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

[princeanxious]

.

[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 😊👍🏻

[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

[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.

[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

[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.

[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

[anistarrose]

[ID: replies from @birdgirl22 reading: "This is why lab grown meat should be a thing. If you would literally die from not eating meat for whatever reason. You can still be vegan, morally. You don't need all animal products i assume, or at least limit the amount as much as humanly possible. And make up for all that pain by donating if possible and spreading the vegan message to those who can be fully plant based." End ID.]

There's a lot going on here that I wish I didn't have to unpack, but that needs to be unpacked and corrected by someone, because otherwise, it will continue to propagate uncorrected, with the potential to harm people with food allergies well beyond this tumblr conversation. There are three fallacies I need to highlight, starting with:

"This is why lab grown meat should be a thing."

The prospect of lab grown meat — while undoubtably an area of research with the potential to help many people, if its products are ever made widely available and sustainable — is used here as a quick rhetorical "get out of jail free" card, to avoid engaging with the possibility that even in an idealized future, there are people who could need animal agriculture to live.

What if lab grown meat does become attainable and accessible, but due to challenges in the lab, we find that it can only practically be grown from a substrate that itself triggers allergic reactions, in many of the people prescribed this cultured meat to cure them of their vexing animal-product ethical dilemmas? This is no more of a thought experiment than the possibility that lab grown meat will someday meet my needs. I am allergic to plants used as substrates and media in the production of everyday food additives — corn, soy, and most of their close relatives, for those wondering — and that's taken enough of a toll on my health on its own.

Cultured meat could be a huge development for me, and as a person concerned with animal welfare, I sincerely hope it will be — but it could also completely fail me, and to assume the possibility of the former preclude any consideration for accommodating me in the event of the latter is indicative of only accepting convenient facts for one's belief system. There are good reasons why "even in the most idealized future, people may need animal agriculture to live" is an understandably challenging thought. (I imagine people in your position also find "hunting and fishing are important cultural practices to Indigenous people who have already had their lands seized, and should have those lands restored to them, instead of their autonomy being seized any further" to be a challenging thought, by the way.) But we cannot discard thoughts simply because they are challenging. Conflicting needs happen. Solutions need to be found without denying a conflict exists, or could exist, or will continue to exist in the first place.

"You don't need all animal products i assume, or at least limit the amount as much as humanly possible."

If you, or anyone else sharing your views, reads just one paragraph of this response, make it this one. Your suggestion to "limit the amount [of animal products] as much as humanly possible" is exactly the type of mentality that's had me teetering on the edge of an eating disorder for years. So, frankly, no. I don't think I will be limiting my animal product consumption as much as "humanly possible." No, I don't think I'll spend every meal asking myself "is this the minimum amount of animal protein possible I need to survive." I won't be asking myself if that bowl of yogurt I eat for lunch, which already leaves me hungry, could be reduced even further.

When I have my near-weekly anxiety attacks about whether the poultry-based meals I eat every day for dinner — because I have no other fucking choice — are too high in sodium and fat, and whether I will die young of heart failure because of the only foods left that didn't leave me bedridden, I won't set aside some time to contemplate starving myself for "ethical" reasons, too. When I worry about the current listeria outbreak in chicken in the United States, and worry how I'll even feed myself if it worsens and spreads to other meats, I won't be sure to keep in mind that I should be "minimizing my chicken intake" anyway, for fuck's sake! Do you think I like being this dependent on animal products? Do you know how prone animal products are to being diseased and being recalled like this? Do you know how a lifetime of food-related illnesses, of hospitalizations, has left me with so much generalized food-related trauma that I tremble with fear whenever I have to handle raw meat?

"And make up for all that pain by donating if possible and spreading the vegan message to those who can be fully plant based."

Oh yeah of course, totally, I recognize that the incredible pain and suffering I inflict by eating animal products is a sin and a burden that I should always carry. I will justify my inherently burdensome, downright parasitic existence in the only way I know how, by donating all the money I totally have — from being totally able to work full-time, from having incredibly manageable healthcare costs, from having incredibly affordable dietary needs. And yes, of course, I'll proselytize the vegan doctrine to everyone I know! When I see someone dare to derive an ounce of nutrition from meat, I'll be sure to guilt until they change their ways — no matter if they might be prone to eating disorders, or if they might have allergies of their own, or if I know that information or have any right to know! I will direct them right to the community that treats disabled people like me as parasitic, as a person who causes pain by my very nature and must constantly fight a battle to justify my own existence! Yes, you've enlightened me, I'll start doing that right away!

Obviously, I'm being sarcastic in the prior paragraph. Disabled people aren't fucking parasites. (Indigenous people who hunt and fish sustainably also aren't parasites. Humans aren't parasites.)

I think veganism is incredibly, profoundly wonderful as an individual choice. I have met vegans and vegetarians — some of them disabled themselves — who engage with me and my experiences, the perspectives I bring to food ethics, with open ears and so much care. And yet, the vegan community at large is incredibly hostile to disabled people. This is a challenging combination of thoughts and facts for me, personally. But as I have argued, when conflicting needs give rise to challenging thoughts, we have an obligation to consider compromises and solutions, instead of denying the conflict's existence.

This is why I speak about ableism in the vegan community — precisely because I think it's such a powerful movement for animal welfare and environmental justice. I want to see it be better. Speaking about ableism that affects me is emotionally, sometimes even physically taxing — I'm chronically ill, as I'm sure you've noticed, and emotions like these can cause problems for me. I'm sweating and shivering, with an uncomfortable feeling in my stomach, at this very moment.

So obviously, it's not easy for me to get this personal. But when I think about other people like me, alienated from environmental justice and animal welfare and food ethics, because of unaddressed ableism? Speaking out and getting personal gets just a little bit easier.

And while we're getting personal? Stranger on Tumblr whom I'm replying to, I have to admit I am not angry with you. I think you have serious misconceptions, but really, all I can think is this — I'm glad I'm not you, and I'm glad you're not me.

Let me explain. I am glad that I could take the "severe food allergy bullet" for you. Because sincerely, from the bottom of my heart, I hope that you never spontaneously develop all of the food allergies that I spontaneously did.

Why? Because as much as I struggle with it some days, I know my inherent worth as a human being. As much as I still struggle with it many days, I know I don't have to starve myself just to be morally allowed to exist. I know I don't have make up for anything about what I eat, and I know I don't have to bear any original sin for my existence as a disabled person — because disabled people are not parasites.

Fundamentally, I am glad that I could take this food allergy bullet from someone who, by the sound of things, might not know these things. Someone who would've struggled with all this even more.

To anyone still reading this post? Promise me you'll value yourself if you're disabled, or if you ever become disabled. That you'll value yourself even if people say you're a burden. That you'll value yourself even if you have a conflicting accessibility need. I want you to keep yourself safe, and keep yourself fed. We can advocate for a better world and for ethical consumption without guilt-based appeals, and without starving ourselves. None of us are parasites.

trying not to start an online fight in a comically inappropriate venue, but people also have some genuinely concerning misconceptions about this, so: if someone tells you that they can't go vegan because of dietary restrictions, you do not know more than they do about those restrictions in question. and they are under no obligation to share personal medical details in order to prove that you are wrong.

moreover, a world in which anyone has to "prove" their need for dietary accommodations to any authority — to say nothing of being denied them a priori because of a refusal to engage with even small scale, ethical animal husbandry — is enacting ableist violence on our bodies. personally, I want nothing more than for for-profit animal agriculture to burn with the rest of capitalism — but you have to understand that telling people like me to "just stop being selfish and stop eating animals" can only be translated as either "only eat things that make you violently ill," or "stop eating even the minimum amount of protein that a human can survive off of."

if you have an impulse to accuse me of overreacting, consider that the refusal of actual medical institutions to take legume and grain allergies seriously has caused me bodily harm throughout my life and to this day — with consequences for my overall lifespan that have yet to be revealed. I am not overreacting.

[sp00kysk3lly]

Experiment “Go Missing” Day Two

Date: 30th January 2023

Time: 00:00 30/01/23 - 00:00 31/01/23

13:04 - woke up, no one has sent me any messages. It’s hard, because I know exactly when everyone wakes up and right now they would have been up for 4 hours. So, their friend who has told them that they’re really down, at their lowest point, hasn’t spoken since Saturday 28th January and they don’t see nothing wrong with that?

15:31 - 3 hours since waking and still nothing. Looks like it’s going to be another day where no one bothers. How do they know I’m not dead? How do they know I haven’t committed su*c*de? I could be dead or missing and not one “friend” cares. Glad I am so popular and wanted. This why I wish I never had friends EVER! I should have stayed away from them all and then I’d never have been hurt. I wouldn’t even know what lonely is! Id be happy and contempt by myself, but life ruins you and makes you need and want things that aren’t meant to happen for certain people.

18:31 - Still nothing. I’m so glad that I have learned I have absolutely NO ONE! All I have left is my thoughts and my stories. That’s it. Maybe I wasn’t suppose to have friends? Maybe I was always meant to be alone? It makes sense. No one’s ever really stayed around me for too long. I’ve never had any friends in school, no one really liked me enough. They all just bullied me or made me do something to keep them laughing in class.

19:39 - 4 hours 20 minutes until the end of the day and I don’t think anyone is going to bother in that time. It just hurts that it’s nearly been 2 days and not one person has messaged me. It’s that bad that I’m not eating now because my depression is getting worse. I’ve been sleeping most of the day as well. I just wish I had someone that was always there. But maybe this proves to me that maybe I should just go away completely. What pisses me off more is the fact that I gave them my Disney+ details so they could watch stuff. Thinking about changing the password and removing their account. They don’t realise that I had to lie to my mum about that. And they know what my family is like! They knew I could get into a yelling match with my mum over it.

21:00 - Well, I guess that’s it then. The day is pretty much OVER! I guess this proves I do not have any friends. More proof I am not allowed anything, I’m not allowed friends, love, a normal life. Happy new fucking year!

23:00 - 1 hour to go until the end of Day 2 of this experiment. No contact with anyone and I’m honestly thinking about ending this experiment early. What’s the point? What is the point in keeping it going for a week, when I have all the proof I need? I don’t know yet. I’m certainly not feeling ok. I’m not eating and I feel sick, most likely due to stress. I don’t know anymore. I’ve got all the proof I need. They have an hour left of day 2 and if not, I’m sure I’ll make up my mind tomorrow morning.

00:07 - Well, Day Two… is over and still nothing. Fuck them. I knew I should have went with my gut instinct! I knew it. I knew I shouldn’t have believed them when they said we were friends and I could trust them. I just knew it. I should have believed myself and my thoughts when I heard those stupid words.

Conclusion for Day 2 - I have no words. I’m getting sick from the stress and the depression. I think we can all guess what I am going to be doing tonight… I guess I’ll decide whether to end this experiment early.

Decide whether to end experiment early

Delete the bitch’s Disney+ account and change password!! (The bitch ain’t having access to my account, you want access then you’ll have to pay! Should have never gave her it!)

[endearmint-moved]

[1ST IMG: Photo of Powell's Books store on a street corner. END ID.]

[2ND IMG: Photo of yellow cards in someone's hand with a QR code. Transcript:

What Powell's workers need: A fair contract; A living wage; Affordable healthcare What Powell's is proposing: A base wage more than $5 below the living wage for Portland; Wage increases that won't keep pace with inflation (and are a substantial decrease from our previous contract); Healthcare plans that will be unaffordable for most workers under their wage proposal How you can help: Let Powell's leadership know you support a fair contract for Powell's workers, with a living wage and access to affordable healthcare. Send an email to community@ilwulocal5.com and we'll pass your message along to Powell's leadership! Note: This is not a call for a boycott; it's a call for solidarity!

End transcript. END ID.]

[3RD thru 7TH IMGs: Comments from anonymous Powell's booksellers answering the titular prompt, "Tell us how Powell's low wages have impacted your life." Transcript:

"I constantly have to choose between medicine, food, and rent. I can't afford all three. If I miss even a day of work, it means I might not get to eat that week. If I can't get medicine, I die." "Nothing the company has said or done reassures me that I will be able to keep this job and still be able to live. You will lose all your employees if you continue to undervalue our work and treat us as disposable, even though all we want is to be able to work here without financially struggling. I will not vote for a contract that does not give employees a living wage. It is my number one priority, and it should be Powell's priority too." "Powell's low wages are demoralizing. With all we have to juggle during a work day, knowing that many of us are struggling to make rent and feed ourselves is absurd. I go home frustrated, stressed out, and often on the verge of panic attacks thinking about how my labor is used. I'm taken advantage of. We all are. Powell's workers make these stores run properly; our paychecks should reflect that." "I am honestly terrified that I will have no choice but to start living in my car sometime this year. I cannot afford my rent at my current wage, and I can only qualify for an apartment that costs $850/month... which does not exist in Portland... I currently struggle to feed myself while also trying to help feed my coworkers who cannot afford food... Shame on the company for continuing to pay us poverty wages." "I feel trapped because I'm making below a living wage here, but I know that my coworker's won't hate-crime me on the job. I don't do this job for the money, I do it because I love my community and this is the safest job I've ever had. Please pay us more so that I don't have to leave."

End transcript. END ID.]

hi guys-

breaking from my normal posting to bring up something really important to me.

have you heard of powell’s city of books? they’re famously the world’s largest independent bookstore, lauded as a family business, tourist landmark, and progressive icon of portland oregon.

i work there.

currently our union is fighting to have the company pay us a living wage.

it’s embarrassing how little powells pays us- we barely make more than minimum wage right now- and most people don’t know that the famous business they’re supporting treats its workers like dirt.

when asked to consider our wage proposal, our lead hr officer stated: “We have all worked jobs where the pay and our personal needs were not in alignment.” this isn’t about personal needs “being in alignment.” my coworkers can hardly afford rent or afford to even feed themselves with our current wages.

what am i asking for?

if you love books, love or know powell’s, or just want to stand in solidarity with fellow workers, i’m asking for you to let powell’s books know how you feel about their insulting wage proposal: email our union and they will pass on the message to corporate-

community@ilwulocal5.com

it can be as short and sweet as you want to make it. we want to show the company that people are paying attention to the example they set and won’t stand for it.

also literally just sharing this post to let everyone know what we are asking for helps too. share it on booktok, tell your friends, tell your book club, spread the word. powell’s skates by on its reputation and in doing so hides its betrayal of the workers that dedicate their lives to make it the special place it is.

thank you for reading ❤️

links to our original union instagram post: here

and read some examples of community member emails: here + here

[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.

[midzelink]

So, as some of you might know, one of my GIFs was recently featured on the Tumblr Radar - which is pretty cool!  I was fairly happy with how that one turned out, especially considering that I made it rather last-minute on a whim to acknowledge Valentine’s Day.  It understandably received a lot of attention as a result of this, and I’ve loved reading through all the comments and tags (especially all the ones about how people want to eat the heart containers from TP); however, I wanted to clear up a bit of a misunderstanding surrounding the creation of that GIF, as there were additionally a lot of tags along the lines of #3d art or #artists on tumblr in that influx of reblogs.  I don’t want to take credit for something I didn’t do, even accidentally, and so allow me to be perfectly clear: the heart container GIF is not something I modeled and rendered myself! It is the original in-game model, recorded in-game using the Dolphin GCN/Wii emulator, with very little done in the way of post-processing in Photoshop.  If that sounds impossible or confusing (which is perfectly understandable, for those of you unaware of what Dolphin is capable of), I’d like to take this opportunity to give you guys a bit of a “peek behind the curtain,” as it were, to show you guys exactly how I made that particular GIF, as well as similar ones I’ve made (such as those in my #items tag).  

I didn’t take screenshots of my initial process (nor did I save the edited textures I used), so I’ll be recreating it from the ground up for the sake of demonstration, but that shouldn’t be a problem.

First thing’s first: finding a heart container! For this particular GIF, I wound up using the one that spawns after the Morpheel fight at the end of Lakebed Temple.  I’m sure many others would work just as well (I think, at the time, this one just happened to be the most accessible to me), but let’s use the same one for the sake of it.  

Morpheel: defeated.  And I didn’t even need Zora Armor! (Seriously, we do that in the speedrun.  But I’m getting off-topic.)  Of course, we’re going to need clean, close-up footage of the heart container rotating in order to do what we want to do, so let’s shift into first-person mode and and get a bit closer to the thing.

Now, because the only UI-element in this shot is Link’s health (and it’s in the corner and relatively non-obtrusive), removing it isn’t strictly necessary - but I’ve already made a texture pack that removes UI elements as part of my Text Free TP project from a while back, so let’s load it anyway, for the sake of being thorough.  This shot is also still a bit too far away, so next we’ll be utilizing Dolphin’s free cam feature (which can be accessed by going to Graphics > Advanced > Free Look and checking “Enable” in Dolphin) in order to get the heart container in a more central position. Now we’re left with this:

And we’re already looking well on our way to making a nice, solid color background GIF.  But how do we get the solid color? Well, that’s where more texture editing comes into play - and here I have to give credit where credit is due, as this is a trick I picked up from 186px, after wondering how they were able to make this GIFset of Link fighting Ganondorf in The Wind Waker in a great, black void.  (Seriously, shoutouts to them, their stuff was and still is amazing.)

But, very basically, we’ll be using Dolphin’s texture dump feature in order to find the textures that need to be edited so we can replace them with pure black ones.  Texture dumping can be enabled by going to Graphics > Advanced > Utility and checking “Dump Textures,” and the file path for these dumped textures by default is Documents > Dolphin Emulator > Dump > Textures > [Game ID].  (In the case of Twilight Princess, the Game ID is GZ2E01).  After dumping the textures in the Morpheel arena, my GZ2E01 folder looks like this:

When editing textures, sometimes you’ll have to endure a bit of trial and error until you find the correct ones.  Luckily, in this scene, the textures making up the sand floor and the stone walls are rather large, so let’s isolate the ones we’re pretty sure are responsible (plus a few others that are obviously environmental, just to be safe).

Now, when loading custom textures, it’s important that the file name you’re trying to load matches up exactly with the original texture that you’re trying to replace.  I have a plain, black, square PNG that I keep on my desktop specifically for this purpose; I copy the file names of the textures I’ve isolated, then rename and drag and drop the black PNG into the folder where custom textures are loaded (Documents > Dolphin Emulator > Load > Textures > [Game ID]).  Like so:

And now, to refresh our custom textures by disabling and reenabling them in Dolphin’s graphics settings:

And voilà! We have something that very nearly resembles the GIF I made (well, a still of it, at least).  I skipped over a few details, such as the fact that TP has a pretty significant amount of bloom surrounding just about everything, which I’m fairly certain I disabled using cheat codes when I made the original GIF in order to give it an overall cleaner look.  It’s hard to tell from this still, but TP’s heart containers also sparkle considerably in a way that’s random and not loopable; I found the texture responsible for this sparkle and replaced it with a transparent 1x1 PNG, in order to remove it entirely (as well as the texture behind the “glow” of the thing).  After that, it was as simple as recording the game with OBS, dumping the MP4 into Photoshop, cropping and cutting it to make it loop, and adding some adjustment layers for contrast and color.  So...yeah!

I hope this has served to clear up any confusion about some of the things that I’ve made in the past.  I’m not a 3D artist - just a person with an emulator and way too much free time on their hands.  This stuff is really, super simple, and also lots of fun, so I would highly encourage anyone with the means to mess around with emulation on their own some time to see what they can do!  (Even if you don’t have Photoshop and can’t make GIFs, there are always edits, such as this one I made of Midna.)  For Twilight Princess in particular, I also highly recommend checking out TPGZ; it’s a patch you can apply to a clean ISO of the original game, designed with the purposes of helping folks learn and practice the speedruns (yes, I had to bring up speedrunning one last time, kill me), but it’s got nifty features like built-in savestates, cheat codes, and HUD removal, as well as the ability to freeze actors while maintaining the ability to move the camera freely, among other things (all things that are very useful as far as making unique graphics go).  Sorry this post got as long as it did, but I at the very least hope that some of you found it educational and/or interesting.  Cheers!

[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.