressed to a frightening degree, etc. but to me the bedrock beneath all of that is that bruce cares. he cares to the point of utter devotion and delusion and is caught in this struggle of caring about his kids and wanting to give them everything that he has to offer but having to hesitate and reconsider when the path they take as his partners poses threats to their life. he can't take back the mantle that he's given them and he can't hold them back from their destiny but he's still a frightened parent with deep regrets over his line of work even if he believes in it and i think, for however boring and slow of an overall arc it is, knightfall is utterly fabulous at depicting that. the sheer devastation and grief that permeates bruce in this culmination of everything that has built up to jason's death and bruce's sense of his own failure in the aftermath is so tragic, and it shocks me that we don't even see a glimpse of that in under the red hood when it's hardly been a year or two since

i have talked about it somewhere before, but to go on a slight tangent, what distinguishes dick and bruce to me is that dick is slightly better at compartmentalizing his own grief and trauma. he knows he has to perform as a leader so he doesn't let things get in the way of his own execution despite however much grief and anger and confusion he may be roiling in. he will be utterly unlikeable in the moment, but he'll get the job done with complete clarity of mind bc that's how seriously he's learned to take it. bruce, comparatively, is someone who i honestly do not believe can compartmentalize for shit. he lets his emotions make a mess of themselves on his lawn. he broods. he falls into deep depressions. he isolates. he devolves into pathetic meow meowism (derogatory). so it's odd that his characterization in under the red hood is so detached and cold, bc sure, he'll obv question the possibility of resurrection. but once he confirms that it's all real, i feel like his reaction should be.. way more emotional. devastated. desperate. delusional. anything to get his son back whom he adores more than anything and to help him understand that he is still so loved and will be loved forevermore if he would only give life another chance. the best thing about bruce used to be that he cared. he cared so much and it was so easy for him to reach out to people, esp children, out of a deep sense of compassion and understanding of how frightened they felt at the other end of a gun barrel. he was a little awkward with it, and sometimes he didn't know what to do with himself, but he cared, and i refuse to believe he wouldn't do everything in his power to help jason heal. him prioritizing the joker over jason genuinely makes no sense and i wish any writer had taken the time to have someone relay to jason that bruce tried to kill the joker but it was other people who stopped him, bc that feels like a very significantly left out detail to me

as for the last thing to address since i have already rambled for so long i will actually try to be brief here but personally i do think he should stay in gotham, he should just have his own sphere separate of like. the cave and the manor. i really want him to work with leslie and barbara and even talia on the side towards community upliftment initiatives and for him to slowly phase out of vigilantism entirely. i realize that is an incredibly unpopular opinion bc everyone loves jason going pew pew but i really do think he's a character who was meant for retirement and to explore more with his life from the outset and that it would make so much sense for him to find a way to pursue justice that's still important and centered on his community but that doesn't come at the cost of his own sanity and doesn't have him trying to play god bc he comes to recognize it's wrong (esp in context of what happened to his own father). there once was a life that he wanted to live and he deserves to live it and i'm honestly tired of fandom acting like the only natural conclusion to his character arc is for him to remain a forever removed classist murderer who will never achieve closure with anyone ever bc then he doesn't get to continue being an edgelord. it's stupid and it's why he hasn't grown as a character despite being here for like eighteen years now. the red hood really should have been a temporary identity at best i truly hate that we are forever stuck with it

[carriesthewind]

Posting this by itself b/c this issue is very much Not About Me and I don’t want to derail anything:

I get so. freaking. irritated. When the whole “the transes are coming to steal your daughters' boonnnneeeeesss!” transphobic crowd do their whole “if I was a girl growing up now, they would have tried to make me think I was a boy!”/“I’m surprised/glad I managed to make it through my childhood without being convinced to transition!” - no “they” wouldn’t have, and that was never a risk.

Look.

I am the same age or younger than most of the women who make this argument. And I fit exactly the profile of the girls* they claim they want to “protect,” the ones who are so at risk of being deceived and confused by the "trans agenda"!

I’m autistic (and I wasn’t diagnosed at the time so I wasn’t getting proper support), I’m so ace that a bunch of people figured out I was ace before any of us knew what that even was (and I’m pretty sure most other people assumed I was a lesbian), I did (nontraditional) sports, I liked a lot of traditionally “masculine” things and was extremely hostile to a lot of traditionally “feminine” things, I struggled A Lot with the physical changes from puberty, and I spent almost my entire teenage years wearing nothing but tight sports bras, oversized t-shirts, and boys' shorts.

And although I lived in a red state, I grew up in a very liberal, progressive bubble with a ton of LGBTQ+ support and a very active GSA in my school.

At no point was there so much of a WHIFF of anyone ever suggesting I might actually be a boy, or trying to convince me to transition, or even just to explore my gender identity. In fact it was the opposite. I was either told that these were all perfectly fine ways to be a girl or pushed to be more stereotypically feminine (or both - sometimes by the same people).

When I did seek out LGBTQ+ places and started listening to lots of trans folk, I decided to explore my gender identity on my own because knowing myself is, y’know, a good thing? (I was also over 18 by this point.) And when that exploration immediately revealed “yep, 100% absolutely a girl,” no one ever pushed back or tried to convince me otherwise!

And I know this b.s. isn’t the worst thing these transphobes do by any stretch. It’s so minor in the grand scheme of things, just one little scare tactic on top of many others. It’s barely worth addressing on its own (again, part of why this is a separate post).

But at the same time, it’s just so emblematic of their complete lack of empathy. It’s not just that every conversation has to be about them and their experiences. It’s that it reveals that they cannot conceive of anyone have experiences and feelings that differ from their own. “I hated puberty, so these poor confused girls** must just be uncomfortable with puberty!” “I liked toys aimed at boys and didn’t like toys aimed at girls, so people must just be forcing girls like me to think they are men because they have non-stereotypical feminine interests!” “I wished I had male privilege, so these girls are just looking for an easy way out of the patriarchy!”

It’s so revealing of their self-centered, self-conceited, incurious worldview that leads them into their self-righteous cruelty.

*generally actually trans men and nonbinary folks **dialogue from the transphobic perspective - these kinds of attacks are aimed at trans men and AFAB non-binary folk

[thequeenofthewinter]

Work in Progress Wednesday

Hello, it's your friendly neighborhood fic writer back with a snippet from this week's chapter, which I will be posting this Friday. This snippet comes with a slight warning. There is some implied/suggestive sexual content contained herein. I actually edited this version slightly to be more "safe for work" for Tumblr. With that being said, there is nothing too crazy in here.

Tagging the usual suspects: @sneaksandsweets @oblivions-dawn @nocturnalswarehouse @dumpsterhipster @romantichore @rose-like-the-phoenix

Snippet:

“I know I can count on you.” He takes one of her hands, kissing it sweetly before lacing his fingers through hers. “These couriers are normally heavily guarded, especially if they have sensitive information. Please be careful.”

“You know I always am.” She gives him a reassuring smile.

“You might want to go to the inn at Dragon Bridge first to see if you can find any information about the courier’s whereabouts. The Empire loves their damn lists, and there should be some sort of itinerary with a schedule.” 

“I remember that fact well. We ‘met’ over one of those damn lists, even if the meeting was brief.”

“Ah, yes. I guess that’s one thing I can thank the Empire for instead of cursing their existence. Even then you looked beautiful.”

She bats his arm playfully. “You barely even remember that!”

“I remembered enough to recognize that I had seen you before when you arrived in Windhelm. And how could I forget a face as pretty as this?”

“You’re terrible.”

“But you love me anyway.” He’s got her there, and she doesn’t bother to argue with him. “You can leave at first light tomorrow. One more night won’t make much difference in the grand scheme of things.” He leans back in his chair and picks up his goblet of mead. “You can stay with me in my tent.”

“Are you propositioning me, my Jarl?” She picks up her own mead, mirroring him, and takes a deep sip of its contents.

“Would you be inclined to accept if I were, my lady?” He looks up at her over his cup, a mischievous smile on his face.

Oh, he’s smooth, and he knows it. However, as much as she would like to take him up on everything that offer entails, they’re in a different context which requires more discretion.

“You know that normally I would say yes—”

“Then say yes.”

“I would, Ulfric, you know how much I enjoy spending time with you.” She takes one of his hands in hers. “However, we have the soldiers to think of, and I think it best if we try to keep things with us quiet for now.”

Ulfric smirks. “Well, that’s your own fault that you can’t keep yourself quiet while we are engaged in certain activities...” 

Her face flames red at his teasing. That is not what she meant by that, and he knows it. So, this is how he wants to do things? Two can play it that way.

“And that’s exactly why I can’t stay here because you know what will happen if I do.” She smirks back at him, patting him on his stubbled cheek.

He previous smirk abruptly falls into a frown. “At least give me something to remember you by as I spend my nights cold and alone.”

“As you wish, my bear king.”

She gets up from her chair swaying her hips as she does so, and the only thing he is left with is the image of watching her backside leave his tent.

This is not how he thought things would go at all. Ulfric groans and pours himself another drink. Tonight will be one of those few where only his imagination and his hand comfort him.