#bit of a learning curve but its getting easier

[rafeovermorals]

joel braids your hair.

before you read: this includes a detailed description of readers hair being blonde, long, and straight. i kinda hate this but it came to me in a dream. just wanted to write some soft!joel fluff bc i miss him

you were sitting on the carpeted floor, nestled between joel’s feet with one of your arms wrapped around his calf. he sat above you in his chair, attempting to untangle the knots that had formed in your hair.

“jesus, girl, this is a goddamn birds nest.” he huffed in annoyance, spritzing the problem areas in your favorite green apple scented detangler spray. “what’d i tell y’about driving with the windows down?”

a lesson you should’ve learned by now: always tie up your hair. you had let it grow out all summer, currently laying right at the curve of your waist. it was so long that it was difficult to manage, especially when you didn’t bother to properly take care of it.

joel scowled you for that, offered to give you a trim on numerous occasions and promised to not cut it too short, but you refused. its length made it easier for him to grab ahold of though— pulling on it to rein you in whenever you stepped out of line, or while he was splitting you open on his cock.

you loved your hair, and so did he. it was naturally bleached a warm honey blonde from the texas sun, and felt like silk from your shampoo that smelled of a strawberries and cream dessert.

“i like the wind blowing through my hair! you wouldn’t understand, old man.” you teased, leaning your head back as he tugged the comb through a matted section. you let out an exaggerated whine— a burning, tingling sensation going to your scalp. “you’re bein’ rough on purpose.”

he grunted at your dramatic reply, “this is me bein’ gentle, baby.”

once your hair was smooth and he was able to brush without any snags, he started to split it off into an even part. “y’want french or fishtail today?”

“can you do pigtails, please?”

sure, you could’ve braided it yourself, but you preferred when joel did it for you. they came out looking better than yours.

“‘course, sweetie. you know that’s daddy’s favorite.”

he always kept a few hair ties on his wrist, just in case you ever needed one— which was all the time.

he divided the right side into three pieces to do the first braid, making sure it wasn’t too tight or too loose.

it was one of the many things he learned how to do while being sarah’s dad. he found comfort in being able to do it for you, too.

except he was much older now— probably too old to still be doing this. his glasses were perched on his nose, still squinting as his thick fingers threaded each strand together. he had his back hunched over, causing a strain that would definitely be hurting him in the morning.

he secured it at the end, leaving a bit undone for you to clip in a bow before he went onto the left side, only stopping for a brief moment to relieve the cramp forming in his hand. damn arthritis.

you played with the shoelaces on his work boots while he finished the second braid, your golden locks perfectly woven behind your shoulders. he gave you a small pat to signal that he was done, getting you to turn to face him with a smile before crawling into his lap.

“will you come pick some blueberries with me later? i wanna make a cobbler for dinner at tommy’s tomorrow night. and could we stop by the store on the way home? you know it tastes the best warmed up with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.”

joel didn’t hesitate for a second. “anything for you.” and he meant that, more than you would ever know.

[maddie-w-draws]

trying to get comfortable using clip studio paint, have some bills

[lordgeneralsix]

people struggling w kcd need to forget how every other rpg works you will save yourself the frustration by expecting it to be easy

[arolesbianism]

I was looking at some lob corp reviews earlier and the biggest thing that kept catching me off guard was how many ppl talked abt the game running poorly. Maybe I just have low standards but I always was impressed by how well it ran on my laptop that runs most games at like 5 frames per second, like it took quite a bit for the frame rate to notably dip, and Ive never had the game crash on me even when I actively pushed it's limits. I know there's some memory leak issues but I guess I always assumed any performance stuff was minor and just caused by keeping the game open for super long periods of time, I would have never thought of that as a particularly noticable part of lob corps jank

[star-anise]

are we talking about broke therapists yet?

I've been out of things for a couple of years now, which is why I'm willing to talk about it, and maybe the pandemic has helped things a little, but holy shit the counselling and psychotherapy field is not equipped to help its practitioners in the gig economy.

Of all my interests and talents, I pursued a degree in psychology because being a therapist is supposed to be a safe, stable, well-paid job. Every therapist I met who was registered before 2008 worked and lived under that assumption. And oh boy are all the fee structures--registration, supervision, continuing education, conferences--set up for that scenario.

After getting my Master's, I struggled like hell to get a job. It was especially bad because to get my license, I needed a supervisor to take me on. To take me on, most supervisors wanted me to already have a caseload and client base. To get a caseload and client base, I needed a job.

Friends: Every single job I heard back on wanted me to have my license before I could even land an interview.

Professors and career advisors and professional development specialists all advised me very earnestly to just keep cold-calling people on the supervision list, and it began to feel a lot like my parents' friends telling me to hit the bricks and hand out resumes. That's what worked for them, right?

I finally got a supervisor who agreed to take me on, and I'd be able to use her clinic for advertising and workspace, and we were doing the paperwork to send in with my registration, when she called me up and said, "Is this job going to be your only source of income? If you're trying to depend on getting clients and building your practice for your basic needs, this is not going to work out. This has to be something you're doing on top of a basic salary. Okay, so you're not working anywhere else right now? I'm sorry, I can't move forward with this."

Even once I landed a supervisor and a job building my own private practice, I struggled. I have ADHD and am not great at self-promotion, so trying to do all my own advertising, scheduling, bookkeeping, billing, and records management (on top of counselling) was an enormous strain. One my bosses, supervisors, and other senior professionals watched with a slightly critical eye, but consoled me about because in their early days, their clinics had had business managers, receptionists, filing clerks, and accountants, and getting used to doing everything online yourself was a bit of a learning curve, wasn't it?

I counted my pennies very carefully, because I had to pay my supervisor roughly $180 for their services every 6 hours of in-person counselling I did. This meant that to break even I had to charge my clients an average of about $30 (plus room rental and service fees) an hour--and my clients, being people with complex trauma, were frequently poor, disabled, unemployed, and had no health benefits, so even $10 or $20 a session was a lot for them.

Maybe it would have been easier if I could have taken some of those nice comfortable organization positions where they find clients and funding for you and you work 40 hours a week and get benefits and a pension, but I had to be disabled into the bargain, so working 40 hours a week just isn't possible for me. I start passing out from stress and exhaustion. Older colleagues gave me serious-faced advice about approaching my employer and asking them for some flexibility and accommodation in my schedule, and I tried to explain across the gap between us that employers simply did not hire me if I made the slightest noise about the workload. They weren't going to invest in me as a person; they were hiring 40 units of work a week, and if I wouldn't do it there were a dozen applicants after me who would.

At one point I broke down enough to email my licensing body because the Annual General Meeting/Professional Development Conference was coming up, and I wanted to attend, but I could not produce $500 to do it with. Was there some kind of way I could attend anyway? I felt ashamed to have to ask, and then absolutely mortified when the response came from the organization president, who needed to personally sign off on me being too poor to attend the single most important event in my profession's calendar year.

I honestly felt so ashamed all the time at how I was apparently failing to be a successful therapist, failing to be rich and successful, and every time I mentioned it around mentors and bosses, I could feel myself shrinking from a person to a problem to be solved. My closest therapist-friends and I have reflected on how much more difficult, poorly-paid and underworked, our various career starts have been than we were ever warned about. About the classmates and coworkers who couldn't get disability exceptions when they fell behind in their registration requirements, or burned out and left the field, or dropped their registrations and took up as life coaches, or moved their whole family somewhere exceptionally remote or rural because it was the only good job available, or worked for some godforsaken app skirting the bounds of malpractice like BetterHelp.

I like those conversations, because I feel less like an absolute fuck-up in them. There's less "Hey Lis, you were so talented in grad school, I really admired you, what are you doing now?" "Oh, I, uh... am professionally disabled, so I get government benefits, and I... sell embroidery patterns on Etsy now."

My own therapist kept asking if and when I felt like going back to being a counsellor, and I finally told him: I don't, actually. I don't want to go back and do it like I was doing it before. It was a profession I loved to the depths of my soul, and it profoundly did not love me back. I can't even imagine what would have to change, in me or it, to make it have a space in it that could fit me.

All of which I was way too scared to admit to at the time, because the more I let people know I was struggling, the more they hinted that maybe I just wasn't in a place in my life where this was a job I could do, and I needed to take a little break and wait to come back until money and disability just weren't issues for me anymore.

Eventually my cups of doubt and exhaustion did overflow, and I quit. I'm here now, living a much different life. And at the very least, all my years of helping people in bad life situations set me up perfectly for my own. I already knew what form to fill out for financial assistance, which student clinics to access for mental health support, and which government agency would, if pressed, cough out pharmacy coverage for the genuinely destitute. It gave me that much.

I hope this is just me being in extraordinary circumstances, sitting at the intersections of a few different shitty life situations that most people skip right past. Because it's on one level comforting, but another deeply infuriating, if I'm not, and I've just missed it or we've just all been too afraid to admit it to each other.

[rebornofstars]

i think maybe the only way out of this mindset is to change what i define as success. when i'm rereading the story i wrote two years ago or looking through the sketchbook i was obsessed with when i was 12 i have to just grit my teeth and acknowledge that it taught me something new. even if it's just not that good. what matters is i have made something in the first place. what matters is not that i've failed to make my magnum opus, but that i've lifted the foundations a little higher for the next attempt. it's just something i have to live with. if that gap between what it is and what it could be was any smaller, i wouldn't care about it so much. finding new ways my current abilities can be improved is what gives me a sense of success, but it can become bitter when i look back at something i'm no longer in a position to edit. because i thought it was done, right? i thought it was good enough. i was blind. but the success isn't that. the success is that i had fun. the success is that i'm free to do something else now. the success is that it exists at all in the first place.

do u ever look back on something you created that you were really passionate about, and it's like. not as brilliant as you thought? like, it isn't terrible, but you know that you have the potential to do better, and you don't want it to represent your ability to Do The Thing anymore. i know it's the nature of progress and that the whole point of practicing The Thing is to get better at The Thing by pushing past your previous limits, but i find it a bit sad sometimes that i can never be entirely proud of what i've made because the goalposts are always moving. i can pass the old standards but i'll never reach the new ones

[andrastepls]

A/SMR.

synop: reader lost her hearing after an explosion, simon has an idea to help her ‘hear’ him again

warnings: none i think ? canon typical violence & loss of hearing maybe knda spicy

not proofread we die like men

Adjusting to life without sound had been a trial on its own. It was something no-one really prepared for — silly as it seemed, now. Bombs and guns going off right next to a person for any amount of time was bound to cause damage at one point or another. Or, maybe, she just had shit luck.

The blast had come and gone so quickly, she had no time to react. No one did. It missed anything vital, but it had sent her rocketing into a wall; promptly breaking her arm, a few ribs, and rupturing her eardrums all in one fell swoop. If nothing else, recovery went relatively smoothly. As smoothly as it could have, at any rate, what with Soap and Gaz being absolutely glued to the chairs in the infirmary. Even getting kicked out a few times — luckily, Price and the Lt. were a little less chaotic. Be it because the medic on-site had a soft spot, or because Simon had intimidated the poor guy, he had been allowed to spend the first two nights in the infirm with her.

Being tucked away in his arms did wonders for her anxiety, but the cot was a bit small for him alone, let alone the pair of them. Blessedly, she had been given the okay to return to her own quarters after that.

A few months later, and her bones were good and well healed, but her ears were another story. The specialist kind. The off-duty kind. The waitlist was long, and going home, alone, in the quiet, sounded like her own personal hell. So, she stayed on base to wait it out.

The silence was her enemy, deafening in its lack of any and everything. She swore she could forget the music the world made in a moment without it. It was cold, void and lonely. Missing out on jokes, not ever hearing the booming shouts and laughter of the boys. Sounds she never thought she’d miss.

It didn’t go unnoticed. For all his grumbling and brooding, Ghost was terribly good at being good company. She was thankful for him, at least. Perhaps now more than ever. He was . . . oddly tentative of her. Making a point to brush a hand against her when he was near, what was previously a hovering palm near her back was now an open-handed reminder someone was there.

He made learning to sign feel so much easier. Subbing out some signs for military signals. A natural transition, when the other person knew how to speak it — even when he didn’t need to.

It was a kindness done solely for her benefit; a fact in which he would never admit, but she knew it to be true nevertheless.

• • •

She felt out of practice. Clumsy and uncertain of herself when he touched her, nothing like herself, and he noticed. He pulls back from her, hands curving through the space between their chests to say, “You okay?”

She swallows, looking away. Embarrassment flushes her cheeks a shade of maroon, the heat of it crawling up her neck.

“It’s not you.” she signs back after a beat, eyes finding his with nothing short of pleading in her irises, “I miss you. But the sound - ”

Lithe hands flop into her lap. She feels . . . inadequate. Incomplete. Hateful, to herself, knowing that she can’t be who he loved first anymore, “I miss hearing you.” it was a cruel thing for the universe to do to her; give her a man to fall in love with, a voice that lulled her to sleep, filled her heart, tightened her legs — and then take it away from her. Leaving her in this muffled prison.

He makes a face at that - not one of ill intent or anything of the sort - rather, one of confusion. She missed hearing him?

He never thought his voice to be something worth missing; though, he quickly understands when his mind wonders what never hearing her again would be like. His girl is quieter now, to be sure. But he can still hear her - the little noises she makes, when she hums to herself without noticing . . . among other noises . . .

There’s a moment where he stays still, only his eyes moving between the two. She’s about to lift her hands so say something else, but he promptly cuts her off by taking one of her wrists between his fingers. Encouraging her to open her hand and bringing her palm up to rest around his throat.

She pauses, wide eyes blinking between their hands and his face — that frustrating little smirk of his curling his lips upward at the corners. She can’t make sense of what he’s doing at first, canting her head to the side like a confused dog, and then, he hums. The sound vibrating against her fingers. Her jaws drops open slightly in shock, eyes locked between her hand and his mouth, wanting to say ‘again’.

Alas, he was a step ahead of her, and mumbles out her name in a breath. Feeling her name in his throat before reading it on his lips.

Hm.

A/N: i dont know its 1am !!

[bajibitch]

Silly me - Clark Kent

"Your name?" The receptionist’ voice pulled you out of the shock you felt being at the infamous Daily Planet. You managed to say your name but it came out a bit shaky and he let out a soft chuckle. "You'll fit in great." The space you'd be working in was small like you expected but seeing the surrounding work spaces was a bit intimidating. It was easy to get distracted picking up pieces of the stories they chatted about but the dizziness that came with it was enough to remind you to focus. Where would you start, how was it that people found stories again?

“First day?” Looking up from your desk, you met a pair of enchanting blue eyes on a beautiful face. The smile he wore didn’t make it any easier to turn away. Your face was hot from the lack of preparedness, hopefully, he didn’t think you were forming a crush, it’d be embarrassing, he’d be right but you wouldn’t admit it.

“Is it obvious?” You thought you were playing it off well given that you managed to type out an exaggerated amount of the food article with little effort. “What am I doing wrong?” Surely an employee wouldn’t interrupt your work for nothing, or so you thought.

“Nothing, you seem to have it handled.” He eyed the screen with your nearly complete work. “I’m still cramming in yesterday's story.” His laugh was going to be in your mind later. Although it was short it managed to sound so wholesome and warming in the small time it had. “It’s just, I've never seen you around before.” His arm was resting on the computer monitor, if he was anyone else it would’ve irked you but he had good intentions so you’d ignore it for now.

“I started today, used to work at a different company in Oklahoma.“

“How was it there?” You considered offering him a chair to sit in since it felt as if he planned on hearing your life story.

“Given that it was my first job in journalism it’ll always have a special place in my heart, but I wanted to be somewhere more interesting.”

“You didn’t catch any stories?”

“Nothing worth mentioning, I did an article on food and the impacts of-” Nothing worth mentioning but I’ll list every one. You put a hand to your forehead as you cursed yourself for not catching the prattling sooner.

“Why’d you stop?” He took a glance around the office and stared back at you. “Something wrong?”

“No,” you sighed and went back to typing out your work. “I just have to finish this.”

“I’ll be out your hair then. It was nice meeting you… I didn’t catch your name.”

“I didn’t get yours either.”

“Clark. Clark Kent.” You stopped your typing and locked eyes with him once again.

“Y/n.”

“Well, y/n, I’ll catch you later.”

The strange thing for you is that usually when people tell you that, they never meant it. It was more like an, I’ll see you should we meet again kinda ordeal, not a follow you out of the office kinda thing.

“What is it, Clark?” You turned to see him not too far behind. His suit seemed a tad too big for him but it added a soft look to him.

“Just checking in on you. How’d you feel about the job? It’s not too much is it?”

“You aren’t from here either, are you?” He tilted his head and his lips parted but nothing came out. “You’re nicer than plenty of the people I’ve met so far. Some of them get irritated from my smile alone.” That’s why you learned to hold a poker face, the city lost its charm rather quickly when you arrived. His shoulders dropped and his lips had its default curve that made him sweet on the eyes.

“I used to live out in the country too, but as much as they tried, they could never break my smile.” Oh, you had to admit by now that he was hard to hate, not that you ever did. His spirit was almost contagious, the smile on your face showing he already infected you, maybe a harmless work crush wouldn’t be bad after all.

“Ready to go?” The both of you turned to the woman who needed no introduction, her work spoke for itself, she was a bit of a celebrity herself. You were shocked to see him kiss her with no hesitation and looked away from the affection. It was clear he had no qualms with showing his love.

“See you, tomorrow.” Fuck my life. When you buckled yourself into the seat and began to drive away, you couldn’t help laughing at how naïve you were to think he wouldn’t be in a relationship.

[bullet-prooflove]

One Night: Donovan Rocker x Reader

Tagging: @crazy4chickennuggets @kmc1989 @withakindheartx @mirabee @oliviah-25 @luckyladycreator2 @iwannabeinthesequalmrghostface @one-sweet-gubler @victoriajhyde @telepathay @@winterrosies-blog @@mah2101 @avillagesperson @irishavengersassemble @crimeshowjunkie @haielsker-93 @whateversomethingbruh @watashiwasun @burningpeachpuppy @slytherqueen14 @brownskinbaby22 @lady-athanasia

Companion piece to Reputation

You’ve ruined Donovan Rocker for anyone else. He realises that after the first night you spend together. It’s the most debauched night he’s had in his life, and it only continues the longer this thing between the two of you goes on.

With Val his sex life was vanilla, missionary once a month on date night. They’d tried a few other things, cowgirl, doggie style but Val liked what she liked, and he accommodated her. He’d had a couple of dates after the divorce, but they weren’t anything special. They’d helped him blow off a little steam, but they were nothing compared to the shit you get up to.

He thinks trust is the reason it works so well. It’s long established, he’s known you for a couple of years at this point. You’re on different teams these days. He’s a Sergeant on 50 Squad and you’re on 20. He thinks the fact you’re on the job gives you unique insight into why he is the way he is, why he craves the things he does. There’s no judgement from you when he asks for something a little intense, he’s discovered you like to play and explore as much as he does.

The only problem is, you treat this thing like it's casual, for Donovan it’s anything but.

You’ve given him a wild ride tonight, hand on his throat as you fuck him within an inch of his life. When you squeeze just right, he arches up into you, a moan tearing from his chest. When you come, you take him with you, dragging him over the edge as his cheeks flush that pretty shade of pink.

He’s barely had time to catch his breath before your slipping out from underneath his sheets. You scoop up your vest top from the floor, tugging it on over your curves so that it falls mid-thigh. His hand captures yours, tugging you back down onto the edge of the bed.

“Stay a little.” He requests.

“Donovan…”

He adores the way you say his name. He’s always been Rocker until that night in Noche, and now he’s Donovan, the man that loves you more than life itself.

“We’ve talked about this.” You remind him as he shifts into a sitting position. His hand comes to rest on upon your shoulder, his thumb skirting over the nape of your neck. Its an intimate little gesture, an admission that he wants more from arrangement the two of you have.

“We have.” He agrees as his lips follow suit, his heated mouth ghosts up the curve of your throat, his arms wrapping around you and drawing you back into the shelter of his body. “But what’s wrong with this?”

“Donovan…” You chide.

You’re giving in though, he can tell. It’s in the way you lean back into him. That smile on your lips as you let out that laugh, the one that makes his world just a little bit brighter. He’s found that ticklish spot just under the hinge of your jaw and now, he’s exploiting it.

“Stay.” He whispers into your ear.

“Just tonight.” You tell him. “Only one night.”

***

The problem is once you break one rule, it becomes easier to break the rest.

You’ve always had a reputation as the good girl. You follow orders with precision, you always play it safe. You’re solid, dependable. You’re also sleeping with a fellow officer, something that no one would ever suspect. You’ve always had a rule about dating cops, the first thing you learn as a woman on the force is not to fall into bed with a colleague. You’ve never had a problem with it until that night at Noche, the night Donovan walked into the bar where you played violin and saw the real you, the one you’ve kept hidden from everybody else. You’ve always been attracted to him but there was something special about that evening, you were coming off the high of performing and the way he looked at you…

You’ve never wanted someone so much.

It was meant to be a one-time thing but Donovan, he captivates you. You’ve always had a fascination with the edgier side of things, it’s the reason you dress the way you do when you play, it brings out the bad girl, the person you don’t get to be on SWAT. Donovan embraces that side of you, he understands it because deep down the two of you are exactly the same.

Which is why you stay over that night, because truly the two of you have something special. You just don’t want to be the woman that other cops think is fair game if things go sideways.

It doesn’t stop you from staying over on a regular basis, from kissing him goodbye on the doorstep when you leave. You go out for breakfast at the café around the corner, try to outpace each other during your morning run. When you’re sick, he comes over, takes care of you because he can’t stand the idea of you fending for yourself.

It becomes a full-blown relationship without you even realising it until one night you’re changing out an ice pack because he got clipped during an op. He takes it from you, hissing through his teeth before he places it upon the space where the bullet struck his vest. It had been close today; Stevens had told you when they’d gotten back to headquarters. It had freaked out his entire team.  It had scared the hell out of you.

“I love you.” You tell him, your thumb ghosting over his cheekbone as he looks up at you.

He reaches for your free hand, a smile playing across his lips as he pulls you down into his lap. Your thighs hug his hips, his fingertips brush a stray strand of hair back behind your ear as he looks into your eyes and says.

“I love you too.”

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Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

[rainbogen]

Brothership Bros. Attacks - My Thoughts

It's nice that they made an effort to have these attacks actually play differently.

In previous games, if there was only 1 enemy, the Green Shell acted the same as the Red Shell. And if there were multiple enemies, after taking out the chosen enemy the Red Shell acted the same as the Green Shell.

Red Shell: Out of the two Shells, this is the clear winner. It's Mario's strongest attack until the mid-game, and even after that it still has a niche as a high damage, low BP single target attack. (That said I never had enough BP issues to be forced to resort to this.)

Green Shell: While it has a niche as the first multi-target attack you get, it drops off hard after the early game. Luigi's next Bros. Attack is also multi-target, but deals way more damage at only 2 more BP. Theoretically, it could have had a niche as a cheap way to take out hordes of weak enemies, but after the first strike, Mario's attack, and Battle Plugs it doesn't even have that going for it. At least it looks cool.

Hatch Me if You Can: While it's cool to see Yoshi helping out the brothers, and it's the first multi-target attack on Mario, it also suffers from the same issues as the Green Shell. Once I got Bomb Derby, I never felt a need to use this ever again.

Zapperator: And here's the point where you never need to use the Green Shell ever again. Like the Green Shell, it's a multi target attack on Luigi. But unlike the Green Shell and Hatch Me if You Can, it has a unique feature that keeps it relevant until quite late into the game: dealing equal damage to all enemies. You will need this for some of the challenge and even main story battles.

Bomb Derby: For the third Mario & Luigi game in a row, here's Bomb Derby. Having played both Dream Team and Paper Jam earlier in 2024, I can definitely say they made this Bros. Attack much easier to pull off. The time limit for tossing the bombs is much more lenient, unlike the previous 2 games where you had to start the input as soon as Luigi got hold of the bombs. The newly added finisher is also a nice touch.

Jump Helmet: Considering this is Luigi's only single target Bros. Attack in this game, he definitely got a good pick. What I found really cool was how they changed it from Bowser's Inside Story. Since the Switch doesn't have a dual screen, they just pulled the camera back. Makes me wonder how a Partners in Time remake would handle its Bros. Items.

Clockout Blow: The most popular Bros. Attack in this game by a long shot. And I can definitely see why. Pulling from all the best parts of anime, this move offers big damage and amazing visual spectacle. And the QTEs become easier once you realize there's set patterns as to how the bros show up.

Yoo Who Cannon: Unlike the Magic Window, which seriously suffered from being given a big finisher, Yoo Who Cannon was greatly enhanced. Not only does it look cool and deal massive damage, but it also gives what was previously a rather meh move a standout feature.

Max-Mix Vortex: Aka Luiginary Typhoon 2.0, it's cool how they turned one of this game's field abilities into a combat move. My strategy for pulling off an Excellent is to press the A & B buttons 4-5 times at the same time and then fill out the remaining gaps with precision. I also love how the tornado changes its color depending on how many fire and ice balls were used.

Conductor Connector: Aka: The Zee Egg if it didn't suck. While it has a learning curve with the outer space section, once you get that down you get high damage consistently. I wish you had gotten it a bit sooner though.

Final conclusion: While some Bros. Attacks were much, much better than others, I do have to applaud this game for not having a single Bros. Attack that I actively didn't enjoy using (for example, Paper Jam's Drill Shell). Even the weaker ones like Green Shell I still could whip out and not feel my pleasure suffering.

[libraford]

I don't mean to keep talking about work shit but I'm back in that place where I like what I do and want to continue to do it, but there are parts of it that are starting to wear on me personally.

Work bitching under the cut.

We have a whole new crew this season except for me. And my boss is getting more stressed out because of her bosses, which means that when the new crew has questions it falls to me. Which is fine- the person who trained me was real knowledgeable and I'm decent at coming up with solutions to problems on my own.

The new people think I'm 'very chill.' But the truth is that most of the problems they're fussing over are things that I've encountered before and I know how to solve them or who to call if I can't. Sometimes my solutions aren't perfect and the overhead bosses notice that we had to rig something.

My immediate boss wants perfection. I told her that I can't promise that. She still thinks that I can do that, but I've never been a perfectionist. She will show you every hair out of place, every wrinkle in every collar, every misplaced crop.

Well?

Our subjects are children and children are imperfect. I didn't wash my hair for a year in fifth grade because I had constant earaches and didn't want to get my head wet. Sometimes kids are just funny looking- they make weird faces when you tell them to smile, they bug their eyes out, they don't sit still. Like I'm sorry, parents, that your kid doesn't sit with perfectly placed hands and a natural smile- but that's your goofy kid. Love and cherish their goofy years.

With most kids, I have a few tricks for getting them to fix their shirts and hair, get into the correct pose, and somewhat approaching a natural picture smile. But when you're doing 60 subjects a minute, some of them are not going to be perfect.

Yesterday I had a student who was special needs, did not like to be touched, and had specific wants for her photo. Her mother died last month and she wanted a photo of her holding the locket with her picture in it. Its the cutest photo ever.

They'll see that I went off-book. They'll see that her skirt isn't perfectly pleated. They'll see that she has some stray hairs.

I made an accommodation for this child. I accepted that we weren't going to get it perfect, but we were going to get a photo that her grandparents were going to cherish forever. Its truly an adorable photo. If I waited for perfect, I wasn't gonna get it.

Another kid was having a bad day. She was crying. I had to take her picture while she was crying, which is insult to injury for a kid who is having an internal crisis. We weren't going to get perfect.

I instruct the special needs teachers to send their kids to me because I'm very patient and I know some tricks and I know my equipment and I know how to make some adjustments to make it easier that some of my new photographers might not. I may not get perfect. I hope for happy, I hope for 'looking at the camera.' Its a win if I get both.

When I'm doing yearbook candids, I do fast and good. I have a system that allows me to take a rather high volume of decent photos that I know will look good in a yearbook without interrupting a class to get them. You literally can't get perfect here except on accident. They're kids in their natural environment.

When I'm doing sports candids I aim for volume. I know where to stand to get the best shots. If I take enough pictures, occasionally I get a really good one. But I don't look for perfect. I can't be like 'hey basketball dude, could you twist your hips a little bit to get that flattering curve of your spine?' Not happening.

I learned to work fast because I am being asked to do multiple things within a short time frame, so I learned how to process tasks in an efficient way: learning the typical building layout to minimize my workload and prepare for certain hiccups that happen often.

I mention them to the new people. I tell them that I am good and fast because I have done these things for three years and I am familiar with thinking on my feet. Often, I have to get things done quickly so that I can go help the new photographers who are struggling. If they prefer to go slow and focus on details first, that's fine. I will focus on volume and speed, I will pick up the slack while they are still learning.

I am told that I am going too fast. I need to slow down, focus on details, get things right instead of get them done.

But which would you prefer? That your kid was just a little messy for their photo or that I didn't take their photo at all because we ran out of time? Last season, one of our photographers had an emergency and I had to photograph nearly 800 students by myself.

The boss was shocked that they were good. Glad to hear we were expecting garbage.

Yesterday, while at a job, the boss was there to help one of the new photographers with one of the more complicated tasks. The new photographer felt that she was being pressed to go faster than her standards would allow. I told her afterwards that speed comes with time, there are some things you can't account for, and it wasn't necessary to push her that hard.

Our other new photographer is a 'perfectionist' and she takes so very much time getting every hair and every position and every expression, but she struggles to put up her equipment every time and if there's a problem she shuts down and can't think of a solution.

I have to be able to set up quickly so that I can make sure she has an extra hand to help her with issues. I have to photograph quickly to make sure that if she needs help I'm available.

And her photos are not really that much better. I'm often coaching her on cropping, on posture.

Slow does not equate perfection. Every person I've met that calls themselves a perfectionist is a perfectionist until it comes to the actual job.

She wants me to do class groups. Every time she trains me on class groups, there is some reason that I have to hop onto a solo unit. The first time it was because one of our photographers, another perfectionist, was taking too long and it created a bottleneck. Last time, it was because our other photographer went into labor and the remaining photographer was slower than hell.

So I'm learning that my speed and ease is an asset in these situations, but in situations where speed is not an asset then I should slow down- which experience tells me that if you slow down you're not guaranteed to do better.

Earlier in the week, I was showing one of the new girls how to do a dance backdrop setup. I had her look over my shoulder while I did the white balance and then exposure. I had shown her how to do it on a previous day and this was just reinforcement. Its also something that we do literally on every job, just in a different context- she should understand the concept and I gave her the option to raise any questions.

The boss told me that if I'm training someone how to do something I should show them how to do it, then mess up the settings on purpose for them, and then have them fix it. We were running behind schedule and I had actually been on schedule to leave like two hours prior but chose to stay so that we could work on this project together. I was not intending on training anyone.

She asks me why I don't want to become a trainer.

Its not usually like this. Usually, I can coast a little. But I'm filling the shoes of a couple people that had to sit this season out and now she's busting my chops to be perfect when 'perfect' was never my goal.

I dunno.

Its exhausting.

[honeybeeofficial]

Im obsessed with your horseshoe crab bag and wanna make my own but dont have any leather working experience or knowledge, did you have a pattern you followed or did you just free hand it? also what would you recommend to someone wanting to try leather crafts for a first time?

I'll answer both this and a related question from @chaoticspaces:

hey! I’m in love with your crab bag. you mentioned you’ve never worked with leather; do you have any tips on where/how to start learning? or did you just wing it? I must preface that I’m a beginner at any sort of crafting and will have to learn the building blocks first but damn, people can just MAKE that kinda shit? I’ll learn to sew for that.

So it must be acknowledged that I am a fairly experienced crafter, I grew up sewing and sculpting and origami-ing and all sorts of crafty things. Meaning that although the horseshoe crab is my first experience in leatherworking, it's building off of existing crafting skills and experience thinking through how materials behave and how shapes interact. I say this as a preface not to discourage anyone from diving in, but rather so anyone who's newer to crafting can go in with a bit of perspective and not get discouraged if they don't get the hang of it right away! Be patient with yourself and keep pursuing the skills you want to develop.

With that out of the way, here's a (slightly abbreviated, but still Long) walk through what my process was like for drafting the pattern and learning how to work with leather!

Drafting the pattern

I started by looking up pictures of horseshoe crabs and doing a simple drawing of one from the top and from the side to get a sense of the shapes.

Then I broke it down into sections to make things easier on myself. Reducing things to basic shapes (crescent, box, wedge, cone, etc) is a good way to start making sense of a more complex form.

To make it work in three dimensions, I'd sketch what I think the shapes should probably be; cut out a mini version in paper; tape it together; go "hmm, that's not right," and adjust the sketch; repeat until I get roughly the form I'm looking for.

Once I had a general shape that worked, I recreated those pieces on paper again, this time full-size. That involved a lot of math to make sure all the proportions scaled accurately. Then I cut out those pieces and taped them together and adjusted any basic proportions again to fix anything that I scaled wrong.

At that point, I had a shape that read fairly well as horseshoe crab, and that would have been fine. However, I wanted things to curve and flare and be more organic, which is where a lot of the trickier adjustments come in. Using paper prototypes allowed me to work quickly and make changes easily. To exaggerate a curve, I'd cut the tape "seam", bend the paper into the desired shape, and then add or remove material from the adjoining sides until that curve stayed in place when re-taped. Each piece of the pattern is responsible for helping its neighbors stay in place.

After I got my paper prototype to a point I was happy with, I got some cheap sheets of kids' craft foam and made another prototype in that, but stitched instead of taped, in order to test the pattern as thoroughly as possible without having to use my actual leather for it.

---

Learning basic leatherworking

Youtube! I searched things like "introduction to leatherworking," "leatherworking techniques for beginners," "how to attach two pieces of leather," etc. There are a bunch of videos that show very detailed but not-too-lengthy examples of basic techniques.

Once I had seen a few examples and made a list of the basic tools I would need to get started, I went out and got myself some tools and scrap leather to experiment with. I watched some more videos showing how to use my tools, and followed along with them

Some of the techniques I looked up to start:

How to use an adjustable groover, stitching chisel, beveler, and wood slicker

Saddle stitching

Box stitching

Butt stitching (Yeah, I know)

How to set rivets in leather

What kind of leather dye/what kind of leather conditioner to use

I spent some time testing techniques, even ones I didn't need for this project, because the more time you spend with your material and tools, the more you'll understand how they work and how to get them to do what you want. I have a bunch of scraps lying around that just have random burnished edges, wonky rivets, stitches that don't go anywhere, etc.

I also found it helpful to look through leatherworking subreddits and follow leather crafters on instagram and look through what they're doing for inspiration, tips & tricks, and to see how they handle unusual shapes. Those subreddits can also be a good resource for finding existing answers to questions you have, or asking questions yourself.

[kiweegamez]

TORANS HERE WE GO.

Ok so Torans, if you knew her you know the gist. I also had this big phase with drawing her in au’s but we don’t talk about those as they shall hopefully never surface the internet. 🗿She’s also had so much crossing lore so I think this will finally be the breakthrough of the century. She has been redesigned so many times and eventually I get bored and spruce her up a bit. Here’s her previous redesign. THIS POST BTW WILL JUST EXPLAIN SOMETHINGS ABOUT HER, if you DON’T want to read just look at the pretty pictures. 🩵

Yucky. However, her two different coloured eyes had been a key feature for her as a character as old as time. However, quite a few things changed in her newest redesign.

(Ignore the anatomical inaccuracy, ALSO HOW DARE YOU TUMBLR FOR REDUCING THE QUALITY 😠)

So clearly there are still some similarities and differences. Such as the new jaw, eyes, horn type ect. As she is now second in command in the Elite Guard. I’m unsure if someone has made one so this will be explained later. Torans is my og undertale oc, she doesn’t have anything to do with any au specifically. Her ecto-body, is a choice controlled by her magic as I imagine skeleton type monsters can learn this to fill out their clothes or make it easier to protect their bones, however as this requires energy she looks tired all the time. Also top surgery since she doesn’t like her boobas 👍 .

So here’s her sword, I’m sure you’re confused. How would she use this as it doesn’t look like it could slash well. Well think of it like this, she could slash but only with the silver top, which does less impact than her main tactic. She will use the main part of the blade to wedge these spikes into the oppositions mid torso or wherever she can latch it such as a leg, then will yank the blade towards herself so the tip of the blade will be pulled into them as the side will roughly rip out attached flesh. However, if she is going against a skeleton due to the lack of flesh unless they are casting ecto-body she will hook the curved points into the rib to pull them close and then attack. The skull like handle is to protect the back of her hand, if someone does grab her wrist she can use the ‘horns’ to try and gouge their wrist if put in the right spot. If in a dire situation she will actually attempt to fling her sword, given its top heavy she will quickly shot put throw it to try and launch it into someone. I haven’t even bothered touching her armour yet lol

She does have a tail! Her hair, ears and tail are softer than they look! But be warned she will not let you touch them easily. As a show of irritation or slight discomfort the first sign to notice is the smoke escaping the ‘vents’ in her horns as they begin to heat up, then if further aggravated it will come from her sinuses as well. When enraged or full on beast mode her horns will spark and light on fire. This smoke is rather thick, but really doesn’t affect anyone’s breathing, the fire does though… She will use her horns to hook others in battle such as gaps in skeletons arms or legs if positioned, she has been reported to hook a skeleton by the eye sockets by her horns then ram them into a wall. Being the second in command of the Elite guard results her taking orders from the first in command, whom deals with paper work and gives her the responsibility of all lower guard groups. If sent on missions there will only be one unless it is a mass mission where two will be sent. In total there are 6 Elite Guards, (In ranking order) Riua (Re-wa), Torans (Tor-rans), Yanku (Yan-Kew), Pirta(Pur-tah), Eliqo(E-lick), and Viren (Vi-ran). They are essentially the bosses of all lower guards, with the responsibility of tasking them all with missions, care for cohorts, provide needed equipment, armoury checks, interrogations, ect.

Now, back to Torans she goes by Loyalty and honesty, she is also. A stiff ass. She’s not taking any shit and is ready to put you in your place and humble you. If she were to show affection to others she is very physical touchy-feely but only in private. She is a beast in the battle field and can take a couple hits. However, a weak spot is to hook something onto her horns and slam her into the ground, causing her to become immobilised for a moment from shock, this time is elongated if in her armour due to the weight. Another weak spot are her hips as they are sensitive she will often tense up and take a moment. She is the type to want a fair fight within reason, so if you are beat to a pulp she will stand there and look down at you waiting for another attack unless able to then she will walk away. Unless, she sees no hope for you, striking when you are at your weakest. Or if one has fought with her before on unforgivable terms she will show that no mercy is given to those of foul nature.

She’s quite stern and often doesn’t respond verbally often, as she thinks that her subordinates may take her tone wrong or that she may something wrong or confusing as she talks rather fast due to some form of minor anxiety. She will set up routines often and wants to know as much as possible, if she is your interrogator she will ‘shift’ herself to match your mindset but she can easily become the ‘bad cop’. A weakness of hers is her short-temper, easily set off by incompetence (which at first annoys her) and back-stabbers. Also loud sounds. You thought I would just give her goat ears without sensitive hearing? WRONG HAHAHA. If she notices somethings going to blow up she gonna get on the floor and cover her ears. Another way to gain an advantage against her. She also doesn’t like suck ups. Straight up. She will cut the bullshit.

This is her soul! Now about Torans’ whole life situation. There’s purely a reason she’s second in command rather than first, she’s a lot more helpful in the battlefield than the average monster. She technically cannot turn to dust. To balance this factor out healing magic cannot work on her, slightly worsens the wounds so she has to tough it out, much like wounds in our world. Her soul will still shatter but will rejoin together eventually. The ‘mini soul’ pattern in the middle represents her ‘undying spirit’ when her soul shatters she will just straight up pass out for hours, girlies eye lights are going out and she’s falling like a brick. The cracks constantly glow hence she doesn’t show her soul as others tend to ask about this sensitive topic. When awakening she will be very unaware and dazed, it usually takes a week to recover basic movements yet will be severely weakened for elongated periods of time hence why she’s so heavily focused on training when she can. But she’s stubborn so you know if you find her she’s going to be stumbling around like a zombie into a wall.

And before you ask, this strange unattainable au was…..erased…. By unseen means, with a few escaping but ultimately separated. Yet this was many upon many years ago, so it is very unlikely that the others are still living as the ‘Great fog’ (the term known for Torans’ experience during the collapse of the Au) happened around 387 years ago. She’s 407 years old. So yes she’s old like a certain goopy skeleton. She can also be quite oddly resentful towards nagging or those overly curious she comes across especially when others ask where she came from as an innocent question, usually causes her to have a flashback causing her to freeze up, or a full on lash out (yet this is much rarer and is usually caused as a after affect of heightened stress or she’s just annoyed). But despite her cold and tarnished personality she is a most valuable mentor to those patient enough to listen to her.

Torans headcanon voices- Coven Morgana 

(I imagine she would link cross across to being a ex-royal guard member from his Au through his fighting style and stance, so I feel like the lines directed at the knight would sometimes be referring to him) Helmeted Torans- Odysseus (with voice modifier) or meanie ENA (without voice modifier / voice mod off in the helmet)!

Have some close ups, you deserve them especially if you read all that 😭.

Her forked ecto-tongue is unnatural as it formed from an injury, she cannot perceive taste as well or at all as others can.

THIS PICTURE HAS SO MUCH SEBASTIAN SOLACE ENERGY ISTG.

anyways thanks for reading, my ask box is always open.

🔽||Related Posts||🔽

[ms-demeanor]

So, i did it. I got the bitwarden, i imported all my passwords. I set up a master password i can actually remember. i got the app and the desktop thingie and the browser extension. I even figured out how to make bitwarden generate a new password, and save that password, when updating an account password (this was especially frustrating, for some reason, especially compared to Firefox's automatic "generate new secure password" autofill).

But, this leaves me with a question: what am I supposed to do with all the saved passwords attached to my Firefox account? its what I had been doing for many years previously. Should I just delete them all? leave them there? Seems like I should delete them...

Yeah I would recommend deleting them from your browser, especially because you should be updating them over time and it'll eventually just get confusing.

There is a little bit of a learning curve when adjusting to bitwarden but it becomes second nature really quickly. Good job on switching over, it's a good step and will make things a lot easier in the long run!

[civilotterneer]

hi hi! I've been looking at your blender art and its all been super fascinating to see! from your series to your wip and progress pics, its been kinda inspiring me to also give blender a go! although... i only have a laptop at my disposal, and i'm not sure if it could handle the power of blender, what do you think? should I proceed with caution, or leave it for later?

Apologies on the following wall of text, but here's a pretty lengthy explanation of what you'll need to keep in mind. TL,DR: You sure can, but you'll have to think about optimization!

So, the thing to be careful about with using a laptop that isn't very powerful relates to complexity and polygons, followed then by rendering. If you can keep the complexity down, you totally can use a lower power rig, so long as your willing to wait for render times. Even if you can't do much now, Blender has a learning curve, so starting now is better than waiting for a better PC anyways.

If you make simple models without a million polygons, and they're just like props without bending or other mechanics, you totally can! If anything, making props is both fun and great to learn from! Making a UV map for a box is WAY easier than making one for a VRChat model. At least to gain some traction, try making some props from around the house or making simple scenes from Youtube tutorials, your laptop can totally handle that with simple lighting physics.

For more complex things, the name of the game is: Optimization.

If you wanna make models on a lower power PC, I highly suggest studying VRChat model makers or game model makers. Game models are purposely made to be lower poly and easier on computers, and the textures tend to do a lot of work, but even those can be made simpler. If you design with optimization as your goal, you'll get pretty far even on a low power PC, but it requires an optimization mindset, you can't just willy-nilly add polygons to make a shape if you intend to do things like rig it and make it move.

Your render times may be slower, and it may make your computer chug a bit, but unless you get a RAM or GPU RAM error saying you don't have enough, you just have to be patient, and even with those errors, reducing your model or render quality can fit the difference. This is honestly the only hard cap on if your laptop with survive it's Blender experience, and there are ways to avoid it.

Now, your limitations are as follows: you can't just mindlessly model polygons on complex rigs or props, and you won't be able to have a ton of high-quality models in a single render.

Xaphar is actually very un-optimized, he makes my computer (which is kinda strong) chug a bit unless I turn off a few of his settings to only show in the final render. Civ, Livic, and Lye are way better optimized, so they result in fewer issues and are way easier to work with. Luckily, with my stronger computer, I can afford to be less optimized as the computer can just handle it for Xaphar, but on a laptop, you won't have the resources to not care. Being mindfully optimized will be your goal if you're going for a big scene or lots of character modelling.

Optimized props will allow you to add more to your scenes too. Too many high-quality objects will run you into a RAM or GPU RAM limit and it won't render. If you go all the way to rendering, try and keep your scenes limited, put a wall behind them to cut off the background, keep the props to well-optimized or don't use many. A lower power computer is just an excuse to cheat more! And there are many optimization cheats!

[racefortheironthrone]

Considering superhero comics predate the invention of spandex, when did the idea that superhero costume are made from spandex come from?

Great question!

To answer this question, I first need to backup and do some history about fin-de-siècle strongmen and the origin of the "superhero costume" as a distinct cultural concept. In the late 19th/early 20th century, circus strongmen were not just huge draws but celebrities and cultural icons in their own right, part of the whole obsession of anxious masculinity in that era, along with the emergence of bodybuilding and quite a bit of racist eugenics (think "Passing of the Great Race" stuff) about how industrial civilization was making white men effete and degenerate and thus vulnerable to the Other.

However, the strongmen had something of a fashion problem: in order to do their shtick, they often wore close-fitting silk tights and shirts in order to show off their musculature, and these had a tendency to split when they were flexing. This could run the risk of leaving the strongmen hanging in the wind, as it were, so they adapted by putting on wrestler's unitards over their tights to keep themselves under wraps.

Throw on a cape, and you literally have the archetypal superhero costume. But if you take a look at how these costumes look on an actual human body, they're not literally skin-tight. You can see some muscle definition in places, but there's also visible wrinkles and folds at the joints and other places where you need more flexibility. It's just not quite there yet in terms of evoking the whole George Sandow aesthetique.

And then in 1958, spandex was invented as a much more elastic fabric that could be truly skintight without splitting, so you could really see the musculature much more clearly. Add this to the expanding and increasingly professionalized and advanced culture of postwar bodybuilding, and people's expectations about what their superheroes could and should look like began to change. Thus, starting in the Silver Age and into the Bronze Age, superheroes start to look a lot buffer and their costumes look a lot tighter so that the reader can see every damn muscle (and curve) on superheroes' bodies - because artists and editors and publishers realized they could make more money by making comics that were a bit sexier, thanks to the magic of "spandex."

Now this gets us into the economics of the comics industry and changing generational cohorts, but as we passed from the Silver Age to the late Bronze Age, you started to see a shift from comics artists who worked in comics because Jews and Catholics weren't welcome in the Art Departments of Madison Avenue, to comics artists who worked in comics because they had grown up reading comics and learned to draw from comics.

This had an impact on superhero costumes, because the older artists tended to be plugged in more to fashion and fashion art and thus drew superhero costumes as clothing with real three-dimensionality to it and the younger artists found it easier and faster to just draw familiar superhero bodies naked (with "spandex" as the figleaf) and then put in a few lines showing where the costumes end - and this easier and faster style that turned up the dial on allowable sexiness was more profitable for the companies.

Once you get to Jim Lee, Rob Liefeld, Todd McFarlane, and the other "Image Kids" of Nineties Comics, the spandex-ification of superhero comics had reached its peak because now the hot new trend was stuff that wouldn't work even with real-world spandex, hence the phenomena of the boob sock and the logical extension of the swimsuit/bikini for superwomen to the battle thong.

So ultimately it all comes down to the combined pressures of culture and economics.