#but still. what i’ve been seeing in the past few years in general doesn’t lead me to believe that swifties can handle nuance

[an-ivy-covered-summer]

not to be a jerk, but every day i wake up and feel thankful that taylor is not dating a baseball player. i know i wouldn’t be so patient with all the godawful discourse and takes i see on social media if it were about my favorite thing in life lol

[breeyn]

An essay rebutting the “bad writing” claims of s2 ofmd. Spoilers herein.

I’ll preface this with saying you’re obviously allowed to like and dislike whatever you want. I am in no way opposing that. And your reasons are your reasons. Have at. (Also - this is a collection of observations from the past few days, I’m not calling anyone out)

I AM going to rebut the idea that season two was poorly written and lost the spirit of what the show is about.

My favourite movie of all time is Empire Strikes Back. It’s been my favourite movie since I was four. I’m pretty sure it’s a fave of David Jenkins, too. He and Taika have made absolutely no attempt to hide their love of all things 80’s - Prince, the Princess Bride, Kate Bush, Star Wars, etc.

I have ancient video tapes (that I can’t play because who has a vcr) where Lucas is interviewed by Leonard Maltin? Malkin? I dunno. Who cares. Maltin asks him about the Star Wars (original trilogy) story arc. Lucas says “in act I, you introduce all the characters. In act II, you put them in a situation they can’t get out of, and in act III, they get out of it.”

That’s how it works. This is how stories and literary structures work.

Of course you’re not satisfied with season two. You’re not supposed to be.

The arguments I have read on why s2 loses the spirit of s1 is because no one heals. No one learns anything. No one moves forward properly. The person who makes the biggest move towards healing dies. The two main characters end the show doing the exact fucking thing they had promised themselves and each other they wouldn’t do. Our romantic lead still doesn’t understand his value or make any headway on addressing his tragic flaw. It makes no goddamn sense.

My gremlins in weird: it’s not supposed to. In Act 2, EVERYONE LOSES. This is how it goes.

I’ve read a lot of people saying “but this felt like a series finale, not a season finale.” We all know that outside politics play a part here, the strikes make everything precarious. I remember the last writers strike. It destroyed tv for fifteen years. Anyone remember Pushing Daisies? Some of y’all have never had your fave show cancelled with zero resolution for the characters and it shows.

Daddy J did us a kindness. He softened the blow of a tough season. After the brutal cliffhanger of s1, he gave us a little softness and hope. All those things you’re mad aren’t resolved? It’s because THE STORY ISN’T OVER.

No one on earth thinks “stuff all your trauma into a box and ignore it” is good advice. A way to actually live. This show did not have enough screen time to throw out dialogue for no reason. There was foreshadowing in s1 for s2, and there is foreshadowing for s3 in s2. This is a well-crafted story by very smart people who care very much for these characters. There is zero chance Frenchie explained the box in his head for no reason. The reason people have not resolved their trauma and growth is because they haven’t done it *yet*.

And friends - it’s not thinly veiled. They straight up fucking tell us what they’re doing.

Luke Skywalker spends the first two movies fucking up and desperately trying to prove himself and just generally being an idiot. Sound familiar? He ignores the lessons he is supposed to be learning to go off and do what he feels like doing, and loses fucking badly. At the end of Empire, Han is gone, Luke and Leia wave goodbye to the Falcon that has Lando and Chewy - the rest of their crew - aboard. Everyone has lost everything they care about. Vader is undefeated. Yoda is pissed. Nothing is resolved.

You see where I’m going?

If you think I’m stretching this too far, welp, when Ed tells Stede he loves him - the climax of the finale - Stede quotes Han fucking Solo. Like - *it’s right there*. The story structure. The reason everything is unresolved.

So yeah. They wave goodbye to their ship because they have wounds to heal (like Luke’s hand). The people aboard the ship have things to find. Ed and Stede have *not* learned their lesson about whims and how not to be like Anne and Mary. It’s not stupid that they’re doing the same thing, and it’s not pointless that we were shown Anne and Mary. It’s all relevant.

The resolution comes in Act 3. None of these people are done. The story is far, far from over. And just in case the studios want to be dicks about it, David Jenkins was lovely enough to not repeat my enduring heartbreak over Pushing Daisies.

Thank you, @davidjenks 🖤

[suzuran777]

Review: Ooe -Zenpen- (Adelta)

The first part of Adelta's new BL visual novel "Ooe" was finally released on the 25th last month! The second part is scheduled to be released in winter, but the first part was already so good I highly recommend playing it. I’ve been waiting for this game for a long time and also wrote some general information/theories about the game on this blog some years ago, as well as a review of the trial version. I won't mention any big plot-related spoilers, so if you’re waiting for an English version or are just curious what the game is about, you can still check it out!

Synopsis 30th year of the Showa era (1955), our protagonist Oosaki works for a small detective agency and one day receives a strange request from a client. He's asked to attend a memorial service on behalf of his client, which will be held on the remote island of Ooejima. During his stay on the island, a series of strange events happen, and the ship that was supposed to pick them up never arrives. The organizer who invited them is not there, and shortly afterwards they also lose all contact with the outside world. Stranded on this ominous island, ten people unravel the mystery of their shared pasts and the death of the actress An Ooe.

This version of the game focuses on three different routes, Ariake, Shimbashi and Aomi. Similar to previous Adelta games, you play all of the routes in a pre-decided route order, and with each route you finish, a new choice will show up allowing you to proceed to the next route. As I mentioned in one of my previous blog posts, each character was assigned one earthly desire/mental factor that kind of describes the character, so I will also include this again below. Now I've played the game I know that these factors are definitely not their only personality trait, but some parts of it definitely show up in the story eventually.

Ariake -  Disregard (Anapatrapya 無愧): A mortician who likes helping out those in need. After injuring his dominant hand, he has been receiving a lot of help from others. He's immediately very fond of Oosaki and wants to follow him everywhere. His mental factor pretty much indicates that he doesn't consider his own actions 'bad'.

Shimbashi -  Stinginess (Mātsarya 慳): A screenwriter who speakes in a rather strange way, combining overly-polite speach and insults. When he first meets Oosaki, he doesn't seem to trust him at all and doesn't want to tell him anything. His mental factor refers to him only wanting to satisfy his own desires, and doesn't intend to share anything with others.

Aomi -  Envy (Īrṣyā 嫉): A quiet music teacher who doesn’t talk a lot, and when he does speak, it’s limited to short sentences only. He doesn't like small talk and sometimes when Oosaki asks him something Aomi simply ignores him. His mental factor doesn't need much explanation, but even though it's envy I must say that he's not the overly-jealous type (?). It kind of refers to something more specific in his route which I can't really mention without spoiling.

I don't think you really need a guide for this game as it's pretty obvious when new choices unlock, just start a new game after finishing the first route and you'll see! Ariake does have an alternative ending scene, so during your second playthrough don’t immediately pick the choice that leads to Shimbashi’s route, and return to Ariake’s route one more time. Afterwards you can proceed as usual. Sometimes a few choices pop up, but selecting the wrong choice has no consequences and you’ll just be re-directed to the choice menu. The wind chime sound effect indicates which one is the correct choice, but I kind of enjoyed seeing everyone’s nervous reactions while falsely accusing them of something, so I recommend that too since there really are no consequences. By the way, important items are easy to notice because of their red color, like the record in the record player you can see below. Same goes for any text written in red, it might become relevant later (maybe even in part 2).

Introduction to the story Oosaki lives in a boarding house in Suga, a short walk from Hiratsuka station near Kamakura. His boss Shinkiba, who runs the detective agency, informs him about a request he received from a client. The client, a man who calls himself Shizuma Daiba, asks Oosaki to attend the memorial service of actress An Ooe on his behalf. According to Daiba, it was his father who received the invitation, however he fell ill shortly afterwards. Oosaki assumes that the person who invited him is a relative of the actress. Even though Oosaki never met her, he remembers reading news about her death. which shocked him because she was quite young and died by setting herself on fire. Even though it's a rather strange request and Shinkiba warns Oosaki, he still decides to travel to Ooejima. The island belongs to the Izu Island group and is located near Hachijojima. Originally, it was used as a military base during the Second World War, however after this it became uninhabited. Even though he has never been there, Oosaki knows about the island because his grandma who raised him was originally from this island, and he always felt like he'd travel to the island some day.

On his way to the island, he meets one of the other main characters in this game, Ariake, who’s also travelling to Ooejima for the memorial service. He’s surprised to find out Ariake’s grandmother is also from the island. After arriving at the Mikazuki inn, he receives a warm welcome from a trembling man with a knife (??), who later introduces himself as Funeno. He also meets Shimbashi who's staying at the same inn. The other characters are all staying at a different inn, but Oosaki meets them pretty soon too (Takeshiba, Shijoumae, Hinode, Aomi and Shiodome). The final character, Toyosu, appears a bit later and mentions he's in charge of the memorial service because the individual who invited them all (who nobody seems to know) couldn't come after all, which leaves everyone confused.

Since this is mentioned in the promotional material and also happens in the trial version, I think it's not really a spoiler to mention that Funeno is the first character who gets killed shortly after this. They decide to perform a ritual to put his spirit to rest, which involves burning a straw figure, though when they finally burn it they discover someone swapped the straw figure with Funeno's body and they end up burning his body instead... Afterwards, Shiodome reveals that they didn't just receive invitation letters, but they also got a letter describing the crimes one of the other attendees committed. They were all swapped, so everyone has a letter that belongs to someone else and knows about their crimes. The orders is as follows: Funeno > Daiba > ??? > Shimbashi > Takeshiba > Aomi > Toyosu > Hinode > Shijoumae > Ariake > Shiodome > Funeno. I guess now we know why Funeno acted so nervous around Oosaki, as he introduced himself as ''Daiba'' and Funeno got Daiba's letter...

Oosaki didn't receive any of these letters from Daiba though, so after they all return the letters to each other, Shimbashi is the only one who doesn't get his own letter, and let's just say he's not too happy about that. This also means that characters who had each other's letters know about their crimes, which is why some of them seem to be rather uncomfortable around each other. Most of the routes branch off a little bit after the scene where the trial version ends, and then the real murder mystery story starts in which they try to figure out who killed Funeno. Someone also destroyed the phone, so now there's no way to contact anyone anymore. At this point Oosaki's of course also suspicious of his client Daiba, because it's clear he was hiding something from him and sent Oosaki to the island without telling him important information.

Personal thoughts Since it’s a murder mystery game you never know which characters to trust, and because characters do die and will be absent throughout the entire route, it was a really suspenseful experience. I was interested in the story from start to finish, which is why I finished it so fast... I can't explain the feeling of dread every time one of the characters announced that something bad had happened, and you're wondering how bad it could really be. Even though the game doesn't show any super gory CGs (the most they'll show is blood), the descriptions are very detailed, so I think even without that it's easy to understand what happened to them. I also liked how the characters who die and survive are different depending on which route you play, so the game really stays interesting in all three routes.

Even though we know a second part of the game is coming, part 1 doesn't feel incomplete at all and the routes work very well on their own! So if you can read Japanese or want to use translation tools, I highly recommend playing this. It took me over 30 hours to finish the game, including the common route which is about 5 hours long, but I do play pretty fast and am already replaying some scenes, so it might be even longer. Also according to a message that came with the game, part 2's data will be free for everyone who buys part 1, so you don't need to buy them separately. I do want the physical version of the game, but I don't mind spending a bit more because the game's only 4400 yen (unlike most VNs which are about 8000-9000 yen).

My personal favorite character is Shimbashi because of his cat-like characteristics and short temper, I guess he's a bit of a tsundere now I think about it, but I also really like the abnormal way he speaks... he's super polite and extremely rude at the same time and I am curious how this would get translated in the English version. My second favorite is probably Ariake, and because he was the first route I expected his route to be good too, since it's the first experience anyone will have with this game after all. The final route is Aomi, who I was pretty neutral about when they showed him in the promotional material, but I really liked him... I should really not underestimate any character in this game because they will prove me wrong, and so far I really like everyone. I suddenly remember when the game was announced they said all the characters are ''straight'' lol, but as expected, so far it just means they haven't been together with another man before. They do not seem to care about Oosaki's gender at all and don't make it a big deal (I also like how there's multiple lines in this game acknowledging other gender identities btw... it's mentioned out of nowhere but I love to see it). If you didn't know btw, the protag of this game is a top, all of the previous Adelta game protagonists were bottoms.

I've always liked the Adelta game artstyle and character designs, but somehow the art in this game looks even better. Every CG in Ooe just looks so beautiful and I can't stop opening the CG gallery to look at it over and over again. As for the eye color... I also have my theories because in previous games this was an important plot element, and even by just looking at the promotional material, it's clear that those with ties to Ooejima are the only characters who have red eyes, so maybe that will be mentioned in the next part? Also every character has their own ending song, similar to what they did with Uuultra C. The game actually has no opening song/movie, but they might be saving that for part 2. The ending songs are so good though at this point I will not even complain.

The references to existing literature in this game are also comparible to the older Adelta titles, for example the caves on the island kind of remind me of the novel "Kotou no Oni" and the game sometimes references Agatha Christie’s "And Then There Were None" too, with Oosaki even owning a copy of the book, and eventually comparing the people on the island to characters in the book. As I mentioned in my first blog post about this game, some of the characters' first names also reference other novel characters. For example, Shiodome’s name is Michio, which is also an important character in "Kotou no Oni", Daiba’s name is Shizuma, which seems to be referencing a character in "Inugami-ke no Ichizoku" or "The Inugami Family" (this applies to the names of his brother and father too), and Funeno’s first name is Kureichirou, which is the name of one of the main characters in "Dogra Magra". In part 1, we learn the first names of a couple of other characters too for the first time, and I do have some theories what these could be referencing, especially Takeshiba's... I also want to know more about Shiodome because I mean, from the beginning it's clear the way he behaves isn't exactly what one would consider "normal", so I wonder how he would interact with Oosaki... Cool-B did preview one of his 18+ scenes and I have many questions. Then of course there's Daiba... he's so suspicious and the promotional material keeps referring to him as a ''side character'' even though he was literally on the cover of Cool-B magazine combined with Oosaki and Ariake, so I have my doubts about that.

Honestly there's so many things I could write about but at this point I might be theorizing too much and not actually reviewing the game, but I really don't want to spoil, so I think that's it for now! Part 2 is scheduled to be released in winter, though I'm not sure if that means December, January or later. You can buy part 1 here though! Please support them. It was mentioned that they are planning to release an English and Chinese version, though any information about that will have to wait until the release of part 2. When part 2 is released I'll write a review about that too!

[nonbinarypirat]

Okay, I’ve been collecting my thoughts on the many-ears demon race and their subservient stance in the Netherworld. And I think this is a perfect time to make a post since chapter 361 just came out and we are getting the main conflict of the arch: conservative older generation vs progressive younger generation. Plus also the fact that the forming country and school still isn’t stable and all that. Spoilers for chapter 361!

So it’s becoming more and more clear that the main conflict will be changing the minds of the older more fearful generation of the many-ears race. Which makes perfect sense, a newer kid comes into this area with ideas of making them equals (something they have never been in their race’s history from what we know) and with the help of one of their own, starts influencing the minds of their children. Obviously the elders would be scared and want to shut this down. It looks like the many-ears can’t remember or see a past or future where they didn’t have this class system in place and the idea of it shifting could very much lead to pain and suffering. It kind of reminds me of the civil rights movement in America, like sure it lead to the many laws that protect marginalized people today, but it came at the cost of many injuries/deaths, fights, and years of activism. The road isn’t an easy one and similarly to the movement, many people didn’t see a point. There’s a few mindsets that you can fall into for this, either you don’t believe change is possible or you do believe it is possible but ultimately would not be worth pursuing because of the consequences. It seems like most fall into the “it’s not possible” with maybe some believing that even if it could change, why change something that has works for generations. The elder in particular seems to believe the second one, that maybe life could be better for them but refuses to change anything on a chance.

It’s understandable why they wouldn’t want change to happen, especially at the expense of their children. But at the same time, younger generations are typically the ones who are less willing to stick to the status quo (queue high school musical) and engage in activism. That’s why student activism is so prevalent, you become aware of new cultures, ideas, and history and are less willing to settle with what’s “worked.” Think about the recent college activism for Palestine or the student walkouts in Florida against the “don’t say gay” bill. A few examples of a much larger trend. However, as you get older you are less willing to see things change, you become compliant and many ways, complicit. Things that seemed like there wasn’t an issue or shouldn’t be an issue are now being questioned and that forces you to question your whole system. And many don’t want to confront that.

In the case for the many-ears, they have survived off of honing their hearing skill to careers that would best benefit from having superb hearing. However, what about many-ears who don’t have incredible hearing like Nova or you simply don’t want the jobs you are trained for like the children in chapter 360. What happens if someone wants to be a florist like the Monmo-chan that doesn’t require good hearing to succeed? If you base your value on your hearing alone, does someone who doesn’t want to base their worth on that lesser in their society? Are they seen as misguided, helpless, or even traitor to your race? It seems chapter 361 confirms that fear. If you don’t have great hearing, you do not have value or worth. And sure, we can argue that he was just saying that to get him to quit teaching the students, but no matter what, his statements were ableist. There’s no other way to slice it. He literally told Nova he has no value in their society because he doesn’t have the many-ears hearing skill. He may be able to hear like most other demons, but in reference to the many-ears, he has a disability that makes him “worthless” in their eyes.

I think another thing I find interesting is that they believe (probably based on a fact(s) of some kind) that they are weak. Weak in body and weak in magic. First, weak in body is something that we can, for the most part, can agree about because of their stature. They are very small compared to most demons and this easily makes them prey to many other demons. But why do they believe that not training your strength and combat isn’t at least worth pursing? Same for magic. Right now we haven’t seen much evidence this is true since we have only seen Nova sucessfully do magic, but let’s say this is true. Does learning some easy or basic spells not seem worth it? On some part the lack physical and magical prowess seems to be innate in the many-ears, but I believe a larger issue is them internalizing this perceived weakness and deciding it’s not worth learning to better themselves. We know that there does exist spells that doesn’t require much magic from Momonoki’s flashback when she was a newbie teacher. Demons come in many shapes and sizes, including magic. This wouldn’t be a new issue that there exists a demon who has small magic reserves (like Kirio for instance). There has to be more spells that exist that you can use if you fall into this category. And just because someone is smaller doesn’t mean that can’t learn how to fight or train athletically. Sure you may not be as strong as other demons, but you can always learn how to use a weapon. At the very least, learning the theory could protect them if nothing else.

At this point, it seems like the many-ears are just shooting themselves in the foot because they’d rather not even try to learn another skill that could benefit them in the future. Sure the jack of all trades may be the master of none, but as the end of the saying goes, it’s still better than the master of one. This really feels like home schooling verses public school debate too. Like sure, the school that the love trio made isn’t perfect by any means, but it provides them with a more well rounded education that doesn’t just focus on the one. The elder talks about how mastering magic isn’t guaranteed, but couldn’t we say the same with their hearing? Just because others have succeeded doesn’t mean the children are bound to accomplish greatness just because of their hearing. You can’t ever know that.

Children are full of potential and as a teacher you are supposed to give them a plethora of chances to do new things and learn new skills. By stifling them, you essentially are saying they don’t have any other potential to grow. And as a future teacher, it really makes me mad to see that their parents don’t also see their children’s potential. Not to mention that even if you are good at something, it doesn’t mean you are destined to be happy. In fact, I think many of the skills we have are better left as hobbies or something you do for fun. Making a career out of every little skill you’ve honed makes it just that, a job. And maybe not a fun one. They are just repeating a cycle that makes everyone miserable but “works” not for their children’s benefit but for their own because well, at least they are “safe.” Idk, I’d rather be happy but that’s just me.

This is also not to say that the many-ears’ issues are all created by them, clearly other demons are also to blame for this problem. A broken system doesn’t just sprout from no where, it is created by years of oppression and oppressive thinking. What demon wouldn’t take advantage of a race that seems powerless without the strength of the powerful? It creates a back and forth systemic issue that works in theory but is broken if you even think about it for two seconds. The many-ears cannot base their entire worth on their hearing, it just causes unaddressed pain and self worth problems. And not to mention, while it may be working out for them now, it isn’t sustainable. What if at some point demons decide they no longer want to rely on the many ears and start training others for the jobs they are known for? What if a disease or virus spreads that attaches their hearing? What if a large majority of them get hurt or injured, damaging their ears? Not to mention, on a small scale everyone can be disabled in their life time. If you become disabled with your hearing, you wouldn’t be able to fall back on anything. Because you based your entire existence on being able to hear well.

Ultimately, I think this is why it needs to be Nova or Nova in the future that needs to rule the many-ears because he’s living proof that your hearing not only doesn’t define you, but also that the system is built off ableist ideals. Nova should be seen as less valuable because he was born without excellent hearing, especially when he clearly loves and cares for his people. Change is built off the backs of not those in power but by those who’s been suppressed, who want to see change for themselves and for others like them. I hope Nova can see his own value even if his people don’t right now

[reigningqueenofwords]

How So?

Pairing: Steve x Reader, Bucky x daughter!Reader Word count: 1,301

Read on AO3

Part 15 of Looking for the Captain

“What’s that?” He asked, raising an eyebrow. Steve’s eyes watched you as you got closer, putting your hands on his hips. And then you were kissing him. It took him a moment to register what was happening. When it clicked, he wrapped an arm around you and pulled you closer. He tangled his other hand in your hair, deepening the kiss. Your hands moved from his hips so you could wrap your arms around his neck. Kissing him felt natural.

After a few minutes, the pair of you pulled apart a bit. Steve rested his forehead against yours. “I’m glad you aren’t upset.” You breathed. “I was worried you’d push me away.” While you’d been hoping you were reading things right, a small part of you was worried Bucky got into his head. In which case, you would have had some choice words for your father.

He smiled, his thumb rubbing your back. “I’d never push you away.” He promised softly. “I’m glad you got the courage for that, because I’ve been trying for a bit now.” There was a tint to his cheeks. While he was generally confident, getting things started was the hardest part of things.

You giggled at that, pecking his lips quickly. “I am, too.” Where would this one kiss lead? Would your friendship blossom into more? A relationship? Friends with benefits? While you weren’t exactly a huge fan of friends with benefits (for yourself), for Steve you would. 

“Maybe once everything blows over, I can take you on a date?” He asked, hopeful. “Take you out to a nice restaurant or something.” He was already starting to plan something perfect in his mind. Maybe he’d have Nat take you to get a dress and get pampered beforehand. You deserved it.

“I don’t need to be wined and dined. Do you forget I’m a 22 year old who previously dated guys my age. They weren’t exactly rolling in the dough.” You said teasingly. “A burger and fries is just fine for me.” A simple date was all you needed, you didn’t want him thinking he had to go above and beyond. Hell, just having dinner together at the tower would be enough for you.

“Doll, I’m not some 22 year old, though. There will be a lot of differences.” His voice went low, sending a chill down your spine. You loved it. It made your mind go to all those naughty places. 

You smirked. “Oh yeah?” You bit your lip. “How so?” You breathed.

He leaned down, his lips next to your ear. “Guess you’ll just have to wait and see.” With that, he stood up. “I believed I promised you dinner. How about you take Goliath outback while I cook?” He was amused by the flustered look on your face. It was nice to see you be the flustered one instead of him. 

You nodded. “I’m sure he’ll love that.” While Goliath was perfectly happy at the tower, you had a feeling that having a yard would make him very happy. You’d brought all his toys, too. You wondered if you’d ever be able to own a house like this for him to have space. 

That night dinner at the tower felt incomplete. Even if you and Steve ate elsewhere, you were still in the tower. Now you were hours away. They couldn’t just have the two of you come down for dessert or anything. “Let’s look on the bright side. Maybe this will push them together.” Nat mused after a bit, trying to break the silence. 

“If this doesn’t, nothing will.” Tony noted. “So, I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

“What do you mean?” Wanda asked, brows furrowed. “Is there something you’re not telling us?” She wouldn’t put it past him to have come up with some plan.

He took a sip of his drink before answering. “What kind of cabin are you picturing? I’m guessing since it’s mine, some large lavish 7 bedroom deal, right?” He was clearly amused as she nodded. “Nope. It’s a small one bedroom cabin. Sure, the bunker underneath that’s full of supplies is huge, but I wanted the cabin itself to not stick out.” The more luxurious it was, the more it would stand out. That’s not something you wanted at the end of the world. 

“Oooooh, the whole one bed thing.” Clint chuckled. “Did you plan that?” He asked, clearly amused.

“Nah, it just lined up that way.” Tony shrugged. “I did think getting her out of the tower was for the best.” He assured them.  “And there’s less windows there. Harder to get in. I told them both how to trigger the lock down, and if they do that, I’ll get alerted.” The cabin was connected to the tower. 

“Hope you also stocked them with condoms.” Sam joked, his laugh getting cut off when he saw the look Bucky was giving him. Clearing his throat, he looked away. 

“Why couldn’t Nat go with her?” Bucky asked, raising an eyebrow. “Why did it have to be Steve?” He clearly was not happy with any of this. He felt that anyone else could have gone with you.

Nat rolled her eyes. “She trusts him, and I have a feeling she’s the most relaxed with him. Sure, she likes spending time with us, but it’s different with him. So, why not Steve?” She countered. “I’m serious. Give me a good reason, and not the usual ‘because she’s my little girl’, or ‘because he’s my best friend’, or ‘it’s weird!’.” She kept her eyes locked on his, not backing down.

He shook his head. “Fine. They’ll distract each other. Instead of being alert, they’ll be too distracted, letting a threat get too close.” He told her, feeling that was an excellent reason. The last thing he wanted was finding out you were hurt, or worse, because Steve was too busy to keep you safe.

Clint, however, shook his head. “I don’t think so. If anything, I think he’ll be hyper aware. He might look distracted, but he’ll be aware of everything going on around them.” He shrugged. “The other day they were talking and I threw a wad of paper at him. He blocked it.” That was pretty impressive to him. “And I have a feeling that if it was one of us in serious danger, or her…and only one of us could be saved? He’d save her in a heartbeat.” 

“He’s got a point.” Tony agreed, which Bucky didn’t like. He’d feel better when this was all over with, and you could live your life. 

After dinner, you and Steve washed the dishes together while Goliath napped on the couch. “After this, do you want to sit out back and watch the stars?” You asked, glancing over at him. “They’re way clearer out here.” You’d lived your entire life in the city, and never got to see the night sky this well. 

Steve smiled, nodding. “I’d like that.” He agreed. “Maybe we can do that every night while we’re out here?” He pictured cuddling up next to you, star gazing.

“That would be perfect!” You grinned. “Maybe you can use that time to sketch sometimes? The light from inside should be enough, right?” 

“It would, but I think I’d like to just watch the stars. I’ll have plenty of time to sketch.” Ideas were already coming to him, and a few involved you. “Is there anything you’d like to do while we’re out here?” He didn’t want you just focusing on things he wanted to do. You were the one that was yanked from the life you were used to.

Smirking, you felt brave again. “You.” You said casually, despite the butterflies in your stomach. Sometimes you felt so brave around him, and other times you felt so nervous. 

[foreststranger]

JING YUAN - Trailblazer Gets Paid

ꜱᴛᴀʀʀɪɴɢ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ

↳ 『honkai: star rail』jing yuan & child gn!reader (adoptive parent/child familial dynamic) ft. yanqing as a younger (?) brother

ꜱʏɴᴏᴘꜱɪꜱ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ

↳ based on a request i’ve gotten (read it here) in case you couldn’t tell, i did not “get it done tomorrow.” anyway i was unsure of the motive behind reader running away so I’m hoping my idea was what you were looking for, anon 👍 ALSO SORRY FOR ALTERING IT A BIT IDK HOW TO WRITE TIME SKIPS AND STUFF SO

𑁍 ᴡᴏʀᴅ ᴄᴏᴜɴᴛ: 2.0k

ɴᴏᴛᴇ ꜰʀᴏᴍ ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ

↳ SORRY THIS TOOK LONGER THAN EXPECTED I’VE BEEN REVAMPING HOW I DO TEXTS IN MY FICS WHILE TRYING TO WRITE THIS AND IT’S BEEN TAKING SO LONG THE PROCESS IS IMPOSSIBLY TEDIOUS GGGGHHHH anyway my first request yay i usually write romantic pairings so this is a step out my comfort zone but i hope i could do this idea justice. i love doing requests and i wish i had more lol (cough cough). sorry if this is messy btw ANYWAY this fic lowkey had me sobbing jing yuan would literally be the best dad ever (to my children cough cough) ALSO HAPPY MONTHIVERSARY TO MY ACCOUNT WOOOOO ALSO ALSO, AGAIN, THIS IS VERY UNPOLISHED AND I’M POSTING THIS AT 4AM SO SORRY IF STUFF IS WHACK AT THE END

An heir. A successor. Some would kill for the power of controlling an army, for the power of an entire ship of the Hexafleet.

Yet, you were running away from home for that reason. Though he’d never said it, you could tell that Jing Yuan wanted you to take on his responsibility when he eventually couldn’t.

And were you ready for that? No. Absolutely not. To have the weight of the Luofu on your shoulders, to carry the burden of being General… You were never going to be ready.

You hear your phone’s notification going off maybe ten times before it goes quiet. Yanqing must have finally read your texts.

You don’t bother responding to his messages, continuing down the street while trying to ignore the dinging and buzzing from your bag. Even at night, the Luofu does not rest. The sky is a flurry of blinding colours, leading your way to… somewhere. Streetlights still glow brighter than ever, and many people rush by you — seemingly coming from nowhere.

You’re running away. You’re actually running away.

It’s not like Jing Yuan is a horrible father. In fact, quite the opposite. You love him, and you’re sure he loves you dearly as well. It makes you feel bad for leaving but… you can’t handle how disappointed he’ll be if you tell him that you’re not ready for your responsibilities. You could never be the General of the Cloud Knights. Not with thousands of years of training and the best teachers that the Xianzhou had to offer. The sword, the battlefield… they are not what calls to you. Truth be told, you stopped attending sword lessons about a month ago. Yanqing still sparred with you on occasion but he could tell you weren’t as sharp as you used to be. Though, now was not the time to think of the past. You had to think of the future.

Where are you going to stay?

A thought crossed your mind. You reach for your phone again, setting down your bag as you pull up your messages with the Nameless. Specifically, a friend of the Luofu. Surely they’d be willing to help you out.

You lean against the wall, a sigh of relief escaping you. Until you spot a group of Cloud Knights in the distance. They’re definitely searching for you, talking to every passerby they can see. Yanqing must’ve told Jing Yuan already… You duck into an alleyway, crouching down and hiding yourself behind a couple boxes. Hopefully, the Trailblazer will find you before those soldiers do. Though, you’ll be found soon by the Cloud Knights if your phone doesn’t stop going off. You try to ignore the many messages flooding in from Jing Yuan. The notifications keep popping up on your screen as you go to your settings. You have to keep swiping them away because they’re blocking your view.

It’s a flurry of texts. You lightly skim over a few others he sent. Many along the lines of ‘I’m worried about you’ and apologies for not always being there for you. They make you feel a little guilty for leaving so suddenly, but not guilty enough to talk to him. He wouldn’t understand.

Jing Yuan sends another. You read it carefully, your eyes lingering on each word. ‘Stay safe. I love you.��

“Sorry, dad…” your voice is a little shaky as you mutter under your breath. You can’t imagine how worried he is right now. You tap on your messages, contemplating on whether or not to respond. Instead, you open your chats with the Trailblazer.

Just then, your phone dies. Perfect. You’ve lost your only means of communication. And you’ve just remembered that you didn’t bring your phone charger. Maybe you aren’t cut out for running away…

Slowly, a familiar silver haired friend approaches your hiding spot, trying as discreetly as they can to move the boxes away.

“Trailblazer!” You whisper-yell. They offer you their hand, and you take it with a sigh of relief.

“Finally… What took you so long? We have to hurry before I’m caught.”

“Mhm.”

“Are they still close by? The Cloud Knights.”

“Mhm.”

“Then come on! I need to get on the Express!”

“Mhm.”

“…How do we get there, Trailblazer?” You look up into their eyes, begging for an answer that isn’t ‘mhm.’ And as you wish, you’re granted one.

“Up, I guess.” They finally say.

“That’s not very helpful.”

“I dunno. Usually people just… appear on the Express. I’ll ask Himeko to help.” They pull out their phone, supposedly texting Himeko.

“Er… We can just take a ship off the Luofu.”

“Okay. Let’s go!” Trailblazer — with their phone still in hand — pulls you along towards the closest port. Your almost thrown off balance, leaning on them for support as they grip your sleeve.

“Wait! I’m gonna be spotted if-“ You cut yourself off with a groan. “Nevermind.”

The ride out of the Luofu is uneventful, though a little awkward. The Trailblazer remains on their phone the entire time while you avoid looking at them.

“Well… welcome to the Astral Express, [name].”

“Is this it?” You’re a little disappointed in how… empty and unwelcoming it feels.

“Obviously not. This is just the lounge,” they pause. “So, do you want a tour or…?”

“I think I’ll be fine.” You turn to one of the windows, looking out at the Xianzhou Luofu.

“How long are you staying? I’m guessing Pom Pom would want to know,” the Trailblazer says, approaching you. In response, you shrug.

“We’ll see.”

“Are you… going to join the us? The Nameless.”

“I don’t know, really.” The Trailblazer goes quiet for a moment.

“…I can tell that Jing Yuan didn’t agree to let you come here. You’re running away, aren’t you?”

“Did the Cloud Knights tell you that?”

“It was just a guess… You can’t stay here for long. None of us are babysitters, [name].” The Trailblazer crosses their arms, shifting their legs as they speak.

“I don’t need one. The only thing I need is a place to stay; that’s it. Until I figure something out.”

“Alright then…” they sigh. “It’s getting pretty late. There’s a room to the right of Dan Heng’s that you can sleep in.” The Trailblazer turns to leave while you continue staring out the window. You find yourself thinking about Jing Yuan and how much you miss him already. Was leaving the Luofu — and leaving your family — really the best course of action?

You head to your room. The eerie quietness of your walk there unsettles you. It makes you yearn for home. There is no noise audible apart from the irritating train ambience. There is no ‘good night’ from your father as you lay down in bed. There is no one to tuck you in as you stare at the ceiling, awaiting sleep. There is nowhere that could be as lonely as this place, away from your father and brother. And away from a life you abandoned. And yet, there is no way you could ever go back. You shut your eyelids tight, hoping that when you wake up, everything will fix itself. That when you wake up, you’ll be a happy kid, living a happy childhood. But even just imagining that is hard on this uncomfortable mattress.

The sound of banging on the door wakes you up.

“[name]! It’s time to get up! Conductor Pom-Pom made breakfast for you!” Someone from outside your room intones. You recognized the sing-song voice as March 7th’s. With a groan, you rise from the bed and shuffle over, managing to turn the doorknob after a bit of a struggle.

“Mmh… Good morning…” Your voice is groggy as you rub your eyes.

“Oh. The Trailblazer told me you were young but I didn’t think you were a…” She doesn’t continue, instead looking down at you with a hint of sympathy in her eyes. “Let’s go eat,” she says, changing the topic.

“In a bit. Just… just give me a few minutes.”

“Whenever you’re ready, [name]. I guess we’ll wait for you.” March shrugs.

After a minute of rustling through your bag, you exit the bathroom, realizing that you forgot to bring toiletries. It seems like you forgot many essentials.

“[name]! You’re here!” March 7th waves you over to a table covered in many carefully crafted dishes. To her right is a serious looking black haired man, staring longingly out the window. To her left, a woman you vaguely remember as Himeko. Across from the three of them is the Trailblazer. You decide to take a seat beside the latter, since they’re really the only one of the Nameless you’re acquainted with. It feels a little… awkward being around the others.

“I thought there were five of you,” you say, recalling a fifth member of the Express Crew.

“Welt didn’t want to join us. He was busy making… preparations,” the Trailblazer answers. You look down at your plate to be greeted with your favourite meal. Your… favourite meal. What an odd coincidence that Pom-Pom decided to make a dish that happened to be your favourite. Jing Yuan had introduced it to you back when he had only just adopted you. The fragrance emitting from the plate is staggeringly nostalgic. You almost burst into tears being near this thing. It looks identical to how he’d used to make it. Hesitantly, you bring a spoonful to your mouth. The flavours that you taste are painfully reminiscent of home. They sting your tongue with memories of your father.

“…The… conductor made this?” You ask, struggling to understand. The Trailblazer gives a curt nod, their attention hyper-focused on you. You try to blink away the tears in your eyes but you’re sure they’re visible by now.

“[name]? Yesterday, I was on my phone…” They pause dramatically. “Can you guess who I was texting?” Then, it hits you.

“…Jing Yuan.”

“And can you guess who made breakfast for you?”

“Where is he?” You breathe out, clearly exhausted as you stand from the table, setting down your utensils.

The Trailblazer leads you down the hall, away from your breakfast and the others and back to your room.

“He’s in here?” You hesitate to open the door.

“I guess I’ll leave you to it, [name].” They speed off without another word to you. It takes you a couple minutes to work up the courage, but you eventually grab a solid hold on the doorknob and push it open. He’s sitting on the bed, staring at his phone. But his attention snaps to you as soon as you open the door.

“[name]. I’m… glad we finally have a chance to talk. I trust you have been doing well here?” You don’t point out how you’ve been on the Express for less than a day, still too nervous to talk. “What‘s wrong, [name]?” Jing Yuan asks. And finally, you answer.

“I… don’t want to take your place as the General.” Your speech is slow and stretched out as you try to convey your thoughts and feelings. “It seems like… too much for me. I’ve never been good at all that… stuff, and you know that.” He sighs as you talk, sadness in his eyes.

“Is that why you ran away? Why didn’t you tell me?” Jing Yuan stands up and approaches you. “I never asked you to become my successor, did I, [name]?” His hand rests on your shoulder in an attempt to reassure you.

“I was scared that you’d be… disappointed in me.”

“Do you really think so low of me?”

“…Sorry.”

“I do not care what you wish to become in the future, [name]. You’ll still always be my kid. I did not intend for you to take on my position. You’re too young to govern the Luofu. No offence.” He leans in, pinching your cheek with his other hand. “You’d be quite capable, [name].” You look away as he lets go, a little embarrassed.

“Thanks, dad…?”

“Have we sorted this out then? You know that I’ll always love you, yes?”

“Mhm. Yeah.” You hold your arms out to him, and Jing Yuan pulls you into a tight embrace.

“I’m happy to be your father, [name]… Don’t do this again, okay? You can talk to me about anything. Don’t run away anymore. You really worried me…”

“Right. Sorry, dad.”

“Come on then. Let’s go home.”

ask before translating, taking inspo from (not copy), reposting, etc. my work. remember to credit me and if you’re taking inspo from it, please @ me as I’d like to see what you do with my ideas!

[idkjustletmescroll]

My thoughts on the Eternals SPOILERS

Two years late, I finally got around to watching Marvels “Eternals.” And I obviously have to write a ridiculously long tumblr post on what I thought about it.

I think something that made me appreciate it a lot more on a rewatch was realizing that this was never supposed to be a standard Marvel movie. My first watch had me complaining that more than half the film was spent getting the gang back together, instead of on cool action scenes. But “Eternals” isn’t an action movie at all, though its actions scenes are great. It’s a film about family.

Second: let’s discuss the characters, who are at the heart of this story.

I don’t agree that every character was completely underdeveloped. They all have very distinct personalities, for starters: Ajak, the mom of the group; Ikaris, the little bitch--sorry, I mean PERFECT SOLDIER--Sersi, the goody-two-shoes; Phastos, the smart one; Druig, the hangry one; Makkari, our fave speedster/hoarder; Sprite, the sarcastic one; Gilgamesh, the lovable giant; Thena, the badass-who-still-struggles-with-mental-health, the quiet but strong type; and Kingo, the funny one who loves his family and is SUPER extra, as befits a Bollywood star. HOWEVER, they definitely needed more than a 3-hour movie to develop them.

For example: Why was Ajak the Prime Eternal? Her power is healing, not fighting. While I liked that deviation from traditional superhero roles, why did Arishem choose HER instead of, say, Ikaris to remember their past lifetimes and lead the team? I love Ajak a lot more than Ikaris and she seemed to actually be a great leader. I just want to figure out Arishem’s motivation.

And speaking of Ikaris, WHY was he so devoted? The others got the whole “duty, no interfering with humans” spiel from Ajak, but they still have critical thinking skills. Why was Ikaris so ready to turn against the people he considered family and kill a leader he seemed to genuinely respect and love as a mother figure? Why did he leave Sersi? Why was everyone so happy to fight him at the end? Like, Ikaris is annoying as shit (this post is not Ikaris-stan-friendly, I’m sorry), but the movie’s whole thing is family??? But...they all wanted to kill the one guy who turns out to be a villain at the end? Thena already seemed a little annoyed with him in Babylon at the beginning of the movie, but how about a few glimpses of the others getting annoyed with his know-it-all-ism?

Sersi. Sersi, Sersi, Sersi. I wanted to love you so bad. My main problem with Sersi, after careful consideration of why i found her character annoying, really isn’t that she’s softer than say, Thena, or cries more than Makkari; it’s that it feels like she doesn’t really have...more than three emotions? Happy, confused, and sad. For example, when Ikarkis reveals that he’s killed Ajak, she kind of just cries until he goes away. She looks at him kind of sadly when he’s defeated and flies into the sun. How about some anger through those tears? Let her cry and stuff for her ex-husband of 500 years. But show me that she can have “uglier” moments, too. I did love that they showed her moving on with Dane, though. We love a gal who knows her worth. I also would’ve loved to see her standoffish from Ikaris when he comes back. The guy abandoned her with seemingly no explanation 500 years ago. Keep him several arms’ lengths away, girl.

No notes on Druig. I love him so much. I’ve been converted into a Barry Keoghan stan and I have no regrets.

Makkari I felt like was also pretty cool. We know she’s a speedster, a hoarder, the only person Druig can tolerate for more than thirty seconds at a time, is generally the cheery one, but also has her dark side, like (rightfully) trying AND ALMOST SUCCEEDING to kill Ikaris after he almost kills Druig. My only criticism is that the deleted scene of her talking to Sprite was cut! Like, that was so good! More on that in the Sprite section, but we get a bit of Makkari’s motivations for wanting to stop the Emergence.

Phastos was also cool. I feel like we got what we needed to know about him--the dangers of technology and how it’s used, how he regained his faith in humanity, etc.--but not really his relationship with the other Eternals. That’s actually something that could’ve been improved on in general. They all really feel like a family, but there’s not much in the way of their individual relationships (Makkari and Sprite, Phastos and Druig, Ikaris and Gilgamesh...)

Sprite’s thing about being in love with Ikaris was stupid and cringey. Her conflict about not being able to grow up and experience what she wants is a lot more interesting, but for some reason, they decided not to explore that! It should’ve been her ultimate motivation and set up from the start of the movie. Her deleted scene with Makkari has her talking about how Babylon was their only real home on this planet, again setting up how Sprite’s never really fit in here.

Gilgamesh didn’t last long (*Sob*), but we get a pretty good feel for who he is. But why didn’t they mention his death again apart from Thena? Like...Makkari and Phastos never reunited with him! Why didn’t we also get their reactions to his death as well as Ajak’s?

I LOVE THENA. No notes.

I also love Kingo. I love how they kind of went in a grey area with him, with him being devoted to Arishem and not agreeing with stopping the Emergence, but refusing to hurt his family the way Ikaris did. I thought that was an unusual and much-appreciated angle to take.

Ikaris and Sersi, obviously, had no chemistry, and while I agree that in present-day, they’re probably SUPPOSED to feel like an awkward, divorced couple, even in their Babylon love story they feel like...two actors who are being forced to pretend to be in love for a paycheck. Like, I’m sure Gemma and Richard are great actors individually but together it doesn’t work. Was I supposed to feel sad that they broke up and wonder why the hell Ikaris left? Nah. I cringed. I skipped over their dry sex scene. I looked for Druig eating fruit during their wedding.

Druig and Makkari though? THEY HAVE MY FUCKING HEART AND SOUL AND MIND AND BODY. I love them, I love them, I love them. I will always love them till the day I die.

I also loved how Thena and Gilgamesh’s relationship can be interpreted as ride-or-die besties or old-married-couple or a mix of both, rather than a romance being forced down your throat. Refreshing angle to take, once again.

This movie was refreshing for phase 4 because, unlike CERTAIN FILMS (*cough* thorloveandthunder *cough*), there’s dialogue outside of cheap comedy. A visually stunning movie. I didn’t think it was as bad as a lot of people said, but I also think it would’ve been soooo much better as a miniseries, with more time to explore each eternal.

[str8aura-no-not-that-one]

Str8aura,

I come to you in the hour of need!

Having recently reread your amazing ‘Death and Taxes’, I was again reminded of my inadequacy in this biz. I have no idea how you managed to craft such an immersive story and great characters in 50k words AND in less than a year, but you did. It would absolutely be a hit if published. I cannot believe I identified with a monster-town. My silly ass is in a constant state of schism between admiration and jealousy over every aspect of your writing, and I don’t appreciate this feeling at all! I know they say that we shouldn’t focus on comparing ourselves to others, but I disagree – I believe comparing your own stuff to better stuff is the only way to improve. And I’d love to improve. Could do without the crippling jealousy, though :P

While I still think my take on this world is worth seeing through to the end, I struggle with many elements. I’ve watched videos and read manuals about writing. Valuable material, but not quite enough. So here’s my question – would YOU mind giving me some tips? For starters maybe something about keeping yourself in line when scheduling, because that’s just an abysmal bloody disaster in my case. Also – structuring. You created a fantastic balance between dialogue, description, plot and character development, I feel my text often reads like an article (which makes sense ‘cause I worked with those). I’ve trimmed some fat already, but maybe I could keep going – especially with the bullshit magic-science stuff and overwriting the feels/thoughts. I liked writing it, but now I realize it can be exhausting to follow. Looong stretches when nothing really happens and people just feel sorry for themselves. But idk, that’s not always a big problem.

This brings me to the characters in general. I feel I did alright, but I have doubts. Relationships have never been my strong suit, which is… less than ideal for this hobby. In real life, I’m decidedly more of an observer than a participant, and this shows here and there. Perhaps it’s better that I didn’t use many perspectives because I’d struggle even more. In your story everyone knew about the curse, in mine only a few people do, and that happens over time. The ‘normal’ problems of the leads eventually converge with the paranormal one, so I thought it was best to not dedicate too much attention to the stuff that has little to do with either. But what do you think?

No matter what, I’m absolutely NOT giving up on the pretentious lingo, however :P We museum people are pretentious by trade! If you ever find some free time, could you perhaps check out a fragment of my fic and see what doesn’t work? It’s ‘Hateful’ on AO3. Don’t feel obligated to by any means, I know that just reading this sentence raised your blood pressure lol

And, last but not least, please tell me how to kill the envy demon. I HOPE it’s had its teeth in you at least once in the past, goddamnit XD Otherwise I’m a lost cause

Sorry for accosting you like this, but it’s been on my mind for too long. Release me from this prison!!!

Congrats again I hope you do end up publishing something one day

Hello, Plague. Waking up and finding this in my inbox told me that today might be alright. Thank you again for your excellent fanart.

Jealousy

The man who I can claim most truthfully is my most beloved friend is a writer like me. In fact, without their influence, I would not be a writer at all; They have encouraged me, proofread for me, criticized me, and guided me every step of the journey that has led me to who I am today. I would take a bullet for this man, as many times over as my body would allow.

He also holds popularity I have never achieved. He is the darling of the featured box, earns hundreds of likes and comments where I scrounge up tens, and has attracted the eyes and praise of people whom I am only a number to. When I look upon him, this man whom I love as if he were my own blood, I understand Salieri. I understand Brutus. I understand what it is like to love someone and yet feel a deep, shameful, green-eyed rage towards them. I firmly believe we do the same amount of work, try just as hard as each other, and yet he is beloved and I am not.

So it goes. Jealousy is the worst beast we as mortals can face, and we will be the flesh it feeds on if we allow it to. I am dreadfully sorry you feel this way about me, and honored at the same time, but I must remind you what on the internet it is easy to forget; I, as well as my beloved friend, am just a human. Nothing more, nothing less. It is fruitless to feel jealous, when that same energy could be devoted towards outmatching me. You think I'm good? Be better.

You cannot kill the envy demon. Don't try. You must learn to live with it, to accept it as you accept every other piece of yourself. And when you do that, you domesticate it.

Scheduling:

The tip I have learned, dedicated to heart, and use whenever I can is simple; Write up to a key stopping point, the point at which you feel will be make or break for the reader to decide whether or not they wish to stick with it. Publish that much, serialized, in small scheduled chunks.

You now have a fire lit under your ass. The only thing that outmatches my desire to procrastinate is my desire to please others, and thus I have no choice but to continue my schedule, with only a little leeway and wiggle room allotted by the aforementioned stored up slots so I do not blow my head off. I did not plan out Death and Taxes beforehand, save a vague idea of the premise; it was not even intended to have an overarching story, it was only meant to be an anthology. But by working steadily, making lots of mistakes, and deciding what felt right, I ended up after a year of work with the product you love.

Chapters, pages in a comic, it is all the same; If you want to work, find what is stronger than your procrastination drive, and turn it against yourself.

Structuring:

Every one of my stories begins life as a string of dialogue. No action tags, no [X] said, just dialogue like a script. Talking is, oftentimes, the core of any story. It is also what I, personally, am good at. I stimulate conversations with myself or my dog, try to respond as realistically as I can given what I know about the character, and then fill in the blanks with text afterwards. Dog optional.

This is not ideal for everyone, I understand. My greatest suggestion I can offer is to figure out what you are good at, and do that first. Even if your story looks unformatted, or unfinished, you must keep yourself working. Skip scenes if you wish. Write the parts you want to write, and then get the rest later. But at the end, and this is the most important part, it must not look like you did that. It must look like you are a genius who effortlessly spat out an entire sequence in one afternoon, flowing like a dream, never contradicting itself. A writer is a liar, first and foremost. This is why they are so often thought of as geniuses, when in reality they spent seven hours trying to figure out how to describe a plant.

Pretentious Lingo:

Verily, I agree.

Hateful has been in my Ao3 library for some time. I apologize for my slowness.

As a final note, I must remind you as an author that you must keep reading. Length, medium, and popularity of the work matter not. Read, read, read, and the more you examine the style of other authors, the more you will decide what you want your own to look like. I set out writing every story of mine with an idea of what story I want it to resemble; 'I want this to feel like Kraven's Last Hunt', 'I want this to feel like The Blue Fox', 'I want this to feel like The Odyssey'; whatever. As a storyteller, you must always honor other storytellers. Never forget that.

Also, get a proofreader. Hope this helped. Tell your friends to give me money.

[finalset]

♡

If it wasn’t obvious I’ve been feeling very reflective lately and I kinda just wanna talk about the changes I’ve gone through in the past year. Almost a year ago, after doing odd jobs inconsistently since I was a teenager and relying on what I made off just my artwork, I took a stab in the dark for some financial stability with the intention of eventually leaving town and going back to the city. I took a normal job working nights about five minutes away from my house. At that point I was very guarded, distrusting of others, had zero intentions of putting any emotional investment in the enviornment around me. I’d been isolating myself more and more and just overall hated my life, living situation, being away from my best friend and not being closer to where I was raised. I spent my late teen years and emerging twenties chasing a false sense of comfort I thought I lost in my childhood. I thought the only way I could get it back was to run from my present, unknowingly going backwards, it never worked and I felt wronged and resentful over how my life was leading. As deeply uninterested as I was in others around me at my work someone somehow managed to wake my interest and make me think differently. For some reason I still try to understand, something about him made me question and confront myself and my beliefs, and for an even wilder reason I thought if I had a chance with him that I really needed to be better and stop wallowing in my own pity, stop letting my bad moods keep me unapproachable, just generally not be the human embodiment of my pain and not be the person my loved ones were always concerned for. I had the realization that if i wanted something nice then I needed to take care of myself, be more patient with myself, and believe I actually deserved something good if I wanted to be able to care for another. A realization I’m still grateful I chose to pursue today. The thing with trying to handle years of trauma and undo every terrible belief and self destructive habit you taught yourself to cope is that it absolutely can’t be done alone, after never even earnestly attempting recovery in my life i thought i could carry this unmeasurable weight I’d accumulated and try to ‘fix’ myself on my own. I made a lot of mistakes, was presumptuous, unclear, naive, strange, the list goes on. After months of self reflection, and some genuine progress mixed with some failed attempts at communicating myself properly I hit complete burnout. It was discouraging to see how I ended up back deep in my depression and anxiety, feeling sick, stuck, suicidal, especially after trying my hardest to show myself some empathy and actually seeing growth. As I’ve talked about in the past few months I finally reached out for help, went to inpatient psychiatric care, started medication, did intensive outpatient therapy for a little over a month and have been regularly attending traditional therapy since. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done for myself in my life. The genuine peace and patience I feel for life and myself is something I never could have imagined achieving, especially in just shy of a years time. I’m really happy and proud of myself for the person I’m turning out to be. The pain it took to get to this point was hell, it felt endless until it wasn’t. I’m understanding that recovery is an ongoing process, but one I fully believe I have what it takes to manage.

As for the boy I feel helped spark this unimaginable growth, it just doesn’t seem to be happening, and i can finally say I’m okay with that. Ive learned tough lessons and harsh truths throughout my life through cruel and unjust means and this wasn’t one of those. I can honestly say I’m grateful for how this year has transpired, I’m grateful I learned what I have this way, I’ll always have a soft spot for him, I felt a range of untapped emotion I didn’t know I was capable of, i would’ve very much loved to express this to him and what it’s all meant to me, but I think what I’ve gained is fulfilling in and of itself. I operate from a more loving and faithful place. I didn’t have to burn bridges or hurt others to get here and that’s something I’m very proud of. I’m doing things the best way I can, the way I want to, it’s tough, it requires endless patience, but it’s been immensely rewarding. It’s been an odd year, one I had no idea would ever turn out this way, I’m a little tired but I’m okay and it’s been worth it in more ways than I could say

[late-to-the-fandom]

Writing Questions Tag Game

I was tagged by @mrsmungus … a week ago? I no longer have any concept of time whatsoever. I also have no idea who has done this so I’m tagging a few and if I missed yours I apologize

Tagging: @shipping-through-eternity @mousterian-writes @velvethopewrites @diaryofomellas @unknownogre @frostedlemonwriter @tidesages @kharrisdawndancer

1. What is your absolute all-time favorite idea you've ever had? I loved my non-linear storytelling in Light & Shadows. It was so much fun to write and read and it’s really ruined regular chaptered fics for me now 😅

2. Is there a question you've been asked in the past that really stands out to you and you still think about sometimes? I was asked once on a very old fic how my writing flowed so easily it didn’t even feel like reading. Which is one of my favourite things I’ve been told but the answer is I wish I knew so I could do it all the time.

3. What is your favorite part of being a writer? What parts could you take or leave? The beginning and the end. I love the conception, the outlining, the planning, the seeing the scene in my head, hearing the dialogue unfold - and I love the completed product where I can finally sit down and read what I saw in my head out loud. The middle part where I’m actually choosing word after word gets hairy, especially when my preconceived notion of how a scene should go turns out to be wrong and I’m fighting the characters.

4. What is your greatest motivation to write/create? There is a story I want to read and it doesn’t exist yet so I have to write it.

5. What is the best piece of advice you've ever read or been given as a writer? To not take writing advice from anyone whose writing you don’t personally appreciate. They’re trying to lead you in a direction you don’t want to go anyway.

6. What do you wish you knew when you were first starting out writing? It’s ok to have the same word appear in the same paragraph. Sometimes it just has to be done and it’s ok.

7.What is your favorite story you've written TO COMPLETION? Link it if you'd like and can! This is like asking me to choose my favourite child. I can’t do it. I love all of them. The most popular I’ve ever written is here. The one I’m proudest of just based on how long it took me and how hard it was is here.

8.What is your favorite out-of-the-box quote?Lee Smith said, “a writer is someone who is writing not someone who is publishing,” and I think that tends to be forgotten. Fanfiction is generally considered (even by those who write it) as the warmup to “real” writing and I disagree whole heartedly. I think there are probably on the whole more meaningful and beautiful fanfics then there are original novels because the people who write fanfic are doing it out of love for characters more than wanting to write something they think they can sell (not universally true anymore, but still a general principle)

9. Which of your characters would you say has the most controversial mindset? Why do you say so and how do you personally feel about their ideals? I think both Renathal and the Maw Walker have some controversial principles, which I like about them because I never wanted them to be good/bad coded. Renathal is straight up pro-torture and espouses the benefits of suffering for atonement. The Maw Walker has a jaded opinion on life in general and is willing to kill whoever she’s told without thinking too deeply about it. I don’t agree with either of those things myself but it’s who they are.

10. If you when you first started writing met you now, what would younger you think? I think she would be happy to find out that I came back from a two year hiatus. I hope she would be impressed at the improvement in our prose. I think she would be stunned at the ambitious projects (for us) I’m attempting to take on and worried (even more than I am) that they’re still out of our writing depths.

[tameblog]

This blog post was created in partnership with Tide. Y’all know that cleaning doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m constantly searching for the very best way to clean everything, including clothes. When I heard that adding something I have in my pantry, like vinegar, to bargain detergent makes it clean clothes better, I was ready to try it. While the results were OK , I thought this was the best my family’s laundry would get. So when Tide told me that there’s an easier way to get even better results I started wondering – had I been doing my laundry wrong for years? Overthinking is often one of my (many) problems. Wanting to do things in the very best way possible is one of the (many) things that leads to this overthinking problem. When I have an opportunity to deep dive into the WHYs and the HOWs behind things, I generally take it. A few weeks ago, I had the ultimate Cleaning Nerdery deep dive opp when I was invited to the Tide Lab at P&G in Cincinnati, Ohio. The day spent learning about the science that goes into Tide did not disappoint. We learned how Tide works and about all the components that work together to remove oils and stains and dirt. But the thing that struck me, as an overthinker, was why Tide works so much better than my hacks. And it has to do with the fact that while those old-school hacks have been around for ages, Tide continues to research and improve their own formulas, which they just upgraded again in January. Laundry is changing. The challenges of modern laundry are different than the challenges faced in years past. I had a lot of well-duh moments of my own. I’ve experienced a lot of changes in how I do laundry over the years I’ve been the main-laundry-doer in my own life. Changes we discussed that present “modern laundry challenges”:Synthetic fabrics (polyester, for example) are what is now normal. The challenge is that synthetic fibers hold on to dirt more and are dirtier than what our clothes used to be. Prints are in. I can remember my mother, back in the 80s, not letting me have certain clothes because she refused to own anything that included a color next to white. She claimed there was no way to get these clean and not have the color bleed into the white. Now, we expect laundry detergent to be able to handle both the white and the colors next to it. People wash laundry in cold water so much more than they used to. It’s harder to get clothes clean in cold water, but since people wash that way, detergent needs to be effective in these conditions. HE washing machines (which are typically much bigger than most older top loader machines) use less water than ever before. If you have purchased a washing machine in the past few years, you know this. So while humans sweat and stink and spill as much as we ever have, the fabrics we’re sweating onto and the machines we’re sticking those clothes into aren’t the same as the ones our grandmas were dealing with. Note that I learned all these things (that were obvious to me once pointed out) because Tide is facing these challenges head on. Tide Ultra Oxi (available in PODs or liquid formula) is Tide’s first detergent combination with both the benefits of stain fighting and pre-treaters together. But our main reason for heading into the lab was to see the difference between traditional laundry “hacks” with bargain detergent vs. using Tide. We brought our own dirtied-up aprons. After a family taco night, during which I instructed my kids to purposely get the aprons messy, I had several prime specimens to work on in the lab. I made a baking soda paste and paired it with a bargain detergent that did well, but didn’t get all the stains completely out, while Tide alone did. In fact, Tide Ultra Oxi removes stains better than baking soda and a bargain detergent.   It’s hard to see perfectly, but if you look closely in the next photo, you can see that the apron on your right still has stains that did not come out with the baking soda treatment plus bargain detergent, but the one washed in Tide was completely clean. We also squeezed lemons. Honestly, I didn’t even care how lemon juice did, I don’t have the hand strength or time to squeeze a bag of lemons. (Interesting note: Tide is designed for use on both colors and white clothing, but lemon juice isn’t: in fact, lemon juice has bleaching power and may fade colors if not used correctly.) And when it comes to smells, Tide removes more of the source of malodor (that nasty smell that sticks to clothes no matter how many times you wash it) vs. soaking clothes in vinegar and washing with a bargain detergent. The new Tide Fresh Coral Blast was a favorite with everyone else there due to its scent, but I was assured that the Tide Free & Gentle PODs unscented pods I love so much also remove odors. And unfortunately/fortunately, I had the opportunity to try out just using two Tide PODs on some less-than-fresh laundry that I left washing machine for two days during the crazy week before my book launch (when I also happened to be sick . . . ). I used two since I learned in Cincinnati that with the larger loads, two PODs are needed, and I didn’t even add vinegar like I usually would have in this situation. And just for kicks, here’s a visual demonstration of how all that odor happens. These containers represent body soil produced by an average adult, daily. DAILY, y’all. The yellow liquid represents how much an average adult sweats, the oatmeal represents how many skin cells sluff off in a day, the orange oil shows how much body oil an average adult produces, and the salt shows how much salt we each put off in a day. SO GROSS, RIGHT?!? In my mind, I double the sizes of these containers for teenage boys, and quadruple them for football season. Yay for Tide removing the sources of all that stink! My conclusion: I like knowing how things work, and I love seeing how what seems too easy (throwing Tide PODS into my washing machine) is actually superior to hacks using basic household items (baking soda, lemon, vinegar + bargain detergent) that can take a lot of time and may not work as well as they used to due to changes in how laundry is done now. You no longer need to worry about stain-filled family meals or your kids’ sweaty jerseys. Giveaway! Leave a comment on this post to be entered to win a  tub of Tide Ultra Oxi PODS! Continental U.S. only. This giveaway ends on March 26, 2018 at 9 p.m. Central time. Winner will be chosen using random.org.  Winner must respond to my email within 48 hours or I’ll have to choose another winner. See all my giveaway policies here. --Nony Related Posts: !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script','//connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '1712009765708377'); fbq('track', "PageView");(function(d, s, id) var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.8&appId=593275940768565"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); (document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Source link

[ramestoryworld]

This blog post was created in partnership with Tide. Y’all know that cleaning doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m constantly searching for the very best way to clean everything, including clothes. When I heard that adding something I have in my pantry, like vinegar, to bargain detergent makes it clean clothes better, I was ready to try it. While the results were OK , I thought this was the best my family’s laundry would get. So when Tide told me that there’s an easier way to get even better results I started wondering – had I been doing my laundry wrong for years? Overthinking is often one of my (many) problems. Wanting to do things in the very best way possible is one of the (many) things that leads to this overthinking problem. When I have an opportunity to deep dive into the WHYs and the HOWs behind things, I generally take it. A few weeks ago, I had the ultimate Cleaning Nerdery deep dive opp when I was invited to the Tide Lab at P&G in Cincinnati, Ohio. The day spent learning about the science that goes into Tide did not disappoint. We learned how Tide works and about all the components that work together to remove oils and stains and dirt. But the thing that struck me, as an overthinker, was why Tide works so much better than my hacks. And it has to do with the fact that while those old-school hacks have been around for ages, Tide continues to research and improve their own formulas, which they just upgraded again in January. Laundry is changing. The challenges of modern laundry are different than the challenges faced in years past. I had a lot of well-duh moments of my own. I’ve experienced a lot of changes in how I do laundry over the years I’ve been the main-laundry-doer in my own life. Changes we discussed that present “modern laundry challenges”:Synthetic fabrics (polyester, for example) are what is now normal. The challenge is that synthetic fibers hold on to dirt more and are dirtier than what our clothes used to be. Prints are in. I can remember my mother, back in the 80s, not letting me have certain clothes because she refused to own anything that included a color next to white. She claimed there was no way to get these clean and not have the color bleed into the white. Now, we expect laundry detergent to be able to handle both the white and the colors next to it. People wash laundry in cold water so much more than they used to. It’s harder to get clothes clean in cold water, but since people wash that way, detergent needs to be effective in these conditions. HE washing machines (which are typically much bigger than most older top loader machines) use less water than ever before. If you have purchased a washing machine in the past few years, you know this. So while humans sweat and stink and spill as much as we ever have, the fabrics we’re sweating onto and the machines we’re sticking those clothes into aren’t the same as the ones our grandmas were dealing with. Note that I learned all these things (that were obvious to me once pointed out) because Tide is facing these challenges head on. Tide Ultra Oxi (available in PODs or liquid formula) is Tide’s first detergent combination with both the benefits of stain fighting and pre-treaters together. But our main reason for heading into the lab was to see the difference between traditional laundry “hacks” with bargain detergent vs. using Tide. We brought our own dirtied-up aprons. After a family taco night, during which I instructed my kids to purposely get the aprons messy, I had several prime specimens to work on in the lab. I made a baking soda paste and paired it with a bargain detergent that did well, but didn’t get all the stains completely out, while Tide alone did. In fact, Tide Ultra Oxi removes stains better than baking soda and a bargain detergent.   It’s hard to see perfectly, but if you look closely in the next photo, you can see that the apron on your right still has stains that did not come out with the baking soda treatment plus bargain detergent, but the one washed in Tide was completely clean. We also squeezed lemons. Honestly, I didn’t even care how lemon juice did, I don’t have the hand strength or time to squeeze a bag of lemons. (Interesting note: Tide is designed for use on both colors and white clothing, but lemon juice isn’t: in fact, lemon juice has bleaching power and may fade colors if not used correctly.) And when it comes to smells, Tide removes more of the source of malodor (that nasty smell that sticks to clothes no matter how many times you wash it) vs. soaking clothes in vinegar and washing with a bargain detergent. The new Tide Fresh Coral Blast was a favorite with everyone else there due to its scent, but I was assured that the Tide Free & Gentle PODs unscented pods I love so much also remove odors. And unfortunately/fortunately, I had the opportunity to try out just using two Tide PODs on some less-than-fresh laundry that I left washing machine for two days during the crazy week before my book launch (when I also happened to be sick . . . ). I used two since I learned in Cincinnati that with the larger loads, two PODs are needed, and I didn’t even add vinegar like I usually would have in this situation. And just for kicks, here’s a visual demonstration of how all that odor happens. These containers represent body soil produced by an average adult, daily. DAILY, y’all. The yellow liquid represents how much an average adult sweats, the oatmeal represents how many skin cells sluff off in a day, the orange oil shows how much body oil an average adult produces, and the salt shows how much salt we each put off in a day. SO GROSS, RIGHT?!? In my mind, I double the sizes of these containers for teenage boys, and quadruple them for football season. Yay for Tide removing the sources of all that stink! My conclusion: I like knowing how things work, and I love seeing how what seems too easy (throwing Tide PODS into my washing machine) is actually superior to hacks using basic household items (baking soda, lemon, vinegar + bargain detergent) that can take a lot of time and may not work as well as they used to due to changes in how laundry is done now. You no longer need to worry about stain-filled family meals or your kids’ sweaty jerseys. Giveaway! Leave a comment on this post to be entered to win a  tub of Tide Ultra Oxi PODS! Continental U.S. only. This giveaway ends on March 26, 2018 at 9 p.m. Central time. Winner will be chosen using random.org.  Winner must respond to my email within 48 hours or I’ll have to choose another winner. See all my giveaway policies here. --Nony Related Posts: !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script','//connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '1712009765708377'); fbq('track', "PageView");(function(d, s, id) var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.8&appId=593275940768565"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); (document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Source link

[alexha2210]

This blog post was created in partnership with Tide. Y’all know that cleaning doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m constantly searching for the very best way to clean everything, including clothes. When I heard that adding something I have in my pantry, like vinegar, to bargain detergent makes it clean clothes better, I was ready to try it. While the results were OK , I thought this was the best my family’s laundry would get. So when Tide told me that there’s an easier way to get even better results I started wondering – had I been doing my laundry wrong for years? Overthinking is often one of my (many) problems. Wanting to do things in the very best way possible is one of the (many) things that leads to this overthinking problem. When I have an opportunity to deep dive into the WHYs and the HOWs behind things, I generally take it. A few weeks ago, I had the ultimate Cleaning Nerdery deep dive opp when I was invited to the Tide Lab at P&G in Cincinnati, Ohio. The day spent learning about the science that goes into Tide did not disappoint. We learned how Tide works and about all the components that work together to remove oils and stains and dirt. But the thing that struck me, as an overthinker, was why Tide works so much better than my hacks. And it has to do with the fact that while those old-school hacks have been around for ages, Tide continues to research and improve their own formulas, which they just upgraded again in January. Laundry is changing. The challenges of modern laundry are different than the challenges faced in years past. I had a lot of well-duh moments of my own. I’ve experienced a lot of changes in how I do laundry over the years I’ve been the main-laundry-doer in my own life. Changes we discussed that present “modern laundry challenges”:Synthetic fabrics (polyester, for example) are what is now normal. The challenge is that synthetic fibers hold on to dirt more and are dirtier than what our clothes used to be. Prints are in. I can remember my mother, back in the 80s, not letting me have certain clothes because she refused to own anything that included a color next to white. She claimed there was no way to get these clean and not have the color bleed into the white. Now, we expect laundry detergent to be able to handle both the white and the colors next to it. People wash laundry in cold water so much more than they used to. It’s harder to get clothes clean in cold water, but since people wash that way, detergent needs to be effective in these conditions. HE washing machines (which are typically much bigger than most older top loader machines) use less water than ever before. If you have purchased a washing machine in the past few years, you know this. So while humans sweat and stink and spill as much as we ever have, the fabrics we’re sweating onto and the machines we’re sticking those clothes into aren’t the same as the ones our grandmas were dealing with. Note that I learned all these things (that were obvious to me once pointed out) because Tide is facing these challenges head on. Tide Ultra Oxi (available in PODs or liquid formula) is Tide’s first detergent combination with both the benefits of stain fighting and pre-treaters together. But our main reason for heading into the lab was to see the difference between traditional laundry “hacks” with bargain detergent vs. using Tide. We brought our own dirtied-up aprons. After a family taco night, during which I instructed my kids to purposely get the aprons messy, I had several prime specimens to work on in the lab. I made a baking soda paste and paired it with a bargain detergent that did well, but didn’t get all the stains completely out, while Tide alone did. In fact, Tide Ultra Oxi removes stains better than baking soda and a bargain detergent.   It’s hard to see perfectly, but if you look closely in the next photo, you can see that the apron on your right still has stains that did not come out with the baking soda treatment plus bargain detergent, but the one washed in Tide was completely clean. We also squeezed lemons. Honestly, I didn’t even care how lemon juice did, I don’t have the hand strength or time to squeeze a bag of lemons. (Interesting note: Tide is designed for use on both colors and white clothing, but lemon juice isn’t: in fact, lemon juice has bleaching power and may fade colors if not used correctly.) And when it comes to smells, Tide removes more of the source of malodor (that nasty smell that sticks to clothes no matter how many times you wash it) vs. soaking clothes in vinegar and washing with a bargain detergent. The new Tide Fresh Coral Blast was a favorite with everyone else there due to its scent, but I was assured that the Tide Free & Gentle PODs unscented pods I love so much also remove odors. And unfortunately/fortunately, I had the opportunity to try out just using two Tide PODs on some less-than-fresh laundry that I left washing machine for two days during the crazy week before my book launch (when I also happened to be sick . . . ). I used two since I learned in Cincinnati that with the larger loads, two PODs are needed, and I didn’t even add vinegar like I usually would have in this situation. And just for kicks, here’s a visual demonstration of how all that odor happens. These containers represent body soil produced by an average adult, daily. DAILY, y’all. The yellow liquid represents how much an average adult sweats, the oatmeal represents how many skin cells sluff off in a day, the orange oil shows how much body oil an average adult produces, and the salt shows how much salt we each put off in a day. SO GROSS, RIGHT?!? In my mind, I double the sizes of these containers for teenage boys, and quadruple them for football season. Yay for Tide removing the sources of all that stink! My conclusion: I like knowing how things work, and I love seeing how what seems too easy (throwing Tide PODS into my washing machine) is actually superior to hacks using basic household items (baking soda, lemon, vinegar + bargain detergent) that can take a lot of time and may not work as well as they used to due to changes in how laundry is done now. You no longer need to worry about stain-filled family meals or your kids’ sweaty jerseys. Giveaway! Leave a comment on this post to be entered to win a  tub of Tide Ultra Oxi PODS! Continental U.S. only. This giveaway ends on March 26, 2018 at 9 p.m. Central time. Winner will be chosen using random.org.  Winner must respond to my email within 48 hours or I’ll have to choose another winner. See all my giveaway policies here. --Nony Related Posts: !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script','//connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '1712009765708377'); fbq('track', "PageView");(function(d, s, id) var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.8&appId=593275940768565"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); (document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Source link

[angusstory]

This blog post was created in partnership with Tide. Y’all know that cleaning doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m constantly searching for the very best way to clean everything, including clothes. When I heard that adding something I have in my pantry, like vinegar, to bargain detergent makes it clean clothes better, I was ready to try it. While the results were OK , I thought this was the best my family’s laundry would get. So when Tide told me that there’s an easier way to get even better results I started wondering – had I been doing my laundry wrong for years? Overthinking is often one of my (many) problems. Wanting to do things in the very best way possible is one of the (many) things that leads to this overthinking problem. When I have an opportunity to deep dive into the WHYs and the HOWs behind things, I generally take it. A few weeks ago, I had the ultimate Cleaning Nerdery deep dive opp when I was invited to the Tide Lab at P&G in Cincinnati, Ohio. The day spent learning about the science that goes into Tide did not disappoint. We learned how Tide works and about all the components that work together to remove oils and stains and dirt. But the thing that struck me, as an overthinker, was why Tide works so much better than my hacks. And it has to do with the fact that while those old-school hacks have been around for ages, Tide continues to research and improve their own formulas, which they just upgraded again in January. Laundry is changing. The challenges of modern laundry are different than the challenges faced in years past. I had a lot of well-duh moments of my own. I’ve experienced a lot of changes in how I do laundry over the years I’ve been the main-laundry-doer in my own life. Changes we discussed that present “modern laundry challenges”:Synthetic fabrics (polyester, for example) are what is now normal. The challenge is that synthetic fibers hold on to dirt more and are dirtier than what our clothes used to be. Prints are in. I can remember my mother, back in the 80s, not letting me have certain clothes because she refused to own anything that included a color next to white. She claimed there was no way to get these clean and not have the color bleed into the white. Now, we expect laundry detergent to be able to handle both the white and the colors next to it. People wash laundry in cold water so much more than they used to. It’s harder to get clothes clean in cold water, but since people wash that way, detergent needs to be effective in these conditions. HE washing machines (which are typically much bigger than most older top loader machines) use less water than ever before. If you have purchased a washing machine in the past few years, you know this. So while humans sweat and stink and spill as much as we ever have, the fabrics we’re sweating onto and the machines we’re sticking those clothes into aren’t the same as the ones our grandmas were dealing with. Note that I learned all these things (that were obvious to me once pointed out) because Tide is facing these challenges head on. Tide Ultra Oxi (available in PODs or liquid formula) is Tide’s first detergent combination with both the benefits of stain fighting and pre-treaters together. But our main reason for heading into the lab was to see the difference between traditional laundry “hacks” with bargain detergent vs. using Tide. We brought our own dirtied-up aprons. After a family taco night, during which I instructed my kids to purposely get the aprons messy, I had several prime specimens to work on in the lab. I made a baking soda paste and paired it with a bargain detergent that did well, but didn’t get all the stains completely out, while Tide alone did. In fact, Tide Ultra Oxi removes stains better than baking soda and a bargain detergent.   It’s hard to see perfectly, but if you look closely in the next photo, you can see that the apron on your right still has stains that did not come out with the baking soda treatment plus bargain detergent, but the one washed in Tide was completely clean. We also squeezed lemons. Honestly, I didn’t even care how lemon juice did, I don’t have the hand strength or time to squeeze a bag of lemons. (Interesting note: Tide is designed for use on both colors and white clothing, but lemon juice isn’t: in fact, lemon juice has bleaching power and may fade colors if not used correctly.) And when it comes to smells, Tide removes more of the source of malodor (that nasty smell that sticks to clothes no matter how many times you wash it) vs. soaking clothes in vinegar and washing with a bargain detergent. The new Tide Fresh Coral Blast was a favorite with everyone else there due to its scent, but I was assured that the Tide Free & Gentle PODs unscented pods I love so much also remove odors. And unfortunately/fortunately, I had the opportunity to try out just using two Tide PODs on some less-than-fresh laundry that I left washing machine for two days during the crazy week before my book launch (when I also happened to be sick . . . ). I used two since I learned in Cincinnati that with the larger loads, two PODs are needed, and I didn’t even add vinegar like I usually would have in this situation. And just for kicks, here’s a visual demonstration of how all that odor happens. These containers represent body soil produced by an average adult, daily. DAILY, y’all. The yellow liquid represents how much an average adult sweats, the oatmeal represents how many skin cells sluff off in a day, the orange oil shows how much body oil an average adult produces, and the salt shows how much salt we each put off in a day. SO GROSS, RIGHT?!? In my mind, I double the sizes of these containers for teenage boys, and quadruple them for football season. Yay for Tide removing the sources of all that stink! My conclusion: I like knowing how things work, and I love seeing how what seems too easy (throwing Tide PODS into my washing machine) is actually superior to hacks using basic household items (baking soda, lemon, vinegar + bargain detergent) that can take a lot of time and may not work as well as they used to due to changes in how laundry is done now. You no longer need to worry about stain-filled family meals or your kids’ sweaty jerseys. Giveaway! Leave a comment on this post to be entered to win a  tub of Tide Ultra Oxi PODS! Continental U.S. only. This giveaway ends on March 26, 2018 at 9 p.m. Central time. Winner will be chosen using random.org.  Winner must respond to my email within 48 hours or I’ll have to choose another winner. See all my giveaway policies here. --Nony Related Posts: !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script','//connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '1712009765708377'); fbq('track', "PageView");(function(d, s, id) var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.8&appId=593275940768565"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); (document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Source link

[tumibaba]

This blog post was created in partnership with Tide. Y’all know that cleaning doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m constantly searching for the very best way to clean everything, including clothes. When I heard that adding something I have in my pantry, like vinegar, to bargain detergent makes it clean clothes better, I was ready to try it. While the results were OK , I thought this was the best my family’s laundry would get. So when Tide told me that there’s an easier way to get even better results I started wondering – had I been doing my laundry wrong for years? Overthinking is often one of my (many) problems. Wanting to do things in the very best way possible is one of the (many) things that leads to this overthinking problem. When I have an opportunity to deep dive into the WHYs and the HOWs behind things, I generally take it. A few weeks ago, I had the ultimate Cleaning Nerdery deep dive opp when I was invited to the Tide Lab at P&G in Cincinnati, Ohio. The day spent learning about the science that goes into Tide did not disappoint. We learned how Tide works and about all the components that work together to remove oils and stains and dirt. But the thing that struck me, as an overthinker, was why Tide works so much better than my hacks. And it has to do with the fact that while those old-school hacks have been around for ages, Tide continues to research and improve their own formulas, which they just upgraded again in January. Laundry is changing. The challenges of modern laundry are different than the challenges faced in years past. I had a lot of well-duh moments of my own. I’ve experienced a lot of changes in how I do laundry over the years I’ve been the main-laundry-doer in my own life. Changes we discussed that present “modern laundry challenges”:Synthetic fabrics (polyester, for example) are what is now normal. The challenge is that synthetic fibers hold on to dirt more and are dirtier than what our clothes used to be. Prints are in. I can remember my mother, back in the 80s, not letting me have certain clothes because she refused to own anything that included a color next to white. She claimed there was no way to get these clean and not have the color bleed into the white. Now, we expect laundry detergent to be able to handle both the white and the colors next to it. People wash laundry in cold water so much more than they used to. It’s harder to get clothes clean in cold water, but since people wash that way, detergent needs to be effective in these conditions. HE washing machines (which are typically much bigger than most older top loader machines) use less water than ever before. If you have purchased a washing machine in the past few years, you know this. So while humans sweat and stink and spill as much as we ever have, the fabrics we’re sweating onto and the machines we’re sticking those clothes into aren’t the same as the ones our grandmas were dealing with. Note that I learned all these things (that were obvious to me once pointed out) because Tide is facing these challenges head on. Tide Ultra Oxi (available in PODs or liquid formula) is Tide’s first detergent combination with both the benefits of stain fighting and pre-treaters together. But our main reason for heading into the lab was to see the difference between traditional laundry “hacks” with bargain detergent vs. using Tide. We brought our own dirtied-up aprons. After a family taco night, during which I instructed my kids to purposely get the aprons messy, I had several prime specimens to work on in the lab. I made a baking soda paste and paired it with a bargain detergent that did well, but didn’t get all the stains completely out, while Tide alone did. In fact, Tide Ultra Oxi removes stains better than baking soda and a bargain detergent.   It’s hard to see perfectly, but if you look closely in the next photo, you can see that the apron on your right still has stains that did not come out with the baking soda treatment plus bargain detergent, but the one washed in Tide was completely clean. We also squeezed lemons. Honestly, I didn’t even care how lemon juice did, I don’t have the hand strength or time to squeeze a bag of lemons. (Interesting note: Tide is designed for use on both colors and white clothing, but lemon juice isn’t: in fact, lemon juice has bleaching power and may fade colors if not used correctly.) And when it comes to smells, Tide removes more of the source of malodor (that nasty smell that sticks to clothes no matter how many times you wash it) vs. soaking clothes in vinegar and washing with a bargain detergent. The new Tide Fresh Coral Blast was a favorite with everyone else there due to its scent, but I was assured that the Tide Free & Gentle PODs unscented pods I love so much also remove odors. And unfortunately/fortunately, I had the opportunity to try out just using two Tide PODs on some less-than-fresh laundry that I left washing machine for two days during the crazy week before my book launch (when I also happened to be sick . . . ). I used two since I learned in Cincinnati that with the larger loads, two PODs are needed, and I didn’t even add vinegar like I usually would have in this situation. And just for kicks, here’s a visual demonstration of how all that odor happens. These containers represent body soil produced by an average adult, daily. DAILY, y’all. The yellow liquid represents how much an average adult sweats, the oatmeal represents how many skin cells sluff off in a day, the orange oil shows how much body oil an average adult produces, and the salt shows how much salt we each put off in a day. SO GROSS, RIGHT?!? In my mind, I double the sizes of these containers for teenage boys, and quadruple them for football season. Yay for Tide removing the sources of all that stink! My conclusion: I like knowing how things work, and I love seeing how what seems too easy (throwing Tide PODS into my washing machine) is actually superior to hacks using basic household items (baking soda, lemon, vinegar + bargain detergent) that can take a lot of time and may not work as well as they used to due to changes in how laundry is done now. You no longer need to worry about stain-filled family meals or your kids’ sweaty jerseys. Giveaway! Leave a comment on this post to be entered to win a  tub of Tide Ultra Oxi PODS! Continental U.S. only. This giveaway ends on March 26, 2018 at 9 p.m. Central time. Winner will be chosen using random.org.  Winner must respond to my email within 48 hours or I’ll have to choose another winner. See all my giveaway policies here. --Nony Related Posts: !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script','//connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '1712009765708377'); fbq('track', "PageView");(function(d, s, id) var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.8&appId=593275940768565"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); (document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Source link

[romaleen]

This blog post was created in partnership with Tide. Y’all know that cleaning doesn’t come naturally to me. I’m constantly searching for the very best way to clean everything, including clothes. When I heard that adding something I have in my pantry, like vinegar, to bargain detergent makes it clean clothes better, I was ready to try it. While the results were OK , I thought this was the best my family’s laundry would get. So when Tide told me that there’s an easier way to get even better results I started wondering – had I been doing my laundry wrong for years? Overthinking is often one of my (many) problems. Wanting to do things in the very best way possible is one of the (many) things that leads to this overthinking problem. When I have an opportunity to deep dive into the WHYs and the HOWs behind things, I generally take it. A few weeks ago, I had the ultimate Cleaning Nerdery deep dive opp when I was invited to the Tide Lab at P&G in Cincinnati, Ohio. The day spent learning about the science that goes into Tide did not disappoint. We learned how Tide works and about all the components that work together to remove oils and stains and dirt. But the thing that struck me, as an overthinker, was why Tide works so much better than my hacks. And it has to do with the fact that while those old-school hacks have been around for ages, Tide continues to research and improve their own formulas, which they just upgraded again in January. Laundry is changing. The challenges of modern laundry are different than the challenges faced in years past. I had a lot of well-duh moments of my own. I’ve experienced a lot of changes in how I do laundry over the years I’ve been the main-laundry-doer in my own life. Changes we discussed that present “modern laundry challenges”:Synthetic fabrics (polyester, for example) are what is now normal. The challenge is that synthetic fibers hold on to dirt more and are dirtier than what our clothes used to be. Prints are in. I can remember my mother, back in the 80s, not letting me have certain clothes because she refused to own anything that included a color next to white. She claimed there was no way to get these clean and not have the color bleed into the white. Now, we expect laundry detergent to be able to handle both the white and the colors next to it. People wash laundry in cold water so much more than they used to. It’s harder to get clothes clean in cold water, but since people wash that way, detergent needs to be effective in these conditions. HE washing machines (which are typically much bigger than most older top loader machines) use less water than ever before. If you have purchased a washing machine in the past few years, you know this. So while humans sweat and stink and spill as much as we ever have, the fabrics we’re sweating onto and the machines we’re sticking those clothes into aren’t the same as the ones our grandmas were dealing with. Note that I learned all these things (that were obvious to me once pointed out) because Tide is facing these challenges head on. Tide Ultra Oxi (available in PODs or liquid formula) is Tide’s first detergent combination with both the benefits of stain fighting and pre-treaters together. But our main reason for heading into the lab was to see the difference between traditional laundry “hacks” with bargain detergent vs. using Tide. We brought our own dirtied-up aprons. After a family taco night, during which I instructed my kids to purposely get the aprons messy, I had several prime specimens to work on in the lab. I made a baking soda paste and paired it with a bargain detergent that did well, but didn’t get all the stains completely out, while Tide alone did. In fact, Tide Ultra Oxi removes stains better than baking soda and a bargain detergent.   It’s hard to see perfectly, but if you look closely in the next photo, you can see that the apron on your right still has stains that did not come out with the baking soda treatment plus bargain detergent, but the one washed in Tide was completely clean. We also squeezed lemons. Honestly, I didn’t even care how lemon juice did, I don’t have the hand strength or time to squeeze a bag of lemons. (Interesting note: Tide is designed for use on both colors and white clothing, but lemon juice isn’t: in fact, lemon juice has bleaching power and may fade colors if not used correctly.) And when it comes to smells, Tide removes more of the source of malodor (that nasty smell that sticks to clothes no matter how many times you wash it) vs. soaking clothes in vinegar and washing with a bargain detergent. The new Tide Fresh Coral Blast was a favorite with everyone else there due to its scent, but I was assured that the Tide Free & Gentle PODs unscented pods I love so much also remove odors. And unfortunately/fortunately, I had the opportunity to try out just using two Tide PODs on some less-than-fresh laundry that I left washing machine for two days during the crazy week before my book launch (when I also happened to be sick . . . ). I used two since I learned in Cincinnati that with the larger loads, two PODs are needed, and I didn’t even add vinegar like I usually would have in this situation. And just for kicks, here’s a visual demonstration of how all that odor happens. These containers represent body soil produced by an average adult, daily. DAILY, y’all. The yellow liquid represents how much an average adult sweats, the oatmeal represents how many skin cells sluff off in a day, the orange oil shows how much body oil an average adult produces, and the salt shows how much salt we each put off in a day. SO GROSS, RIGHT?!? In my mind, I double the sizes of these containers for teenage boys, and quadruple them for football season. Yay for Tide removing the sources of all that stink! My conclusion: I like knowing how things work, and I love seeing how what seems too easy (throwing Tide PODS into my washing machine) is actually superior to hacks using basic household items (baking soda, lemon, vinegar + bargain detergent) that can take a lot of time and may not work as well as they used to due to changes in how laundry is done now. You no longer need to worry about stain-filled family meals or your kids’ sweaty jerseys. Giveaway! Leave a comment on this post to be entered to win a  tub of Tide Ultra Oxi PODS! Continental U.S. only. This giveaway ends on March 26, 2018 at 9 p.m. Central time. Winner will be chosen using random.org.  Winner must respond to my email within 48 hours or I’ll have to choose another winner. See all my giveaway policies here. --Nony Related Posts: !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s)if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function()n.callMethod? n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments);if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n; n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0; t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)(window, document,'script','//connect.facebook.net/en_US/fbevents.js'); fbq('init', '1712009765708377'); fbq('track', "PageView");(function(d, s, id) var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0]; if (d.getElementById(id)) return; js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id; js.src = "//connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v2.8&appId=593275940768565"; fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs); (document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk')); Source link