#but since this post is from aug 2020 that means it was only a few months after i had first beaten it

[sudoscience]

[This has been in my drafts since August 2020. I don't want to delete it, but I've long since forgotten where I was going with it. I'm going to post it just to get it out of my drafts. It's obviously not finished since I don't appear to have reached any conclusions, but maybe someone will find it interesting/useful?]

I feel like it's been a while since I've posted anything of my own, and since most of my writing concerns Deltarune, I thought I'd shake things up and discuss Undertale instead. So, let's unpack Asriel's statement that, "Chara wasn't really the greatest person" and what, if anything, that can tell us about Chara's moral character.

Be forewarned that this will involve a discussion of the exact manner in which Chara died. To put it very lightly, it was not pleasant. Frankly, it's something I wish I could unlearn. (TW: Suicide)

Whether or not Chara was evil is obviously still a hotly contested issue, and Asriel's statements about them play a key role in arguments on either side. Asriel is the one who tells us they weren't the greatest person, but I feel like something many people overlook is that a lot of the canon surrounding Chara is relayed to us via Asriel, either directly or through the True Lab tapes, and Asriel's biases should be taken into account.

Consider that Asriel's last memories of Chara were not happy ones. First, he watched them die, but that doesn't do it justice. They didn't die quickly and peacefully—they suffered. They were likely in extreme pain, probably for several hours, and Asriel saw this. His best friend chose to do this to themselves, and Asriel had to be there in order to absorb Chara's soul. (You can't see this, but I'm actually having a really hard time just thinking about this, so imagine how bad it would have been for Asriel.)

It's strongly implied by the tapes in the True Lab that Chara committed suicide by poisoning themselves with buttercups, which is not a peaceful way to go. Symptoms of poisoning include bloody diarrhea, excessive salivation, colic, and severe blistering of the mouth, mucous membranes and gastrointestinal tract. Contact with a wounded plant causes itch, rashes or blistering on contact with the skin or mucosa. Ingesting the toxin can cause nausea, vomiting, dizziness, spasms, acute hepatitis, jaundice, or paralysis. We're told directly by the game that they died the day after becoming ill; it could be they poisoned themselves at night and died that morning, or it could have been even longer, but the point is that there were likely several hours between the initial onset of symptoms and their eventual death. (I'm serious. I had to take a break from writing this because it's too emotionally draining.)

So, after Chara's death, Asriel absorbed their soul, and the two of them crossed the Barrier, where they were attacked by the humans. Asriel tells us that Chara was the one who wanted to use their "full power", and Asriel resisted. We aren't told much more than that, but I can't imagine Chara and Asriel held a calm and level-headed debate about the issue while they were actively under attack. Given the urgency of the situation, it was probably a rather heated argument, and both parties likely said things they would have regretted. Then Asriel died, that argument being his last conversation with Chara.

[cindylouwho-2]

RECENT NEWS, RESOURCES AND STUDIES, Early August 2022

Welcome to my latest summary of the top news, studies and helpful resources for ecommerce (including Etsy), social media, marketing and SEO, compiled since my last update in July. For a time that is supposed to be summer vacation for a lot of us, there has really been a ton of news to get caught up on! I've organized it for you so you can skip what you don't need to know.

Questions or comments? Please reply below on this post, email me through my website, or contact me on Twitter.  

TOP NEWS & ARTICLES 

There is a potential Royal Mail strike looming, currently scheduled for only 4 days: Aug. 26, Aug. 31, and Sept. 8-9.

Online businesses aren’t the only ones struggling with economic factors at the moment: more than half of US small retailers think they could close for good by the end of the third quarter. “Owners cite a host of reasons, including inflation, higher interest rates, gas prices, rent hikes, supply chain disruptions, lower consumer spending, fears of a recession and losses left over from 2020 and 2021.”

There have been a lot of reports of retailers being overstocked and desperate to clear out old merchandise. It’s a combination of supply chain, economic downturns, and the fact that: many people are spending what money they have on experiences and travel rather than products. Despite this, US ecommerce spending was apparently up almost 12% in July; “Apparel (+16.6%) and Jewelry (+18.6%) sales saw strong demand-driven year-over-year growth, well outpacing sector-specific inflation.”

Since we may be headed into tougher economic times, this is an excellent point for everyone to consider what types of courses and other materials we can offer to diversify our incomes. Squarespace wrote a decent article on offering classes and workshops online that could come in handy. (Of course, they are promoting their own platform to do this on, but there is enough info to get some ideas started that can be carried out elsewhere.)

ETSY NEWS 

There has been a bit of controversy over Etsy using Plaid to verify bank accounts for US sellers. Contrary to some worries, it is possible to do this without giving Plaid your banking password. Note there are lots of different applications for Plaid, including both identity & authentications. It's commonly used for many financial apps such as budgeting and portfolio management. (In those uses, it is a bit similar to using your credit card through PayPal - the site you are purchasing on doesn't see your info; only PayPal does.) There are a few other examples of its use here. Two other problems: Plaid settled a class action lawsuit about privacy and deceptive practices very recently, and some sellers are unable to verify their accounts or get payments after using Plaid. See examples here, here, here, here, and here. Those are just a few examples, but note that many people are having no issue using Plaid, and non-US sellers have had issues verifying their bank accounts even without Plaid.

The new Purchase Protection program requires the buyer to open a case against the seller’s shop - but Etsy says that will no longer count against sellers as of August 1. Cases will no longer affect search ranking, for example; they’ve been removed from the Search Ranking Policy Page as of July 6. (Here is a comparison with the previous version of that policy; refresh if it won’t load the first time.) It is also explained on the general buyer info page: “What does a case mean for a seller? We understand sometimes things don't go as expected, and the case system is designed for Etsy to review the situation and do our best to find a resolution that works for both parties. Occasional cases will not impact the shop.” Please let me know if you have any unexpected experiences with the program, as a buyer or seller! 

These days  it feels like we should have a separate section of this report for the latest items Etsy is removing by accident or is intentionally banning. The site put out an article in June explaining more about safe product development and regulations in various countries. Some recent removal developments:

Etsy has blocked the sale of almost all knives to the UK, including simple cutlery. The legal reasons are detailed here. One seller of non-prohibited items came up with a solution. 

Children’s clothing with drawstrings and loose clothing are also banned, but Etsy is removing all sorts of random pyjamas and other clothing that should be allowed, including adult clothing. See examples here and here.

Some types of plants (a new plants and seeds policy was published August 1) There are more details here. The plant ban has received outside attention. 

Etsy sales were down 6% in the second quarter, but they are actually doing fairly well compared to the rest of ecommerce; see my full report here.

There are few updates to the Canadian tax situation, other than the fact that they added bulk editing to the Domestic pricing Tool, although that doesn’t include listings with over 400 variations, listings with pricing variations, or digital listings, plus it can’t be used on the app. It does appear that Etsy stopped charging BC PST on orders from outside the country, and has tried to stop charging tax on tax, but of course they have done the calculations wrong. 

In a possibly related development, a small number of sellers report that Canadians can’t buy all of their items. I tried, and it wouldn’t accept any postal code as valid for the shop posting in this thread. 

Star Sellers received notice by email that they’d have access to Chat Support, but the rest of us don’t. So if you are unlucky enough to live somewhere that doesn’t have tracking that Etsy can integrate with its system, you are paying that fee hike so that other people get Support. 

As promised, Etsy has rolled all Messages from the same member into one thread, meaning you no longer have to reply to every message when a buyer sends a bunch at once. No word on if we are going to see the “Messenger” again or not. 

The new seller app is still a work in progress, but they are pushing people to use it to help find the bugs. The old seller app will still work until at least the end of 2022. Here’s a video on the app. 

Etsy Explore is one of the new features you can only use through the new seller app at the moment (and is also supposedly limited to Apple products and US sellers, but I have talked to a few Canadians using it.) It allows sellers to post more extended videos than are currently allowed in listings, with sound. You can find the portal here. Note that like many other Etsy features today, we are warned that only shops without “prior, current, or pending policy violations” are allowed to use Explore. I am guessing this is more about twisting seller arms to comply with the rules rather than the integrity of “Explore”. 

The next Etsy sale is for Labour Day. The rules are “schedule a sale of at least 15% off from August 31-September 4 and then increase your sale to at least 25% off from September 5-6 to help attract more shoppers.” Note this is only for the US and Canada, and only for the mobile app (i.e., it doesn’t include all mobile). Etsy claims that its current cohort of buyers really like sales. 

Of course, if buyers want discounts, Etsy will push sellers to offer them. That's why they released a new Seller Handbook article on getting found through the Etsy Updates feed, which requires sales or coupons, or new/restocked items for your shop to appear. Note that the article isn’t fully accurate when they say “if you put an item on sale or add new inventory, buyers who have followed your shop or have favorited your items will get a notification in their Updates feed.” A few sellers have been observing this with me over several months, and it is clear that not all of these occurrences show up in all of your followers’ feeds any more. For example, I follow my own jewellery shop with my other shop account, and do not see any of my clearance sales announced, nor all of my new items, and I am definitely not seeing new items from every shop I follow. 

The latest buyer trends article covers the holidays in November and December. Etsy is predicting more interest in nature, sparkle and shine, vintage, bright colours including a lot of emerald green, and of course, gifts of all sorts. Examples of increased searches include: “193% YoY increase in searches on Etsy containing “black satin dress” … 78% YoY increase in searches on Etsy containing “brooch vintage”...336% YoY increase in searches on Etsy containing “modern candle”...142% YoY increase in searches on Etsy containing “custom photo keychain”.

Etsy is offering a pre-holiday panel event on September 8 at 1 pm ET called “Etsy Up: Holiday Edition”. You can register here, and learn more here. There’s no info on how long it will last, or whether or not the materials will be available to people who cannot log in at that time, or if the materials will be made available in accessible formats during the event or afterwards. While video events are popular these days, they usually aren’t very easy to participate in for folks who have problems hearing, seeing, or following events without text, or don’t have unlimited high-speed internet. Etsy really needs to do better here. 

You know all of those annoying nudges Etsy shoves into your shop manager? The latest approach is to post them all in one thread for the month. I guess the holiday calendar is at least useful. 

As reported in my last update, Etsy is closing their office in Hudson, NY, and is also closing the San Francisco office. Employees will work remotely. That will leave Etsy with only 3 physical office spaces - Brooklyn, Dublin, and Mexico City. 

Check out the Etsy Design Award winners here. 

This story about how tech work used to get done at Etsy is amazing, funny, and really not very surprising to any of us who were selling on Etsy back then. One tidbit: “There apparently was this entire phenomenon of sellers putting up sexy pictures of themselves, and then people making treasuries out of them. But engineers and leadership never knew about this because the moderators were just filtering that stuff out.”

SEO: GOOGLE & OTHER SEARCH ENGINES 

Getting rid of old and less-relevant content is a good way to boost your entire site’s ranking. 

The best way to write alt-text for images is to keep it short. People using screen readers do not usually want to sit through a long explanation. 

5 case studies from Google’s May Core Update indicate that Google might have been tinkering after the initial rollout. “Machine learning could make it nearly impossible to reverse engineer what Google is doing.”

The Google product reviews update in July seemed fairly tame, with little ranking change for most sites. 

Did you know there are keyword tools and sources that solely deal with videos? Here are 6 of them.

SOCIAL MEDIA - All Aspects, By Site

General Many different social platforms have tools and features to help you sell; here are 12 options (including one on Amazon).

Facebook (includes relevant general news from Meta) As rumoured a few months back, Facebook split its News feed into 2 parts: “Feeds” (the things you follow) and “Home” (the things Facebook’s algorithm thinks you want to see, including pages that you do not follow). Many see this as Facebook chasing TikTok. Also note that …”adverts are included in the Feeds tab but “suggested for you” posts are not, increasing the value of paying for “reach” on the site as opposed to trying to grow “organically” by gaming the site’s algorithms.”

Meta projects that its third quarter revenue will be down from 2021, lower than others expected, and the second quarter was down as well.

Facebook’s live shopping option will end October 1, but Instagram is keeping the option, at least for now.

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission called out Facebook Marketplace for allowing many recalled and banned items for sale.

If you are confused by Facebook Analytics, here is a great guide.

Instagram See the Facebook/Meta topic above for some things that also affect Instagram.

All videos under 15 minutes that you add to Instagram will now be Reels, as Meta chases TikTok’s appeal. They are taking a risk, as many users are unhappy with recent changes and tests [Washington Post; soft paywall], so much so that IG is already reversing some of the changes.

Customers can pay you through Instagram chat now. “The ability to pay for products in chat means that businesses can more easily convert curious shoppers’ questions and concerns into purchases and allows for a more personalized experience where businesses could give direct recommendations.”

LinkedIn Some tips on using LinkedIn for posts and building your brand. 

Anyone concerned about their privacy on LinkedIn can change important privacy settings, such as the one that lets you check out profiles anonymously {Washington Post; soft paywall].  Pinterest  Like many other sites, Pinterest’s ad growth has slowed substantially.

Snapchat Snapchat is now available on desktop, although only Snapchat+ subscribers can access it at this time. 

Twitter Make sure you are using Twitter Analytics to track engagement with your tweets.

Good news - you can now untag or “unmention” yourself from threads and conversations you no longer want to follow. 

YouTube YouTube joins the “shoppable content” club by allowing people to buy on a YouTube channel instead of being directed elsewhere. This is currently only available for creators in the US, Brazil and India. 

ECOMMERCE NEWS, IDEAS, TRENDS (minus social media)

Amazon Amazon beat revenue expectations in the second quarter, with 7% growth year over year. However, “Amazon’s core e-commerce business continues to suffer as online sales are no longer flourishing like they were at the height of the Covid-19 shutdown. The company’s online stores segment declined 4% year over year. Physical store sales continued to rebound from the year-ago period, growing 12%.”

Amazon is reportedly planning a second Prime day this year, in October [Insider; paywall]. “Internally, the Prime Early Access Sale is described as a "high velocity" sales event to "celebrate Prime members' loyalty by giving them early access to exclusive high caliber-T5 quality deals when Prime members least expect it."

eBay eBay is introducing a new Authenticity Guarantee for fine jewellery (over $500), and they are raising all jewellery fees to pay for it. Name brands will not be included at first.

An eBay forum moderator admitted that “sales as a whole have decreased a little”, nearly a week before eBay released its second quarter results. The second-quarter results showed an 18% drop in sales, 12% drop in active buyers, and 9% drop in revenue, which seems like more than a little. Analysis shows that eBay has lost almost all of the pandemic bump, unlike Etsy.  

Shopify Email and marketing service Klaviyo is now more deeply connected [paywall; Insider] with Shopify, with the latter now investing $100 million in the former. “Klaviyo aggregates purchase data from Shopify and from customers' interactions with online stores' help desks, emails, and text messages. Using a combination of marketers' expertise and machine learning, it helps brands find the right mix of customers, products, and offers.”

Shopify’s second quarter results were below expectations for the second time in a row, and they don’t expect the rest of the year to improve. The day before, they laid of about 10% of their staff, due to Shopify having expected a continuation of the pandemic’s ecommerce boom. 

The company still intends to expand its fulfillment network, and not just in North America. 

Links within a site help with SEO, and there are several ways to add extra ones on Shopify. 

All Other Marketplaces Bonanza is introducing a 25 cent transaction fee at the end of August; it applies to completed sales only. 

All Other Website Builders Squarespace has a new web design tool called Fluid Engine. It’s only available for Version 7.1, however.

Shipping FedEx is cutting back on some Sunday delivery in the United States as of August 15th, but 80% of the country will still have coverage.

It is still not clear how USPS cancelling their discounted postage program will affect label providers such as Stamps.com, Shippo and Pitney Bowes, but Amazon and eBay have confirmed their discounted rates are not affected. 

USPS has released its rate hikes for the upcoming end of year rush (October 2 to January 22) but they still need to be approved.

(CONTENT) MARKETING (includes blogging, emails, and strategies) 

Coming up with ideas for your blog or other posts can be as easy as just looking around - at your customer’s questions, what your competition does, and what other people are saying. 

A successful email focusses on persuasion rather than selling - you need the reader to click on the email before you can even get them to buy.

ONLINE ADVERTISING (NOT SOCIAL MEDIA OR ECOMMERCE SITES)

Confused about Google’s Performance Max ad campaigns? Here’s how to set them up. 

Google’s plan to phase out use of cookies with Chrome has now been delayed until 2024 (previously they planned this for 2023).

Alphabet and LinkedIn both reported an increase in ad revenue for the second quarter, while Microsoft dropped.

STATS, DATA, TRACKING 

Catch up on some of the basic things that are different about Google Analytics 4.

BUSINESS & CONSUMER TRENDS, STATS & REPORTS; SOCIOLOGY & PSYCHOLOGY, CUSTOMER SERVICE 

Want to know how different age groups shop? HubSpot has a good report on that [warning: fairly long article with lots of graphs and stats], although their age categories are not the commonly-accepted ones (I am not a baby boomer LOL). Gen Z does the most with video while the other age groups shop the most on Facebook. 

If you sell to teenagers (age 13 to 17) or their parents, you will want to know how they shop, consume social media, and use technology. YouTube comes out on top of the social media list, while Facebook is falling behind. 

In the latest edition of the never-ending series “You are acting like an old person”, I just learned that using punctuation at the end of a text or short Message could make your post seem passive-aggressive, as periods in particular are seen as very serious by some younger people. [text and audio] “Researchers asked undergraduates to evaluate a text exchange that included an innocent question and the answer "Yup." Some saw "Yup" with a period and some saw the word without." And we found consistently through many experiments that 'Yup' with a period resulted in responses that were more negative. So people thought 'Yup' with a period was less friendly, less sincere, and so on." This is something that anyone communicating with customers, writing ads etc. should be aware of, if you don’t want to come across as curt and unpleasant in short messages. Oh, ellipses and exclamation points also might be sending a message you didn’t intend. 

I love most of the customer service articles that Help Scout posts, and this one is no different: examples of bad and good customer service emails, with an explanation of what makes the good ones better. Even if your customers won’t experience these specific issues (mostly about app use), there is a lot to learn here about how to strike the right tone. 

This article is more for larger companies that have a separate customer service department, but it is a good reminder that we can all learn from what our customers tell us in reviews, complaints and questions. Buyer comments are wonderful resources for new marketing ideas, new products, and making your own materials - from descriptions to printed instructions - more clear.

IMAGES, VIDEO, GRAPHIC DESIGN, & FREE ONLINE TOOLS

Infographics make great content across multiple platforms. Here are 12 tools for making them (most have free versions).

[phynali]

so not to ruminate on things that vex me, but the past 2 or so months have been kinda shit, and i’m trucking along and there absolutely are high points and good things and joys that balance some of this out, but i need to vent out some of the negative emotions somewhere to get ‘em out. so i guess i’m doing that here because - 

we’re in lockdown#6 where i live (state of victoria) and it’s hard, this yo-yo of restrictions and swinging in and out of one lockdown after another. 

for those who understandably won’t know, what we call lockdown here means not just restaurant and commercial closures and mandatory working from home unless you’re in an industry where that’s impossible -- it also means no guests (0) inside you’re home unless you’re both living alone and single or else romantic partners, it means not leaving your home at all except for one of 4-5 necessary reasons, not being outside for more than 2hrs per day even to exercise, and not going more than 5km from your home unless required for work/medical/etc required reasons.

it’s intense. we spent (i think) 128 days in this degree of lockdown in 2020, never mind how many we spent in other forms of restrictions and working from home. and we’ve been back in it four (4) times in 2021 already. in-out-in-out-in-out - 

it’s taking a toll on the mental health of every person i know. we get weekly emails with wellbeing and resilience tips from my job -- not just “be productive or else” capitalism but heartfelt ones from wellbeing officers with copies of articles like this one on languishing from the NYT, acknowledging we’re all struggling and directing us to the plethora of wellbeing resources our workplace is trying to provide, not only to us but reminding us they offer it to our families too.

i’m one of the lucky ones. i’m really not trying to wallow here or to pretend otherwise. i appreciate that i can work from home, even though i can’t focus when i do and it this interacts with my adhd to fuck my productivity. even if i’m so behind and delayed it feels like i’ve lost 12-18 months worth of work and it will have long-term ramifications on my career -- even so, i still i have a job. i still get paid. and i even kept my job, a bit by the skin of my teeth but i did, when my sector downsized last year. yes, the way my employer went about lay offs left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth (my own included), but i made it through. 

and my sector, while affected, is by no means the worst of the collateral damage.

the yo-yo of lockdowns is taking a very very real toll on industries like hospitality, tourism, commerce. and the economy does have indirect effects on health and mental health as well. my friend, a waitress, was on her way to work the evening shift at a restaurant when she got the call about the latest lockdown. she had to turn around and go home because the announcement came just hours before the lockdown was imposed, and every place suddenly had to close by 8pm. bye bye evening shift. so much of the government support for these industries has dried up, has been inadequate. 

lockdowns save lives. i don’t begrudge my state for imposing one except that yes -- i’m resentful we’re here again with only six cases. i can be both accepting and grateful and also pissed and tired and more all at once. 

even more than the latest lockdown, i’m pissed about the yo-yo. that we went into lockdown in june, came out in july, went back in in july, came back out in july, are going back in now, in the first week of august. three lockdown/re-openings in 10 weeks, as if this rollercoaster doesn’t completely incapacitate our ability to plan or prepare for anything more than a week out, more than a day out -- in this case, more than a few hours out. 4pm the lockdown was announced, with an 8pm start time. as if that doesn’t have more insidious consequences on individuals and industries than a more clearly articulated and consistent approach. as if all the restaurants that got to open up this week didn’t purchase large food orders for this weekend that will spoil because they were given 4 hours notice to close their doors.

that’s the part i hate, right now more than the lockdowns themselves. consumer sentiment was at a high in april, optimism was everywhere. people felt good, and like we had a plan forward. now -- well, now my job is sending me emails about how normal and okay it is that i might be ‘languishing’ because aren’t we all?

and i absolutely do begrudge my federal government, and i’m angry with them, and this is part of why:

but i also accept, to some extent, that these decisions have all been made in difficult circumstances, and i’m not really about to pretend i could do any better. 

at the same time, australia’s vaccine rollout is among the slowest and lowest at least within OECD countries. i know that’s partly because we’ve managed the keep cases low and therefore we are prioritized less when it comes to who needs the vaccines most (and thus who is earlier in line to be able to purchase) among other geo-political reasons i won’t get into, but it still very much sucks. our timeline and ability to move forward and ability to stop having lockdowns requires a mostly-vaccinated population, and that’s not something we’ll have anytime soon.

and i am a visa-holder here and my family is back in canada and with our current border restrictions leaving to visit is honestly is not an option because i wouldn’t be able to return, to work. i’m managing that distance okay most of the time despite my homesickness and frustration but my partner’s parents are older and his mother’s health just isn’t amazing and it’s weighing on him a lot. 

a phd student i work with just had a parent die in another country while stuck here, had to drop everything to return, is devastated by not being by their parent’s side when it happened because it came on sudden, and now won’t be able to come back into australia after, will have to finish their thesis remotely from abroad. stories like that are becoming commonplace in certain circles, here. this student is not the first or only person i know who has been in that exact situation in the past year.

it’s enraging, and upsetting, and instills a sense of helplessness because -- there’s nothing that can really be done about it. there’s no good answer, but it’s scary to think of what could happen. i know it scares my husband. if his mother’s health suddenly dips -- does he drop everything and leave? how can he not? would i go with him or hold the fort here? what ramifications does that have either way?

right now, we’re in the first stages of getting permanent residency, my job is putting in the nomination, and this is one of those awesome high-points i mentioned. it’s a very much needed sense of security in my career and my future in this country. but while a PR application is pending and under review, you can’t leave the country, even in pre-covid times. it takes months to get the application fully nominated, accepted, then submitted, and months on months to process.

in january 2020 we had agreed that for xmas 2020 we’d return home to canada. obviously the world changed and we quickly determined that wouldn’t be the case. we pushed that plan back to july-aug 2021, then to october 2021, xmas 2021. my partner’s sister asked him last week if we started making plans, booking things for xmas, was calling to check that we’d had our second jabs. he had to explain the situation to her, that we aren’t even eligible for our first vaccine yet, that we aren’t holding out any real hope of visiting, not this year, not until mid-next.

anyway - i’m just. languishing, i guess, if that’s the word for it after all. i know it’s not the same as depression -- i’ve had episodes of that, been treated for it in different ways. this is and feels different, even if there are obvious similarities. whatever to call it, it sucks, and i hate it. and i hate the other lows and anxieties and crap i’ve been dealing with in the past few months as well that didn’t make it into this post about covid. crap with work, with friends, with goddamn car rentals of all stupid things. crap that’s making me anxious and crap that just needs processing. crap that is, ultimately, massively exacerbated because lockdowns turn us into little rats gnawing on the bars of our cages.

and i guess i just needed to talk about it somewhere, to organize my thoughts and free up some headspace (emotion space?) currently being used to hold these thoughts and feelings in place. i kind of hate posting personal crap like this and always get the urge to delete but i also have a hard time organising my thoughts if i don’t write them out with this intent to post. sort of want to go outside and scream at god, sort of want to phone up a friend and yell at him for an hour for being an exhausting ass, sort of want to be alone for a day to curl up under a blanket with a movie that’ll make me cry because raging at the universe is always so much easier when i’m alone and unobserved. but i guess since those aren’t especially kind or feasible i’ll post this instead.

anyway - if you read to the end of this for any reason, i’m not trying to be maudlin, and there’s really no need to respond. it’s just a feelings dump, sucking some of the poison out, not really much different than journalling but i’ve always been better at that online than on paper. 

[aftgficrec]

Neil with wings? Or May where he has magic? Like the elemental magic?

(2)  iayhifbigyakwiltbsywps said to aftgficrec:

OR WHERE HES THE MOST POWERFUL SORCERER???and he can use ALL the Magic’s when other xsn only use like one or two?

We’ve got some excellent fics for you in some of our previous posts (listed below).  And we’ve even found a few more, not yet recommended!  Enjoy the read! - S

Neil with wings:

‘Hidden in the Folds Series’ here

���By fair means or fowl’ here

‘The Raven Prince’ and ‘The Morning AUs…Chapter 7: The Red Swan AU’ here

faerie aus here

Neil with powerful magic:

‘Magesong’ here

‘they used to shout my name’ and ‘Winged Flame & Flowering Heart’ here

‘Raise Your Spirits’ here

‘Heartlines’ here

‘Magic in your veins’ here

Where's the worth in waiting by luxuries [Rated T, 929 words, complete, 2020]

Andrew is given a moment, a minute, to truly see Neil.

The Right Man by Speechless_since_1998 [Rated G, 2190 words, complete, 2020]

Andrew didn't know whether to be happy to be back or angry to have to deal with the shitty hunter's life again. Tortures in Hell were nothing for him: Andrew had always known he was a monster, and his stay there had confirmed it.

hymn of the summoner by andreil [Rated M, 22242 words, incomplete, last updated Oct 2020]

Since he was a child, Neil Josten has been called The Prophecy. His father, obsessed with the occult, claimed great things would come once his son died. Neil never believed in any of it, until he accidentally summons a demon of his own.

tw: blood, tw: violence, tw: human sacrifice

The Seer and the Sigil by nerdzeword [Rated T, 15140 words, incomplete, last updated Aug 2020]

Andrew is a Seer, which means he always knows when trouble is coming his way. This time, trouble comes in the form of a man with a sordid past and a charming smile.

tw: violence

Thicker than Dragon's Blood by KXDragon27 [Rated M, 32311 words, incomplete, last updated Aug 2019]

The Prophecy said: The ruler with the last Dragon under his control is set to rule over all other kingdoms for the rest of time. His descendants will forever hold divine power and their blood will become thick with magic.

That was all it took for Empires and Kingdoms all over the world to wage war on each other until a century of world wars pushed the most powerful and divine creatures to a near extinction, and only one dragon remained: Nathan, Butcher of Men and Lord of the Skies. He belonged to the Moriyama Dynasty of the Karasu Empire and was under the control of Kengo Moriyama: making him ruler of all for the rest of time.

Or so he would be if Nathan did not have a son hidden from the world.

tw: violence, tw: blood, tw: temporary character death

erupt. by shortbreadd [Rated G, 1025 words, complete, Aftg Exchange 2019]

Neil Abram Josten was nineteen years, two six months, ten days, one hour, and three minutes old when he erupted.

Everything leashed inside Neil was simply set free. Ten years worth of pent up rage and fear and emotions all released in massive shockwaves of magic. Tide after tide of pure energy sweeping out of him.

Long ago, Neil’s father had written him off as a failure; a simple fire mage that lacked the talent and precision to take over his title as the Butcher. Just another mildly powerful child to sell to the Moriyamas.

What Nathan hadn’t known then was what exactly young Nathaniel’s power was. It wasn’t just a simple fire element, but something more. There was no name to put to his element then, and there still wasn’t now.

tw: temporary character death

Just like magic by @palmettofoxesthings [tumblr, 2018]

Neil wasn’t sure how Andrew would react to this latest development. Or, well, it wasn’t really a development, he supposed, more of a hey-I-haven’t-told-you-this-before-but-I’m-magic kinda thing.

Art

wing time art by @mistykaru [tumblr, 2020]

magic au by @jojen-hewitt [tumblr, 2020]

rogue elf assassin!Andrew and mage!Neil by @rainbowd00dles [tumblr, 2018]

[bucksbisexual]

well, well, well. it’s the end of 2020.

kinda weird, isn’t it? the year has flown by and it’s already the end of the last month. it’s been..... strange to say the least, but this year i’ve found a place, and most specifically, people who have made this year a little bit better and brighter with either their presence or their content, and for that, i want to send some love to all of you who have made an impact on me this year with our interactions or your content on my dashboard 💖💖

i feel like i should start with everyone who has added me in their follow forevers (i still can’t believe i was even part of a single one??? i- 🥺) so let me do just that hehe

@yihwas​ soph!! we haven’t interacted much but every time we did u have been nothing but the sweetest and kindest person ever and that made such a great impact on me, thank u for being so amazing 🥰💛

@planthusbands​ cass!!! even though our age gap is 10 whole years you have been nothing but welcoming and lovely to me and u truly feel like an older sister to me 🥺💚 the cover u did for our secret santa hugs me tightly whenever i feel down 💖

@petekaos​ rahul!!!! (or should i say rhaul kjsjfhsfj my fingers h*te u for no reason i swear) u are such a lovely person and i’m so glad to be able to have gotten to know u better this year. you’re so amazing and u already know from before we even interacted that i Love ur fics so please never let anything stop u from writing!! 💙

@wjmild​ kylie!!! we have been talking more lately because of both of us (well, now only me) watching guardian and it’s so much fun!! i love hearing ur thoughts and opinions on things even if they differ from mine because i find u really interesting!!! also u’ve probably heard this from everyone from the gc but i love ur voice jhfkjsf love u lotsss ����

@toptaps​ zey!! we haven’t interacted much and have barely spoken on dms but u’re so lovely and kind 💛 ur love for things makes me want to love them as well (see: guardian) and i would love to get to know u better this year that’s just around the corner 🥰

okay and now.. to everyone else!!

@brightwin​ jelly!!! i miss u tons :-( but thank u for being so lovely whenever we interacted, you’re so nice to everyone and so so so talented when it comes to giffing, you’re pretty much the person who made me want to start giffing so thank u for creating such masterpieces 💛

@gunatps​ vee!!! are u feeling better love? i hope you’re recovering well <3 i loved getting to know u this year and loved all the weird conversations in the gc when it was alexa, u and me or sometimes just u and me, i miss bicis but hopefully bicis can come back as soon as u recover. ur korn apologist agenda was strong but u ended up being right... truly The Monarch skjfhsj love u lots 🧡 (i will join ur next chanonpom breakdown on vc okay? just tell me when and i’ll be there <3)

@kimmonv​ violet!!! we haven’t talked much but u seem like such an interesting and funny person, i would love to talk more with u this next year 🥰 i loved being ur secret santa (even if i sucked at it) and i felt rlly happy when u said u liked it!! i hope 2021 treats u well 💚

@lee-thanat​ ke!!! i loved getting to know u a little this year and i definitely loved trying to read ur nonsensical messages that were supposed to mean something KHSFJSHF i also loved playing with u on among us that one time even if i killed u once (sorry about that btw... ily), i hope everything’s going well and that we can talk more next year 💜

@soulmatelines​ jo!!! my twin sjkfjksfh i loooved getting to know u this year!! you’re so funny and so smart even if ur artistic skills are... Not The Best skfjhjfhks (neither are mine so it’s okay, no need to feel bad) i loved being on vc with u and just talking with u on discord whenever u were online, i hope we can continue doing that next year!!! love u lots 💛

@pvrrish​ eleni!! we’ve talked so little this year that i can barely remember if there was any conversation at all :-(( but i would love to get to know u better this next year!! u seem like such an interesting person and u and angel are friends so i’m sure u’re amazing!! hope 2021 treats u well 💚

@class2clown​ angel!!! it’s been such a pleasure to get to know u this year and i can’t believe that it’s already been months since we first spoke :’)) all of ur creations are soooo good and i love all of them!!! i hope nothing ever stops u from creating more because they’re all so amazing!!! 🧡

@floralbfs​ augs!!!! god it’s been a while since we started talking but u’ve always been so lovely and have always been there to share ur ideas for the thousand unwritten/posted pangwave and khaithird fics on our dms... i’m so glad that u rbed one of my tgg posts asking for the drama’s name because otherwise i wouldn’t have gotten to know someone as amazing as u 🥰 i hope 2021 is easier for u, sending u lots of love 💛

@vihokratanas​ mel!!! we haven’t spoken much but i’ve noticed that we share our love for a few dramas so i’d love to get to know u better this next year!!! u and violet’s almost daily spam on the bops channel is dearly missed but i know u guys are busy so hopefully this 2021 will be a bit more relaxed 🧡

@doctorbahnjit​ alexa my love!!!!! what can i even tell u.... you’ve been nothing but kind since day 1 that we started talking on the gc and to get to know u this 2020 was such a delight. thank u for being who u are and thank u for watching dramas with me on vc even if u can’t (or i can’t) hear shit, i appreciate it sososososo much and i just love spending hours upon hours (well, until ur grandma ass has to go to sleep) chatting and watching debatably good dramas with u and dawn <3 i hope 2021 treats u better and that u still stay being as awesome as u are 🥰💖

@pangwave​ dawnnie my baby!!!!! hi bb how’s everything going?? i hope u’re okay, i miss u a lot :-(( getting to know u this year has been one of the best things that have come out of this hellhole of a year. thank u for making most of my nights so entertaining with both ur thoughts and ur dumb fights with alexa, they’ve been the highlight of my days from these past 2 months :’) the endless vc calls with u and alexa (and ur shitty internet cutting every single one of ur sentences)  have made my year so much better and i can’t thank u enough for that. u and ur crabsticks and ur opinions and ur incredibly good gifsets are truly some of the best things that have come out of this year. thank u sosososo much for being how u are, i love u so much dawnnie 🥰💖

here’s some other people who have been on my dash for a while and that i appreciate their content as well: @scoupslipgloss (i mostly rb u with my sideblog but i love ur acc!!!) @vocalunits @chaoticbiwuxian @drwcn @bimingjue​ (i wouldn’t be a gifmaker if it wasn’t for u sending me the ps download link so i owe u my Life) @aanau (i rb a lot of what u post and i’m sorry if i have ever spammed u skjfhjsf i just love ur blog even if we don’t really share any fandoms aaaa) @emisfritish @leoyunxi @1akorn @gunsatthaphan @asianmelodrama @fushiguroo @khaotungthanawat @mymycorrhizae @jaehwany​ and @coldties amongst the many blogs that i’ve seen all year on my dash!!!! everyone’s content and posts have gotten me through 2020 so thank u all so much for staying on tumblr ��

i feel like i’ve forgotten people but please know that if u are not in this but we’ve interacted in any way then you’ve most definitely made some kind of impact to me!! these are just the people i talk with the most 💖

thank u all for being soooo amazing and i hope 2021 is good to everyone here and to everyone who reads this. happy holidays and happy new year to everyone 🥰💖✨

[syilcawrites]

a/n: ok ik I said I was going to take a little hiatus but I found this one-shot in my files (back from like aug 2020) so I fixed it up a bit. And I wanted to post this right now for some reason!! (now I’ll take a break from writing heh). Hope ya enjoy it! So summary: Link has an existential crisis in Robbie’s tech lab

ao3

are you in the clouds or the rocks right now?

Link wears their corpse on his skin.

It's heavy and a little stuffy sometimes, but being the winner feels great. Like a sucker-punch to the face, like a ha moment.

Like a I win you lose moment.

Except, the corpse is the one winning and he's the one losing even though he's wearing its skin. Two corpses, to be exact. One (him) is still alive to a degree and the other one (Guardian) is actually really dead. Was the other one (Guardian) even alive to begin with? If Zelda were here, she would say something smart, say something to counter what he was thinking. Maybe like in their own way, they are alive, just like you and I. And then she'll insert another intelligent, meaningful phrase, and he'll nod and say yes, you're right.

Or something like that.

He's not entirely sure, because he's never met her—not really.

"Perfect fit!" Robbie says, smiling with all teeth. He's so short. Link wonders if Robbie has always been that short. Link also measured himself last week—he grew approximately five whole centimeters, but he's still pretty short. Does that mean both of Link's parents were short too?

Parents.

That means… why hasn't he thought about this before? It's never crossed his mind that he has a family, he had a family—

"Hm, hm, just a few more tweaks and then your shield will be ready too," Robbie says, and his voice sort of bonks Link on the forehead. Knocks his thoughts on the ground, and it's just

s p l a t t e r e d

in between the two of them, but Robbie doesn't even realize it's there.

"Nice," Link says, through his teeth. He tears his gaze away from the mess on the ground that Robbie can't see, and in return Robbie hands Link the helmet. It looks like a bucket; a trash bucket. But Link doesn't say that and decides to just stare at the helmet blankly because for some reason when he stares blankly people don't ask him questions and Link really doesn't want to be asked questions right now.

Today is one of those bad days. One of those days where he can't really hear her—hear Zelda. She disappears sometimes; for weeks, even. He usually hears her in the flap of the birds, in the whistling wind; sometimes in the ground, within the tremor of the dirt or the coolness of the grass.

She usually likes staying above though, in the sky, and who can blame her? It's so free up there, and she's been stuck down here for a century. He would've gotten tired too.

"Well, try it Link!"

So Link tries it. He puts it on, and he can see through the eyes of the Guardians now. He wonders if he can see his own death through these too, if he goes back to Blatchery Plain.

"You're right, it's perfect." He takes off the trash bucket, tucking it snug between his arm and his hip as he fishes for some extra rupees. Robbie's been a lot of help, because he keeps Link from getting blasted to smithereens whenever he goes toe to toe with a Guardian. Well, tentacle to toe—were the limbs of Guardian's called tentacles? They definitely weren't toes.

Toetacles?

Zelda probably wouldn't laugh if he said that to her, but he still wants to tell her anyway. Maybe she'll laugh at how dumb it sounds, then she'll smile and then he'll smile because she's smiling and that'll be a really nice thing to see. It would definitely be a nice thing to see.

He hands Robbie the extra rupees, and the little old man doesn't hesitate to take it. He then tosses Link some extra ancient parts for some reason, which… defeats the whole purpose of him giving Robbie a tip. But Link isn't going to say no either to additional material—material that's definitely going to end up back in Robbie's hands when he comes back to Akkala for more weapons (and Akkala buns).

"You heading back to Hateno any time soon?"

Link struggles to pull the rest of the Ancient Armor off of him as he thinks.

"Yeah, I was gonna head there next. Maybe," he says, with a grunt, tugging one last time over his shoulders—the Ancient Cuirass pops off of him, finally.

It's been a while since he's been at his house—a month to be exact—because he has all of his dead friends' weapons hung up on the walls. For some reason he thought it would make him feel better, but it just makes him feel worse.

And they're dead. They're all dead.

His stomach twists into knots, as he quickly pulls the Champion's Tunic back over him, so his heartbeat can stop THUMPING against his chest.

THUMP-THUMP. Someone is knocking politely (yet loudly) on the door to his heart.

Safe, a voice reassures him. With it on, he's safe.

He straps his belts around him tightly, trying to concentrate on his fingers moving rather than the fact that his fingers can't do anything he wants them to do. Can't save anything. They can hold a sword and a sword is supposed to protect yet he can't even do that.

"Whenever you go back, would you give this to Purah for me?" Robbie is already fishing for something through his mess of a desk, scattering all sorts of metal trinkets onto the ground, before Link even responds. Everyone knows that Link will always says yes, I will. I'll help. Because he's a hero. "Thanks a lot," Robbie says, placing the thick paper envelope into Link's outstretched hand. The paper is wrinkled and yellowing—how old is it?

"Anytime." Link slips it into his shirt, where it'll be safe. With all the belts attached to him, it's like he can store anything in there because nothing falls out. He's stored all sorts of things—weapons, material, random stuff he finds around Hyrule that he thinks looks cool; like a pebble. He found one shaped like a heart on Death Mountain before. He likes to bring it around with him, in his shirt of course, for good luck.

Link presses his hand against his chest to feel the envelope. He's never stuffed paper behind his tunic before, and it feels… heavy. Physically, it is heavy since it's a package of envelopes… but there's something else to it that he can't quite put any of his fingers on.

"What is it?" Link asks, keeping his hand pressed against his chest. Hearing the crinkle of the old paper is satisfying to his ears. It's sharp and loud. It reminds him of swords clashing against one another.

Robbie doesn't say anything for a moment, and he doesn't look at Link either. "Just about a world you've forgotten. Don't think too hard on it, it's nothing important," Robbie says with a haggard sigh.

Sighing like that only makes Link more curious and agitated about the entire thing now.

"Letters are always important," Link responds back immediately, annoyed. "That's the point of them." He's not sure where he's getting this statement, but it's buried somewhere in his head. It's something he's always known.

He thinks, anyway.

Robbie turns his head to look at him, but Link can't tell what he's seeing because the shade of Robbie's eyeglasses are perfectly tinted. "It doesn't have to mean something, letters can be anything. There's no rules."

"Letters always mean something," Link says, insistent.

Something, nothing, anything; he hates hearing and seeing those words.

The sound of his breathing is loud in his ears, and his hand tightens against the fabric of his tunic, around the shape of the envelopes, as he waits for Robbie to respond.

"You're right," Robbie says. The tone of his voice shifts, as if something has clicked, as if he understands something that Link doesn't understand.

Link takes a step back.

"There's always a meaning..." Robbie's voice sounds smaller and smaller, until Link can't even hear the rest...

He takes another step to the door as his other hand reaches for the Sheikah Slate on his hip.

"Thanks for the armor," Link says, his fingers fumbling on the screen, and he taps onto the closest icon he finds.

"Link—"

Blinding blue light swallows his vision, and Link ceases to exist for just a split second.

——————————————————————

He ended up somewhere in Gerudo, and he sat there for five grueling hours on the edge of a Sheikah Tower before teleporting to Purah's lab to hand her the stash of envelopes.

Now, Link stares down at the empty parchment paper on his desk. He fishes for the single letter he stole from Robbie's stockpile of envelopes.

He hasn't opened it yet—for some reason, he feels like he won't like what he'll see. If it really is just meaningless? Just something... that doesn't really matter? Then what? What matters then, if his own thoughts were going to be considered something useless and unimportant?

Something shiny on it keeps catching his eyes, and irritably, Link stands up to glare at the object on the table downstairs.

The sunlight that glints off of the blade of the Master Sword winks at him. Maybe it's even laughing at him. Sometimes it feels like it is. He stiffly sits back down and hunches over the table so that he doesn't have to see that annoying glint anymore.

Why do people write again? Koko writes letters to her mom, because it means everything to her. It makes her feel better, and Link wants to feel better, so he's going to write, because unlike Robbie, Koko writes with meaning.

Zelda.

It comes out so sloppy, it looks like he wrote Zehdae.

He crumples up the paper and tosses it over his shoulder.

Z...e…l…d…a…

Zelda.

It's the best looking name he's ever written.

"Zelda," he says, loud and clear. But the dry air around him remains quiet.

The longer he stares at the shape of her name, the weirder it looks.

Who is Zelda? Is she the girl from his memories? The girl stuck in the castle? Is she the words that people whisper about? There's a Zelda in his head, a Zelda in the world around him. There's even one that hides in his heart, but that's a Zelda he'll never get to meet.

Link watches the ink from the tip of the quill drip onto the parchment. It taints her name with four dark droplets of varying sizes, but he can still read it, so he doesn't throw it away.

He decides to start off with a question first.

[cancerbiophd]

How I landed an industry job straight out of my life sciences PhD, without doing a post-doc 

In less than 7 weeks I’ll be defending my dissertation as a final step in my PhD in Cancer Biology, and yesterday I accepted a Scientist position at a local biotechnology company. And best part: I didn’t have to do the dreaded post-doc first! Which is pretty rare for our field (but I hope it’ll be more and more common for PhD’s going into industry).

I promised I would talk about the process here, and I hope that anyone who’s aiming for the same path can walk away with some tips or at least with a familiarity of the process. 

The main points I want to get across: 

Network network network. You can probably just stop reading here, because this job came about all through networking. I was basically head-hunted--someone in my network (a program alumnus) contacted me on LinkedIn to ask if I wanted to apply for a position on the team she directs. So set up your LinkedIn account, keep it up to date, and use it to actively network. At the very least you should connect with the alumni in your program as you all have something in common already, and since they’re out and about in the field they would be great resources for informational interviews and job referrals. 

My expertise and career goals matched the position. No brainer, of course. Even if I wasn’t contacted by the company, I would only be applying to companies I qualified for (so companies dealing with cancer since I’m my PhD is in Cancer Bio). My lab mate, for example, was finishing up his PhD in Nutritional Sciences but was applying to cancer companies with no result, because it just wasn’t the candidate those companies were looking for. My expertise was also probably what got that director’s attention in the first place and the reason she reached out. She was basically willing to wait 7 months for me (from job posting to my final start-date) because I was her ideal candidate, and not just based off my expertise alone, but our personalities matched too. She told me “we communicate well” aka our work personalities match. I know you can’t change who you are obviously, but getting along with your manager goes a long way. 

That being said, employers/PIs are flexible with start dates for PhD candidates. I applied to this position 6 months before I had my defense date set and when I only knew a ballpark of “sometime in the summer”. And then during my interview process I had to keep pushing that potential start-date back and back and back. But the company understood this. So as a PhD candidate you could start applying 6 months before your expected end-date (even if it’s still a moving target), or even months earlier for post-docs (which are much more flexible than industry positions). In general, you should start looking 1 year before your finish date to see what’s out there. 

It was also good luck/timing. If I had graduated earlier than the job posting, then I never would’ve had this opportunity. I also only added her to my LinkedIn network because I went to a lunch seminar where she gave a talk about working in industry. So small things that ultimately made a huge difference. Some you can’t control, but some (like going to that lunch) are definitely  opportunities to seize. 

I was low “flight risk”. Companies are always afraid their employees will leave the company/city for greener pastures, and that’s more common in “less popular” places to live, like the southwest desert where I’m located. But I’m from here, my grad school is here, my family’s here--so the company is making the assumption I’m not going to just up and go any time soon. You obviously can’t control where your family chooses to settle down, but you may be able to strategically choose your grad school based off of its proximity to potential companies. 

And lastly, in my experience, PhD’s with no post-doc in biotech industry should expect an annual salary somewhere between $75-95k (depending on the company and cost of living), with benefits.

Ok, my full story under cut if you’d like to know more about the process I went through:

It all started when a program alumnus (or alumna, if you’re picky about your latin) named RF talked at a lunch seminar to students in my program in Feb 2019. I was really interested in her company and knew she would be a great network to have, so I emailed her later to thank her, and then added her on LinkedIn. 

Fast forward to January of this year (2020) when RF messaged me on LinkedIn out of the blue asking me how close I was to graduating and if I would be interested in a position at her company. I think she wanted someone asap (so not me, I thought), but we talked more about my project, and she said she’d keep in touch. In February, she messaged me again saying a position opened up on her team and she wanted to see if I would like to apply. I said heck yes (or the more formal version), and sent in my application, with the expectation that I would be defending sometime in the summer. I also put her as my job referral and messaged her afterwards to let her know my application went through (with the hopes that maybe she could fast-track it through HR, which I think she did). 

In the meantime, I messaged (also on LinkedIn) another program alumnus I knew (our time overlapped a few years) who currently works with RF and we chatted on the phone about what he does at work, how he likes it there, etc. Basically an informational interview (and also to catch up as colleagues). I was also hoping he’d put in a good word for me with RF and can attest I’m a decent human being and all that. 

2 weeks later, I had a phone interview with RF, and I was super nervous going into it. I even practiced pages and pages of answers of common interview questions for a week straight. But to my surprise she opened the call with “I already know a lot about you from your CV, LinkedIn profile, and also your PhD training because we’re from the same program, so this is your chance to ask me questions!” And I was like, uhhhh awesome! The only thing she wanted to know about me was when I could start, and at that moment in time I was gunning for a July/Aug defense date. 

(I also emailed her and HR afterwards to ask them whether they could match my salary expectation, which I had researched well beforehand for what was common in the field for my position and experience, and they said they could.)

We then set up the next round of interviews for April with a colleague of RF’s who used to be in the same team but now directs her own, and RF’s boss (these would have normally been on-site, but I did them over the phone bc Covid). I again messaged my friend at the company asking if he had any tips. 

And then disaster struck! The company’s HR called me a week before those scheduled interviews to tell me the company had ordered a hiring freeze due to Covid and the effect it was having on the economy. Absolute bummer :( :( :(

So I then applied for a few more positions here and there, including some post-docs (which I really didn’t want to do). I got 2 rounds of interviews for a Scientist position at another local company, and as of today I still haven’t heard anything from them. oh well. 

Then in June I finally heard back from RF’s company saying the hiring freeze has been lifted and whether I’m still interested? Uh, heck yes! So we continued with those 2 phone interviews I had originally scheduled back in April. They both went really well. But I still continued to apply to other positions in the meantime because I wanted to have as many options as I could. 

Then 2 weeks ago (July 7) I got THE call: they wanted to offer me the position! :D

Only problem was, we needed to settle on a start-date. They of course wanted me to start like, yesterday, but my PI wanted to push back my original defense date of Aug 28 one more week to Sept 4, and also wanted me to focus on any dissertation edits for 2 weeks after that. So my earliest start-date would be Sept 21. If you remember, my defense date shifted from “sometime in the summer” to “July/August” to now September, so I was really worried the company wouldn’t accept this. I nervously waited 2 weeks for someone to call me back, and in my head I kept thinking, “I blew it I blew it”. I even sent in a job application to another company in that time. 

But RF finally called me and said hey, no problem, we can do that! She told me she was willing to wait because I really was her perfect candidate (I had all the experience she wanted, and she said we communicated well aka our work-personalities matched). She had also just recently hired another graduate from our program, who is also a friend of mine, so she knew we would all mesh together very nicely. 

And that’s the story folks! I’ll be starting the position remotely until it’s safe to return to the building again. They’re also working with my husband to see if he’s a good candidate for some of their other open positions (we’re both in the biotech field). We’re both super excited about this new chapter in our lives. 

All this because I attended the lunch seminar RF talked at all last year and then added her on LinkedIn. When people talk about opportunities lurking behind every corner, they really did mean that. 

[ladyxxdaydream]

a year-in-review meme - for writers!

I thought up this writing meme for fic writers who might have been staring at the artists having their lovely and well-deserved collages of their work through the year - and wanted to join in the fun! also this works as a great reminder for those of you (and me) who’ve been thinking that they haven’t been writing as much as they want to, and allows you to go back to enjoy your old fic ;D

Rules: pick your favourite sentence from a work you posted / wrote during a month of 2020! if you didn’t write anything in any particular month, don’t worry! tell us what you were doing or use it as free space for runner-up sentences. after that, tag 8 people or more to do the meme!

That being said, here’s mine:

Tagged by: @rikacain !!

I’m tagging -- @flailinginlove @aviss @kiitsvne @stupidbadgers and @tea-blitz who doesn’t use tumblr anymore but WHATEVER. and anyone else who wants to do it! <3

~~~

JAN: (from Heavy Weight)

“Iruka felt Kakashi’s eye on him. Most people feared the Sharingan, and for good reason, but Iruka feared his real eye, his own eye. It had a way of seeing straight past Iruka’s defenses, no dōjutsu required, and deep into his soul.“

FEB: (from Old Pine)

“Do you want children?” Iruka asked, feeling like the timing was right.

Kakashi was quiet for a few moments. Iruka had learned to read Kakashi’s silences for what they were. It wasn’t hesitation like he had initially thought. Kakashi simply liked to think things through before answering immediately. Iruka liked that about him.

“I think we have four already,” Kakashi said, eyeing Sasuke, Naruto, Ino, and Sakura through the glass door.

Iruka laughed, but refrained from clarifying. He knew Kakashi understood what he meant and would answer him shortly. Iruka had also learned that Kakashi had a tendency to be indirect, before he got around to what he actually wanted to say.

MARCH: (from Mouthful)

“So, Kakashi.”  Iruka said, unable to stand still any longer.  “We both like what we see. Now what?”

 He wasn’t usually this forward, but he was feeling it tonight. All of this playful banter was riling him up—it was his favorite way to flirt.

 “I like a man whose direct,” Kakashi said, shifting his stance to lean an elbow on the table. “But hmm,” he hummed. “I don’t know.”

 He gave Iruka a seemingly bored look, as if the obvious invitation to leave together was lost on him.

 “Well, I like a man whose decisive, so I guess that rules you out.”

 Kakashi let out a hard, surprised laugh. He downed the rest of his beer, and took Iruka by the hand, pulling him out of the bar without a word.

APRIL: (from A New Chapter)

 “I don’t know how to put this,” Sakumo started, “but… what the hell is that?”

 Kakashi looked at where his Father was pointing.

 “Uh… a diaper…?” Kakashi guessed, not sure where this was going. They had about a million others, in every color and pattern you could imagine, folded and stacked in the closet. Iruka wanted to go the re-usable route, and several of his students mother’s were eager to gift them. Kakashi had been less than thrilled by the extra laundry.

“Yes. It’s a diaper, Kakashi. Very good. Tell me, did you have both eyes closed when you put it on?”

MAY: (From Cake Substitution No Jutsu)

 “What’s this?” Iruka asked as Kakashi entered the kitchen, a fully dressed Tomo whizzing past them both.

 “Ah, it’s a backpack,” Kakashi said, crossing over to Iruka excitedly. “I saw it on display in a shop window while doing Gai’s scavenger hunt. Its arms and legs are the straps, so when you wear it, it looks like it’s riding on your back.”

 Iruka smiled, turning it around in his hands, noticing the zipper and a few pockets.

 “That’s actually pretty ador—”

 Iruka stopped speaking. The tail was tightly curled up inside plastic casing still.

 “Kakashi,” Iruka said, feeling his eyebrow twitch. “Is this… is this a leash?”

 “No. It’s a Puppy Pal… with an exceptionally long tail.”

“It’s a leash,” Iruka deadpanned. “A leash for a  child.”

 “You put Tomo inside a barrier the other day as a playpen,” Kakashi said, a matter of factly. “Why can’t I have some help controlling her?”

“That’s… that’s different!” Iruka exclaimed, feeling his cheeks heat in contradiction. “Would you like it if I put  you  on a leash, Kakashi?”

 Iruka regretted it the second it came out of his mouth. He could practically see the wolfish grin forming beneath Kakashi’s mask.

JUNE: (from Use Your Imagination)

They laid in silence for a while, listening to the sounds of the night through the cracked window—distant cars on the street, a lone dog barking, upbeat music wafting from a floor below them.  

Kakashi never wished for time to stop. In fact, he tried to keep himself as busy as possible—he chose a career that ate up most of his life for a reason. But right now? He wished time didn’t exist, hyperaware of how quickly it would pass before Iruka was back on a plane tomorrow.

He traced circles into Iruka’s lower back, watching as the brown skin pressed against his broke out in a wave of goosebumps. Iruka shivered, and then shifted, and Kakashi wondered if he was falling asleep.  

He selfishly continued his adorations, wanting to keep Iruka in this realm with him for a little while longer. He expanded his rake, sliding his fingers up Iruka’s spine, skirting around his scar, and back down again.

Kakashi wasn’t one to believe in divine intervention, or soulmates. He’d acted in enough corny films to almost make him hate the notion entirely. But the fact that a man as perfect as Iruka had come into his life so serendipitously—and just as scarred as he was—was something he couldn’t overlook.

It made Kakashi’s heart ache with want, before that ache traveled down, and curled into his gut.

JULY: (from Love Me As You Are)

“And then you demeaned their lives by calling them your soldiers—”

 “—is that not what they are?!” Kakashi cut across him, getting upset. “You’re as much a part of this system as I am, sensei! We both know the truth of it, whether we like it or not. I just called it by it’s name.”

“But they’re people too, Kakashi! Kids. They’re so much more than soldiers…”

“That’s not how I was treated,” Kakashi said before he could catch himself.

 Iruka’s mouth fell open with a punched sound.

 “Kakashi…”

 His tone was soft and free of the anger it held a moment ago.

 “Forget I said that,” Kakashi said, turning away, his cheeks heating up—the last thing he wanted was Iruka’s pity. “It doesn’t matter.”

“No,” Iruka said, shaking his head as he took a step towards him. “I’m not going to forget you said that. It does matter because  you matter.  You deserved to have somebody stand up for you too, Kakashi. I’m so sorry Konoha failed you.”

 Kakashi’s eyes burned with tears—he bit his tongue, refusing to let them fall. Those words pierced him straight through the heart. It was everything he never knew he needed to hear.

AUG:

um I didn’t write anything this month because my wife and I separated annnd my whole life was uprooted as I moved to a different country ksjdhgkdsj

SEPT: (from I’ll Fall, If You Do)

Their relationship was going really well. There were days where Kakashi still turned him away, usually corresponding with the mornings he had therapy. It was frustrating, because Iruka just wanted to be there for him, for Kakashi to open up to him completely, but he didn’t push. He knew that would only make it worse. They didn’t fight anymore, but Iruka regularly had to correct the language Kakashi used towards himself, and sometimes it was irritating for the both  of them.

But mostly… it was amazing. Their chemistry was incredible. Electric. And not just in the bedroom—they were never far from each other, drawn in like magnets, grounded by a simple touch or brush of hands. Kakashi hadn’t even left the room twenty minutes ago, and already Iruka felt the pull.

He jumped up from his seat and went to go find him.

OCT: (From Language Gap)

Iruka glanced out the bus window, his body instinctively knowing where they were about to pass. The building was still empty twenty years later, the brick still scorched, and Iruka’s nightmares were still plagued by the fire despite not being there when it broke out. He’d been sent on a delivery on foot — one steaming container of karē udon — two blocks away. He delivered to the same old lady everyday, and she always kept him longer than necessary, pressing sweets into his palm. When he had come back, the noodle shop was aflame. In his shocked state, he distantly heard something about a grease fire, before he was whisked away by the hand by his childhood friend Asuma, living with him and his father from that day on.

Iruka sighed and stood up, making his way towards the door since his stop was next. He really wished the city would do something about the building. Every time he saw it, it made him feel oddly exposed and vulnerable, like his past was staring straight at him.

He shook his head a little and stepped off the bus.

NOV: (From Brand New Sound)

Kakashi watched in stunned silence for a moment, trying to get his heartbeat under control as color effortlessly flowed from the artist’s hand onto the brick. Whoever this was, they had sort of become one of Kakashi’s heroes. People always said meeting your heroes was never a good idea—bound to be disappointing—because it brought them down to a human level.

But that was precisely what attracted Kakashi to this artist in the first place—the sheer, raw, humanness. The way they tackled hard emotions and vulnerability, baring everything through their work for others to see. It was honest and transformative, and Kakashi spent more nights than he could ever count wandering the streets when he couldn’t sleep, hoping to catch a mural he’d never seen before it was painted over. Sometimes he did, and sometimes he’d sit in front of ones he already knew and found new meaning in them.

DEC: (from Perks of Promotion)

“But why now?” Iruka insisted. “Why ask me out now? Right after I’ve made tokubetsu jounin? When we’ve known each other for years?”

 Oh.

Kakashi paused, the realization dawning on him. He didn’t blame Iruka for being suspicious of his intentions; he’d heard the way people said ‘the chuunin sensei’ or ‘the chuunin desk worker’ like it was some kind of insult. It always pissed him off.

Kakashi stared at his feet for a moment before lifting his head again, leveling Iruka with a serious stare. “Because I didn't think I’d live past 21. Because it took me an obscenely long time to become a barely functioning adult. Because I never had the guts before… I-I still don’t, not really, if you can’t tell by how much I’m fumbling around here,” he said with a nervous laugh.

[just-like-playing-tag]

A totally self indulgent compilation of my favorite works on this blog of the year June 13, 2019 - June 13, 2020

I wanted to do this for the blog's first anniversary but then completely forgot about it lol.

The following lists are all in chronological order according to the date each post was first published.

Top 10 panel edits:

#1: Don and Gilda - Chapter 138: Demon serch (1)

Date: Jun 14th, 2019

Time: ~ 1:30 h

My very first redraw from my very first edit posted here, so it deserves an honorable mention. Back then I was young and inexperienced, I didn't even apply a gray filter (lmao I was so unskilled I even unintentionally scratched the picture, I hadn't realized until today). I'm actually very happy my first redraw was of Don, boy deserves all the love.

#2: Emma and Ray - Chapter 140: I’m Here!

Date: Jun 28th, 2019

Time: ~ 1 h

Back then this looked like so much work to me!!! And to this day, I think it turned out pretty well. I'm particularly proud of how the bow turned out. This is one I was really proud of right after having finished it; it gave me the confidence to try redrawing bigger areas. Also, the edit were I first applied the opacity of layer / opacity of brush for the gray filter that would have stuck with me.

#3: Krone's birthday edit

Date: Jul 15th, 2019

Time: 15 mins

I don't know I just really like how Krone's hair vanish to a more sketch-like style here– and consequently, how I managed to replicate such effect. I think Krone's beautiful.

#4: Emma, Norman and Ray - Chapter 153: Coward

Date: Oct 4th, 2019

Time: 4:07 h (and 67 layers lmao)

Probably the single panel redraw I'm the most proud of. That Norman panel was beautiful and very poignant at the end of a chapter I adored, so I believe it deserved all the time I've spent working on it. It's far from being perfect - the back of his head is too plain, and the difference between my brushes and the original brushes is pretty visible - but I still like it very much and am extremely attached to it. The horn looks kinda big but I honestly believe it to be more of an issue with the original than with what I had redrawn lol. Funny enough, the whole picture didn't make it to the final edit and had to be trimmed.

#5: Full Score Trio - Chapter 154: A Breakthrough

Date: Oct 11th, 2019

Time: 29 mins

I don't have a particular reason for this I just think Emma's hair turned out amazing. It took just half an hour and I didn't even use references like. Wow. @Redrawing skills where did you go please come back

#6: Mujika and Queen Legravalima - Chapter 158: The Reason I Was Born

Date: Nov 17th, 2019

Time: 2:09 h

Sis I love this so freaking much. The shift from redrawing almost exclusively people and clothes to redrawing this mess was so fun and refreshing. Even though it's a mess I think it turned out very clean and overall it looks beautiful? I remember after finishing this I felt so powerful, like now that I had redrawn this thing I would have been able to redraw anything I set my mind on lol.

#7: Emma - Chapter 161: Never Be Alone

Date: Dec 13th, 2019

Time: 57 mins

Again no particular reason except this is a very cute Emma and I think the redraw turned out pretty well. There's this big lock on the left that doesn't make a lot of sense but overall I really like it. Cute Emma is cute, and I love her determination.

#8: Emma - Chapter 166: Going Back Home

Date: Mar 9th, 2020

Time: 3:45 h

I'M SO FREAKING PROUD OF THAT RIFFLE I have not the slightlest idea why this took so damn long BUT I'M SO PROUD OF IT

#9: Norman's birthday edit

Date: Mar 21st, 2020

Time: 1:04 h

This is cool! I didn't know I could manage to draw this, but I did it! The feathers were particularly hard to clean but I think they turned out fine.

#10: Full Score Trio - Chapter 174: A New World (part 1)

Date: Apr 6th, 2020

Time: 2:11 h

I just think they're very pretty? I can't understand if I like Ray's face a lot, or not at all, but I think overall there was a lot to redraw and it turned out pretty cute! Sorry Gillian.

(Also insert pretty much every panel from the chapter 177 Isabella edit– I've spent so many hours on basically every panel there's no way I could choose only one).

Top 5 edits as whole:

#1: Emma and Ray - Chapter 140: I’m Here!

Date: Jun 29th, 2019

Complessive time: 2:57+ h

The very first edit I'm actually proud of; I'm really attached to it. It's the first edit I had put all of my effort into, and I remember feeling anxious people would have left it without notes. It kinda feels weird to think about it now, because I really don't care about notes anymore; yet, it somehow makes me happy to think that past-me wasn't let down. Thank you @neverlandstrio for your support, you may not remember but it really meant a lot to me back then! And it still makes me smile. You're the best!!!!!!

#2: Mujika and Queen Legravalima - Chapter 158: The Reason I Was Born

Date: Nov 20th, 2019

Complessive time: 7:12+ hours

This whole edit was an hella wild ride. It's midnight before a school day, when I think: "Mh, it's been a while since I last made an edit, why not make one about Musica and the queen from the last chapter?" And seven hours after this was born. I'm particularly proud of the queen's redraws on the 3rd, 7th and 9th picture (ofc), the areas which have been redrawn are pretty huge yet I think the difference with the original is almost impossible to notice?? @Redrawing skills where did you go please come back (part 2)

#3: Emma - Chapter 174: A New World (part 1)

Date: Apr 12th, 2020

Complessive time: 6:53+ h

I think the panels that were selected work very well together, especially considering the close-up / full body alternation. I love Emma, and I've always been kinda sad noticing that edits that focus one her take the less notes... She deserves all the love. Also, fun fact: for the last but one panel, I had redrawn Emma's whole left ear before remembering she doesn't have one, so I had to redraw the panel from the start. Besides from the error with the ear, the reason why this (and all the others after) took so long is because official panel take way longer to clean.

#4: Isabella and her children - Chapter 177: Mother

Date: May 22nd, 2020

Complessive time: 13:41+ h (ahah.)

Lmao tbh I can't understand how this has so few notes it's like. Technically speaking, probably the best edit I've ever done. I don't even like Isabella that much, I haven't got the slightlest idea why I decided to spend so many hours on this. Anyway, I find the composition (full body on the left / headshots on the right) really good looking in this as well! And I think the redraws turned out fine, especially Isabella's.

#5: The Promised Neverland manga ending countdown→ 1/7 chapters: chapter 1 - Grace Field House

Date: Jun 9th, 2020

Complessive time: 1:59+ h

I don't know how I came up with that idea for the composition but I find it really beautiful??? I think it does a pretty good job conveying the sudden, terrific shift of atmosphere from the first chapter, and I think that sharp bridge is very nice. I'm very, very proud of this.

Honorable mention #1: Full Score Trio - Chapter 154: A Breakthrough

Date: Oct 13th, 2019

Complessive time: 3:44+ h (+ 1:13 h of working on a panel that ultimately didn't make it to the final edit)

A very good chapter, and the edit turned out surprisingly amazing??? All the redraws look great and make it almost impossible to distinguish them from the original; honestly I feel like I'll never be able to redraw so neatly again lol.

Honorable mention #2: Don and Gilda (+ Norman) - Chapter 160: Shackles

Date: Dec 11th, 2019

Complessive time: 3:14+ h

That one is really one of my favorite scenes; I'm telling you peoples, Gilda and Don are a blessing to the earth. I think I've never mentioned it, but Gilda's hair is a nightmare to redraw??? More specifically, it takes me h o u r s to fill the texture without making it look too weird, it's the worst.

Honorable mention #3: Norman and Ray - Chapter 179: Compensation

Date: Jun 6th, 2020

Complessive time: 4:16+ h

I was so glad to finally be able to make a Norman / Ray edit, and it turned out it was just in time before the series' finale. I like how it turned out and I'm pretty satisfied with the redraws (even though my sister helped me with the lineart of some panels - it was exams time and I really couldn't afford to spend more time on it), too bad we didn't have more chapters that focused on the boys. Ray sweetie one day I'll fix your ear it's just today's not that day.

Btw, I justed realized I have never done an Emma / Norman centered edit? I'll have to make one eventually. I remember considering focusing on them alone for the chapter 154 one, but then I thought "even if the manga is gonna ignore Ray, I will chose to do not" lol.

Top 5 long posts:

#1: Reconstruction of how the Grace Field children were settled in the three bedrooms

Date: Aug 28th, 2019

I just had really a lot of fun doing it. I love putting all the little things to their own place, it's so calming to do and that's why I love making this kind of things. Also, loved how @temporoom contributed to the post! It was so nice of them to add what they had noticed to come up with more exact conclusions, that's one of the things I love the most about the internet.

#2: A study of how many times the characters of The Promised Neverland call each other through the first season of the anime

Date: Sep 10th, 2019

I REALLY LOVE IT! I mean it *was* kinda stressing to note everything, but it was very also very satisfying to see everything methodically divided and organized! And it's not just that– it's also the fact that it looks good. That's one post I have fun rereading because it's actually pretty! Also, even though it can be very stressing to learn to use new programs and sites, it's always very satisfying to look at the final result. Again, I really adore compiling these tiny little details! I would love to make more posts of that kind if i had the time.

#3: The Promised Neverland musicals headcanons

Date: Oct 27th, 2019

I mean it's literally. Putting my two favorite fandoms together how could I not love it. This is another one I really enjoy rereading, I find all the musical / character associations so fitting! I really want to make a second part, I hope to find some time to do it.

#4: Considerations on the reward / eventual series' finales (and Emma's sacrifice)

Date: May 7th, 2020

It's always nice to put down all your thoughts regarding a particular matter. It can take a lot of time (at least for me it does because... I need time to think about things), but it's so satisfying to see all of them there once you're done. Bonus points when, like in this case, it was something asked by someone else because “Wow! Somebody wants to hear my opinion on this subject! I'm flattered (◍•ᴗ•◍)”

#5: Some other considerations on the series' finale and Emma sacrificing herself

Date: Jun 13th, 2020

Pretty much the same as above. It's like some kind of clarity when the post is done and signed. Another fun fact, I had to censore the post a lot; the first version was extremely sharp and harsh, but I believe it's right to express your opinions calmly and politely.

Bonus: A thread of what the tpn characters would wear at the Oscars

Date: Feb 9th, 2020

Imagining all the children in those pretty dresses makes me so incredibly happy (╥﹏╥) I go back to look at that post a lot. I really love red carpets, I love looking at pretty dresses!!!!!

Lmao it's so funny how the post of mine I like the most are also the ones with the less notes

Anyway this was just a personal report! You don't have to read it all (or any of it actually). But it was indeed fun making it! Here's to many more months in the fandom!!!

[newstfionline]

Sunday, August 22, 2021

US keeps ban on nonessential border crossings to slow COVID (AP) The U.S. government on Friday extended a ban on nonessential travel along the borders with Canada and Mexico to slow the spread of COVID-19 despite increasing pressure to lift the restriction. U.S. border communities that are dependent on shoppers from Mexico and Canada and their political representatives have urged the Biden administration to lift the ban. In addition, Canada recently began letting fully vaccinated U.S. citizens enter the country. But the Department of Homeland Security said in a tweet Friday that the restrictions on nonessential travel were still needed to minimize the spread of COVID-19 and the delta variant. It extended the ban until at least Sept. 21. The travel restrictions have been in place since early in the pandemic in March 2020 and repeatedly extended while allowing commercial traffic and essential crossings to continue.

Booming business at dollar stores shows the widening gulf between haves and have-nots during pandemic (Washington Post) Kyle Dishman can’t afford to shop at the local grocery store anymore. Instead he goes to Dollar General, where he can make $40 stretch into a week’s worth of groceries and the occasional can of motor oil for his Chrysler 300. He sticks with pasta, frozen pizza and canned vegetables, fully aware that “any food you can buy for only $1 is not the greatest for you.” But Dishman says prices have gone up so much that he’s started rationing his food. A growing number of Americans are relying on dollar stores for everyday needs, especially groceries, as the coronavirus pandemic drags into its 18th month. Chains such as Dollar General and Dollar Tree are reporting blockbuster sales and profits, and proliferating so quickly that some U.S. cities want to limit their growth. Foot traffic at Dollar General is up 32 percent from pre-pandemic levels, far outpacing the 3 percent increase at Walmart. Analysts say the explosive rise of dollar stores is yet another example of how the pandemic has reshaped the economy and widened the gulf between the wealthiest and poorest Americans. “It’s a striking disparity: In this country, there is now dollar-store land and there is Whole Foods land,” said Stacy Mitchell, co-director of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance (ILSR), a nonprofit advocacy group. “And if you live in Whole Foods land, it’s very hard for people to understand just how desperate circumstances are for the rest of the country.”

More Americans now say government should take steps to restrict false information online than in 2018 (Pew Research Center) Amid rising concerns over misinformation, Americans are now a bit more open to the idea of the U.S. government taking steps to restrict false information online. Roughly half of U.S. adults (48%) say the government should take steps to restrict such misinformation, even if it means losing some freedom to access and publish content. That is up from 39% three years ago, with Democrats driving much of the increase. Meanwhile, a majority of the public continues to favor technology companies taking steps to restrict online misinformation.

Hurricane Grace hits Mexico's Gulf coast, weakens; 8 killed (AP) Hurricane Grace hit Mexico’s Gulf shore as a major Category 3 storm before weakening on Saturday, drenching coastal and inland areas in its second landfall in the country in two days. At least eight people died, authorities said. The storm had lost power while crossing over the Yucatan Peninsula on Thursday, swirling through Mexico’s main tourist strip, but it rapidly drew in power from the relatively warm Gulf of Mexico before reaching the Mexican coast again late Friday. At least eight people, including children, died and three were missing after mudslides and flooding, said Cuitláhuac García, governor of Mexico’s Veracruz state. García said 330,000 people lost power in the storm but it was gradually being restored.

Haitian quake victims rush aid sites, take food and supplies (AP) Haitians left hungry and homeless by a devastating earthquake swarmed relief trucks and in some cases stole desperately needed goods Friday as leaders of the poor Caribbean nation struggled to coordinate aid and avoid a repeat of their chaotic response to a similar tragedy 11 years ago. The attacks on relief shipments illustrate the rising frustration of those left homeless after the Aug. 14 magnitude 7.2 earthquake, which killed nearly 2,200 people, injured more than 12,000 and destroyed or damaged more than 100,000 homes. The frustration over the pace of aid has been rising for days and has been illustrated by the growing number of people crowding together at aid distribution sites. But Friday was the first time there was such widespread stealing.

UNICEF warns millions of Lebanese face water shortages (Reuters) More than 4 million people in Lebanon could face a critical shortage of water or be cut off completely in the coming days, UNICEF warned, due to a severe fuel crisis. Lebanon, with a population of 6 million, is at a low point in a two-year financial meltdown, with a lack of fuel oil and gasoline meaning extensive blackouts and long lines at the few gas stations still operating. “Vital facilities such as hospitals and health centres have been without access to safe water due to electricity shortages, putting lives at risk,” UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore said in a statement. “If four million people are forced to resort to unsafe and costly sources of water, public health and hygiene will be compromised, and Lebanon could see an increase in waterborne diseases, in addition to the surge in COVID-19 cases,” she said, urging the formation of a new government to tackle the crisis.

Ethiopia's Tigray crisis: US accuses Abiy's government of blocking aid (BBC) The US international development agency has blamed the Ethiopian government for a shortage of humanitarian aid in the country's conflict-torn Tigray region. USAID accused the government of "obstructing" access to Tigray, as it warned that food aid was set to run out this week for the first time. Hundreds of thousands of people are at risk of famine amid the conflict between government and rebel forces. USAID called on the Ethiopian government to "immediately allow humanitarian assistance". It noted that aid trucks have been unable to leave the town of Semera in the neighbouring Afar region—currently the only accessible land route into Tigray. About 100 trucks of aid are needed in Tigray each day, yet just 320 have managed to reach the region since the end of June, a UN spokesman told the BBC. "At least two important aid organizations have already run out of food," said Saviano Abreu from the UN humanitarian agency, Ocha. "Without urgent and unimpeded food assistance, there will be an imminent threat to the lives of over 400,000 people in Tigray already in famine-like conditions and over 1.8 million people now in emergency levels of hunger could slide into starvation," he said.

In Kabul, a fearful wait for US to deliver on evacuation vow (AP) Tens of thousands of people in Afghanistan waited nervously on Saturday to see whether the United States would deliver on President Joe Biden’s new pledge to evacuate all Americans and all Afghans who aided the war effort. Biden faces growing criticism as videos depict pandemonium and occasional violence outside the airport, and as vulnerable Afghans who fear the Taliban’s retaliation send desperate pleas not to be left behind. The Gulf nation of Bahrain on Saturday announced it was allowing flights to use its transit facilities for the evacuation, an option that should ease pressure after the U.S. faced issues Friday with its facilities at Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar rapidly filling up. The backlog forced flights from the Kabul international airport to stop for several hours. The United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, said it would host up to 5,000 Afghans “prior to their departure to other countries.” So far, 13 countries have agreed to host at-risk Afghans at least temporarily, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said. Another 12 have agreed to serve as transit points for evacuees, including Americans and others. But the growing question for many other Afghans is, where will they finally call home? Already, European leaders who fear a repeat of the 2015 migration crisis are signaling that fleeing Afghans who didn’t help Western forces during the war should stay in neighboring countries instead. The desperate scenes of people clinging to aircraft taking off from Kabul’s airport have only deepened Europe’s anxiety.

Taliban took Afghanistan but face cash squeeze (AP) The Taliban face a frontal challenge in cementing control of Afghanistan: Money. Despite their dominant military blitz over the past week, the Taliban lack access to billions of dollars from their central bank and the International Monetary Fund that would keep the country running during a turbulent shakeup. Those funds are largely controlled by the U.S. and international institutions, a possible leverage point as tense evacuations proceed from the airport in the capital of Kabul. Tens of thousands of people remain to be evacuated ahead of the United States’ Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw its troops from the country. But the Taliban also do not currently have institutional structures to receive the money—a sign of the challenges it might confront as it tries to govern an economy that has urbanized and tripled in size since they were last in power two decades ago. The shortfall could lead to an economic crisis that would only fuel a deeper humanitarian one for the roughly 36 million Afghans expected to stay in the country.

The Taliban is flaunting captured U.S. weapons that may be worth billions. Can it use them? (Washington Post) As the Taliban swept into power across Afghanistan, it captured many millions, perhaps billions, of dollars worth of U.S. military equipment that had once belonged to Afghan forces. Footage from areas captured by the militant group shows bedraggled but celebratory fighters in control of U.S.-made guns, armored vehicles and even Blackhawk helicopters and drones. Beyond the flashy hardware, experts are also concerned that the extremist group would now be in charge of sophisticated technology, including biometric devices used by the U.S. military to identify Afghans who assisted Americans and allies. It’s an impressive haul for a group that was once dismissed as a band of rural Luddites when it emerged in the 1990s. But despite its austere interpretations of Islam and rejection of much of modern society, the Taliban has shown flexibility when it comes to technology. It is already active on the Internet and social media. And its fighters are no strangers to U.S. military equipment. “The Taliban have already been using sophisticated military equipment that they have captured from Afghan national security forces in recent years,” said Robert Crews, an expert on Afghanistan at Stanford University. “They have used everything from night vision goggles and scopes to sniper rifles and armored vehicles and artillery.”

Battered Airlines Owed Billions as Governments Withhold Cash (Bloomberg) Airlines are owed almost $1 billion across 20 countries as governments seek to hang on to hard currency, depriving the industry of vital cash at a time when travel has been devastated by the coronavirus crisis. Figures published by the International Air Transport Association show that Venezuela is withholding a further $4 billion that’s been outstanding for years and may be permanently lost to carriers. Lebanon, Bangladesh, Nigeria and Zimbabwe are the worst offenders among other states, accounting for 60% of the $963 million deficit, according to IATA.

[theyvetteh]

" EVERYTHING THAT GLITTERS...

AIN'T GOLD"

YA Fiction Urban Short Reads

By: Yvette Huntley Aug 3, 2021

"But the lord is faithful, he will establish you and guard you against the evil one" NKJV Divine Intuition I can remember the times the older people would say "everything that glitters, ain't gold"; meaning that everything and everyone that seems or act like it's good is not always good or truthful or always what they/it seems (that's my interpretation). That's said for enlightenment, not to spend your life paranoid, or disect everyone or every little thing, but to be aware of deceitful people and situations, that could, misuse, abuse and in some cases cause you harm. My advice is to pray to God to give you insight on whatever the situation may be, and guide and help you. I say trust your gut feeling. In this world we have many things that can cause us worry, so I would like to encourage faith in instead of fear. GIVE IT TO SOMEONE BIGGER THAN YOU We are HUMAN, we cannot fight against some things that are unseen, and like I've heard the old people say before "the battle is not yours, so give it to the Lord". Hold on and believe in your faith, and be who you are and created to be, but just be mindful that you could meet some that don't value you and what you have to offer, don't let that detour you from your goals, dreams, or aspirations. We are all unique and that is worth embracing, and that applies to any age, color, and lifestyle. 📷📷 Images courtesy of Pexels images Below is short-story excerpt from a short-story collection that I'm working on at the present time. It's a E-Book of inspirational short-stories with a meaning message to illustrate, enlighten and ultimately inspire...that has theme songs that are inspired by the story. For more content and updates, on this blog and more feel free to subscribe below. "Everything That Glitters, Ain't Gold" (Short-y excerpt) by Yvette Huntley Janessa sat staring at the brown leather suitcase with the the faded newspaper articles peeping from the folders. She inhaled deeply, then exhaled it out. She pushed aside her anxiety. For years she logged to know about her birth mother, and how she got separated from her, now when the moment of truth is at present, she's wondering that not knowing is better than knowing a truth that she couldn't bare. " Janessa, if you don't want to read the stuff in her suitcase, then you don't have to, we have other ways of finding out what you wanna know!". Spat Evaney, which was Janessa best friend, more like sister. She stood across the circle table alongside Janessa, locked face to face with Janessa's cousin RuRu. They were inside the cafe with a steady flow of workers and guest, so it wouldn't be a good idea to cause a scene. " This has nothing to do with you, this between me and my cousin!". RuRu snapped back. Whoa look at the anger behind those eyes. A few moments passed and Janessa patted Evaney's hand, her way of saying she was okay. She could understand her friend's concern, because since running into RuRu at Little Bohemia weeks ago, she have not earned a trustworthy title with some of the incidents she'd been in, but she perhaps to be the only blood relative that Janessa knows on the face of the earth, and have information on her birth mother and legacy, and know the whereabouts of Evaney's mother as well. So she was gonna roll the dice, and play whatever game that her cousin could be playing, to an extent. It's like Evaney could read her, a unique bond they shared with each other. She nodded her head yes. " Just guard up", Evaney spoke lowly. "Of course." Janessa replied, her foster grandmother's words coming back to her " be alert, because everything that glitters, is not gold" Copyrighted 2021/Yvette Huntley Books/Blog contact: huntleybusiness@gmail.com Images courtesy of Pexels/Unsplash YA Fiction Urban Short Reads 15 Post not marked as liked ©2020 by Life of Lyrics Music. Proudly created with Wix.com Life of Lyrics Music Contact@lifeoflyricsmusic.com 7732967700 Chicago, IL, USA

[becomewings]

I feel Taehyung is going to get invoved in the whole time travel thing with seokjin as he is the closest to knowing what is happening and also his dreams. What do u think?

Note: the following refers to fictional characters and events in BTS Universe.

Interesting idea! While I do think it’s in the realm of possibility that TaeHyung will be the first, or one of the first, to figure out what is happening with the loops, I personally don’t think it’s as likely that he will directly assist SeokJin’s time traveling. This is, in part, because I’m not sure if the “gift” of remembering the previous loops can extend to anyone else (beyond the dreams and fragments haunting TaeHyung and a few of the others), but also mostly because I don’t believe that SeokJin will openly allow for his help.

From the beginning, SeokJin has guarded his secret carefully. The Save Me webtoon presents SeokJin’s (many) early attempts at saving his friends. He tries to fix everything himself and fails when events keep spiraling out of his control, sparking his friends’ suspicions along the way. By the time loop(s) presented in The Notes 1, SeokJin has determined that he must guide his friends to save each other, essentially manipulating them from the shadows whenever possible. When he learns of TaeHyung’s nightmares that contain visions of previous failed loops, he does not take the opportunity to explain himself.

“Several days ago, he came to me and asked me about the dream he’d been having. ‘You know what it means, right?’ He pressed me for an answer, but I acted like I didn’t know. I said, ‘How could I know? It was just a dream.’ TaeHyung got upset and turned away. It wasn’t completely a lie. I didn’t know why TaeHyung had been having such a dream. But I did know how brutal it was. That’s why I couldn’t tell him the truth.’ — SeokJin, 22 May Year 22. The Notes 1.

SeokJin intends to confess something that night at the seaside cabin, but TaeHyung interrupts to demand if he’s talking about ratting them out to the principal and causing YoonGi’s expulsion. It’s unclear if this is the high school event SeokJin meant to confess, though he does acknowledge it as true. But when TaeHyung continues pressing him to reveal what else he is hiding, he refuses to yield any more information and a fight ultimately breaks out between them. (For more on that moment, see my latest post Rift.)

That is only one version of May 22. In an earlier variation, we know that TaeHyung jumps from the observatory platform into the sea before they make it to the cabin. Thanks to the choose-your-own adventure style Notes 2 excerpts posted on the official Smeraldo Books Twitter account from late July to early August, we now also know that there is another version in which TaeHyung follows SeokJin up the observatory. The wind on the tower seems strangely familiar to TaeHyung, and he almost tears up at the sight of SeokJin’s cold face. Per the audience’s popular vote, he decides to ask if SeokJin is helping them.

“‘I know you’re helping us. I don’t know how. I can’t explain it.’ I went on and on about awful things that nearly happened to us and how mysterious coincidences took place right before those horrible events to prevent them from happening. SeokJin pushed me away and said, ‘I don’t need anyone’s help, and I don’t help anyone.’” — TaeHyung, 22 May Year 22. The Notes 2 (SB excerpts: #3A, posted Aug. 2020).

I don’t want to dive into too many more details about SeokJin’s development because I’m tentatively planning a post for after I’ve read The Notes 2, but I’ll add briefly that it’s become apparent in the more recent album-released Notes (and now these Notes 2 previews) that these countless failures and repetitions are taking a toll on him. SeokJin’s motivations seem to have gradually twisted from saving his friends to self-preservation, particularly due to new knowledge of an accident that apparently has happened—will happen—on September 30. To me, this does not sound like a SeokJin willing to accept anyone’s help to reach his goal.

“I could only think of one thing: stopping the accident on September 30 and ending the loop. I was only moving toward that goal. Even if there was a problem with that process, or if someone was hurt or alienated, I couldn’t do anything about it. If I let myself linger on or be overwhelmed by those things, I would never achieve my goal. Even more important than saving everyone was that I myself was able to survive and escape. That was the lesson that the endlessly repeating loop had taught me.” — SeokJin, 11 April Year 22. The Notes: 7. Translation cr. @origamifirefly tw.

To wrap up, let’s consider TaeHyung's perspective. He is plagued by nightmares and visions of violence enacted onto others and by himself. He may have the best intentions for finding the answers to this mystery, but like SeokJin faces his own share of setbacks. His failures often drive members of their friend group apart (for example: they all go their separate ways after he fights SeokJin on May 22). And like the others, he participates in the lack of communication that harms them all.

But there is hope. Thanks to another entry from MotS:7, we do learn that TaeHyung and NamJoon have finally reunited by midsummer, as they have spent several weeks as of July 18 searching for something or some place in Songju based on signs from TaeHyung’s dreams. Since it came from one of his dreams, it is likely that they’re investigating something connected to the time traveling—whether they suspect that is what’s happening yet or not. I’m excited that these two found their way back to each other, but I’ll leave you with one last thought: they will never break free of the loop until they are all working together. Particularly in the case of TaeHyung’s search, another friend may have already had the answer. Because this is not the first time we’ve heard of a clover symbol like he saw in his dream:

“‘Did you find it?’ I drew closer to JiMin and asked. ‘Find what?’ JiMin sounded confused. ‘Your house.’ JiMin nodded. ‘I grew up in the orphanage right there.’ I pointed to a place beyond the railroad. ‘Do you see the supermarket in the direction of the river from the gas station where NamJoon works? Do you see the clover-shaped neon sign behind it? The orphanage is to the left of that neon sign. I lived there for more than ten years.’” — HoSeok, 16 May Year 22. The Notes 1.

Thank you again for submitting your question! This was fun to think about, and I hope it inspired some new ideas for you all too! If anyone has any additional questions, either about this topic or some other aspect of the BU, please send them in!

[blurrypetals]

Midnight Sun by Stephenie Meyer - blurrypetals review

originally posted aug. 12, 2020 - ★★★★☆

My O.G. shitlord lives. My relationship with Twilight is a long and complicated thing. Without getting into it too much, I kind of sort of fell in love with reading because of this series. I was in the seventh grade in 2007, when a friend of mine recommended the first book to me and, like many others of the time, I was instantly hooked. It was the biggest book I'd ever read by myself without the help of my mom reading it out loud like she did with Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Because of Twilight, I got into authors like Scott Westerfeld, Darren Shan, and, the granddaddy of all my favorite authors, Christopher Moore. The first book is still, to this day, the novel I've read the most times, sitting pretty at 5 whole times, which isn't even taking into the account the dozens of times I've skimmed the pages, memorizing the pages, the chapters titles... My enchantment with the series died a quiet death about a year and a half later, in 2008, when the final book in the series came out and, a few months after that, the movie adaptation came out, silencing just about any enthusiasm I might have had left in me for the series as a whole. That said, any time Stephenie Meyer has released something new, be it Twilight related or not, I've always picked it up. Apart from The Chemist, which I just haven't gotten to, I read the Bree book in 2009, I read the strange and incredibly ridiculous Life and Death in 2015, and I watched every movie adaptation as they came out, even though most of them brought me great pain. I pay respects to the roots my reading habits were born from and sometimes it's fun to revisit this ridiculous melodrama. So that all brings us to May 2020, right? Sort of! Another thing that killed my love of the series was the Great Midnight Sun Leak of 2008. When those first 12 chapters were leaked back then, I read them, and, besides The Host, I felt it was the best thing Stephenie had ever written. It was fun, Edward made for a more interesting protagonist. Its biggest problem was that it just wasn't finished. And now we're in 2020! One of the worst years on record and May hits us with what I consider to truly be a gift: We're finally getting Midnight Sun. It's finally finished. Our nostalgia fodder is on its way. So what do I think about it now that it's finally here? I fucking love it, man! Besides The Host, it is still the best thing Stephenie Meyer has ever written and it was an absolute joy to read. I think this book is kind of a genius move on Stephenie's part, as it inoffensively and canonically adds context and breathes new life into the first book. Twilight as a book is now better for having this book as a companion. I honestly wasn't sure I could ever bring myself to fangirl over anything Twilight-related ever again in my life, but my god the extra things, all the things Edward and the rest of the Cullens got up to when they weren't around Bella were all fucking great! There is a part earlier in the novel where Edward observes through his mind-reading powers that Ben and Angela each have crushes on one another but they don't really have the guts to ask the other person out, so in their Spanish class they have with Ben, Emmett asks Edward very loudly if he's asked Angela Weber out yet, and it gets Ben to finally ask Angela out and it's so fucking cute and the things it did to my heart made me think I was 12 again. There are also a lot of lovely flashbacks, including a scene about Edward's first Christmas with Carlisle that very nearly evoked a couple of tears from me. This book was honestly the medicine I needed for the ailment that is 2020 as a year. It also made me ache in a certain way I wasn't expecting, but it was because I enjoyed this book and its nostalgia that I began to wish for something I haven't wished for so deeply since I was 14 years old: I wished Breaking Dawn was a different story. Breaking Dawn is what dealt the heaviest blow to my enjoyment of the series, and my severe hatred of that book stems from many areas: the creepy half-vampire baby, the truly horrific pregnancy Bella goes through, the fact that it kind of sort of almost definitely condones pedophilia in a quiet yet still disturbing way, the utterly ridiculous conflict-non-conflict that is the final act of the book, and so much more. However, there is almost nothing I found more disappointing at the time than the fact that, several hundred pages spending time with these characters and their desires, Bella is turned into a vampire, and that never made sense to me, especially in Edward's story, where we are told time and time again that being a vampire in this world is basically torture for people like him and Rosalie, it never made sense to me that Bella ended up as a vampire. In all my months of theorizing how the series might end in the time between the releases ofEclipse and Breaking Dawn, I always expected for a cure for vampirism to be found and that would be how Edward and Bella would get their own small forever together. No awful pregnancy, no baby, no pedophilia, just a way for them both to get what they always wanted: to be together, have a life together. This isn't a review of Breaking Dawn, but the reason I bring this up is I kept hoping for this book, Midnight Sun to pull a Life and Death. For the uninitiated, this means that, like the crazy gender bender, Life and Death, which, despite being nearly identical to Twilight as far as the general plot goes, has a different ending from its forefather to tie up the idea of rewriting the entire series in this new gender-bent universe, and I found myself wondering whether Stephenie might be moving toward a similar change. This book deals very much with Edward's humanity. It's more than twice as long as Twilight and much of it is added content like the Christmas with Carlisle scene I mentioned before, but much of that extra time is spent learning how Edward thinks of himself, how he wants to be, what he wishes were different, and his desire to live a human life and, moreover, to let Bella live a human life, is extremely powerful. It makes the fact that she's turned in Breaking Dawn even more disappointing. There was a part about halfway through this book where Edward listens to Alice's mind as she has a vision of Bella's future as a vampire, and I genuinely felt crestfallen by the idea, even though I have known her fate for over a decade now. We get to see how Edward views Bella and, on top of that, we get to hear their conversations in much greater detail than before. It honestly was wonderful, finally getting to see what he sees in her, and I really do see it. Bella is actually really cute and funny in this book in all of the added content and I found myself appreciating her as a character in a way I had never done before. I would be excited and interested to read the rest of the series from Edward's point of view, especially if Jake Abel, who translated beautifully from an actor on the screen to an actor on an audiobook, returned as the narrator. I would really like to see the events of New Moon in particular through his eyes. He is a genuinely fun and interesting protagonist and I would relish in just about anything else Stephenie might feel like adding to his story. This was a really fun, melodramatic, and honestly really cute adventure. I'm truly delighted that Stephenie Meyer finally got to release it after not only the leak that happened in 2008, but also how, as soon as she decided to get back to this in 2015, E.L. James decided to release her own "first book told from the main guy's POV" book in Grey, delivering what I can only imagine to be a devastatingly demoralizing blow. She finally wrote the thing and it's pretty fucking good. Good on ya, Steph. Good on ya.

[ruiyuki-archives]

Star Tear AU - Alt. Timeline: Todoroki ver. [Part 1]

This is an AU I wrote on the todomomo discord server eons ago. Anything posted to this blog will be transcripts of old original work and not really edited, save for formatting. I have no guarantees if I will ever finish these AUs either so these will only be kept as an archive.

Original transcript posted to tdmm discord: Aug 2020

Momo ver. Alternate timeline: Todo ver. Part 1 || Todo ver. Part 2 || Todo ver. Part 3

Star tears in which Todoroki falls for Momo first.

shortly after the exam with Aizawa he doesn’t know what he’s feeling but just admires her strength and quick thinking

and him hanging out with Deku and Iida at lunch means Todo hears all the nice and good things Momo does when she and Iida to discuss class prez stuff

which intensifies this ??admiration?? and respect more

and he just?? Holds onto those feelings unable to figure out what they are until idk maybe holidays where 1A and 1B throw that holiday hotpot party

and Momos really cute lookin’ in that Santa hat she made with the festive turtleneck

and so that feeling inside Todo grows into something more??? bc "oh shit she cute".... and Todo’s blushing while looking at her from afar. Probably.

so Todo talks to Fuyumi abt it and Fuyumi’s like: “I think you like her Shouto”

and he writes to his mom abt it and Rei's like: “she sounds like a lovely girl Shouto”

and he texts Natsuo abt it and Natsu's like: “aw little bro has a crush”

but all the while this is happening, Momo's gotten closer with Iida over class prez stuff and hero stuff and everyone in 1A (read: mina and hagakure) think iimomo might be a thing???

ofc Momo denies it and making excuses politely like "no no ofc not we're being responsible class prez and vice prez" but she’s kinda stuttery while doing so, so no one buys it

and no ones brave enough to ask Iida except Ochako but he gives some straight laced answer like "i admire her work ethic and respect her as a hero and vice prez" but he also has some tint of blush across his cheeks

so idk fast forward to graduation where Todo's been holding onto these feelings for Momo since first year and iimomo is still very very likely

so its all cherry blossom petals flying around and congratulatory celebrations

and when Todo sees Momo amongst the sakura trees smiling like he's never seen before (bc they're finally officially heroes!!) he thinks she’s beautiful

but just as he's about to approach her, Iida approaches her and Todo can see she's blushing and he knows its really not good to eavesdrop on one of his best friends and the girl he likes

But... he's curious.

or so he lies to himself.

Ofc what he hears isnt what he ever wants to,,,,

cuz Iida just confessed to her.

and she feels the same.

and a star tear slips from Todo's eye as he walks away.

he stops mid step as he touches his cheek bc he didnt even realize he was crying

but what are these tears??? What’s happening?? He's never had these before bc even though Todo is an emotional crier, he doesn’t cry that often.. only when he is completely overwhelmed with emotion

so he has this dumbfounded expression staring at his fingers as these star tears are twinkling out of his eyes catching sunlight and sakura petals

until he hears "Youre a fucking idiot" from a few steps away

Bakugou. 

(Baku really likes eavesdropping ok its not the first time lol)

Baku: theyre called star tears.

Todo: You know what these are?

Baku: it happens when you like someone and that person doesnt like you back, idiot.

Todo: ... oh.

Baku: get that shit sorted or you'll go blind

(And for those who are curious, yes maaaayyybe Bakugou has a case of the stars in this timeline too, that’s how he knows. To whom? I'll let you decide bc honestly, I just want todobaku brotp bonding over unrequited love)

so now Todo thinks he might be fucked. One of his best friends confessed to the girl he likes too and she likes him back and now Todo has this disease that might make him go blind and might get in the way of heroing (which they've all secured post graduation positions by now) and what can he do about it?

nothing, says the doctor he sees. The disease is not curable and the only way to stop it is to have your feelings returned else you'll go colour blind and then completely blind, so he's told.

ya he's really fucked.

maybe its a good thing then, that he doesnt cry often. It makes it easier to ice over these feelings, freeze them in time with the memories of U.A.; of his last congratulations to her and her smile at the end of the ceremony an hour after he overheard that confession

maybe its another good thing that right after graduation, everyone went off to their own positions as side kicks with agencies across japan, focusing on heroing

but its 3 months after graduation that Iida tells Deku and Todoroki that he is seeing Momo when they meet up every Friday to catch up

its 6 months after graduation that its publicly announced in Hero Magazine that Ingenium and Creati are dating

its 9 months after graduation that he sees Iida and Momo attending the Hero Association's rising stars gala as a couple and are seated at the same table as them

(Bakugou is scowling at him across the table.)

Todo tries. He really does. To be happy for them.

but he's angry at himself that he can't be happy for them. That it saddens him to see Momo glowing under the ballroom lights but its not himself to make her shine like that, its Iida. That he sees she is the one to make Iida genuinely happy in the way his eyes light up when he smiles at her.

and all three times Todo goes home, lies down alone in his room, an arm slung across his forehead as the star tears leak from his eyes.

he starts to lose seeing colour at 12 months.

after 24 months he needs glasses for colour correction (and ironically gets a sponsorship with the brand. The fashion magazines print headlines for weeks "Hot-Cold Hero Shouto Fall Fashion! See page 7 spread for his newest spotted specks and turtle necks")

at 36 months Iida breaks the news. Iida's gonna propose to Yaoyorozu and wants him, Deku, and his brother to be his groomsmen

she said yes.

and a part of Todo washes away with the star tears flooding him room and twinkling against the tatami.

he tries to stay out of the wedding planning as much as possible. He'll go to the tuxedo fittings as requested and still keep up hearing the updates when seeing Iida and Deku for their weekly get together on Friday nights. 

But for anything involving Momo's presence, there will always be a "sorry i have a mission that week", "sorry im visiting my mom", "sorry Endeavor needs to see me about the agency"

... all excuses Bakugou knows, but the others pay no mind. They are rising heroes near the top of the billboard by now

month 48. Wedding day.

she's stunning. Gorgeous. A near goddess walking down the aisle on her big day.

but she's not walking down for him. No its for iida.

there was the ceremony, the cheers, the congratulations, the reception. Fairy lights around the dance floor and along the walls, champagne glittering after the sound of a cork

Todoroki stands off to against the wall as the night dies down, a glass in hand, watching the newly weds grace the dance floor.

someone slides up beside him, he feels the presence. Bakugou.

"She's beautiful isnt she?"

"Yeah."

. . .

a star tear falls from Todoroki's eyes, twinkle hidden among the fairy lights and champagne glitter.

she's beautiful, but maybe its a good thing I can't see

somebody said: what if she knows everything that had happened and the reason why he couldn't continue his career is bc of her?

me: ok you’re asking for it

Momo, 3 months pregnant with iimomo baby, announces with Iida the news to their friends

the soon to be parents want to choose godparents for the baby so Iida gets to choose the baby’s godmother and Momo gets to choose the godfather

and ofc along with the announcement Momo asks Todoroki to be the kid’s godfather

he can’t say no to her.

the same week later Todo and Momo's agencies are requested to deal with this one villain case while Ingenium's agency deals with another in another town (later turns out the cases were connected)

small talk, civil, very professional between Momo and Todo when they’re in the debriefing

at this point Todo's pretty much completely blind and uses some special contact lenses from Hatsume to help "see"

but the contact lenses can only do so much as to detect light movement and shadows and it reallllllllly doesnt work well when he's using his fire 

so Todo already had tossed around the idea of running away to the mountains like Roy did in the FMA 2003 ending, "mysteriously" retiring bc really his vision cannot keep up

until this last mission with Momo

and really its been nearly a decade now since they last worked together side by side (not since U.A. he thinks).. so just let the blind man be selfish one last time

and so smth smth missiom happens, Todo and Momo fighting side by side

but Momo senses there’s something off with Todo's movements? His reflexes are slower.. it doesnt seem like he's prediciting the opponents moves like he used to.. he's more so reacting and retaliating than attacking..

she chalks it up to that they havent fought side by side in a long time and his style must’ve changed and really, she doesnt know him anymore... not like she used to

smth smth 3 months pregnant Momo gets hurt, knocked unconscious for a bit

Todo saves her

and when she comes to, while Todo's holding her, star tears fall onto her cheek from Todo's eyes. 

She's shocked. Reaches up to gently graze a finger tip at his left cheek.

"Todoroki-san, these are?"

and again its like Todo didnt realize he was crying. He jerks away from her hand and brushes her off with "its nothing”. Changes the subject with "are you ok?"

Momo: yes.. i think so

Todo: and the baby?

Momo, sitting up: we're ok I think

Todo, moving away: good

the mission concludes and they meet up with Ingenium’s group to wrap up the two ends. Todo slips away before Iida and Momo and approach him

theres no activity from Todoroki for the next month

neither Iida, Deku or anyone else in 1A know where he went except the Hero Association's vague comment on "Hot Cold Hero Shouto has taken a sudden indefinite hiatus"

(Only Todo’s family knows and Endeavor asked the Association to say "hiatus" instead of "retirement" bc Enji wants to believe in his son making a comeback. He didnt stop Shouto from taking off)

and ofc Momo upon hearing this is so confused??? Her last mission with him was the last time she saw him and he was crying. Why was he crying? Strange star tears twinkling and landing on her cheeks? What even is that phenomenon?

its too many questions and ofc Momo's gonna investigate. For the sake of her friend.

so she digs up all the texts she can find on star tears. Internet search all the possibilities. Consults the doctors at the hospital. Even asks Tenya if Todoroki has been acting strangely during their weekly catch ups.

but Tenya tells her Todoroki hasnt been the the meet ups since after their wedding

so she asks anyone in their pro hero circle of associates she can think of. Tsukiyomi, Burnin', heros from his agency, anyone she can think of that has worked with Todoroki before and could comment on his behaviour

no body knows. No body noticed anything different either. Sure there were some off days but the Hot Cold Hero Shouto was always on his game being one of the top 3 heroes on the billboard charts

she searches and searches, splitting time interviewing colleagues and researching the possible star tears phenomenon

until eventually her search takes her to...

Bakugou.

Of course.

Momo, pleading: please Bakugou, you know something about him dont you?

Bakugou, who at this point had been very careful trying not to get cornered knowing her investigation: save it pony tail, you’re about to have a baby. Go have people harass you about that brat in your oven instead of harassing other people

Momo, nearly begging: please. You and I both know he's strong and a good hero that would not suddenly retire. Whatever he is doing, he might need help.. please tell me Bakugou.

... theres something about pregnant women that you cant say no to.

Bakugou, relenting: tch. The half ass is somewhere in Yokohama

and thats all she needs nearly running waddling (as fast as a pregnant woman could) out the door

Bakugou, calling out after her, still reluctant: when find that half ass, i suggest you throw him a gift. Literally. Throw it at him. He deserves it.

she finds him along the port, watching the sunset in Yokohama (its really not that hard to find someone with heterochromia and two tone hair in a city, especially if youre a hero that knows what methods heroes will use to go incognito)

and for some inkling of a feeling, Momo takes Bakugou's advice. She has a carton of strawberry milk in hand.

Momo, a few feet away from him: Todoroki-san, it's been a while.

Todo, turning his head in her direction: Yaoyorozu...?

Momo, sadly smiling: the sunset is beautiful here isnt it?

Todo, brows furrowing: .. sure. Yaoyorozu what are you doing here--

Momo, interrupting him: --i brought some snacks. Strawberry milk, you liked this while we were in school right? Catch.

she tosses it at him.

he tries to reach out.

But he'es completely off. And misses

Momo, sad: Todoroki-san. You're blind, arent you?

Todo, guilty: ah.

Momo, tearing up: will you please tell me?

he still can say no to her and confesses his story

and when he's finished telling the tale of star tears, the stars above are twinkling too

she's crying and choking and sobbing through tears and its intensified by baby Iida with pregnancy hormones

But the last thing she manages to croak out at the very least is still wholly her

She apologizes

“Im so sorry Todoroki- san. I cant love you that way.”

“I know.”

END NOTES:

red is the last color Todoroki wanted to lose because it reminds him of Momo

during missions, as long as he could see her, “that’s ok” he thought. she is the only one he sees in color. that is okay with him

to him, Momo is his shining star. And there’s something tragically poetic of him losing his sight to the stars if its for his shining star Momo

He leaves the last stars in a tiny little jar like those paper stars as a gift for her with just the words on a note "goodbye Momo" the day after she finds him in Yokohama

Momo has the jar of stars forever on her bedside and looks at them with this melancholy expression. Baby Iida grows up and asks mom: "what is that jar of stars?" 

Momo responds: "a gift from someone that was blinded by love"

Bakugou in this timeline had a case of star tears too but I'd like to think he got his feelings requited so he never went blind to contrast Todo

So thats why Baku is (begrudgingly) sympathetic to Todo cuz he thinks: “that could’ve been me”

The ending shot of a blind Todoroki in a dark room, all alone, eyes closed, thinking back to Momo's shining smile from UA surrounded by star light with a sad smile on his face and it fades to black

> archives masterpost

[peachymess]

Hello, 2020!

Every New Years, I write a post reflecting on the year that’s gone, and talking about what I plan for the coming year.

I’ve spent like an hour writing one such post already, titled “goodbye 2019”. But... after writing up the ending year, in an attempt to remember... I realized it’s nothing but a bummer. This has been my hardest year since 2017. I’m in a very bad place. And I’m exhausted. And all the small joys I’ve had this year, are drowning deep deep beneath an ocean of shit. And now that I remember, I don’t see the point in dedicating more time to this year. It’s over in a few hours, and honestly good riddance. (Side note, the people have been great! Thank you to all my friends, I truly do love you! Thank you for all the good things we’ve shared in 2019).

So I’m skipping my yearly remembering session. Instead, I’ll jump straight to what 2020 has in store for me:

Naive as I am, I am always feeling good about the coming year, on New Years. I say this every day, but I mean it: this year will be our year! December 2018 me and my brother made a bet to see who could finish a first draft for a book first. I wasted all of 2019, but 2020 will be the years. Know why? Because I’m finally learning to set limits and draw lines. I won’t overfill my plate with other obligations this year. My only real New Years goal this time around is this: to finish that damn draft.

I’ve struggled to figure out what to focus on, drawing or writing. It’s hard to let one go over another. But I just have to. And I’ve come to the conclusion that finishing a book is one thing that I actually need to do. It’s been my dream since I was a kid. Drawing has come and gone, and while I aspire to ever grow my skills, I don’t have that one big measurable goal for it. I’ll always just chase skills what drawing is concerned. But I will never have that one big goal that I either reach or not, with it. I’ll never “reach” anything with drawing, I’ll always just strive (not in a bad way, but still, I need to feel like I’ve achieved something soon...)

... I need to finish this book. So for 2020, that’s my goal. I’ve spent the last few days planning my coming year, and I’ve set a plan:

JAN-FEB: mapping out the plot.

MAR: writing up the chapter formula

APR-MAY-JUN-JUL-AUG: write!

In other words, if I manage to follow my schedule, I’ll finish my first draft come September.

It’s still quite an undertaking. Especially for a first draft virgin like myself. But if I just keep lifting this project up to first priority, I know I’ll do it.

... yes, this means I’ll draw much less in 2020. There are a lot of amazing artists out there, so I know me taking a step back won’t amount to a big loss anywhere. There won’t be a shortage of art due to my absence. Not a single fandom will be left without a content creator (except, perhaps my OTP porukoru). It’s as much a depressing thought as it is a comfort; of nothing depends on me, I won’t feel bad for stepping off. I’ll use that knowledge to try and quench my itching desire to provide.

However. It’s been a big dream of mine to open commissions some day. I’ve been too scared to do it so far... but depending on how my writing is going, I’m considering opening up a few slots during the summer - if I feel like I’m able to finish a few arts and still finish my book on time.

And once I’m done with my first draft in September, I’ll assess where I stand. I’m really excited to see where the year has taken me by then, but if the stars align for it, I am planning to open up for commissions that fall.

Aside from all that, I have a wish to read more Norwegian literature this coming year. I’m excited.

2019 may have been a terrible year... but that doesn’t mean anything now that it’s over; 2020 will be great. I hope you guys are excited too.

Happy new year everyone. Thank you for everything good, and may all your coming projects go well! 💖 Happy celebrating!

[clearrevelationstarot]

1st Reading 7/4/20 (& Tumblr post!): PART 1:

Clear Revelations Tarot:

RE:  Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse (July 4th/5th; July 7th) & Summer Solstice Reading:

INTRO: Hi Everyone! There’s lots of diff. astrological changes happening rt now, at the same time as we move into Summer 2020, …  Because of this, I used various pathways to look at the information re: the things that are happening around us during this timeline, for this reading not just Tarot. I did a very detailed reading (Tarot), & also used a few ‘Wisdom Oracle’ decks AND a rune stone! • There are also many planetary energy shifts going on right now, & this also plays into how it all affects us, & in our world today.. (Re: our planet Earth w Covid; how these energies will be affecting us as a people, & what dynamic we will or won’t be standing for; & what to expect in the months ahead) =

• What was profound was, out of 11 original cards (that are in this Celtic Cross), 7! of them were Higher Life Lesson cards, (=the 22 Major Arcana tarot cards that correlate to different life lessons, we as people can experience at different points in our soul’s lifetime.)  Readings rarely ever happen to have this many Higher Life Lesson (Major Arcana) cards, within 1 reading. = I feel this means as a humanity, we asked for these lessons to occur specifically at this time, in order to spiritually grow as a species.. or as a humankind.. (not man or womankind, but both together as well).   •• NOTE:  Usually when Higher Life lesson cards show up, these life lesson cards have no time periods associated w them; or there’s supposed to be no timeline on them; & they all occur at the same time- From this “slice of life” reading, this is showing why so many people are feeling overwhelmed right now; since these Major Arcana cards, always speak about higher truths, & bring up issues RE: where we all are in life vs. where we feel we need to be OR, where we want to be… a LOT to be thinking about all at once…

• My question was asking for clarity for all humans (the collective) & what we were to expect in the months ahead, re: the pandemic, our lives re: work, our concerns re: survival, our world, & to show us anything we may need to know… (for our near future).   So, let’s get into the reading: ———————————————————————————————— THE READING 7/4 - 7/7/2020: Picture #1:

• So, I always show an overall card for the reading, & this one wanted to come out for the reading (at the top, the 1 picture of the Tarot card with the stones), & that showed up as “The Sun” card, which is for the time of Summer leading up to & esp. in the time of Leo (July 23- Aug. 22 ).

• So, first of all, imho, many truths that have been hidden which started back w 2 Higher Life Lesson cards showing up in this reading: the original sign for “The Moon” energy, & also Re: The “High Priestess” card below (both ruled by the sign of Pisces, which is Feb. last yr.), but shown in the cards ahead, these secrets will be coming out into the light, definitely much, much more (it feels) by end of August..

These truths feel like info. that was hidden by our Govt. & other countries, & also info about health concerns. (The actual “RX sign” per se, also has shown up  as a specific symbol in the “2 of cups” card & on “The Chariot” card as well- that I’ll explain as we go in chronological order, in more detail..) ——————— Picture #2 (general overall pic) & Picture #3 (showing specifics):

• The first 2 cards are the “5 of cups”=The ‘Present Energy’ surrounding the people now; & then the “2 of wands” reps the ‘Present Environment’ position. • The 5 of cups is dismay, sadness, working through grief at what’s been lost, in the middle of a change (the “#5”) that has cost us dearly (the 3 cups that can be seen that are spilt in the foreground..), but there are 2 more cups, of the full 5 of cups, that are okay (that are behind the cloaked person on the card.) = It means if we just turn around, some things can still be salvaged. We just need to be in the mindset to see what may be coming, as a new perspective.

• The 2 of wands is the present environment & what’s your focus (& that correlates again w a period of 2=around 2 months ahead- around mid/end August til the beg. of Sept.); saying we all will be searching/weighing the best course to take, w regards to work, or any creative ideas we are wanting to manifest, even dreams..  We are thinking of the best way to start those projects, or it’s a new chance to let people know what other talents you may have - but we’re all putting ourselves out there.. & that includes putting our truths &/or our opinions of how we feel about the changes we are wanting &/or speaking out about, (protesting) as a united people.. • I always find it interesting he’s actually holding a globe in his hand as he looks out.. as we all are thinking of the global impact of what’s happening w our world now…

• The next card has the Higher Life lesson card of “Judgement” (#20) coming across our path..  (placement) • As earlier mentioned, these Life Lesson cards have no time periods associated w them, but in this instance, again it wants us to know it’s happening now, thus numerology-wise, the same period of 2.  As a species, all of humanity, esp. people that have not behaved honestly, will be under a judgement of sorts from above. (G-d; Higher Spirit; etc); - People that were “sleeping” to the problems happening amongst us (factions within our society, (ie) racism, hate, greediness, dishonesty within separate govts., etc.) will be awoken to these issues, (ie.) Here, Archangel Gabriel is blowing his horn to make this happen; He also blows his horn to aid those in need of help, & to others who need a ‘wake-up call’..) & how this will all be played out is starting now, & continuing to culminate, esp. at the 2 month pt. from now.. (til Sept.).. ——————- Picture #4:

• I clarified the “Judgement” card, (for more details) & another Higher Life lesson, the “Justice” card showed up! (#11, factoring down to a period of.. you ask?..2!) • This card, came out, to tell us, these “judgements” will specifically play out in the courts, deal w ‘good vs evil’ scenarios, & finally the beginning of a spiritual  “Karmic Justice” of sorts.. laws to try & get the dishonesty of Trump (on paper, or proof of his illegal activities) out there further; more specific Laws may even be passed about Covid - in order to try & not have people continue to contribute to the rising number of deaths. (By just running around, without masks, & not social distancing etc.) • Very sorry to say, but specific laws as a Nation, may need to be passed to keep people in line more, but it feels like this will be debated in the courts further. After the 2 month pt., I feel we’ll have to re-stay inside because people that didn’t believe the facts about this virus, will now be forced to see its’ effects..   only necessary jobs out there will be the ones allowed to work.. ——————— Refer back to Picture #2:  (Overall picture, for these next 4 cards, the “3 of Pents”, “The High Priestess”, & “The Fool”, & “The Death” card):

• The next card is the card at the top of the Celtic Cross, the “3 of Pents” card. This position reps the Goals position. • The “3 of Pents” is the best case scenario after everything that is going on right now= it is a card that usually reps working with others, sometimes in groups, and a feeling of coming together. Also, nuts & bolts speaking, it can represent a job or employment of some sort. Workwise, this is hopeful; but I feel it has a deeper meaning of us all as a human race, to work together to overcome this health situation right now. (Covid).

• The next card is the card at the bottom of the Celtic Cross, “The High Priestess” (#2). This position represents Difficulties in the Past.   • This card reps the astrological sign of Pisces, so from back in Feb. what we were being told, or not told: I mentioned this a little bit earlier, but in detail, she represents things that are not yet revealed, or things that may have been hidden from us. Because of where this card landed position-wise, it feels like it’s saying this is all the info. We still don’t know the full story on, re: how our President has handled Covid, & other world issues involving politics. I feel these issues will be coming more and more into the light, esp. in these Summer months. (from now through August, & into Sept.)..

• The next card has the Higher Life Lesson of “The Fool” (#0). This position (to the left)  is the Last of the Present. • This card reps the astrological sign of Aquarius (Jan. 19-Feb. 18th); this “Fool” card correlates to a person or situation taking a leap of faith into the void of the unknown. This is the timeline of when everything started re: our health situation, and all of the independent searching for the truth re: the pandemic, & all of the human issues this brought up between all of us as a people, & striving for equality for all mankind. The reason I say this, is because Aquarius is ruled by the planets Uranus & Saturn, & this placement of the planets right now, is supposed to have us looking at what Aquarius himself represents: he’s a human rights advocate: & demands freedom, liberty & equality. But Aquarius also is ruled by the planet Saturn which is in direct opposition to Uranus. Saturn is the planet of orthodoxy & tradition. (ie) He’s cold, selfish, conservative & fearful of change.   So.. because of the alignment of these planets right now, the upheaval & turmoil forecast by their radically worldview has arrived, just as expected.

• The next card has the Higher Life Lesson of the “Death” card. (# 13). This position  (to the right) represents the first of the future. Meant to bring radical change, Death represents a major transformation of sorts! This can represent renewal, but this transformation is supposed to purge the personality and the physical body at this time. The renewal is supposed to be so devastating that the new form (of us as humans) will bear no resemblance to the old form. This was supposed to occur so that it perpetuated growth & stimulated creation. “Old attitudes & and behavioral patterns must be destroyed, & purging them may be painful and uncomfortable.” —————————— Picture #5:

• I clarified the “Death” card & another Higher Life Lesson, the “Lovers” card (#6) showed up! • This card paired with the Death card, is asking us to bring change to how we treat each other here on Earth. Archangel Raphael is showing up, looking over Adam & Eve, in the Garden of Eden (where it’s referencing where Life first began), vs. where we are at now.  In the best outlook of this pairing of 2 cards, we can see this as a major transformation will be occurring between all peoples- a new way of looking at each other- a new understanding & openness; in the more serious look at this paring, it’s saying there still will be further loss incurred re: our loved ones, (a loss of life) due to the transformations happening re: the pandemic.  

NOTE: Again, normally I wouldn’t project a time line w a Higher Life Lesson card, but in this instance of the majority of Higher Life Lesson cards, it feels like this will be from now til a period of 4-6 weeks from now. (taking us to a little later than the middle of August). —————————- These next placements are the future lineup cards, going vertically upwards. Here, I laid the initial card, with the clarified cards in the same pictures:

Picture #6:

• The next card has the “2 of Cups” in the position of the Future Environment. Going in chronological order timeline -wise, this feels like it takes us from now, to a period of 2  from middle of August (beg. of Sept).  The “2 of Cups” card represents all significant pairings or partnerships of people. This refers to close friends, family, partners in business, or creative ventures, etc.  As a Higher Life Lesson, this card shows up to either show us of a close union coming in, or it asks us to make a choice between 2 types of people, that represent 2 archetypes in your mind: positive loving partners, or negative, destructive partners. I feel this is referring to how we will be treating each other as a people. (& asking which way will be acceptable in the future..) •Also, interesting to see, the 2 of cups has the “RX” (health sign for Doctors; health issues symbol, etc.) in between the 2 people in the card- so it’s all about health between all peoples we are having to deal with, & that this pandemic is here for a while longer… 


• I clarified the “2 of Cups” card, & another Higher Life Lesson card, “The Empress” (#3) came out! • I thought this was interesting! It literally was saying, we need (as a people) to take care of, or love the Earth more! (since “The Empress” reps literally Mother Earth. We will be asking the question of how are we going to be doing this in a more substantial way in the near future.. • She also symbolizes us as inspired and enlightened adults, & whose emotions are rich w love & aliveness.  She also is describing a period of time creatively, that there’s a high level  (your own deep resource) of inspiration within, at work, or for a certain project. • The astrological sign that is correlated to “The Empress” card also is Libra, so I feel we’re going in chronological order here. This will be around the timeline of Libra (Sept. 23- Oct. 23rd). ———————- Picture #7:

• The next card was the Higher Life Lesson card of “Strength”(#8) card in the position of Influences from the Outside. • Here, I feel the “Strength” card is asking us to have the strength to get through this next period of things that may be affecting us and how it will affect our outlook coming in (in the near future).  Also, we’ll be asked to use direct force to overcome any weaknesses, & can signify a fight between 2 aspects of yourself: the weaker & lower self, and the stronger, higher one.  “It’s time to let go of this lower instinct & you must overpower your own negativity.” • Because this has to do with the “Influences from the Outside”, I feel we will have to be very careful to watch our attitudes towards others at this time; Also this can be speaking about all of us seeing these aspects, as it applies to our Gov’t right now, & asking which side (the negative or positive side) will win.

• I clarified the “Strength” card, & got these 3 cards, which will be a quick combination /summation of what they mean: (kind of like looking at a string of movie cells together, that tell a story…) : • First, the Knight of Cups clarified “Strength”, & clarified again, & the card “The Devil” (#15) showed up. This feels like there will be an attempt at an offer that will be made to or by the person or thing representing “The Devil”,  here.   • “The Devil” is another Higher Life lesson card which represents a toxic individual or a toxic situation or behavior that’s needing to be pointed out, revealed finally, &/or then overcome.   (ie) possibly any lies that were told re: Gov’t or the pandemic, will be majorly exposed more, & decided upon. • I clarified again, and the “6 of Cups” card showed up; this usually reps something from the past- this feels like this toxic behavior, health scenario etc. was looked at in the past, but will be re-looked at in fuller detail, &possibly with some kicking and screaming, exposed. • Also, because there’s 2 cups signs in this line-up, I feel it will be during a time of a Water sign, & from the 6 cups, it could possibly be 6 wks later, (from the beg. of Libra) which takes us to ~Nov. 4th… or around Scorpio (Oct. 24th - Nov. 21st). —————————— Picture #8:

• The next card was “The Moon:” card, clarified, then the “Queen of Swords”,  clarified again, to the “Temperance” card.  This position reps the Hopes & Fears. • So, “The Moon” is the fear that we will not find out any enlightening information, as we were the last time from a year ago, since this card reps the astrological sign of Pisces. (Feb. 19-March 20th).   • BUT, the “Queen of Swords” represents cutting through any BS, and making sure that only the truth is told in this situation & the people involved that are responsible for it. She also can rep lawyers &/or judges, or courts. Another sign that these huge changes in our society will all be taken very seriously. • ”The Temperance” card clarified with “Queen of Swords”.  Next, the Higher Life Lesson card of “Temperance” means “allowing the passage of time to be a healer & a balancer.”; This card reps equal shares of a liquid substance going back & forth until moderation is achieved & extreme conduct eradicated. • I feel it means there will be a major balance finally re: all issues we as a human race have been fighting for lately; hopefully laws put in place to offset anything illegal that was done to us as a country &/or lies that were told to get away with whatever was trying to be gotten away with.   • This next thing, is just a feeling I get, but because “Temperance”  reps the astrological sign of Sagittarius (Nov. 22- Dec. 21st), I feel we are continuing our timeline onwards. —————————— Picture #9:

• The next & last cards in the reading, representing the Outcome is: (again, as if looking at a story playing out here): ”The Chariot” is the last outcome card. This is a Higher Life Lesson card too, representing “there is nothing you can do to hurry the outcome of a situation.” So, patience is required here. The lesson is no matter what you do, you cannot alter the course of the vehicle within which you ride. “The Chariot” reps being taken as fast as you can toward your destination, but you can’t make it go any faster. Though it tells you ‘everything is taken care of’, you must not be fooled into inactivity. “Use the time well as you wait. Gaining distance from the predicament of your life, reassessing it from the vantage of a solo journey.” • Once again, the only other card in the deck (“The Chariot” here) that also has the same “RX” symbol as the “2 of Cups” did, we are at the last row of cards of the reading, and the health situation is still going to be present in our lives, so this is interesting to note.

• I clarified with many cards, & the last lineup of cards in the reading formed this story: • “Knight of Pents” clarified “The Chariot” & because pents represent Earth signs (astrologically), & the next Earth sign after Sagittarius is Capricorn, I feel this will take us to the end of the year. (time of Capricorn=Dec. 22-Jan 19th). This card also reps a standstill during this time, since the “Knight of Pents” is a slow or no moving Knight.

• Next, 9 cups (9) means not sitting on our past laurels, but trying to head towards our wish fulfillment or what’s best for all (all people); this then will lead towards another Higher Life Lesson “The Hermit” (#9) card, standing for A Huge Spiritual Life lesson (usually these are asked for, by our soul); this is how our soul evolves.; Anyway, this is clarified by another (9), the “9 of Pents”, which usually stands for breaking out and being independent, on our own, working on being self-sufficient, & wiser.

• NOTE:  At this point, because of the paused Knight, & then 3 Nine cards in a row: (9), (#9- Hermit) (9), I definitely feel there will still be the temporary halting or ending to our goals moving forward; we will be at a pause still…

• Clarified this again, & got the Higher Life Lesson card of “The Tower”, where life seems like at this point that there still will be disruptive changes occurring, as if the rug is still being pulled out from underneath us- still more unexpected changes coming… not just in America, but on a world level.

• I clarified again, & the “Queen of Wands” was the last card. This energetic Queen, to me gives us hope that we will still be putting ourselves out there, since she’s known as a fiery, and passionate Queen, who works hard, & doesn’t give up easily. So this is hopeful. ——————

• Lastly, when there isn’t an ending timeline to a story, I always look to the overall energy of the reading on the bottom of the deck, and continue to look at the story there, to get more info: Picture #10:

• So, as a quick lineup, this overall energy started with the Higher Life Lesson of “The   Magician” (#1) who is known to be the “Manifestor” of the Universe.  He continues to explore all ways that he can do that in order to eventually succeed.

• This leads to the “4 of Pents” - a card that shows us holding onto what we have, & trying to continue to build foundations.  (possibly 4 months into the year…=April)

• The “King of Wands” continues the energies of seeking out more stability in our work lives. (This may be starting up again around the time of Aries (March 21st- April 19th & correlates with the “4 of Pents” here). I know this seems far away, but it definitely will be after it shifts into 2021. This timeline may be where it continues to be more & more positive news…leading to more hope.

• The next card clarified is the “6 of Swords”. I feel we’ll get news of further help finally, and be lead to a safer environment, perhaps towards more healing. This feels like during the time of Gemini= the next time of air (May 21st- June 21st)

• Then, the “Page of Cups” , I feel we’ll hear good news, like a vaccine for the pandemic; this could perhaps take place during a time of a water sign (the next one chronologically at this point is Cancer= June 22- July 22nd).

• Then, the Higher Life Lesson “The Wheel of Fortune” (correlated to the freedom-expanding planet Jupiter), shows us that Destiny & Karma are turning in your favor. Expect some information of good luck to come your way, and for the forces of nature to finally turn in your favor. “This is not an action card, but rather, the message of this card is that to ‘just wait for it’ because your karmic reward is on its way.”  This wheel reps the 4 fixed astrological signs: Aquarius, Taurus, Scorpio & then Leo, so if we continue chronologically, perhaps this is referring to the time of Leo again. (By next Summer, we as a society may be back to a new normal type of life, still being careful, but slowly with more and more people getting the vaccine..?) I am hoping this is a distinct possibility of our future. Let’s hope it’s even sooner!!

• Because… the very last card is the “3 of Cups”, and this is a celebratory card, where friends gather together to joyously & be with one another. So this feels like we will have a lot to be celebrating by this point! ——————-

• OK, this definitely was detailed, but was more of a teaching way of looking at tarot, for anyone that wanted to read this in this way.  This was just to share the details of this profound time that’s happening in the world, and thought it was important enough to “get down to the nitty gritty” with anyone that was interested.

•• Thanks for checking this out! My next blogs will be more succinct, and probably not about the Earth & what we’re facing right now… since we are still in the midst of working all of this out on the 3D plane!  :-)!!  ••

•• The rest of the Oracle cards, & Rune stone (& cool pics)  I also got referring to this same question to add onto this reading, (abt the same question) will be added into my next Blog for you all!!  So, thanks for checking back tomorrow, & also for your patience as I learn more about being on Tumblr!! :-)!!

••Plse. come to PART 2 of this initial reading- Now posted on 7/12/20! Thank you!  :-)!