#based on 0 actual competencies

[partangel]

me 🤝 symbolically adopting the foster teens who participate in my study by coming just to chat with them outside foster home

[ohai-there]

post canon SVSSS x minato hokage era naruto crossover where it's scumplane (bcos i love scumplane) heading to the elemental nations on official business for some reason or another (maybe theres a barrier between their lands to prevent leakage of spiritual energy or somethign) SJ hates being alive purely because it means he's in SQH's debt for ripping him out of SQQ's body that Shen Yuan was inhabiting and reviving SJ (because SY decided to fuck off and live his best life as the demon emperor's wife and Cang Qiong NEEDS a peak lord for Qing Jing)

canonically immortals are extremely beautiful (even SQH is described as a 'proper' face iirc) and SJ is like TOP TIER beauty, but also immortals are sometimes described to have faces 'carved from jade' so I imagine when they step into immortality, they no longer have micro expressions and have like... crazy control over their facial muscles - so it kinda freaks out the ninjas, because the only emotions they can see is exactly what scumplane want them to see (SJ - disgust, usually. SQH - cowardice/flattery)

Scumplane also have 0 sense of danger when it comes to shinobi - they're immortals and old (lets say this is an indetermined amount of time after canon wraps up) so things like mundane steel and mortal poisons mean nothing to them when theyre so old. They also don't even bother holding back their tongues because what can these mortals even do to them? Worse comes to worse, they just seal up the worlds again, or just wait out for all these mortals to die (a strategy they use for troublesome emperors or politicians).

They also bring their disciples (Ming Fan specifically because I want him to have a redemption) and after canon had wrapped up the PIDW's story finished, everyone in the world actually bounced back into their rightful places (e.g. MF suddenly got a second puberty, his face improved to be beautiful as it should be and his intelligence returned to the level that the head disciple of the scholarly peak should be).

I want it to be during Minato hokage's short, short tenure - Minato is 23, a war hero and recently hired as ninja president, Konoha just came out of a war and suddenly the daimyo is paying WELL and hiring for the best teams of Konoha to escort these foreigners who are so otherwordly beautiful and so otherworldly RICH, like, the material of the clothes they wear puts the daimyos court to shame, they can pay in pure gold and stones thrumming with power.

SJ's whole thing is like... based on image. So imagine SQH bowing and being like 'ooh thank you for your hospitality' and SJ just grabbing him by the back of his collar and hauling him up like 'wtf dont even bother bowing to this guy. Have some face. he's only got the same rank as you AND he's a fucking child.'

(He's figured that Daimyo = weak emperor-ish, because what kind of a emperor only has control of such a small land AND has others in nearby lands with the same, competing title????. Hokage & Konoha is like the sects, and all the peak lords of CQS are of the same rank as a sect leader. Of course, they all defer to YQY officially, but tbh all the peaks run like their own individual sects, and SJ has never allowed himself to act below YQY in rank)

During Minato's reign, Orochimaru is still a loyal Konoha shinobi.... his interest in immortals makes him soooooo crazy invested in them....

SJ looks at Orochimaru who's questioning him on immortality and is like, 'out of all these people, you are the closest. Your mind is too unstable, however (ironic, coming from SJ) and you still cling too tightly to the material world. Abandon all worldly matters and immortality may be in your grasp, if the heavens deign it so.' acting like he's a good teacher or something, while SQH is in the background, the voice of reason like 'SHIXIONG WTF!!! WE'RE NOTT SUPPOSED TO BE GIVING UP THE SECRET TO IMMORTALITY TO THE MORTALS OF THE FORBIDDEN REALM????'

Maybe SQH does know they're in the naruto world, and knows what naruto is, (hc that the water walking we see YQY do in the donghua was ripped off from naruto, when SQH was still writing PIDW) but it's been like 200+ years! He can't remember shit!!! This is all new information to him!

[harmoonix]

🌇Sunset-hour Astrology Observations🌇

❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂

🌇- Capricorn or Aquarius in big 3 (Sun,Moon or Rising) is already a confirmed karmic placement to have, the hard thing to know is that karmic debts can be different from person to person, but for sure they are here to end/complete something karmic

🌇 Lilith in Aries/Aquarius/Capricorn really don't like to receive orders from others or just don't like others to tell them what to do

🌇 Lilith in Virgo/Cancer share a common energy and that is the "submissive" energy, they can act submissive and seductive, that tends to attract a lot of people (aswell very toxic people or just dominant people in their lives)

🌇 Neptune trine/sextile/conjunct ascendant can have sensbile skin, their skin can get irritated fast or just having a very soft skin

🌇 Sun - Pluto aspects can have a pretty rebellious energy in them, usually they act how they want when they want and to be pretty moody

🌇 Libra/Taurus in big 3 (Sun, Moon or Rising) and their aesthetic eye for everything around them is admirable, literally they can see some clouds on the sky and think at some aesthetic photos to do

🌇 Leo/Sagittarius in Big 3 (Sun, Moon or Rising + Venus in some cases) can really photogenic like girlll go thattt photossss, the pose, the look, the clothes they wear are always on everyone's look

🌇 Mars in aspects with Jupiter just have uncontrollable feelings when they wanna get dirty. Like is something they cannot control

🌇 Neptune - Venus aspects are too sweet, they often can get so hurt esp in relationships, they don't deserve it to be honest, but sometimes these aspects can create fake illusions about their partners which can lead to so many wrong things

🌇 Venus in the 10th/11th or 7th house love to be complimented, or just spoiled with sweet words by the people around them. They also like to have certain unique nicknames in some cases (Like your friends giving you a funny nickname)

🌇 Uranus in Pisces Generation [2003 - 2010] can invest their time a lot on spirituality/meditation/healing etc, maybe being interested in tarot or special reiki song for healings

🌇 Sun in the 12th house should embrace their spirituality side more, this is an very spiritual placement so try to connect with spirituality it cam help you so much

🌇 There is always a ride or die with Scorpio or Gemini/Aquarius placements, they love to get into challenges, compete and show their intelligence, you are with them or against them

🌇 Sun in the 11th house are actually the people who can listen to their friends stories all the long, these people loveee to spend time around their friends so much and their love for their friends is something else..is something precious to them

🌇 Venus in the 11th house can met their partners in their circle of friends actually??? When a friend told me this one day I was in shock I was like ":0" this cannot happen, just imagine friends to lovers kind of thing, though is very lovely

🌇 Checking someone's chart and seeing that they have Scorpio, Sagittarius or Capricorn placements I just know they are either very revengeful either waiting for the perfect moment to call the wrong people for their mistakes

🌇 Mars in Virgo degrees [6°,18°] can have a good looking waist/body. They can also be slim or jus tall body and usually the waist shines more for them (This may not apply to everyone but I said based on what I heard about Mars in these degrees)

🌇 Mars in Pisces Degrees [12°, 24°] can have pretty good looking hands/nails, very soft or very prominent veins on the hands (esp at men), and the nails can look pretty naturally + people having the impression you always have nail polish

🌇 Mars in Aquarius Degrees [11°, 23°] can have beautiful bone structure esp at legs and hands, (based on my experience most of these people are tall with a very pereftctioned body] Their body loos so good in general

🌇 Sagittarius Mercury or Mercury in Sagittarius degrees [9°, 21°] can be brutally honest. These people don't like to lie or keep hiding so instead they will call out and be honest about everything

🌇 Scorpio and Taurus Moons and their posesive abilities to be posesive and getting jealous fast over small things is insane, esp having a partner with such moon sign can be possessive and sometimes trying to be in control

🌇 Virgo Suns/Moons can end up criticizing themselves a lot of just judging themselves over things they cannot control or just delete over the time. You have to understand certain things happen for certain reasons and the past cannot be deleted but instead try to create a better future for yourself with a good start and positive vibes

❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂❂

🌇🌇🌇🌇🌇🌇🌇🌇🌇🌇🌇🌇🌇🌇🌇🌇🌇

- Wanted to post this post right on time exactly when the golden hour starts to be seen more prominent on the sky, because is also the time when the sun sets for the sun and sooner let the beautiful moon to rule the sky for the next hours

❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️❤️☀️

☀️ Hope everyone reading my notes has an evening/night 🌆☀️ full of warm energy, and watch the sunset if you can 🥰🥰 in my opinion is majestic and one of the most beautiful things on earth ☀️🌆☀️

[anim-ttrpgs]

drow rpg thoughts

Yesterday I got excited and did a design outline for another game, this time about drow. Don't worry, the Eureka Patreon updates will keep coming monthly and we are even close to another free public beta release, but i have been under a lot of stress and might need to work on something else for a few weeks after that, even if only because i think it could actually be something i could make fully playable within a short time.

It is based on a particular setting written a while back by me and a close friend, the purpose of which was to reimagine drow with reasonable post-hoc explanations for the way they are portrayed in Forgotten Realms. It would be a very specific game, sharing a few design ideas with Eureka's rules, but not as broad and generalized.

This rpg will certainly come with a bunch of lore, but for right now the only thing you need to know is that in this setting, "Drow" is a title and referrs only to the female warrior-caste of dark elf society.

Many of the mechanics will be asymmetrical. A “party” will consist of one Drow and any number of her servants, with the goal of surviving incredibly dense hierarchical social situations

>problem will come up that could embarrass the Drow, threatening her Reputation (stat)

>Drow has to delegate tasks to servants that will fix the problem

>due to stupidly dense and impossible etiquette, actually delegating these tasks is not very clear or easy. Screwing up tasks and failing etiquette will reduce a servant’s perceived Competence (stat)

>due to high pressure, impossible working conditions, and garbled instructions, these tasks are not easy and are very likely to be screwed up

>the Drow has to contend with and smooth over the screwed up tasks. She can lose Reputation if she doesn’t discipline incompetence, but harsh discipline is only going to make the servants less able to complete the task.

>Failure state for the servants is if their Competence ever reaches 0, and failure state for everyone is if the Drow’s Reputation ever reaches 0.

Half the Game Master’s job will be keeping track of the strict and deliberately impossibly overcomplicated etiquette by which servants have to address Drow, and docking their Competence when they screw up(and possibly docking Drow Reputation if anybody else sees her letting that slide), and keeping track of the strict militaristic code of honor and (evil) morality that all Drow are expected to exemplify whether they actually enjoy being cruel psychopaths or not, and docking Reputation when the Drow fails to uphold the right standard of evilness in front of other Drow.

The servant part of the “party” will either have to humorously manipulate Drow while hiding that anything is wrong, or they and their Drow will all have to all work together to maintain a facade of this brutal hierarchy

Drow lose Reputation and servants lose Competence when they fail to adhere to social etiquette that covers like 15 pages of instructions (designed to be impossible to follow). In that way, it might be considered similar to Paranoia, with a similar sense of humor.

Some of the servants’ etiquette would be like

>don’t speak out loud to a Drow unless told to by that Drow

>at the same time, don’t remain silent when a Drow expects them to answer a question even if she didn’t explicitly say they could speak

And this is why the Drow has to be a PC, because this same servant etiquette is a pitfall for the Drow. if she doesn’t make her expectations explicitly clear, it puts the servants in an impossible situation, where they will embarrass her with their incompetence(even though it’s her fault) and she will be socially obligated to go out of her way to discipline them. Of course in the in-setting society, the fault lies with the servant, because they should have intuited when they were being given permission to speak or not. Some Drow will be self-aware enough to realize that they caused this situation, most won't.

The structure of their society will often incentivize a tactful Drow to "roll with" mistakes made by servants, e.g. "No, my servants did have permission to address me out loud, you just weren't clever enough to catch it."

Each will have to cover for the other, and/or hide things from each other and the Drow's social rivals.

[fayharley]

Possible Hades II Romances

Sorted by how likely I think they are to make it into the game. Based on initial Early Access release.

Icarus 100% going to be a romance. No question.

Eris Eris is obsessed with Melinoë. Following her around, the nicknames, the codex entry, the later lines where she actually shows vulnerability. Getting through to her and understanding her issues is going to be a central story arc and I'm almost positive there will be a romance option at the end of it. Also Zag/Meg has established "fighting to the death" as a love language.

Arachne This is going to be a romance but it might not be an endgame romance. We already have the "heart wants what it wants" scenes, but I think her arc is going to be about curing her curse and after that it's 50/50 if Melinoë can kiss her or they're going to pull a "I've been through a big change and I'm not ready for a romance right now" card on us.

Moros and Nemesis They are such bait. I think it comes down to if this game lets you go poly and date everyone or if specific romances will lock you out of others. Supergiant is real squeamish about incest for a studio that chose to use Greek mythology and I don't think you will be able to kiss multiple Nyx kids at once.

Dora She's the funny character like Hypnos last game and so many people wanted to romance Hypnos. Maybe they will throw us a bone.

Hypnos Or just give the people what they want. Hampered by my suspicion waking him isn't going to happen until endgame.

Odysseus Sorry man but 0% chance. They had Mel uncle-zone him. He is for the player's viewing pleasure only.

Artemis Also zero. Cousin who calls you "sister," see above about the incest squeamishness. I'd fold all the other Olympic gods in here as well.

Everyone else is an extreme longshot. If the game follows the first one's pattern and you can end up with one boy and one girl I'm thinking it's Icarus and Eris. Melinoë has a thing for the winged ones. Also one mortal and one god would be thematic. But I'm expecting they will do something different and committing to a romance will cancel out the competing ones. There's just too many siblings floating around.

Eager to know how everyone else is feeling so far.

[getvalentined]

I am so sick of people asserting that Cloud's father is some super special important person like it's some explanation for the fact that he was able to save the world. Superior bloodline stuff never sits well with me in the first place, but in this case it's just so antithetical to the actual thesis of FF7 and does such a huge disservice to multiple characters that it makes me white hot angry.

The most popular contender is President Shinra, because Cloud being a Shinra bastard would (somehow) explain why he's allowed into the company at such a young age (even though enlistment age appears to be 14 and Cloud left Nibelheim to enlist at 14) and how he wound up on so many important missions—because it can't possibly be that he's actually competent, he's so pretty, how could he possibly be competent? It's not as if we see him being staggeringly competent from jump in every title where he's featured, including those that start prior to him being forcibly mako enhanced by Hojo. Clearly this is nepotism.

After all, we know that President Shinra is always so supportive of his bastards! That's why Lazard hid his identity and worked his way up the ranks to become director of SOLDIER at the youngest possible age and then set about trying to orchestrate a hostile takeover of the company by allowing all three of his best operatives to defect in the middle of a war, a process that was only thrown off because one of them passed off every single mission where he would have had an opportunity to go AWOL.

This was clearly the result of nepotism. There's just so much nepotism going on there. Obviously.

The newest contender is Glenn Lodbrok, the lead character from the First SOLDIER section of Ever Crisis, because he's blond-haired and blue-eyed and presumably one of the first people in Project 0 to survive some level of the mako enhancement process. I guess this is supposed to mean that him being Cloud's father would be a perfect explanation for Cloud actually being capable of literally anything, since the only way for him to become the hero that was chosen by the planet to keep it alive would be if it's part of some bloodline destiny.

There are a whole host of issues with Glenn as an option here, not the least of which is the canonical lore about Cloud's father, namely that he was some nobody traveler who kinda passed through and got Claudia pregnant and then left; he may have died up in the mountains, but apparently all that was ever found was his pack, so there's no way to be sure. Further, Claudia was very young at this point—according to her original concept art declaring her to be 33 at the time of her death, she gave birth to Cloud at 16-17 years old.

Glenn is one of two possible age ranges: if he was active in the early stages of Project 0, being a character in the First SOLDIER battle royale game, then he was around 21 in 1985, meaning a 21 year old knocked up Claudia Strife when she was 15 and then walked out on her. If he's 21 during the events of Ever Crisis, which seems likely based on his character design, that would make him 14 at the oldest when Claudia got pregnant.

Okay, I know this kind of thing happens IRL, but I feel pretty confident in the statement that there is absolutely no way that that's the direction SE is taking this timeline and characterization. I'm not even sorry. That's not happening. Either he's giving "predator," or he's Deadbeat Dad: High School Freshman Edition.

But that's honestly not even the worst of it, the math not matching up is entirely irrelevant when the implications of this assertion are applied to the actual thesis of this series as a whole, to the characters we already know, to the actual lore. Claiming that Cloud is only special because of the sperm donation of a man who abandoned him literally removes any concept of his competence as a character, declaring that he's just the newest iteration in a line of "worthy" men. He can't be worth anything unless his father is worth something. He can't be good at anything unless his father is good at something.

Beyond that, it casts Claudia aside entirely, asserting that the fact that she raised Cloud doesn't matter—she may have brought him up entirely on her own, but that doesn't actually matter. She didn't instill values and morals and guidelines into him that would allow him to grow up into a man who could save the world, she was just an incubator, a nursemaid, a nanny, a cook. She was just a servant who kept him alive long enough for his father's bloodline to awaken within him and make him into the hero he was always meant to be.

Insisting that Cloud's value as a character hinges in any way on his father, a person who had no place in his life whatsoever and whom he doesn't even remember, takes away his agency and declares Claudia to be irrelevant. It says that a sperm donation matters more than an upbringing. It says that the place he started is the only thing that defines where Cloud will end up.

This is literally, 100 percent, the opposite of the thesis of this series. The entire concept of these games, of these storylines, is that the way you were made doesn't have to dictate what you can be, who you are, where you're going. Your genetics do not define you, and assumptions to the contrary are literally what make people into monsters. What matters is the people you love, the people who love you, and the person you are now as a result of those people.

And the fact of the matter is that regardless of timelines, regardless of characterizations, regardless of theories, Cloud Shinra and Cloud Lodbrok didn't save the world.

Cloud Strife did.

Claudia Strife's son did.

And I think people could stand to give both of them a hell of a lot more credit.

[kvothe-kingkiller]

okay I want to preface this with: I am Against gender testing in sports, I believe this whole trans panic thing is transphobic/intersexist/racist/etc, and I support trans women and trans people in general being able to do sports.

With that out of the way, I feel like people just....get the facts straight up Wrong on so many levels with all of this. Ledecky would not beat (olympic level) men in any of the competitions she does. Here are the men's vs women's world records on some of the swimming events

100m Free: Mens 46.8 (Zhanle), Womens 51.71 (Sjöström)

1500m Free: Mens 14:30.67 (Finke), Womens 15:20.48 (Ledecky)

100m Butterfly: Mens 49.45 (Dressel), Womens 55.18 (Walsh)

100m Breaststroke: Mens 56.88 (Peaty), Womens 1:04.13 (King)

400m Medley: Mens 4:02.50 (Marchand), 4:24.38 (McIntosh)

The story is the same if you look up running times, walking times, jump heights, jump lengths, throws, skiing times, skating times, etc etc.

here's the gender gap in swimming race speeds and then track and field events over the last century (courtesy of buzzfeed)

As you can see, they get better over time, then plateau. While it's certainly possible they might come down to 0, I doubt it will be any time soon (Nature actually estimated in 2004 that they could become more equal by 2156 but that was assuming an increase over time that has since leveled off). Those slight humps are from before steroids and other drugs became more rigorously tested.

These of course include the intersex and high T perisex women who have competed and will continue to compete so it's not just to do with testosterone, there are obviously multiple factors.

Ledecky beating men was during practice, idk who she was practicing against (it was a comment made by a teammate and didnt say who the men were) but it wasn't phelps or any of the other top male swimmers. Then when you have things like shooting etc, the main reason that's segregated by gender is simply because more men are in the sport. If you have (numbers arbitrary) 1000 men wanting to compete and 100 women and you take the best of all of them, chances are you'll end up with 9 men and 1 woman. Segregating it by gender ensures 10 men 10 women.

Tennis and other things like that are harder to score up against each other since men tend to compete against men and women against women, except for the occasional m/f double match. But I think it's safe to say that with the evidence from power and speed differences from the above stats, men would likely beat women if you're comparing the top vs the top. Yes, even Serena Williams.

Once again, I am against gender testing. I am against the racist and transphobic shit you see in sports nowadays.

But it is simply untrue to say that Cis men and Cis women are on the same level when it comes to top sporting events. I am not saying women are weak or women are shitty and bad at sports I am literally just showing people the Correct numbers.

I do not know the answer to this. I do not know how trans people should be included without excluding others. I am neither an athlete nor a gender scientist.

However, I do know the rhetoric around this on this site is unhelpful given it's entirely based around incorrect facts (that in straight athletic competitions, cis men and cis women are at equal levels) and everyone that tries to say otherwise is either actually transphobic or gets dogpiled as Being transphobic even if they aren't.

(Also, this is just at the top of the top. When we're talking about highschool and Especially elementary school sports, trans kids should absolutely be allowed to play whatever team they want.)

[izunias-meme-hole]

Ranking The Ushiromiya's Based On How Good At Among Us They Would Be

Kinzo: 0/10 - My guy would at least do his tasks, but he's always voted out first based on vibes and how he is.

Krauss: 0/10 - Ass as an imposter, and as a cremate he's always the first to die.

Natsuhi: 7/10 - Very good crewmate, always reports bodies if she sees one, but her imposter is flawed because her lying could easily get torn apart by a gut feeling.

Jessica: 8/10 - She'll keep her guard up at all times as a crewmate, won't hesitate to vote someone out based on a feeling, but her imposter is slightly better than her mothers.

Eva: 9/10 - Effective crewmate, always convincing even if she is condescending, and her imposter is almost perfect.

Hideyoshi: 5/10 - Just minding his business as a crewmate and then his neck gets snapped. His imposter on the other hand gets kicked out immediately after he kills someone, not because he's a bad liar, but because someone always sees his ass in the act.

George: -100/10 - Touched Among Us once, broke his computer in a fit of rage, has sworn himself off from playing it again.

Rudolf: 8/10 - Much like Eva, he's an effective crewmate and his imposter is also almost perfect. Though unlike Eva, he reeks of too much snake oil to be trusted so he gets ejected half the time, even if he isn't the imposter.

Kyrie: 10/10 - It doesn't matter how many red flags she'd give off, you'd never see her coming.

Battler: 10/10 - Actually a pretty competent crewmate who survives off pure luck sometimes and hates suspecting someone he knows. Though if he has to play the imposter, he'll play the imposter.

Ange: 8/10 - An amazing crewmate, will say "If I die, the imposter is X", and her imposter is good.

Rosa: 5/10 - Would try to play like Eva and somehow fail in one way or another.

Maria: 5/10 - Good crewmate, but her imposter is found out immediately. She also promotes trolling and second impostering to someone in particular.

Lion: 9/10 - Helpful crewmate, and she carried elements of that in her imposter. She can also lie pretty well, but ultimately her imposter needs some work.

Beatrice: 100/10 - If you've finished Umineko, you know that Beatrice would be the ultimate imposter.

[incognita-soul]

hey, i saw in your bio that you work on tall ships and i was wondering if u had any advice.

i’ve been on 2 tall ship sailing trips before (+some dinghy sailing) and got my competent crew recently so i’m pretty inexperienced. on those sailing trips i’ve met young adults who were working on the boats as volunteers. i’d like to be able to volunteer on tall ships one day.

do you have any advice for the best way to gain experience and learn stuff? (if possible on a budget). i’m taking a gap year next year and i’d really like to take the chance to go sailing and get better at it. (i’m in the uk if that’s relevant.)

absolutely no pressure to answer and i’m sorry this is so vague and clueless! anyway, thanks for taking the time to read this. your blog is cool :))

Heya! Thank you, and I'd be happy to give you my two cents! All of my boat experience has been in the US so take my advice with a transatlantic grain of salt, but here goes!

Firstly, two trips and some dinghy sailing and a competent crew cert is actually quite a bit in comparison to your average person starting out in the world of boats, so don't worry about feeling too inexperienced! You're already on a good track. I've been working on tall ships in some capacity for over 10 years and I still don't have any specific certifications (I've got a lot of experience and sea time, I just haven't had time to take any of my courses and exams for actual licensing).

Facebook is (unfortunately) still the best place to network, especially for international opportunities. There are a variety of groups that you can join. I'm personally in Schooner Bums, Tall Ship Opportunities, Women Who Sail, Crew Finder, and a few other private groups specific to the organizations I've worked for. A lot of organizations will post to these groups with job opportunities with specific requirements, so it's fairly easy to get the info you need. I'm sure there are a few groups specific to sailing in the UK. In the US, we have Tall Ships America, which is an organization that provides networking, training, and job opportunities for mostly US based sailors and boats. I'm not sure if the UK has an equivalent organization, but I do recommend even though you are UK based you should peruse their website, especially the Billet Bank, which is where job links are posted:

You're in the UK, so there are a shit ton of boats there but as far as I know most of them are museum boats that don't do a lot of sailing. I will say from personal experience that museum boats with a good volunteer maintenance program are great places to start for establishing a strong set of foundational skills (knots, understanding and maintenance of the rig, carpentry, etc.). You might not get much actual sea time with a museum boat, but you will learn the things that will make you a better sailor. I got into tall ships by working as a historical interpreter and then as part of the sailing/maintenance crew here:

https://www.jyfmuseums.org/visit/jamestown-settlement/living-history/ships#ad-image-0

Most tall ship organizations are based around education, both for the public and for the crew, so it's easy to find a boat with some sort of introductory training program relatively near wherever you live. These range from expensive pay-to-play working vacation type experiences, to paying a fee to participate in a structured comprehensive training curriculum after which you can become long-term crew, to volunteering weekends sanding and oiling blocks in exchange for the opportunity to sail.

Since you said you are taking a gap year, my advice is look for a short-term comprehensive live-aboard program that gets your foot in the door for staying on as regular crew, potentially even paid crew. Idk any specific ones in the UK, but here's the one that the last boat I worked on offers as an example of what i mean:

If you've got time before your gap year starts, try to find something local, like volunteering for a mueseum like I mentioned earlier, so that you get used to the vocabulary and foundational knowledge of boats. That way you can really get the most out of a more immersive program later on and you won't feel too much like an oversaturated sponge trying desperately to sop up more information even though your brain is leaking out of your ears.

I'm not sure if you're wanting to do tall ships longer term or just something one-off for the gap year, but if you're in it for the long haul just be prepared that it's a lot of hard work for not much financial return. I don't mean to discourage you, it's just good to know that upfront. On Lady Washington we have a saying that "we work on an 18th century boat for 18th century wages."

Unfortunately the tall ship industry is kind of hard budget wise. Most training programs cost quite a bit of money, most jobs are either volunteer or don't pay very well (industry standard deckhand pay in the US is about $1000/month), and most higher level positions require various levels of certifications (for which course and exam fees can run pretty high). You can do it on a budget, especially since most long term positions are live aboard so you don't have to pay for rent or groceries, but if you want to make a career out or it, it takes a lot of years of working for less money than you're worth before you start earning real money back.

Despite all that, working on tall ships is still an incredible and fulfilling experience that I recommend to anyone with a love of the sea and learning practical skills!

Sorry I couldn't give you more specific information, as I have yet to work on any UK boats. Good luck, and please tell me when you find a program that works for you!

[limitless-blue]

hi :3

Who ends up catching Sapnap the first time for your pred/prey au?

ALSO

I need to know how Sapnap and Conter act(towards each other or to the group in general) being the only two prey animals (besides probably going at it like rabbits together pfpgpfj)

Was Sapnap kinda nervous being integrated into their group when learning it was just Conter as another prey animal :0?

Are there things like...instincts involved at all? Do the guys get more aggressive with each other trying to share Sapnap once they've won? Or like...Sapnap and Conter sometimes getting a Primal Fear when the other guys are ever too much?(there's probably a thrill to that tbh pfft)

HELLO i'm ngl, i'm not too sure who would catch him first other than the fact that conter will be one of them (yes, it is so they can fuck like rabbits)

yes! sapnap is pretty apprehensive being around so many unfamiliar predators for such a prolonged period of time. he's more used to interacting with aggressive predators when he's participating in competitions, events that are usually just a few hours of high stakes, adrenaline inducing fun. he's used to working with predators and beating them, having to fight harder to be taken seriously by them, suppressing his prey instincts and having to act bigger and tougher and louder and more confident than he actually is, but these are all for much shorter periods of time than what dedsafio is.

for a while, he struggles with just existing with team mafia. he can play up his persona and act like he isn't just a bunny, but it's exhausting for him to keep up for so long. most of the time they're on base, things are calm and relaxed and not at all like the stress of competing, so he's kind of out of his depth.

a big issue for sapnap is that team mafia have never really had to be careful or suppress their own instintual behaviors before. despite conter also being a prey animal, the only one before sapnap came, he's never really been afraid of them or been nervous around them. for one, he's known them for so long that he's comfortable and feels safe with them. he's also just so much bigger, already big for a prey animal, but also bigger than some of the predators. conter is tall and broad and he looks intimidating without needing a reputation to precede him like sapnap does. because of this, even when sapnap suppresses his instincts to run and hide, he still sees conter as a "safe" person. conter is bigger and stronger and more physically imposing, and he's competent and he's good enough to provide for sapnap. conter also just understands sapnap in a way the others can't. even if he doesn't feel the prey instincts or the fight or flight that sapnap does, he can still recognize the signs and body language, the behaviors that betray sapnap's nervousness and anxiety.

but yeah. if it wasn't already clear, instincts play a huge role LOL. not just sapnap's instincts to submit or run, but also the other guys having to grapple with having an unfamiliar person in their territory, having this vulnerable little bunny constantly around them, and trying to fight against instinctual behaviors like growling or stalking and play fighting because they want to do whatever they can to make sapnap feel more comfortable

[triocat]

Hey

Something very sad happened today so I wanted to tell you some more headcanons about 0!Tiff so I can be distracted from it

• She likes to play games that involves fighting demons (i.e.FAITH: The Unholy Trinity {Come out you red robed man / Come out and fight me like a man}* and the DOOM series {"Rip and tear...until it's done"})

• Just so you know, I envision her eyes as looking like that of what we see in "Bloody Mary" (i.e. the right eye has a green heart at the bottom and the left one has a red diamond in the middle)

• The halo that she can have functions a lot like the one he had as 02 of which can be multicolored (though usually it's yellow until someone messes with it to make it fittingly red)

• she can do stuff based off the other bosses in K64, either controlling their respective "elements" (i.e. Whispy and Magman) or something more creative that references that games "PERFECT" screen (PIX => Spark-i; Acro's tail is mimicked to become a mermaid-esce tail; HR-H/E lend in it's laser eye [only in 1 eye of your choice] and missile-shooting claws respectively)

• 0!Tiff's way of fighting with a parasol is essentially a mix between how Kirby fights with it (when it's open) and fencing (referencing that one american commercial for Kirby's adventure)

• You remember when I said cleaning wasn't included 'cuz it's trash (pun not intended), well it was actually because I couldn't really think of any combos for it, but in the comments of the vid made by ranger the warrior, there was someone user-named smh4907 who was a LOT more creative than me that came up with some actually pretty nifty ideas that actually fit perfectly (though personally I would have made mega clean a de-make of it's friend ability in star allies like parasol)

• Related to that last post, people had the collective idea to make stone/parasol a hammer or a pickaxe and I thought that maybe she would be able to conjure up them and/or even an axe to use against Dedede (oh, and whoever she needs to face, I guess)

One more thing that I want to say:

When I sent those asks, what I wanted was just to see your doodles of my silly little headcanons because my drawing skills are akin to chris-chan's I just felt like you would like drawing more of them and, honestly, you don't have to add anything, I just would like other's to be able to see what I thought up and to see more of your doodles of her as well as to hopefully help distract both of us from the current condition of the world around us

(Of course, if you don't exactly feel comfortable with taking the ideas of a complete stranger other than in the form of a commission, that's perfectly respectable and I would be perfectly ok w/ you just responding to the ask and telling me so even tho that would likely mean that i have to develop my art skills so that they are competent enough to at the very least try emulating yours but hey at least then I might be competent enough in the storytelling dept. to turn my bullet points into a actual story that's actually worth telling**)

* Just because I felt like it, here's a shameless plug to Flawed Peacock in the case that you might be interested: https://youtube.com/@flawedpeacock?si=RBEEw6q9YnxvPTNr

**I am deeply sorry if this comes across as condensending and rude, I just don't really have that much patience w/ my want for showing my ideas to the world and I tried to use self-deprecating humor to drive the point home and poke light fun at why I am telling you this stuff(oh, who am I kidding, I probably sound entitled as HELL)

[cookiestar360]

why are you actually so talented.

like how drop a tutorial pal

or I WILL personally place several ants inside of your pants

okay but seriously like how do you do all the roblox animating, the undertake things, and just all that cool stuff you do? I’d love to learn!!

bro is NOT subpar

I just was inspired by my friend burger to do some of the stuff he does

If you ever get to see some of the stuff he does its essentially the exact same but far better! A lot of my actual work I do is just me finding ways to avoid showing the glaring flaws in my competency to make it look presentable as nice

Although I know a lot of stuff, I'm not actually super good at anything I do truly, so I call myself subpar overall because I feel like that's the best way to describe everything I do, even if I can do a lot.

The animating stuff I tried learning more of in a day just so I could give Daisy a present, which is why it looked choppy because I stayed up super long trying to make it look nice for them, I wanted to do something kind. But some of those skills were when I tried developing games in the past on Roblox. Its only really worth animating on roblox if you can obtain moon animator for free though, otherwise itd just be better to animate in blender The sprite creation/pixel art i picked up when I wanted to make a character for rivals of aether with burger and eventually got to make a terraria resource pack which lead to me getting to speak to the creator a bit. Really most of it looks special at a glance until you get aseprite, which made everything really nice to get into and is one of the only media software I know that doesn't try to oversimplify things for a general audience but in return makes it simpler to be creative The little undertale dialog sprites I drew out of boredom and decided to use sometimes, theres a website for generating them but its only really useful for getting text the dialog stuff is better to just manually edit in aseprite https://www.demirramon.com/generators/undertale_text_box_generator its hard to explain but once you start developing skills in basic programs other completely different programs start becoming easier too, so you can always explore multiple different forms of media creation at once and it could open up being able to understand software easier. Programs tend to have some familiarities even if they do drastically different things like being a drawing application or creating 3D models. Sorry though I should talk about myself less lol

I like making stuff with a purpose, like a profile picture or something for a game or a gift for someone else instead of creating stuff just for the love of creation, which isn't that good of a mindset but it can make you far more proud of your work, even if you aren't at a level you see as good yet.

Really I'm only at a base-decent level at everything I've shown off on this profile, so if you want to go ahead and try it'd be quick to learn.

...if you have a pc

I wouldn't do any of this on a mobile phone nearly as efficient

(besides full art, I'd probably be better at that on a tablet)

Mobile creators have to put like 3-15 times the effort just for the same product sometimes due to its inefficiency and I deeply respect their efforts

The one thing I have 0 talent at though is anything social related, I should work on being a better person hehehe

Angel is really talented at being a cool person and I am inspired by them to be cooler too, same with chip and asa and a lot of other people who are helpers and above

wait this is derailing fast uhhhh bye guys!!!!!

[futurequibblerjournalist]

Hello again!!!!

I don't really have much to say abt Mary bc you did like,, such a good job telling me everything that I could have asked about her! You do a great job with everyone that I HAVE asked about too but you get it (I hope lol)

Do you have any like,, thoughts on Lucius? :0 or Viktor!!!! Ik you mentioned him a little while ago :3 Idk seeing him with your interpretation of Igor Karkaroff is special to me idk

Byebye!!!! See you soon lol :D

- 🍃

Ahhhhh I’m so glad you liked my little Mary rant!! I love chatting about the girls they’re just all so mwah,,,

I have a handful of thoughts on Lucius!

His full name is Lucius Abraxas Malfoy and he was born September 8th 1953 (making him a Virgo) at Malfoy Manor in Wiltshire, England. He’s the first born son of Abraxas Malfoy and only son of Luceille Malfoy née Famelle (she’s distantly related to the Flamels but as you can tell some stuff has gotten lost over the years hence the slight change in the last name!) and he’s the older half brother of Xenophilius. His mother died in childbirth and thus he never knew her and it’s given him a few issues ngl,,,

Abraxas remarried a few years after Luceille’s death and thus Xenophilius became a thing. Hestia (Xeno’s mother) tried to step into the role of mum for Lucius but he never wanted any of that and he was lowkey mad at his dad for remarrying even if he never felt like he should let anyone know.

I think he and Narcissa fully adopted Severus as like their Hogwarts kid just like how Xenophilius and Pandora later do with Gilderoy lol (it clearly runs in the family). I don’t usually base my headcanons off of the mobile game but there’s hints in there that Lucius and Narcissa’s marriage was a love match and I 100% believe that. He gifted her a Malfoy brooch to welcome her into the family I believe when they were first engaged (which would have been at some point while she was still at school?? because she puts it in her keepsake box that she had with her sisters while they were all at school) and to tell her that she was worthy of becoming a Malfoy. I think he placed a lot of values on family which is why I also think it’s so funny that the family he does have he’s like “nope I don’t wanna be related to that freak [points to Xeno]” lmaooo

I really love the fact that he’s a part of the school board. Like I don’t think people talk about that enough actually. Also the Malfoy house being represented by (albino?) peacocks and him canonically having Malfoy manor decked out with rhinestones or diamond rims or something like that in the windowsill. Like he’s so cunty. And that’s before we’ve even touched on the obvious hair care routine and the cunty bow that he 100% match with Narcissa.

I honestly need to think about him more but I think he’s just,, so funny. Also imagining Severus running around in his cunty ass hand me downs is just??? I can’t

As for Viktor!!!

I think he’s so fun. Like,, he’s actually so sweet and people can say what they want I don’t even care. I think he was really sweet to Hermione at a time where she needed it and I think it would have been fun to see them when they were older as like a fun ass power couple with him being a professional quidditch player and her being minister for magic. They’d like,, they’re so mwah to me.

I think it says a lot about how like,, lonely and isolated this kid was when the most important person to him was a girl he’d met a few months earlier. Like he didn’t have a Durmstrang buddy and one could assume if he had siblings they weren’t close and that just,, idk I feel bad for him. I like the idea of him striking up a friendship with Fleur and Cedric though despite them competing and all that

Similar like how I think Karkaroff is actually Karkarov I think Krum is likely Krumov (Крумов). It’s even stated in his wiki that it’s likely that Krum is just like,, an Anglicisation of Krumov. Speaking of Igor, I think Igor was friends/familiar with Viktor’s uncle when he went to school. I don’t have an explanation as to why he has decided to take Viktor under his wing in the way he has but I do think it’s kinda sweet. Me and a friend talked about this once but Igor would totally favour Viktor to the daughter he (in some universes) has with Charity and he’d be like “no no you’re imagining it” meanwhile we’ve seen how blatant his favouritism is lol

Now to the headcanon I’ve probably thought the most about lol,,, I think he’s got some sort of brain injury. This probably sounds a little damn okay but I think it makes sense. I think it makes sense with how much quidditch he plays. A lot of athletes have some sort of injury and considering how he went professional so early he’s undoubtedly played since he was young and I would not be surprised if he took a hit to the head a few times. I think this injury happened during his fourth-ish year (maybe during the summer when he was going extra hard on practicing at home or something??) and he took a Bludger to the frontal lobe and was knocked off of his broom.

I think he repeated a year because of this injury and having to recover (I’m pretty sure his age doesn’t line up with the rest of his supposed peers which is what I’m basing this on but also it’s 9 am and I’ve not yet slept so I could be pulling this out of my ass so keep that in mind lol).

He’s canonically noted as not being particularly intelligent (one of his canon nicknames is literally Dumb Krum) and I think this is in part because of this injury and the issues that followed him afterwards. I specifically think he’d had struggles with reading, both being slow at it and having poor reading comprehension as well as having a poor memory and being prone to confusion. (I also see him struggling with speech at times, perhaps some struggles with grip (which would be especially frustrating and something he’s working hard to overcome given his quidditch position) and since he’s noted as a bit of a klutz I wouldn’t be surprised if he bumped into things a lot).

His Transfiguration spell during the second task in the tournament is not done properly. Even if human transfiguration is a more difficult kind of transfiguration I would assume that if he’s smart enough to cover the basics, Igor (given his own talents with the subject) would have made sure his favourite student had mastered it. Whether this is something he was able to do before his injury I’m open to any takes on. He’s mentioned as someone who’s confident in his duelling skills but not necessarily good at duelling and even though Dark Arts are mentioned in his wiki it’s only in regards to things he did under the Imperius Curse

Also!!! Completely unrelated to me thinking he’s got a brain injury, I am a skinny twig looking Viktor Krum stan. I will always be mad we didn’t get to see him like that in the movies because he’s quite literally described as Severus and Igor’s love child lmaoooo

Can you tell I’ve been waiting to talk about him?? He’s like,, one of if not the only golden trio era character I care about lmao

I hope you enjoyed my little ramble cjfncjnfjc I saved my thoughts about these two for a bit to send something fun your way!!

[terrathetulpa]

I would like to bash the Minecraft movie teaser immediately. Because we need to bully the studio into getting rid of it or changing it like we did to Sonic. It is the most egregiously hideous abomination of Minecraft I have ever had to look at through these poor shared bloodshot eyes. The animals look like fucking horseshit supreme! Like someone was fucking around with some fur shaders for the first time and went "What if I pulled in a model of a sheep from Minecraft?" That llama is gonna be in my nightmares and I'm gonna lucid dream for the first time in months just so I can banish it to the wretched cursed CG hell plane that it came from. But first I'm gonna bash it's hideous skull in so it doesn't come back!

I am so unimpressed by your wide angle shot of a landscape that is supposed to be Minecraft, and doesn't even pass for modded Minecraft! It doesn't look like the game at all! It looks like someone tried to do a 4k voxel style remake of genshin impact and then someone else photo-shopped random ass stock photos into it. And when is someone gonna tell the movie execs that we don't wanna look at Jason Momoa anymore!? I hate his stupid bearded face!

The only snowball's chance in hell that this thing has of being watchable at all is Jack Black, and even he looks scuffed as shit! You bought that man a blue T-shirt from the GAP SEVEN MINUTES before filming- didn't even check to make sure that shit fit him! LOOK AT THIS!!!

I love you Jack Black, but you are not Steve!!! YOU ARE NOT STEVE!!! Did anyone bother to like- LOOK at the source material for more than 0 seconds!? Do you realize what this movie COULD HAVE BEEN!? I CAN'T EVEN SIT HERE AND DESCRIBE TO YOU HOW BAD THIS MISS IS FOR ME, WE WOULD BE HERE ALL NIGHT!!!

GOD!!! AT LEAST GET HIM A PROPER SHIT FOR FUCK'S SAKE!!! FUCK!!! FUCKING FUCK!!! FUUUUUCCCKKK!!!!

MOTHER FUCKING DAMNIT! BITCHES IN HELL!!! FUCK THIS MOVIE! PLEASE KILL THIS MOVIE!! BOMB THIS FUCKING MOVIE!!! I need all of you internet haters to pretend this thing is Morbius! When this comes out in theatres, if they haven't at least tried to fix it. Every time you see it just pretend it's Morbius. It is not worth your time. Do not see it. Even if you really like Jack Black. Do not.

You know what fuck it- I can write a long ass post.

Listen, you have to understand that I love Minecraft. I love Minecraft so much. I love running around, making things and exploiting villagers. Roaming vast landscapes of blocks and tricking the skeletons into shooting each other. The greatest burden of my childhood is that I couldn't convince my friends to continue playing Minecraft with me. If Minecraft were a beautiful woman, I would marry her. We would host lavish dinner parties and all of the guests would compete to build the coolest Minecraft build, and I would always win because Minecraft is my wife! Now I will proceed to spend several minutes resisting the urge to describe even the most intimate aspects of this theoretical marriage I would have to Minecraft in excruciating and graphic detail. (The fuck was I saying?)

This movie could have been LITERALLY ANYTHING! Because if it has ever happened, it has happened in Minecraft. This could've been a thriller, a murder mystery, an action movie, they could have remade literally anything and gotten away with it because "It's Minecraft, it's different" They could have made INFINITE MINECRAFT MOVIES!!! But more painful to lose, and more painful to see missing from the discourse about this film is that it could have told stories that nothing else could have told. This could have been a base wars movie, this could have been about conflicting factions competing for land, with complex politics, interesting heroes and villains, doing goofy ass shit like building sheep everywhere or making chicken bombs as much as they actually genuinely fight with TNT cannons and crazy ass ANIMATED PVP sequences. This movie could have been FUCKING SICK!!!

This could have been a retelling of an anarchy server's history, or a long romantic love letter to the game itself in movie form, or a playful exciting romp through someone's LAN game but from the perspective of those in game characters- AND NO ONE PLAYS AS STEVE HE WOULD NOT HAVE BEEN THERE!!! Where is our community's representation??? I don't trust this studio to show us massive sprawling builds that represent years of work, the fortresses, the cathedrals, the giant nether mansions. We're not going to see seasoned players strike down the ender dragon with 5 beds and a wooden axe. We're not getting elytra courses, SMP stories, redstone computers, massive pixel art, giant sculptures, hidden signs in peoples bases, pastoral communities farming by the river, villager outposts, torn up server spawns, that one guy who built a 150 block tall wheat farm overnight, the absolutely massive expanse of mods for this thing, the elaborate RP plots, the full on cities constructed by dozens of people, adventure maps, survival challenges, that one fucking log by the door that you keep stripping on accident- THE ACTUAL ANYTHING ABOUT WHAT MINECRAFT IS FOR ANYONE!?!?

NO!!! NOOOOO!!! None of that for you! You know what you get instead!?!?

You get JACK FUCKING BLACK trying to lug this 150-million dollar 6000 pound TURD through the box office BY HIMSELF!!! In a shitty blue T-shirt that some poor underpaid intern bought for him for 9$, 7 minutes before they started filming!!!

and I don't think he can do it!

There's no band-aid big enough to make this better.

Not even Jack Black!

[longsightmyth]

Look a book review

Quicksilver by Callie Hart My rating: 3 of 5 stars Every time I say review to come I have thoughts I forget to write a full review, so. The Good Much of this was engaging. The prose has pretty good flow when it's not throwing in swearing all over the place to make sure readers know this is an adult novel. Saeris both does things, interacts with the ideas of people removing her bodily autonomy, and is almost never stupid in a way that doesn't make sense for the character. Kingfisher was bi probably? I liked that. ALSO IN A SHOCKING TWIST I LIKED A LOVE INTEREST. WOW. IN A FAE NOVEL???? Yes. He and Saeris were sweet together by the end, and while I thought the falling into romance part was too abrupt for my taste once they were there it was nice. He respects her as a person even if he doesn't like. Respect her for a bit. If that makes sense. The Meh Most of those plot twists were not twists and y'all know it. I don't mean they were glaringly obvious, I mean there was no foreshadowing and nothing building towards them. A lot of things were added pretty obviously as the author thought of them without the benefit of another editing pass to make sure they were integrated before they were suddenly important. The Bad Maybe I secretly am a prude despite all my erotica and romance reading of published original works and Ao3 smut. Who can say. Anyway entire chapters of smut just felt like overkill, and of course Kingfisher had the giantest of penises. Of course he did. Also Carrion served 0 purpose to the narrative. Sorry not sorry. If you wanted me to care about a long lost missing heir that should have been brought up more and Carrion should have been actually useful. BUT THE WORST THING. Like okay. I did like Saeris aside from a couple of baffling 'And I Must Snark' moments. Truly I did. BUT. This book has a problem with women. I don't mean like it necessarily hates all women. I just mean that despite having unnamed women in the background sometimes (which is important! And I do appreciate it!) every time any of them are in opposition to a man they are Wrong. Sometimes this means they deserve to lose a hand, apparently. I'm making this sound both worse and better than it is. I don't know how to explain it. It's not quite Special Woman Syndrome, and it's not like Saeris evidences disgust or distaste for women in general, it's just that she never like. Talks to them. And neither do we. CONCLUSION. Solid 3.5 stars, definitely one of the better sarah janet based fae fantasies I've read, shockingly enjoyable love interest man by the end, mostly competent heroine. View all my reviews

[artbytesslyn]

I struggle with chronic pain, but I have this horrible mindset that mine isn't "valid" because it might not be as severe as some other people's. I have Carpal Tunnel, and unfortunately not at a stage that surgery is really an option, and I have some days so bad I can't even use one or both of my hands. And, I often feel afraid to talk about it because I feel like people will just tell me that mine isn't REAL pain. And, I have no idea how to handle that.

I'm really sorry that you're dealing with that, it sounds terrible.

I think it might be important (from one chronic pain haver to another) to remember that a 0 on the pain scale is what you're meant to feel. Zero pain. If you feel more than zero pain, then it's real pain. A competent healthcare provider will measure your pain based on if it impacts your daily life and how often.

Also, zero pain doesn't mean 'pain you've gotten used to'. This is a very common issue among chronic pain patients. A normal amount of pain is NO pain.

The area between 'no pain' and 'not physically wrong enough for surgery' is extremely broad. Some pain -can't- be treated with surgery, even if that pain is a 10. Surgery should not be your goalpost for if you're actually in pain or not.

It may help you to find support groups, because I sincerely think most chronic pain havers would not hear your experiences and go 'lol sounds fake'. Most of us have those exact experiences where healthcare providers or non-pain-having individuals discredit us, so most of us don't do that to others.