#but research is a pia

[quite-right-too]

Shoutout to authors everywhere

I have a newfound appreciation for the amount of research y'all do for your works. This is difficult and I wish the information was a lot easier to access.

Like, what do you mean I can't get the exact transcripts of classified military radio transmissions? Or the exact control layout of the Eurofighter Typhoon military fighter jet?

[not-poignant]

Techniques for writing a bad drug trip:

We're going to be using excerpts from one of my own chapters here from my story Eversion to discuss the kind of writing techniques that will help make a bad drug trip more believable. In context, the character Connor has nonconsensually been given a synthetic made-up highball of drugs that gives him a horrible time, and this does not accurately reflect what bad drug trips look like across all drugs, for example sometimes throwing up on ayahuasca is a feature, and not a bug. What I'll be focusing on instead are the actual narrative techniques that indicate an affected mind and body vs. specific technques for specific drugs.

Beginning Stages:

Firstly, pre-bad-trip, it's useful to depict your character beforehand as being fully - or as close to fully lucid as possible. Have them realising things, actively thinking, describing their surroundings, and doing things in a kind of logical way - show them doing something mundane even, like walking into a room, or a cafe. In this case, Connor walks into a cafe, describes the cafe, makes some mental notes and then has a lucid conversation.

Next, most of the time any drug gives you physical symptoms even before the bad trip part, so describe those. In this case:

Seconds later Connor’s heart began to race

The needle slid free and Connor hardly felt it.

He stumbled over nothing as he passed the group of cyclists, staring at them as his heart beat harder and harder, as sweat broke out over his forehead.

At this point in the story, another character takes over, the person who gives him the highball picks up the conversation because Connor is overwhelmed by the physical sensations and doesn't feel like talking. He stops thinking about his environment accurately and starts to notice things while dropping others. His thoughts are already being affected.

This is when you can start using techniques like time skipping, forgetfulness, memory loss, or alternatively focusing on one thing a lot and a lot of other things a little.

Connor nodded, thinking that he needed to get away, that he needed to go somewhere. He reached for his phone, but it wasn’t there. Where was his phone? His vision slanted, time slipped away from him. He was beneath a tree, throwing up while Gabriel petted his shoulder and waited beside him.

Here we have a strong time skip - Connor goes from looking for his phone, in the next paragraph he's throwing up by a tree. This progression of events has no logic, except for the bad drug trip. Which means we now know Connor is being really affected by what's happening. These two paragraphs also show forgetfulness - Connor needs to get away / needs to go somewhere, but can't remember where. He looks for his phone, but has forgotten Gabriel took it from him. You don't even need the 'time slipped away from him' description, vision slanting or blurring tends to indicate to readers in situations like this that someone is being quite seriously affected by what's happening to them.

Middle Stages:

Then, he was walking, but couldn’t think past the scattered, rushing noises in his ears, looking like black jags across his vision.

He landed hard on his knees and stared down bewildered at the grass. He looked around, vision turning to brightness, cars zooming by too fast and too large, the sky distorted, the clouds inverting. He raised a hand to his head, but another hand – warm and gentle – rested at his temple, thumb gently stroking. Connor leaned into it, whimpering.

We're doing a lot of time skipping now, alongside mental symptoms.

The writing technique itself is changing. In one sentence we cover a lot of choppy subjects - vision turning bright, cars too fast, sky distorting, clouds inverting. It gives a sense of too much information happening at the same time - Connor's senses are overwhelmed.

This kind of choppy information can be delivered in short complete sentences, but I liked one run-on sentence here because it gives that sense of 'and then this and this and this and this and this' which is sometimes how it feels to have too much information coming in at once.

It's also making use of the senses. We have vision and hearing and touch all in the same paragraph. We also have 'too fast' 'too large' - things are too much. Not only that, but describing things as distorted indicates strongly that Connor's already hallucinating and hasn't realised yet.

At this point in your bad drug trip, you should not be using your regular writing style. If your character isn't thinking like normal, you might want to consider also not writing 'like normal' for that character.

(This is the same for when a character is having a flashback, is overwhelmed, or is experiencing something intense for any reason).

He took great, shuddering breaths and then pressed shaking fingers to his stomach. The knot of pain in his thigh was manifesting there as well.

Now, for the bad drug trip to truly be bad, we also have the physicality of the experience. The body comes along for the ride and it often feels like it's dying during a bad drug trip.

Huge shuddering breaths and shaking hands can indicate an overloaded nervous system, also someone who might be going into shock, or who is hyperventilating, or who is literally experiencing respiratory distress. We don't have to know what it is - one or all of them could be true! A person on a bad drug trip, unless they're a medical professional or experienced with bad drug trips, will not know or be assessing what is happening to them as it happens.

He flinched back when he saw black inching out from beneath his knees on the grass, dimly knew it as a hallucination before that awareness vanished and he pushed himself back and away.

Boop a hallucination. Connor was already hallucinating, but now he realises too. You don't need to include this. I was writing a smart, analytical character, and he does know he's having a bad drug trip, so he's allowed little moments of realisation. Your character might know more, or they might know less.

Intense / Peak Stages:

He could feel the way his body pulsed at discordant rhythms, too fast, too slow, never in sync throughout his body. The tips of his fingers were throbbing. His feet felt like stones. He looked at Gabriel’s perfect beard and thought of tearing his face off. It would be brief, brutal, bloody, but then he could just lie down.

Writing emotional distortion here is that Connor feels like behaving violently, which - to this degree - isn't normal for him. The drug overdose is making him vengeful. We know it's part of the drug overdose because the first part of the paragraph focuses on all his physical symptoms. The drug trip might make your character too terrified to function, it might make them aroused (i.e. fuck or die sex pollen scenarios), it might make them giddy. Have some emotional distortion going on on some level. Even if it's extreme anhedonia or apathy in the face of potentially dying.

The hospital was clearly giving him too many sedatives. He didn’t know how to tell them that he had no tolerance, he couldn’t take the dosages that his father was pushing for.

Now we hit full flashback. Connor now believes he's being overdosed with sedatives in the hospital, and is no longer in the present at all. He's not even 'I remember' - he's just there. Flashbacks won't happen with every bad drug trip but they are common to any bad drug trip that is hallucinatory in nature.

Connor stared up at the ceiling of his apartment, and his hands rested on the floor. His heart was beating far too fast, fluttering in his chest. He felt hazy. Every now and then he had to clench his hands into fists so tight that his knuckles ached. A compulsion. He couldn’t stop himself from doing it. He’d feel himself shake, and then he’d stop, and he’d stare upwards. He was lying on the floor.

Connor stared ahead. The corner of his mouth felt wet. He was drooling. His fingers and toes kept twitching against his will.

What Connor is describing now is seizure activity.

Connor isn't consciously clenching his hands into fists, his body is doing that. He calls it a compulsion, but it's not. Feeling your body shake and then stop and then shake again is - in this instance for Connor - active seizure activity.

Not all seizures cause full unconsciousness of the entire brain, for example. Connor doesn't know what's happening to him, but we can tell from the physical symptoms here - heart fast and fluttering, feeling hazy, physical movements completely beyond his control - that he's now in a danger zone.

If you want the bad drug trip to reach 'a normal person would be in an ambulance by now' - this is a good place to be. Focus on strange sensations of the heart, the pulse, shaking, the sensation of overheating or being too cold. If you want, look up the symptoms of shock, or tachycardia.

Aftermath of bad drug trip:

In the aftermath of a bad drug trip, be aware that it can take some time for a person's thoughts to return to normal. Don't write an instant return to normalcy once a person is physically stabilised. Often they show mood shifts that are quite profound. Even a person coming down from MDMA often experiences depression or flatness after a great night out with zero negative memories.

Normal aftermaths/ongoing side effects from bad drug trips include apathy, depression, suicidal ideation, anhedonia, flatness, lethargy, exhaustion (literally, the body physically went through several marathons), pain, and foggy, disconnected thinking (both because the brain went through something traumatic and the drugs take a while to work through the system). GI (gastrointestional disturbances) are common, from 'not going to the bathroom at all' to 'diarrhea' etc. Sometimes these after-effects last days, sometimes they last weeks, sometimes they even last months.

-

So! In summary helpful techniques for bad drug trips can include:

Shorter, choppier sentences to indicate overwhelm

Physical symptoms being 'experienced' - character often doesn't know what's happening except in special circumstances

A progression of physical symptoms.

Focus on all of the senses

Hallucinations and/or flashbacks (one usually happens with the other)

Unusual emotional affect or emotional distortion

Time skips / non-linear time jumps

Inability to think properly

Focusing on some things too much and other things not at all

Realising there is a progression, that must include a heavy aftermath (unless you're trying to be special, or unless it's one of the few drugs that can make you feel unusually euphoric afterwards and then there's still usually a crash after that lmao)

Different drugs create different, known effects, however, people will have different 'bad drug trips' depending on their circumstances.

I'm a little bit afraid this post is going to crash so I'm going to post it now! And for that anon who asked me what kind of writing I used - this is it! :D

[kisses4reid]

understand? pt. 1 | ·˚ ༘ spencer reid ,,

summary - you’re a polyglot translator assigned to work for the bau in a cross-national case, and there’s a doctor who wants to impress you.

genre - fem!reader, SHE/HER r, fluff, meet cute, you know more than spencer and he’s attracted to that

warnings - you're both awkward, mentions of gross case file photos, little research about polyglots actually done so there are inaccuracies, cliffhanger for part 2.

w/c - 1.4k

a/n - thank you for the req anon!! there was multiple parts to this but i really like the first idea so that’s what this fic is about, might keep the other idea for later hehe. i did change some aspects. love you, thank you for the support <33 there will be multiple parts!!! stay tuned!!!

req - hi pia 💞💝🩷💓 how r u? i hope you’re feeling wonderful! this is my first time requesting smthg i apologize if i get something wrong! i’ve been having 2 thoughts about spencer x fem!reader, where reader is a russian translator and idk they meet cute or she has to work with the bau helping them on a case. just wanted to give these ideas to you, obviously feel free to do anything with them! i really enjoy your work and your writing is incredible! i have your notifications on so i am always reading whatever you post! have a great day pia 💝 lots n lots of kisses for u!

This was not what you expected. 

You, a woman in your late twenties that spent most of her time in a room listening to voices and decoding foreign messages, didn’t know what you expected. But this: a scary boss, an italian old man, and a skinny college kid, was not it. 

“Y/n L/n? I’m Aaron Hotchner, the unit chief, and this is Agent Rossi and Doctor Agent Reid.” 

You nodded your head, thick hair covering your top eyelashes as you glanced at the men. Agent Rossi shook your hand, and Dr Reid simply stood and gawked at you. To be honest, it made you worried. You had been warned this was a close knit team, that they trusted each other more than anything and that you shouldn’t get attached to any of them as you’d only be assisting them for one case.

Maybe they just didn’t warm up to new people. 

“I’ll do your formal introduction to the rest of the team now, if you’re settled down.” He asks cooly. You like the way his voice rasps, it’s assertive yet comforting. 

“Yes, of course. I can’t wait.” You smiled reassuringly at the unit chief, not ignoring the raised eyebrow you received from the silent young man now behind you.

Aaron Hotchner, your new boss for the next week or so, lead you to a large room with a circular table sat in the middle. There were two other women, one blonde and one raven haired, and another bald man that glanced at you immediately after you entered. They smiled at you and trailed your steps to where you stood beside the unit chief in front of a large TV screen.

“Everyone, this is Agent Y/n L/n. She’ll be assisting us with the Becker case you’ve all been informed of. She’ll mainly be our translator and interpreter, but she’ll also be useful for cultural identifiers and anything that we wouldn’t notice otherwise.” 

You nodded along, never being a fan of introductions since you moved to America as a small child. 

“This is JJ, our liaison, Agent Emily Prentiss and Agent Derek Morgan.” 

The ladies smiled at you, in fact all of them did. They were surprisingly open to the fact you would be joining them, the fact made your shoulders loosen and a breath to be let out discreetly. 

Next, you were on a long plane flight to Maine with Agents you had known for little under two hours, conversing about victim profiles and motives. The table in front of the ladies and your boss was strewn with victim files and gruesome photos. And while you weren’t a stranger to the dangers and violence the job brought, you had gotten comfortable with only hearing about it and not seeing it. So you opted to hover around the table and stay silent, you weren’t a trained profiler after all, just a translator.  

There was a wave of cologne that disrupted your senses, causing you to angle your head back, only to be greeted by the tall doctor. 

You smiled softly, assuming the closeness was due to the aeroplane's arrangement. Also because you got the vibe that Spencer didn’t like you. 

“Are you okay? You seem uneasy,” he asked. It was the first time you heard his voice. And it was as adolescent as you imagined for someone so young, but it had a sophisticated edge to it, with a honey-like undertone. Finding things in voices as if they were perfumes was something you unconsciously started to do since working as a translator.

“I’m fine.” You grinned reassuringly, turning back to focus on the team’s findings. 

Spencer furrowed his eyebrows slightly and stepped away, sitting down beside Morgan who had taken a seat at the back. Morgan squinted at his friend, noticing the rare confusion splayed on his face as he stared in your direction. 

“What’s up? Pretty girl got your tongue?” Morgan removed his headphones with a cheeky smile displayed on his handsome face.

“For someone who specialises in languages she doesn’t talk much.” 

Morgan smirked, “Maybe not to you.”

“I didn’t do anything wrong though.” Spencer ripped his gaze off the back of your head.

“You’ve been staring at her since she walked through those doors. You were so distracted you didn’t even greet her this morning.” Morgan pointed out. Spencer tilted his head confused, a small blush creeping up his neck. “I watched the whole thing from the conference room, so did JJ and Emily.” 

The tall boy slumped in his chair and forced himself to look out of the plane’s window, avoiding a reply to Morgan as he knew it would only result in more teasing. You were physically attractive, everyone could see that, but the thing that caught Spencer’s attention was your intelligence. He was no stranger to being a polyglot, he learnt languages for fun, but you were simply next level. Morgan studied Spencer’s face for a second before raising his attention to your hovering state. “Agent Y/n L/n.” Morgan called, causing Spencer to widen his eyes and immediately adjust his slumped position in his plane seat. You turned your head in surprise, slightly confused why you would be needed anywhere else than the files you had been translating for the past two minutes. Your heels were silent against the carpeted floors, but Spencer could sense your presence anyways. 

“How many languages do you speak?” The stoic man asked, his eyes darting between you and the doctor below you. You were not short, your genes didn’t allow for it, but you had noticed you were only taller than JJ and Rossi in the team and it felt foreign to not tower over everyone. “Um, I speak 8 languages fluently, and 4 languages semi-fluently.” You stated, readying to turn back to assist the team before Morgan spoke up once again

“Did you know that pretty boy can speak Spanish and German?” 

Before Spencer could help himself, he corrected the man, “And Latin and Russian,” Spencer turned his head up to you, “But I can understand more.” 

You smiled, genuinely impressed and confused on how a man that young could learn that much. But to be fair, you were in the same boat. The nickname got your attention, locking it in the back of your mind to remind yourself that the people you were working with did in fact have senses of humour, and weren’t just heartless officers. There wasn’t any reason to think that though, as you had been cared for with respect and even Prentiss made a funny remark beforehand. It sort of felt like a family dinner you were intruding on. “That’s impressive, Doctor Reid.” You reply genuinely. 

“I mean it’s nothing compared to you though,” his voice was pitched slightly higher and his hands started motioning to nothing in particular, “your brain is constantly changing from high activity to low activity when you're translating from one language to another. Your language network, the lateral frontal lobe, is constantly lighting up and dimming down depending on what language you hear, ordinary people’s language networks only turn on and off.” 

Morgan smirked and glanced up at your intrigued and surprised expression. You nodded, a small blush coating the tips of your ears as you responded, “Thank you.” You didn’t really know what else to say, which is funny for someone who understands so many languages, so you simply smiled and turned back to the table. Spencer slumped again, watching you walk away and asking himself why he would inform a pretty girl about her own brain, when she most definitely already knows about it. 

“Don’t worry too much, Reid.” Morgan called, grabbing Spencer’s attention. The boy raised a brow, not understanding. “She digs it, I can tell. But she’s just like you, knows how to speak in a million ways and still doesn’t know how to small talk.” 

You landed without any more awkward interactions, and got introduced to some sheriffs in Maine, one of them giving you a tighter handshake than the rest and a stare that could only mean unpleasant things. It wasn't something sexist or creepy that lingered in his eyes, it was more like hatred. Spencer took the sheriff's attention away from you after noticing what the whole team did, and asked him to show him the records they kept at the precinct.

Emily Prentiss came up behind you and placed a hand on your upper arm, squeezing it like she understood what you had thought you'd seen. Out of everyone else in the team, she would understand the most.

taglist (open!!): @jeffswh0re @reap3erslov3 @candyd1es @0108s22m @aurorsworld

[blueiscoool]

Roman Emperor Caligula's 2,000-Year-Old Garden Unearthed Near the Vatican

The gardens overlooking the Tiber river in Italy once belonged to an infamous Roman emperor.

Construction workers in Italy have discovered a 2,000-year-old garden that once belonged to a Roman emperor.

The travertine walls of the garden overlook the banks of the Tiber, a river that cuts through Rome and sits east of Vatican City. The ruins were unearthed as workers constructed a new overpass at Piazza Pia, according to a translated statement from the Italian Ministry of Culture.

As archaeologists removed debris, they found a lead water pipe with the following inscription: "C(ai) Cæsaris Aug(usti) Germanici." Researchers determined that the engraving referred to Gaius Caesar Augustus Germanicus, better known as Caligula (aka "little boot," a childhood nickname given to him by his father's soldiers).

Based on the inscription, researchers think the garden likely belonged to the infamous Roman emperor. Not only was Caligula known for being a tyrannical and ruthless leader, he was also a sadist who humiliated his senate. Caligula assumed the throne in A.D. 37, and in A.D. 41 the Praetorian Guard — the officials who were supposed to protect him — assassinated the emperor.

This conclusion is supported by a passage in the ancient text "On the Embassy to Gaius," penned by Egyptian philosopher Philo of Alexandria. It describes how Caligula had met with a representative of Jews living in Alexandria, Egypt, at a large garden along the Tiber, according to the statement.

At that time, Jewish Alexandrians and the Greek-Alexandrian population were in a "crisis that had manifested itself with violence, brawls and episodes of religious intolerance." However, Caligula rejected the Jews' requests for religious autonomy, instead siding with the Greeks.

Alessio De Cristofaro, an archaeologist at the Special Superintendency for Archaeology, Fine Art and Landscape, a government agency in Rome, said the find is significant because Piazza Pia is in the same area as the "Horti Agrippinae," the garden of Agrippina the Elder, who was Caligula's mother.

The pipe is also similar to another one, found in the early 1900s, that's inscribed with the name Iulia (Julia) Augusta, the second wife of Augustus and the grandmother of Germanicus. Researchers speculate that the property was inherited by Germanicus and later passed down to his wife, Agrippina the Elder, before going to Caligula.

In addition to the pipe, archaeologists found slabs of Roman-era pottery and terra-cotta figures of mythological scenes that would have decorated rooftops.

By Jennifer Nalewicki.

[ilynpilled]

jaime canonical kinks compiled by an expert researcher (me):

- incest (bffr)

- impact play (90% of his chapters)

- blood (sept period sex, “red flower blossomed, and Jaime had an instant to savor the sight of her blood”)

- body hair (link)

- voyeurism (osmund cuck nightmare fantasy, the baths, bracken and hildy)

- bdsm (link)

- pegging (link)

- cuckoldry (osmund cuck nightmare fantasy, what he did to robert for years, he is a white man)

- praise (obvious. but if u need exact proof pia scene in asos)

[zoebelladona]

PIA ZOEBELLADONA YOU ARE SO RIGHT !!!! the thaluke goggles NEED to be on. personally, i think it is entirely possible that luke knew about the fleece bc he had researched it priorly to attempt to save thalia from the fate she had been subjected to by zeus. the luke goes on a quest for the fleece is too real of a possibility if you ask me 😵‍💫

in canon i cannot decide if luke knew or not that the fleece could bring thalia back. if he didn't i see it this way: luke poisons thalia's tree so chb is given a quest to get the golden fleece so he can get the golden fleece and revive kronos, he always planned to let the questers take the fleece back after he was done with it because he wouldn't have let thalia's tree die that was never his objective, he did not want to kill thalia. if he did it's like you said: he poisons thalia's tree in a bit of a desperate attempt to find a magical object that, after doing some research, he realises can not only revive kronos but bring thalia back. did he blindly believe she would side with him? probably. but the point stays the same: luke did not plan to let thalia die, if she came back it was a bonus, he could not let thalia die.

which leads to my "luke goes on the fleece quest" fic. it's an au where luke does not join kronos and in a desperate attempt to free thalia from her fate he poisons her tree to be given a quest for the one object that could save her ✨️

[expertacademicassignmenthelp]

 How Does The Brain Work?

The brain stands as a marvel of biological engineering, Composing of a multitude of bodily functions ranging from cognition and memory to emotions and sensory perception. Together with the spinal cord, it constitutes the central nervous system (CNS), the command center of the human body.

Composition of the Brain

Weighing approximately 3 pounds in adults, the brain’s main structure comprises about 60% fat, interspersed with water, protein, carbohydrates, and salts. Unlike muscles, it houses a complex network of blood vessels and nerves, including neurons and glial cells.

a) Gray and White Matter

Within the central nervous system, gray matter and white matter occupies distinct regions. In the brain, gray matter forms the outer layer, rich in neuron somas, while white matter constitutes the inner section, primarily composed of axons unsheathed in myelin. Conversely, in the spinal cord, this arrangement is reversed.

b) Brain Functionality

 The brain operates by transmitting and receiving chemical and electrical signals throughout the body. These signals regulate a myriad of processes, with the brain disseminating each input. Some signals remain confined within the brain, while others traverse the spinal cord and nerves, disseminating information across the body’s expanse. This composes neural network relies on billions of interconnected neurons.

Major Brain Regions and Their Functions

1.Cerebrum

Dominating the brain’s landscape, the cerebrum encompasses the cerebral cortex and underlying white matter. It governs a spectrum of functions, including motor coordination, temperature regulation, language processing, emotional regulation, and sensory perception.

2. Brainstem

 Serving as the bridge between the cerebrum and spinal cord, the brainstem comprises the midbrain, pons, and medulla. It regulates vital autonomic functions such as heart rate, breathing, and reflexive responses.

3. Cerebellum

Nestled at the posterior aspect of the brain, the cerebellum coordinates voluntary muscle movements, posture, balance, and motor learning.

 Brain Coverings

a) Meninges

 Three layers of protective membranes, collectively known as meninges, enshroud the brain and spinal cord. These layers — dura mater, arachnoid mater, and pia mater — shield the delicate neural tissue from physical trauma and infection.

b) Lobes of the Brain

 Each hemisphere of the brain comprises four lobes, each harboring distinct functional domains:

Frontal Lobe: Governing executive functions, motor control, and higher cognitive processes.

Parietal Lobe: Integrating sensory information, spatial awareness, and perception of pain and touch.

Occipital Lobe: Specialized for visual processing and perception.

Temporal Lobe: Involved in auditory processing, language comprehension, and memory consolidation.

Deeper Brain Structures

 These encompass important structures such as the pituitary gland, hypothalamus, amygdala, hippocampus, and pineal gland, orchestrating hormone secretion, emotional regulation, memory consolidation, and circadian rhythms.

Blood Supply

The brain receives its oxygenated blood supply through the vertebral and carotid arteries, ensuring adequate perfusion of neural tissue. The main network of blood vessels, including the Circle of Willis, safeguards against ischemic insults and facilitates intraarterial communication.

Cranial Nerves 

The twelve pairs of cranial nerves, originating from the brainstem, mediate a diverse array of sensory and motor functions, encompassing olfaction, vision, facial expression, and auditory perception.

Comprehending the anatomy and functionality of the brain fosters a deeper appreciation of its complexity and facilitates advances in neuroscientific research and therapeutic interventions aimed at diminishing neurological disorders.

Understanding the detailed anatomy and functionality of the brain is crucial for medical students embarking on their journey of study. Expert Academic Assignment Help offers invaluable assistance in navigating the complexities of neuroscience and related subjects. By leveraging expert guidance and support, students can excel in their medical education and contribute to advancements in the field of Medicine. Email us at expertassignment46@gmail.com to embark on your path to scholarly excellence and professional competency.

[so-scarlett-maroon]

Opening Lines

Thank you to @eastwindmlk for tagging me!

Rules: List the first line of your last 10 (or however many you have) posted fics and see if there’s a pattern!

Doubts and Presumptions: Draco/Hermione/Neville WIP 42k so far E

Draco didn’t know what the fuck he was doing here.

Entering The New Year: Harry/Hermione One-Shot 2.8k E

Hermione sighed as she took in the room of familiar faces.

Clueless Witch: Pansy/ Charlie 17k T

Pansy Cherilyn Parkinson was ruling her 8th year at Hogwarts.

Brewing Trouble: Pansy/Theo/Blaise one-shot E

Pansy collapsed onto Theo’s lap, huffing out an exasperated breath.

Book Lovers: Hermione/Oliver 7k E

After extensive research, years of study, and hands-on investigation, Hermione Jean Granger wrote the definitive record of the History of Hogwarts. She dove to the bottom of the Black Lake, cataloged the separate Centaur Heards, and even discovered the in-depth magic that had made the Room of Requirement possible. Her publishing firm had decided that this great work, her labor of love, was on par with Wood Between My Thighs: The Oliver Wood Biography. (I cheated and did two lines here, but it needs the punch line!)

Hermione Granger: Bounty Hunter: Hermione/Draco 7.8k M

Hermione walked into her office, throwing off her scarf and letting it flutter to the floor.

The House That Black Built: Hermione/Draco 23k E

Harry was the one who found the will.

Observations!

I seem to have a pattern of establishing the mood with first line. Draco feeling uncomfortable, Hermione sad, Pansy dominating. I think it helps me to write if I focus on how the characters are feeling.

The two outliers from this are Book Lovers and The House that Black Built and for both of those stories I had a lot of set up I wanted to get out of the way. So, I jumped right into explaining the situation.

This was interesting to look at! Check out the fics if anything looks fun to you.

I am going to tag @zeebee3 @pia-bartolini @autumnweeen @westxnorthwest-writes and @acanadianmuggle

Feel free to ignore if tag games aren't your thing!

[ukrfeminism]

Women dealing with severe mental illness are still being jailed despite prisons being “ill-equipped” to offer suitable care, a major review has warned.

Many women and health providers view the prison environment as “unfit for purpose”, while six in 10 inmates said the “inconsistent” health and social care services across England’s 12 women’s prisons needed improvement, the long-awaited NHS and Prison Service review found.

Despite figures suggesting nearly 60 per cent of female offenders have experienced domestic abuse, the review warned of a “gap” in mental healthcare and specialist support for women who have experienced trauma, including sexual and domestic violence.

The review – which was due last March – is touted as involving potentially the largest-ever engagement of women with lived experience of prison, drawing on more than 2,250 responses from group discussions, one-to-one meetings, letters, postcards and drawings.

Its findings underscore heightened concerns around women’s prisons, after the number of self-harm incidents rose by 63 per cent to hit a grim new record of 20,248 in the 12 months to June – three times higher than a decade earlier – despite the number of women self-harming remaining relatively stable in recent years.

The “absolutely staggering” rise could reflect issues with understaffing and a lack of suitable training, HM chief inspector of prisons Charlie Taylor told The Independent last month, adding: “These are often the most vulnerable, very unwell women, some of whom should quite frankly be in secure hospital, not in prison.”

Experts have long highlighted that mentally unwell women are being imprisoned unnecessarily, with MPs warning last April that legislation handing courts the power to remand people in prison “for their own protection” should be repealed.

While the government’s draft Mental Health Bill proposed this, and introduced a requirement to remand people to hospital when the only ground is concern for mental health, Rishi Sunak did not include the Bill in the King’s Speech – leaving it off the parliamentary agenda for the year ahead.

“This is a missed opportunity to right a grave wrong, and means women as well as men in crisis will continue to be sent to prisons which are unfit and unequipped to meet their needs,” Prison Reform Trust chief executive Pia Sinha told The Independent.

The newly-published review also highlighted that women’s reception and early days in prison are often “traumatic, deeply distressing and bewildering”, especially for pregnant women and mothers separated from their children.

“I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t feel like I could ask, I felt completely away from everything,” one woman told the researchers. “When they told me, I didn’t have a clue, I couldn’t picture it, then I found out I was hours from home and it really hit me how far away from my kids I was.”

Only around half of women said their immediate healthcare needs were met during the first 24 hours in custody. Vital services are also often not gender-specific, researchers found, leaving further gaps in care for women.

“Not one person has spoken to me about incontinence, menopause, what are healthy bowel habits, my boobs,” said one woman, while another told researchers: “Managing your periods in prison can be a nightmare. Some women don’t even know the pill or coil can help. They just assume because they’re in prison, they aren’t entitled to this sort of help.”

Women with reduced mobility, who are neurodiverse and who are older appeared most disadvantaged by a poor environment in prisons, the revew found, with one woman saying: “You’ve got more chance getting around prison on a flying carpet than you have in a wheelchair.”

The report also highlighted that not all staff are trained in trauma-informed care, with one respondent quoted as saying: “‘There are so many mental health ladies and ladies with learning disabilities that should not be here. 

“The prison is not a mental health hospital. Staff are not trained to deal with the complex needs, so those people do not get help to do anything or get what they need.”

Another said: “Officers don’t always get it, sometimes how they talk to us makes it worse. They need better training; they need to learn how to see it when a woman is in crisis.”

Meanwhile, in the 2019/20 year, some 45 per cent of women did not attend planned outpatient appointments, compared to 22 per cent in the general population – with “complex” reasons for this including there being no prison staff available to accompany them, according to the Nuffield Trust.

The Ministry of Justice has pledged to deliver on the report’s eight recommendations, and has earmarked £21m for a three-year delivery plan jointly led by the NHS, and Prison and Probation Service.

Urging an “ongoing multiagency commitment” to delivering the recommendations, the Prison Reform Trust warned that the review “cannot be reduced to yet another bureaucratic process”, adding: “Its success needs to be measured by the impact it has on improving the health and social care needs of women in custody.”

[shiranuieditorial]

Light & Airy ✨

Personal name ideas for you, your characters, pets, future kids, or just for the sake of the discussion! All free to use! 🤗

⚠️ Disclaimer: Genders mentioned below are only intended as guidance; not strict rules I’m ordering anyone to follow.

Feminine-leaning given names:

艾咏 Aiyong

Amanda

Anya

April

Brianne

Cherry

Demah

Elara

Essie

Farah

Feriyal

日桜 Hio

Iin

Kaia

和咲 Kazusa

Kirana

Laila

Lorelei

Mehelia

味蕾 Mirai

Pia

Rihanna

流実 Rumi

Sari

文麗 Wenli

Yanti

弓杏 Yua

Zoulah

Gender-neutral & unisex given names:

Aria

亜早 Asa

白赫 Baihe

Dara

Dewey

Efren

Emre

Foxy

芽生 Gao

Hallie

Harper

輝羽 Hwiu

Irama

Lucky

Mahaka

Morning

Noa

Ora

Ovie

Pom

Roya

Salewyn

Sherrel

Tinne

Venera

怡翎 Yiling

Zephyr

茲棋 Ziqi

Masculine-leaning given names:

André

Chaim

Diler

演二 Enji

Hapsara

Helio

Iago

Iriawan

Karim

Kindi

Kopong

Lev

丸応 Maruo

Neo

Nuwa

Owain

René

Riady

Soren

Tasafi

Thamin

Vier

Wayan

希明 Ximing

Yahya

Yansen

Ziko

Zulkifli

Okay, okay, okay... Explanation time!

🌬️ So, these names I’ve compiled sound or feel soft, light, and airy to me, regardless of what their respective etymologies mean.

🎐 It’s all about the vibes with this one! In my head, I’m taking a moment to feel the breeze in my face…

Who says we have to be so serious and formal and academic all the time? 🤷🏽

Let’s try to have some light-hearted fun with this name bank!

⠀

🗺️ There’s a variety of cultures and languages featured here. The Sinitic ones in particular are:

🇨🇳 艾咏 Aiyong — “mugwort chanting; mugwort singing”

🇯🇵 日桜 Hio — “sunny cherry”

🇯🇵 和咲 Kazusa — “harmonious blooming”

🇯🇵 味蕾 Mirai — “taste bud”, lit. “flavour” + “flower bud”

🇯🇵 流実 Rumi — “flowing into reality”

🇨🇳 文麗 Wenli — “prettiness of culture and literature”

🇯🇵 弓杏 Yua — “bow and apricot”

🇯🇵 亜早 Asa — “inferior morning”

🇨🇳 白赫 Baihe — “white radiance; white eminence”

🇯🇵 芽生 Gao — “shooting forth sprouts”

🇰🇷 輝羽 (휘우) Hwiu — “bright splendour feather”

🇨🇳 怡翎 Yiling — “plumes of rejoice”

🇨🇳 茲棋 Ziqi — “this chess”

🇯🇵 演二 Enji — “performance two”

🇯🇵 丸応 Maruo — “round answer”

🇨🇳 希明 Ximing — “hopeful brightness”

⠀

Curious about any other name’s meaning and origin? 🤔

Don’t worry! I had researched everything before putting them in the list. It’s a habit at this point. 👌🏼

Send me an ask or comment below any curiosity and I’ll respond! 👇🏼

⠀

👀 Let me know which of these given names caught your eye? Do you know anyone with any of these names? Do you agree or disagree with my personal interpretation of “light and airy” vibes?

[arkhelios-gameplay]

Giovanni took a deep breath. "Do you remember how I told you when you were little about my research on time travel?"

Pia nodded. "The research that went nowhere but that never ceased to fascinate you."

Giovanni nodded back. "Well... I did not succeed, indeed. But someone else did."

Pia paused as she started puzzling the pieces together in her head. "Someone else?" she asked. "Another scientist? Or-"

"Another me," Giovanni explained. "From another world."

[not-poignant]

I'm just finishing up FFS and i just wanted to say that I really like the way you bring the side characters to life, like Leo, Han Yuen and Professor Adeyemi. They feel very real considering they have very little time in the narrative, it's something i think a lot of writers struggle with

Hi anon,

Thank you so much!!

Honestly, I think a big part of it, especially with those characters, is that I actually just like to imagine them as being real people themselves with their own motivations and quirks etc. That's something I really love doing. :D

The rest is under a cut because it's basically suggestions to writers and idk if you're a writer anon dslakfjasd

Part of making side characters seem realistic is giving them motives that often have nothing to do with the main character, or only have a little to do with the main character. We can tell Leo's got stuff going on his life, especially around his parents, based on the content of his poetry. He has a shy and friendly disposition, and seems eager to please, so he might be someone who's got some boundary issues in his own life, and some stuff he's working through!

Han Yuen is clearly competitive and very involved in poetry, and has a theme that she strongly adheres to. We get the sense that she's very passionate while also enjoying the deep connections poetry gives her. She doesn't have much interest in Efnisien at all, but she's friends with Leo, and by the time she does come into Efnisien's life, we get the sense she's been living her own just fine.

Professor Adayemi is the same. She has her own motives, she'd absolutely fire Efnisien if he wasn't efficient and she sees him as nothing more than a fast typist/worker who keeps late hours for reasons she doesn't really care about. While she's a great boss that's convenient for Efnisien, she doesn't exist to be a great boss to him, they're just compatible in that sense. She's ferociously competitive in her area of academia (anyone who is publishing as much as she does, is).

When we finally get to see her office, and meet her, we realise that she's a lot more complex than even Efnisien's given her credit! She has a femme side, she can be girly, she likes simple pleasures, she can be messy. In a way, they were both kind of 'useful' to each other until they became people to each other. We also know from her surname and her area of study in anthropology, that she's likely an extremely strong feminist and voice for Black people in her arena, and potentially has some political motivations for the direction she chose in life, or at least informing the reason she's publishing as much as she is.

I really love writing side characters actually, because part of the fun is realising them as people and then picking some thing - something big, something small - that will make them interact with the main character. I enjoy seeing them even if I'm only writing a handful of lines for them in a chapter, because in my head, they're so much more richly realised, it's like meeting a friend you haven't caught up with in a while.

This doesn't have to involve days and days of research or work, either. All of these things are constructed around several key points, and at least one or two things the side character is passionate about.

It doesn't have to be a struggle, and it's something writers can do in their spare time when they have writer's block and are too tired to work on their story, but want to get 'some writing' done. Sitting down and banking some side characters and attaching some passions, motivations, culture etc. to them and putting them in a document somewhere, can give them side characters in a pinch when they need them.

Constructing side characters - both minor and major - is one of those things that can be done at any time, independently of a story. Adayemi could work in a sci fi, fantasy, contemporary, etc. setting. So could Han Yuen and Leo. What makes them them isn't the setting, and that stretches them into 'real beings' or solid characters that are transferable and can exist in many different places.

If you're stuck thinking of how to describe side characters, you can try practice runs with real characters. Pick a handful of main or side characters from your favourite TV shows or movies, and then give yourself only 3 sentences to describe them (or three paragraphs). Practice getting the hang of seeing the big details the fastest, and then adding on what I would call 'textural details' that add sensory anchors (it might be the foods they like to eat, the clothing they like to wear and its texture, the flowers they like to sniff, the scents they wear etc.)

It doesn't take long to build confidence doing this! And then you'll have to stop yourself from adding too many side characters to your stories like I do lmao

Because you only use three sentences or paragraphs to describe them, then - along with the dialogue - that's actually all you need to establish them in your story!

Establishing good/solid dialogue is another part of this, and I've written about that before but am too lazy to link it here. But constructing character can happen long before you get to dialogue. :D

[rjzimmerman]

More than 100 long-finned pilot whales stranded along the shores of Western Australia on Thursday have returned to the ocean, while 29 died on the beach, wildlife officials said.

Officials were working to remove the 29 whales that had died on the beach, Pia Courtis, a regional wildlife officer with the Parks and Wildlife Service for Western Australia, said on Thursday in a news conference posted by the agency on social media. The agency planned to take biological samples and measurements from the dead whales for research.

After marine officials and volunteers had helped the other whales back out to sea, boats were on the water and a spotter plane was monitoring the area to ensure they did not return to shore.

The four pods of 160 pilot whales were spread across about 1,640 feet of beach at the Toby Inlet, near the town of Dunsborough, in Western Australia on Thursday morning, local wildlife officials said, in a statement on social media.

Photos shared by the wildlife service on Facebook showed rows of whales lying on the shore as crowds gathered to see the mass stranding.

The rescued whales had moved farther offshore on Thursday and were last seen traveling north, the wildlife department said.

“So far, so good — they haven’t made it back to shore, but we will keep monitoring them,” Ms. Courtis said.

Officials said they did not know what had caused the stranding, which included mostly adult females and a few calves. In general, experts have theorized that the causes for such strandings may include pods of whales following a sick, or stuck, whale and getting stuck themselves; the confusion brought about by undersea noise caused by humans; or an attempt to avoid predators.

Several mass strandings have unfolded in Australia in recent years.

[thepastisalreadywritten]

Researchers after many years of studying the Shroud of Turin (13th-14th century AD), a realistic representation of what Jesus Christ actually looked like, has been presented.

On left, depiction of Jesus in Orthodox iconography. On right, result of the study.

—

The Shroud of Turin, also known as the Holy Shroud, is a length of linen cloth that bears a faint image of the front and back of a man.

It has been venerated for centuries, especially by members of the Catholic Church, as the actual burial shroud used to wrap the body of Jesus of Nazareth after his crucifixion and upon which his bodily image is miraculously imprinted.

The human image on the shroud can be discerned more clearly in a black and white photographic negative than in its natural sepia color, an effect discovered in 1898 by Secondo Pia, who produced the first photographs of the shroud.

This negative image is associated with a popular Catholic devotion to the Holy Face of Jesus.

The shroud's authenticity as a holy relic has been disputed even within the Catholic Church and radiocarbon dating has shown it to be a medieval artifact.

Though accepted as valid by experts, the carbon-dating of the shroud continues to generate significant public debate.

The nature and history of the shroud have been the subjects of extensive and long-lasting controversies in both the scholarly literature and the popular press.

Currently, the Catholic Church neither endorses nor rejects the authenticity of the shroud as a relic of Jesus.

[blueiscoool]

Pre-Incan Site for Ancestor Worship Found in Peru

A team of Peruvian and Japanese archaeologists has unearthed a pre-Hispanic archaeological site in northern Peru dedicated to ancestor worship, with burial chambers, human remains and ceramic offerings.

"We have discovered an archaeological site of the Wari period with an antiquity of between 800 to 1000 years AD" in the Cajamarca region 900 kilometers (560 miles) north of Lima, Japanese archaeologist Shinya Watanabe told AFP on Saturday.

"Two burial chambers with pits for placing mummies and offerings to the ancestors were found at the site," the expert said.

Each of the burial chambers contains two levels, and both have five niches in the walls that contain offerings such as mollusk shells, ceramic fragments and a tripod dish with three conical supports.

"It is a great find because the archaeologists were looking for evidence of the Wari culture," said Watanabe, who is a professor at Nanzan University in Japan.

A bundle containing a female character, a black Wari ceremonial vessel, two musical ceramic wind instruments, and two copper fasteners were also found.

The discovery occurred in the Jequetepeque valley in the province of San Miguel in Cajamarca, a region that abuts Ecuador.

"Many people of multiple origins lived here. It was a ceremonial center dedicated to the cult of the ancestors," Watanabe said.

Judith Padilla, head of Cajamarca's culture office, said the findings allow for an understanding of "the lifestyle and ritual practices" of the ancient societies that inhabited the region.

The Wari culture survived between the 7th and 13th centuries over territory that is present-day Peru, but by 1100 AD the Wari were conquered by the rising Inca empire.

The discovery was made by the Project of Archaeological Investigation (PIA) Terlen-La Bomba and it occupies about 24 hectares (60 acres).

The Ministry of Culture indicated that the main objective of the research is to understand the socio-political system of the Cajamarca culture during the Middle Horizon (900 to 1000 years AD) and its relationship with the Wari culture.

[twittercomfrnklin2001-blog]

Beyond the Living Dead

It opens with a funeral cut short by a thunderstorm, despite the fact those present are interring the body in a mausoleum. I’d like to say that’s the weirdest thing about Jose Luis Merino’s BEYOND THE LIVING DEAD (1973, Tubi) — aka ORGY OF THE DEAD, aka THE HANGING WOMAN, aka RETURN OF THE ZOMBIES, aka BRACULA: TERROR OF THE LIVING DEAD — but I’d be lying. Count Minajli has died, leaving his estate to his daughter, who turns up dead before the reading of the will. Instead, it goes to his nephew (Stelvio Rosi), much to the consternation of his widow (Maria Pia Conte) and the scientist (Gerard Tichy) whose research into life energy he’s been sponsoring. Conte is a witch, but that goes nowhere. She’s having sex with a necrophiliac grave digger (Paul Naschy), as whom wouldn’t, who feels he’s cheating on the corpses he’s been hiding in a secret passageway between the castle and the mausoleum. And that goes nowhere. After finding out Conte has seduced Rosi (in a scene with a relentlessly revolving overhead shot of their naked bodies), the scientist’s daughter (Dyanik Zurakowska) offers herself to him, so he makes her strip then tells her she’s stupid. Naturally they fall in love. As the bodies pile up, suspicion falls on Rosi for no discernible reason, so he starts trying to solve the crimes himself. It’s like the Hardy Boys with bare breasts and zombies. After an impressive musical cue with choral voices for the funeral, Francesco De Masi’s score sounds an awful lot like the music for DARK SHADOWS, and then ends with a variation on “Tara’s Theme” from GONE WITH THE WIND. Adding to the delirium is the dubbing, with British accents that sound as if they were being done by American actors. The dubbing is also extremely energetic. I suspect the voice actors were better actors than the originals. It’s all so loopy it’s almost exhilarating. If it seemed deliberate and had a little more panache, we’d be hailing Merino as a stylist on a par with Douglas Sirk and John Waters. The only thing of any real artistic merit is the Eastmancolor location photography of the Pyrenees, but for all that, I defy you to take your eyes off the screen.