#hi fi rush is truly taking over my brain but its also given me so much creativity and motivation to draw so this brainrot is good i think

[schellis]

I made him real and he is in my hands.

Since there's no official merch of him for me to get I made my own >:]

[ellasadventuresinfandoms]

Okay, back in May @isolatedphenomenon asked me if I had an les mis fic recs and I went "oh boy do I !" and then promptly fucked off and disappeared from tumblr for like 6 months...

Anyway on the off chance people are interested, here is my vastly too long list of  my favourite les mis fanfic (that I'm almost 100% sure I'll have accidentally missed some of my favourites off of...)

The vast majority of these are main pairing Enjolras/Grantaire, so I've put those first, divided into multi-chaptered and then one-shots. Below that will be other pairings!

Multi-chaptered

• Witch Boy Series : magic AU, starting with Grantaire solving Enjolras' curse - this is just Incredible world building which gets better as it goes on - my favourite is the Babet interlude

• World Ain't Ready : you know how fandoms tend to have a fic that is just associated with it ? in my experience, for les mis this is it - and well deserved ! High school, fake dating AU with some of the most engaging writing

• BE : Enjolras is dragged back into theatre production, helping Eponine put on a production of Hamlet - really love the characterisation in this, and this is really one of those modern AUs that actually feels like real life - really good writing

• After the End : the definitive apocalypse AU in my eyes - les amis are an underground resistance to the dystopian government - really wonderful characterisation of Grantaire and the amis

• You never have to wonder; you never have to ask. : I tend to find fic by scrolling through bookmarks of a pairing, which means I often see repeats; this is a fic that if I see I just re-read cause I know I'll enjoy it - the amis sparked a failed rebellion, and now 18 months later Grantaire ends up staying at Enjolras' after returning to Paris for Marius and Cosette's wedding

• Your Heart on Your Skin : Soulmate AU with flower tattoos marking important emotions and events - wonderful concept and world building 

• Impatient to Be Free : Daughters of Bilitis AU - if that doesn't make you excited I don't know what else to say to convince you (aside from saying the author is a simply wonderful writer)

• You Dance Dreams : Okay. Not to be over dramatic, but this fic did genuinely qualitatively change my life, in that it was the first thing that got me looking up contemporary ballet and now that's like one of my favourite things and big hobby So. Also its really great writing; music/creative arts school les amis with Grantaire choreohraphing the ballet for Combeferre's opera, with a heavy emphasis on Grantaire realising he really never actually got over Enjolras

• philia : this one is an absolute classic to me, but not given nearly enough recognition - one of the more realistic college AUs ever written, and the writing of Grantaire is so good because it hits the perfect balance of sympathy and annoyance about his behaviour (that's a genuine compliment) 

• Coffee Hooligans : fucking tragedy this never got properly finished, Enjolras leads the amis as social justice vigilantes and tries to hide the criminal bits of his life from R

• Fighting the Hurricane : Pacific Rim AU that's less an AU and more just placing the les mis characters in the Pacific Rim universe. Really good and riveting read, also super interesting depiction of Grantaire

• Weaving Olden Dances : Fairy AU - Grantaire "claims" Enjolras to prevent his execution - really good writing, love Grantaires characterisation 

• Paris Burning : canon era (sort of) where cities have a physical being - Grantaire is Paris and becomes entangled in Enjolras' revolution - oh the world building is truly *chefs kiss*

• Euphoria is You For Me : Enjolras and Grantaire keep meet cuting in a wonderfully written Brooklyn - feels like a love letter to Brooklyn at times, and I really like the characterisation of Grantaire 

• so please just fall in love with me this christmas : Enjolras works for the environmental company Grantaire volunteers at, and keeps getting secret gifts at Christmas - I sound a little like a broken record but the Grantaire characterisation is very good

• You Are the Moon : Wild West esque Space AU - Grantaire has to call on the amis to help rescue Valjean and Cosette, despite Grantaire leaving the amis 6 months before. On re-reading the Enjolras characterisation feels a little rushed, but overall fantastic story telling and the Grantaire arc is a Delight 

• Pandemos : Enjolras is aphrodite, and seeks peace from all his suitors in R/Hephestus' cave

• Pining for You : Hallmark christmas romance - Grantaire returns home to work on his father's tree farm, and Enjolras is the lawyer helping prevent the farm being sold - cute as shit imo

• Once We're Kings : Fantasy AU - a country hosts a ball to marry Prince Enjolras and the rival country sends Grantaire as a fuck you - one of the best ways of doing Enjolras as a prince in a fantasy and just really nicely written

• Never Bitter and All Delicious : Fairy Godmother AU - yes really, yes its genuinely a very good read

• On One Condition : Fantasy AU - Enjolras is a bored knight who finally goes to check out the local dragon, which turns out to be Grantaire - I really like how they capture Enjolras' stubborn nature and it's such a well written soft growth of love between them

• That's How Easy Love Can Be : Les Amis work at a primary school; and its secret santa time! very fun portrayal of Enjolras

• The Lark and Her Lieutenants : re write of canon where Cosette is the leader of the revolution - just *chefs kiss*

• If You Tickle Us, Do We Not Laugh : Grantaire is Enjolras' secret android - really good at writing a relationship that's incredibly loving but just keeps being antagonistic and coming off wrong 

One Shots

• True Colours : AU where you leave colours on the people important to you - Enjolras and Grantaire falling for each other is so soft and gently written its lovely, this is genuinely one of my favourites

• Keep It Kind, Keep It Good, Keep It Right : this one is so good to me, because it builds off my pet hatred of everyone assuming Enjolras doesn't care about (or at least actively show he cares about) his friends

• blooming : very soft post-dystopian utopia that has just a really wonderful sense of hope and light to me

• and the wall leaned away (or: The Pros and Cons of Tilling) : perfectly realised characterizations of the amis, Grantaire needs a date to her final year art exhibition - deals with anxiety over protest in a way that actually hits for me

• not just one of the crowd : R helps run a leftist bakery and bike repair shop - very cute characterisation, and I think more les mis fanfic should link to anarchist essays

• Lovesickness : Enjolras is an idiot and thinks he's sick rather than having a crush - the writing of Joly and Combeferre in this is some of my favourite depictions of these two

• If there's a rocket, tie me to it : absolutely heartbreaking sci-fi AU about the amis as doomed mecha pilots

• Where I Fall is Where I Land : Enjolras is a Roman commander as Rome's power is leaving England, and then meets the pict Grantaire (+ fun soulmark stuff !)

• You Started Foreign to Me : Enjolras moves to america and R is the overnight grocery clerk who helps her learn Spanish - cute fluffy lesbians with a wonderfully written driven Enjolras

• Love Is Touching Souls : very cute soulmate AU - and one I really love for really truly considering the implications of soul marks and creating historical lore around it

• Ten Years : R is a musician, and it non-linearly charts his relationship to Enj from high school to 10 years later

• put up with me then I'll make you see : Grantaire lives above Enjolras, and its christmas - I find it to have a very fun interpretation of pining Enjolras

• A Cat Called Trash Can : this was one of the first les mis fics I ever read (yes I know it says it was published in 2020, but I think it has to be a re-upload or something?) and it does still have a special place in my heart - Grantaire rescues a cat, but Enjolras is the only one with an apartment free to look after it 

• Still I'm Begging to Be Free : inception AU where les amis have to rescue a sleeping R from his own brain

•I'm in it for You : cw: illness, cancer - R has cancer and is being a martyr about telling his friends so Enjolras drives him back from chemo

• walls come tumbling down : sky high au - a very good high school AU with the perfect level of campy superhero powers

• This brave new world's not like yesterday : Enjolras needs a job, so ends up working in a bowling alley with Grantaire and bonding

Enjolras/Grantaire/Combeferre

• In Defiance of All Geometry : les amis are a student co-op house, Enjolras and Combeferre are pining friends and Grantaire is the newbie

• Still the Same : this is very good writing and very compelling - if you can get over the (imo) plot hole of Enjolras working for the FBI. R was an art thief Enj put away and is briefly helping the FBI out, and Combeferre is Enjolras' husband

• To Kingdom Come : cw: war and PTSD from that, Enjolras and Combeferre are part of a group of refugees that have crossed into a more fantasy land, and Grantaire is a lone traveller from that land that attempts to help - that was a shit summary of this very emotional, wonderfully written fic about war and love in all forms

• Gonna need (a spark to ignite) : I always love a twist on a classic trope, and this is a very fun take on the soulmate AU - Enjolras loses feeling in his soul mark as a child, falls in love with Grantaire and then his soulmate, Combeferre, turns up

Eponine/Cosette

• Pretty Girls Don't Know the Things That I Know : simply stunning writing - perfect example of soft writing about a harsh world

• she knows her way around : Eponine and Cosette bond, ostensibly so Eponine can find out about her for Marius, and their interactions are so playful and realistic, its wonderful

• always find me floating on oceans : Cosette stows away on Eponine's pirate ship - I do always have a soft spot for eposette fics (not just cause I ship it) because they truly characterise Cosette in a really considered and interesting way

• There's No Making Love : I'm putting this under eposette even though there is some significant enjolras/grantaire content, because the Cosette characterisation is so fun and cute

• round and round again : this fic really beautifully translates Cosette's bad childhood and then isolated teenage years, and the impact that would have on her as an adult into a modern AU

• Underwater Thunderheards : this is based off the book The Scorpio Races, and is just a really nice short fic  about longing

• How To Change The World Without Taking Power : Marius has a crush on Cosette and she's tried being polite and subtle in turning him down, so just ends up fake dating Eponine instead

• blood red fruit and poison's kiss : Snow White AU - Cosette as Snow White

• The Winters Cannot Fade Her : Snow White Au 2.0 - Eponine as Snow White - this was written as a pair to the one above which is just so cute to me

• marriage à la mode : Cosette and Eponine run a bridal shop together and it's very cute !

• Temporary Hold : I personally find this a really fun and very unique take on Cosette - with exams coming up she decides she needs to get laid on the reg and so hits up Eponine to act as if they're already long term girlfriends

Combeferre/Courfeyrac

• better than you had it : fake dating but kick it up an emotional notch - Courf and Ferre pretend to still be together after breaking up for a family event

• take flight, come near : nice and cute low fantasy, where Combeferre runs a dragon sanctuary and Courf finds an injured dragon

Rare Pairs

• The Future's Owned by You and Me : cute Enjolras/Feuilly with actual radical politics and real life organising difficulties and wins

• First Dates and Other Dangers : Combeferre and Grantaire agree to go on a blind date and it's awkward until it isn't - just cute !

• after midnight : Combeferre has insomnia and meets Grantaire in various all night fast food chains

• as you are : Bahorel and Jehan getting ready together

• Almost Romantic : Jehan works at a museum, and takes Combeferre on a little tour

• Understudy : Jehan/Combeferre, with Combeferre's insecurities regarding being seen as second best to Enjolras

• Here There Be Dragons : Courf/Enj/Ferre - Courf and Enj are superheroes and Ferre is the doctor that patches them up

• To Let it Occur (Laisser Faire la Nature) : Feuilly has a stupidly long stopover in Paris and meets Enjolras

• rule of three : Courf/Enj/Ferre as spies and loving boyfriends

• Good Rhetoric : snapshots of cute cuddly courf/enj/ferre

• subluxate, dislocate, replace : found family and chronic illness with Joly/Bossuet/Musichetta

• Strike stone, strike home (like lightning) : so this fic took one minor piece of lore about Tolkien's dwarves and made a beautiful j/b/m fic from it

• Almost Inevitable : Bahorel/Feuilly friends-with-benefits

• god only knows (what I'd be without you) : Bahorel/Feuilly with a closeted Feuilly and a beautiful Feuilly and Eponine friendship

[meditationnearme]

Nucalm Review: Does The New De-stressing Technology ... - things to help reduce stress

NuCalm promotes itself as neuroscience-backed tension meditation techniques and sleep innovation. In practice, however, it simply helped me nap. I recently woke up from a delightful 20-minute nap. In fact, it was more of https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/nucalm4/1/10-minute-meditation-for-sleep.html a 10-minute half-nap half-trance, preceded by thoughts of what I required to achieve today that gradually dissolved into the kinds of non-sequitur visions that happen in that earliest stage of sleep.

Somehow, this was renewing. For the recently, I've been evaluating out the NuCalm system. According to its website, NuCalm is "the world's only patented neuroscience innovation clinically proven to deal with stress and improve sleep quality without drugs." It incorporates a neuroacoustic software app made use of for 20- to 120-minute increments, an eye mask and the aforementioned processing discs, and in practice involves listening to ambient, cinematic noises (similar to this) with your eyes closed and a sticker adhered to your inner arm.

Each of the components are created to activate the body's parasympathetic nerve system, which assists with healing and relaxation. The disc is designed to release gamma-aminobutyric acid, a neurotransmitter that hinders cortisol and adrenaline. With this and the app, NuCalm stops your body's tension action and for that reason the mental and physical toll stress can handle the body.

military, 49 sports teams and in over a million surgical procedures. Some dental workplaces even utilize it for clients who are scared of the dental practitioner. NuCalm's 'bio-signal processing disc' Although the item is touted as a way of potentially healing the body from injury, https://s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com addiction and physical troubles, it appears predominately beneficial for relaxation and anxiety.

By this step, my usage of NuCalm was a success: After my 20-minute session this afternoon, I indeed felt much more refreshed and awake. While some of my sessions kept me mindful the whole time, I a minimum of felt a bit more relaxed than before. At the start, I 'd believed I was expected to treat the session like a meditation, preventing letting my ideas roam.

Why I was so fixated upon events of this age throughout my session is a mystery to me, but regardless, I believe I still went to sleep for about five minutes. Unusually enough, a Frequently Asked Question section of the app specifies that memory recollection is a typical quality of "theta brainwave variety," and that remembering memories in this phase permits you to dissociate negative sensations from them.

Overall, NuCalm did permit me to take perfect little afternoon naps in a structured way. I am decent at napping as it is, however I do think something about NuCalm, whether it be the discs or the noises or the timer, made those naps more efficient than normal. One glaring problem with NuCalm, however, is its price.

Maybe as I keep using it, I'll find that this is a completely reasonable cost for the advantage of much better relaxation, health and sleep. At this minute, however, I 'd pay possibly $10 a month. The app also requires some major updating, as it presently only uses 3 various session types (recharge, reboot and rescue) at differing lengths and with a rather clunky design.

Instead, it feels rudimentary, with lower parts of the app like the post-session debriefing FAQ entirely nonfunctional. I've taken some fabulous naps this last week, and I'll keep using NuCalm for this purpose. It's a nearly effortless way of fitting 20 minutes of pure relaxation into my day. Whether those bio-signalling dics do anything, I'm still suspicious in addition to a cleaner app, I 'd require to get a bit more rely on the science to pay $60 a month.

Magdalene Taylor is a junior personnel author at MEL, where she began working 2 weeks after graduating college. Her work is a blend of cultural analysis and service, covering everything from reconsiderations of low-brow hits like Joe Dirt and Nickelback to contemporary disability concerns, OnlyFans and the types of small concerns about life like why infant carrots are so wet.

According to the company, thirty minutes of NuCalm amounts to 2 to 3 hours of restorative sleep. The NuCalm website boasts that the de-stressing treatment takes just 2 minutes to administer and less than 5 minutes to accomplish its effects, making it the really meaning of a fast fix.

With its sleek site and claims of high-tech, borderline-magic results, I half anticipated my NuCalm experience to happen in the literal future or, at really least, a center that reeked of sci-fi vibes. I think I was envisioning a workplace that appeared like the ship from Passengers and a large set-up reminiscent of the https://s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/nucalm4/1/10-minute-morning-meditation.html memory-implanting tech from Overall Remember or perhaps even a coffin-like pod right out of The Fifth Aspect.

My NuCalm treatment was not administered on the set of a motion picture, however it also wasn't administered in a dental professional's workplace. On the early morning of my visit, I drove throughout Los Angeles to Santa Monica to the offices of an authentic physician to the stars, whose Hollywood clients consists of starlets, authors and inspirational experts, and who read more boasts know-how in energy medicine, integrative medicine and bioidentical hormonal agent replacement therapy.

Instead, my NuCalm experience started in a (actively) poorly lit waiting room that looked more like the living room of an eccentric, well-traveled college teacher than a medical facility. The doctor was fashionably late not with another client, simply in getting to the workplace. While the tardiness might usually have actually irritated me, here, it appeared like part of the experience, practically like a preview of the outcomes of the high-tech treatment that awaited me.

During a short consultation, the medical professional described the NuCalm procedure and summed up the science behind it (more on that later). The gist of the system, I discovered, was this: I would chew a tablet of gamma-Aminobutyric acid, or -aminobutyric acid (or GABA, for short), an inhibitory neurotransmitter implied to decrease activity in my anxious system.

I would listen, through headphones, to binaural beat music music with 2 different rhythmic pulses that activates Alpha and Theta brain waves, which are connected with the very first phase of deep sleep and meditation. Also, I would be blindfolded. And, in Doc Hollywood's office, I would do all of this while pushing a waterbed although the waterbed, I found out, is not a standard or required component of the treatment.

I was resulted in a little examination room (or, potentially, a big closet), where I was offered a large GABA tablet and told to chew but not swallow it while the medical professional marked time the binaural beats and attached the Biosignal Processing Disc to my wrist. Lastly, after what seemed like a much longer period of time than it possibly might have been, I was told to swallow the GABA vitamin sludge, which had the artificially sweet, fruity flavor and distinctively milky taste and texture of Flinstones vitamins that are a few months past their expiration date.

The NuCalm treatment itself was completely pleasant. The music was relaxing but interesting (I've given that subscribed to a binaural beats playlist on Spotify bless the web). The milky, orange-adjacent taste of the GABA tablet didn't remain in an especially interfering way. And the waterbed was heated, that made for a cozy location to lie down and rest.

What am I doing incorrect? Why do not I feel calm? If science can't make me chill TF out, am I simply a lost cause? Maybe if I do a body scan, I'll have the ability to feel the impacts. That's a good concept. I'm going to do a body scan. This will resemble mindfulness on steroids orange-flavored, healthy steroids.

I am broken. I was wrong. It was not almost over. Perhaps it's the example you can't feel in the moment, however I'll observe a substantial difference when it's over. I have so much work to do. Stop thinking of work and being worried out. That beats the whole purpose.

I asked how often he suggested that people come in for NuCalm treatments and he said that it differs, but that some people "need it daily." I couldn't assist but believe, based on my experience and the absence of tangible outcomes, that that appeared excessive. He handed me some research even more describing the science behind NuCalm before rushing off to his next visit, and I left sensation dissatisfied and a little nervous about my failure to feel less nervous through the treatment.

For the record, it's not. I discovered the experience to be a little New Age-y in practice, however the system truly is based in science. Drawing from neuroscience research study into the patterns the brain goes through during natural periods of relaxation, every part of NuCalm is developed to imitate that procedure and trigger a stressed out brain to switch equipments to a more relaxed state.

NuCalm works particularly on the body's repressive system, the GABAergic system. This gadget is bio-mimetic because it resets the naturally happening unfavorable feedback loop of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, which when correctly working is expected to turn off and stop launching cortisol from the adrenal glands after the end of a stressful event.

Individuals in this state are physically not able to have a nervous reaction. Within minutes of application, users will start to feel relief from the 'fight-or-flight' sympathetic anxious system action and their stress hormone (cortisol) levels will start to decrease as the HPA axis is prevented." Here's a quick breakdown of the science behind each stage of the NuCalm process.

It's in fact the main repressive neurotransmitter system in brain circuits. Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid is a relaxation neurotransmitter that the body produces naturally when we're getting all set to sleep, so the tactic of utilizing GABA supplements to indicate the brain that it's time to cool down makes sense. What's not completely clear, however, is how reliable oral GABA supplements are in activating those advantages.

While some research studies have actually revealed that GABA can cross the blood-brain barrier, others have shown the opposite, recommending a possible placebo impact behind perceived advantages of the supplements. Scientists agree that more research is needed to determine how beneficial GABA supplements truly are. According to NuCalm's website, the disc "simplifies the process of activating the parasympathetic nervous system, by taking advantage of the body's Pericardium Meridian with particular electromagnetic (EM) frequencies." The disc (which, again, was a round sticker, about the size of a quarter, that was applied to the within my wrist) was, undoubtedly, my biggest source of skepticism while doing so, and NuCalm's main description of the science behind it highlights the most New Age-y vibes of the business.

It is assumed that if you can restore the frequencies that travel through the Meridians you can renew optimum physiology. Each NuCalm disc holds the EM frequency patterns of GABA and its precursors to deliver a pure biological signal to your body. When put on the within of your left wrist, at your Pericardium-6 acupuncture point, the disc sends a signal to the pericardium of your heart to activate local parasympathetic nerve fibers, which then transmit the signal to your brain informing it to increase vagal nerve output and start the process of slowing down the body.

In 2017, Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP promoted a $120 brand name of bio-frequency sticker labels, causing a short-term viral moment for the tech. Regrettably for proponents of the gadgets, the reaction wasn't great, with Mark Shelhamer, former chief scientist at NASA's human research study division, especially decrying the GOOP-endorsed item as "snake oil." Although the NuCalm site describes that "each disc holds the electro-magnetic frequency patterns of GABA and its precursors to provide a pure biosignal to your body," it's unclear precisely how placing the sticker label on your wrist sets off that shipment.