#especially for speedreaders

[wisteriagoesvroom]

For the trope mashup thing whatever: arranged marriage and neighbors 👀 - CX

again not one i would've picked but thank you for prompting it !! this also uh, got longer than i thought.

(from the prompts mash up - still taking submissions)

--------

“What do you mean your visa’s running out?” Lando asks.

“I’m Australian. Not a magician. Commonwealth only gets you so far.” 

“I thought you were here on a scholarship.”

“Well. Yeah. But scholarships stop. Once you graduate.” 

Lando toes the doorway rug. It feels weird to be talking about this in the middle of the hallway, though the only other person who would be listening might be Mrs. Kapoor, and half the time it’s only because she sticks her head out to ask if Lando or Oscar would take one of her mystery vegan curries. Lando is neither a huge fan of vegan food nor curry, and he trusts Oscar’s word for it that it’s good because they eat it while playing Gran Turismo at Lando’s place. But Lando always accepts the curries nonetheless, because his parents raised him to be polite, and he wasn’t raised in a barn. (Even if he technically grew up in converted farmhouse in the countryside, but that was besides the point.)  Either way, this is slipping away from him much quicker than he’d anticipated. Late night hangouts, dropping mail and post-it notes, text messages about the community garden. The most inane smalltalk about things big and small from the origins of moths to whether aliens were out there or just chose to ignore the +44 area code. Oscar always laughing in the right places when Lando regales him about tales of his terrible online dating stories, Oscar always picking the pickles out of the roast beef bagels before he passes one to Lando. The corner of Lando’s sofa that Lando has started to think of as Oscar’s because he’s there so often, reading one of his books or trying to speedread a JSTOR article about the lifecycle of urban pathogens while Lando worked on artwork for his upcoming store launch. 

Lando’s synapses are firing too fast. His brain did that most days, and that was what made him exceedingly good at his job, and today in particular - it doesn’t feel like there’s any logical way out. 

Lando remembers that movie they watched once though. As a joke. The one they both pretended not to enjoy, with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds in Alaska. The one they watched when Oscar sat next to Lando on the sofa, and they both pretended the entire night that their knees weren’t touching. 

His therapist said he had a tendency to get ahead of himself when under stress. But it’s a joke, it’s not serious, there’s no way—

“We could just like, get married.”

Lando shoves his hands in his pockets. That came out way more calm and cooler than he thought it actually would.  And to his credit, Oscar doesn’t drop his mug of tea. Lando knows that’s his favourite one, because Lando got it for him, and it says Science is my superpower. Oscar does, however, slightly shift his grip on the mug.

“I feel like it’d be complicated to explain to my mum why I randomly married my upstairs neighbour?” 

“But it’s not a no.”

Oscar tilts his head. There’s a glimmer of something focused, maybe even hungry in his eyes. Oscar gets like that when his mind turns, when he’s working on an especially difficult thesis, when the pieces are forming and he can lock into the crucial details.

Lando is a little alarmed at how much he already recognises it, and how much more often he’d like to draw that reaction out. 

“If the facts don’t fit the theory, then reexamine the facts. Right?” Oscar says.

And Lando is there, in the doorway. Conscious that Mrs Kapoor might’ve heard everything, but all the more conscious that there’s a hammering in his heart that he can’t tell is nervousness, or anticipation. 

What’s the stress limit for a joke you’re probably already pushing too far? Lando thinks.

He isn’t sure.

But maybe it’s a thesis worth testing out.  

-------------

(and ok maybe i cheated a little on arranged marriage but i think this is the closest i could get with the contemporary context. thank you @cx-boxbox for the prompt <3)

[noodleblade]

give us some thoughts on our boy smokescreen

I will always talk about my bestest boy.

He's really bad at video games, especially racing games. Bee is a natural at them and Smokescreen cannot stand it. I'm not saying he has gamer rage but like...after a few too many times in last place he will offer to go on patrol to spin his wheels.

He picked his new paint color because it looked rad. Totally not because Optimus is also blue. That'd be a little ridiculous. It's not because of Optimus but isn't it kind of neat they like match now...ahah.

Smokescreen had ingested human food. Multiple times. Each time he does it he had to sheepishly come up to Ratchet a few hours later and ask for his help to remove it before it gunks up his inner systems. No matter how many times Ratchet tells him he cannot eat chili dogs and cotton candy Smokescreen somehow gets tempted by one of the kids. Its a nightmare.

He can speedread. At first, Arcee and Ratchet are convinced he's just not reading the reports and is pretending he did so they test him. When he passes, they are still suspicious and start sneaking stupid little things into the reports to see if he catches them. Smokescreen thinks this is all very funny so he doesn't mention their little mess ups which only infuriates them further. It takes both of them....an extremely long time to realize he just reads fast.

Smokescreen's idol complex is not exclusive to Optimus and when he learns about Ultra Magnus being the leader of the wreckers, he immediately looks up every single report and has a small period where he idolizes and follows him around. Wheeljack and Bulkhead think this is the funniest thing and may exaggerate some of the stories to see how long it takes Ultra Magnus to tell the kid to stop. In the meantime, Ultra Magnus is just confused why he can't walk ten feet into base without Smokescreen at his heels, asking him 1 million questions.

[atwas-meme-ing]

Two questions that I felt were never fully answered in Murder of Sonic:

SPOILERS AHEAD

Who sent out the lore cards, and... what was this about???

Funny that the conductor is asking such a question of Espio, given that Espio is the one who used the air vent to escape through the robot trackway. He would have had to climb the walls to even get to that vent, just as Knuckles did later.

Also, check this out:

Espio- that is, the murderer doesn't need to give his ticket to the conductor? Is that really just a glitch?

(And btw, I checked it myself, and it's true- you DON'T have to get Espio's ticket to proceed. Very interesting....)

Amy states over and over that, even though it's her birthday party, she has no idea what anybody's backstory is, their lore, or who the murderer is. Also, the conductor says that the train company itself hosts these murder mysteries and other events. I believe Rouge also stated later that the train also hosts escape rooms.

So, it's simple: the conductor must have sent out the lore cards. Or someone with the train company did, anyway. At any rate, the conductor knew the plot all along. That's why he doesn't have to collect Espio's ticket- the poet is supposed to be the murderer, and what's a murder mystery without a murderer? Even if Espio didn't have a ticket, they couldn't kick him out and risk ruining the party and making all the guests mad.

BUT, it obviously couldn't have been the conductor who wrote the instruction card, right?

Barry says during the Faberge Chao Egg sequence that the conductor wouldn't have allowed any weapons on the train; BUT, if the train already knew Sonic was coming- and it probably did, since it's such good friends with the conductor, and the conductor certainly knew who his guests were- then the train could have communicated with other badniks to get a blow gun smuggled on board. That instruction card, the one the robot arm gave to Espio, is printed, not handwritten, and we know there's a printer in the lounge. Since the train is confirmed to be sentient, it's entirely conceivable that the train acted on its own to give Espio a blow gun and the instructions to use it.

As for how it knew that Espio would be naive enough to think a blow gun was part of the game- tbh, I think the train just got lucky. Out of all the characters in this particular game, I think the only other one that would be that gullible is Knuckles.

Actually, I would have thought that Knuckles would be the only character that gullible, but given the events of the story, Knuckles just wouldn't have worked as the murderer- he wasn't likely to figure out the secret passage, or even know to look for one. Besides, Knuckles is powerful and hot-headed, but there's no way he could pull off a murder! He doesn't have that kind of heart or mind, he doesn't have the faintest idea how to think like a murderer (soldier, yes; murderer, no). Rouge probably could have figured it out, but she's not dumb enough to use a real blow gun, especially on Sonic, of all people.

Espio, on the other hand- he's a criminal investigator, of course he knows how to pull off a murder. Now, TBH, I sadly don't know Espio's character very well- Forces and Heroes and now TMOSTH, and that's about it. But considering that he's a ninja and an intellectual, I figure he's not really the gullible type- BUT, I would imagine that also means he's not terribly social. Besides, he makes the comment that Vector got bored because Espio wasn't good enough company, because Vector is very social. And while he does seem to like pranking his friends, his taste in jokes seems to have a highly intellectual quality to them (such as speedreading a book JUST so he could spoil the ending for Knux). So I guess it's plausible that Espio might think that putting someone to sleep with a blow gun would be within the normal rules of gameplay.

[rantingoverbadfic]

I am already on chapter seven of this fic, and it is still an interminably boring queue of one extended sex scene after another, interspersed with sex talks or reminiscing about the sex they had had or imagining what sex they will have in the future. Every once in a while the plot creeps in for three or four sentences, very rarely for a whole paragraph. I usually find it quite important to have a fictional couple use their actual words and screen time having compliment each other, instead of just handwaving the relationship development - this is how you end up with canon relationships where you think whyever those two people even stay with each other, if they hate it so much. But in this case I can only beg for them to Just. Fucking. Shut. Up. And get on with actually doing something. Something other then each other. And if it is not them talking about their sex life, it is everyone else around them, INCLUDING their underage child, who talks about it! For gods sake! Why are you so utterly, unbelievably one-track-minded and boring!!!

Their sex talk includes - because why be original now, right? - of course reassuring each other how many people they are going to legally kill, in pursuit of the greater good. But for all that, in all the seven chapters there is not even one sentence, where they actually do that. The only fighting they do, is with their cocks.

I have reached the point where I stopped actually taking in the text and started speedreading, because the less time my eyeballs spend on the actual sentences, the less likely I will end up hurling for real; but it is uncomfortable for me, especially if I have to concentrate on not changing pages every couple sentences in, because my body and mind are quite literally fighting me against continuing the fic.

I promised I would give the fic a try. I don't know how i will be able to keep that promise. Thank gods there isn't a lot of it still coming, but on the other hand, I am also outraged, because that means that the plot is probably unfinished and I wasted all this time being poisoned with this garbage for absolutely no outcome.

In conclusion: NOT ENOUGH MURDER.

[dateamonster]

longass monster high liveblog: season 2 edition lets gooooooo

rule school

very first thought of the new season: i want a doll of clawdeens wereruler armor so bad. also im excited for more worldbuilding lore stuff, and more varied werecreature designs! part of me gets a little irked sometimes that there seems to be disproportionate attention payed to werecreatures and the inner workings of their society over other monster species, but i cannot deny, i love a funny lil furry.

especially this side character bear dude who keeps showing up

rly feels like there should be a clause in were-society for what to do if ur wereruler is a fuckin kid. she should not have to be doing all this.

when she finally gets that armor off its gonna be like rock lee with the weights

i love these cunty old werewolf ladies ngl

damn speedreader clawdeen

that painting of foxford is soo cute clawdeen i loove u

toralei!! toralei HUG!!!!!!!! hug AND a pun!!! shes sososososo cute

oh and shes maaaad that she showed affection where other people can see lol the Dynamic.. it is unfolding before my very eyes..

oh damn the fox guy is a sneaky motherfucker? who could have foreseen this....... granted the whale plushie is unexpected

new witch in town

draculauras gay lil witch friend <333

lol is humans using monster slang a microaggression? much to think about.

im really interested in this developing plotline about draculaura being pressured to be like the model of Good Witchcraft. it works well with her established character and arc of like trying to live up to her fathers reputation and status in the monster world. poor girl never seems to be able to just fucking relax.

skelita! i love that shes trying out witchcraft, and the art-based magic is a fun angle too! i can totally see where this is going tho. drac is super serious about magic because theres all this pressure on her while skelita is just trying it out in a casual way so theyre at odds. its an interesting dilemma because i can def see both sides.

im really happy the writing seems like empathetic to both positions here. skelita deserves to try magic her way on her own terms, but its also totally understandable draculaura would feel protective over witchcraft when any misuse of it is ultimately going to reflect on her since she was the one working to legitimize it. respectability is a double edged sword fr!

play it again clawd

aw clawd is such a sweetiepie mamas boy. i def feel a little bad for him. imagine if ur little sister became the queen of ur entire society and ur just like. hangin out there.

oh were doing a groundhog day? im not a big timeloop plot person but ill try not to be too biased

this is also how me and my roommate act when theres a fly in the house

aw im rly glad they acknowledge that selena had like a whole life in beheme that she had to leave behind when she came home.. idk if theyre planning to actually do anything more substantial with that but yea when you think about its kinda fucked up! they probably had friends and stuff! clawd was *born* there! i get why theyd choose to stay here with their family and all even if they could easily go back, but like, its gotta be sad at times!

ok not bad as a timeloop ep goes. still not my fav but like clawds so cute and its so nice seeing him do stuff with his family <3

thats all for tonight i think! see u next time!!

[bluespring864]

Hello :)

I've noticed that you've been showing a bit of an interest in Discworld lately.

So naturally, being very much into Discworld right now, I can't just ignore this. :D I don't know how interested you actually are of course, but I'd still like to try and nudge you towards starting it rather sooner than later. Obviously no pressure - I know how it is, sometimes you just don't want to get into something new, let alone a 42-volume book series. :D (Although you don't have to commit to reading all of it right away; most books can stand pretty well on their own.)

It's just that I'm quite certain – no, actually I'm even inclined to say I know – that you would love Discworld. This might come across a bit presumptuous, especially since I don't actually know you. But judging by your interests and generally what I see of you on my dash, I would be very surprised if Discworld wasn't right up your alley.

Because even leaving aside characters and storylines, the writing alone should be a major draw. I regularly marvel at the masterful way in which Terry Pratchett uses language: as a means of characterisation, to convey an idea or even just to describe someone's facial expression - and of course to make us laugh.

And the puns, oh the puns! They're probably what made me fall in love with his writing in the first place. Can't resist a good pun. I could provide examples if you want. :D

I won't get into characters, themes or what have you right now because this ask is long enough as it is. One thing I want to say, though, is that I feel like a lot of the messages conveyed in those books would resonate with you, because you strike me as a very compassionate and caring person.

So, to come to an end: If you need any more information or incentives to get into Discworld or are still on the fence about how or where to start, feel free to ask me anything. And in case you will actually start reading the books, I'd be more than happy to exchange thoughts or just gush about stuff. :D

PS: I hope you had a lovely christmas and wish you all the best for the new year*. :)

*Isn't it somewhat annoying that English doesn't have an adequate translation for "Guten Rutsch"?

This is definitely the nicest thing I've had in my inbox all year, you lovely person <3

I am still to this day confused as to why I never read any Terry when I was a teenager. I assume the local library didn't have a lot of his books or put them so far in the boy's section that I never really noticed them (and why tf were the teenage books gendered, I hope that's not the case anymore... hm, now I'm wondering whether I'm remembering this right, but I really think there were boy's and girl's sections). I picked one of his books at random a few years back and read it on holiday, jetlagged (it was a bit confusing, because of the jetlag and because I think I picked something that belonged somewhere in the Discworld universe without me ever having had a real introduction to it) but I still liked it, and have been meaning to read more Discworld ever since.

Unfortunately, when I read that book I had just started a demanding job that often requires me to speedread through hundreds of pages in a few hours, which has left me with much less capacity to read for pleasure. The books are literally piling up around me. But I will get round to Discworld one day, I'm sure of it, not least because of your glowing recommendation! And as soon as I do, I will most definitely let you know so we can be language and literature nerds about it together ;-)

[ooksaidthelibrarian]

Bidding is open for Fandom Trumps Hate!

Here's a link to my auction - I offer two fic covers and one beta reading of up to 10k words. Details at the link and behind the read more

Organizations this auction benefits: Bidder's choice of any of the listed groups (See full list.)

Type of fanwork: Fan art Subtype(s): Book cover Fandom(s): Any Highest rating: E Minimum Bid: $5

Length/Scope: I will create a cover graphic for your fic/podfic/playlist/whatever else you want a cover image for. These will be based on a stock photo, I do NOT draw these. You can see examples here

Especially interested in:

Unwilling to address: none

Other notes: If the fic is short (~10k words), I will usually be able to at least speedread it to get an idea, but it's always nice to get some input from you about the general vibe of the fic, important items or places, maybe preferred colours. I will share a first version with you so you can ask for changes/additions/make suggestions and I will do my best to incorporate them.

Type of fanwork: Fan labor Subtype(s): Betaing Fandom(s): Disco Elysium, The Witcher, The Old Guard Highest rating: E Length/scope: 5 -10k words. Minimum Bid: $5

Fan labor details: I can do SPaG (I am ESL but fluent), cheerreading and brainstorming for plot/character development

Relevant background/experience: I don't have any professional background but I am an experienced beta reader and have been betaing fics for multiple people over the years, including for events so I have experience in working with authors I don't know and whose work I am unfamiliar with

Other notes about labor offered:

Especially interested in:

Unwilling to address: Omegaverse, fics featuring Jaskier (The Witcher)

Other notes: My usual beta'ing mode is via comments either in Google Docs or Word/Libre Office files since that's easier for me than writing comments in a separate document. Up to three betaing passes are fine with me for this. Please do let me know what exactly you'd like me to beta for (SpaG only, plot suggestions, flow ect.)

[olivereactsaboutgarbage]

Higurashi When They Cry - Watanagashi All-Cast Review Session

Okay so you may have noticed that my plan to post more consistently once again didn't work out.

Every time I think my life is done turning itself inside-out I end up being wrong, so: a Pologies to my Many Fans (4) because unfortunately a consistent posting schedule is forever beyond my grasp, and by extension yours

BUT! I was one post away from finishing Watanagashi. And that fact has honestly been bugging the crap out of me. So I'm just gonna write this one post real quick, after which point you'll go back to not seeing me for at least another month I suspect

So I don't really remember what happened in Watanagashi, but basically, Mion was the good guy, right? :)

Nah but in all seriousness, by which I mean in all copium, something I remember considering at the time is that like, making a green person listen to Toddlers being brutalized is only so cruel a punishment for a green person with no personal connection to those Toddlers. Like, there's a certain Cruelty Minimum there which no reasonable person would be especially inclined to exceed, but without any deep familiarity, the Cruelty Maximum can only get so high.

Anyway, Rena is once again glad I read Higurashi. Took her long enough to show a little gratitude, yeesh.

The Toddlers are pissed off again. Mion is reveling in being the center of attention. Good for her.

The Toddlers complain that this should have been a Toddler 01 arc instead of a Mion arc. Rena stares directly into the camera and says "Maybe some other time."

The Toddlers start talking about boobs. For some reason, this summons Camera. It summons Ooishi too, which is the worst tragedy in all of Higurashi.

Camera's girlfriend and Shion also show up, to up the ante from last time when there were only six guys. Keiichi doesn't show up, because he has to always be a punchline.

Toddler 02 uses her thumb to point at Camera and says "I'll have what she's having," while smirking.

Toddler 01 says "Thank god, Higurashi is solved now." Shion says "Yeah duh" Ooishi says "Yeah duh" Toddler 02 says "Haha yeah"

Rena gets increasingly uncomfortable.

Camera's girlfriend says "Y'all're dumbass bitches"

me in court

Mion says that the prior incidents definitely weren't an elaborate Sonozaki conspiracy because no crime family that smart would spontaneously get so stupid.

Rena, Toddler 01, and Ooishi say "Hooray! Team Supernatural Explanations wins!" I forgot that they had that team, but apparently they had that team.

Shion is like "Uh, NO, you dolts don't win, because, uh, it was all Me all along"

me and my friend when we're trying to drop subtle hints that we don't like someone

Everyone decides that it was an elaborate two-person scheme for Mion to make herself into an Absent Scapegoat so everyone would stop thinking about the various incidents. Toddler 02 doesn't think that's true. Camera's girlfriend is like "lol"

Everyone starts talking about how it doesn't make any sense why bad things keep happening to Keiichi.

Ooishi says that Keiichi must be the key to all of this, so Camera speedreads all of Higurashi in 0.00001 seconds to look for clues. He spots nothing.

The Toddlers say that Keiichi must be getting killed as retribution for being sexually aggressive towards Toddlers. "How enviable," says Camera. "Yeah, I wish I was him," says Ooishi.

...guys, stop...

That sounds really hard. I wouldn't bother if I were you...

Anyways that was nice. Goodbye forever

[extasiswings]

How do you have time to read at least a book a day? Do you work in publishing or is it like a championship level speedreading thing? (I am the world's slowest reader, like a book a month if that, so I am kind of in awe of your over 400 books so far this year stat. I think I've read somewhere around seven.)

It’s a couple of different things. The first one is that yes, I am a pretty fast reader, especially when it comes to fiction that I don’t have to expend a ton of extra mental energy on. I don’t work in publishing, but my job does involve a lot of reading and a need to be able to read expeditiously but thoroughly. So when I’m reading for fun, a book that’s, say, a 250-350 page rom com might take me 2-3 hours.

The second (although related) is that it’s sort of a law of averages point—during the regular work week I might read 1 book or so per day (which is easy enough to accomplish on days I’m in the office especially because I have a 45-minute commute each way, so that’s most of a book right there) although sometimes more, but on a Saturday where I’m relaxing/not doing anything else, I might go through like 3-5 books in one day. Just as a recent example, I was on vacation last week and on one 6-ish hour flight I got through 3 books and was just starting a 4th when we landed.

The third is just that not all books are created equal by page count. If I read a single book that’s a collection of novellas for example, I wouldn’t count each one as a separate book for purposes of my tally, but if I read a short or novella that I bought or checked out of the library as a stand-alone, I do count those separately. And while works in the 50-150 page range are probably only about 10% or so of my total, they’re not insignificant either.

And finally…I have ADHD and it’s not uncommon for me to find a new (to me) author and hyperfixate until I’ve run through a good amount of their backlist, sometimes even at the cost of, you know, appropriate amounts of sleep, especially if I’m in a period of high stress and burnout in other parts of my life. I’ve definitely done that a decent number of times this year, with, for example, Grace Callaway (15+ in a span of about a week or so), Kristin Callihan’s Darkest London series (7 books ~3 days), Bec McMaster’s London Steampunk + follow-up spinoff series (11 books in about a week), Sierra Simone (Thornchapel (4 books) followed by New Camelot (5) also over ~3-4 days). So there’s that XD

[0xfc963f18dc21]

I have something I want to say about them (hidden below under Read More to not poison the poll results):

I don't like them from an accessibility point of view. They seem to expect everyone to be 2400+ WPM speedreaders (who lock in their entire concentration on the video and nothing else) or something, in the ones I've seen.

Most people who read through passages of text quickly don't usually sit there reading single words at a time, they chunk phrases or sentences: picking out the most important words that make up the semantics of the sentence and then fill in the grammatical filler mentally.

Personally I find it much easier to understand what people are saying with per-phrase or per-sentence subtitles, even though I don't have issues with hearing: since that kind of subtitling preserves the context of a phrase / sentence as it's being said, it lets my mind process the meaning longer, so lets me fully grasp it before the next sentence comes in.

One-word-at-a-time subtitling doesn't do that. Once the word being said passes, you have to rewind to get back to it. Missed the first part of the sentence due to a lapse in concentration? Too bad! Rewind, slow-ass!

It just feels like a problem that shouldn't exist. Especially since subtitling / captioning is meant to be an accessibility tool.

[tryhardgwen]

1. https://archiveofourown.org/works/59020912

2. https://archiveofourown.org/works/57586525

3. https://archiveofourown.org/works/56830264

These have been my repeat reads for ChoKer. They’re still rather small in terms of archive/public liking but I’m looking forward to how you analyse their relationship with each other. Especially since some of the fics would mention Faker’s past entanglement (Bengi, Peanut, even Deft…) and a character read into Faker’s enormous legacy interacting with his personal life. :) Enjoy!

thank u op!! i did speedread some of these/skim, answering this also in case any choker enjoyers want some recs~

[unboxedreflections]

FINDING MY FEET

Following on from my first entry, when I spoke of how settling into the cultures of both organisations really helped settle my nerves, it also allowed me to feel comfortable and complete early tasks to the best of my ability, really from the get-go.

An early task I was given was to take on and assist with the pre-show production of the popular digital show ‘The Adelaide Footy League Weekly Highlight’ at Rainmaker. The show is a short 7–10-minute panel show with a host and a guest who joins via Zoom, highlighting a week by that guest’s club in the Adelaide Footy League. I was so comfortable and so well welcomed and nurtured in that I actually made graphics and wrote up questions for the talent on my first day. This was due to the great induction and explanation I received from Darcy who made it incredibly simple to understand and get going, he showed me the ins and outs of the show and the task, so my nerves almost totally disappeared.

(Box, 2023)

As I got more comfortable and competent, the support didn’t change which to me was absolutely vital, regardless of what task I was undertaking every team member at both organisations always made sure they were there to give advice, answer questions, show examples or just help out. Alas and Vadi (2016) found that, in companies or organisations that are frequented by alterations, success is heavily dependent on the given organisation’s culture. A good workplace culture in this sense, as I’ve been alluding to, is one that is supportive. A supportive workplace culture can be defined as “a work environment that is: trusting and collaborative; prioritizes safety and teamwork; management is supportive and encouraging; and involves employees in decision-making” (Ellis et al., 2023). Both Rainmaker and Motorsport Australia optimise this in terms of their organisational cultures which really suited me, as someone who works best in environments that challenge but support me, which is exactly what they both did in differing ways, especially across my first 40 hours. 

For example, by the 40-hour mark, I was singlehandedly putting together all of the necessary graphics, information and rundowns for the Adelaide Footy League show at Rainmaker. I'd also written numerous articles and uploaded calendars for Motorsport Aus’ monthly publication ‘SpeedRead’, and even tried my hand at some graphics there too. 

(Box, 2023)

[thewritershelpers]

theglitteringbook replied to your post “Hello! I always see advice about for new writers to read and then do...”

dead tree version ahah

I was an early adopter of ebooks. I had to buy a reference book I wanted in paperback a couple months ago (no ebook version, who DOES that for a book published in 2019?) and it had been SO LONG since I read a physical book that I’d lost the rhythm of turning pages; it was so awkward!

I used to plan packing for holidays over how many books I could get in my case and stay under the weight limit, and I always, always ran out of books halfway through the holiday. The perils of being a speedreader! So being able to keep literally hundreds of books on a device the size and weight of a single paperback is IMO one of the best inventions of our time.

- Admin C

[deus-ex-mona]

i’m s c r e w e d

[saltydkdan]

mr salt. mr man. i genuinely do want to get into jojo, especially so i can understand the iceberg vid more and my little brother loves it, but i have the attention span of a weasel and part 1 is NOT very entertaining to watch (in my opinion! its not bad just not my thing yet). would you recommend the manga for speedreading, or to just power through the anime?

I’ve heard that the manga is a much easier time if you wanna speed read yeah!

And if you don’t enjoy Part 3 eventually in the anime, the manga is the way to go (the anime for Part 3 is very bloated, although it does have some fun extra scenes)

[faerielleart]

Are you ok with the fact that isayama didn't confirm who Levi loved instead of showing us hints (bc some seriously missed them). I'm just do done of all those ships wars and I would pass over Hange's death if he would have made it clear for everyone even non shippers. Have a Nice day and take care

hi anon!

ahh this might sound a but controversial i guess? but i’ll give my two cents anyway.

first of all, i want to say that i kinda disagree with this as a whole: i think that realistically the fact that they love each other couldn’t have been clearer if we take into account levi and hanji as characters. they’re awkward adults, we’re never getting a kiss on screen. they’d probably hold hands at 50. and even if we got a fucking kiss you can bet your ass there’d be people saying they kissed platonically, as they seem to say with literally every single one of their interactions. nothing new here.

secondly, and this is something i’ve wanted to say for a really long time, i feel like sometimes us levihans accidentally downplay what happens between them, i think out of fear of being harassed or because the harassment got to us subconsciously. i know because i’ve done it myself in the past.

let me put it in this perspective: why is it that we as a fandom feel the need to somehow “justify” our meta posts by adding a bit about how “their bond can be taken as platonic” every single time? you don’t see others do it with other ships. it’s only us lmao and ughhh i’m kinda over it i guess? now that the series is over i can finally let it out so pls bear with me :’) i’m not, in absolutely any way, saying you have to read levihan as romantic, but at the same time i feel like sometimes we kinda force ourselves to see it in that perspective too when talking about it publicly out of subconscious fear of getting weirdos coming at us, when other shippers simply don’t do it: they just say “yo it’s canon” and peacefully go on about their day. but with levihan it’s different hhhh there’s always this wanting to remark about how their interactions can be read both as platonic and romantic. as if it’s offensive to consider them exclusively romantic, you feel?

i’m coming clean, i never saw them platonically. never. sorry if it upsets some 🤸 i find it weird how when it comes to levihan people seem to insist that seeing them as anything more than friends is “ruining their friendship”, as if relationships aren’t supposed to be rooted in friendships lmao are y’all marrying strangers or something??? and yeah this strong insistence again is only seen with levihan and NO other ships. i wonder why.

i feel like this last chapter was the “nail in the coffin”, borrowing this expression from the dear anon from yesterday who had to say so many nice things to me.

and i mean it positively! at this point i honestly believe it’s more forced to believe levihan to be ambiguous and unresolved rather than not. we haven’t had an explicit declaration of love from anyone that’s not falco. hell, not even eren explicitly said “i love you” nor did mikasa lmao so yeah i’m kinda over people not keeping the same energy for levihan despite them having the most interaction out of all the characters, despite getting a scene where one of them literally wants to elope with the other, despite getting a confession from one of them hidden in a silly grammar particle, despite the author going out of his way to change a kanji in that same sentence to make it emotionally deeper, despite one of them doing a modified salute with dead eyes, despite the other looking as if they got the sudden realization of their lives, despite one looking completely dead inside staring at his hands until the battle, despite one being at the center of his memories standing out in the sea of light hair and smiles with dark hair and the most sorrowful expression, despite all the mf parallels with other two characters complete with the same words and the same pose distribution in the panels, despite one looking at a plane wistfully and getting paralleled with another character looking at a bird. do i have to go on? and this is only in the last arc. come on. let’s not pretend as if there are no romantic tropes, let’s not pretend as if if it were any other ship people’d be all over them. we can do it now that the manga is over, come on. come on.

to me, it’s clear as day, nothing ambiguous at all. not since chapter 126, and i’m tired of pretending it is lol and to be really really honest i feel like at this point you have to be either a speedreader or in complete denial as a rival shipper if you seriously downplay everything we got in this final arc especially.

again, just my two cents! levihan might not be endgame, but it is canon and they canonically love each other and there is nothing ambiguous about it, point blank.

thank you for the ask anon!