#but at the same time i just wanna go home. i know it's largely culture shock and stress but i feel so out of place here.

[batemanofficial]

can somebody please convince me that i haven't made a horrible mistake

[lunajay33]

Struggle🖤

Summary: You always loved azriel but never had the courage to say anything wanting to get to know his culture cassian took you to the Illyrian camps but when you get taken you fall into a dark place only one person might be able to pull you out of

Pairing: Azriel x f!reader

Warning: Violence

•Masterlist•

“Sweetie you need to tell him you’ve been head over heels in love with him since…..since we’ll forever” mor said as we were sat around the dinning room in the house of wind

“Mor you know I can’t he means everything to me I can’t risk that”

“But he’s your” before she could finish the three boys walked in cutting off our conversation thankfully

“Welcome home boys me and dear y/n here were just discussing how in love she is with…”

“MOR DONT” I yelled out before she could practically ruin my life, I looked back over at the guys seeing a smirk plastered on Rhys and cassians face as Azriel looked anywhere but me

Standing up I brush out my clothes out of nervous habit and turn to cassian

“Umm can I talk to you in private for a moment”

“Well of course darling lead the way” he smirks as he holds his arm out for me, he’s like my brother, my duffis brother, I bring him to my room and I throw myself on the bed and sigh making him laugh as he does the same almost breaking my bed

“So what is it you need sunshine”

“This is a huge favor but seeing as I’d have my big strong protector with me, could you show me the Illyrian camps, I wanna know more about where Az came from”

“Oh I don’t know that’s not a place for a lady, Rhys would kill me”

“But I’ll be by your side the whole time and we don’t have to stay long I just wanna know more about him”

“Here’s a thought how about you just ask him” he pokes

“Cas come on this is hard for me, it’s obviously not snapped for him yet and we’ll maybe if I know more things it’ll somehow snap into place for him, I don’t know it’s silly but it’s worth a shot”

“Ugh fine but only because nesta would kill me if I didn’t try and help you out, she’s got a sweet spot for you”

“Oh thank you so much Cas, I owe you”

The next morning I got ready in some warmer clothes knowing it could get could in the camps and since cas will be flying I’ll need that extra warmth, making my way downstairs I’m stopped by shadows swirling around my hands and through my hair like the occasionally did

“They only do this with you, must be something special about you” I hear from the corner of the dim hallway as Azriel emerges from the darkness, my heart leaping in my chest

“I quit like them, they’re beautiful”

“You think they’re beautiful?”

“Of course they always find me when I’m down and the comfort me, plus they’re from you so they’re pretty terrific” I don’t know where this boldness came from but atleast it made him smile which was a rare sight

“Well Cas is waiting for me but I’ll see you later, bye Az” I said quickly before making my way to cas

“Ready princess”

“Always!”

It was a long flight there and by the time Cas landed he was pretty tired having to carry my extra weight

“Sorry to have to put you through this I know how much you work”

“Don’t worry about it darling, hopefully this’ll work out like you want it too then it’ll be worth it not having to hear you both complain anymore”

“Wait what do you mean both?”

“Come on sunshine time to show you around” he laughs with a mischevious grin

We walked through the camp for a while he showed me where him Rhys and Az would meet up and where they lived, this didn’t go unnoticed by many males of the camp not taking their eyes off of me

“Come to investigate our camps again traitor?” A large Illyrian man groan as he stood with some other males in our path

“Nothing of your concern now move” cassian growled holding me behind him

“And I see you’ve brought us a sweet treat” before I knew it a fight broke out and even though Cassian was strong and great at fighting it was unfair against 5 men, then arms wrapped around me and started to drag me away

“CASSIAN……LET ME GO!” I scream terrified of what was to come

Dragged into a dark room being tied to a metal hot pipe, my arms over extended behind my back as the heat from the pipe burned my skin

“Oh we’re gonna send that high lord a message”

Azriels POV

After my interaction with y/n this morning I’ve been confused, did she have feelings for me too? She was pretty flirty for someone so timid around me usually

I was broken from my thoughts when cassian busted through the door out of breath, bloody and exhausted

“Cas what the hell happened? Where’s y/n?”

“I knew it was a bad idea……she was taken by Illyrian men they jumped me and I couldn’t find her” Rhys quickly entered the room taking my arm and winnow us to the camps

I sent my shadows out hoping to pinpoint exactly where she is, after a moment they frantically swirled back to me, she was in a run down house near by, Rhys followed me no questions asked

Busting down the door I see a group of men alert ready to fight, Rhys and I so full of anger finished them of quickly and painfully until all that was left in the room to hear was her quiet whimpers

Finding her in a dark corner her forearms burned and blistering red, her clothes ripped from her body showing the red angry cuts and whips littering her body, her nose dripping with blood and her one eye black and swollen shut, my heart clenched at the sight knowing I could’ve protected her, if I sent one of my shadows with them none of this would’ve happened and that’s when I felt it, the pull in my chest the one I never thought I’d experience

She’s my mate

Normal pov

I woke up aching all over hearing voices all around me, opening eyes as best I could realizing I could only see out of one, I slowly reached up feeling the swell and pain that coursed through the area

“Thank god you’re awake” I hear next to me as the bed dips and those hands I could never mistake, the hands of the man I love but then memories of the hands that touched me, that hurt me flashed in my mind and I pulled away out of instinct wanting to just curl up and hide away from the world

“Oh darling I’m so sorry, I knew taking you there was a bad decision” cassian said from behind Azriel, I could see the regret written all over his face

“How do you feel?” Mor asked sweeping my hair aside but oddly her touch didn’t make me want to run away

“Hurts” I groaned out my throat hoarse and dry

“You’ve been out for a few days, Majda says your wounds are healing fast so that’s good news” Azriel said seeming nervous but certain wounds I felt would never heal, my heart ached

“Can I just go to my room, I need to be alone”

“Are you sure Angel” if any other time I heard Az call me Angel I’d be jumping with joy but right now I couldn’t feel that, I just nodded as nor helped me sit up and led me to my room, walking slowly feeling ever cut and pain that was inflicted, slowly laying back down in my own bed, it gave some form of comfort knowing I was home

“Do you need anything?” Az asked as I felt his shadows swirl around me basically engulfing me

I shook my head and they left but before Azriel closed the door he left one shadow with me telling me to call for him when I need anything

Then I was alone letting sleep take me over once again

Azriels POV

Seeing her so broken made me feel like I’ve failed her, the inner circle all sat around the table silently all worried about my dear mate

“What the hell were you even doing there?” I groaned asking Cassian

“She wanted to know more about your past, she thought it would help snap the mating bond for you” my heart stopped

“She did this for me, she knew we are mates?”

“She’s known for a while, hell I’m pretty sure she knew immediately from the moment she met you centuries ago, she didn’t wanna pressure you” Mor stated

“Why didn’t any of you tell me, how didn’t I know” the stress now gnawing at my soul

“It was pretty obvious Az, she’d blush anytime you’d walk in the room, or how happy she’d get when you’d come home from a long mission, she loves you so much man” Rhys added

It’s been a week now and she hasn’t left her room I kept checking on her but she never wanted anything, she’s become pale and frail, never showing emotion, sometimes I’d feel a wave of terror down through the bond and I’d always send her back a wave of calm hoping it would ease her

But I couldn’t take it anymore knowing she’s in pain, everyone has tried helping to get through to her in anyway we knew how, I just have to do something

I knocked on the door knowing she wouldn’t respond but still I wanted to give her that respect, slowly I opened the door seeing her in her usual spot sat at the window my shadow swirling around her hands, seemingly mezmorizing her, distracting her from what plagues her mind

“Hey darling, can I sit with you?” I ask approaching her, shivering from the cool breeze from the open window, she nodded and I sat across from her on the window seat, after I took a blanket and draped it over her lap

“Do you want to talk about it, maybe it’ll help ease what you’re feeling” she was silent for a long time just looking at the shadow till I noticed the tremble of her lip

“It hurts Az” she whispered as she curled into herself

“I’m so sorry Angel” I said placing my hand on her leg gently hoping it could ground her in this vulnerable moment

“What they did to me, humiliated me, stripped me naked and beat me black and blue, I can’t even look at my self anymore” she cried finally opening up

“I just wanna be me again, I wanna be happy”

“I’m hear every step of the way but it’s gonna take time Angel, you know we are all here for you, I’m always gonna be here and I’ll never let anyone hurt you ever again” she sighed as she leaned forward and laid on her side her head resting in my lap

“Can we just stay here for a moment”

“Anything for you, my beautiful mate”

[smallestapplin]

Hellooo! Good evening or um good morning so yea I was watching G1 transformers and canonically mirage is like loaded like he's from the upper class. So I um immediately thought that he's sugar daddy material. Like man only picks the finest/expensive cars even from G1. So I'm asking for like um sugar daddy mirage with a human female reader and since he doesn't know how to woo her, he practically buys her attention and time. Like he enjoys watching her spend his money. Casually suggesting that a top that he sees while she's scrolling on her phone and says that it would fit her and that she should buy it. Coincidentally, the color of the top matches his paint. Omg I've made this long huhu now I feel shy. 😿😿

Wait this is actually so cute and funny, I love it. I hope I did this right for you!💖

-

-

Mirage isn’t use to human ways of living and courtship, but he tries so hard to be friendly and welcoming, he wants you to know he’s safe to go to for anything! But falling for you wasn’t on that list, you’re such a tiny thing compared to him, he’s worried he’ll hurt you.

But how could he not? You’re so funny, so kind, always helping him learn more about your culture and Earth in general, even if that means he won’t ever live down calling a trees ‘organic speed stoppers’, but your laughter made it all the more worth it to embarass himself.

Mirage isn’t sure how to court you the human way, so why not his way? It’s not like he can ask anyone either, lest the tell you or make fun of him for falling for a human.

He shows off, racing Sunstreaker and Sideswipe often, doing dangerous stunts, taking sharp turns, making sure he’s flashy enough for you in his alt mode. He lives for your cheers, lives on your priase. The twins know what he’s doing, it’s what ever racer does to gain the affection of someone.

Yet you don’t pick up on that, you gush over him sure, telling him how cool that was! How cool he is! But it doesn’t seem to click, not that Mirage can fault for you that, you’ve never had anyone court you like that.

So, why not gifts? Gifts are a universal love language that can’t go wrong!

“Mirage, you really didn’t have to get me anything, being with you is more than enough.”

How you have him wrapped around your tiny organic digit, making him swoon and spark pulse.

“It’s no problem, really! I wanna show you how much I care about you, so it wasn’t difficult to find a way to buy things for ya!”

He’s too kind, even bought everything himself after hacking (very easily) into your phone and used his own funds to spoil you. Until he got a com from you the day all the packages arrived.

“How many things did you buy me!?”

“Eh, it wasn’t costly so I don’t really remember.”

“Wasn’t costly? Mirage, this must’ve cost my life’s savings!”

You thank him over and over and over again, but he doesn’t mind, always smiling at you and simply asking if you liked what he bought you. It makes your cheeks burn when he does that, asking so sweetly, honestly you might think he’d have an ulterior motive.

The skirts, the dresses, the tops all ranging fm cozy to cute to flirty, pants much the same, he’s even bought you expensive consoles, games, and even things you complained about needing to replace or needing in general.

Each time you cry he doesn’t need to buy you anything, yet the large bot just looks at you with hearts in his optics telling you it’s fine.

Soon nearly sixty percent of your outfits are all things he’s bought you, like a silent claim over you, you can’t move in your home without being reminded of him.

But then that top came in, the one he had been waiting for, and once it did he didn’t bother trying to hide his want to see it. He sits in your drive way in his alt mode, awaiting to see how you look, and by the all spark he’s nt disapppointed.

“Does it look okay?”

You aren’t exactly a big fan of crop tops, but the high waisted jeans you are wearing cover you enough to feel comfortable. The crop top itself is loose and flowy, honestly you could see yourself wearing it around more in the house.

It’s mainly blue with tie dyed black, white, and red, matching his colors perfectly.

You look stunning.

You jump a little, hearing his engines rev loudly. You laugh softly at the display.

“I take it you like it?”

“Remind me to get you a sporty top in those colors.” He sounds near breathless.

“My, Mirage, if i didn’t know any better I’d say you just want us to match.” You tease, laughing at how his engine outright purrs at your words.

Oh, if only you knew how right you were.

Matching, like a couple, like the couple he desperately wants you two to be, loudly claiming you as his.

[hallowpen]

Hello! 👋 First of all i just wanna say, as someone who isn’t very familiar with Thai culture your explanations have been very enlightening and just give TLP another layer of depth, so thank you for posting them 🥹🙏. With that said, I was reading one of your posts that said “the social class nods are subtly woven into their interactions” and I was just wondering if you could maybe expand on that?

Hello!!! 😊😊😊 Aw... thank you!!! That actually means so much to me because this series means so much to me. I've been anticipating the adaptation of The Loyal Pin for who knows how long, at this point. I love the novel! (I own both the Thai and English versions. Though I haven't actually read the English translation yet, so I don't know how accurate it is to the original hehe) Once FreenBecky were attached, I was SOLD. Then the MOC decided to back the series and I knew how monumental this series would be, not just for Thai GL, but for Thailand in general. It makes me extremely proud to see important sapphic media, on such a large scale, originating from my home country. I could never have imagined something this grand happening just three years ago. It makes me emotional.

Before I get too in my feels, let me actually answer your question...

Just for clarification purposes, the ask is referring to my tags on this reblog of @dragonsareawesome123's gifset.

It's important to understand that Anil and Pin's whole dynamic is built around their social rankings, so it makes sense that their interactions reflect that... even if it's not entirely conscious. Anil is royalty, and because of that she is afforded certain liberties that Pin is not. Her 'mischievous' behaviors are excused and overlooked because, yes she is young, but she can also do as she pleases. She never faces any repercussions in the same way that Pin does. It's one of the perks of being a highly ranked Princess. Anil is favored in the palace because it's her home.

Pin is a guest. Yes, she holds the rank of 'nobility', but it is a title reserved for what higher ranking royalty would consider a commoner. She was afforded the privilege to live in the palace because Princess Pattamika took her in. Pin was not born into royalty. Neither was Pattamika, for that matter. Pattamika is strict with Pin, in much the same way Pin is strict with herself. Because neither of them can afford to have her fall out of line. Pin holds favor with Anil and her family, but it does not afford her the freedom to betray her social standing. If anything, it only enforces it. It makes you think...would they sill favor her if she were to go against their wishes in any way, shape, or form?

Pin is forever on the outside looking in... and she subconsciously knows it. And, in some ways, Anil subconsciously knows it as well.

"People say that it is so hard to hear Lady Pin uttering a word. As if you’re afraid something will fall out of your mouth." Anil to Pin

Unlike Anil, Pin must hold firm to palace rules.

"Why did you hit her?" "Lady Pin failed to take good care of Your Highness. She disgraced you by putting you in danger." Pattamika to Anil

"Please feel free to do as you wish. As if you would listen to me if I try to stop you." Pin to Anil

She dares not to disobey Pattamika, because she knows and understands why she'd be punished if she were to do so. And she cannot talk her way out of it, the way Anil can.

"Although she might be strict, meticulous, and strongly adherent to tradition... she loves me dearly, and continues to teach me and educate me in many things." Pin about Pattamika

"Poor Lady Pin, I really pity her. She often gets punished because of Anil."

She keeps her feelings of adoration for Anil hidden as secret treasures in her room.

She's quick to question Anil's lack of adherence to formal etiquette:

"Aren’t ladies normally supposed to [dance] with a gentleman? It would look peculiar if we do it together."

The only times she feels comfortable and gets to be herself is when Anil, for lack of a better word, 'allows' her to be. And Pin feels indebted to her because of that.

"Without you, I wouldn’t have been able to get through those lonely and miserable times. Thank you for being my friend, my home, and my everything."

So to answer Anil's question, Pin would feel incredibly lonely should Anil ever leave her... as she would no longer have an escape from society's class structure and expectations.

"With you, my life in the palace is never lonely." Pin to Anil

[wowstrawberrycow]

Prepping for my request!

I finally feel prepared enough to write it @celeluwhenfics! I'll write your LegolasXGimli (Gigolas) drabble tomorrow!

Got some foodie head canons for ya!

Elves

Food culture

So canonically if we go by books meat is not completely unseen from the dinner table.

However! And this is my head canon:

I think they have things stored for guests who don't share their customs. I especially think Elrond is good about that since in the books his house seems to be welcoming towards just about anyone who's not a jerk. He's just a cool guy like that! Further more I think they eat very much the way modern Daoist's (Taoists) do which is primarily Vegan if not vegetarian with acceptions. I imagine sweets are very rare outside of festivals/large gatherings.Food is a spiritual thing for Daoist(taoist) philosophy, and I can easily see that being the same for elves too.

They may have modern Buddhist practices too. For example not only is there thanks for the planet for providing it but also gratitude for each step given to prepare it (and to all who prepared it). I think personal meals at home and feasting amongst one another is very ritualistic in that way.

But in contrast I also want to say that depending on the situation their feasting manner can vary. I say this because these guys love their wine. They seem to party a lot when they get visitors in the books. So I'm going to say that their food culture can be laid back with good company. I don't think anyone would be offended if an outsider doesn't participate in their food customs. They just wanna have a good time. But this may also depend on who's house your visiting. Elrond's house, Galadriel's woodland home, and Thranduil's cavern palace very different ways of how they treat visitors. The degree of welcome may very.

Dwarves

I'm basing my head canons off of what the movies for this one.

Food culture

I think dwarves are very lively during most meals and it's a custom for each person to tell a story or sing a song at the table. If someone isn't laughing it's not truly meal time. There is always some sort of alcohol on the table and plethora of breads and cheese. I think cheese is collected daily depending on if there is a village a few miles away. I imagine the errand boy for the market changes regularly so no one person is stuck doing it. They live in caves so meat must be cured for storage depending on the type of meat it is. (I'll get into food storage in a bit) I think that dwarves like a lot of baked goods in general too. So casseroles, baked deserts, and hearty pies are always available. These guys give me a cozy hearty cooking vibe, mainly because of the bellows they work with in the mines. Ovens just seem to be bedded everywhere in their culture.

I imagine that immediately after everyone is done eating they have warrior prayers for the fallen too. Then they all pitch in to clean up the table and wash up the dishes and kitchen too. They might be a rowdy crew but they do know how to clean up very well. After a meal they take the time to bond with family by playing games, some may rough house for amusement, entertaining little ones and maybe napping depending on the meal

I think they also have an excellent food storage system too. Because they live in mines their would undoubtedly be parts of the mountain that maintain constant temperatures. I could see them manipulating the temperature to something more accommodating for foods that need a colder storage space. These dudes can use magic to a degree, so this doesn't seem too out of their scope to me.

[uchu-no-bashira]

The Cookout - Gyomei Head!Canon w/OC!Kiana

Authors note: This was a very self-indulgent Head canon that got waaay too long and was too much fun for me. The scenarios could have gone on and on, but I had to stop eventually lmfao. Enjoy, or don't. i know I did! LMFAO. Head Canon beneath the cut.

When they got married, Gyomei had no idea how different his life would be. That isn’t to say that it was in a negative way, but it was definitely something that he wasn’t used to. Needless to say, he was apprehensive about the four day stay at Kiana’s family home; they wanted to celebrate, with a cook-out, of course.

“Is… He crying?” Kiana’s sister would ask when he’s introduced, his prayer beads tightened in one hand while Kiana grips his other hand.

“He is! He’s tearful and sensitive in the best way.” She says, the smile on her face was so large that Gyomei could see it. But something about that grip on his hand, and the happiness in her words, made meeting her family a little more comforting.

Gyomei’s heart crumbles to bits when he feels a firm hand palm his bicep - he could tell from the imperishable grip that it had to be the hand of a father, or at least a very protective older brother.

He wasn’t expecting his height to be so cherished, loved, and made fun of all at the same time. It was a strange experience.

“Damn, Gyomei!"

He's startled when he bumps into a smaller body while walking through the door.

"You know ya ass can’t fit through the door with me!” Kiana’s sibling would giggle before immediately turning to him with a hand on his forearm and stating, “Just playin’.”

Gyomei was absolutely shocked when he was greeted warmly by everyone in the house when he walked in. Normally, it’s a pretty casual thing to say “I’m back” and receive a “Welcome back.” But Kiana’s family was different…

“Tadaima… Ah.” He remembers that none of them speak Japanese, and tears up.

Okaerimas!!” Kiana would shout, causing a few glances from the family.

Imagine his surprise when they took an interest in his language because of that one interaction.

Gyomei wasn’t expecting to feel so welcomed by a group of people that didn’t share the same culture as him. Even more shocked when they all tried to learn things to accommodate him. It was very polite.

Gyomei’s favorite thing is family functions. Something about his Kiana and her family getting together brought him a sense of joy.

“Who this lil’ Asian boy?~” Kiana’s grandma would ask with a lifted brow.

“Nana, this is my husband and his name is Gyomei..” Kiana would respond - respectfully of course. She ain't wanna get slapped in the mouth. Gyomei could sense that this woman was the progenitor, and that title held much weight. Silence was his only option.

“Ooookayy!~ He cute! Tall too! Mhm, and strong! You hit the lottery with this one!! Back in my day he coulda been used to hoe an acre-long field!....” She continues, causing an apologetic Kiana to whisper ‘I’m so sorry, honey.’

Gyomei couldn’t forget the way he was brought to life by the scent of food alone in the mornings. He’d never smelled such a combination of things…

“What are those, love?” He’d ask curiously, mouth practically watering.

“I’ll feed it to you and let you figure it out~” Kiana would whisper - poorly.

“AWWWWWWWW!~”

Gyomei never knew that biscuits and gravy could go so well together, or fish and grits, or chicken and waffles, watermelon with salt or sugar. What a variety of odd combinations to make an amalgamation of wonderful flavors.

“You eat like this at home, Gyo?” Nana would ask, giving him his nth serving of whatever it was he was eating.

“Mm-mm.” He responds, steadily placing more food in his mouth with more grace than anyone else, struggling to keep his demeanor calm as he tries not to shovel food in his mouth like Kiana.

“Kiana! Start feedin’ that baby! He can’t live off scraps!” She scolds with her hands on her hips, brow furrowed and lips curled.

From that point on, every other Sunday, Gyomei would perk up - anticipating his return to a family that showed him hospitality on a level he thought comfortable and familial.

“It’s nice being invited to the cook-out, ain't it babe?

With a blush, Gyomei nods once. He understood that being invited to "The cookout" was more than just the bringing of good food. It was the integration of him into a family that wanted him there.

[dream-meister-translations]

WONDER TEA PARTY - PART 3

━

SHAYMIE : ~~♪ ~~♪ SHAYMIE : I'm so happy we're going for a walk~ But why are we going even deeper and deeper into the forest? EMMA : They said there's a way out of the forest if we keep going in this direction. MEL : Are you sure we can trust them? They are talking flowers. Isn't that a bit weird~? VOLKS : I think we can trust them. I can usually tell when someone is lying. ROUGE : They talked so beautifully, but I couldn't understand half of what they said~ OSCAR : Most of the information they gave was useless. Aside from the direction we should walk to exit the forest, and this "Alice" person.

FELD : Hmm? Do you guys see that tower beyond the trees? EMMA : Oh, yeah! It looks like there are some other tall buildings too! ROUGE : That must mean there is a city close by!

With that, we quickly hurried through the forest in the direction of the buildings. As expected, we found a city. SHAYMIE : That man has the same ears as Shaymie and Emma! Ooh! That man too! ROUGE : I see. This is our home away from home, Emma! I knew you and I were destined to be together somewhere special~! EMMA : No. My home away from home is Reckord. And our ears look completely different from yours, Rouge. ROUGE : Harsh…! EMMA : This is no time to joke around. Let's see if anyone can help us. In a flash, everything went dark.

EMMA : ….Wha!? MEL : What the hell!? Why is it suddenly so dark!? Volks, where are you!? OSCAR : Calm yourself, Mel. You're clinging to my cape. After a few minutes, our eyes adjusted to the sudden darkness and we could finally see the city again. Glancing up at the sky I noticed that the sun had completely vanished. Now replaced by a white, shining moon. EMMA : What the...!? FELD : Why is it night!? It was daytime just a second ago!

SHAYMIE : Wow~ The stars are so bright~! ROUGE : It's beautiful, isn't it? OSCAR : Nobody in town seems surprised by the sudden shift. EMMA : Ah, that's true. They all seem like they're used to it. EMMA : (My watch still says it's daytime, but the sky has turned to night…? So weird…) VOLKS : I'm sorry, sir. May I have a moment of your time? MAN : Hmm? What is it? VOLKS : We are tourists from another country. A few minutes ago it suddenly changed from day to night. Do you know why?

MAN : I dunno. It's been like this ever since Alice arrived. EMMA : (Alice! There's that name again!) MAN : It seems like a normal day when suddenly it turns to night. FELD : How can you be so calm about this!? EMMA : Who is this Alice? MAN : Alice is Alice. There is no other way to put it. VOLKS : Hm…Has anything else strange happened since the arrival of Alice? MAN : Well, let's see…

━

MEL : Yesterday a meadow suddenly appeared instead of the forest!? And an ocean in the sky!? Are you serious!? OSCAR : A person who eats a special pie purchased in the city will grow so large they break the roof of their house? ROUGE : I like the part about the cats suddenly appearing and disappearing. I wanna learn that power. Would come in handy when running from debt collectors. SHAYMIE : He said so many other weird things, I've already forgotten! EMMA : And yet, no one else is freaking out about this. It's like they've all just accepted it as normal. FELD : It sounds way too fucking chaotic!! OSCAR : ……… EMMA : Oscar?

OSCAR : I'm becoming more and more curious about what kind of culinary culture this country has developed. There's no way the food from such an ever-changing place is mediocre. FELD : Don't look so happy about this!! MEL : Wow~ To be so happy about such a messed up situation. The nerve of this guy~! VOLKS : It seems that this is a land where even the wildest of fantasies can come true. EMMA : Yeah, but if day turning into night is such a normal thing━

My mouth hung open for a moment. Afraid to finish the sentence and voice my bad thoughts. Finally, gathering up my courage, I turned to the man and asked… EMMA : We really want to get back to our country…If the moon doesn't rise in this land, how does the Moon Road get built? MAN : The Moon Road might not ever be built again! ROUGE : Oh no! Itsuki will lose his job! VOLKS : Hmm…I see now…If the moon doesn't rise, then the Moon Road can't be built…With such irregular day-night cycles, it would be very difficult to predict its appearance…If it appears at all… EMMA : (That's right….) Will we be able to return home safely from Wondermare? My anxiety continued to grow.

[princesses-and-bitchcraft]

I've done a good amount of shift work and the typical overnight shift in MY OWN experience is in the realm of 11pm-7am give or take an hour in either direction (assuming 8 hour shift structures. i've done the odd 11p-11a and 7p-7a [there is not enough money in the WORLD to make me want to ever do another 11p-11a shift i'd rather do literally any combination of swing and/or 16 hour shifts in order to avoid that], my cousin's a nurse and her regular night shift is 7p-7a, so yes i know i'm not covering everything.)

you wanna do literally any errand before work? pick up a coffee or some food to take with you on your way? ANYTHING AT ALL? sorry, sucks to suck, everything's closed already. gotta be sure to pack your own food or starve, cause no restaurants are open after midnight whenever you take a break. finally, you're off work, and you've got some energy left to do your errands/go to your appointments/do whatever else adult stuff you need to do? too fucking bad cause you've still gotta wait 2-3 hours before anything opens unless all you need is groceries.

so even if you've found a good night shift job that works for you and you like, you're STILL getting screwed over.

and at your place of employment you better believe you're getting the short end of the stick at least socially, if not in other ways. your coworkers work other shifts by and large do NOT care about you. closers in a hurry to get out dump all their workload onto you. openers blame you for anything that's out of place, whether it is related to your actual job OR NOT. culturally (ie sure it's not every single individual but in general) you are looked down upon by your non-night shift working colleagues. when i was doing retail, the overnight team was 100% an afterthought to the higher ups, our night shift manager was very transparent about how much she had to fight for us in some very stupid ways.

when i was in retail i switched over to part time nights as a second job after years of being in the same place working full time during opening hours, so everyone knew ME and i knew THEM and my other job didn't start until 9 so i'd often hang around with the openers for a while after my shift or even kill time there longer if i had a day off so i was pretty uniquely placed to see alot of these cultural issues. and when i'd work at the shelter i'd work any shift. there's a huge difference in how people treat you and think of you depending on what shift you work, for literally no reason. are there SOME people that take advantage of the night shift to just goof off all night and get nothing done? ABSOLUTELY. but there are people who do that in EVERY OTHER POSSIBLE SHIFT ALSO. overnight workers are people do and if your organization has an overnight shift, it is there for a REASON and if all your overnighters disappeared, you simply wouldn't be able to function. not for nothing, the overnight manager when i was in retail regularly threatened to essentially take her team on strike to prove a point and while that never happened and i don't know how it could have been possible logisitically she DID regularly enforce things such as "do only the tasks that are ACTUALLY your job and do not clean up after the closers" and "yeah no overtime allowed for the next couple weeks, it sucks but we've got a point to prove, go home guys." and that always got her points accross..... temporarily.

(another fun fact from my retail organization is that.... how to easily explain this without delving into all kinds of stupid minutiae? night shift could do as much overtime as they wanted without issue from head office while every other team had both soft and hard hour caps. that led to some pretty interesting schedule fudging, and a culture of expected overtime)

Ok wait let her speak

[bramblefrump]

This is gonna sound weird but hear me out.

The further I've gotten into my transition, I feel the further moved away from gay men's culture but people haven't quite understand what I mean by that. And it's kind of annoying.

Back when I was like 18 I was all about that shit, if it wasn't for the gay men in my life at the time, I'd've never come out as queer in the first place. I came out as bi and had equal experiences with boy n girls but I still felt like I had to present the stereotypically gay side to be accepted for it.

And like during uni, I was going to the gay bars, using all the lingo and such (I know I type like a victorian widow) but it just felt like I was forcing it y'know?

Then like, around 2020 when I started transition I began taking on some more lesbian traits until eventually it just felt normal. I wouldn't say I'm the most up to date culture wise but whenever I've encountered lesbianic ideas in films and books, it just clicks now like, hell yeah that's me!

But that hasn't changed how people see me. People still want to treat me like a gay man but my masculine traits are all kinda played through this lesbian filter meaning, yes they are right to assume I'm queer but like, I'm not queer they way they think. So in the end I get this kinda disappointed stare cause I'm not being the "over-the-top femme gay" they're expecting me to be, I'm just a dyke.

Weirdly it's never been a problem with people in the pub industry though.

My point being, I dunno why straight people just assume all queers are the same when we don't loom or sound the same most of the time? And if people took the time to properly differentiate how the cultures intertwine instead of just lumping us all together like a pie chart with a really large gay section, middling lesbian section and then tiny slices for trans, asexual, queer+ folks.

Plus it then sucks cause I go to all this effort to properly understand the whole community (mainly cause I want to anyway) and then I have to explain it to people who don't give two shits but if I don't, they're just gonna keep treating me like a gay guy.

"Did you watch drag race?" "Did you watch ?" "Isn't pride so much fun, i got drunk there last year!" "My uncle has a boyfriend" etc. like cool, that's really nice, but I wanna talk about Fun Home and frotting so . . .

Also once I had to explain to someone that American drag culture came from trans people and not gay men, a girl who had seen Pose and was asking my thoughts.

Tbf, since I've started passing more I get more trans related questions but if I get misgendered by a middle aged white woman, god forbid.

[mitsdriveswhere]

I wanna talk about the Salmon Ruins

I really can't explain in a way that doesn't make me sound like a raving lunatic how cool the cultural and chronological differences in architecture of a specific region are. Like. That sentence. Read it back? Sounds fuckin crazy. Why do I care about this? idk. I just think it's neat.

So.

Salmon Ruins. Really, I'd never heard of these ruins before I really started learning more about ancestral Puebloan (and specifically Chacoan) architecture.

Yeah, I'll be completely fucking honest, my reasons for getting into Chacoan architecture are dumb at best. At best. I'd have to trace back so many things. What led me to the Salmon Ruins? Probably, I think it started by joining a tour group that I did not pay for in Mesa Verde.

I'm 90% sure the tour guide knew I wasn't in his group, but what was he gonna do? Tell me to go away? Nah. So I tagged along because it was interesting. This tour was about the mesa part of Mesa Verde - not the cliff dwellings - mostly focusing on the early settlements and kivas. I'd been to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings as a kid, back when they called the ancestral Peubloans 'the Anasazi'. It was cool, but didn't really spark my interest outside of being there. But kivas?

I'd never heard of these things before. And there were so many! And so deep! How they were built, how they were used, who inhabited them, all new information to me. I'm sure they talked about it at the Manitou Cliff Dwellings but, ya know, you don't listen to that stuff as a kid.

Mesa Verde led me to Chaco Canyon. And Chaco Canyon (while terrifying to get in and out of) is beautiful. You could pick a 5x5 part of the outer wall of that site to study for an entire day.

The Chacoans cared about their buildings. They made art with their homes. This was beyond necessity, this was purposeful. And it was so close I could literally touch it. I could walk in the city and see what they saw from the same place they saw it. I could go on about Chaco Canyon (as I have in the past), but moving on.

Chaco Canyon led to Canyon of the Ancients, lead to Aztec Ruins, and then finally to the Salmon Ruins. Mind you - there are more sites that I haven't seen yet. They are scattered across New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado, literally dozens of sites. I've probably seen more than most, but I've certainly not seen all of them.

But the Salmon Ruins are special in their own way, and that comes specifically from their research library. When you enter the site, they'll hand you a little laminated booklet that you return to the front office after seeing the site. That includes a map of the full site, a detailed history of its re-discovery and preservation, and most importantly - a color guide to take you to each important marker placed in the ruins.

This guide is gorgeous. The amount of information you get as you go is just amazing. It goes over common practices, tools, room usages, inhabitants, changes to the structure, everything. Personally, I found Markers 1 and 16 most interesting.

These focus on the craftsmanship specific to the people living there at the times they occupied Salmon Pueblo. Because you can tell! Who was living there! Based off how they built and rebuilt things!

Fascinating!!!!

The Chacoans used very geometrically similar rocks - think almost brick-like, cut to fit - to create the outer layer of their walls, while filling the insides of the walls with large, unshaped stones (Chacoan style core and veneer masonry). They would also decorate their walls by taking these stones and exposing them to heat to change their colors (because again!! The Chacoans!! Made their homes into art!!)

This style of masonry is not shared among all ancestral Puebloans, and when the Chacoans no longer inhabited Salmon Pueblo, other ancestral Peubloans occupied it and modifications to its structure were made in a different style, with large river rocks held together with mortar.

You can follow the Chacoans and their influence to every site they created and interacted with, including Mesa Verde and Chimney Rock in Colorado.

Idk. Maybe at some point I'm going to buy a big ole fuckin ream of paper and spread it out around my house so I can draw out and fully appreciate the chronological and geological changes and dispersion of Chacoan architecture. Maybe at some point I'll hit that level of out to lunch that it will seem like a good idea to do that.

Maybe I'm actively thinking about doing this.

Maybe I went and bought a copy of the booklet you can walk around the Salmon Ruins with. Maybe I specifically asked for one after I was done looking around.

[lunarflare64]

Hello! Disability ask meme: 1, 3, and 8 please

(Disability ask meme)

As promised, the chatterbox train got rolling, you're welcome for the read more

1. Ooooooh boy here we go, its a whole ass List.

Autism, ADHD, OSDD/DID (we aren't certain enough to find out which on our own), ARFID, Non-24 sleep/wake disorder, anemia, Raynaud's syndrome, POTS, and arthritis (we're not sure which type specifically yet, we're on a waiting list to see a rheumatologist)

2. For mobility aids we primarily get around on crutches, on a good day at home we use our cane, and hopefully soon we'll be getting our wheelchair for the bad days. Our first set of crutches got the full sticker treatment, the second set we just haven't gotten around to yet (but we do have the stickers ready, they're neon). Despite us getting the cane first its remained customisation free, every time we consider decorating it we chicken out because unlike with the neon stickers we wanna put stickers from fandoms on it, and we're worried about wasting them because the cane.....we should get a better one, its really not good.

For sensory aids we just have our headphones, we mostly just use them when we're out and about because unlike outdoors where we're tense and on guard all the time and thus hypersensitive, indoors we NEED to be able to hear lots of little things, we freak out otherwise (and having headphones on all the time while you're a glasses wearer........."fucking OW" is putting it lightly)

We also uses braces sometimes, mostly for our wrists and knees (thats where the arthritis is), but we tend to use compression more, since the stiffness from braces can cause its own issues. And as for meds, we've got a low dosage of Ritalin for the ADHD, and some opioids for the arthritis pain. We also need iron infusions once every year and a half or so, since our body isn't the best at absorbing it in our diet (and to make things worse our diet isn't very rounded, thanks to the eating disorder)

8. Oof, identity question for the freshly hatched egg carton (do you like that term? We love it, what a fun term for a plural egg), this is already confusing. I mean, obviously the plurality affects every aspect of our identities in a large scale, its a given, so we'll brush past the specifics of that one. How our disability affects our gender? I'm not one of us who has that, gender is such a hard thing to define, the others have gender in the sense that they are pulled to masc or fem presentations, but I don't know if any of us really understand it. But we HAVE heard that not understanding these concepts isn't an uncommon thing for autistic people, so I guess that's one way it can be affected. Queerness (in terms of attraction) is the same, generally we're aroace (with some oriented-ness from some of us), that's also a common autistic thing, a decent portion of aroace folk are autistic, its no biggie to us.

Culture? We're assuming culture here means "the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society", but we're white and Australian through and through, not much there to be culture-y about. If we were to pretend Australia had a culture that was found though its own community and not theft from others, there is a MASSIVE issue with foods. A lot of "classic Australian foods" are the exact things our eating disorder wants us to avoid, family gatherings (which are ALWAYS barbecues, don't laugh its just how it goes here) are miserable for us (and it was so so much worse when we were a kid and people would yell at us for not eating), we can't eat anything, and even if we CAN find something its always a pasta salad that you can only eat so much of before you want to curl up in a ball and wither away, its an isolating experience, not being able to bond with family through food. We don't even feel that big of a draw to our family and it still hurts to miss out on eating with them

Aaaaaanyways, hobbies and life goals. We're not so good at the life goal thing, picturing the future is literally impossible, we see nothing and we want nothing, we very much live in the present (is that the autism, the ADHD, or the plurality? Hopefully we find out one day), but hobbies? Oh boy here we go

We have many. Many many many many hobbies, and dream hobbies too. The dream hobbies aren't really possible for us anymore, things like surfing, gymnastics, archery (chronic shakiness and sharp flying objects sounds like a bad combo), pole dancing, skateboarding, canoeing, dancing, hiking, and trampoline tricks (you could say all of these are possible with the right accommodation, but its too much for us now). One hobby we do have that we don't get to do often now is baking, we loved baking so much, we would do huge batches of cakes and cupcakes and cookies and breads and then give them out to people we knew, we didn't really keep much of it for ourselves, we just liked baking for the sake of baking, and the joy of giving treats to others was a great bonus. Nowadays we can't really do that much even on the rare occasion that we CAN bake, the heat makes us pass out and all the movement and standing sets our arthritis off so bad, its best to save any baking for when someone can be there to make sure we don't get hurt.

We don't let it get us down too much though! We have so many other hobbies, drawing and writing and knitting and crochet and loom weaving and the guitar (even if we haven't touched it in a while 😬) and drums and animation and architecture and gardening and photography and sculpting and woodworking and candle making and learning about oceanography and biology and physics and so so much more, our hobbies list is a literal list, we have it in front of us now, the ink has faded into odd colours and it COVERS the page, top to bottom, no space wasted, we have a lot of things we like to do and want to try, some things cant be done anymore but it doesnt even cross half the list off, our disabilities shape what we can do, but its hard to let it get to us when we have so much to do

[lorddeathofmurdermountain]

Literally the inverse of kid me wanting to learn how to meditate at karate class bc I loved Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles but all we did for TWO YEARS was learn the exact same kick and punch and block and literally nothing else as apparently we got new members so regularly that we constantly had to repeat the lesson or some shit like that.

TW massive rant that wasn't supposed to be unfunny but we're serious now ig

Look kid me didn't understand that for meditation you need discipline but to be completely honest the discipline to sit down and think certain types of thoughts (meditation is NOT head empty) and the discipline to spend hours of my free time doing the exact same literally useless thing for what at the time amounted to 20% of my life at the least (all I recall is I was less than 10yo) are VERY DIFFERENT KINDS OF DISCIPLINE. In fact it turned out that the coach lied and you don't even get taught meditation. Fucking prick. The whole thing turned out to literally just be a sport for shitty adrenaline junkies to beat each other up while not getting too badly hurt most of the time. Got bullied the fuck out of for not just turning my brain off and swinging my arms like a monkey for two years without complaint. I know I was in the wrong in certain ways too, ways I'm not even mentioning, but my ass did not deserve to walk home in the snow barefoot and with wet clothes because the evil ass brats shoved most of my clothes in the toilet and I had no way to call home. Good thing I stuck around too long lamenting my circumstances so my mom came to get me at some point. And at the end nothing happened to the brats beyond a "stern talking to" bc society encourages ostracizing the people who are different and these particular idiots were even stupider and meaner than society at large. So much to fucking bitch about just for this one group. One of their highest ranking members was a teen girl who enrolled sometime after I did and stuck around - apparently the """SeNsEi""" (I'm mocking him for taking himself seriously at all bc he was an awful teacher not for using the term) got his head out he ass and actually taught her (specifically) enough for her to go to tournaments. I tried to talk to her once and tried to connect via karate bc it was still kinda interesting to me and she went all elitist on my ass because I didn't have any tournament stamps and the "SeNsEi" didn't deem me remarkable enough to remember, as if he gave anyone a chance to begin with. Mean ass girl even told me I printed the god damn attendance paper thingy.

Lesson of the day kids martial artists as well as anyone with a long enough culture are usually elitist little shits that almost always mislead you. Wanna learn meditation? Sure you can ;) now have your overworked parents pay me stupid amounts of cash so I can have you do the same shit for two years. Wanna learn a specific thing we're known for? Nu-uh-uh! We have to indoctrinate and brainwash you for five years and then MAYBE we'll consider it if you're "devoted" enough! Now give us money! Respect us because we tell you to! If you don't we'll bully and ostracize you and call you names in front of your own damn parents! Of course we're responsible adults! It totally makes sense for us to treat kids like ignorant little shits but also expect adult-levels of responsibility out of them, just so we can use them as our precious little piggy banks by proxy! WE ARE GOOD FOR YOUR KIDS. TRUST THE PROCESS. ANCIENT SECRET CULTURES AND EXERCISE GOOD FOR BODY AND MIND.

I'm honestly SHOCKED how well I turned out, functionally speaking. By which I mean I didn't but I could have been SO much worse.

i need to train in a temple for 50 years bye

[miekasa]

speaking of college boys, what do the college au aot babies study??

Okay, okay, I think I’ve talked about this in an ask before but I can’t find it 😭😭 but it’s okay, I love college aus, so I’ll talk about it again! Plus, now I’ve got more thoughts for more characters, so here we go

Levi — neuroscience and psychology of human behavior

He started out on track to do a bachelor of arts in psychology, but when they touched on the anatomy and biological parts of it during his first year lecture, he switched to a bachelor of science.

The focus is still psychology, but through a more clinical lens. Essentially, he gets the best of both worlds this way. He’s intuitive and analytical, so clinical and mental diagnosis is easy to dissect for him. He’s also canonically good at math, so the calculus and stats parts aren’t too bad, either.

This major also leaves him with a few options post-grad, which is a nice bonus for him. He’s likely going to medical school, but that’s not the only route open to him: law school, therapy, lab work, medicine and pharmacy, even teaching are all viable options without going to grad school.

Do not talk to him about Freud unless you wanna get punted off a building.

Be careful with him, because with a single glance he’s already got scarily accurate predictions about your parental and emotional attachment styles, your behavior in social settings, and the onset (or seemingly lack thereof) of your frontal lobe development.

He thinks he’s so smart making comments like, “I see those synaptic connections aren’t working so well for you today,” like mf come here let me lobotomize you and see how well your synaptic connects are working after that🙄

Eren — general health sciences

He’s interested in science and the discovery aspects of it, but picking a specific field of focus right now feels too final. He likes it this way, because his schedule and requirements are less restrictive, and he has more room to find out what really interests him.

He does best when he’s doing something he loves, so picking a major with a bunch of reqs that he couldn’t care less about would have sucked big time for him. It also would have affected his grades. There are still some classes he has to take that he’s not fond of (see: chemistry), but that’s to be expected. Science in general is cool to him and he hopes to make his own discovery some day, even if it’s microscopic.

He also plays a lot of sports, keeping his schedule flexible is important. The sports end up helping him excel academically, which is a nice bonus. Honestly, Eren uses his time at university to learn more about himself than anything, so having control and freedom to do what he likes the majority of the time was important to him. 

He uses his elective credits to take philosophy or history courses of his interest, or maybe even a course that you’re in just to spend time with you. He also uses you as a live model for his homework bye, congrats on being patient number one to him.

Armin — astronomy and physics

He’s still interested in marine biology, but unless he attended a school near a coast, or with a specialized integrated program for that, it’s unlikely he’d major in it during undergrad.

Space and ocean exploration aren’t all that different. Both are vast, largely unexplored domains that reel-in Armin’s interest for discovery. So, while studying astronomy, he still gets to study evolution and make his own predictions about what could be out there because there’s so much to know.

Physics comes with the territory of learning about planetary science, and he’s mathematically inclined, so it works out for him. Learning about the different physical properties of other planets and space masses is honestly pretty sick to him. Because math isn’t a struggle, he actually considered aeronautical engineering, but he didn’t want to be a part of the college to military pipeline; that is, he didn’t want any potential design of his to be weaponized. 

He still gets to study animal biology through his elective courses, and might even find a few focused on marine animals to satiate him. Plant and cell biology are also of interest to him, and are just further applications of his primary study anyway, so he’s got plenty of room to work with.

This boy is interning at NASA and still, with his whole chest out is like, “I don’t need to discover a new planet, you’re my whole world.” Armin, go check on the Mars rover or something please.

Mikasa — anthropology + minor in japanese language studies

Anthropology is virtually interdisciplinary in nature, and Mikasa is a pretty well rounded student, so she’s able to excel in a program like this. She gets to study history, science, cultural studies, and even a bit of art all at once.

She’s still debating between going to law school vs med school, so anthro this is a good in-betweener. She gets a taste of science through her anatomy and kin courses; and lots of practice with reading and dissecting texts through the historical and cultural lectures. So, when the time comes to decide, she’ll have some experience with both.

Don’t know whether it’s confirmed that she’s (part) Japanese or not, but either way I headcanon that she speaks/spoke some second language at home. She wanted to delve more into it, and courses were offered at the university so why not?

Cultural studies courses end up being her favorite. She likes learning about the history of people and their cultures, and it encourages her to learn more about her own family history and culture. It also propels her to apply for a study abroad opportunity, so she spends at least one semester doing an exchange program and absolutely loves it.

She would also encourage you to apply and go, too. You guys might not be in the same program, but if there’s an applicable program in the same country she’s going to, then she’d definitely want you to apply. Spending the semester away with you would be a dream come true.

Hange — bioengineering + minor in political philosophy and law

It’s almost self-sabotage to be in an engineering program and have a minor; the coursework for engineering alone is backbreaking, and bioengineering has the added weight of human intricacies, but of course Hange makes it possible. 

They’re nothing short of a genius, so of course they have time to work a completely unrelated minor into their schedule. It doesn’t surprise anyone that they go on to complete an MD-PhD after undergrad. Insane. 

Bioengineering is essentially the synthesis of chemical engineering and health sciences; Hange spends their time exploring biological sciences and applies the engineering aspects of their coursework to their understanding of (and interest in creating) medicine. Truly a one of a kind mind. 

They also have an interest in philosophy and justice, so when they found out they only needed a measly nine or ten courses to minor in, they went for it, of course. In honesty, they don’t find the studies all that opposing: both law making and medicine making both have some kind of philosophy or method to them in their eyes. 

Hange has... little to no free time pls. They don’t mind it, because they love their coursework, but this means you are essentially ducking into their labs or scrambling to find them in-between their classes during your time in undergrad. They appreciate every second spent with you tho, and will gladly rope you into long discussions about their work. 

Jean — biochemistry + minor in art sustainability

He was undeclared his first year, and took a little bit of everything: art, science, history, anthropology, english. Basically, anything that fit into his schedule. It was hard for him to pick one thing—he liked the science and lab applications of STEM courses, but not the math; and the obvious painting and creativity of art, but hated the pretentious air about art history.

What he wants to do is make a difference, which is how he ends up knowing that he wants to go to med school after, so he picks a science-heavy major, but uses his elective spaces to take art courses. When he mixes the two, he ends up on sustainability—and the complexities about it that are applicable to both science and art are what really reels him in.

Interdisciplinary studies end up being his forte. He can approach sustainability from a science perspective which impacts his art style and materials; and tuning into his creative side allows him to think about science not just from a purely clinical perspective, but from a human one, too—patients are people after all.

He believes that everything is connected somehow, even things as seemingly opposite as art and biochemistry. And he works towards finding the unique intersection where everything overlaps. His studies are pretty cool, and he’s very passionate about them, so ask him about it 😌

The art he makes is pretty sick, too, and often commentary about science; he’s proving they’re not so opposite. You also heavily influence his studies in both areas: caring about you so much inspires him to take the healthcare focus seriously, and your very nature is inspiration to his art. 

Sasha — nursing

She’s friendly and good at working with people, so nursing was an easy choice for her. She accredits most of her motivation to being around her younger family members, and learns that she finds a simple kind of joy in helping to take care of others.

She struggles a bit her first year when it’s mostly all grades and standardized testing, but when she starts getting clinical experience and working in the hospital on campus, things round out for her.

Patient care is her strongest point. A lot of people often forget that knowing everything isn’t everything; if you don’t know how to calm or even just talk to your patient, you’re not that great of a healthcare professional.

Pretty certain that she wants to work with kids in the future, but she’s open to public health and even being a travel nurse if she finds opportunity there!

Of course, she’s pretty doting when it comes to you and all her friends. She might want to go into pediatrics, but the basics of nursing and health care extend to everyone, so you’re guaranteed to be well taken care of with Sasha around. You might even have to switch roles and take care of her sometimes, because her coursework can get pretty out of hand.

Connie — computer engineering with a focus on game design

He might not look it, but Connie has a brain under that shaved head of his. Computer engineering is cool to him because he basically learns about how simple things he uses every day (ie: phone, computer, microwave) works.

Systems and coding are actually the easy part for him, especially when they get into the application of it and aren’t just stuck looking at examples. That’s how he gets into game design.

The part about math and electricity and magnetic fields… well let’s just say he needed to make friends with someone who likes math and hardware his first year to get through it. But the struggle was worth it, because by his junior year he’s found a professor willing to mentor/supervise him as he works on his game and other projects, so life is good.

His school work is definitely hard, which is why the lives by the mantra of “work hard, party harder.” It’s only fair. 

He makes you a little avatar so you can test out his games for him <33 best boyfriend things <33 He’d also… build a game about your relationship. Every level is a different date you guys went on, and he definitely includes something cheesy, like “There are unlimited lives because I love you forever babe <3”

Porco — kinesiology + maybe mechanical engineering

He’s pretty into athletics and working out, but didn’t wanna go down the sports psychology route; he wanted something that left him with a few more options, so he ended up in kinesiology.

He was surprisingly pretty good at biology in high school, so something stem-oriented works out in his favor, and it turns out he’s pretty damn good at anatomy, too. He’ll probably end up in physical therapy after graduation.

He’s also got a knack for cars, which is where the engineering comes in, but he doesn’t care so much for the math part of it (he doesn’t care for it at all actually, fuck that); he just wants the hands on experience of building/fixing things and working with his hands. So, if he can get a minor in it and not struggle through 4 years of math, then he’d do that. If not, he’d take a few workshop-like classes.

Because he wants to go into physical therapy, you are essentially his practice patient. Your back hurts? Not a problem, he’s basically a professional masseuse. Muscle aches? He’s got a remedy and understanding of why it’s happening. Don’t let him catch you hunting over your desk grinding away at your homework, because he will poke your neck and correct your posture (he’ll also massage your shoulders, but after the scolding).

Pieck — classics + minor in philosophy

Ancient studies interest her, but more than that, the language of ancient Greek and Roman culture fascinates her, so classics is the way to go.

Because her focus within Classics ends up being Greek and Latin language studies, she is essentially learning both languages at the same time. She gets farther with Latin that she does with Greek. For whatever reason, the former comes almost naturally to her, so her written and translated work is more complex in Latin.

However, she finds cultural studies relation to Greece more interesting than that of Rome, so it’s a give and take with both; better at languages for Roman studies, better at culture and history for Greek studies.

Her minor is a natural evolution from her primary coursework. Ancient Romans and Greeks set the foundation for a lot of modern day philosophy, so it comes up in her major classes, but she wanted to delve further into the philosophy, and not just look at it historically, so she takes more courses to fulfill the minor.

Can be found laying on a blanket in the quad on a hot day, with her books spread out all around her, highlighter in hand as she works through her reading. You’re always invited to sit with her, and more often than not, it ends up with Pieck’s head in your lap, a book in her hands, and your own schoolwork in yours as you both read in each other’s company.

Bertholdt — computer science and coding

He’s level headed, good at planning, and above all, patient, so he’s cut out for this. He doesn’t consider himself to be particularly creative, which is why he doesn’t pick a speciality with lots of design; but he’s good at streamlining and ideas to life.

The patience really comes in when his code doesn’t run. It’s frustrating to scroll for two hours just to find out that the issue is a missing semi-colon in line 273 that he overlooked, but Berty will sit there until he finds it.

He’s also good at fixing issues. That’s not limited to issues in the code itself; it can mean finding shorter ways to produce the same function or loop, or integrating new aspects into existing code.

Also, he’d just be so cute, coding away on his computer. Just imagine: Berty working on his homework in the library, he’s got his signature crewneck + collared shirt look going for him, his blue-light glasses, a cup of coffee nearly as tall as him sitting at the corner of his desk. Adorable.

He’d make little codes/programs for you, too, even if it’s silly. A simple code that helps you decide what to eat for dinner or where to go on a date, one that shuffles different reminders for you, hell he’ll even forgo the torture of design engineering just to build you a little robot that says “I love you” to you.

Reiner — english + minor in justice & political philosophy

Everyone expects Reiner, star quarterback of the university’s rugby team, to be a business student or communications student; but no, he’s an English major, and he loves it.

Just imagine a guy as huge as Reiner absolutely manhandling someone on the field, just to show up in his lectures with a tiny paperback of The Great Gatsby tucked between his fingers with his reading glasses on. It’s so precious.

He’s always running a bit late to class—either coming from the gym, or practice, or oversleeping from exhaustion—but he’s so sweet to his professors and genuinely interested in the literature that they don’t give him a hard time about it. They can tell that balancing school and sports is difficult, and they just appreciate that he takes his studies seriously.

Yeah he’s in a book club and he dog-ears his books. What about it. They’re doing poetry this month and Reiner actually likes Edgar Allen Poe. Who said jocks can’t be sentimental.

He also reads a lot outside of his classes, and has a soft spot for coming of age stories. He usually empathizes with the main character somehow. His ideal weekend plans after a week of grueling games and essays is taking a long, relaxing shower at your place, while you both share a bottle of wine, and maybe even get you to read a chapter or two of his current book out loud to him.

Annie — clinical psychology/neuroscience

Almost scarily analytical and methodic, so this major was calling her name. Localizing brain legions is… insanely intuitive to her it’s incredible. She’ll be an insanely impressive doctor someday, even if she doesn’t end up working with patients directly. 

She doesn’t care too much for the more philosophical/reading heavy parts of psychology. Even experiments and research closer to the social end of the spectrum aren’t all that interesting to her; but the brain science behind it it.

Nobody should be good at cellular biology. Nobody should be able to ace cell bio and neuro and calc and work towards their thesis proposal in the same semester, but Annie proves it’s possible.

Ends up working in one of her professor’s labs by her junior year. She was offered three TA positions working with first year students, but she swiftly turned them down. Teaching isn’t her thing.

She doesn’t bring up her studies to you unprompted, but if you ask her about them she’ll explain it to you. Her notes are color coded and it’s super neat, and very cute; coloring them is somewhat relaxing for her. She usually saves the coloring part for when you guys study together; there’s extra comfort in doing it with you around.

[selfobsessed-godcomplexed]

Prologue

[Rick Sanchez x GN! Reader]

A/N: I'm sorry if nothing in this is consistent with "did the dopamine wear off?" story. I honestly couldn't figure out whether I wanted it to be an actual sneak peak or a rough concept so I just went with what was best for this story.

"Where are you going?" Diane asked you, pressing her hand to your back gently. It had been only a few days since Rick and Diane's marriage and it had torn you apart. You didn't know why, but you had no interest in sticking around to find out. "Anywhere but here." You shook her hand off your shoulder. "Well, I'll see you again soon, right?" Richard asked, a bit of hesitation in his question. "I sure fucking hope not." You snear, with a click of the little white watch on your wrist, you were gone. Hopefully for good this time. Yet you couldn't hold back the tears. They were your best friends, but after their wedding you had nothing but a burning, yet cold, sensation in your chest with the mere thought of them. Why...? Shouldn't I be happy? It didn't matter. You were done. You had better things to do.

"I love you." You cried. Shaky breathes escape your lips, you covered your eyes with your arms. You hate those words more than anything, but all you wanted to do was tell Rick. He was gone, he wasn't yours. The cold burning sensation in your chest came back, the pain it brought was unbearable. He was happier without you anyway...

⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

The sound of space debris hitting your vehicle snapped you out of your thoughts. You scoffed. Landing your vehicle. Birding man. You thought there'd be no harm in attending the festival, maybe it'd even be fun. Everyone was dancing or getting high, you stood away from everyone for at least half an hour before you decided to walk around out of boredom. You weren't a buzz kill, you swear. You just had no social ques. You accidentally bumped into a blue haired man amidst your mindless wandering. He wore a black leather vest over a blue turtleneck. His dark eyebags assuring you there had been many sleepless nights. "Sorry." He mumbled shuffling away from him. He waved it off. You couldn't figure out why but the man had looked so...familiar. It infuriated you that you didn't know why. You couldn't for the life of you figure out why you felt as though you met him before.

"I have been informed you are freely distributing a grossly illegal federation hallucination." The sound of one of the bird people's voice snapped you out of your thoughts. "Well I wouldn't know what to charge, I sure didn't pay for it." The blue hairded man paused. "W-wanna hit?" He offered the bird person the tube of whatever substance he had on his person. "I am indeed down to clown."

"My name's Rick."

Rick. That name...

"My culture regards naming as a form of cage, my friends call me bird person." The bird man responded. Taking another hit. "Culture really fucked you over on that one, huh?" Rick responded.

"Affirmative."

Rick turned to you, offering you the tube they'd been smoking out off. "W-what about you? Want a hit?" You took a moment to think about it. Shrugging it off you took a hit from it, blowing out a hot pink ring of smoke. "Got a name?" You stared at him, for whatever reason the question annoyed you. "Yha. (Y/n)." You scoffed. He hummed. Almost as if you two had been thinking the same thing.

Have you met before?

You stuck around for a bit, spending the rest of the festival to have fun with Rick and bird person. Amidst the joy between you three you snuck off, making your way back to your vehicle. The familiar dead panned voice stops you in your tracks. "Where are you going?" You shot him a glare. You were irritated but you didn't understand why. "Where do you think, genius. Home. Clearly." You remarked.

"W-well, I'll see-I'll see you again soon, right?"

Your eyes widen.

"Well, I'll see you again soon, right?"

It couldn't be him. It was just a coincidence, right? "I sure fucking hope not." You snear, gettin in your vehicle and driving/flying off. Rick was in disbelief of the all too familiar coldness. Almost refusing to let himself remember. But sadly he couldn't repress the memories. Of you, of him. Of what you guys had...

You unlock the door to your house, slamming it shut. You make your way down to your basement. Turning on the lights, large human sized glass tubes lined the wall all filled alternate bodies, clones and various other creatures. Several gadgets spread about the walls and some on shelves. Your desk a mess with papers and tools, empty bottles and cans littering the floor beneath. You open the mini fridge beneath your desk, taking out the single bottle of vodka you had left. "Fuck. I'm out." You groaned laying your head in yours arms. You didn't want to remember. Yet at the same time you wish you could. Your memories feel so misty, bits and pieces missing. But it's enough to bring back the cold burning feeling in your chest. Why did you feel this way? It didn't matter. You wouldn't be seeing rick again. You didn't need people intruding in your solidute.

You took your watch off your hand, placing it on the table. One of your greatest accomplishments. You admired it. Back when you and Richard had been friends, he had always talked about portal science. Inter dimension travel. He never shut up about it. But shortly gave it up for Diane and his daughter. You could almost say Diane ruined your friendship. Or maybe you were just in denial of your jealous. This accomplishment meant nothing if you didn't accomplish it with him. That was the whole point of this stupid portal shit anyways. To spend our lives travelling the infinite cosmos. As...friends. Just...just friends.

You scoff, a tear streaming down your face. Fuck that guy. You despised him. He meant absolutely nothing. All the time in the world and you still had no time for him. Nor did you want any. You down the bottle of vodka, nothing else could fill that void in your chest but the bitter sweet taste of vodka. You put it back down, the bottle falling over and shattering in the floor. You sigh. Your head falling back down into your arms. Your burning red eyes became heavy. You were so tired.

You sworn you could hear a familar swish as you let yourself drift off to sleep.

Do I love you...?

[octaviasdread]

Gendered Boarding Schools: Dead Poets Society (1989) & All I Wanna Do (1998) - Part Four

P1: Character & Plot Similarities | P2: Schools, Teachers & Star Students | P3: Student Rebellions & Secret Societies

Part Four: Are They Queer?

All the Anderperry parallels plus some other stuff. I did try and get a screenshot of the ✨moment in pink✨ but it was too blurry so I’ll try looking for a clip to post later<3

I know 90% of the people reading this are here for DPS content, and a large number of this group are part of the queer community, so here are a few points to consider:

Verena - Late bloomer? Ace-spec? Sapphic? Each of these readings can be (in my opinion, Judge Lessner) easily evidenced.

On one hand, not all allosexual, masculine attracted teenage girls show an interest in relationships from a young age. Verena also has little interaction with boys and this undeniably colours her views. Meeting Frosty and connecting with him over their troubled home lives and ambitions to live against the status quo allows Verena to look at a teenage boy as a person rather than a game piece or as an embodiment of the opportunities she cannot have. Seeing Frosty as not just a person, but as an equal, causes Verena to question herself. Through Frosty, her worldview broadens, and she begins to envision - for the first time - a life for herself beyond the familiar walls of Miss Goddard's.

On the other hand, Verena is outwardly and vehemently repulsed by boys - and physical acts in general - until she kisses Frosty.

This repulsion is not rooted in a lack of knowledge or positive anecdotes since her best friend, Tinka Parker, is portrayed as being highly promiscuous with "three pregnancy scares," and a self-proclaimed ambition to be "a famous actress-singer-slut." Although the dominant, conservative culture would encourage judgement of Tinka, Verena (and the rest of the group) not only accept her, but facilitate Tinka's weekends away - and they are quick to make Odette the same offer.

Furthermore, Verena is baffled by her friends' interest in physical intimacy. When Odie states her greatest ambition is "to do what I was going to before I got caught," Verena exclaims, "your greatest ambition is to lay with your legs open like a bug?!" This line perfectly encapsulates Verena's attitude long before her admission to Odie that she "lusts for no one." In fact, Verena's rooftop speech is her listing the advantages of not having any interest.

Alternatively, They Were Roommates:

Verena and Odie may not have the constant Anderperry heart eyes but, there are more than enough parallels to make comparisons between the two pairs of roommates. Maybe I'll make a post on them all, but here are some highlights:

(Shout out to @impressedcauliflower for providing the anderperry roof image in my hour of need <3)

1) The Rooftop Scene - Prefacing the rooftop is a fleeting moment in the dormitory that has similar energy to both the flying desk set and the Anderperry 'No <3' scenes.

"Nothing Mr Keating has to say means shit to you, does it? You're in the club, and being in the club means being stirred up by things [...]"

"You want me out?"

"No, I want you in. But being in means you gotta do something, not just say you're in..."

"[...] I'm not like that."

"Don't you think you could be?"

Verena and Neil are dreamers with big plans while their roommates, at first, struggle to see beyond any obstacles. Like Todd doubting his own ability, Odette cannot see beyond her first failure. Defeated, she lies sulkily on her bed. Verena - though personally unbothered by the idea of never leaving school property - comes to sit on the edge of her bed to deliver the 'no more little white gloves' pep talk that Odie recalls during the protest.

"You promised to help and instead you made things worse."

"Hey, we didn't get rid of Dewey either. You can't collapse because of some minor disappointment. You get tougher. In the DAR we have a saying, no more little white gloves."

Much like Neil reinforcing the values of the Dead Poets to draw Todd out of his shell, Verena introduces the philosophy of the DAR to encourage Odie into thinking bigger and believing in her own abilities. These talks end with actions taken by Neil and Verena - stealing poems, throwing desk sets, and smoking on the roof - to shake off their roommate's negative mood and give subtle reassurance of their place in the friendship group and club.

Verena and Neil often show comfort with closeness and touch, while Odie and Todd, though receptive to the subtle affection, show their appreciation by paying attention. The new kids are more withdrawn, but they have no issues making any feelings of dislike or disinterest clear. For example, Odie disregards Abigail’s hall monitor status and ditches her during the welcome tour, and Todd rolls his eyes at Keating while making his reluctance to improv a poem clear.

And the theme of rooftops? Anderperry have an honest talk about Todd's home life on the rooftop with the therapeutic desk throwing. This emotional theme is continued when Verena drags Odie to the roof for a secret smoking session while she ponders a solution to Odie's problem. It is also here that Odie questions Verena about her private life. She responds, "I lust for no one," before jokingly(?) adding, "not even you." Interestingly, romantic music plays in the background which seems more fitting for a slow dance than two friends smoking. I'll also add that while Verena is like Neil in her determination to help her grumpy and isolated roommate, it is Odie who watches her roommate a lot while she's looking away.

2) Odette's reunion with her boyfriend - Odette, like Todd, is fundamentally changed by the attention of her roommate. Dennis asks if she's gotten taller, to which she responds "no, I'm the same," but her statement is soon contradicted. As Odie begins to "do what I was going to before I got caught," it is the echo of Verena's words from their first DAR meeting that causes her to put the breaks on everything:

"Even if you got pregnant I'd marry you"

"Why?"

"I've imagined it, haven't you?"

"We'd live in a colonial with two cars and a collie?" [Sarcastic]

"Sounds okay to me."

His response to Verena's words changes something for Odie. She pushes him away to ask, "do you believe in a centralised government or state's rights?" Her ambitions have altered during her time at Miss Goddard's, and her new dreams are bound up with the influence of her roommate, Verena Von Stefan, whose voice lingers in her mind even in a supposedly private and long-awaited moment between herself and her boyfriend.

The influence of an outgoing and passionate roommate on their grumpier, and more withdrawn new roommate is clear in the above images. Neil is the first to stand on Keating's desk in class, and when Todd steps into Neil's role as the leader of the Dead Poets he takes that step by standing on the desk in salute to Keating. Likewise, Odie is inspired by Verena as she stands where her roommate had once chopped wood as a punishment for her scheming earlier in the film. Her stance, alongside her dialogue, recall her lost roommate whose role she takes on by calling the DAR to action with a new plan to achieve Verena’s aims.

3) Verena's expulsion (aka the mirror to Neil's death)

After a tearful goodbye and a group hug with the rest of the DAR, Verena is left alone to pack until Odette enters. Immediately, Verena makes a bitter joke about Dennis. When Odie tries to correct her Verena fires back, "at least you'll have the St. Ambrose boys to keep you company." Rather than being drawn into an argument Odie sees Verena's hurt and steps into her space instead of backing away. Ignoring the events (or lack thereof) with Dennis, she focuses on the schemes that she had initially disagreed with, but had meant a lot to Verena.

✨And this is the moment I have no hetero explanation for✨

After a final hug goodbye, Odie licks her bottom lip before reaching out to stroke Verena's hair and cheek as she turns to walk away. Uh...Ms. Kernochan, how else am I supposed to read that?

Further ambiguity occurs when Verena appears in the closing scene. Odie holds Verena lightly by the wrist as she pulls her to talk away from her new boyfriend, Frosty. The scene soon changes to follow Tinka, but the cliche rom-com ending of Tinka and Snake riding off into the sunset is replaced with a close-up shot of Verena and Odette. The former roommates stand together and laugh while an excerpt of the song 'Girlfriends for Life' plays over the footage. Slowly, the circular framing zooms in around their faces until the screen goes black. Is this gal pals as the song lyrics indicate (written by the film's director & writer Sarah Kernochan), or is there room for some gal pals coding in the audience's eyes?

Following this blank screen is an epilogue detailing the future of each character, and in a plot twist, it reveals Tinka Parker's queerness.

Tinka's relationship with Snake and its commentary on social class and rebellion are discussed in part one. In it, I suggest that Tinka's attraction to Snake is rooted in his differences to the boys her Mother introduces to her. While this is a strong reading, I have an alternative idea. What if her attraction to Snake's difference is a precursor to the realisation that it isn't just wealthy sons of family friends that she isn't interested in, it's all boys.

Does her coming out mirror the structure of the film? Riding into the sunset is part of the same heterosexual, rom-com narrative that has defined her relationship with Snake. This expected narrative is only subverted later on, so does this reflect Tinka's own process of following the social script until the producation's end? Is this a commentary on comp-het? Or is Tinka bisexual? Or is it simply another 90s gay joke?

-

Are there endless dps parallels in this film or am I just overanalysing?

More context for Odie/Todd and Verena/Neil along with the analysis of Tinka Parker and Snake is coming in part one. But for now any thoughts? Theories?

[dreampedia]

"Maybe it's a cultural thing too, not just a big city thing," said Mio, although she was largely saying it for own benefit, as she tapped her chin with her pointer figure. She was in the habit of voicing every thought that came to mind, even if it meant she was effectively speaking aloud to herself in the middle of conversation. " The only other places she'd lived extensively were Tokyo and Los Angeles, two places which, for varying reasons, failed to live up to that expectation of close-knit intimacy. She did miss the simple luxuries of big city life from time to time but she was starting to find that small towns and their sense of community suited her just fine. There was nothing quite like stopping by the local bakery to grab a quick snack before work and always being greeted by the same familiar smiles, instead of the faceless rotation of cashiers she'd encounter at the FamilyMart down the road from her previous dance studio back home. "In some places, the people are all just way too busy and focused on getting through the day to stop and enjoy stuff like this," she said. "And that probably sounds better to you, I guess, since you don't wanna run into people. But trust me, you do not get a minute to yourself."

As for his comments about tipping the scale, Mio founded herself nodding along with every word, even if she wasn't sure she felt exactly the same way. It was a complicated topic, that was certain. "You think so?" she asked, "I've always kind of admired the more stoical types." Perhaps it helped that the one person she'd admired most in life had been her sister, Rei, who had always been quieter than Mio. Now, Rei was hardly a wallflower and could probably talk their way out of any mess, something that Mio also admired on account of her own talent for talking herself into holes, but she doubted they'd ever been at risk of oversharing like Mio. "But maybe I'm just not appreciating my own end of the scale enough. It could go both ways, huh? No matter what side you started on? It makes sense, right, since people can get caught up in their own insecurities too." Somehow, Mio liked this line of thought; everything in balance but there was no achieving that balance until you learned to treat others, but also yourself, with respect. Perhaps that wasn't what he'd intended but for Mio, whose life philopsophy generally revolved around the idea of being pleasant to others and giving everyone a chance, it was appealing.

"Like I said, I'm sure I've seen you," said Mio, confidently. "Maybe I haven't seen you a whole lot but you're kiiiiiiinda familiar. I'm good at remembering faces." This, she said with a playful smile. Then, at the mention of choreography, Mio perked up (at least, she perked up more than she already done; it was very hard to say she had been in low spirits until now.) "Ooh, wait, like the theatre in town?" she asked. "I know some people there!" But, given how elusive he seemed to be at the dance studio, she wasn't certain if there'd be any mutual connections there; yet again, she was just blurting out what came to mind. "Wow, it must be crazy to be good at something you hate," Mio said, blinking in surprise. "But thankfully, I can cook. It's just baking that has me stumped so I guess I can't even ask you for any tips."

Bryn eyed her, noting her eagerness. He lifted his head a bit and raised his eyebrows as she spoke. Then gave a few small nods before saying, "That's good?" As she continued, he glanced to one side, "Are you?" He glanced down, thinking for a moment about what she said. He could get it, of course. The whole thing was fun, he supposed? It inspired, fun? Bryn grinned a bit, "Yeah. In smaller places, it's like, easier to see its charms. I guess?" Though he had always lived in Alaska and hadn't done much traveling where he stayed in many bigger areas, so he only had a small pool to call from on bigger places with events. He knew New York was always lit up.

As Mio spoke of what he was asking about, he nodded and sighed, "I was hoping to avoid people. Now I just think I'm going to run into more." He had half teased. Of course, he didn't want to run into too many people. But he wouldn't have minded if he had met a couple of new people or even friends he had in Anchorage, while there. Which would mean they would probably have a chat, especially with his friends. Which would then mean he wouldn't be going where he wanted to go. Bryn looked around, making a face as he had an inner chat with himself. Concluded he had just forgotten what it was he was doing, at all, before running into Mio. Sucking a bit on his teeth, he turned his head, "It's one option."

"I guess I don't have anything important going on at the moment otherwise." Shrugging, then he turned the donut a bit in his hand, listening when she spoke of balance, "You're right. It does." Staring at her, he looked quite serious for a moment, "But it's good to tip the scales, sometimes. You know?" Bryn liked being in his inner world a lot. But he also did enjoy listening to people's stories. Whatever they might be. He found nothing wrong with them. Mio wasn't exactly telling a story. But what she was doing was holding his attention, if she were to tell a story, he would have listened. Bryn inhaled, "I think we are often caught up in, so many things. Whatever side of the scale we land on, we tend to not appreciate the other side enough."

Bryn gave a nod then, understanding what he was early for, "Great." As she brought up them being co-workers he gave a small nod of his head again, as if to encourage her more toward this confirmation of the fact, "For at least two years?" He prompted then laughed weakly, "But, yeah, I do work there. Maybe you don't see me, since I don't just offer sweet dance movies. I do movie and theater, stuff for those. I think that's really cool of you to do." He commented. Then nodded, "I don't like cooking, but apparently I'm wonderful at it. So your secret is safe with me. Promise."