#i think it was less than an hour unless i Really spaced out and remembered the time i saw extremely wrong

[todayisafridaynight]

ignore if you don't give one for my streams Anyways potential stream schedule goin forward Just Until I Finish Judgement

thursday i'll stream judgement from like. 3:30 ~ 7:30

friday'll be 4:30 ~ 8:30

saturdays will be the usual 3:30 ~ . fuckin whenever LMAO art stream i do

[came0dust]

you ever almost go to sleep but basically get a vision of art to execute immediately, then and there? yeah

[sadlittleratboy]

People always seem to think Tomura is shy and like...I just can't see it. He has this unwavering confidence in himself, paired with just generally not giving a fuck what people think.

I mean, he's not smooth or cool by any stretch of the imagination, but he also wouldn't try to be. He's a weird NEET that doesn't like people much. You knew you were signing up for. Tomura would probably have to be pretty comfortable with you to develop feelings anyway, which means you two are way past probably everyone saw it coming before he worked out what it really was.

Also, you definitely don't get special treatment over the league. You're just as important, of course, and likely a member of the league yourself, but he cares about his people. He probably takes care of you the same way he does them, just buying you random things and lurking around you like a cat. In that same way, he trusts in your skills, and isn't any more protective of you than he is the rest of the league, unless you genuinely need it. He's strong enough to protect you, so it's not a big deal to him.

Tomura doesn't flirt, but if you're the shy type you probably will wish he did, because instead he just looks at you and says whatever he's thinking. "You're kind of needy, not that I mind." "You make such a cute face when you want attention." "I know full well you know the controls, but if you need an excuse to sit in my lap then I'll teach you again." He will tease you whether you're a boy, girl, or other. It doesn't matter if he's the top or the bottom in your relationship, or if you're bigger than him (which let's be real, he's a 5'9" twink weighing in at 130 pounds, so it's likely that you'll be bigger in some way). He's just like this. Honestly he's not teasing you on purpose, this is just how he shows affection. These moments are unprovoked, and impossible to see coming.

He doesn't really talk much, but he will listen to you go on for hours about whatever you want, joining in only if he has something to say. He likes sharing space with you. Quality time and casual touch is important, so it may come off that he's possessive, but it's actually the opposite. He's not the jealous type, because he trusts you. He's also not really likely to notice any flirting (towards either of you) unless you tell him, and even then you would have to ask him to deal with it (or the person would have to be clearly bothering you) for him to do anything. God help you if you're the jealous type.

You can't really embarrass him either. If you try to tease him by asking why he's done something romantic (romantic for HIM, anyway), he'll simply say it's because he wanted to, or he'll straight up say it's because he likes you. "I did it because we're together. Isn't that obvious?" That doesn't mean you can't make him blush or fluster him, though. Tomura isn't used to affection, much less anything unconditional. Compliments, sweet words, and physical affection that you initiate are bound to get to him, but the most effective is just simply taking care of him. If you make sure he eats or take care of his injuries he kind of forgets how to do anything other than nod. He's flustered and overwhelmed with affection, and the best part is that he's AWFUL at taking care of himself, so you can do this as much as you want honestly.

Generally Tomura would be a good partner. He notices things about people and remembers them. He takes care of the people around him and considers their dreams and wishes. He's not a normal boyfriend by any means. Dates are rarely an outside thing, because even with hiding his appearance he just doesn't like being around people, but you still spend a lot of time together. He's not good at communicating the way other people do, but he does communicate. Sometimes he's genuinely lost as to how to help, especially if you're upset about something, but he WILL try.

Also arguments wouldn't be that difficult to solve, because he will straight up state his issue, and if it gets too heated he'll just walk off and come back when things have calmed down. He doesn't work up easily (we can see this with how patient he is with league members, so a pre-league Tomura might be a little worse in this area), and would rather just talk and find a solution. We don't see him yell often, so I think he probably doesn't like to, but also won't let you yell at him either.

Basically you're dating a loser gamer with zero shame and so much love for you, and that loser also just so happens to be Shigaraki Tomura, one of the largest villains in Japan.

[moonlight-prose]

11 with Poe? 🥺 💞

𝐒𝐄𝐄𝐃𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄

a/n: this prompt with poe is so soft and warm it's actually melting my heart. i'm a massive sucker for someone taking care of the person they love in such a simple way like this. it's short and more of a drabble, but i really enjoyed bringing some softness to this man. i always seem to put him in angsty situations, so he deserves this.

summary: "he was with you. the person he longed to be around. who’s smile made him smile, and who’s laugh made him laugh. rather than looking for a quick escape, he found himself hoping that the mission would take even longer."

word count: 1k+

pairing: poe dameron x reader

warnings: not explicit, soft poe, flirting, fluffiness, poe dameron being hopelessly head over heels.

Squinting against the bright light of the sun, you traversed your way through the field, trying to catch up to the group ahead. It was a simple mission. Head out to a planet, find whoever was willing to trade shitty x-wing parts for something far better, and get back before dinner. Really it was more a quick vacation than anything else—a chance to get away from the chaos that your lives had become.

Poe shifted, checking to see exactly where you both had ended up in the hour you’d been walking. It’s not that you were lost. You were simply exploring. Or at least…that’s how Poe put it. You however had been keeping track of the different paths you’d taken, making sure to mark on your map where exactly you had to backtrack to get where you needed.

He sighed for the tenth time, scrubbing a hand down his face, his brows pulling together with frustration. It was clear that getting back to base before dinner wasn’t a possibility. Which meant you would have to find a place here amidst the greenery and gorgeous landscape.

You didn’t mind the idea much. However you couldn’t necessarily say the same for Poe.

“So where exactly are we?” you asked, trying to comprehend the bits and pieces of the foreign language. Growing up in the galaxy meant you knew more than your fair share, but sometimes it was hard to learn it all.

“Who the fuck knows,” he muttered, turning to look at yet another green hill. It looked identical to the last five you passed.

“It’s getting late.”

He nodded. “Think we can make it back to the ship tonight?”

There was a possibility of that happening if you turned back now, but you could see the sun begin its descent into the horizon, the day coming quickly to a close. The planet was known for housing less than lethal life forms, which made the idea of camping outside that much more appealing. You slept in a tiny bunk back at the base. Barely enough room to stretch out your legs before you hit the wall beside you—the open space around you felt like a damn gift compared to that.

“We should find a closed off area,” you suggested, remembering the many times you were forced to sleep outside whilst on a mission.

“Lead the way.”

He traipsed along behind you, eyes stuck to your surroundings in case of danger, and you didn’t do anything to interfere. You understood he wouldn’t feel safe sleeping on an unknown planet unless he was sure nothing bad was to happen. If he was alone he wouldn’t take precautions. But that was the difference. You stood beside him, untarnished by the tragedy of war. Beautiful like the summer flowers his mother used to pick on Yavin 4.

“The map says it shouldn’t be that much father,” you said in the hopes that it would offer some reprieve from how disappointing this whole mission was.

“That’s fine,” he mumbled, catching a glimpse of how the sunset enshrouded your face, creating a glow across you that nearly punched the breath from his lungs.

If he were with anyone else on this mission he would have been irritated. Beyond that probably. He could have seen himself trying to contact Leia from where you were, asking for a transport back, but he wasn’t with anyone else. He was with you. The person he longed to be around. Who’s smile made him smile, and who’s laugh made him laugh. Rather than looking for a quick escape, he found himself hoping that the mission would take even longer.

“I’m sorry about all this.” Poe felt his heart begin to sink, matching the movement of the sun. “I know it’s taking too much time. I swear I thought I read the map right.”

His pace faltered until he found himself stopping altogether, hand reaching for your arm to turn you. “Why are you apologizing?”

You sighed. “I just…I know how irritating all of this can be.”

“Sunshine—”

“And I know you have other important things to do for the Resistance.” You turned, running a hand across your forehead. “I could have asked Finn to come with me instead. Or anyone else. But I…I like…”

Poe stepped forward so quickly his boot nearly got caught on a small hole in the ground. “You like?”

Another long breath left you, eyes shifting up to finally catch him in your gaze. “I like your company.”

He felt the start of a smirk and tried to tamp it down, but there was no use. “My company huh?”

“Don’t get cocky flyboy. You’re not the worst person to be around.”

He was way past cocky at that point. Your words filled him with a warmth that sent his heart racing so hard it nearly stopped altogether. But you looked nervous. As if the words had been bottled up for so long you felt wary about heaven bringing them out into the open. You were unprepared for his smile, for his hand to reach out and pick a piece of grass out of your hair, only to use that to drag you even closer.

“I know I’m not,” he said softly, grunting when you lightly punched him in the chest. “Just been waiting for you to say it out loud.”

“You’re such a pain in the ass—” Tugging yourself away, you were ready to throw another meaningless curse at him, but Poe had solidified his plans long before you began to admit your feelings.

His lips caught yours in a kiss, effectively silencing you and stopping your movements. You felt a rush of dizziness go up to your head, a soft sound of contentment falling from your mouth into his. And Poe felt his entire being light up. Pulling you closer, he clutched at you tightly, hands sliding to your back and breath washing across your face.

“I’m glad I’m here with you,” he breathed against your cheek, nose nudging against yours—waiting eagerly for you to smile and pulling him back into a searing kiss he longed to drown in.

[wolf-among-mechs]

I think something has to be said about mech-techs because they come in different breeds just as mechwarriors and mechs themselves.

You got your rank and file army mech-techs. They typically work with stock models and pre-arranged configurations for omnis. Practising and drilling it in until they can do it in their sleep while under and on fire without missing a beat. The same goes for a repair. They know where everything goes in the hunk of junk and can service with precision. Most of the lower rungs are people who can barely remember to breathe but can lift and hold things. Typically, you get some senior techs that have brains and can give recommendations of field refits. The dread variant is the ones who know they are too competent to be fired and leverage that against mechwarriors and senior officers.

Mercenary mech-techs are space wizards in that they usually care for and manage highly specialised machines that only sometimes resemble the original mech. Cables and ammofeed systems have been rerouted, assembled, moved, and re-used for another system. A melange of disparate systems that have all the cooperative abilities of fussy babies past naptime. That somehow, against all odds in a way barely they comprehend, works. So, of course, they will be a bit upset if you lose the machine. Or blow it up or... you know. All the things a mercenary can mess up a mech with. Dumbest thing I heard was leaving it overnight in a bar and having the darn thing stolen by some space hicks. Also if something is stupid or does not work with a mech design you had in mind. They are going to hit you with clipboards.

Clan technicians are made to serve without question, and they are good at it. Good at repairing, realigning omnis, and working really hard, they seem able to work more than twenty-four hours a day. They will do whatever you tell them to without hesitation. Even if you mutter something from a fever pitched dream of a Wimber Tolf, a mad cat with the rocket pods in the arms and the lasers in the shoulders. They will do it. The only thing they will say something about is a tonnage mismatch. Terrific at maintaining equipment and weapons. But also, they will not do something unless you order them first. Often working on whatever the highest ranking warrior told them to do last.

Then you have the periphery mech-techs. People who own welders and plasma cutters and a bit of elbow grease and a resume so filled with lies it may just qualify as a politician's speech. They can bolt anything to a mech. Heck they will bolt anything to mech. Weld it there. The rust bucket mechs they get in the periphery are usually hardy enough that they can hold up to their creativity. Leading to maddening makeshift designs at times. The ones who figure out mechs at least a bit graduate and begin to staple them together. Creating franken mechs. Things that moves that should not. Piles of ferro-metal slabs of armour and myomer that shamble in open defiance of logic. Still you got to admire that somebody thought to string things together. And make it work.

Of course, you have a bundle of mechtechs that break out of these molds and find their own way. As people do. But they are less seen behind the moneymakers, the flash, and the glamour of the mechwarriors. But in the end, it does not really matter what kind of mechtech you are or if you are a mechwarrior. We are all happy deep down when we get back the mechbay alive. Ideally, with a mech, but sometimes you might not. In those moments, just remember it is a whole lot easier to rebuild a mech than it is to rebuild a life.

[xiyouyanyi]

Modern Era At Last: Spider Queen Special

My original idea for this AU starts with "Filling up the Celestial Realm", so we'll just say that S1 works more or less the same unless otherwise specified, and let the real diverging point start at the Spider Queen Special.

-Hell no, the trigram furnace isn't kept in the throne room, it is where it is in Tusita Heaven, Lao Tzu's place. And the place is quite empty and quiet when they aren't refining elixirs and the flames have been extinguished.

-Which means MK and Pigsy/Tang wouldn't be going to two different buildings, just two wings of the same building.

-It's also Lunar New Year, during which all the Kitchen Gods went back to submit their reports to the Celestial Host, so most of the officials and guards are gathered around the administrative halls.

-To celestials, it's more of a daily meeting, though. A.k.a. "Those last few hours where you are stuck in the office, desperately wishing you are somewhere else."

-Red Son has access to the place because PIF, as the former Grand Mistress of the Wind Bureau, keeps a backdoor key. The spider minions sneaked in by turning themselves tiny and latching onto the jet's wing before the formation activated.

-The gang landed in the Wind Bureau sky-harbor, right next to Lao Tzu's place, and immediately ran into Lady Hanzhi, known to Red Son as "Auntie Wind"——which, coincidentally, was not too far off from her most well-known title nowadays, Feng Po. 

"Please, that name makes me sound so old! Why not Sister Wind?"

-She acted like she always does: your overly helpful, enthusiastic, pushy aunt who seems to delight in embarrassing the youngsters, and immediately jumped to conclusions, asking Red Son if he was taking his cute dragon girlfriend on a date.

-Upon being met with an unambiguous "NO!" and some desperate attempts at backtracking ("We are just…not hating each other at the moment!") she chuckled, but was perceptive enough to understand they were in a bind, and immediately agreed to help out before Red Son even got the full story out.

-Naturally, that left Mei a little suspicious. "Uh, we are like, stealing your stuff? Ya' really don't have a problem with that?” 

-Hanzhi just laughed and was like, "You think I care about my job? Or want to be here? Even though Little Red's mother left me quite the mess to sort out, I'll take an old friend's kid over The Reasons We Are Here at any time of the year!"

-Which, to her surprise, failed to be assuring when she opened her Wind Sack and told Red Son and Mei to get inside.

"Okay, not to be mean or anything, but that's just…sus." "As suspicious as a bunch of mortals sneaking around in funny modern day robes? My, whenever I thought your fashion standards could not get any worse than these awful queues and melon hats…but ah, I'm rambling." "The point is, your friends are going into Tusita Heaven while the furnace is unlit. No one will be there, except for the new furnace-fanning boy and…That Lady." Hanzhi wrinkled her nose. "Ugh, the old witch with a broom. Pretty easy to fool, but remember, stay at least five Chi away from her, or your entire mission is a bust." "You two, however, are going into the Peach Garden. With actual guards and visitors, and one of my junior brothers as its new warden. You are not getting in, or out, without someone leading the way."

-Kui Mulang is still working as a furnace-fanning boy——he could have been done with it long ago, had he not intentionally fucked up during the Three Rhino Kings fight out of spite and got his sentence prolonged. When the place is not in use, he's put in a cangue and chained to a pillar in the storage room.

-When Pigsy and Tang entered the lab sector in search of the golden pill, he took the latter hostage through a combination of deception and the space-warping magic of stellar gods. 

"Now, hog, pick that vial of liquid off the shelf, and pour it on these chains," The Wood Wolf Star exposed his teeth in a feral grin, as he poked at Tang's back with the ethereal dagger,"very, very carefully. If you spill a single drop on me, my hand may just slip."

-Jiang Ziya's dead and deified ex-wife, Ma The Broom Star, makes an appearance as the cleaning lady on duty.

-She can passively curse people AND immortals with bad luck: not kill-your-entire-family, ruin-your-life level of bad luck like what the Taisui Star or the Dipper Mansion deities are capable of, but things like making people slip and fall on their butts, sneeze/burp at the most embarrassing time, arrive late to urgent meetings, etc.

(Also, firing comets out of her broomstick like a true witch.)

-MK, affected by her Aura of Inconveniences, fell right into the (unlit!) furnace while trying to sneak past her using the building's support beams. She heard the scream, but thought he was one of those bratty immortal acolytes and responded to his cries for help like the bitter old lady she was. 

"Serve you right for horsin' around, boy! Now sit in there and think about what you've done, till I'm done cleaning this place! Goodness gracious, I'm never so glad to have a daughter, not that my good-for-nothing ex-husband didn't try turning her against me, yeah, some Grand Master of Strategists you are, Jiang Ziya…"

-MK then committed the grave error of asking "Huh? Jiang Ziya? Who?" and was subjected to a long, incensed, caustic rant, most of which he tuned out for the sake of his own sanity.

-Meanwhile, at the Peach Garden: Hanzhi walked in without much of a problem, using the excuse that she is bringing her junior some tea right after getting dismissed from the meeting. Said junior is one of the 28 Lunar Mansions: Bi Yuewu of the White Tiger Mansion, a.k.a the Moon Crow Star.

-In ancient Chinese astrology, the Bi Star was seen as having power over rain, and the section of the sky it was in charge of housed the Tianyuan constellation, or "Heavenly Orchard". His Stellar Beast form, a one-legged crow, is based on Shang Yang: a mythical bird that would dance before every huge storm like a goofy weather forecast guy.

-He excels at controlling cloud formations, to the point he got "borrowed" by the Wind and Thunder Bureau more than some of the Water-aligned stars after deification. That did not translate to battle prowess, though, and he mostly relies on his formations to misdirect, trap and stall enemies for the rest of his team to handle.

-After Kui Mulang's sentencing, Star Lord Mao had taken over as the substitute leader of the White Tiger Mansion stars. As a fellow bird star and the anxious secretary to Zi Huohou's shy intern, Bi looked up to him, a lot. 

-Today happened to be his shift——one of the 28 Lunar Mansions is exempt from the daily meetings, to watch over their sector of the sky. Like most celestials, he was used to Hanzhi just walking around, finding people to chat the moment she was off-work, and wasn't surprised when she came out of the treasure storage room without her Wind Sack.

"Little Red, you've actually been here before, I trust you know where the kitchen is? Go there, grab a peach, get out, and please please please don't try to go into the garden proper if you can't find one. Just return to this room and wait, Auntie Hanzhi will handle it." As the shrill screech of a defensive formation triggering echoed through the pavilion, and Bi leaped out of his chair, Hanzhi could not help but sigh and thought, Of course these kids tried to go into the garden, why wouldn't they.

-Except they didn't try to go into the garden. It was the spiders, and a tiny immortal girl with an embroidered ball.

-Yep, it's Li Zhenying, Nezha's little sister, only mentioned once in JTTW! Here, she's a bit older and the holder of one of Nezha's magical weapons, the embroidered ball.

-In Zaju plays, this ball contains a shit ton of demons and evil spirits, subdued by Nezha and now working under his command, but that's not safe for kids so it just has a mouse inside now.

-Specifically, Lady Diyong, who's serving her prison sentence in there after her second capture and acts as Zhenying's unwitting hamster-slash-playmate. 

-The way the ball works: it can keep beings captive and enable the holder to use their powers, like a magical Pokeball. Once something is inside, it can only be released by the one who initially captures it.

-So Li Zhenying used Diyong's power to get under and past the defensive formation undetected, because…she's bored and wanted to practice some Cuju, and just happened to run into two very lost and frustrated spider demons.

-They decided to stalk Red Son and Mei together, in their mini-spider forms——it was the former who had the backdoor key, after all, and without that, they wouldn't be able to get back to the mortal realm safely after snatching up the three items.

-So they crawled into the Peach Garden and lay in wait. And waited. And waited. And no one came. Then, when they tried to leave, they couldn't, and kept circling back to the same place until a 12 year old popped out of the ground and yelled "Stop right there, bug people!"

-They laughed. They stopped laughing when one of them got sucked into the embroidered ball like a Pokemon. The sight of a huge, muscular spider guy desperately running away from a little girl was still pretty comedic, though.

-He didn't last for long. Diyong started screeching inside the ball because ewwwww, spider people, gross! She's not into that and she doesn't want them as her future neighbors! Get them out of here, at once! 

-Zhenying found her terror quite amusing, but ended up doing so because all the screaming was getting annoying. And that was what Hanzhi and Bi saw when they charged into the depth of the formation: Li Jing's youngest kid, swinging her toy around in a circle and sending two black dots flying into the sky.

-Hanzhi let out a silent Oh no at the sight. Bi let out a loud "You WHAT?!" as Li Zhenying explained her encounter with the spider people, and commented that pest control must be quite hard if all the bugs in here could grow into people. 

-Bi proceeded to have a nervous breakdown because I let a spider demon infestation happen right under my nose and trapped Devaraja Li's daughter inside my formations, oh fuck, oh fuck, I'm so dead.

-He was too busy curling up in a ball and rocking back and forth to notice Hanzhi slipping away, an immortal peach hidden in her sleeves, to retrieve Red Son and Mei. Back at Tusita Heaven, however, the rest of the gang weren't having a good time. 

-Ma had finished rambling about Jiang Ziya's great-great-however-many-times-great-grandson, the "Biggest Shame of Qi", and was about to narrate the start of their lineage's miserable downfall with a spiteful glee in her voice.

-MK asked her why she was so angry, which just made her more angry.

"Why am I so angry? Oh, I have no idea! Maybe it is because my bastard ex-husband wrote my name onto his oh-so-mystical-scroll and made sure I can't even DIE PROPERLY, boy! I raised his daughter after he divorced me and ran off to fight a war with his sorcerer friends, and this is how he repaid me——" "No, I mean, why are you so angry at people you've never met before? They are your kids and grandkids too, right?" "Exactly! I never got to meet them, and that's why they are a bunch of pathetic, dull-headed degenerates who got played like a fiddle by their own noble clans!" MK severely doubted that. "I never got to set them on the right path, grab them by 'em ears and scold them properly, match them up with good wives that weren't their own half-sister——for heaven's sake, that Duke Xiang, what was he even thinking?!" She paused. When she started speaking again, the indignance had drained away. "I never got to see any of them with me own two eyes, or speak to them, because I wasn't in their ancestral temple. I never got to meet any of them, and now they have been dead for thousands of years, and I…I couldn't even blame all of that on Jiang Ziya."

-For the first time since MK met her, the old woman fell silent. He was about to return to his own crisis of self-confidence when the entire furnace shook and violently toppled over, spilling him out onto the floor with a yelp.

"Go." She said, the tip of her broom still smoking, without sparing a single backward glance. "Scram back to your quarters, boy, before more of the Broom Star's bad luck rubbed off on you——"

-Then the lab's other wing exploded.

-Let's rewind back to the moment before this, when Kui Mulang was holding Tang hostage and threatening Pigsy into destroying his chains with a vial of corrosive chemicals. 

-With no other choice, he complied, and the moment the last chain came apart with a sizzle, Kui Mulang shattered the cangue via his Stellar Beast transformation——but not before trying to stick the dagger into Tang anyways and failing, due to his golden barrier triggering in a panic.

-Turns out, it was these magical chains that truly shackled him and his powers, and the cangue was just additional humiliation. 

"Ah, a thousand thanks to you," the beast's eyes narrowed into a slit, as it turned towards Tang, who was desperately trying to scramble away inside the golden bubble, "Golden Cicada. Now that you are a Bodhisattva, I bet your Body of Manifestation would taste even more divine."

-What ensued was a pure horror movie chase sequence, as the pair ran for their lives, toppling over shelves, throwing anything they could get their hands on at the Stellar Beast in the hope of slowing it down.

-The explosive reaction between two reagents did end up accomplishing that. Not hurting it permanently, but the big bang managed to draw Ma and MK's attention and stopped the former from asking too many questions.

-Turns out, being one of the 28 Lunar Mansions didn't actually protect you from the Broom Star's field of mundane bad luck.

-It wasn't enough to defeat Kui Mulang, and her comet attacks were doing no lasting damage, but he kept missing his targets by a tiny margin, or tripping and falling like a Looney Tunes character, or MK's staff just happened to knock a chunk of the ceiling loose and pin him down briefly…

-The problem was, her bad luck field worked on her allies too, and there were a lot of mutual misses and wacky fails, and the consequences were worse for MK than for their opponent.

-Red Son and Mei were on their way back with Hanzhi when they saw the commotion from afar; they basically dashed right into that one Community meme. 

-Hanzhi assessed the situation briefly, told them she'd deal with Kui Mulang, while they went and grabbed their mortal friends, as well as whatever they needed from the lab, fast. Then she stepped back and unleashed the full might of the Wind Sack.

-The giant AOE attack caught all three combatants, lifted them off the ground, and firmly slammed them into the nearest standing wall, allowing Red Son to grab a very disoriented MK and rush away in the chaos.

-The fight was still ongoing when the gang hurriedly dragged the furnace into their drone, activated Red Son's backdoor key, and blasted off into the mortal realm. It didn't last much longer after the Thunder Bureau reinforcements arrived, led by Heavenly Lord of the Nine Thunders, Wen Zhong.

-Wen Zhong was a loyal man of principle in life, even more so after his deification, when he was basically made the head of the Celestial Justice Department (Thunder Bureau isn't just in charge of weather, but also divine retribution and punishment.)

-He's what a lot of people think Erlang should act like: grim, serious, utterly dedicated to maintaining order and justice, and an absolute powerhouse (he also has a third eye, btw).

-Hanzhi knew she wouldn't be getting any leniency from her senior brother this time, so she didn't even try to argue when he ordered his Thunder Generals to detain everyone involved and take them away for questioning.

-Bi Yuewu was interrupted from his mental breakdown by Star Lord Mao, who, like the majority of officials, had just been released from their end-of-day meeting when the Thunder Bureau received an emergency message from Tusita Heaven and flew off in a hurry.

-Putting two and two together, he quickly guessed that their old squad leader had broken free, and went to gather the rest of the White Tiger Mansion stars for their own emergency meeting. Bi was the first person he seeked out, and the situation…didn't look all that great.

-But Rooster Man, being the good bro he was, listened patiently to Bi's story, and told him it wouldn't be a problem. He'd take Li Zhenying home to her brothers, let them come up with a cover story, while the spider problem…well, that was what his Stellar Beast form was for, wasn't it?

-A few miles below, two tiny spiders, still falling towards the mortal realm, suddenly heard a rooster's crowing and were struck by the worst headache they ever experienced.

[granulesofsand]

Hi, I was wondering if you have resources or examples of what system mapping is/looks like? My therapist mentioned it and I don't really understand what that ... looks like. And also can't find any real resources on it

System mapping refers to a lot of record keeping, more so than most people think of when they hear about it. The most common route for this exercise is a visual aid, often done on blank printer paper or with a computer application that allows for shapes with text in them.

Some goals for system mapping can be seeing how system members

are related (who knows who, how they interact with one another, how they define their connections)

came into the system (who split from who, when they showed up, what happened to get them)

fit into the collective (who’s similar or different, how roles make sense, where triggers chain together)

exist in space (how close to one another they are, where things are in the internal world, how visualized barriers come into play)

are themselves (which labels they use, which things they like and dislike, how they exist as one being and a member of a group)

Here are some examples of maps for each of these things

I did these taking only a few minutes each, and they’re simplified versions of real maps we’ve done in the past. Maps should be thought-provoking, a dumped box of ideas you connect on the page. Sometimes it takes hours (or days, but that’s usually an avoidance problem).

We’re working on one right now that shows when different color codes came into play for us. Our system is huge, so this is a broader project that doesn’t address individual members or subgroups. We took a poster paper and some colorful pens, made some notes at the top, and are drawing a garden with a central tree and some flowers for pieces that don’t make sense as a branching out. We worked on it several hours straight, redid it twice, and it’s still not done.

Our largest system map is a wall of post-its hanging on for dear life, with different color notes and ink for different purposes. We have a whole legend of symbols and would probably be using pins and yarn if we had a cork board. That one is everything; people and places, subgroups and relationships, programming and trauma, all of it.

If you(&)’re looking for resources, I have like two links I know I can find right now. Mostly this is a community topic, and you can watch people make maps on video sites like YouTube or TikTok. You’re less likely to find academic material about system mapping unless you’re looking for discussion about treatment or plain case studies, and I dislike contextualizing the exercise like they do.

I like the first link because they’re creative with it, which is great for visual aids. They also remind you that mapping isn’t for everymany/body, and that it’s okay not to do it or not include everyone.

The second isn’t specific to mapping, but has a bullet list I liked from another site that was more commercial.

A third one I thought about including but didn’t had some good reasons for mapping for integration (helping each other notice they’re connected, that there are reasons the system works like it does), but was more clinical.

Actually, I feel bad explaining it and not showing it, so you(&) choose if that sounds okay to you.

There are many larger articles which include aspects of system mapping, but reading them requires a lot of sifting and determining what is real to you(&) before you can make use of most of what’s written. It can help form opinions, and it will also send some cascading. If you look into the academic side, remember to look into the community side, too. You need both, just maybe not as early as mapping the system for the first time.

Poster paper is system mapping. Sand trays are system mapping. Roll calls are system mapping. Community meetings are system mapping. System mapping is getting to know your(&) system. You can’t really do it wrong, but I hope you got some ideas of where to start.

[dephellseed]

I could share my works in progress and all the the things i'm working on related to those things or I can throw out cute headcannons and I think I have a preference so here are all the cute sleepy headcannons I've got

Heralds Sleepy Headcannons

John gets whiney when he's sleepy. Borderline nonsensical in speech as he gets more tired, his voice goes up a little bit and his old southern accent starts to slip out. Once actually convinced to go to bed, he isn't exactly a peaceful sleeper. He tosses and turns a little bit unless he's holding something (or someone) and he mumbles in his sleep. He can and will get mad at you about something you did in his dream.

How Jacob sleeps is entirely dependent on whether or not someone reads to him or helps soothe him to sleep. He refuses to admit he's tired if he's in the middle of doing something, but it takes a while to catch the little warning signs of his for when he's gone too long between siestas. He talks less, stares off into space, kind of agitated. Generally though, unlike John, he doesn't need to be convinced to go to bed. He's actually an adult about his sleep schedule, mainly because he's learned to value every second of sleep he gets. When soothed, he sleeps like a log, unmoving and peaceful. He snores, but its not very loud. Its more like a low rumbling you can't really hear unless you lay your head on his chest. Left to his own sleep care, he thrashes in his sleep. He mumbles borderline incoherent statements about whatever nightmare is plaguing him, and his prone to sleep walking. He's been a sleep walker since he was little, but it got better as he got older, only to return full force once his time in the service was over. Their mother use to say he was a "walker and a screamer," so at least he doesn't scream anymore. It is very rare that during a nightmare he ever gets physically violent or acts out the actions in his dreams, but it has happened before. As such, he's very hesitant to let people around him when he's tired or near him when he's sleeping.

Joseph sleeps flat on his back with his arms crossed over his chest. Always has. Everyone thinks its weird, but he doesn't get it. He also sleeps fully clothed, which he also doesn't understand why people say is weird. His visions often plague him in his sleep, so he does actively sleep talk. It is rather common for people who sleep in the same room as him to be able to have complete conversations with him while he's asleep, only for him to not remember them when he wakes up. When sleeping in a bed with someone else, he prefers to be the little spoon.

Faith is a very light sleeper, something she attributes to her "sinful past." Every small noise from the creak of a floorboard to someone she breathing differently than normal wakes her. Once woken up, she has a very difficult time going back to sleep. Fortunately for her, Bliss tends to make people very sleepy. She's a professional napper at this point. Sleeping through the night might not be easy but there's plenty of quiet, secluded places to get an hour or two throughout the day. Generally a rather fidgety person, the only time she's ever truly still is when she's asleep.

Assorted Guns For Hire and Side Character Sleepy Headcannons

Sharky snores like a freight train. Saws logs like nobody's business. Very avid cuddler, but if he's holding you when he falls asleep? Good luck getting out of that death grip, babe.

Pastor Jerome sleep preaches. He mumbles whatever sermon he was planning before bed in his sleep. He thinks people are joking when they tell him about it. They really aren't.

Kim swears up and down that Nick snores loud enough to send her to the couch most nights. He claims this is blasphemy. She laughs about it.

If you thought Adelaide was loud when she's awake, you should try sleeping in a house with her. While her snoring is sporadic, it is very loud. Xander will try to convince you it's cute.

[ben-learns-smth]

first months as a (substitute/supportive) teacher - some thoughts (an incomplete list)

autumn holidays start on friday, so I thought I'd write down some thoughts on my experience of the last 2-ish months. I definitely have some growing and learning to do, it shows that I'm only half-trained for this

surprisingly I enjoy working with the smallest (grade 1/2) the most. it's partially that (unless they need me for substitute lessons) I spend the most time in that class and have gotten to know the pupils quite well. I know the routines of the class and I got into a great rhythm with the main teacher

the pupils are opening up a lot more about their interests and their lives, striking up conversations with me when they see me in the yard during break. I'm glad that I don't seem like a stranger to them anymore!

substitute lessons without tasks prepared by the teacher are more draining than I expected them to be. I also lack skills for coming up with substitute lessons for my subjects (let alone other subjects) bc I have very little experience of what they're already supposed to know/be able to do. especially in english lessons it's hard to find an appropriate level

being the only visibly and out trans nonbinary teacher is exhausting. I'm looking forward to the day when I've given substitute lessons in every class so I can stop explaining myself. I don't mind explaining queer topics to children and it's important to have those conversations but I'm the only one having them bc I have to, bc my genderqueer appearance raises questions and if it doesn't introducing myself as mr./mx. does.

related to that I'm excited to work with another colleague on a diversity concept for the school that focuses on queerness. our main objective will be to raise awareness in teachers and students

I still struggle to find an appropriate mix between being strict and being fun. with some classes it works well, with others I need to be stricter than I'd like to be, with others I need to ease off a bit.

schools are incredibly gendered spaces and while I obviously knew that it still caught me off guard (and tbh I think it's having an influence on my habits which I Don't Like At All). everything is very clearly divided into boys and girls. I'm generally good with gender neutral language, but compared to my first weeks I jump to use gendered terms much quicker now (example: saying "the girl in the red jumper" instead of a neutral version when I don't know their names yet), including when I talk about myself which feels weird

good quality sleep is so important. being a teacher is super demanding, especially in some more chaotic classes and showing up with only a few hours of sleep is Not It

being able to remember names really well really fast is a super power and I'm grateful I can do that every time I meet a new class for a substitute lesson. the kids are impressed (teachers too), but most importantly it creates a different atmosphere in the classroom. (it's also easier to remind them of class rules when they need it)

so far, the past months have confirmed what I've been thinking for a while: teaching is something I could do, but I'm less sure if it's what I want to do in the long run. so even though I wasn't able to start deaf studies this winter I'm sticking to my plan: try out deaf studies for a year (starting next autumn) and work on the side, then decide if a) I keep going like that to do the full deaf studies b.a. b) I pause deaf studies to do my teacher training and then evaluate again or c) I do my teacher training and pick up uni classes for fun after

[writingpaperghost]

Here's a little bit of my W roleswap AU

“Akiko,” a familiar voice snapped Akiko out of her memories, bringing her back to the present. “Are you staring off into space again?” Standing in the front of her father’s – her desk, was Shoutaro Hidari, Akiko’s close friend, and he had been for most of the now two years she’d been in Fuuto. He leaned over, bracing a hand against the desk, watching her.

“I… was just thinking,” She couldn’t tell him that she was remembering that night, nearly a year ago, when her father died. Shoutaro didn’t even know Sokichi Narumi was dead, let alone any of the details of how it happened. Akiko felt a bit bad about it, she wanted to tell Shoutaro, he was probably as close to her father as she’d been, maybe even closer, but… She didn’t want to risk dragging him into the world she was now in, he was in danger enough with his job with the police putting him near Dopant attacks. “And anyway, I’m out of cases, found the last lost dog like an hour ago.” Never mind that the dog had tried to bite her.

Shoutaro shook his head, “A detective who makes a living off of looking for lost pets…” His gaze wandered, landing on the shelf still filled with her father’s old detective books, their pages worn. Akiko had skimmed through a few, she always wondered if they were where her father got his idea of what a detective was from, an idea that Shoutaro picked up, even if he wasn’t so good at being.

“It pays the bills,” Akiko said as she stood up, picking up the casefiles from the day to file away. “Besides, we take other cases. It’s just that lost pets are more common than much else.”

Hands on his hips, Shoutaro considered it for a moment, “Well, I’m sure the boss will be proud of you either way, when he gets back.”

Things like that weren’t uncommon to hear, since so few people really knew that her father was dead. It didn’t make them hurt any less, though. She knew Shoutaro meant well, but the words still made her hurt, made the guilt bubble up again. But she had to keep it together, she couldn’t bring herself to break the news still.

“So!” Akiko wanted to change the subject, anything but Sokichi, “Anything interesting happen today?”

Sighing, Shoutaro answered, “Not yet.” Then, looking a little more hopeful, he added, “But there’s still time left in the day, who knows.”

The last thing a police officer should really be hopeful for is a case. But Akiko knew Shoutaro, he didn’t feel that way out of some desire for thrill or fame, he felt that way because he wanted crimes to be reported to the police, so their perpetrators could be found and dealt with accordingly. He wanted nothing more than to protect Fuuto, even from the things he could do little about directly, like Dopants.

No, the only one who was capable of fighting back against Dopants was the Kamen Rider. A pair Akiko was intimately familiar with. It wasn’t even really that big of a secret that Akiko somehow knew him, Shoutaro and others on the police force she worked with, like Jinno and Maki, knew that well. If you needed the Kamen Rider, or to get a message to him, then you could probably tell Akiko and she’d find a way.

Yet the only thing the police could reasonably do against the Dopants was to arrest the users of the Memories after the fact. Unless they could somehow track down and arrest the members of the organization that was responsible for making and distributing the Gaia Memories, but Akiko didn’t think that was likely. She had more to work with than they did, and she and Phillip still hadn’t learned much more than they’d known a year ago.

[copperbadge]

Apologies if you’ve answered this before, but since you’re such a prolific writer, I am curious: how do you find/make time to write?

Sometimes, between work; cleaning/shopping/cooking/self-care to continue functioning; and time for other hobbies, I feel like it doesn’t get the attention I want to give to it. Thank you!

Oh, I've probably answered it before but if so I don't remember when or what I said :D I think it's a combination of things, some of which are within my control, some of which are not.

For a start, it really depends on how you write. I write in chunks, and I tend to write pretty continuously when I'm at it, there's not a lot of "blankly staring at the page" that some writers have to deal with. I am either Writing or Doing Other Things. I also have a fairly fast typing speed -- last time I tested I was in the 120 wpm range, and given I spent two years doing audio transcription I'm probably faster now. So I can get the words on the page basically as fast as I think, unless I'm on a phone, but even then I'm pretty fast. A significant chunk of Infinite Jes was written on my phone, mainly because while writing it I sometimes didn't have convenient access to a computer.

I'm fortunate in that I have a job that doesn't really take up eight hours of my day, so if I want to stop what I'm doing and spend an hour writing, I generally can. I specifically have tried to take jobs that allow this and avoid jobs that don't, but I grant that's a privilege of being a college-educated white dude. I've worked retail, but I've also often been able to avoid it in favor of jobs where I'm not constantly public-facing and can huddle behind a computer doing god knows what (it's a joy to have a job where nobody really understand what it is you do).

You say I'm pretty prolific, and this year that has been true -- I wrote around 300K words. However, in 2021 I did very little writing at all, and in 2020 I think the only real work I did was on Six Harvests, which is less than 100K words. I didn't post a single fanfic in 2021, which shocked me when I realized it. I'd have to do some data vis to confirm this, but I suspect there was a curve to my output across my 20s and 30s -- I know that I wrote less, even if it was perhaps better quality, as my career began to take off. Work, depending on the kind, does take brain power, or physical energy, or both, from what we'd rather be doing. It can also stimulate it, but realistically that's not super common. So I wouldn't beat yourself up about giving time to work and self-care; those are necessary, and I take more time from writing to give to those as I get older.

I think also as you get older you figure out your rhythms. I am capable of much more physical activity in the morning, and I'm capable of writing pretty much anytime, so I tend to do physical things -- working out, cooking, cleaning -- earlier in the day, then "go to" work, then write in the evenings whether or not I got any writing in during the day. I cook in bulk, so I'm rarely "cooking" more than one meal a day, just reheating stuff I cooked earlier.

Working remotely has absolutely been what allowed me to write so much this year -- and not even the time gained back from commuting, because my commute was short, not quite an hour round trip. But I'm not trapped "at" work -- I can do chores during the day, fuck off and write, even take a nap if I desire, in a way that I couldn't when I was in slightly uncomfortable business-casual and stuck in a cubicle from eight to four-thirty. I could do pretty much what I wanted in the cubicle in terms of reading tumblr, writing, researching, et cetera, but when you're confined to a physical space where you're not super comfortable and sharing it with thirty other people, it's not as conductive to writing.

And like. Also I'm a hermit who lives alone and very rarely goes out.

I don't have a partner or children, I don't have family nearby, I have very few responsibilities and don't belong to social clubs or nonprofit boards or religious groups the way many of my colleagues and friends do. I have a circle of brickspace friends who are fairly tightly knit at this point, but we don't do a lot of like, weekly-brunch or friday-night-drinks or anything like that. I am finding it much, much, so much easier to go to parties and social events now that I'm properly medicated, because I don't feel like I'll be punished by my own brain afterward, but we're also still in the grip of a pandemic, and while we are socializing, it's still pretty constricted. Over Thanksgiving I had two events in two days and loved going to both but by Saturday I was exhausted and happy to stay home.

When the quarantine began, a lot of people found themselves "trapped" at home and very bored, and while I empathized I was also quite confused because my outside-of-work life didn't materially change. How often were these people going out? What were they doing? In a regular year I was home at least six nights a week if not all seven. I go to bed at eight o'clock most nights, by choice. I love my friends and I'm generally happy to hang with them but I don't have a driving need to go out and be with friends and certainly not with strangers more than about twice a month.

So yeah, I wish I could say it's a matter of Making Time To Write or some secret time management trick but the truth is, my prolific output (such as it is; it varies wildly) is a result of a really good job for Fucking Off To Write, not many other obligations, and an obsessive personality. :D There are ways you can adjust your life to give you time for creativity in whatever form that comes, but that's got to be personal to you -- learning your rhythms, learning how to manage your other responsibilities, maybe letting go of some things to give yourself more time for what's important. But it's got to be you looking at your life and making adjustments, there's no single solution to the problem.

[myopicry]

I've already sent you an ask (more like a ramble on aesthetics and its relation to women) around a week ago, you're probably inactive atm (which isnt a bad thing btw!) but i'm gonna send another thing in (something unrelated to my last ramble lol).

now that i've spent time both in radfem/"terf" spaces and trans positive/inclusive(?) ones, i've noticed how scared the latter are of being even *slightly* associated to the former. it's oddly funny and kind of silly when you think about it. ppl have talked about this before but i'm referring to stuff like "op is a terf" and "terfs dni". the latter has been especially poignant to me recently for some reason: a trend ive seen is that ppl often write that in their bio after having created a post which some radfems or GCs reblogged/engaged with and they've used the classic "so terfs have come across this and i just wanted to let it be know that i dont like you guys" (altho worded much less kindly). it's like they're *terrified* of being perceived by ppl who share their views as even just somewhat affiliated to the "other" in any way, shape or form. or they're terrified of the other following them and interacting with their content. it feels very defensive and overly "loud" to me, idk?... the "op is a terf" has been talked about a lot in the radfem/GC spaces, so this might be a shorter section (update: it's not, lmao), but as that one post said: "it's a thought terminating cycle". I think that's one of the reasons i haven't checked out what the hell these "terfs" were actually saying and arguing (apart from screenshots of JKR tweets) for so long. it rlly proved to me how engaging with media from other "sides" is crucuial, even if you probably wont agree most of the time. if anything, i think i just wanted to be a good ally: i love debating and i wanted to know how to respond to "terf rhetoric" better. i remember feeling surprised by what i saw, not feeling the immediate "this is illogical and bad" feeling, and having trouble arguing against certain points. i couldn't even find good counter arguments from other ppl. and then there was a domino effect (altho i havent adopted all radfem and GC POVs and dont consider myself as a radfem or rad leaning/GC). even some trans friends of mine were surprised when i reported my findings to them. i'll stop here even though i can talk about this for much longer, but those "terfs/radfems dni" bios rlly stick out to me now and made me think lol. hope to see you back soon! ~🪼

hi hi! apologies for the delay! I did in fact spend some personal time offline, it was quite nice and it is probably a much healthier thing than spending most of my day on tumblr lmao but I can't deny I did miss speaking openly about my opinions on things, especially certain observations that I absolutely would not be able to discuss with my irls unless I wanted to sit them down for a multi-hour lecture just to make sure I wasn't misunderstood ^_^|||

anyway I just saw both your asks (eloquently written as ever!) and will respond to this first just because I saw it first lmao. not much to add other than maybe rambling myself about some of my own similar experiences and what not. you've put it into words great though! there is almost this "mystical" denouncement of terfs/radfems/gender criticals who are mislabled as just radfems etc. within trans spaces, and as I've looked more and more into "terf" ideology this kind of hatred really does go back far, to a point where it's basically impossible to even mention radical feminism or gender critical feminism without immediate hostility. like a sort of legend or custom, being wary/outwardly hateful of the demonic terf. maybe this is why when I heard gender ideology being likened to a religion, the analogy really clicked with me, because on some level trans-inclusive spaces really do make terfs feel like "the devil", some root of all evil, the parallel to the "divine" that they liken themselves to. I'm fairly atheistic myself in regards to just religion in general, so understanding being gender critical as essentially "gender atheism" helped me realize how logically flawed and slightly harmful a vehement belief in trans ideology could be, just as a non-critical perspective on any religious ideology can be.

I definitely relate to the point of basically falling into the radfem rabbit hole accidentally. I don't really feel like I'm properly a radfem or especially an activist (I do just write what's on my mind and that I can't really get engagement from my pre-existing social circles lol) and I honestly got into the ideas not through radblr but imageboards and forums through my bad habit of looking for material to "invalidate" me as some kind of "doom-scrolling" practice, but instead of finding blind hatred (even in the most niche of internet corners, where the ideology does get radical indeed) I found logical, cogent arguments and reasoning for why these people were so against gender ideology. I mean, yes, there was still hatred, but there's hatred on every corner of every internet space, and it also made me realize how my belief in not committing "thought crimes" by even entertaining "terf" rhetoric was simultaneously making me blind to the genuine flaws and ickier aspects of the trans + queer community that I was just sort of ignoring with cognitive dissonance. as a woman and someone with really god awful people-pleasing habits, I was unfortunately quite good at ignoring things that made me uncomfortable in order to maintain social acceptance and a good reputation in the eyes of others, and even if I don't share every radfem or gc belief, I can't deny being exposed to them all was absolutely integral to unraveling some of that unhealthy behavior.

based on my personal experiences, it is really actually quite disheartening to see that "radfem/terf dni" thing happen so much online. you really can't expect to never challenge your own thinking. in fact, challenging your preconceived notions is the only way you can grow as a person in your personal philosophy and conception of the world. I get it though, it is probably scary to engage with the "forbidden fruit" if your whole self-proclaimed all-accepting community says that this is one thing that is absolutely intolerable and will get you kicked from this welcoming "club". I will say, having opened this proverbial pandora's box of theory, I get a bit more angry and cynical at the state of the world (how did I never notice the staggering affects of misogyny before?), and I get a bit more sad that I'll never be able to have that unquestioning community with people who are supposed to understand me. I wonder if there are more people who would honestly be able to understand the nuances in critiquing gender ideology out there, but they fear that ostracization too. if by some random chance anyone like that ever reads this exact post (lol what are the odds) I always like to remind people that a burner email and account on something like tumblr is incredibly easy to set up!

alright, lemme get to your other ask because it is really interesting and thanks again for visiting!! I genuinely missed engaging with this kinda stuff offline, and I also get tired being the one to drip feed new ideas to people in person. it's really nice to just get a nice well written insight to engage with unfiltered (well, as unfiltered as a tumblr post under a pseudonym can be lmao)

[dragonfly0808]

The carbon monoxide thing, some very good points came up and I'm sorry I hadn't thought it through super well :') thanks for pointing them out tho, I really appreciate it!!

I guess my thinking just didn't go that far, since I don't actually want anyone dead ;-;. So I was only thinking about a mild case of carbon monoxide exposure/early signs of carbon monoxide poisoning, but I really was not clear about that. So, I'll try to explain what I was thinking:

First of all I really shouldn't have used the word carbon monoxide poisoning, since that is indeed extremely dangerous and can kill quickly. The kind of situation I was thinking about wouldn't actually lead to a poisoning, there would only be like mild, early signs of it. I don't know why I used that term?? Sorry about that.

So what I was thinking in my head: the whole situation wouldn't actually go as far as actual carbon monoxide poisoning since there would only be a low-level exposure to the carbon monoxide. There wouldn't be a lot of it so it could only lead to mild symptoms and by getting out of that space and getting fresh air one can make a full recovery, the symptoms starts lessening in the span of a few hours and in like less than 24 hours the carbon monoxide would have left one's body completely.

What I read about it, carbon monoxide exposure/poisoning does have symptoms, but I guess those apply more to the milder cases, since really high-level exposure can kill very quickly and in that case those symptoms just escalate super quickly. A milder case of carbon monoxide exposure does present itself as things like headaches, dizziness, nausea, tiredness and shortness of breath.

So the more carbon monoxide (higher concentration), the smaller the space and the longer period of time spent in that space the more serious it gets basically, if I understood correclty.

So, making it so that the exposure to carbon monoxide is low-level and the characters can get out of the space quickly it wouldn't cause any serious symptoms ? (if you were to stay in that space for hours on end then it would start becoming serious again)

But yeah since it's colorless and doesn't smell it would be hard for the characters to figure out what's going on, and I didn't think about that lol

Unless they happen to be in a space where there is a carbon monoxide detector? I think some smoke detectors can have a built-in carbon monoxide detector as well.

I hope that makes sense. And please do say something if it doesn't or if I said something incorrect!! I really appreciate it <3

Yeah I literally couldn't have been more unclear as to what I was thinking in my first message... I'm really sorry about that!! :(

I seriously gotta remember that folks can't read my mind lol

Don’t apologize! I appreciate you doing any research at all

I like your idea, I can easily see Mike being the one to figure out what was going on/having a detector since he’s been a firefighter for so long but I’m still not sure if this will be Bloom’s “paranormal” secondary effect of gaining Enchantix

But I really appreciate the effort and research!

[cupcraft]

hi cup cupsmp since ur a grad student i was wondering if you had any college advice? im starting in the fall and i am. so very nervous

HI YES ANON I DO!! sorry if this becomes long its below a read more just incase! Also if theres any specific advice you'd like to ask just send another ask this is just what i could think of rn.

1: if you are going to live in a dorm/apartment/house with roommates please think about your living space boundaries and communicate these EARLY as well as communicate cleaning schedules/how you feel about guests/etc early. The most important thing is to work out these things really early and to make a chore schedule of some kind and also create an avenue of "what will we do if boundaries/chores are not done?" Like will you have a formal roommate meeting? will you just text each other? etc. Set up healthy manners of communication. And if your roommate is not willing to do this and you have troubles you may have to confront them, or you may realize "this is the kind of person i am not compatible living with", or you can bring it up with an RA/university stuff if youre in the dorm. But from both being an RA myself and having roommates this is the kind of thing that helps avoid anger/irritation with each other. Remember, you may not like your roommate or be friends with them but feeling comfortable living in a space with said person is important.

2: Studying! Learning how to study! I think its important you start college with what you know how to do but also try out other avenues of studying too because what worked before may not work now. It really also depends on the subject. Like ie math, really the only way to study for math is to do math practice problems over and over i feel like but when it comes to things like biology/chemistry/physics/etc. it seems more complicated than that. Take notes, but also find ways to study that aren't just "reading" notes (unless youre super good at doing that for me its not the most efficient). There's so many resources out there. There's flash cards quizlet yes, but also ANKI which is a great way to do time based learning and memory (and its free lol). There's making picture guides for yourself. There's making small study sheets with your notes. There's just so much to do! This isn't really an easy thing to develop but just do a bit of everything you can i think to see what works. Also other tips: go to office hours often with questions (you will learn a lot and also a professor will really get to know you and they become good candidates for rec letters and they also will know you well to see where youre struggling if you are), if you like studying in groups do this OFTEN review sessions with groups esp before exams is what savedd mee srsly because i learned really well from teaching other people what i knew and them correcting me (some ppl also learned well from listening to me go over stuff). Go to student run tutoring sessions if you need because often they are more helpful and less intimidating than the prof and they can really tell you the key to not only learning but passing the specific prof's class. You can also make a large google doc with a bunch of friends like a master study doc (i did that for a few engineering classes) for constant review. And if its something you can do easily, try to get back exams (exams from previous years) to practice on (but just be careful as some profs consider this cheating/bad. most of mine were fine with it though). Last thing ill add here is to make sure you learn how to make an exam/study schedule for yourself please do not cram last minute and do all nighters because over time it will really fuck your mental health and its not efficient in the long run. Do things in small chunks.

3: Making friends getting involved what to do? In my college i lived in a housing situation freshman year that housed us with ppl in our major and we had like a lot of events/stuff that forced us to hang out and we saw eachother inf reshman classes everyday so we studied together too. I do recommend that if your school has it, however that's not the only way to make friends. I made friends by interacting with ppl in class and study groups i created/or was invited to. I made sure to go to club events and i signed up for tons of clubs and then wittled down what i really wanted to do and made friends that way. I also joined an academic fraternity (not a social one) which really helped me with long term friends. What i would say is just get involved and dont be afraid to just quit if you dont like things. Getting involved can help you meet so many ppl. And you will meet ppl in class, you will have group projects/lab partners that just sort of just become part of your study groups and circle and you'll meet their friends and etc! And also realize that if youre scared to get involved and scared to talk to ppl nearly every single freshman is thinking the same thing (even though ik taht sounds cheesy it really is true).

4: dealing with competitive people that are awful. Depends on your major but you may encounter people that are Arrogant and Competitive and Awful. In the end, what's most important is to focus on yourself. Don't focus on class rank, don't focus on the 4 people that are trying to get a 100% on everything, don't focus on the people that schmooze professors every day and try to be their bffs, don't focus on the ppl who hve never outgrown highschool, dont fcus on the ppl that are like "oh yeah im a legacy and im so cool im going to be [insert prestigious career] just like them", dont focus on the petty bs! Srsly. in the end what these people are worrying about really doesnt matter at all. You should focus on YOURSELF and what YOU want. Want to get better grades? that's great and make that a goal for YOURSELF and seek out studying help/prof for YOURSELF and don't worry about bell curves this and competitive person number 5 that. Do your best for yourself. Surround yourself with ppl that care about you and want to get to know you and want to survive college. These drama filled ppl are never worth your time. I only add this advice because the program to get into my grad program eventually had a lot really over competitive ppl in it that were so toxic, but i just was civil and nice and just ignored them on the most part (or was lucky to get a few back exams from them) but they were never ppl i wasted my energy on because its not that srs. You should only ever compete with yourself and not other people, i think competitiveness can become really toxic for others and also yourself. To worry so much how someone ELSE is doing really harms yourself. Idk if that made sense but yeah ill end that one there.

That's all the advice i can think of for now off thet op of my head this morning.

[owlixx]

Operation Terminus

So…I’ve canceled my plan to play/replay the first nine Assassin’s Creed games following my current playthrough of Valhalla. Instead, I’ll be cleaning up my “backlog”. Given the nature of what I do and how I play games, that’s less about which games I “own” and more about which games I’ve already sunk some time into.

Games I’m close to finishing:

* Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Xbox

Yeah this is the one I’m currently doing so definitely going to finish here before moving on, but I maybe do some small sonic game runs before digging into this operation proper.

* Phoenix Wright 1 3DS

I’m sooooo close, I’m like halfway through the final case, the DS exclusive one.

* Midnight Suns Xbox

Okay admittedly I’m only like…just past the start of Act 2 but this one is a priority before all the information completely leaves my brain. Plus the DLC is all out now and I own it!

* Wind Waker Wii U

I’m literally over halfway done with the triforce hunt so this is super close but I lost about an hour of progress last time I played over a year ago and haven’t touched it since. Shouldn’t be more than a couple days of playing left.

* Sonic Unleashed Xbox

Stuck on empire city, I just need to get some more medals to progress. Using a guide should help.

Games I’m near or around half done:

* Skyward Sword Wii U

In Lanayru Desert for the first time, not yet to the dungeon. So 1/4 - 1/3 done with the game? The motion controls kill me but standing up might help

* Metroid Prime 1 Wii U

Similar to wind waker, lost a good chunk of progress last time I played to space pirates. I don’t think you can turn down the difficulty after starting a playthrough but I should if I can.

* Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze Wii U

Stuck on boss of world…3? I do really enjoy this game when it works well

* Wario Land 3 Switch

I think I’m around half? Game is just big and other stuff came up

* Hot Shots Tennis Get A Grip PS Vita

Actually no idea how long this game is but it’s awesome

* Ratchet and Clank 2 PS3

I think I’m around half? Just got new ps3 controllers

* Bulletstorm PS3

I think I just started act 4 of 7, enjoying it so far

* War For Cybertron (dad?)

Okay admittedly I’m like less than half done with the first of two campaigns but I think I’ll be trying this coop soon online with my dad

* Fire Emblem Awakening 3DS

I think I’m on chapter 8 of 25

* Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes Switch

I can’t remember how far I got actually but I feel like I poured a good amount of time in already

* Xenoblade Chronicles Wii

Maybe 1/3 done with game?

* Professor Layton 1 DS

Maybe 2/3 done? I tried to omit games I’ve already beaten from this list unless I’m super close to beating them again and it’s been a while

* Mario Kart 7 3DS

I just kind of plink away at unlocking all the courses now and then but this shouldn’t take long with any effort applied

* Monster Tale DS

Again no clue how long this one is but I feel like I’m a good chunk into it, maybe 1/4

* Deadpool PS3

I think I’m on chapter 4 of 8

Games I Can Skip The Intro On:

* Mega Man Battle Network DS

I’m past the first main boss but not yet to the second. Playing a fan Tran of the Ds remake

* Mega Man Battle Network 2 GBA

I think same as above

* Death Stranding PC

Honestly this is a huge game and I’m only maybe 6 hours in

* Disco Elysium PC

Maybe 15 hours in?

* Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3

Barely past tutorial

* Bayonetta Wii U

Literally just past tutorial

* Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga Remake 3DS

Out of tutorial and past first main boss

* Final Fantasy Tactics Advance GBA

Decent clip into this one, maybe 15 hours, but it’s a huge game

* Puzzle and Dragon Z 3DS

Still in the tutorial in the main game, on world 3 or 4 of the Mario version

* Pilotwings Resort 3DS

I mean, it’s such a short game that the couple hours I’ve played is like half of it

* Dragon Age Origins Xbox

Maybe ten hours in? Big game though

* Final Fantasy VI GBA

Only 2-3 hours in and a huge game

* Twilight Princess Wii U

Just past the tutorial if that

* Crisis Core PS Vita

Think I’m still in the first real mission after the tutorial

* Locoroco PS Vita

Towards the end of world 2

* Patapon 2 PS Vita

Okay not actually far in but I’m considering the five or so hours I spent in Patapon 1 to be a kind of sunken cost tutorial

* Dead Space Extraction Wii U

I think…3 missions in? Out of 10?

* Sonic Colors Wii U

On world…3? Out of 7? Played before and replaying taking turns with partner

* Uncharted Golden Abyss PS Vita

Okay just past tutorial admittedly

* Wipeout 2048 PS Vita

Like Mario kart, i plonk away at this here and there

* Luigi’s Mansion 2 3DS

First of five mansions down

* Retro Game Challenge DS

I wanna say I’m on the third or fourth game of 8

* Grand Theft Auto 4 PS3

Maybe 2-3 hours in

* ICO PS3

1-2 hours in

* Demon Souls PS3

Okay barely even got past making a character, just got to the hun world at all

* Pokémon Sun 3DS

Okay this one I’m actually more like half done with I think, maybe closer to 1/3 but it’s been a while.

* Elebits Wii

Maybe 3 or 4 of the 25 levels done

[icarus-suraki]

Invading your personal life with: 9, 50, 74

Invade my personal life! Or let me invade yours...

9. Do you have any cool talents? Well, despite being 40, I can put my feet behind my head. How's that?

No, for real: I've got some kind of EDS connective tissue thing. My brother has it to a greater degree (I'm envious) but we've both got the thing where your skin feels a bit odd and your scars look strange and you're just a little too flexible for your own good.

It's cool except that when I go for walks, sometimes my knees decide to be like "Hey, I have an idea. How about fuck this?" and start slipping (for lack of a better term) side to side and it hurts, so I always have to be ready to limp back home if that happens. My hips will do the same thing, but it seems less frequent than my knees.

But, yeah, I can cram all 5 feet, 10 lanky inches of myself into a standard-size moving box, which was a trick I did a few times during move-in at college. It's kind of fun to be able to wriggle into small spaces like that. It's come in handy a few times at work, interestingly enough.

50. How are you doing today? Not super-great, actually. Not to be TMI, but I've been feeling sick for the last couple of days. It's like my entire GI tract is swollen and sore, from my throat on down. I was bloated as hell Friday night and all day Saturday--even my head hurt, wtf? I'm better today but I'm still all sore. I'm not even hungry and I don't even want to eat but I can tell my blood sugar is getting low… I was supposed to have supper with my folks but that's not happening, which is frustrating…

I'm also feeling a bit anxious about my therapy appointment tomorrow because those are rough and I wish I could just be better already.

The weather is nice, though, if a bit chilly. But it's dry now, which is a relief after yesterday's humidity, and it's perfectly clear. And I'm working on some cosplay plans, though I'm feeling a bit uneasy about those because cosplay can be expensive as hell. But I want to. I don't want to say I need to but I kind of need to. It keeps me going. I can't sacrifice everything. So I'm pricing out fabric and working out how I want to do this. (The hat, a major element of the costume, is sitting nearby and motivating me immensely.)

74. When was the last time you travelled somewhere new? You're asking me this in a post-Covid world? This? Me? In a post-Covid world?

Okay technically in August 2022 I had to drive out to the city water department main offices for a job interview. I ended up getting hired but the fact that I had to leave for work at about 5am and drive for an hour made it tough. That and the fact that my job responsibilities got changed on me unexpectedly and I wasn't getting any training… Yeah, not a great match. I think that's the last time I travelled somewhere new. I'm genuinely trying to remember…

Unless this question is really asking about travelling travelling. Like internationally or something not-quite-locally, in which case that would be something like 2010? I think? Summer 2010 was when I went to Otakon, which was definitely a new place for me. (That was the year of dudes walking around yelling "Backscratcher? Mmbackscratcher!" from Family Guy, I think? It was also the summer of Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver and the related Pokewalker and there were literally Pokemon walkers wearing dozens of the things and offering to walk your Pokemon for a fee. And the staff at the H.Naoto booth said my ouji-style outfit looked great and got me to hang around for a handshake event with the designer(!!!!). And I met a ton of people I only knew online to that point, which was awesome. Yeah, that was a fun time--to think I almost didn't go.)

I don't travel much--can you tell? Maybe I'll have a different answer to this when I have spending money again. I mean, I fully intend to go to Japan before too much longer.