#hope you like your treat anon!

[w1ld-wr1t3r]

Trick or treat 👻🦇

I shake up my treat bag of writing goodies, reach inside, and pull out your random prize . . . a new fic idea! Congrats, trick-or-treater!

Brace yourself, I swear I tried to keep this short but I wanted to give you a good idea of what I kind of have in mind for the fic without spoiling anything too major, so it ended up a lot wordier than I initially intended:

My newest fic idea is my Alpha (2018 movie)/F1 AU. For those not familiar with the movie, it's basically a survival drama about how the first human and wolf partnership may have been formed thousands of years ago, leading to the domestication of dogs. The idea really hit me out of nowhere, considering I haven't watched the movie in like 2+ years. I honestly don't even remember what triggered the fic idea to spawn in the first place. But I do know that once I acquired the seed for the idea, I started pulling up YouTube videos of some of my favorite scenes from the movie, reminiscing about how much I like it, and thought, "yeah, there's a fic here!"

Leo is, arguably, the cutest addition to the paddock this year, so it's not surprising that he was the first dog to pop into my mind to play the role of the wolf character. I did briefly consider Roscoe, and maybe spinning the story to include some sort of Brocedes arc, but it wasn't really panning out so I shelved it for the time being (I may try to revisit it at a later date, though I make no promises). Leo and Charles as the main wolf-and-human pair held a lot more appeal to me, mainly because I found it a lot easier to come up with potential relationships and ideas to include in the story. I'm definitely including Charles' father, and I apologize, but this is not an AU that changes his fate. (you're also not gonna like what I do to Anthoine, I'm sorry in advance) We'll also have Twitch Quartet shenanigans, a few other drivers as fellow hunter-gatherers, and, of course, some Charles and Max interactions!

As far as Charles and Max go, I am still slightly on the fence about making this a Lestappen fic, but I am admittedly leaning more and more towards including it as I think about the idea more. I think it could be an interesting dynamic to explore in the setting of a prehistoric wilderness where humans are decidedly not the dominant species and they either have to work together, make tough decisions, or die. Plus, it gives me an excuse to introduce Max into the story and have him actually stick around (he's originally from a different tribe than Charles; his father leads it, and he doesn't look too kindly on Max forming friendships with "enemies," so he has to choose between the tribe he's always known and the boy who kind of gets on his nerves at first but also seems to understand him more than anyone else ever has).

The basic plot of the fic more or less follows the general plot of the movie, and is as follows: we introduce Charles and his tribe, which includes his family and friends. His father's health has been declining, so Charles and his brothers are being trained on how to lead in his stead. They set off on the annual bison hunt and meet up with another tribe along the way (Max's tribe). Charles and Max hit it off, and Max chooses to stay with him when his father issues an ultimatum about his relationship. Then tragedy strikes when Charles is seemingly killed during the hunt . . . only he doesn't actually die. He then has to try and survive on his own and get back home to his family and Max. Max, meanwhile, is trying to find a way to go on after Charles' "death." Along the way, Charles encounters an injured wolf, nurses it back to health because he can't bring himself to kill it in cold blood, and eventually ends up bonding with it and naming it Leo (another reason I'm considering adding Lestappen - Charles could name him "Leo" as a nod to Max, the one he misses and wants to return home to the most). They work together to survive until, finally, Charles makes it back home. He gets to say goodbye to his father before he passes and reunites with all of his friends, including Max. The story ends with Charles gradually settling into leadership, with Max by his side, and Leo aiding him and ushering in the beginning of wolf domestication.

Admittedly, this current loose outline sounds more Lestappen-centric than Charles-and-Leo-centric, but I promise that the bulk of the actual story will be about Charles and Leo! They spend a lot of time on their own in the wilderness, so they'll have lots of time to bond and have adventures before Charles sees another person again. Leo is gonna take his role as "man's best friend" very seriously!

There are some other little details and ideas I'm still pondering too, but I think the most important one for now is that yes, I am including Norrix in this AU! It'll be a bit more in the background since the story is meant to focus on Charles' journey, but it will undeniably be there. Lando is part of Charles' tribe and is the tribe healer, having trained as a healer when he was too small to join the other boys in hunting and fighting as a kid, though he has since filled out significantly and he is a great fighter should the need arise. Martijn sticks with Max when he defects from his father's tribe because he's his friend, and honestly because he doesn't like Max's dad either, and meets Lando when they first return to Charles' tribe. They meet, more or less instantly fall in love, and live happily ever after. :) (Well, as happily ever after as they can get in the Stone Age, anyway.)

[theloveinc]

imagine no quirk free loader touya getting ready in ur cute little bedroom sitting at ur vanity.. yeah 🫶🏾

It's sweet because nothing in your room looks like anything that would suit him, nor like anything he'd enjoy being surrounded by. White sheets, satin pillows, bright lamps to illuminate every corner... aside from not really liking to look at himself under such unforgiving lights (meaning his scars are visible and the pores of his skin, open), the aesthetic itself is just all wrong.

Everything about Dabi is... hard, and dark; he's always dressed in leather and canvas, stiff, workers' materials and dirty shoes meant to last (unlike your more delicate garments, needing to be washed on delicate, under cold, and then air-dryed to top it all off)

Yet, he doesn't seemed bothered by the white marble of your vanity, nor sitting on your pale pink, velour-upholstered stool. He's grumpy and kicks up a fuss about waiting for you to get dressed, but he's surprisingly not... impatient, at least, not impatient enough to actually stop waiting for you.

(He entertains himself mostly by making faces at himself in the mirror: sticking out his tongue, pulling down his eyes, pushing up his nose trying to get your attention ... and he purs like a cat when it works and you come over to brush his eyebrows with your little makeup spoolies or coat his waterline with dark, liquid eyeliner, maybe even get your lipgloss all over his lips when you kiss him... which he licks off and is surprised it's sweet.

you tell him it's blueberry flavor for your favorite blueberry boy and he can't stop himself from grinning like a little boy)

Yes, your friends definitely poke a little bit of fun at you for your broke boyfriend; Dabi picks you up from your brunch date with them and embarrassingly eats up everyone's leftovers before they have a chance to ask for a box ... but you honestly think (aside from the way he finished your best friend's mimosa and licked the runny egg off another's plate) he's actually not half bad <3

[ratatatastic]

do you write fic on ao3?

unfortunately for everyone involved i do!

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

Shivers quivers shakes trembles…. Hello :3 giggles I think this ask will be shorter than my others but… yk how we talked about how sugu would react to u getting cheated on a while ago? I’m curious now and. How do u think satoru would react?? ALSOOO how do you think stsg would react if you told them together……….. i hope u don’t mind that this is a less of a “me telling u my thoughts” and more of a “what r ur thoughts on this” kinda thing :,3 brain juice has not been flowing recently 😞 but ur takes are always amazing so…………….. I know whatever u say will be yummy and I will devour it all >:) — stsg anon 🧁🥧🍰🍨🍩🍪🍧🧇🥞 < all of the treats for yew!!!!!

me when stsg anon appears in my inbox

FIRST OF ALLLLL pls never ever apologize for your asks 🔫 this is a threat 🔫🔫 i love chatting w you no matter how long/short they r!!! and you don’t ever have to feel pressured to come up w your own thoughts either!!!! i love yapping at you!!!!! :3

w that being said ….. i shall yap >:3 HONESTLY THOUGHH i think stsg are very similar when it comes to this concept!!! in the sense that. i think they’ll comfort you first and foremost, then deal w your cheater ex later. i could see satoru being in Actual Disbelief? like?? he almost almost asks if you’re joking. but you’re crying so?? obviously you’re not????? but the idea that anyone would cheat on you genuinely makes him Flabbergasted. he wants to laugh. he doesn’t but he wants to. he hates seeing you sad. he’s almost offended.

it’s just a mess of emotion n lots and LOTS of hate aimed toward your ex 😭😭 he’s like. no fucking way that loser cheated on you???? it’s obvious that he’s rlly pissed but i think he has enough control over his emotions that it sounds like he’s just making jokes to cheer you up. and he IS but he also feels so????? genuinely angry?????? and he doesn’t know how to deal w that. he’s worried abt comforting you too…… i don’t think satoru sees himself as someone who’s good at comforting others At All but he actually kinda is. he’ll hug you tightly and sit down on the couch w you in his lap. and he stays quiet until you’ve calmed down. then he starts a very passionate, hateful rant abt your ex in hopes of making you laugh/calming himself down…… and if he manages to pull a lil smile out of you he just goes 🥺 . you’re his baby. he doesn’t really know how to treat you when you get this fragile but it also makes him feel so complete somehow. this man lives for cheering you up.

ANYWAYYYY satoru will then do the same thing as sugu would <333 which is <33333 to confront your ex. tbh i think suguru is more likely to get violent than he is LMAO but i doubt either of them would (unless your ex said something Awful abt you in front of them in which case… good luck bud)…. he just wants to make it Very Clear that your ex has no business being in your life anymore. he’s very firm and very scary. if your ex tries to start something he will laugh in their face. might also subtly declare himself as your boyfriend…. not explicitly bc. he’s Not your bf. but i think he makes sure your ex understands that he loves you + he’s better than them + they can forget abt crawling back to you once they realize the mistake they’ve made.

and when it comes to stsg together……. i think. the only difference is that one of them will stay to soothe you while the other one instantly goes to confront your ex 😭😭 they’re saving time!!! and let’s be honest, suguru will be the one staying behind. the caretaker of all time. (even tho he really really wants to tell your ex off himself… but that can wait for now). so satoru runs off, suguru makes sure you get the tears out, and then satoru comes back w a bunch of your favorite treats :3 they’re sweetiepies.

i also feel like they’d have a talk together once you’re asleep… likeee maybe you’re all sleeping in the same room bc you’re still very very upset and in need of comfort :((((( and as soon as you start to snooze they talk…… abt you……. and abt how soon they should start hinting to you abt their Own feelings. satoru would want to do so immediately, bc he can’t Stand the idea of you being hung up on your ex while they love you so fervently, but suguru would convince him to be patient. he doesn’t want them to end up rushing you in any way…. but deep down he also wants you to know how loved you are by them. sniffle.

plot twist you’re still wide awake :3 and blushing furiously :33 but that’s another story…..

[the-casbah-way]

What’s your opinion on the English

[skeletalheartattack]

trick or treat ! :o)

hey look what i've found for you in my wallet. it's my very own personal trading card. this is the only one in existence by the way. you could trade it for a shiny charizard or some other stupid shit.

[bumblingbabooshka]

what would Tuvok’s reaction be to fruity pebbles? >:)

Put Them BACK.

[savebylou]

.

[fluffypotatey]

any tips and tricks for getting into the writing zone?

ok so i have 2 methods and they depend on what i'm writing on: story writing and essay writing (waring: this is a mini-ramble)

with essay writing,

get mad, get super fucking mad, write that shit with spite flowing in your veins. even when i'm writing essays and stories i enjoy, i drag my feet.

i whine and complain like a toddler in my head because despite this topic being one i enjoy, putting my excited tones and rambling into coherent words always tends to feel like i'm butchering that (which is why academic papers should simply let me swear in them and use the 1st pov bc it is sO easy and my thoughts flow a lot better but noooOOOOoooooOOOOOooooo, i have to be formal and proper and-)

also, outlining. fucking godsend with essays. it's why a lot of my longer essays have headings bc i use them to outline and keep my thought on one line of thought bc i have a rambling issue (which is then easily solved with parentheses, my beloved)

with story writing (notice how this is basically a heading? good job! you've found my mini outline for this reply! have a cookie 🍪)

i find that jotting down that scene that is nagging at your brain immediately is super helpful. and do it even if you're now writing out of order. pro-tip: writing out of order is THE best, endorphins be going crazy bc you're actually not fighting with your brain with the story but writing alongside your brain-map.

personally, i find it very difficult outlining a story (how contrary) because sometimes my mind changes ideas or switches the order of scenes, and it is exhausting trying to keep up with all of that in your outline. but i guess, my "outline" with stories is simply me jotting down a very quick summary of the plot that invaded my mind in one document, never touching it again, but staying true to it because i wrote it down. therefore, it exists no longer in the recesses of mind but it a physical statement/promise to complete.

also (this advice goes for both story and essays) it is ok to take a break, step back, and not look at your writing for some hours, days, weeks, months, years--fucking whenever.

my midterm essay? a fucking nightmare. loved the topic, would write something similar about it for fun, but the reason it took me so long to complete (and why i dragged my feet) was because of the "short" timeline i had to complete it. i felt like i was on a time crunch and that led to me procrastinating, stressing over it, and taking my grand old time researching for it. however, when i was able to work on it? i allowed myself to simply do as much as i could. if i was unable to look at that stupid document, i didn't look at it. if my mind had a really good thought or example for the topic rotating in my head? immediate sit down and get that thought onto the paper. it must exist.

i have fics sitting in my folders that have been unfinished in so long, but i still consider them as wips because (and here’s another subpart-advice) i tend to work on them when i am unable to touch my current work. to be frank, working on something else helps keep you in the writing zone even if you cannot stand to look at the blank/unfinished work you wanted to complete originally. when i was incapable of writing for the Monkie Destiny Challenge, i switched to working on writing and editing my teen wolf fic (a fic i had not looked at since July) because while i still had that itch to write, something was blocking me from completing the prompts. and when i switched fics, getting into the zone was a lot easier.

so, to recap:

when jumpstarting the writing zone for writing an essay, you get passionate (can be read as mad/spiteful), and outline your thought process of the essay with headings to keep the writing flow flowing (the headings do not need to stay in the final product but they are good to have in the draft) .

when jumpstarting story writing, write! that! shit! down!!!! chronological order doesn't mean shit when you're in the planning/writing phase. your readers don't have to know that you wrote/planned a character's death before writing/planning out the beginning. they just read it in the order you publish it in!

to keep the writing zone stable and in working condition, TAKE THOSE BREAKS BOO! who cares about your personal deadlines???? if you feel exhausted before opening up a doc, then take that break, babygirl. again, your reader(s) will not need to know (nor do they need to know) how long it took you to get your writing piece done. hell, if you still feel the itch to write but the thing you wanna do is not working, then work on something else you haven't touched in a while because that itch WILL get its scratch somewhere, so help me god.

so yeah, i hope this was helpful, anon (and coherent jfc there better not be a plethora of typos T^T). happy writing, and may your weekend be a healthy dose of eventful!

[axolotlclown]

Would you happen to have some studies to back up the "more than one coffee means you're addicted" thing, please? Pretty sure I've seen that disproven as a lens to understand addiction through at all

~ 🪴

Hey! So sorry I never saw this anon. It never appeared in my notifs and I'm really bad about checking my askbox.

You have asked a question that falls in line with a field I am very passionate about! I found some interesting articles in my school library. I'm going to go ahead and write this response, but I'm still waiting on access to a few journals. I'll have to convert those ones to PDFs as they are likely behind paywalls.

Anyway, here's my long post where I intend to rant about a lot of different barely related topics. Caffeine addiction is one of those really controversial but historically significant subjects in psychology!

So let me start off with how to read and break down a journal. It's one of those things where if you don't go to college and specifically major in a research related field, no one ever teaches you how to do it. That sucks.

So when you're looking at a journal, the first thing you want to do is background check the author. What school did they go to? What degrees do they have? (For research, they should have a Ph.D. no matter what.) What is their current place of employment?

Often companies, or other private businesses, will commission someone to do some research and fudge the results to make that company look better. We saw this recently in regards to gender affirming care. The United States House of Representatives had proposed legislation to restrict gender affirming care for transgender youth. The Republican sponsor of the bill had presented a single piece of research that he claimed was significant. The research found that transition regret rates were somewhere in the 30% range. (I don't remember exactly and I know that I could quickly look it up, but I just spent the past two hours reading addiction research. I'll find it tomorrow.) Upon looking into the author and the sponsors of this research, psychologists found that the journal the congressman presented was commissioned by a conversation therapy center in Florida. The research held obvious bias, poor peer review, and inconclusive results. The bill didn't pass. I'm not sure they even voted on it, actually.

Anyway, this is why we need to be critical of the research we read. Chocolate, wine, caffeine, gender dysphoria, and autism are notorious subjects that require more scrutiny before reading.

So, caffeine addiction. This is a subject that more than one field is interested in. Before you read an article, you need to be sure what question you are asking. Psychologists are concerned with a more scientific or factual approach. In this context, a psychologist would be researching the concrete effects of caffeine on mood, sleep, and other psychological disorders. Sociologists are more concerned with the overall social consequences of caffeine addiction. They would be asking how mood and sleep affected family, work, and personal welfare. For your question, we're going to look into the psychological aspect. Also, I'm studying psychology, not sociology, so I would feel like an idiot answering those types of questions.

This distinction matters. When I opened my school's EBSCOHost database, I simply typed in "caffeine addiction" to start. I was bombarded with sociological articles and journals about the affects of caffeine addiction on productivity at work and on mood. Strange overlap with psychology. Two problems: some of the top articles had researchers with ties to coffee companies, and all "caffeine addicts" were self-reported. For the latter, this meant that there was no standard for how much caffeine was consumed. Rather than being a concrete article about caffeine consumption, it was more of a survey of public opinion. You want to avoid those unless you specifically want to know about the public opinion. Even psychologists run surveys all the time (they're cheap and easy), but people often lie on surveys, even if they're anonymous.

So I typed in more specific key words and came up with these articles. I'll talk about some without leaving a link, but that's because I had to request the PDFs for sharing. I'll come back to this post and link them. (Let me know if the ones I do link are broken.)

Okay, so I'm going to start off with a journal that interested me, personally. This study actually observed the effects of caffeine on psychiatric patients. This is an important reminder that different drugs influence different brains. Someone with ADHD experiences caffeine differently for a neurotypical person. Caffeine is a stimulant, and ADHD medications are stimulants. Cool. What about other disorders?

Here's the Sparknotes of the study, "Caffeine intoxication was more prevalent in psychiatric patients than in healthy subjects. The amount of caffeine intake was shown to be associated positively with the severity of pathology and inversely with sleep quality."

The study goes more into depth about the different psychological disorders that different patients had. There were 401 patients participating in this study (150 healthy individuals). Overall, continuous caffeine intake showed a decline in sleep quality and a general increase in severity of other mental illnesses.

So what causes that? What is caffeine? Here's an article that looks into studies about caffeine consumption and performance, as well as what the causes of an addiction could be and what constitutes an addiction. This is one I recommend giving a read, as it helps to illuminate a common problem with researching intoxicants.

Here's the big take away: "Although caffeine is widely perceived to have beneficial psychostimulant effects, appropriately controlled studies show that its apparent beneficial effects on performance and mood are almost wholly attributed to reversal of the withdrawal effects that occur after fairly short periods of abstinence (e.g. overnight)."

In habitual coffee users, the increase of mood and performance after consumption of caffeine is caused by the removal of withdrawal symptoms. Grouchy mood and lack of coordination are symptoms of caffeine withdrawal. Where one may perceive positive reinforcement for initial consumption, for habitual consumers, withdrawal symptoms become a negative reinforcement.

So, for people that drink coffee everyday, it's less about getting the positive effects of caffeine, but rather avoiding the negative effects of withdrawal. This can be classified as an addiction. There is now a reliance on this substance.

Something this article also points out is that caffeine is not just found in coffee. It's found in chocolate and most medications these days as well. Therefore, complete stone cold abstinence from caffeine can be next to impossible, making control groups difficult to find. This leads to the varying research and controversy between psychologists.

Okay, but coffee can't be as bad as alcohol or anything right? Caffeine is practically harmless! Let's take a look into an article discussing the health impacts of caffeine. (I'll provide the full text to this one tomorrow.)

In Dr. Saimaiti's article titled, "Dietary Sources, Health Benefits, and Risks of Caffeine," she explores the benefits of occasional consumption of caffeine and weighs them against habitual overconsumption of caffeine.

While occasional consumption can actually improve mood and cognitive ability, these benefits are lost with daily consumption.

Few people drink their coffee black. For those that put creamer, milk (especially oat), or straight sugar or syrups in their coffees daily, they may be overconsuming sugar. This is especially hard on an empty stomach. This is part of the reason you "crash" later in the day. The sugar raises your blood sugar. For most healthy people, this may not be the biggest deal in the world. For others, it could be a key factor in developing diabetes later in life. In general, don't drink coffee on an empty stomach. Have it with a meal. It's also easier on your liver.

Speaking of liver, what does your body do with the caffeine after you drink it? Caffeine follows the same principle as alcohol. Occasional consumption of red wine can help thin your blood and lower your hemoglobin (something that women may be more concerned about as they get older). However, daily consumption of wine can cause stress on the liver and potentially lead to dementia later in life (I say potentially because there has been a correlation, but no solid research as to why. While correlation does not always mean causation, it's important to acknowledge them in the meantime.)

Caffeine behaves in the same way. Continuous consumption of caffeine can put some real stress on your liver over time.

Caffeine is dangerous for those with cardiovascular problems. While this seems like a "duh!" point, many people don't know that they may be prone to cardiovascular issues until an event happens. This sounds like fear mongering, but it's something to take into account.

The article discusses pregnant women as well, but I would hope that's intuitive? Maybe not? If you're pregnant you should avoid intoxication in all forms.

I'll drop this quote from the conclusion of the article for now (I felt weird quoting text that you can't access yet, so I'll come back with more quotes when I can give you the PDF): "the long-term or over-consumption of caffeine can lead to addiction, insomnia, migraine, and other side effects."

The point is, caffeine consumption can be more dangerous to some than others in general, but excessive consumption with lack of knowledge can lead to long-term damage to one's health.

Okay, that study talks about a relatively small niche. Let's get broad. Let's talk about sleep and cognitive performance. (Another study I'll have the PDF for tomorrow.)

In Dr. Gottselig's article titled, "Random Number Generation During Sleep Deprivation: Effects of Caffeine on Response Maintenance and Stereotypy," she looks at the effects caffeine has on cognitive performance during sleep deprivation.

The conclusions of this research makes a very important point: "caffeine preserves simple aspects of cognitive performance during sleep deprivation, whereas caffeine may not prevent detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on some complex cognitive functions."

This article particularly found that while small cognitive functions such as motor ability improved with caffeine, complex cognitive functions such as problem solving and memory declined.

While a college student could read this and understand that pulling an all nighter and drinking 10 Red Bulls probably won't help them pass their test, there's something much more to be said about these findings.

One sleep deprived night won't kill you, and certainly drinking a cup of coffee to get you through the day won't either. But caffeine cannot prevent the damage that regular sleep deprivation does. Sleep deprivation leads to memory loss, worsening symptoms of depression/anxiety/ADHD, increased chances of developing dementia early (this one is real), and a decline in overall cognitive ability.

Rough. But it is a trap. If you have insomnia, caffeine may feel like your only choice to be somewhat functioning throughout the day. Caffeine promotes symptoms of insomnia. It's a vicious cycle if you can't afford proper treatment, and one, that I hope, that will be addressed with time.

So if you have the ability, it's better to prioritize a good night's sleep. I'll come back to this.

For now, why is caffeine addiction so controversial then? Well, it may not be for long. While there was a push to add "caffeine" to the list of diagnosable addiction in the DSM since the 1980's, the inconsistent and inconclusive research has led to a standstill. As we say with Dr. Jame's article, it is difficult to get a control group for caffeine. However, as research for alcohol and marijuana progresses, our knowledge of how to properly study intoxicants does as well.

The long-term health side effects of caffeine are still being studied as well. While this aspect isn't unique to caffeine at all (marijuana, for example, is just now getting approved for research, where before it was illegal), it's still worth acknowledging what we do know, for now at least.

So, coming back to the DSM. There's a new one coming out pretty soon. It's the talk of the town among psychologists right now. Everyone is arguing about what should be in the DSM-6. It'll be crazy when it does come out. Autism, OCD, Gender Dysphoria, Borderline Personality Disorder, and Facial Dysmorphia are just a few examples of disorders that will likely be completely recategorized.

(Unrelated, but Autism Spectrum Disorder is a big one because a lot of psychologists are arguing that it shouldn't be classified as a disorder at all. The reason being is that Autism is so common, that psychologists are theorizing that the majority of the population falls on the spectrum somewhere. Either way, the diagnosis is about to completely change because of this fact.) (Well, all of them are big ones. I could make a whole separate post about it.)

Anyway, the push to make caffeine diagnosable is becoming a promising endeavor as research continues to come out.

One psychiatrist pushing for this is Ronald Griffiths. In his opinion piece, Griffiths recalls his patients experiencing caffeine withdrawal symptoms that led to a decline in the quality of life. One of his patients was diagnosed with breast cancer and needed to stop drinking coffee immediately. This patient struggled with severe withdrawal symptoms that were difficult to manage while on cancer treatment.

Griffiths explains how difficult it was to treat this patient because it wasn't something he could easily diagnose with the DSM-5, something insurance companies use to decide whether they're going to pay for care or not. Add on the bills for cancer treatment, and you rapidly have a distressing situation on your hands.

Joseph DeRupo, spokesman for the National Coffee Association in the U.S. as quoted in this article states, "What we have here is really the opinion of one scientist who is a lone voice against the accepted view of the scientific community."

Lone voice? In barely an hour I was able to find 5 credible articles, all backed by credible researchers, supporting the understanding that American society consumes too much caffeine. You can take a General Psych class in college and the textbook would spend half a chapter going over caffeine addiction and the controversial research around it. Coffee companies piss me off. And most companies use slave labor to harvest their beans and lobby to prevent legislation to prevent it. Guillotine.

Griffiths also claims that "[e]ven people who consume as little as 100 milligrams of caffeine a day—the equivalent of one small cup of coffee—can become physically dependent."

So this ask is pretty old, but I'm guessing it was in response to me saying that you should only drink one cup of a random beverage a day and the rest be water. This keeps you hydrated and helps cut out where the majority of your sugar intake is. I called it the "desert beverage" and that "coffee counts."

It really does. In the morning, one feels tired, foggy, and grouchy. "Don't talk to me until I've had my morning coffee." They would make their coffee out of habit, barely minding the taste of it—drinking to medicate the headache they've already caused.

Life is worth celebrating, and if we can find little things in our day to celebrate, we should! When coffee becomes a habit, it's just a habit. That's sad.

I worked as a barista for a while at a coffee shop that hired people with intellectual disabilities. That experience is what made me switch my major to psychology in the first place. But I saw the joys coffee could bring, and the damage it can do, too. I had a coworker who would come in and throw a tantrum if we didn't immediately stop what we were doing and make him a coffee—and again in two hours before the end of his shift. It's upsetting.

I do remember the joys, too. Our manager would show us a new niche coffee drink from a random country. We would make cubanos like they would in Haiti and talk about the different names they had in different countries around the world. It ruled.

I don't drink coffee every day anymore. But it's always a wonderful thing when I do. You don't need to have an "excuse" to drink a cup of coffee—you don't need to celebrate anything at all. Coffee, tea, wine, soda, and juice should be celebrated as they are. Drinking them out of habit destroys joy. Intentional habits create stable foundations in life. Unintentional habits create monotony and boredom.

Anyway, the sleep thing I said I'd come back to. So if you're having trouble sleeping, here's the hot tip: avoid screens 30 minutes before going to bed. That sounds easy, but how many of us scroll our phones, watch TV, or play a video game right before bed? It's not worth it.

Instead, do something away from your phone that you enjoy. I like to read, but you can draw, journal, listen to some music, practice an instrument, or write something. Doesn't matter, just don't use your phone or laptop. Set a 30 minute timer for time.

If you're still struggling to sleep, you may find meditation useful. Meditation uses techniques that make your brain send beta waves which relaxes you and is the first step to falling asleep. But! If you try to learn some meditation, you'll have to commit to practicing it every night for it to be useful. It's a skill that requires practice.

Anyway, I could make a whole separate post about evening/morning/afternoon routines as that is another one of my passions, but yeah.

TLDR; An occasional cup of coffee is actually great and wonderful, but you really shouldn't drink it every day, especially more than once a day.

PS. I love Red Bull cream sodas more than the God that created them, I swear, but I only drink maybe one or two energy drinks a year. Energy drinks will dissolve your liver faster than hydrochloric acid can. An alcoholic drinking 5 packs of beers a day will look at your liver and be impressed. Also the Panera lemonade should be illegal. That shit is CRAZY. That bitch had more caffeine than a Bang energy drink. It literally killed a man. Wild.

[oathofkaslana]

I wish we could bring whoever designed xinyan back. she also has a darker skin than any of the sumeru characters. like bring that guy back

LITERALLY 😭😭 like her design isn’t perfect (and i don’t think i need to mention how they handle her story..) but the fact that she’s darker than all the sumeru characters is so when several of the sumeru characters are also/should be black 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

[dandyshucks]

Yo! It's ya boi, Guzma.

So I've seen people goin' around and sendin' lovey-dovey letters to their cuties. What's up with that? Dunno but I thought, ya know, why not send one to ya, heh? OK maybe Plum' elbowed me in the sides sayin' I should force myself to be romantic for once. What's up with that?

But ya know. Thought wouldn't leave my mind so here I am, writin' to my sweetie. Hope you'll like it, my li'l Butterfree. Man, ya boi's bad at romance, OK? But I love ya. For reals.

Maybe we could, I dunno, go on a fancy date or some sh- somethin'. In Malie Garden, maybe? Away from the boys for once, just me and ya, yeah? Yeah, man. Sounds perfect to me. I just wanna cuddle with ya, y'know? Have a bit o' peace and quiet alone with my beautiful Beautifly. Is that too much to ask, Arceus?

Sorry, no point complainin' to mythical mons. I just wish we could have a moment, ya know?

OK this is gettin' embarrassing. Imma go train Golisopod for a while, then maybe we can get outta Po Town and do something cool together, yeah?

Ya boi who's bad at romance but hella grateful for ya, Guzma 🪲🖤

real actual images of me when i woke up and opened tumblr to see this a couple hours ago HELP MEEEEEEE

whoever wrote this,,,, you are incredibly good at writing in character voices godDAMN, and also YOU ARE GOING TO KILL ME (/positive)

don't mind me while i just. stare at this. repeatedly. all day. "for reals".......... sobs !!!!!!!!!!

[revvethasmythh]

I've just read through your FCG meta/response from yesterday and I love it. With regards to the popularity of Sam's characters (and I agree with a lot of what you said on why), how much of that do you think is connected to how shippable his characters are from a fandom POV? In campaign 1, Pikelan is so much less popular than the other 2 canon ships. In campaign 2, anything other than Veth/Yeza (almost no fandom engagement) is treated as a crackship (fjeth) or most people insist it's familial (widobrave). Then obviously there is very little shipping for FCG in general. Is it because he's a funnyman? Is it what you were talking about with flawed characters and how they wouldn't consistently serve a fave enough to be shipped with them? Is it just that he tends not to create conventionally attractive characters? I'd say the gulf in ship popularity for the canon ships of campaign 1 followed the lines of conventional attractiveness a little strictly for me to write it off as coincidence, even if there were other extending circumstances like Pike being away a lot of the time. And the fact that one of Sam's most popularly shipped characters (Loquatius) happens to be one of the more conventionally attractive ones. Although it's pretty clear from watching calamity that those two would've been a very popular couple regardless.

That became a vent but the main question is do you think that one feeds the other? Are Sam's characters less popular because they're less shippable by fandom standards? Or are they less shipped because they're less popular? Or do those two things feed one another? I'm sorry that was a lot thrown at you but since your recent analysis was so good that I was curious to hear your thoughts on this.

Okay, there's enough to unpack here that I could probably write a few essays in response, but I'm going to try to keep this as concise as I can, so I'll answer the TL;DR as best I can keeping the rest in mind. I do think the two things feed each other to some extent, though I find myself leaning toward thinking his characters are less popular because they're less shippable, and less shippable because of their unconventionality. This might be the cynic in me, but I've been in fandom long enough to know that shipping tends to be a huge motivator for folks, though I'm also sure the fact that Sam's characters tend to have BIG personalities affects if people want to engage with them or not as well.

Like, I have caught myself on many occasions considering how balls to the walls popular Widobrave would have been if Nott wasn't a goblin and therefore very unconventionally attractive (lots of monsterfuckers in the fandom do be fakes, as it turns out), or considering how Veth gets overlooked as a shipping option or even just as a character who is attractive because, well. She's short, she's fat, she's brown, she's loud, and she takes up space. Like, we all know that's the reason even if we don't say it out loud very often. It's why it's easier for people to relegate her as a wife and a mother, heavy emphasis on mother, and not have to engage much deeper with her character and complexities than that, and certainly not her shipping viability (hence the "Veth is Caleb's mom" thing that will never ever go away)

And with FCG, I have seen with my own eyes people say that he's not shippable because he's a robot. Like, I don't think it's a secret that a fair few folk think that way. I find it interesting that when Sam said on 4sd, "Fresh Cut Grass is desperate to do things like be able to taste, be able to smell, be able to feel love, the things that you all can do that I can't" I saw people say in response: "but he CAN feel love. The love of his friends," but I've also not seen a single interpretation that this may be a desire to feel love in a romantic sense on his part. Now, I'm not saying that's what Sam meant--it could be much more general than that, as FCG is still struggling with understanding their personhood and what it even means to feel love at all, platonic or otherwise--but the absence of the interpretation is not, uh, lost on me.

So, I suppose the point to make here is that a huge amount of fandom prioritizes shipping over just about anything else. Sam's characters rarely take the spotlight in shipping situations (though he does do a huge amount of delicious, subtle pining. it's his speciality), with the exception of Quay, who is probably his most conventionally attractive character apart from Tary, who didn't actively get a big romantic plot in VM the way Quay did in Calamity (he got the Sam Riegel classic--quiet pining). So if Sam comes out swinging with these non-traditionally attractive characters, as he basically always does, who tend to make a lot of jokes, because he's Sam, fandom seems to write them off as jokes and/or unattractive and not viable for shipping, therefore less interesting or having less worth engaging with entirely.

And here's the thing--it's not just Sam this is affecting right now, either! Look at Chetney. Chetney is the fucking spiritual successor of Veth Brenatto, like all croaky and horny and hilarious and A LOT. He's also old, which immediately took him out of the shipping pool for a lot of people, and it feeds into the way people think of him as just a joke. like "lmao look there's an OLD guy in the party this time, what a racket." Which is ridiculous, but definitely an opinion you're going to find floating around, both said and unsaid. And I think all you need to do is look at the stark absence of Chetney on AO3, the fact that there are all of 22 Fearne/Chetney fics (a ship that gets seriously played up in canon, just like Pikelan did during VM), and the absence of serious discussion about him to see a correlation between a character being traditionally shippable and one that the fandom deems worthwhile to talk about.

I mean, here's the thing--this is a limited discussion that I'm able to do right now. This could be an entire dissertation and there are complexities I'm not hitting on, I'm absolutely sure of it. But I would generally agree that the more unconventional a character is, particularly one who is unconventionally attractive, the less shippable fandom will view them and then they would be less popular in general, and I think that's something Sam runs aground of often, yeah. Like I said, I'm sure there are complexities I'm not hitting right now, but I do think, generally speaking, this is often true. Even though I think it's really unfortunate that fandom bends so heavily toward prioritizing shipping like that. But, like, they do

[drorey]

before you send someone a stupid anon ask, THINK

[wonfilms]

Hey honey

This is the prettiest anon.

I know it's been a while since I've said anything, but I want you to know I'm right here. I haven't gone anywhere. I read everything you write and still find it as endearing as I first found this blog to be.

I've just been caught up with life in general so I haven't been able to respond much. But let it be known that all your Hwang crumbs are well received. Especially the latest one!!

I just wanted to let you know I'm always lurking here so just keep in mind you always have me silently supporting you from this side. And I'll occasionally pop-up to say hi now and then. Maybe a ASFDJKLHGSSF here and there in your inbox for every fic that hits the spot!!

Oh I also always like and reblog your fics.

Before I run away . . .

I heard we get anon emojis 🧐 where's mine

* now runs away *

dear prettiest anon u jus made me tear up a lil bit

i'm gonna make you 🫀 anon cos ur words make me a lil sad in a good way

[hua-fei-hua]

hey! i stumbled across you on ao3 through genshin (i think? that was in september i have no idea at this point), went to check out your profile and saw my hero academia works there. i am currently very much into it, so i was like let's gooo sooo I found B♭ and that has been a wild journey.

firstly, i don't have any experience with american school system, so a lot of worldbuilding was new for me. moreover, marching band is something from another universe(aka music lover but never got educated on the matter), so fic constantly challenged me with new details-concepts-vocabulary. stepping outside of your comfort zone while reading? great idea! i think i never learned so much from a fic while enjoying it so much ^^

secondly, i am simply amazed by sheer amount of effort you put into it. i decided to read in publishing order, so non-chronological really impressed me. you're honestly a mastermind being able to pull that off. also, having a song for every chapter with specifically picked out lyrics relevant to the content is so, so cool! the diversity of your playlists should be astonishing, i'm jealous :)

thirdly, the characters are just so real. i love all the canon references, i love the reactions that don't feel exagerrated or too mild. they are acting...exactly as i would expect them to in that circumstances and setting. i just accepted leads' ways of thinking and reflecting so naturally

i also read the extra notes when they were available and just...how much thought is put in is mezmerising. for some reason i never thought pulling directly from your life experiences when writing? but it actually makes a lot of sense and it brought me some ideas to try out so hehe ;)

as i am very smart and hadn't scrolled down on the order post, i didn't see until quite late in the reading that the end of perfect harmony is published as notes, so that was a surprise. i understand your reasons and the fact that you're not even in the fandom anymore, but you mentioned in some extra notes that it's ok to ask for them even if years passed so...here i am three years after, complimenting B♭ :D

anyway, i finished it a couple of days ago, and even the notes are quite detailed. images of described shenanigans popped into my head just like that, and i really appreciate that you published them and i got to know what happened next!!

i actually wondered why were the comments disabled since i really wanted to comment on a few chapters bc your work deserves it so much...but yeah, that's what led me here so i guess congrats, you get my thoughts all nicely packed in one place ^_^

there's probably a lot of specific pieces, details, ideas i liked about B♭, so that is merely a summary of exciting things i remember!

i'll say goodbye using my favourite oneshot title:

thank you for the music ✩°｡⋆⸜(ू｡•ω•｡)

not gonna lie i'm kind of obsessed w/the way you just glossed over the fact that you (probably) found me through my (anonymous) genshin fics, which means you jumped through the (minimum three) hoops required to get here, my (named) fandom blog, and then proceed to gush abt a bnha series i did. like i would assume that if someone put in the effort to find my other fandom fics from my genshin stuff, then there must've been smth really worth looking into w/the genshin stuff lmao

for the sake of my mutuals' dashboards, since this ask is so long i'm just gonna chuck the whole (long) answer under a cut lol

anyway yes Bb!! the amt of effort n planning i put into that series was legitimately insane. i made school schedules for EVERY SINGLE BNHA CHARACTER and PUT IT ON A SPREADSHEET so that i could PLAN WHO COULD WALK WITH WHOM TO THEIR NEXT CLASSES n have PLOT-RELEVANT CONVERSATIONS LIKE THAT. i made little profiles for each of the characters, where i chose their favorite musical key (and why), how many years/instruments they play, and gave them each a funny little quote/catchphrase!!!

what possessed me to do this for ~20 different characters i honestly could not tell you

i definitely loved working on Bb a lot. i remember sitting down three years ago, practically to the day by this point, n hashing out the events of every single chapter to the epilogue, then reorganizing them into a proper timeline (i also kept a calendar in my notes with the chapters in order), all while occasionally looking out my bedroom window n thinking how wonderfully bright n warm n sunny the world was becoming again. bc really, 2019 was a very struggle year for me, n i didn't take the time to appreciate the sunlight then the way i have every year since. from there, i worked off that very strict outline, and most of the note-chapters that were eventually put up are primarily just copy-pasted straight from there.

i remember being on youtube a lot for music recs when working on perfect harmony too!! a bunch of them changed in the years btwn walking away from the series n actually publishing the notes (which were actually published mid-december last year, then backdated to 2020 a few days later ahaha), with a number of the tour arc alternate chapter title songs coming from songs that didn't even exist at the time of the fic's original planning. my mp3 collection grew a lot during the planning phases of Bb lmao.

i'm glad the characters felt so real!!! while no one character was based entirely off one single person i knew irl, one could say that writing Bb was a bit of a love letter to my time in high school band in some places, both the events i partook in n the people i knew there. it was a very "write what you know" type of fic.

anyway haha yeah the end of my bnha days were not fun, but i still loved Bb enough to hold onto the idea of returning to it Soon(tm) that i put off publishing the chapter notes for almost two years. even then, that was a difficult decision for me to make bc a part of me wasn't ready to close that chapter of my life. i think ultimately it was the best decision to make though, since the fics are p heavily tied up in a much sadder part of my life that i'd just rather not return to.

the main reason comments were turned off of Bb (and indeed, the majority of my bnha fics) is most simply described as "resentment". it's different from how i feel abt my old snk fics (where i turned comments off of them so that i could pretend no one's really reading them anymore), which is more impersonal "oh my god i was so young back then and i give fewer than negative shits abt any mistakes i might've made on them or what anyone thinks of them" bc in bnha it's kind of hard to avoid the fact that i had a Name in the circles i typically traversed for a while. it wasn't that big of a name, but it's certainly more than nothing.

it's not really a feeling i like to dwell on, so i just archive-locked the responsible works n turned off comments for the most heinous culprits (mostly sparklers, but even tho i love Bb as a story, i do not love Bb as a publishing experience, if that makes sense), and for the most part, that keeps the resentment contained.

still, i'm genuinely happy that you enjoyed the au so much!!! i honestly love love love how goddamn SPECIFIC the premises are for this fic. the world was truly built with love, and the music puns for every title were always such a joy to come up with c':

thank you for the ask!!!! :D