#but id have to make it myself to access one i can eat

[latalpavolante]

Honeydew Houses (furnished)

It's been 84 years, but I finally finished furnishing my Britechester apartment building(s). Yes, I can hardly believe it myself.

Honeydew Houses, in the heart of the old town, offer six units with different layouts, decorated in different styles. There's a small shared laundry room on the groundfloor, and the apts. include:

Seven Bedrooms - Six Bathrooms in total (so one bedroom - one bathroom per apartment, only the one on the first floor has two bedrooms)

Basement, left: Grungy Apt.

Basement, right: Musician's Apt.

Groundfloor: Caretaker's Apt.

First Floor: Single Mom's Apt.

Second Floor: Dark Academia Apt.

Third Floor/Attic: Painter's Mansard

If you prefer to furnish them yourself, you can download an (almost) empty version of this build from the gallery as well.

Lot Type: Residential

Lot: Honeydew Fields, 20x15, Gibbs Hill, Britechester

Lot Traits: (honestly I forgot to add them to the finished build, but considering the lore, I would have probably gone for) Homey, Study Spot, Great Acoustics

Price: § 294,594

Packs: CottageLiving | EcoLifestyle | DiscoverUniversity | GetFamous | CatsAndDogs | CityLiving | GetTogether | GetToWork | Werewolves | Parenthood | Vampires | Paranormal | LaundryDay | ModernLuxe | BasementTreasures | Everyday Clutter

noCC

MoveObjectsOn cheat required

Playtested (I found two minor issues which I decided to ignore for the sake of the backstory and/or aesthetics, and a bigger one that drives me insane but I don't know how to fix; more info under the cut)

Available on the Sims 4 gallery!

Tray Files: Google Drive

Heads-up: this build might be a little bit heavy on older pcs as it's very cluttered and detailed. The file size is ca. 503 KB, so pretty high for a 20x15 lot, and my laptop was taking ages to load when I placed the build in a new save for some last playtesting, so please keep that in mind and make sure to save your game before adding it (and bulldoze the lot before you do), just in case. Sorry for the inconvenience!

And I also made some sims for this build...

Gallery ID: LaTalpaVolante

You can find a playlist with the speed builds for all the six apartments on my Youtube channel:

More info and floorplans under the cut!

As you can tell from the list of packs, I haven't used For Rent for this as I don't have this expansion yet, so the apartments technically aren't separate units. I just added all the tenants as one household and assigned them their apts. by locking the other doors; or you could of course play around with the roommate system as well, or turn the apts. into proper rental units if you own For Rent.

Known Issues (I'm sorry, I know these explanations shouldn't be that long...)

In the grungy basement apt., the access to the right side of the bed is blocked by the punchbag. Sims can still get into the bed from the left side without problems. Because I had intended the apt. to be for one single sim anyway and it was more important for me to keep the punchbag, considering the hobbies and backstory of this sim, I decided to just go with it. But if you want to move two sims in, you'll either have to make one of them scoot over in the bed or delete the punchbag.

In the caretaker's apt. on the groundfloor, sims can't remove dirty dishes from the dining table. Otherwise sims can interact with that table perfectly fine (they can sit down and eat, do homework, read etc.), they just can't take dirty dishes from the table. This is apparently caused by the decorative shelf in the corner because its footprint slightly overlaps the one of the table. Easiest fix would be to either completely delete the shelf or just move the table away from it. However, because moving the table away from the wall looked a bit weird, and in my gameplay, I tend to just manually drag the dirty dishes into the sink anyway, I decided to ignore it.

The Interrupted Cooking Interaction in Basements Desaster Yeah. I basically made a whole post about this, but to sum it up, there seems to be a general issue where sims refuse to autonomously complete a cooking interaction in the basement when there are other cooking opportunities (=stoves, counters) available on the lot. If you play this build with the locked doors method, like me, and you want your sim to cook in one of the basement apts., they will take out the ingredients from the fridge, then behave as if the stove/counters were blocked (although I made sure they're accessible) and put the ingredients down. If you then click on the ingredients and choose to continue cooking, sims will however complete the interaction as if nothing happened. (If you don't lock the doors to the other apts., sims from the basement will automatically go upstairs to cook and ignore the basement kitchen.) I spent a ridiculous amount of time playtesting it over and over again and trying to figure out what exactly causes the problem, but I really couldn't find a solution and I'm extremely sorry for this. Maybe if you've got For Rent, turning the apts. into proper rental units might fix this issue? Please let me know in case you encounter any other problems (or if you know a way to fix the last one...)!

Floorplans

[perplexingluciddreams]

Hi! if is okay , can you please show what is in daily life folder ? trying to make my own but ended up just doing ADLs and wonder if there is something I am missing . Thanks!

Yes, I can show! First thing to understand, is how these two right side columns work in Supercore. When you click a folder there, most of them only changes the cells on those two columns (excluding a few, OR unless there is another link within there, to open up to a full-screen folder).

Here is how it looks at the home grid:

[Image description: Two right hand columns in Supercore 50. Full of cyan colour folders with symbols, black colour text label, and a black cut off top right corner. Order from left to right and top to bottom; daily life, leisure, chat, my news, position, places, time, feelings, topics, education, messages, spelling. End ID.]

For daily life + leisure folders, it opens to more folders within. I will put pictures, so you can see!

This is the first layer within "daily life" folder:

[Image description: More two columns of cyan folders. From left to right and top to bottom; toilet, AAC, eat & drink, accessibility, comfort, emergency, scheduling, medical, going places, travel, sleeping. The bottom right corner is a link to more. End ID.]

And this is what shows when you press "more":

[Image description: Left to right and top to bottom; dating, shopping, eating out, cooking, washing, learning, dressing, blank, job, blank, banking, blank. End ID.]

I cannot show within every single folder, but I will give examples. And if you want to see a specific one, just ask!

Here is the "sleeping" folder:

[Image description: Sleeping folder with the words; time, alarm, read, book, night, dream, pillow, hug, sleep, tired, bed. In the top right corner, there is a "phrases" folder. End ID.]

And here is inside the "phrases" folder. There is a separate phrases folder for each separate topic, with different phrases. (But some phrases is in every/almost every folder, because they are common. Like, "I need help" for example).

[Image description: Phrases folder from within the sleeping folder. It has common phrases such as "I need help", "I can do it", "I don't know". And also specific phrases relating to sleep, such as "I need to set an alarm", "please reposition me", and "good night". End ID.]

And here is the AAC folder, which I edited myself to have words I will actually use, relating to this topic. I will probably continue to edit the words inside these folders, because there is some spaces taken by words that I can easily find quickly in other places.

[Image description: Similar to the sleep folder, there is the phrases folder on the top right. The buttons are; AAC, device, word, Supercore 50, Grid 3, keyboard, sign, communicate, understand, communication, speech. End ID.]

The phrase list for the AAC folder is similar, with some same common phrases. And other specific phrases such as, "The word is not on my device", "Please add it to my device", etc.

It is quite complicated to explain every single part of how these right side columns work, but there is videos on Smartbox YouTube account that shows a lot about Supercore 50, if you want to see more! And I am happy to show more specific things, if you ask 😊👍🏻

[whosname]

Reading that executive function theft article made me think, well mainly, about 2 things.

1. When it was easy to meet with my friends (ooooh terrible late twenties, this is the only thing I miss about you), we used to play dungeons and dragons on the weekends and we had lunch together. This guy always recognized my panic face (he called it kernel panic) when we had to decide what to do to lunch and has this trick to help us all decide. He said, "we don't know what to lunch but I'm sure we know what we don't want to. For example, I don't want sushi today." And like that we decided very quickly what to eat, just a simple trick to not burden decisions on one of us. It is so cool when people around you just read your stupid panic face and de-escalate it like that.

2. But it suck when the system/corporations do everything on their fucking hands to make everything difficult for you, gaslighting you in the process cuz hey! This is so easy to do! Just upload everything on our website!

Here's all I've had to do to get my layoff benefits (even if I still work for this shitty company I'm a freelancer now and I can access to my layoff benefits to do whatever the fuck I like with 'em)

Write to shitty boss #3 asking him for an authorization letter to access the money (even if it is my money and I have every fucking right to access it) > hey, it's been 3 days, did ya see my message? Oh, you forgot, of course, what was I expecting? Silly me. You don't know how to write the letter? Okay, let me find one on the internet and I'll write for you > hi website, please let me see a model for this letter, no, not that, no I don't want that either, yes yes that one let me just copy and paste. Oh, you won't let me? Okay, let me type it myself > hey shitty boss #3, here's the letter. Oh, thank you, that was fast. You signed it in blue pen? Nah, no worries i can make it gray scale on photoshop > hi pension fund company, you say i can upload my paperwork to your site and you'll do the rest, cool, let me search on your shitty 2010s interface the right site to do it and... hey there it is, it wasn't that difficult, let me click... > what do you mean I can do this online? You keep repeating I can, what changed? Can you give me more info? Oh, that's not a "more info" button, I see... I guess I'll have to make a call > (3 phone menus later) hey! Why can't I do this online? Your account is blocked! Let me try an identity verification. Oh no, I can't do it over the phone, can you go to an office? Uuugh, okay, what else can I do? > (next day at the office) okay, why do you want access to the layoff benefits? My boss canceled my contract. Oh, okay, you have the letter? Yep (shows the letter). why does this guy's id has a dash and a number? It looks like a nit, he shouldn't have one. I don't know, man, he's chilean, I guess their id numbers has that, that's just their way. Ooooh, no, but that's not our way, you need 'em to correct that for you. Fuck your patronizing tone, just help me unblock my stupid account and go to hell. Okay, but you don't have to get this angry. Fuck you, man. > hi, I'll help you unblock your account, just let me take your fingerprints. That's it! Easy, now you can upload your paperwork. Thanks! now, I'm curious, why was it blocked? Well, you didn't move your benefits in some time so it gets blocked for security reasons. Stupid reason, but hey, thanks anyway. > back at home. Hey, boss #3, can you fix your id number here so the stupid people at the pension fund don't think it's another thing?

And that's how two errands (get the letter, upload the letter) became a hydra of errands I'll be trying to kill tomorrow.

I'm SO overwhelmed. And I still have some other hydras to kill.

[novelistash]

Of all the places to end up in Kanto, we arrive outside Pallet Town. Town is a bit of a misnomer, at this point it is definitely trending towards becoming a full city. We try to arrive on the shoreline only to find industrial docks managing supplies from freighters. Spiral spots a low access dock over by a small center of commerce and we touch wood next to a boat advertising, “Orange Tours! Live Citrusly!”

I’m not used to the wobble skip motion of riding behind a Sharpedo. My legs have trouble standing upright. The sharpedos wait for us to put the skimming platforms onto their backs. I get cut in the process, but it doesn’t even react. Whoever that stranger was, she trains well behaved Pokemon.

“Do you have their Pokeballs?” I ask Spiral.

“They’ll head back on their own.” She thanks the Sharpedo, prompting me to do likewise.

Responding to her words, the fanged monsters bow and take their leave. We watch them dive low enough for their fins to show and stretch. I keep thinking about our shared ride on the litter and how she hasn’t anything about it.

Meeting her eyes awkwardly, I ask. “So, who was that?”

“Someone you aren’t supposed to know about.” She walks up to the docks.

We have plenty of places to grab a bite and I sink into a beef bowl. It’s night time. I don’t know how late, but we’re some of the only people on this side of the dock. A few couples dine on the end of the pier. Soft light and Whismur sounds make for a romantic view, with us well away from the ambiance. The cheap eats stores close as soon as we finish our meals.

“I’m gonna need to hit a Pokepark,” I tell her. With us being in trouble we can’t risk going to a Pokémon Center. My finances are taking a huge hit from all this.

“Okay. Lemme try to find one.” Spiral crouches down to talk to her Grimer. “Find us a park.”

It gurgles something before sliding into the sewage.

Light applauds make the end of one song. A man and his Chattot sing on, taking the sound of the Paldea region, no doubt profiting off the league’s push to show off their latest acquisition next month. I watch a woman lean into her date’s shoulder, neither of them taking their eyes off the ocean.

Spiral is watching a rage of Gyarados’s cast a long wake over the moonlight. Her blue eyes shimmer with sorrow. I ache to rest my arm on her shoulder.

“The BAD EGG is just code,” I assure her. “We’ll get Coba back.”

“So you say.”

Grimer gurgles. The little mon found something and it’s pointing the way. It’s obvious that Spiral hasn’t leveled it up that much. It’s not much bigger than a wild Grimer.

“Do you-”

“Listen, I don’t really want to talk right now. It’s probably better if we keep quiet anyway.”

“Oh. Yeah, sorry.”

I keep my head down and pretty soon the Grimer in her arms has lead us to the Pokepark. It isn’t a lot, just a little place for the local wealthy to let their Vulpix’s go to the bathroom. We’re alone.

I let out Roi and my Tyrantrum is out cold. Snapping a revive by his snout, he wakes up with a bellow of pain. Gripping his head tight, I stroke his cheek until he quiets. The injured leg is bad, mangled into the wrong direction from a fracture. Shadowfell helps me reset the limb and Spiral applies hyper potion on the area. Soon the Pokemon magic works and rocky flesh is restored.

He’s going to be okay.

“You’re friend Rosette-” I stop myself. “Sorry. No talking.”

“Do you know how the League tracks IDs?” she asks.

I shake my head. “No, I just don’t trust Rotom-phones. Nothing about their propaganda makes any sense. Infinite Energy is impossible.”

Spiral walks off, forcing me to recall Roi to catch up.

*

I don’t know where anything is. When I was here last Pallet Town was a few houses and a humble dock. There are signs everywhere for the Oak Museum of Pokemon. A generic gabled home remains preserved beside a modern building. Signs tell us that we can actually meet the legend Red that the character Ash Ketchum is based on. No one is around. No lights are on inside. Everyone’s resting in their homes, probably watching Oak’s variety hour or some other terrible program. Spiral has lagged behind. She’s staring at a one story tall lab not too far from Red’s home. It’s where Oak’s lab used to be, before all the fame. Before the League took over Kanto.

“This is where I started,” she says. “I walked in there and got my first pokemon. All I had to do was show them my license and I got a Squirtle. Oak didn’t even charge me anything.”

I wanna grumble about how hard it was to train with a Meowth, but she’s actually opening up again.

“Is that why you came to Kanto, for Oak’s offer?”

She shakes her head. “No, it was the League. Johto didn’t have that and the League wouldn’t recognize Johto’s badges to compete at the time.”

“The one-two punch of the Indigo League, free Pokemon to those that can travel and no alternative for those that want to compete.” She’s still staring at the building.

“I’m sorry you lost your Blastoise.” At the very least, it isn’t a Pokemon I killed. It was destroyed in the Galar data crash.

She walks off. “Let’s go.”

Not ten minutes later we’re walking down Route 1, the place where dreams become reality for so many trainers. I only ever sped through here on my bike. No insects sing to the stars, the Rattata heavy fields would kill any Kricketots.

“You don’t actually know if my Rotom-bike will stop working, do you?”

“No,” I admit.

She sighs.

“But, I-”

She’s walking faster, fast enough for me to really put in the effort to keep up.

“Infinite Energy has to come from somewhere. A mass transfer of power like that can just as easily work both ways.”

Wild Rattata are spooked out of the brush. She throws out her Grimer and I let her handle the fight.

“Do you have a plan?” she asks with scorn. “I need to know that all of this isn’t a complete waste of time.”

“It isn’t.” The look in her eyes makes me swallow. “Listen, Murray Marmuck was a big deal back in the day. He blew the Missingno outbreak wide open. They had to change policy because of his reporting. He’s gonna know something.”

Spiral recalls her Grimer and we’re back to walking north. The glow of Viridian City soon shows low buildings surrounded by rock walls.

“Why did you fight for me? Back in Slateport. You could’ve left me there.”

“It took me a long time to accept that training Pokemon isn’t always about hard facts. You think that something special happened with Coba and I believe you. When I saw you panicking, I knew I had to help you. That’s all it was, a feeling. I don’t care about my career anymore. My Metagross research can continue with or without the League.”

“So you helped because you believe in Coba?”

“Yeah, I guess. Kind of dumb, huh?”

Silence. All the way to Viridian City.

*

There’s a love hotel close to the main road. We get a room each and don’t make eye contact on the way to the elevator. Our rooms are on opposite sides of the hall. I don’t look at her. We don’t comment on the sounds we can hear slipping through the doors.

*

A new day means I get to fully appreciate how fucked I am. Without the League my credit is gonna be void almost everywhere I go. It’s strange being back in Kanto, but not because of the League. I remember my first team. My family. The pain I ran from. The pain I’m still running from. It sucks being here.

I wasn’t truthful to Spiral last night. I didn’t intervene because I believed in Coba. I’m intrigued by the mystery of it, but that’s not why I helped Spiral. I like her. She’s a strong trainer, a beautiful woman, a person that I want to help, and I feel close to her. I’m doing this because I want to help her and I’m scared that telling her any of that will scare her away.

She obviously doesn’t think of me that way and I need to be cool about this. My feelings are my problem.

Spiral isn’t in the lobby when I wake up, so I wait for her. A woman of the night tries to start a conversation, but I’m dismissive and she’s got a home to go back to.

*

Walking through Viridian City is just like how I remember it. Lots of Rattata, Pidgey, Nidoran, and Pikachu making everyone’s lives miserable. Frayed cables are just as common as ripped open garbage bags.

Some scrappy kids run past us and I stop in my tracks. The little girl is a dirty blonde underneath her baseball cap. She reminds me of my sister. It’s hard to take my eyes off her as she throws a lethal rock at a Pikachu. Her throw misses and her friend tears into her. I wanna challenge the little kid to a battle.

I wanna drive my fist into his face.

Spiral pulls me away by the wrist.

I sigh, putting my eyes back on the concrete.

“What’s wrong?”

“I grew up in a place like this. It brings up a lot of hard memories.”

“That why you escaped into the luxuries of the Battle Chateau?”

I laugh. “No, uh.” I laugh some more, it’s all nerves. “I got a crush.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. It’s was all unreciprocated love and-”

I see him. The old man is bald and grungy and trying to tell street urchins how to catch a Caterpie, but it’s him. Murray Marmuck in the flesh. I run over to catch the guy, but he isn’t moving. My presence is just as important as everyone else’s to him.

The little kid yells at him. “I already know how to catch a Pokemon! Just gimme that Caterpie!”

“Sorry, youngster. You’re gonna have to catch one yourself.”

The kid flips him off and takes off by squeezing through the rot in a fence.

“Do you two need help catching Pokemon?” he asks us.

I’m smiling. I can’t help myself. I haven’t seen this guy’s face in twenty-five years. “You’re him, aren’t you? Murray Marmuck. I’d watch you every night when you’d say, ‘And that’s the news today.’ You wanted to clean up the airwaves.”

“Well,” he grumbles. “Now I’m cleaning up brains.”

Murray releases the Caterpie from his Pokeball manually the same way I wasted my Pokeball. The thing is well trained and stays close by. Then he picks up the destroyed Pokeball and does something to reset the mechanisms. It looks like all he did was flick a switch, but there is no such switch on a Pokeball. I have no idea what he did or how he did it.

“We need your help,” says Spiral.

Something about her tone or maybe the intensity of her sapphire gaze makes him take her seriously. We explain our situation and he listens with a grim scowl.

“I don’t know anything about Koynlab and I’m sorry about your Pokemon, but I’ve never dealt with a BAD EGG. I’m sorry. I know that they were introduced shortly after Indigo acquired Hoenn, but that’s it.”

The way he says Indigo makes me smile. It reminds me of a time when the League wasn’t everything, when it wasn’t a corporation operating like a political machine slowly taking over the world.

“So there isn’t any hope. It’s gone. Coba is gone,” says Spiral with understandable frustration.

“Now I didn’t say that. What I know about glitches is a lot, and I can tell you that they are Pokemon.”

Spiral is shocked. “What?”

I’m so happy I giggle. “I told you!” I take out my Quickball and hand it over to Murray Marmuck. “This has my Swanna inside.”

He chuckles, bringing his head low. “You saw my report.”

“Of course I did. Your work on glitch Pokemon is amazing.”

“Well, I didn’t.” Spiral glares at me for excluding her. “What’s going on?”

“Gimme a minute.” Murray takes out a set of tools from his pile of junk. The junk pile is large enough to house a family of Pikachu, the tool set fits in his palm.

“Murray is gonna turn my Swanna into a Missingno.”

“What?!” Why would you wanna do that?!”

“Don’t you worry. It’ll be safe,” says Murray casually.

Running a thin bar though the crease on the center of the ball, he pries the top shell of the quick ball up at four precise locations; two by hinge, two equidistant from the back. Then very carefully, he takes off the shell and reveals the lacquered wood of the apricorn inside.

“That’s an apricorn,” I say to Spiral because I’m too excited to keep it contained.

Murray chuckles. “That’s right. You can even touch it. As long as this shell isn’t cracked, the pokemon will stay inside.”

Spiral and I take turns running our hand over the flesh. It feels like wood left out in the sun.

“Can you show me how to manually trip the region data?” I ask, feeling like a kid getting his first mon.

“Watch me carefully while I explain things to the former Champion.” Murray works the servos around the main activation button while he talks. “Try as they might, Indigo doesn’t have access to every pokemon in the world. Some are rare, some too endangered to properly study, but most aren’t native to the lands they have claim to.

“When Indigo showed up they put a lot of smaller institutions out of business. Not all of them were apricorn conartists, some of them had a lot of influence. The biggest restructured into Silph Co. A bright engineer in their employment wasn’t content to let Indigo take over. He was trying to use the remnants of the smaller gangs to build up a new empire. Everyone knew him as Boss Rocket, but his real name was-”

“Giovanni,” Spiral answers. “I’ve fought him and Team Rocket before.”

“Then you know how dangerous he was. Giovanni wasn’t only trying to steal Pokemon, he was doing experiments. His researchers on Cinnabar Island created the semi-legendary Dittos, but he had a bigger project in progress at Saffron City.”

“The Masterball,” Spiral says, no doubt knowing the tale of Red by heart.

“Bigger,” I say, taking the quick ball from Murray’s hands.

Spiral glances between us. “Does this have something to do with the Silph Scope?”

“It wasn’t originally developed to detect ghosts, that was an unforeseen consequence of their research. Giovanni hired enough psychics to create the power vacuum that let Sabrina rise to the top,” Murray explains. To me he adds, “That wire right there is delicate. Don’t pull, just nudge.”

“Got it.”

He keeps talking to Spiral while I work. “He needed espers to sense whether or not Pokemon still existed in their glitched state and what he found was that they were still Pokemon in every way except for their physical form. Are you ready?”

“Yeah.” I snap the quick ball’s blue and yellow shell onto the top of the apricorn’s casing. “You ready?”

Spiral nods.

I press the button to activate voice command. “Connie, hold!”

Throwing the ball, the bird pokemon comes out as a flash of light that doesn’t take a solid form.

Tangible chunks of floating mass are arranged in a vertical pillar and a squat rear. The characteristic shape of a Missingno. The glitch that scared pokemon trainers everywhere.

Spiral gets onto her feet, her hand shoots to strong balls that likely haven’t been on her belt for years.

“You see that long part,” I point it out. “That’s a Swanna’s neck.” Gawking, she looks flabbergasted at me.

I think my excitement is creeping her out. “Connie, return.” She does. The ball treats the data like it’s whole and healthy.

Murray goes back into his explanation. “A bulk Pokemon storage program had been tried for years, but it wouldn’t work. Indigo’s star researcher Bill got around this problem by creating a limited list of Pokemon he could register into Indigo’s database, but it didn’t work completely.”

I’m so excited I add to his explanation. “Many of the M glitches were actually regional variations on Pokemon native to Kanto. Galar Electrodes showed up as Bulbasaurs, things like that.”

“Wait, so you’re telling me all of the glitch Pokemon that showed up was nothing but Giovanni releasing Pokemon that Bill hadn’t yet coded?” She considers it. I can see her mind digesting this new information with speed. “That’s why he needed masterballs, to catch Pokemon if the apricorns broke.”

“Giovanni wasn’t trying to steal pokemon to get rich, he was trying to beat Indigo at their own game,” Murray explains. “He was trying to make a better Pokemon League.”

I take over. “But once the League takes over a region, their researchers add the new data to their list, transmit the code to Pokemon centers and stores through the region. Rather than giving you a new ball, they upload a patch into your pokeballs and then…”

I toss the quick ball out. Connie comes out fine, extending her wings in triumph. “Viola. Missingno is no longer a glitch.”

@trainerspiral

[coldslaws-gear-station]

Okay I just remembered this idea I had that might be cool for NHP. I had thought about it during the absence but I had forgotten it, but now I remember!

There's an event in BW2 where in the creepy abandoned house by the Lentimas Town and if you manage to make it through the whole house (it's a maze puzzle) you'd get a Lunar Wing

Turns out the soul of a girl who lived within the house had been kept alive through the Pokemon Cresselia!

There are a lot of dreamy stuff and hints littered around the house, stuff goes as so;

Bookshelves

Top left- "There is a Pokemon called Cresselia in the far Sinnoh region. Its wings shine like the crescent moon and keeps nightmares away."

Bottom left- "There are Pokemon called Hypno. Each one carries a pendulum that it can swing to make people drowsy. It has been said that a Hypno once hypnotized a child and took it away..."

Bottom center- "Some Pokemon know a move called Dream Eater. With this move, a Pokemon attacks while the target is asleep and eats its dream. It restores HP equal to half of the dream inflicted on the target."

Top Right- "There are Pokemon called Drowzee. They put others to sleep and eat their dreams. Eating nightmares can upset their stomachs."

Bottom Right- "Some Pokemon have the Forewarn Ability. A Pokemon with this Ability is alerted to one of the opposing Pokemon's moves. High-power moves will be recognised first."

As for the Ghost;

First Encounter-

"An everlasting dark dream...

An Endless dream of darkness...

Dad, Mom, Abra...

Where are you...?"

Second Encounter-

"In the dark dream...

I heard my dad's voice...

Forget about the Lunar Wing...

Please stay here with me..."

Third encounter-

"Oh... The Lunar Wing...

I can't take it now...

But it'll be okay...

Please return the wing to the Pokemon...

I was waiting on the bridge so I could return it myself..."

The part about the bridge is in regards to an event that happens on Marvelous Bridge. Where there will be a guy standing next to a girl on the side of the bridge, though when you approach the girl will disappear and that upsets the man (iirc, it has been years since I've done this quest)

This is an event that is programmed into the game, like with Latios/Latias in the dreamyard. It isn't a time sensitive quest and I'm not quite sure people really know about it

But when you pick up the Lunar Wing and bring it to the Marvelous Bridge you'll trigger a wild encounter with Cresselia!

All I'm saying here is that we should give Penny a Hypno/Drowzee and maybe even a Cresselia! Or perhaps Cresselia would tie into their origins in a way? It's a cool event that nobody talks about and it REEKS of potential!

not me waiting forever like "gosh this is taking a long time, im so excited" only to remember that again. this account hates asks for some reason. i just had to check myself and it was already there

but YES i agree penny should get more sleep related pokemon. as a treat. it is interesting that cresselia has ties to ghosts and souls because does that mean pokemon that can access the dream world can also access the dead? could penny access the dead? like this kid wasn't haunted enough already

id have to research more into darkrai and cresselia before making that call for certain because obviously ghosts are just kind of a Thing in the pokemon world. like you don't have to be special to see ghosts because they're just. around. both human and pokemon. but i imagine the very few human ghosts we see are sorta special in a way that allows them to be interacted with, versus the vast majority of the dead who just vanish

it also begs questioning an afterlife in the pokemon universe. but that might be too deep for me. basically im just wondering if the dream world/dream related abilities would allow access to spirits that aren't able to roam the living world like we've seen some human spirits do

also now that you've put cresselia in my brain for nhp i think it's only fair and natural that i give bau penny (benny if you will. if you won't then that's fine) darkrai in some capacity. your fault not mine

[friiedfreckles]

Just have to get this off of my chest, it’s more of a journaling to stress relieve type post.

I am entirely over the disrespect coming from those that should love you. I’ve always disliked the part of me that accepted disrespect from the ones I love because I wanted to find a way to justify why they did or didn’t do things. I loved them and I felt I would accept any behaviors or lack of, because I wanted them to stay in my life. OR I didn’t want to cause waves, because arguments and confrontations are messy and stressful. As I’ve grown older I’ve found myself at the point that I no longer can defend or make excuses for these people. If I love them or not, they don’t deserve a slot in my life. They don’t deserve access to my feelings any longer. My mom had not been a good mom since my parent’s divorce which is over 15 years ago now. She heavily drinks, doesn’t take care of herself (go to the doctors, get checked out), she doesn’t call me to check on how I am. She calls me once she goes down her list of contacts and nobody else has answered. She calls me to just spew out whatever gossip she has about the family. I could put the phone down for an hour and walk away and she wouldn’t notice. She’d still be talking. If I try to tell her something about my life she will call people the next day and tell them about it while intoxicated. So for years and years I’ve not been able to tell her things in confidence. I’ve wanted to have a mother daughter relationship that’s normal for so long. Id love a mom that would go out to eat with me, go shopping with me, come over my house and visit me. I’d love it for her to call me and maybe not be intoxicated and actually ask what’s new. This sadly will never happen for me, and I’m at the point that I don’t really want to tolerate it anymore either. My brother is almost 30 years old and lives at my mom’s house. Neither of them pick up after themselves. There’s always dirty dishes with old food sitting on the tables or countertops. The tile is sticky from food falling down or spilled drinks that they didn’t bother to clean up. The cat litter box is always full of shit and piss and they only clean it when the entire house smells like feces. My brother’s laundry is piled up in random areas, spread across the floor. It’s a nice house, and used to be so well kept but it’s just so abused. My dad has cancer and had a major surgery where they removed a section of his face from the inside of his mouth. He can’t speak, and we are finally at the up end of his healing journey. It was such a nightmare, my brother didn’t show up one day. My only sibling, did not show up once. Not when my dad was in the ICU, not when he was home. He didn’t offer help. The best part is he doesn’t even dislike our dad, he’s just extremely lazy and self centered. This hurt my dad, and the rest of the family that’s been helping my dad heal at bedside, has noticed. Honestly I’m over it. I’m so angry at my mom and brother. For years and years they’ve been shitty in the same ways. Everyone has their issues, I nor my dad are perfect. But we would show up. We have integrity, empathy, basic human decency. The fact that both of them are so lost in their own worlds, and can’t come to the surface to take a breath is just astronomical to me. It shouldn’t be, I shouldn’t be surprised. Something about your favorite person, your only receptive and caring parent being diagnosed with stage 4 cancer and has a major surgery with a very rigorous, isolating, and painful healing process… and watching someone he holds dearly and cares deeply about not give a shit? Not show up at all? Watching him on pain medications the day of surgery hallucinate that my brother was there and seeing how excited he was to “see my brother” had me in tears. As shitty as this feels, I will be removing both my brother and my mom from my life. If anything happens to my dad, I will be parentless. I can’t sit here and allow them access to me or my mental health anymore. I really wish this was different, but they had plenty of time to show up for me in my life, and didn’t.

[pistisq]

some children keep thinking about death seems random like any temperament though I wondered if it causes obsessiveness or is an obvious target for that impulse the way a kid will repeat the same question over and over until getting an answer that gives it a space and name to store beside an existing object within their emerging filing system. death as a blank book with no decimal number carrying it around indefinitely instead of stuffing it wherever or beside “sleep” my memory is the word nothing my atheist parents clarify “like before you were born” nothing nothing but what is that fixation on trying to imagine it and horrible feeling of the world splitting apart at night not every night or even most. id get up go lay at the foot of my parents bed facing the door two steps down wall to wall carpeting was in vogue remember pressing on my eyes to make the red light of the alarm system double and circle itself when I got slightly older I would read calvin and hobbes comics locking myself in a bathroom stall when we started learning about “space” children maybe should be told i dont know more often and right away abort the expectation for understanding i was trying to trace a through line a narrative to release but i cant or dont want to theres many they all could be true and all are until i choose one besides i was lucky one of the lucky ones and my childhood was happy my mother was attentive and my father was making a lot of money read to us every night encapsulating stability of indulgent maternal devotion affluence we drank tons of milk i imagine its all the fucked growth hormones i wasn’t interested in being a woman yet i wouldnt have been in any version stop eating decades pass maybe resuming there im 11 ready to be a woman and FUCK watching girls gone wild at my aunts i can sleep downstairs and watch television all night intoxicating freedom I dont remember an emotion interested but not aroused I know I kept going back to watch once all the cartoons were over half for feeling I shouldnt the forbidden half seeking instruction an access point to my imminent future a hole to fill something another blank book id been left dumbly holding at the library sex and death now my hands are full seems theres nothing to resolve lay down on the floor clutching them to my breast like shields

[notfknapplicable]

6637

For some crazy reason my homegrrl's hearing for the TPO has been rescheduled for the end of September from the original date of tomorrow. I'm really bummed about this for her but she has avenues for recourse that she can pursue in the meantime. We work in the same building and they made it keycard access only after he threatened the revenge porn thing. A couple of coworkers are pretty annoyed about having to keep their IDs on them now but fuck that, my girl is worth it and a favorite coworker gave me one of those lanyard thingies so I can wear mine on my neck. I love it, it makes me look more "official" in some way.

Went for my first run on the trails around the corner from my house on Saturday. It's beautiful out there! Fingers crossed for morning runs to become part of my routine again soon.

I was really going through it these past two weeks. I'm starting to feel better. The nightmare was too much and I think I needed to just fall apart for a minute. We're gonna go visit mama this weekend and while I'm absolutely dreading the 8-hour drive, I also cannot wait to see her and chill out in her lovely home. I'm also gonna bring my hiking stuff and just go by myself to visit our local trails. My sister sleeps way later than me and I'm not trying to hike in the heat at noon. Sick of them always being like "don't go without me uwu" but staying in fucking bed all morning. Ya snooze ya lose!

Also - and I can't believe I'm about to write this - I'm getting my deposit refunded by my old landlords! They deducted a $140 cleaning free from the $650 I paid, and I get $510 of that back! I'm fucking SHOCKED to be perfectly honest. That never happens in this shitty ass college town! Not to mention that I smoked that place the fuck out and was genuinely worried about the smoke damage. There was a little (mostly you could just see where I'd hung up pictures) but I wiped the place down with Zep and it was fine.

A coworker left a fresh, ripe tomato from their garden on my desk. I'm gonna cube it and eat with fresh cucumber slices, Maldon salt, fresh cracked pepper, and a few splashes of white wine vinegar. Heaven.

[aceduchessdragoness]

[id: 1st picture is a fact taken from Wikipedia that says, “Sharks can have cancer. The misconception that sharks do not get cancer was spread by the 1992 book Sharks Don’t Get Cancer,”

2nd picture is a 1 panel comic. It’s a drawing of a teacher looking at her laptop and saying, “Okay, middle school students, it’s the first Tuesday in February. This means that by law and custom, we must spend the morning reading through the Wikipedia article List of Common Misconceptions, so you can spend the rest of your lives being a little less wrong. The guests at every party you’ll ever attend thank us in advance.”

Pictures 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are more facts from the Wikipedia article: “Urine is not sterile, even in the bladder.” / “Female praying mantises rarely eat the males during reproduction, especially in their natural environment. In a study in a laboratory at the University of Central Akransas, it was observed that 1 out of 45 times the female ate the male before mating, and the male ate the female with the same frequency.” / “Sugar does not cause hyperactivity in children. Double-blind trials have shown no difference in behavior between children given sugar-full or sugar-free diets, even in studies specifically looking at children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or those considered sensitive to sugar. A 2019 meta-analysis found no positive effect of sugar consumption on mood but did find an association with lower alertness and increased fatigue within an hour of consumption, known as a sugar crash.” / “All humans learn in fundamentally similar ways. In particular, there is no evidence that people have different learning styles, or that catering teaching styles to purported learning styles improves retention.” / ““420” did not originate from the Los Angeles police or penal code for marijuana use. California Penal Code section 420 prohibits the obstruction of access to public land. The use of “420” started in 1971 at San Rafael High School, where it indicated the time, 4:20 pm, when a group of students would go to smoke.”

Picture 8 is another fact: “Infants can and do feel pain.”

Picture 9 is a fact and picture 10 is a reaction: “People do not swallow large amounts of spiders during sleep. A sleeping person makes noises that warn spiders of danger.” And the next image is of a person pointing in confusion.

Pictures 11 and 12 are comments regarding the “learning styles” fact:

11:

micheghost02: I’ll have to look into the misconception about learning styles. As someone who has an auditory processing disorder, i benefit from more with a visual and hands on process (if available, can’t do hands on with history).

dementedmk, @micheghost02: I could be wrong here, but my guess is that this probably doesn’t take processing disorders or similar learning challenges into account, which makes it less true as a universal statement but might be more specifically helpful for the general population? Idk

tinbells: Yea. the learning styles one, has like… ignores the existence of people with disabilities? Also doesn’t make is obvious the kind of ways we teach doesn’t line up with how people learn.

chlora-boii: the learning styles one is super suspect

12:

gay-4-space, @chlora-boii @tinbells: the learning styles one has quite a bit of scientific literature to back it up, not just the ones linked in the article. And yes, it does ignore people with disabilities as its focusing of the idea of the general public, while most papers and reviews of the topic acknowledge that people have preferences in how information is presented, the retention of that information is

gay-4-space: is not affected by those different types. I have a learning disability myself so I was also skeptical but the science to back it up in the general populace just isn’t there /id]

wikipedia is a gem

[irisrainbowplumed]

Hihi! Do you have any advice for someone who is interested in being an Iris devotee? I'm a beginner and closeted about my practice, so I can't have an altar.

hi!! i apologize for the late response since this blog runs mainly on a queue. and as a disclaimer im not an authority on anything haha so this is just going off my own (naturally ongoing) journey, i encourage you to do your own research as well.

i would definitely recommend getting familiar with the basics of hellenic polytheism and its concepts, like kharis, miasma, kthonic vs ouranic etc (i think i should have a basics tag, and i can also point you in the direction of people in the community with easily accessible lists of resources and basics and such, but i also recommend reading for yourself too! there's a lot to learn but ive found it very calming and educational. and you get to sort of decide whether you want to do things traditionally according to ancient sources or modernize a little)

id also like to point out the difference between a worshipper and a devotee. being a devotee, to me, means i spend extra time worshipping iris and working with her (so i approach her with stuff you might consider the domain of another god because she's the main deity i worship). ive worshipped iris for a good chunk of time, and i really thought about it before i devoted myself to her. it can be a bit of a jump haha

and the great thing about all of this is that you don't need an altar to be a hellenic polytheist! as someone who didn't have an altar for a long time, i absolutely understand the want for one, but i promise the gods won't think any less of you for it.

i like to write prayers/poems for the gods as a devotional act, which is one way to express worship. there are lots of devotional acts you can do specific to a specific deity. so for iris i wear/decorate with rainbows and write letters. sometimes i wear jewelry that makes me think of her, and ive drawn how she appears to me a few times.

libations are one way to give physical offerings to the gods, in this case liquids. stuff like wine, water, milk, honey and oil were used. depending on the type of god, they could be poured into the dirt for kthonic gods or poured into a bowl and left there. so personally i say a quick prayer before i drink something, like "i offer this libation/drink to you, [whomever]." but ill also offer drinks on my nightstand or on my altar and leave them there for a day or two before pouring them out.

you can offer food to the gods, too! whether it be your meal or something else. i have fig trees in my garden and i will often offer the first of the season to the gods. understanding that this is a different time and many people can't afford to burn food or dispose of it, i make a prayer before i eat offering it to the gods.

im disabled, so the way i worship might be a little different than the average person. i again encourage you to look up key terms and readings before jumping in. i know i sound like a broken record but i promise you'll be glad haha

i hope you have a wonderful time introducing yourself to iris!! be kind to yourself and your limitations and remember that the gods understand

here's some blogs that have good masterposts and resources !!

piristephes

honor-the-gods

verdantly-violet

thegrapeandthefig

theoi-crow

khaire-traveler

crazycatsiren

[princeanxious]

.

[artsyaech]

~welcome to the sunflower field~

[image ID: a field of hundreds of sunflowers. in the distance you can see what appears to be a hill. over the field is a sunset with clouds in the sky END ID]

my names are

aech

froggie

kaos

mayhem

ocean

kandi

and i'm just one out of hundreds of xenogender coining blogs. my old blog got deleted on accident (because i'm a dumdum) but i'm the original artsyaech, trust me. i have tons of pronoun sets but here are some you can call me by:

hán/háni/háns

xae/xaer/xaerself

art/arts/artself

xeph/xephs/xephself

frog/frogs/frogself

quoi/quois/quoiself

zix/zix/zixself

boop/boops/boopself

sol/sols/solself

star/stars/starself

🌻/🌻s/🌻self [emoji ID: sunflower emoji]

i'm a white icelander with scottish ancestry, so i'm as white as can be lol. i'm xenogender and genderfluid as well as objectum, aspec and abrosexual. i'm autistic, have adhd, depression and anxiety (diagnosed) as well as questioning if i have anything more.

i am otherkin. i’m an alien so please refrain from using humane terms to describe me

special interests atm: gorillaz, the sims, postal, mcr and mlp (if you request anything related to these things, i will 100% make it)

my bestie is @hip-albatross (go send him some love, void is amazing)

(help with image IDs would be very much appreciated)

tagging system

[PT: tagging system]

search for #aech’s terms if you just wanna see my gendies and other terms

#aech rambles is just for my little ramblings

#aech’s asks is for my asks

#aech reblogs is for reblogs (some of my older reblogs don’t have that tag, fyi)

#aech helps with neos or themed pronouns for pronoun/name help :)

#aech gives tips for alterhuman self-care tips

accessibility tags

#needs id is for posts that don’t have image ID (that i might add later)

#has id is for posts that have image ID (sometimes, i will add this myself)

what i will do:

xenogenders

aldernic terms

objectum terms

themed names and pronouns

what i will not do:

coining anything potentially problematic

coining anything on my blacklist

term searching

flag combos

flag requests: open!

name and pronoun requests: open!

DNI and blacklist under cut

dni: anti-mogai, anti-xenogenders, anti-neopronouns, anti-polyamory, anti-sex work, anti-abortion, mspec lesbian exclusionists, mspec gay exclusionists, anti-feminist, republicans, TERFS, SWERFS, radfems, transcum, transmeds, truscum, nazis, sexists, homophobes, misogynists, trump supporters, transphobes, queerphobes, racists, ableists, saneists, xenophobes, anti-BLM, pro-cop, superstraights, flop accounts, troll accounts, kink/NSFW (that includes H3nt41 and 3cch1), anti-agere, “MAP/p*dosexual”, “r*pesexual”, “racefluid”, “dreamsexual” (pertaining to the dsmp), “zoosexual”, “n*crosexuals” zoophiles, gold star lesbians, “transracials” RCTA, ECTA, people who support subs like r/DIDCringe or r/FakeDisorderCringe, xenoid/xenoidentities and their supporters, autism speaks supporters, light it up blue supporters, people who sexualize agere, proshippers, transid/transx, against researched self- diagnosis, demonize any mental disorder, against alterhumans, ‘consang’, think fiction doesn’t affect reality, pro-incest, pro-sh, jk rowling fans/apologists, pro-ano/thinspo

blacklist (general): gore, real violence, real death, MAPs, l*licon, sh*tacon, s/a, s/h, su*cide, eating disorders, s*xual topics/imagery, addiction, pregnacy and childbirth, hospitals and hospital imagery

blacklist (media/people): FNF, DSMP, harry potter and other j.k. rowling media, countryhumans, hetalia, black butler, killing stalking, hisoka from hxh, yarichin bitch club, boku no pico, helluva boss / hazbin hotel, kalvin garrah, shane dawson, trisha paytas, jschlatt, sia

reminder that in some cases the media on the blacklist is not inherently problematic, i’m just uncomfortable with it.

[drake-the-incubus]

off of work! More tea:

- My first day, and the other girl working was only on her second day. That was all who was stationed.

- we had an excess of like 14 (only wrote off thirteen though) smoothies. Supervisor was allowed one- having only jumped in about two times in our 6 and 8 hr shifts respectively- we were not.

- smoothies were about a small/kid’s size apple juice and 8 CAD.

- I accidentally ingested Pina Colada. I am unsure if it had pineapple actually in it. I’m not dead so, score.

- Having quit my restaurant job because dishwashing gave me constant meltdowns which lead to my autism dx, I found myself washing our blenders at the end of the day

- There’s one drink on the menu, that really just makes one serving per, vs the 5 smoothies we needed to make. We only had 5 blenders, and while we’re near the washing station, I had to rinse the blender three times until it was sanitized enough to use for something else. I modified the drink so it was easier to poor because it held us up for 5 minutes each time and kept pushing us behind

- i got called the smoothie queen, and kept up fairly well for my first day working

- I am in the closet being trans and on T. We are playing dangerous games here.

- my introduction to the job took like 20 minutes but only because the manager kept getting stopped every few seconds because of an issue.

- I don’t have my ID badge yet, so I didn’t get my meal during my break and after my break I had to quickly grab my comped meal and rush out because my husband’s isopods were being held captive by Canada Post

- During my break I had to follow a guy heading back to the kitchen just so I could access the break room

- as mentioned, out pina colada mix was frozen. The sub for my coworker- she was on break- wasn’t listening to me abt it and took 6 orders for it and I couldn’t make it. Then stormed off and said “the chef said they they couldn’t make pina colada because its frozen or whatever” just in earshot of me to go “wtf”.

- the supervisor that went to get pina colada did not bring pina colada back

- I had war flashbacks of cutting my knuckles up digging ice when I poured the ice out end of shift.

- the side of my right pointer finger is red bc all of our ingredients- aside from a jug of milk and cocoa powder for that ONE drink- have the same pull tabs as those like 1L carton of juice.

- my cab came early so I rushed to get my food and go for the isopods, cutting in front of two young children that weren’t paying attention so I can leave. The guilt eats me alive.

- mom gave me an umbrella when she dropped me off. The umbrella was useless coming home.

- my feet feel like someone took a bat to the underside and hit just the entire sole of the foot at once.

- surprisingly, the injury I got the night before on our couch still hurts more

- i made the mistake of walking home, 30 minutes, from the post office, I thought I almost died

- I had to run from the cab to the post office, I have Exercise Induced Asthma. The poor postal worker was so worried as I took my inhaler and I was like, “no I’m good I promise.”

- I have collapsed on my couch. I wild not be moving until my next shift in two days. Inclusive.

- I am gonna have ramen and eep

Who the fuck hears “I can’t make pina coladas bc the mix is frozen” and fucking tells on the person for “not doing their job” without letting them fucking finish.

Like. I was literally going to say I’m supposed to be getting more mix.

JFC.

Otherwise, Job’s great. Feet hurt. How’re yall? My break is over abt now.

[rayshippouuchiha]

So, this is a complaint about my parents, i have health issues, I also have an essay due in 4 days, I've been working on the essay since saturday but on sunday i had a bad health day so I couldn't work on it, my mother has been largely helpful but has repeatedly mentioned I should've started earlier/"shouldn't do this to myself again" over the course of the last three days. Today just now I snapped, saying that I had a different essay to work on 2 weeks ago was met with 'well dad was telling you you needed to start all last week' I explained that I finished the last essay on sunday, and the next day my dad was immediately pressuring me about the next one, I didn't have a class with the guy in charge of the essay until wednesday and he's slow to come back by email so even if I'd emailed him on monday i would still have probably had to wait to get the recommended reading for the essay on wednesday, I didn't have my library card with me on wednesday due to accidentally leaving it behind, struggled to get the sources for the essay on thursday only getting three from the library, but on friday I went to three different libraries and couldn't get them. Thus started studying and working on the essay in earnest on Saturday when I found the remaining two online thanks to the power or piracy. Granted there are definitely moments I could've been working already on the essay. But I literally didn't have all the sources until Saturday, didn't have what sources I needed until wednesday, couldn't look for them on wednesday after getting my library card/college ID due to a family thing so really at best 2 or 3 days in the difference.

My parents of course do not care about any of this and in their opinion were just trying to say it to me while I am insane and quote acting more aggrieved than a population that's had war crimes committed to it.

This is patently unfair! The fucking 'you know your healths like this so you need to be better organised' shit is constant whether or not I have assignments due, but the fact that they just would not miss an opportunity to repeatedly blame me for the pressure I'm under with this essay in particular is the whole reason I lost my temper. Like yes, absolutely I could've emailed regarding the recommended sources for the second essay two weeks ago while working on the former one, but I was under pressure over the first essay then and I didn't think of it, yes I could've started reading the sources I did have this week earlier, but I was focused on getting the other ones because this essay literally requires at least 5 of the recommended reading sources so I was anxious about it. It might be my fault but repeatedly criticising me over it and then acting like I'm bullying them when they gang up to tell me not to act like the victim over my mother repeatedly doing this little dig about starting sooner next time, fucking any chance she gets. (it might come from a place of concern but it doesn't make it easier to deal with when I'm trying to work) Gah

Oh darling. Take a moment, take a deep breath, just give yourself a second to decompress. It sounds to me like you've done the best you could with what you had access to under the circumstances.

As for your parents? Even if your parents are normally supportive that doesn't make them perfect and that doesn't mean you can't be hurt by/frustrated with them.

It's a common trap for even the most supportive people to fall into the mindset of "you can just plan/schedule/organize around your illness" despite that not always being possible.

Things happen, emergencies crop up, you can't force other people to operate on your own schedule, sometimes feeling/being overwhelmed just halts you in your tracks, etc etc.

I'm sorry that you're having these issues with them and while I always advocate open communication if it's safe I do know that sometimes it's not an option/doesn't work.

Just, take a few hours, take a warm shower or eat a snack, something that helps you unwind, and give yourself that moment to reset.

If you're feeling up to it maybe see if you can reach out to your teachers to get a list of essays/resources you might be coming up against in the future way ahead of time so you have more time to get your materials together.

If that's not an option then just keep doing what you're doing, try your best, and know that what matters is that you're still pushing forward.

[thebibliosphere]

ADHD reward system? Please tell me your secret!

My therapist has been helping me find a reward system that works for me, and as it turns out, gold star stickers are really helpful for making me feel like a tangible goal was met, and helps give me that sweet, sweet dopamine release that comes with completing a task, something which us ADHD’ers really struggle to achieve and are already coming at from a disadvantage with our brains regularly not producing enough “happy” hormones as it is.

It was supposed to be “a sticker for every time you finish a chapter”, but after some revision, my therapist said that was too tall of a goal, and that I should pick something smaller. So instead I now get a star every time I finish a 500-word milestone, placing the sticker in my writing calendar/journal thing that I use to keep track of my writing, and ironically, I have started to produce more work than when I was stiving for one chapter a day.

To give you an idea of how staggeringly effective this has been for me, I’ve written over 30k of original fiction in the last week. (75k total if you include my social media and blog stuff, which I currently do not but likely should.)

So this is what it looked like when I was attempting to do a chapter of edits and revisions a day during the month of December 2019 (note: I was supposed to start this in Nov, so you can see how well that worked out for me lol):

ID: A calendar showing days of the month with a shiny star sticker showing a completed task.

And this is what my writing journal looks like now that I’m doing a star for every 500 words:

ID: an image of a handwritten journal with the dates mapped out, followed by a shiny star sticker for every completed 500-word milestone. There are 65 stars in total for the month of January 2020. It’s also tinged by a green light cause I’m doing a chronic pain experiment, so far with positive results!

So as of today, January 8th, with ever star = 500 words, then 65*500 = 32500 words totalled in 7 days. This does not include, like I said, my social media output where I am far more productive, this is just my fiction and some editing work for friends.

(Which side note: this is not to flex, or to say that others should be able to achieve this level of output. I am a professional writer, this is my main job and only source of income. And also, I was forged in the fires of understaffed editing hell where we would be expected to churn out 100k+ a week in edits and revisions to keep on track. I have the time and a learned skillset I have spent years amassing to be able to do this and am working towards a rigid deadline. I simply have not been healthy enough in a long time to manage it, and am finally working my way back up to speed after years of illness. Don’t look at this and think, “I’m not achieving enough”, every victory no matter how small is worth celebrating. And I say that with the utmost sincerity, as someone who spent most of the last 2-3 years unable to get out of bed.)

I’ve also started using it to help keep track of bills and chores around the home. So every time something gets done/done on time, whoever completed the task gets a star on the calendar. This includes Oppy the Not-A-Roomba, who does a very good job of taking care of the house on a daily basis:

ID: an image of a chore calendar denoting various tasks that have been marked off with a holographic silver star sticker, including our robot vacuum who does an excellent job and deserves all the stars. (Our names got blurred out cause ETD doesn’t want his real name out there in the world, so that’s what is blurry.)

This system is useful for several reasons, the primary one being a sense of achievement and continued motivation, and the second, to allow you to review each month to see where you are doing well, and where you might otherwise be struggling.

For example, if I have a bad day for writing or decide to take a day off, I write that down in the calendar rather than leaving it blank, so that I have a record of what went wrong (or right, if I am electing to self care that day and take a day off) and how my overall progress is doing.

In terms of house stuff, this has been especially useful for ETD and myself, as it shows us where we are managing to do a good job with the house, and where our executive dysnfunction issues really trip us up and where we need to make improvements. And I don’t just mean in an “I should try harder way”, I mean you have to actively sit down and be like “hey! What is preventing me from completing this thing” and trying to figure out effective ways to either get around it or resolve a larger issue at hand.

So for us, the biggest thing we tend to miss is doing dishes after dinner, meaning we get left with a pile-up of dishes to deal with first thing in the morning, and my ADHD can’t handle that. It won’t let me eat until I’ve cleared all the mess, but I usually don’t have the energy to clean up if I haven’t eaten, so it’s this awful cycle of ineptitude. We’re doing better with the star reward system, cause it’s showing us our progress loud and clear on the fridge door, but we are both usually so fatigued and exhausted by the end of dinner that doing dishes is just one thing too many for our mutual disorders. So, the solution for this would, of course, be a dishwasher, cause if we had one of those, we could load stuff in, turn it on, and let those dishes get done while we go to bed then put them away in the morning. We can’t afford to do that right now, and we have other appliances we need to buy/replace before we can do that (still don’t have a tumble dryer, or a washer I can access, rip) but it does give us a tangible goal to work toward, and also, the motivation to keep on top of things because it goes from “an endless task with no end in sight” to “there’s a solution for this, we can manage a while longer.”

Now you could be saying, but Joy, I’m an adult! Surely I shouldn’t expect rewards for completing every day tasks that I should be able to do?!

To which I say, neurotypical people get rewards all the time and get an unconscious dose of dopamine/serotonin from their brains every time they complete a task. They’re playing the game of life on easy mode, the gold star is your achievement for completing it daily on Nintendo 99 hard mode. IF THE STICKER WORKS, TAKE THE STICKER

YOU’VE EARNED IT.

[lovelybarnes]

god- l. laufeyson (part 2)

pairings: loki laufeyson x reader, platonic!tony stark x reader, mentions of nick fury warnings: language and minor angst about: part 2 to god a/n: i apologize for taking so long to post it, i was having trouble coming up with the little details and honestly just writing overall but it’s up!! and another bucky fic will be up tomorrow or saturday!!

loki is suspicious after you leave. in the- admittedly short- time he’s been shoved away and locked in a cage to rot, he had seen you all of two times, and he was enthralled. flabbergasted, too, surprised that a simple mortal managed to stay hidden in the deep parts of his brain and refuse to leave. you were… interesting, just as you had described him: not as a villain, or evil, or horrendous, but captivating; unbelieving that he would do anything for no good reason.

whether that was true or not was still up for debate, so he had yet to decide if you were incredibly intelligent or the simple, stupid mortal he thought you all to be. nevertheless, he found himself slightly disappointed when you left, waving goodbye to him and tucking your book under your arm. while he tried to dissolve the sensation, tony stark came bounding in, standing as close as he could to the glass barrier. stark barked words that loki didn’t care much for, ignoring the man. he could see you wince from inside the elevator, a sliver of your face still available from the closing doors.

“hey, hey!” stark barked, snapping his fingers at loki. the god tilted his head at him, “yes?” he asks, voice dripped in more annoyance than usual. “that girl who just came out of here?” stark started, while loki took a minute to examine his words, “girl,” was she not an accomplished avenger? he thought tony of all people would show the respect that loki thought none of them deserved. “if you even think about doing anything to her, i will bring in the big guy to slam you around some more. you remember him? or do you need a refresher?”

loki nearly scowls at the mention of hulk, body reminding the strange ache that was left after the oaf slammed him into the floor. he only chuckles lowly, though, “how much do you distrust a fellow avenger to believe they cannot handle themselves?” loki muses. tony scoffs, shaking his head, “i really don’t think you’re in a position to question me.”

“i’m a god. i am always in the position i wish to be in,” loki reminds, making tony roll his eyes, “you’ll never see her again if i can help it. and i can,” he says. “oh, but i like her!” loki rebuts, riling tony up, “so sweet, don’t you think?” tony freezes, abruptly turning around and slamming a hand against the glass, “you will not lay a hand on her. i’ll make sure of it.”

“i seem to remember midgardians can usually do as they please,” loki replies smoothly. “and you really think she’ll want to spend time with a monster?” tony questions. loki smirks, “i suppose i simply have a feeling.”

-

tony is seething when he comes to your lab, having switched with steve to come talk to you. you’re humming along to a song he doesn’t bother to recognize. “you’re in a good mood,” tony observes. at the sound of his voice, you turn, taking your earbuds out and grinning at him. you press what he assumes is the pause button on your phone, “tony! i’ve actually been meaning to ask you something,” you begin. tony raises an eyebrow to tell you to continue. “it’s about loki,” you continue, anxious about his reaction. the man pauses, exhaling softly, “oh. i know what you want to- i’m so sorry for doing that to you, y/n. i promised that i wouldn’t put you with him and we should’ve been more prepared. it won’t happen again.”

the confusion is clear on your face, vocally affirming it with a “huh?”

“that’s what you wanted to talk about, right? babysitting loki?”

“well, yes, but no, it actually wasn’t bad, i wanted to bring up the idea of maybe allowing him books? or maybe music or something, i can’t imagine going from having any book at your fingertips to none at all. also, he’s not getting enough food and i wanted to talk to you abou-” tony stops you with a raised hand, “what?” you recognize the conversation won’t end too well, so you try to phrase your words in a way that tony won’t get too angry at. “i just- when i was watching him, i thought we could be a little less… cruel.”

“with the guy who tried to take over earth?” tony retorts, you sigh softly, already beginning to feel resigned. “he still deserves to eat,” you defend weakly, “come on, tony, please? i’ll watch over him myself when he’s listening to music or reading or eating and i’ll take it back when i have to leave.” tony shakes his head, “someone will always be watching, and it won’t be you.” you frown, “why? don’t you trust me? i’m an avenger, tony. i’m not weak or useless, it’s just watching over someone who is literally in a cage. he can’t even escape.” tony’s about to say no again, so you press, “how come nick fury- man who doesn’t trust- trusts me enough to do that but you don’t?”

tony’s fingers squeeze the space between his eyebrows, eyes closed. he contemplates the effects if he refuses, no doubt ending in the thinning-by-the-minute thread that is your trust in him completely snapping.

“fine,” he finally agrees, and your frustrated frown melts back into a relieved small smile, “but everything you give him has to go through someone else first. i don’t care if it’s fury or hill or romanoff or me, but it has to be approved.” you nod quickly, “yes, of course.” tony raises a finger, “and, you will watch him the whole time. you got yourself into this, kid. i trust you can protect yourself from him if you ever need to.” you agree, “absolutely, and, uh-” you reach into your bag, pulling out the book finnegan’s wake, and your old ipod, equipped with a single downloaded song and earbuds plugged in. “i actually have already chosen a book and a song that i think he would appreciate during the time he tells me himself what he would like and while it gets approved, and um,” you push the objects toward tony, a surprised look lining his features, “since you have time now… the ipod has only that one song and i doubt he can do anything with either of the items, although i’ll be here if he does.”

“you picked these out for him?” tony questions, and you nod again, “i don’t really know him, i doubt anybody does, but i thought james joyce was a good guess considering.” tony looks from the objects in your hand back to you, before sighing and grabbing them. “i want to break free?” he asks, holding up the ipod. you feel your cheeks heat, “music is hard, i went for the obvious.”

tony exhales, looking down at the book, “fine, both are approved.”

“what, you’re not gonna check to see if i carved out a hole into the book and put the tesseract in there so he could escape?” you ask sarcastically, taking back the items while he rolls his eyes. “no, i trust you.” you grin, “you better. there’s no reason for you to not,” tony agrees with you softly, genuinely feeling bad while he kisses your cheek in goodbye. “steve was just called on a mission and needs a replacement, so you better get down there. bowser isn’t in a good mood today.”

you huff out a light laugh at the nickname, cradling your dear books and tangling your fingers in the cords of the earbuds while you walk to the elevator. you catch your bottom lip between your teeth while you watch the numbers blink above the elevator doors, nerves from your choices finally making a home in the pit of your stomach and making your grip tighten on the items. you really don’t know him, and one of the few things that you do know about him is that he isn’t the nicest- although you think it probable that it was warranted- which begins the inkling of regret of your carefully-picked choice to form. you try your best to push past it though, attempting to reassure yourself through the fact that loki’s reading options are limited, and as evil as everyone (including him) claims he is, you suspect (hope) that there is something in him that can’t simply disregard kind gestures. you suppose that theory is from what thor has told you about frigga. you hope it’s correct.

the elevator dings, knocking your thoughts off their destructive railroad and your attention to the shield guard wearily eyeing you and what you carry. “hey, wally,” you greet, shooting him a smile as you walk over to him, pulling your id card from your pocket. “what’cha got there?” he asks, sitting up straighter in his chair to look closer at you. “a- already approved by tony stark- book and song for loki. you know how much he had access to in asgard?” you question. he shakes his head, and you sigh, “me neither. but i imagine it’s a lot, and i don’t think he’s been introduced to our books yet.”

wally stares at you for a few seconds, before pursing his lips, “already approved by stark?” he checks, “already approved by tony,” you repeat. “just no ear things. don’t want him to choke somebody,” he instructs, holding out his hand. you oh quietly, hurriedly pulling off the headphones and putting them in his hand. wally only nods then, trusting you enough to not ask for any more reassurance, and pressing a button next to him to allow you into another elevator. the ride is much shorter, and you bounce on your heels, fidgeting with the edge of the book.

you barely recognize when the doors part, the slick-haired god already examining you. “in asgard, it is strongly discouraged to damage books like you are doing,” loki states. you stop your picking, dropping your hand and walking inside. “hello to you too, loki.” the god ignores you, instead focused on what is in your arms. “i thought any pleasantries for you weren’t allowed down here,” he says, eyes focused on your ipod. “ah, not if you ask nicely,” you reply, standing next to the chair, “and, these aren’t for me.”

you set your own book down on the floor- a very cliche wuthering heights, but it was either that or romeo and juliet, and you’d prefer not get caught reading about a forbidden romance while watching a villain- and hold up the one for him, grinning. “so i don’t know much about asgard or its books because thor hasn’t budged yet on taking me, but from what i can gather, you have little to no media from here, right?” loki ducks his chin suspiciously in response. “so i can imagine you haven’t read shakespeare, or james joyce, which reminds me a lot of you, so…”

you offer no more explanation, putting the book on your chair and showing him the ipod, walking closer to the glass. “this is an ipod. it’s used to play songs offline, and i picked one out for you. i don’t know if you’ll like it because i don’t really know what type of music you like or if you like it at all-” you pause, finally recognizing how long it had been since he’d talked. “but, uh, i hope you do.”

you look up at him then, unsurprised to find him already staring back at you. “you did this for me… why?” he queries skeptically. “i told you before; i imagine it’s difficult to go from everything to nothing in a day. and i think it must be boring to be trapped in there all day with nothing to do.”

loki still looks distrustful, but you grab the book, pulling out the key card to open his food slot. “i can’t leave these in here after i leave, but i’ll stay until you finish both,” you assure, pushing the book through the small gap. your ipod is still in your hands as you walk back near him. he looks at you for a few moments longer before his eyes flick to the book. “and there are no… explosives? poison of some kind in that?”

you shake your head, “no, of course not.”

loki narrows his eyes at the paperback anyways, walking towards it apprehensively. “when you want me to, i can teach you how the ipod works and you can listen to the song. it’s by a rock band called queen,” you babble, watching as he slowly observes the book before picking it up at an even more leisurely pace.

“i’m going to go sit over there now. just let me know if you need something,” you can’t seem to stop talking, so you focus instead on your legs moving you back to your seat, picking up your novel before sitting. you’re about to ramble on about something else again, until you notice the publication in loki’s hands, slightly panicking at the immediate rush of satisfaction and happiness it gives you when he opens the first page.

you try to avoid the sound of turning pages when you stay stuck on the same sentence, too concerned about why your neck decided to warm when the god accepted your favor.

“you can play it,” loki voices suddenly, almost as if reading the loud thoughts about your decision on the song. he looks up at you, “reading is usually accompanied by light music, but i suppose i could listen to rock.”

you nod, pressing a button on the small device that makes the beginning notes bounce off the walls of the room. your fingers gently tap along to the beat on the edge of your page without your noticing, too used to the melody to not react. you try not to look too hard at loki to watch for his reaction, too interested if he’ll like it or not.

after the first minute passes by and he doesn’t object to the sound, you count this as a win, allowing yourself to relax into your chair and actually read the words lined on the page, discovering them to make a lovely combination. you only notice when the song ends when loki speaks up, “it is okay,” he compliments, “i enjoyed it. i think i’d enjoy your so called queen.” you chuckle softly, “i thought you would. do you have any favorites here so i can add them for next time?”

“no,” loki responds, not taking his eyes off the page. “i’ll find some for you, then,” you promise, then press play on the ipod again, not missing the tiny quirk of loki’s lips, making you way too giddy than you should be.

-

after it has been over six hours and loki has barely finished finnegans wake, you’re completely sure he took extra time to read it; whether it be to absorb it better or simply have more time with it in his hands, you don’t care, pride swelling up in your chest because you did something right for him. he hadn’t complained about the repeated song, and you can’t blame him. the sounds are a lot more entertaining than the cold silence that usually occupies the space where he resides.

you ask loki more about what he thought, attempting to coerce him into telling you his preferences, until tony is calling you up.

you’re about to leave, both books and ipod in hand when you pause.

“y/n,” loki starts, and you realize it is the first time you’d hear your name out of his mouth. you decide you like how it sounds in his voice, not disregarding how you shouldn’t. “yes?” you answer instead, meeting his eyes. “thank you.”

you swallow, surprised at the genuinity in his voice while you nod, “it was no problem.”

loki finds it disturbing how much he dislikes seeing you walk away.