#i will say though. i’m more than happy to continue supporting the 8 active members

[quokkabite]

Ouch.

[demonslayedher]

The Sound Pillar past, I have heard that explore a bit in databook about being ninja.

Also what happened his sibling that still remain.

Also what there react

Combining info from the fanbooks and Chapters 80, 87, and 90 we get the following narrative of Uzui Tengen and his family, as complete as I could fill it in. It's always possible the anime version will expand and give us more, but here's what I've got in chronological format.

Uzui Tengen's father was the leader of their clan, one of a few ninja clans who lived in close community. Ninja were regularly sent on missions, but it is not clear what those missions were. Women and children were also expected to undergo strict training and go on missions, but women were primarily only valued as baby-makers, and it was common for one man to take multiple wives. The wives, at least in the Uzui case, were chosen upon agreements between families. (For more commentary on the unusual and cult-like nature of the Uzui ninja clan, please see this post.) In Chapter 80, Makio recalls how she never used to be afraid of dying because she was so brainwashed to believe her only value as a kunoichi (female ninja) was to put her life on the line in support of the strong male ninja. Tengen is the oldest of nine children. Of note, Fanbook #2 states that he has a mother and father from whom the nine children came, but as multiple wives is the norm in this village and Uzui was 15 when they were forced to fight each other, I think it's reasonable to assume many of them were half-siblings (even if all with one very busy wife, that would make the youngest one only around 7~9 years old or so, by my guess. But, it doesn't seem unreasonable in this clan that an 8-year-old would be expected to take part in this fight.)

Tengen had his three wives by the time he was 15. Since he is 23 when canon takes place and Hinatsuru (from a ninja clan second in rank to the Uzui clan and who has a good balance of core ninja skills) is 21, Makio (physically a highly capable ninja but her short temper causes her to fail her missions and yes, she is Tengen's cousin, please restrain your knee-jerk reactions and accept the cultural difference and move one) is 20, and Suma is 19 (and yes, Fanbook #2 said she likes both men and women), that means his wives were respectively 13, 12, and 11 when they fled the village. As Suma's younger sister was originally the one being considered as a bride, this means they were willing to marry off girls even younger than that. See this post for more commentary on multiple wives in the Taisho period, and as an added note, the legal age for women to marry in Taisho was 16. The Uzui ninja clan was entirely counter-cultural in the first place, though, so this doesn't apply very directly to them. Furthermore, due to their curse, the Ubuyashiki clan had very usually early expectations for children to wed, and they always run a not officially recognized organization. Otherwise, most of the cast seems to follow more usual Meiji/Taisho family patterns. Of the nine siblings, three of them died before Tengen turned 15, simply due to the lifestyle. When Tengen was 15 (clarified according to Fanbook #1), Tengen's father pit the remaining six siblings against each other so that only the strong would remain. They were all concealing their identities and did not know they were fighting their own siblings. According to Fanbook #2, Tengen killed two of them, and his younger brother (second oldest) killed another two, and Tengen was pissed when he realized what was happening. He couldn't bring himself to kill his remaining brother, though that brother was just like their father when it came to his values that only the strong should survive, and he really didn't care about killing his own flesh and blood. This was when Tengen decided he didn't want to live like this, and he took his wives and fled. For a while (according to Fanbook #2), he often said he should go to hell, but this made Makio angry, it made Hinatsuru cry, and it made Suma bite him so he stopped saying that. He did continue to think that he should eliminate the rest of this evil Uzui clan, but he could never bring himself to kill his father and little brother. (So, fanfic writers, grab your pens, we can assume the Uzui clan is still active.) Anyway, once he was free of that lifestyle where he had to constantly hide his presence, he thoroughly rebelled and embraced the flamboyant.

It's unclear when and how Tengen learning Breathing technique. It's possible there was knowledge of this technique in some form or another among the ninja (though his wives don't seem to display it), and it's also possible he learned from a cultivator. Sound is an off-shoot of Thunder, but it's unclear whether Sound was established before he came along, or if he created this Breath to make extra use of his keen hearing. (What I would give to see Tengen/Kuwajima interactions, preferably arguing about which Breath is superior.) It's unclear how much time passed between fleeing the clan and joining the Demon Slayer Corps. Given his ninja skills, as soon as he found out about the Corps (and perhaps by extension, demons), passing the Final Selection was probably a breeze for him. It was either right after the Final Selection (and therefore still waiting for his uniform), or just as he had made up his mind to join the Corp that he declares his new rule to his wives: their lives are #1 priority. #2 priority is morally upright humans, and #3 is Tengen himself.

And they're like, "whaaaaaaaat."

But sure enough they all accept the demon slaying mission, and before long, Tengen and his wives meet Oyakata-sama one fine spring day, I assume upon attaining the rank of Sound Pillar. Oyakata-sama sympathizes with how hard it must had been for Tengen--for all of them--to go against what they were raised to believe, and to fight to protect people in what they've deemed a morally upright course of life. Tengen's like, "this guy gets it" and becomes as big a fanboy as any other Pillar is for Oyakata-sama. It's purely conjecture, but I'm guessing he and Oyakata-sama both were somewhere around age 15~17 at this meeting (again, we don't know how much time has passed since Tengen left the ninja. Due to Kanae and Tengen's shared presence at later flashbacks, he couldn't had been older than 18~19). Tengen goes on to be super popular. The most popular Pillar in the Corp, Taisho Rumor has it. His wives all help on missions too, but there's an agreement that they'll get out and live a happy domestic life once they've bagged an Upper Moon--enough of a contribution to, perhaps, to feel they've atoned for the sins they committed as ninja (or at least, this was how Hinatsuru proposed the idea). Once the arm gets chopped and the eye gets cut, Tengen gains a really good excuse for retiring, but it was just his luck to have declared three Tsuguko within hours of his forced retirement. (Like, I doubt this counts for anything. And if he ever calls them that again his trio of Tsuguko are probably going to be more confused than anybody else.) Anyway, Nezuko brings him back from the brink of poison-induced death and he basically walks home. While still involved in the Corp in training the rank and file members and guarding Kiriya upon his becoming Oyakata-sama (meaning he, like Himejima, was trusted with knowledge in advance about Kagaya's very flamboyant exit plan). After that he truly goes into domestic retirement mode and makes friends with a fellow lop-sided former Pillar, however drab he always thought that person was. He takes enough of a liking to said former Pillar that he brings him along on co-ed hot spring dips and lets him hold his first child. Which of the three wives birthed the first child, we don't know. And then one of his descendants goes on to be a flamboyant gymnast, but still gathers once a year under Ubuyashiki's leadership to perform the Sound Breath forms as a sacred Kagura dance. And we still don't know what became of Tengen's brother. For all we know, modern gymnast Uzui Tenma and his six other siblings regularly avoid explosive attacks on their life from a generations-held promise to eliminate them. PARKOUR---but more flamboyant. (I hope it's obvious that I am being silly here and have no canon basis for this.)

[south-park-meta]

Thoughts and analysis on Shelly?

This is kind of a Stan and Shelly comparison because I don't really like how either of them are portrayed in relation to each other. Plus I just relate to Stan more so it's easier for me. If there's any other specific question about Shelly I'll try and answer it, though.

So I've mentioned before that Stan and Shelly take on typical roles within an alcoholic/dysfunctional family with Stan taking on the 'hero' role and Shelly taking on the 'scapegoat' role. Within the scapegoat role:

-Often use drugs or alcohol, or act out

-Often display anger, or are bullies. While all family members may be mad about their situation, they are the most likely to actually literally scream for attention. The scapegoat "is the family member who insists the family get attention—he is the one who screams “something is wrong” and does so by being “wrong.”" "They sacrifice their own life, health, and happiness to get the problems in the family noticed. The messes they make are the “cry for help” that may get the real problem in the family noticed." (https://www.drugrehab.us/news/part-3-dysfunctional-family-roles-the-scapegoat/)

This is noticeable in a lot of Shelly's behavior versus Stan's. Stan typically tries to smooth over/cover up any ruffles and help himself rather than making his family help him. When his mom explicitly notices he's not handling remote schooling well, he insists 'No, I'm tough! It's kids like Butters who can't handle it.' He either seeks out or is willing to go to the doctor/counseling/therapy without putting up much of a fuss and then doesn't seem to explain to his parents that these things aren't helping and he's actually even being abused within these settings (like being held down and alcohol FORCED down his throat). When his dad drives drunk with him and his friends as passengers, he begs his friends not to rat it out. Assuming he continues drinking as is hinted at at the end of Ass Burgers, it is privately and not in front of people. Stan has a lot of issues discussing problems because he'd rather have them blow over than call attention to himself and have to acknowledge things aren't going well.

This is a pretty stark difference to how Shelly handles things. She hits and yells at her brother. She screams and slams her door. She acts out at school. When she dabbles in drugs it is intentionally publicly, and it is specifically meant to get her in trouble. But it is also noticeably without really doing anything 'wrong'. She doesn't ACTUALLY take dirty pictures of herself to trade for a vape. She takes a picture of a dog's butt-- something that is enough to get noticed by Mackey, and is enough to have her parents called in over her behavior, but isn't actually meant to negatively impact herself. She is very clearly doing it to get attention. So she and Stan are equally depressed, it's just that Stan is trying to do best by the town to convince people that nothing is wrong while Shelly is basically screaming SOMETHING IS WRONG, LOOK AT ME, LOOK AT ME.

This pretty naturally causes a lot of conflict between Stan and Shelly/Hero and scapegoat roles. I'm not going to comment on Shelly bullying Stan because I think within this context it's a non-issue, but Stan is stuck being annoyed with Shelly's behavior because it's another thing he has to cover up to do his part to keep his family afloat. Shelly is stuck being annoyed with Stan because she sees herself as being a sponge for all the negative emotions in the family. She's the only one exposing that there's something wrong, and Stan is actively trying to cover it all back up. Effectively Stan thinks that he's taking on a load that the family can't handle (appearing strong in a public-facing way) and Shelly thinks she's taking on a load that Stan can't handle (acknowledging the truth of the situation and calling attention to the pain of it).

This also leads to both of them having very unhealthy responses from their parents. On Stan's end his family relies on him more than they should to take on almost a parental role. He is trusted when he says he can handle huge negative emotions, and he is most often the one who has to parent Randy (including having to drive Randy around when he's 8 when Randy's too drunk to do it himself). On Shelly's end they see her acting out as just being moody rather than trying to call attention to the legitimate problems that the family is having. It's just Shelly being Shelly instead of Shelly saying 'Help me'. Basically both kids can get attention superficially--Stan can actually say directly 'I need to go to the doctor because I think something's wrong' and Shelly can get their attention by acting out at school. But neither of them can get deep support-- Once he's started to get more than the surface level Stan pushes it away because he doesn't want to be unwell or give up that much control of himself to his family to have his problem solved by someone other than himself. Shelly can't express the specific, deep-seated problems that she has once she has the attention because the way she's gotten the attention obfuscates it.

The entire family shows signs of depression. Some of it seems situational and some of it chemical. All four of them really need a lot of help to get on the right path.

[nfly5]

CHOICE tag!

Rules: Answer the questions (if you want to skip one, feel free to do that too of course!). Tag 3 people (or more or less, you choose really). Tag your post with #CHOICE_tag so we can find each others’ posts! Have fun!!

thank you for tagging me dawny @wowed-by-ace!  and thanks for creating this tag @byeonqkwan ♡ i tag: @slowlydiving @aceinmyveins @slowdivemp3 @okaysign :)

1. Introduce yourself. You choose how much and how little!

hi! i’m laura (she/her) 23 years old turning 24 in exactly a week ahh!!

2. How and when did you become a CHOICE?

i’ve casually followed a.c.e since debut. really liked chan because i was avidly invested in the unit groups - uni.t and unb - so i naturally ended up heavily following a.c.e’s activities after unb’s promotions ended. absolutely fell in love with undercover when it came out! it felt amazing to see them reunited after the competitions they took part in and finally be able to release music together!

3. What is your favourite part of being a CHOICE?

being on tumblr and seeing everyone’s beautiful content, posting gifs of a.c.e, reading everyone’s tags/posts and just being able to freely talk about anything and everything a.c.e related! i love the environment on choice tumblr and feel so comfortable here. it definitely created very happy memories for me and overall encouraged me to love a.c.e even more.

4. What is your favourite A.C.E song? Do you prefer their title tracks or b-sides more?

this is SO hard! i would say undercover because it felt like an evolving point in their career for me. but savage is currently my most played song ever on spotify so.. i think i tend to listen to title tracks of every artist i enjoy more than their b-sides but it truly varies. during promotions i tend to like b-sides more but as time goes by i think the impact of title tracks is what lasts longer for me! a.c.e genuinely is one of the few groups that i enjoy all songs though, no bad or underwhelming song in their whole discography. 

5. Who’s your bias? What do you like about them?

KANG YUCHAN! i always find it a bit difficult to name one member as a definite bias but given how much i loved him with unb and seeing him reunited with his members it’s been such a joy to follow his career! he’s so talented and hard working, such a cutie energetic ball of sunshine! he makes me so happy... 

6. What is your favourite thing about A.C.E?

their whole pre-debut story of coming together from different companies with their ceo, busking on the streets, practicing in the basement with no mirrors and literally working their way up to the artists they are now is so mind boggling to me. i cannot emphasise in words just how talented they are and knowing how much dedication they put in their careers is very inspiring. the messages they want to deliver with their music and how they approach comebacks with beautiful stories and performances on top of the obvious amazing vocals, raps and dance... it’s just fascinating to keep up with them.

7. Which concept has been your favourite? What kind of concept do you want them to try?

undercover and favorite boys! musically i prefer undercover and i would love to see more rock music from them. overall concept wise they really did IT with favorite boys - the folklore story, underwater photoshoot, outfits and performances ahh!! i would love them to try a sexy concept next and i really love the direction we’re going with the moon and potential mythology continuation concept for sirens so i think they’re already delivering everything i want soon!

8. Which A.C.E friendship is your favourite? Which one do you want to see more of?

i love ot5 a.c.e’s relationship they all care and support each other so much! personally enjoy watching wowkwan and dongjun compilations on youtube lol.. they’re cute

9. If you could tell A.C.E one thing, what would you tell them?

i hope that you can continue performing and doing what you love the most with the people that cherish you and provide you a safe and healthy environment. can’t wait to see what’s next for you! thank you!!!!

10. Which A.C.E member would die first in a horror movie?

i agree with everyone saying junhee lmao

11. Leave a small message for your fellow CHOICE!

hi everyone! i’m not very talkative but i always see everyone’s lovely comments in tags about my content and i just want you to know how much i appreciate your presence on tumblr! it makes everything so much more enjoyable and i hope that you are all doing alright! best wishes and hope to continue interacting <3 please do come talk to me if you ever wish! :)

[izzyizumi]

I can hear it now I can feel the encore This endlessly thrumming beat Let it RING OUT once more {Jou Kido appearance} I just want to know what’s out there Beyond the furthest reaches of the sky I set my sights on the beyond In my desire for an infinite shine {Mimi Tachikawa appearance} [+Tachikawa Family] No matter how hard it got You gently wrapped me in those kind arms of yours These feelings too overflowing to express in words {Takeru Takaishi appearance} [+platonic Takaishi-Ishida Brothers] Let me express them to you now Take your voice And this dream of mine Let’s bring them together {Sora Takenouchi appearance} This LIVE {LIFE} is beautiful Let my song dance and rise high above {Koushiro Izumi & Tentomon appearance} Though this may be goodbye It would make me happy if YOU could KEEP SMILING Even if I can’t see you anymore This place will always be special to us

{Yamato Ishida appearance} No matter how many times I’m reborn or travel the stars I want to find you again I’ll embrace you in my kisses {Taichi Yagami appearance} Let my love RING OUT to the farthest futures {Hikari Yagami appearance} [+WIZARDMON friendship] Take your voice And this dream of mine Let’s bring them together This LIVE {LIFE} is beautiful Let my song dance and rise high above This love of mine This song of mine The voice calling for it all This encore is forever I wish you endless happiness {Adventure Chosen & Digimon} I sing out in THIS moment because IT WON’T LAST F O R E V E R {02} I can hear it now I can feel the ENCORE This endlessly thrumming beat Look, a rainbow spans the sky Instead of saying goodbye Let me hear you call for me one more time Believe that it will start once more in the future A call for us and only us {tri.} We’ll CREATE TOMORROW This love of mine This song of mine The voice calling for it all This encore is forever I wish you endless happiness I wish for the beginning of eternity Our love lasts through the encore

{ WE L O V E ... }

- M A M O R U . M I Y A N O ; E N C O R E

“When my {Quality of Life} is so diminished that I can no longer enjoy even eating, {when I can only be fed through a feeding tube lying in a hospital bed}, That’s when it might be time for me to go.”

“... BUT I’M NOT A F R A I D.”

- Dedicated to my Grandmother C., Z”L*, (*May her memory be a Blessing) 1926 ~ August, 2015 (passed near 89 years old) - Jewish, she also lived through the years of the Holocaust, (1941~1945) and her entire Jewish family got safely through those years. [Not long before WWII ended, she met my Grandpa.] My grandmother was one of my closest family members. When I was little (around 8 years old myself when first watching), she wholeheartedly supported my strong interest in Adventures/Digimon when I was first getting into this series, even if she didn’t know anything about it, (other than small bits I told her) even she could see how much I loved it. (Because she was one of my closest family members, she was also the one who overall learnt the most about my health. When I was, few years after discovering Adventure as a child, diagnosed Autistic and with generalized Anxiety disorder as well, she continued to support me all throughout, educated herself & our other interconnected family about my conditions, and continuously encouraged my interests and growth.)

Original Posters [Mine] commentary: I made this quick A.M.V edit a handful of days ago to this gorgeous song by Miyano, one of my favorite JPN voice actors/singers, {You may know him as: Dent[o] in JPN Pocket Monsters, Tamaki in Ouran, Rin in Free!, Tokiya in Utano*Prince-sama (where this song comes from), Konoha, Haruka & “Clearing Eyes” in Kage-Pro, among many more} mainly made with thoughts of general appreciation for this series in mind. I also made it with thoughts of my Grandmother in mind, who passed late August 2015, (yes, August). Tri had been announced, but wouldn’t yet air until November. I didn’t start much more actively blogging about Digimon until a bit later on, starting from a couple years later, because I was still heavily grieving. However, I still enjoyed reblogging Digimon posts I enjoyed to other blogs I had at the time even in the pre-Tri and early Tri years.

This was made very quickly, so it’s not perfect, has minimal editing, and the 1st Adventure portion is straight from the final battle with no editing done to it, but it fit the music well enough, so I included it as-is for now. I’ll probably re-arrange scenes if I remake it later and include much more other, varied scenes from Adventure, (for example, during end of Yamato’s portion, I was also thinking of the Yamato&Sora+Jou scene from the end of Dark Masters Arc).

(^One of my favorite Adventure scenes regardless of personal favs) But until I can edit those in, I’m just leaving this as it is. The middle portion with 02 is edited slightly more timed to music. A major Tri ending spoiler for the final battle’s result appears during the end. Kizuna is not included in here as of yet, but it may be in the future, along with Adventure 2020. All of this will probably be rearranged in a remake overall, but I’m keeping the general themeing & feel as-is for now, along with the Tri ending scenes.

Because this was made in appreciation of this series and out of respect to and with thoughts of my grandmother, please be respectful when interacting with this post. Thank you.

{& Pretty soon, in a few days, I’m getting my 2nd C.O.V.I.D shot.} (So I’m posting this now as-is, but I’ll see if I can work on it more later. It’d be nice if I could manage to finish it in time for August 1st, but we’ll see.)

{because every August, I think of not only this series, but also my grandmother.}

(August 2021 will be the 6th-year anniversary of her death.) Please remember this if you interact with my blog during the month of August. Or just during the summer in general.

This blogs’ queue will be ongoing in general for a while after this post.

{Additional note: this post is mainly intended GENERAL CHARACTER/SERIES SUPPORT-FOCUSED. please remember + RESPECT this when interacting} {my other major ship/O.T.P. is Taichi x Koushiro, though I’d probably keep this A.M.V. more gen[eral] overall later} [I also enjoy various other ships with all characters on the side anyhow]

[Note: commenting/tagging positively/respectfully is ok!] (Please AGREE TO BANNERS BEFORE interacting) (Note: click on the images/banners to enlarge!)

[fmdjoosungarchive]

restructuring task 1

+5 tracker points

1. assuming your muse has changed in some way, be it internally or as a result of a change of the external factors around them, how is your muse different? these can be as small as an opinion on a song they hadn’t released previously or as big as a major change in their background.

wc: 365

idk if i’ve said this on dash yet, but i’m treating new famed more or less like an au. in sung’s au, the defining change is that he was let go from gold star when he had his injury as a trainee. it was always my headcanon that they truly were close to cutting him loose anyway, so this is just the other side of that. he had his injury, got plastic surgery to try to appease them into keeping him, and they still let him go. when he went home his parents said alright u tried that now join the fam business n sung freaked bc he realized he doesnt want that for himself so he went to do smth he also hated, and joined the military. while there he still worked on his dance and vocals whenever he had a moment to do so, so that when he was discharged and started auditioning again, he wasn’t so rusty

he is a year younger in this world, just bc of quantum’s age range, not for any other reason. makes him a little less of a cradle robber in his relationship lol which, another change is that daisuke wouldn’t have been his first kiss, just first everything else

quantum is very different from old element and new element, but it’s very in line with what i liked about quicksilver (& has models from that) and he’s a leader! this is an idea ive toyed with a lot over the last three years tbh. at first i didn’t think sung suited a leader position, but he came to show me he’s just a different kind of leader. i liken him to jinki often in this regard. rather than lassoing members in, he supports them being however they are, and takes an intimate/emotional path to gaining their trust and leading them. and while he wasn’t suited for the full business life, what he learned from his father’s teachings helps him in dealing with the company as the group’s representative there (& he loves a good powerpoint presentation)

other timeline stuff for big events in his life are likely to shift but i’m not sure on specifics yet

2. what does your muse think of their company and their group?

wc: 260

as the child of a businessman, he’s never under the illusion that as a company entity, their first priority is their wellbeing. he knows that they are products, and that they’re treated as such. it’s a bit heavier with dimensions than gold star, since gold star makes a more active effort to pretend they care. however, once having accepted that, sung thinks himself and dimensions work well together. he does feel that for a company, they allow himself and his members to be a part of the creative process, as says their motto. he feels much more encouraged to write songs and choreograph under dimensions than he did under gold star, where it felt like he was constantly on his knees begging for the company to take him seriously

as for quantum, sung really loves what they’re about. he’s not a big fan of all (or most) of their songs, though he’s more loving towards a song written by another member even if it’s the same sound he dislikes, but he absolutely loves being focused on performance and concepts. his creative mind works very much on the basis of story and emotion that comes with it, and he feels like quantum’s concepts sometimes to often lean into his tastes. he’s always been a dancer first and foremost (god am i so glad to have his main dancer title back i MISSED u) so focusing on performance is v much up his alley, and his preferred style of dance is through storytelling. he feels the heart of dance is in that

3. is your muse on their first contract or their second? if they’ve renewed, what were their feelings around that at the time and what were their hopes for their second contract? if they haven’t renewed, what are their current thoughts on the end of their eventual first contract?

wc: 281

quantum’s on their first contract still, up for renewal in 2024. at the current moment, he would like to re-sign. however, unlike my others, his re-signing depends more heavily on the other members. if they were unhappy and wanted to leave, sung would want to follow suit, not because he can’t make his own decisions, but because if the reason the members want to leave is because of the company, not quantum, he’d want to try to help quantum continue to live. if that means all of the members leaving in order to rebrand under another company, so be it. he’d like to avoid lineup changes however he can, and ideally would like to be an idol for as long as possible

he himself feels alright about his treatment. he feels creatively stimulated, and appreciated for talents further than his face. if he were to try to negotiate different terms at their contract renewal, part of it would likely be wanting to give members a higher share of profits, especially on releases they’re creatively involved in. sung personally has no use for excessive money, but not all of his members have his background, and he feels more than just the money, it’s what’s fair. he’d also prefer to allow for more creative freedom. as a 7/8 year group by then, he’d think they should be allowed to take the reigns more heavily. and on his personal side of things, he would want dimensions to be more mindful of his schedule. sung enjoys working, but he’s only one person, who doesn’t want to be overworked. these are all just his current thoughts, though, and will probably change before contract renewal comes up

4. what are your muse’s goals and motivations?

wc: 294

his motivations to be ‘successful’ and/or achieve his goals are his family, namely being someone his nephew and niece can be proud of, and someone his parents can feel was worth letting go of. he feels closer to the latter than he did in old famed. his members motivate him to be a good leader, his desire to grow as a creator motivates him to write and choreograph

specific goals could be bigger like his desire for more public recognition. while quantum has a lot more recognition both in korea and abroad than element or quicksilver, sung wants the best for his group. he’d be happy if they stayed where they are with their loyal fandom, but he still aims for more

sung also wants to get better at standing up for himself. he’s best at standing up for others, because he can slap on a bit of bravado in order to help them out, but when it comes to himself, especially with his parents, he’s pretty awful at it

he’d also like to create more for quantum, and others. i/he have a goal for him to write a whole album for someone, so if anyone reads this far and could want sung writing for their muse, hit me up!

he’d like to get married and have children one day. that’s always been a dream of his, and while he knows his career doesn’t allow for that soon, it’s still on his docket

he wants to spend more time with his family, especially his nephew and niece. they’re so new to the world and learning everything, and sung wants to be a part of that. he doesnt want his part in their early lives to be ‘i don’t really remember seeing him back then’

5. what is one conflict, internal or external, that your muse is currently dealing with, has recently dealt with, or will need to deal with in the future?

wc: 291

at some point, this bitch is gonna have to admit he’s a homiesexual. in his previous version, it was a lot easier for him to ‘i pretend i do not see it’ when it came to that. sung’s very ignorant when it comes to the queer community in korea, so he’s not even really aware of terms beyond gay, maybe trans. but, terms aside, he always thought he was someone who liked women, and daisuke and a couple of others were just outliers. they were the Special ones outside of his jurisdiction that were just too good for him to not notice. aka he believed he was bi. and now, he still does, but i have less faith he’ll be able to hold that up until he dies like i did before, because he’s actually dated at least one woman before in this world. considering the plot has yet to be picked up, i don’t know the specifics, but i do think it’s harder to run away from when the way he treated a relationship with a woman and a relationship with a man were lightyears away from one another. it’s still possible for him to run away from the truth of the situation, but it’s also very possible that one day, his thoughts on it will shake, and everything will click into place (messily,, probably the messiest clicking ever) it would be a difficult thing for him to come to terms with, though i think it’s better for him in the longterm to truly know who he is, and why he acts the way he does, why he feels the way he does about women vs men. it’s also nice just to not live a lie, even if only privately

6. if your muse has established career claims, what are their thoughts on their career so far? if they do not, how do they feel about not having individual activities yet? what would they like to do in the future, if anything? if they don’t have ambitions for individual activities, explain why.

wc: 523

sung has a pretty filled history of individual activities. most are points claims with a focus on modelling, his radio, and music, though he’s dipped into pretty much ever facet of idoldom, some with more success than others. his ecp expenditures flesh that out a little more, and add a bit more realism, and/or make sense of the group changes. he had a one year modelling contract with the north face, and while official claims aren’t possible, i was inspired by a couple of things rowoon did with them. there was more of a push on an eco-friendly side of things, and there was a bit of dancing. playing into his group position with dancing i feel is fitting, but the eco friendly part i also feel could round out his image more as a good, kind boy who also can be sexy, whereas before, his earlier modelling claims focused a lot more on the sexy aspect, because it fit element and his trajectory there better. here, it makes him more dual sided from the beginning. north face is also just a nice, strong brand that i think is fitting for a pretty boi. i set it a bit after a year out from debut because i feel like that’s the most realistic, especially for a group like quantum that grew audience with each comeback

part of that first year being focusing only on the group ties into his creative claims as well! his first creative claim was with the bside love, lalala on the eternity ep. the nicest part of creative claims being unattached to positions is that all of sung’s claims are the songs in the discography most Him. so love lalala is very jazzy and smooth, and would have served as his first introduction to songwriting, as well as what made him interested in songwriting. then he was a choreographer on error, which is heavily story based, and about the members being a unit, and making beautiful pictures together. i hope to snag intro long journey and outro long journey from the beginning and end of the ateez sector, because they’re beautiful compositions that fit sung’s style, but also having him on both makes him feel like he’s a part of the concept’s creation in an intimate way, which fits with dms. then there’s aurora, which sung partially composed and partially choreographed. the choreography has contemporary flair to it, and the song is a flowing sound that matches that. then there’s partial production on sunrise, which i just love the robotic ass experimental production there, and comp for with u, which i believe ties back into sung’s rediscovering his love of piano. choreo for valkyrie is most similar to error in it’s pretty pictures way, and also has a bit of complex footwork, especially as its point dance, which is also p sung to want to include. and finally, some comp on stand by, which is like a mix of the appeal of aurora and with u methinks? listening to all of his written songs together i feel like really makes a picture of sung’s songwriting so i love that

[zorya-wellness]

8 Real & Practical Advice on How to Get Through Quarantine or Lockdown Without Going Nuts

Hey friends,

Today’s Blog post was definitely not something I planned as most of my blog posts are dedicated to Tarot, Runes and Relationship Coaching.

So, what happened?

Well, the “third wave” happened.

If you are in a country where you are going through yet another lockdown, and who knows if this is the last one, you are probably reaching a point when you really need some tips on how to get through this without getting nuts.

What is happening right now has caused a spike in anxiety, depression and other mental health struggles.

The consequences of strength can be both physiological and mental. When we are talking about the impact on the body, it is sleep disturbance, food disorders and worsening of other conditions one may be predisposed to.

When we talk mental health, stress results in irritability, panic attacks, depression and addictions.

I appreciate so many wonderful ideas and advice from people to help others find some fun and meaningful activities to do, but let’s be real with each other: a good book and a warm bath don’t do the trick anymore. It’s been over a year since it all started and you probably already celebrated 365 days of bubble baths.

I am going to give you some REAL and MEANINGFUL advice on what you need to start doing now to preserve (and hopefully improve) your mental health.

Let’s jump right into it.

1. How can I separate myself from work mentally if I am working from home?

This is a MUST for your mental health. There is a reason why we GO to work. Even though now companies claim that working from home seems to work perfectly fine, it works fine for a company that no longer needs to pay for commercial lease and maintain the building.

But for YOUR mental health, it is a very big hit.

You know this feeling when you come home from work and finally feel RELAXED?

Well, you probably don’t remember what it’s like anymore because your home and work environments seemed to merge into one.

And it is SO important that you do everything to separate them.

Here are some suggestions for you:

Even if you live in a small apartment, you need to have an area designed strictly for work.

Separate this area from the rest of the room or your flat and make sure you have dedicated hours of work.

And when you are done with your work, you DO NOT go back there to check something, to read an email or to reply to a coworker that doesn’t know a definition of work hours and sends 500 emails at 10pm.

You do you.

If your job end at 5pm, wave your “workplace” a goodbye and leave the space both physically and mentally.

Interesting tip from psychologists is even to choose a certain outfit for your work hours buy I would go so far as to say, choose an outfit for your whole day regardless if you are working or no.

I’m telling you guys, it’s such a shift in a mindset when you are washed, dressed, have some make up on, nice perfume, whatever rocks your boat, as long as you are not spending all your day in pjs.

2. What can I do if I find myself overeating or drinking more alcohol than I normally would?

Let’s break it down right away: over eating, smoking excessively or drinking more alcohol than you normally would and should, is THE WORST strategy to get through the quarantine.

You MUST find other ways to cope and I know how difficult it is. You need to ACCEPT your emotions, fears and anger and I know you are at the point where you don’t want to accept anything, you just want to fall asleep and wake up thinking it was just your worst nightmare that is now over.

I know it’s easy to say that eventually it will be over.

For some of us, coping is much more difficult than for others and I know that you have reasons.

If you are really at your breaking point, you understand that you no longer can cope by yourself, you start developing addictions or worse feel aggressive towards your family members, PLEASE seek help.

Thankfully, there is MANY resources available right now. There are a lot of counselors, psychologists and workers that are offering help at low cost and even at no cost.

No one will ever judge you for seeking help.

Call you friend, your mother or cousin. Sit down with your partner and just talk. Maybe others will be able to offer some insights or advice. Maybe together you will develop a plan.

If you are with kids 24/7, make sure you put aside some time for yourself. I knoooow, it’s super cliché to talk about self-care but I am a mom myself and I know how important it is.

And you know what? Sometimes you need to turn on that cartoon for 30 minutes and just go, sit down and have your coffee with a muffin. Do NOT let anyone shame you.

Losing your shit is NORMAL, we all do, we are no Yogis here.

3. How do I stop myself from watching or reading news every day and getting angry?

This is a big one. I probably should have started with it.

My best advice is disconnecting your cable and delete the news from your phone. This is what I did, it works like a miracle.

No, there is no show on your TV you can’t live without. There is Netflix, Amazon and plenty of other platforms to watch programs and shows.

Our immune system and well-being highly depend on what is going on in our head. If you start your day or dedicate all day to the subject of pandemic, such as watching news, videos, statistics and prognosis that may or may not ever come true, this will raise your anxiety level, which in turn will affect both physical and mental health.

All this can not only lead to anxiety disorder and depression. If you are on my page, then I trust you believe in the fact that our thoughts are materialistic. And so are our fears. Make sure that you are feeding your mind with positive affirmations.

Instead, try to shift your focus on other things you are interested in. Think what else matters for you? Maybe you want to improve your health, start a new exercise routine, learn about digital marketing or knitting. Youtube is booming now more than ever. Why not dedicate your time towards something useful?

4. How do I keep myself calm when I feel like my blood is boiling? How to overcome anger and helplessness caused by the news?

When I thought about an answer to this question, I remembered a time when my Yoga instructor was teaching us meditation.

We were in the process of meditation and I kept trying to push the thoughts away but they would come back. I would try to talk myself into stillness but as a result, I would just tense up, while the thoughts were still there.

At this time, I heard my teacher saying: “If you are trying right now to be still so hard you keep on repeating “stop thinking” to yourself, you are doing it all wrong.”

I started laughing. I was really laughing at myself and at how stupid I felt. Meditation is about acceptance and release. We accept any thought that comes our way and try to simply dismiss it.

What you need to remember is that when you are trying to escape anger, panic or distress to reach that stillness that seems to be so unachievable, when you are trying to look positive or talk yourself into feeling positive or calm, you are trying to reach yet another extreme.

Mental health and well-being are not in stillness or eternal optimism. It is somewhere in the middle.

All emotions are necessary. We need to release our anger, we need to laugh till we cry and sometimes cry, so that we can laugh again.

What is important is maintaining that balance.

It’s not always easily done but it’s important to remember that you don’t have to be happy 24/7. This is NOT a definition of good health.

With that said, don’t forget that others around you may also be having a bad day. Offer help and support with a reminder that we are all here for each other, in good and in bad.

5. I do exercises and Yoga but they don’t seem to help with my stress levels. How do I not get discouraged?

It is important to understand what type of physical activity can help YOU right NOW based on your needs and your mental state.

Yoga may not be helpful to release anxiety and anger that has built up over the past months.

It may be a better idea for you to buy a boxing bag and kick the hell out of it.

Or you may need to go for a run and let the wind and fresh air really stir everything up inside.

But for those who continue to work outside of their home, you may be hustling so much during the day that what you really need is stillness. In this case, Yoga, meditation and mindfulness practices will be most helpful.

It is really important to assess your current mental health situation. If you are unsure, grab a pen and paper and write down everything you feel. Take a look at what prevails.

In any case, I want you to understand that ESPECIALLY NOW exercise and physical activity are more important than ever before. So, make sure you include in your life the following:

-Physical activity in any form that fits you (running, Yoga, Pilates, boxing)

-Breathing exercises

-Attention and Mindfulness exercises

6. Make sure to take care of the elderly at the best of your ability.

Our elderly seem to be so forgotten. And just as our children, they are the most affected by the current situation.

Even prior to these lockdown it’s been a known fact that many older people, when they retire, go through difficulties related to the lack of social life, goals and meaningful events.

Now, when most of them are completely stuck at home all the above issues have only intensified.

Because of that, they don’t really have much left to do but watch a TV all day and as we discussed above, television can negatively impact mental health of the healthiest young individuals, let alone the vulnerable population.

I know that some of you are unable to see your grandparents or parents in person, as they may be in a retirement facility with restrictions on visitors.

But as someone who lives so far away from grandparents for more than 10 years, I can give you the following suggestions:

CALL. Wow, so “new”. I know it’s not but I have noticed that today’s generation will do everything and anything to avoid calling. People are so consumed in social media, swiping, liking and texting that when it comes to actually pick up a phone and chat, they hardly know what to talk about.

If your elderly has a landline still, you can use that but if you have a chance buy them a tablet or a cellphone and either yourself or have someone show them how to use at the very least Skype or What’s App.

And really, you don’t have to have a reason for a call.

Call to ask your grandmother share her favourtire apply pie recipe, to get her opinion on your job situation, to share your baby’s first tooth finally coming through.

It all may seem like day-to-day activities for you but you have NO IDEA how much they want to be involved and have a meaningful life.

This will keep them busy and will really take their minds off the negativity that is spilling from every single television channel on them.

7. Try to have a schedule that all family members will follow.

In the conditions we are facing right now when family members are forced to be together 24/7, sometimes in quite a small space, it is inevitable that you may start to experience issues in your relationship with a partner or your children.

For this reason, divorce rates, verbal and physical abuse and alcohol intoxication are at the highest.

It is a very serious matter because people are unable to structure their day, have a schedule and follow it.

What you can do is the following:

-Have a set of rules at home everyone will follow. “Mommy is working for the next two hours, while you are doing your online learning, then we meet at 12pm for lunch”

You can establish a reward system for your children if they are following through with the schedule.

-Have a space at home where you go to take a breath if the situation heats up and you feel like you are losing your cool.

-Set up a schedule for yourself that would cover all areas of your life, not just your work. Make sure you dedicate some time to spend with your family, spouse, children and, of course, the elderly.

8. Lastly, if you want to maintain good mental health and get through this period, coming out happy & healthy, it is important to REMAIN A HUMAN BEING.

Not a human, not a person, not a man or a woman, a HUMAN BEING.

We all react to the events that are happening right now differently. One person is angry, another couldn’t care less. Someone is not leaving their house, another is at a protest, protecting the freedom they believe in.

LIVE and LET LIVE. That’s something we all seemed to talk about a lot before this all started but completely forgotten since.

This is ALL a NORMAL reaction to not so normal events.

Everyone copes the way they can. If you don’t agree or don’t approve, for yourself, do what you judge to be right.

If you continue to bark at people for not following the standards of normality you have set up for yourself, none of the above suggestions will help you.

By trying to judge, humiliate or laugh at others, you set yourself to the path of anger and misery.

I am not encouraging you to do anything in particular, to chose a camp or a side. All I am telling you is leave others alone and live your life.

[mykpopwire]

interview: DRIPPIN sets off their journey with [Boyager]

DRIPPIN has finally made their debut with 1st Mini Album [Boyager]

Let’s get to know more about the seven talented boys!

1. First of all, please introduce yourself.

Cha Jun Ho: Hello, I’m DRIPPIN’s Cha Jun Ho.

Hwang Yun Seong: I’m DRIPPIN’s leader and main dancer, Hwang Yun Seong.

Kim Dong Yun: Hello, I’m DRIPPIN’s all-rounder, Dong Yun.

Lee Hyeop: Hello, I’m DRIPPIN’s main vocal, Lee Hyeop.

Joo Chang Uk: Hello, I’m DRIPPIN’s third member, Chang Uk.

Alex: Hello, I’m yellow haired Alex who escaped from mullet.

Kim Min Seo: Hello I’m Min Seo, fresh high school senior in charge of bright snowdrops and innocence in DRIPPIN.

2. Can you share with us about your debut album?

Hwang Yun Seong: Boyager is a combination of word ‘boy’ means boy and ‘voyager’ which means long-distance traveller. It's also the name of an American unmanned space probe. It (Boyager) means to overcome the fear of a new world and start a new journey with curiosity and determination for dreams.

Cha Jun Ho: Our debut album Boyager is a combination of ‘boy’ meaning boy and ‘voyager’ meaning long-distance traveller. It means that we are going on a new journey with curiosity and determination of our dreams.

Cha Jun Ho

3. Are there other group names being considered before DRIPPIN is chosen as the official name?

Cha Jun Ho: Actually, I couldn't come up with a different name. I thought about it for a long time but it didn't come out. So, as soon as I heard the cool name DRIPPIN, I got hooked.

Hwang Yun Seong: I’ve considered it, we have been thinking among us and I also put a lot of thoughts on it personally. The CEO also asked me if there’s any names that I thought of, but it’s not easy. Even when we shared our ideas, only strange things came out and it wasn’t easy. But when the name DRIPPIN came out, I was very satisfied.

Kim Dong Yun: The name DRIPPIN is the name that our CEO gave us. Before it was decided, we thought about it among ourselves but coming up with a name is harder that we thought.

Lee Hyeop: The CEO once asked me if I had any ideas on it before, but at that time no matter how much I thought about it, nothing come to my mind.

Joo Chang Uk: The members had gathered to think of a team name before, but it wasn't easy!

Alex: I have never considered a name other than DRIPPIN.

Kim Min Seo: Among us, we have thought of the names as beetles and butane gas as a joke. 

Hwang Yun Seong

4. What kind of music you wish to pursue as DRIPPIN? 

Cha Jun Ho: I want to do music that will make me think it's trendy and sophisticated even when I listen to it in the future.

Hwang Yun Seong: Rather than any kind of music, I think I’ll sing variety of new and different songs that will lead the trend in the future.

Kim Dong Yun: I want to do music that can give people joy and happiness.

Lee Hyeop: I want to be a group that shows good music and performance through our own interpretation of various topics and experiences.

Joo Chang Uk: I want to try various music so that we can be a team that is able to pull off variety of music.

Alex: Just like the name of our album, we will pursue music that will give people happiness and explore and discover the novelty of music.

Kim Min Seo: Just like our group name, I want to pursue DRIPPIN-like song with our own colour.

Kim Dong Yun

5. Who is the artist that you look up to while preparing to debut?

Cha Jun Ho: As we worked together, I felt that our company’s Golden Child who showed us great performances even though there are a lot of people, is amazing.

Hwang Yun Seong: Seventeen’s Hoshi and Shinee’s Taemin.

Kim Dong Yun: I always look up to BTS since I was a student.

Lee Hyeop: I like and admire EXO’s Baekhyun.

Joo Chang Uk: I didn't think much about it while preparing for my debut. But after I made my debut, I was so proud of all the idols.

Alex: Stray Kids’ Felix, Han and Bang Chan.

6. Your first impression of each other?

Cha Jun Ho: At first, I thought everyone was shy because everyone was introverts.

Hwang Yun Seong: I wonder if I was in the position to lead when I first saw them. But throughout all the years I was able to be the leader as they were all so innocent. I was a baby too, but everyone else had more baby-like side so they were shy around strangers. Now we are all playing tricks on each other.

Kim Dong Yun: I thought everyone was handsome. If you look now, we sort of resemble each other.

Lee Hyeop: Most of the members were difficult to get close kind of person, timid. So, at first everyone seems to quietly adapt themselves.

Joo Chang Uk: My first impression was that the members were all gentle and considerate of each other.

Kim Min Seo: Everyone looked at me and thought I was amazing. I‘ve never seen anyone like this, but what does this mean…?

Lee Hyeop

7. If you are a superhero, what kind of superpower would you have? 

Cha Jun Ho: Ability to stop the time.

Hwang Yun Seong: I'm greedy, so superpower like Superman.

Kim Dong Yun: I want to have mind control ability.

Lee Hyeop: Superpower to manipulate time.

Joo Chang Uk: I want to have the teleportation ability, to move comfortably from place to place.

Alex: Teleportation ability.

Kim Min Seo: The ability to feel 12 hours of sleep even after an hour of sleep.

8. What do you usually do during your free time?

Cha Jun Ho: Usually I go for practice or cleaning.

Hwang Yun Seong: I watch dance videos or sleep. I enjoy visiting good restaurants and watch movies when I have the energy.

Kim Dong Yun: I often play cell phone games or watch YouTube while lying on the bed.

Lee Hyeop: I feel like I’m resting when cooking or doing small chores at home.

Joo Chang Uk: I practice singing or just lying down watching movies.

Alex: I usually spend time with my family or enjoy playing video games.

Kim Min Seo: I usually go for practice.

Joo Chang Uk

9. Which colour suits your personality the most?

Cha Jun Ho: Sky blue?

Hwang Yun Seong: White.

Kim Dong Yun: Orange, not very bright and it's a comfortable colour. So, I think it goes well with me.

Lee Hyeop: Yellow, mild and warm on the outside, but full of passion like the sun on the inside.

Joo Chang Uk: Indigo, not just dark, but a little calm!

Alex: Mint and white.

Kim Min Seo: Red, blue and yellow.

10. One thing that you must do every single day.

Cha Jun Ho: Make sure to put on lotion.

Hwang Yun Seong: Dance practice.

Kim Dong Yun: Look in the mirror and check if my face is swollen.

Lee Hyeop: I must eat one meal well.

Joo Chang Uk: I must shower before I go to bed no matter what.

Alex: Wash my face with foam cleanser.

Kim Min Seo: Brush my teeth.

Alex

11. Will "We Are DRIPPIN!" continue after debut?

Cha Jun Ho: I don't know yet, but I really want to continue it!

Hwang Yun Seong: I want to continue it! Or I'll be a little sad!

Kim Dong Yun: I'd like to keep shooting every season.

Lee Hyeop: I'm not sure, but I'd like to continue it.

Joo Chang Uk: Even if it's not We Are DRIPPIN!, I want to do more reality shows like that.

Alex: Of course I want to continue it! I really hope there will be another season!

Kim Min Seo: I want to do it! I want to shoot We Are DRIPPIN! again.

12. Your goal as DRIPPIN member?

Cha Jun Ho: I want to give more positive impact on the team!

Hwang Yun Seong: To be at the top of K-Pop.

Kim Dong Yun: I want to be a member who brings life to the team and a member that comes to mind when you think of DRIPPIN.

Lee Hyeop: I want to be the older brother whom the younger brothers can lean on comfortably.

Joo Chang Uk: I want to develop my personal skills so that our team can advance to Billboard.

Alex: My goal is to stay healthy while doing all the activities and enjoy the stage with my fans.

Kim Min Seo: I want all the members to be healthy and be as close and happy as we are now.

Kim Min Seo

13. Lastly, can you say a few words to your fans in Malaysia?

Cha Jun Ho: Thank you for your support from afar! I’ll work hard so I hope we can meet often!!

Hwang Yun Seong: We finally debut!! Now is only the beginning, I hope we can repay you as much as your love and support and walk on flowery paths with you. I’ll lead DRIPPIN trend in the future, so please look forward to it. I’ll go to Malaysia and meet with you if I have the chance in the future. I love you so much.

Kim Dong Yun: Hello Malaysia fans!! They say it's not easy to like us from afar so thank you so much!! I’ll never forget your support and will work hard to repay you!! See you in Malaysia!!! Bye!!

Lee Hyeop: Thank you so much for waiting for us for such a long time and we will repay you with great songs and performances! I love you ❤️

Joo Chang Uk: Hello Malaysia fans, I'm Chang Uk and I finally debut as DRIPPIN. Thank you so much for waiting so long. I'll always do my best to repay the fans for all the time that they've been waiting for!!

Alex: Hello Malaysia!! Although we can't meet you face-to-face now because of the epidemic, we will try our best to meet you guys as soon as possible! Take care of your health and hwaiting!!

Kim Min Seo: Malaysia fans~ You’ve been waiting for a long time haven't you..? Thank you so much for your patience. We finally made our debut. We have prepared as much as you expected, so please look forward to it. I love you 😍😍

*Photos courtesy of Woollim Entertainment

Don’t forget to like and follow My K-Pop Wire for more K-Pop interviews, debut and comeback updates!

Instagram: mykpopwire

Twitter: @mykpopwire

Facebook: My K-pop Wire

Watch DRIPPIN Nostalgia MV here!

Connect with DRIPPIN!

Instagram: drippin_insta

Twitter: @drippin

YouTube: DRIPPIN

V LIVE: DRIPPIN

[ivyjlopez]

October 9, 2020, 8:19pm Q&A 101

Eight days before my birthday as of this writing. I’m actually having second thoughts if I should do a blog or a vlog. But, I do like writing and releasing my thoughts through words rather than speaking up. So, as I’m about to enter another year and continue to be an adult I’d like to start doing things I’ve wished I’ve done earlier. I do not intend to have plenty of followers in any social media platforms, the only goal is to write, encourage and lead people closer to Christ through my writings and to release the thoughts I have in my head for quite some time. Yes, I’ve always been telling people that I am an introverted gal and even so, that doesn’t mean I cannot share the gospel having this personality. Introversion is not a disease and if you know you’re one of the “introverted peeps” and is frightened to share the word by speaking up or encouraging people then share it the introverted way. You go, gal! The Lord got your back.  ;)

To begin this blogging journey, I’ve let some of my friends ask me certain questions about anything that they’d like to ask. Disclaimer, those that you’re about to read below are just based on my thoughts and opinions, and I’ve used some verses from the scriptures and will be using ‘em in my future blogs, if you’re actually opposed or you want to correct anything, feel free. So, here you go…

Question #1

Who are you?

I chose to answer this one first as a way of introducing myself a lil’ bit. So, most of my colleagues knew me as someone who’s meek, timid and quiet. But for those who are actually close to me would somehow oppose (lols). People would usually talk to me and seek advice as if I am a pro (lols kidding aside). I think it’s just that they consider me as someone worthy enough to be trusted sharing their deepest darkest secrets since I usually prefer to listen to someone’s rants and let the person do the talking cause sometimes that’s only what a person needs. Someone who’s willing to listen. I am literally not the type who does the first approach and most of the time would tag as “snobbish”. (Maybe I wasn’t really snobbish, I just didn’t see you due to my 300/400 vision. Haha.). I would definitely describe myself as someone who loves and values solitude, spends my spare time resting, reflecting, reading either at home or outdoors. I prefer to be in a small group of friends than being surrounded by the crowd. I am someone who doesn’t like the spotlight, I’d prefer to stay lowkey and not let everyone know what my next steps are. 

P.S. I might be one of the most picky person you’ll ever meet. Lols.

Question #2

Where do you want to go?

If this question pertains to travelling, I prefer land over water activities (just to add the fact that I don’t know how to swim that’s the main reason I dislike water activities). Nothing specific, it could be both local or international, I’d like to roam around places just to pass by a well-known spot and attractions, watch and appreciate the beauty of nature and sceneries, read books if possible (sort of boring to some but I’m just simply happy with this kind of thing).

Just to add up though, one of the unforgettable trips I did a year ago was at Puerto Princesa. To cut the story short it was supposedly for a two person trip turned to trio friends down to the first ever solo trip (sighs). It was my first time to be at the airport, first time to ride a plane, first time to go somewhere I’ve never been, first time to plan my own itinerary Onset (lols). Am I lonely during my whole stay? Definitely not (remember solitude is my forte) I was kinda nervous at first but it was suddenly replaced by excitement. I’ve met new people along the trip, my eyes were able to capture beautiful sceneries, I was able to eat and enjoy my breakfast without rushing. I didn’t do much activities on those days but my heart and soul was truly grateful and joyful. And it made me even realized, I am indeed capable of doing things on my own, going to a certain place on my own and just being on my own. Do not equate being alone to being lonely. I was planning to go back this year however, this isn’t the best time yet. Looking forward to visiting that place again and to more other places and countries soon.

But at the end of the day, as some would say, “there’s no place like home” - I will always end up with my comfort place which is, home. (But more than the home I have here on earth, I’m also one of those people who looks forward to coming home with the One who created humanity.)

Question #3

Is it really painful to be left behind?

Without a single thought - Yes. 

If it is for someone who passed away, the grief that anyone feels couldn’t be covered up by any comforting words even by the wisest person you knew. Just let the person grieve for now and do its work then healing will follow. Pray for that person too.

If it is for those who left in order to move out or pursue a career it would also be painful for those family members and close friends to see you go. But as for me, if you are in faith and I see you brave enough to explore the unknown, you will always have my support. It’ll be sad for a while. But we have to remember that sometimes letting a person go is also a way of showing our love and support. Let the person grow on his/her own.

Breakup - unquestionably painful. Why? Imagine not talking to the person you thought you’d end up marrying? Those plans you guys made will now be redirected to a different person. Same thing with losing a loved one because of death, this too needs a grieving phase. Cry as much as you want then stand up again. At the end of the day, you’ll just laugh it off (swear) forgiveness and acceptance will be your last destination.

Question #4

Lessons after the breakup

A lot actually (this might consume the entire space lols).

First, your happiness shouldn’t be dependent on a certain person.

Second, never allow yourself to be an option, you deserve to be a priority too.

Third, having the same personality doesn’t guarantee long-term commitment.

Fourth, never let a day pass by without fixing your arguments.

Fifth, communicate and choose to understand.

Sixth, shares the same faith and beliefs (it should always be a Christ-centered relationship).

Seventh, be consistent while both of you are still a work in-progress.

Eight, be honest. I’d prefer someone who tells the truth and does not sugar-coat.

Ninth, choose the people you’re hanging out with and/or seeking help or advise. Not everyone you call a friend is indeed a genuine friend. (It is written in 1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be deceived: “Bad company corrupts good morals”)

Tenth, choose to forgive always, everybody deserves to be forgiven. Acceptance will always be around the corner once you’ve gone through the right stages of moving on. 

(I’ll be cutting it off right here cause there’s quite a lot that I’d like to write. Haha. I might write a separate blog for this. Stay tuned. Lols)

Question #5

How to stay positive in life? 

We can’t stay positive all the time. Even the strongest and the most optimistic person that you know will have his/her own downcasted moments and that is okay. Coming from someone who actually thinks negatively this question is kinda tough to answer (haha) but as for me, do not let negative thoughts overwhelm you to the point that it is already consuming you. Sometimes those thoughts are all in the mind and you’re just giving yourself a reason to create a problem that does not even exist. Surround yourself with people who will inspire and motivate you to do better, unfollow pages in social media that will trigger your anxiety, disconnect from people that are not helping you grow, stop looking up to idols and conforming to the pattern of this world, break the bad habits that you always knew you needed to stop doing. Keep it a habit to continually pray, always look up to God’s word prior seeking advice to your closest friends or bursting it all out in social media. If you are to seek counselling, ensure that it is from someone who will not tolerate you doing evil deeds. Read self-help books, open your bible, don't let the dust embrace it. Listen to calm music, it’ll help. Remember that you are loved and blessed. (Philippians 4: 6-7) 

(Thank you for your questions Jonnabae, Angge, Dani and Adreng) I’ll be posting the rest of the other questions and my response of course next week. :)

[jocelyn-wellson]

Dr Hayes closed the heavy walnut door to her cherry-paneled office. She activated the magical wards - no one would hear what they would have to say. Jocelyn sat down on the leather chaise, her hair still growing, and a shy, coy smile on her face. Dr Hayes sat in her own leather office chair. She took up a glass of water, watching the young woman. Some of the tics were still there: the twitches, the hypervigilance, though she was showing signs of improvement. Of healing.

"Good afternoon, Jocelyn," she began, setting the water down and picking up her legal pad and fountain pen. "You seem... peaceful, at least more peaceful than I have ever seen you. Your skin is clearer; your weight, healthier; your hair is more uniform. Tell me about your week."

Jocelyn took a long deep breath. "Et's 'ard ta talk 'bou', doc..."

"Hard because someone doesn't want you to, or because the words are not coming?"

"A lit'le o' both," she admitted.

Dr Hayes made a quick note on her pad. She tapped the fountain pen to her lip. "What would help us talk about you this week?"

Jocelyn looked about; it was a sure sign she was uncomfortable. Dr Hayes was acutely interested, however, because she had never seen this manifestation of these symptoms with her current disposition. Jocelyn was nervous, not fearful. She made another note.

Jocelyn’s body language was obvious. She had no idea how to talk about good things occurring in her life. "I...," she began, fingers wringing. "I 'ave some people in mah life now, tho I cannae say frien's yet, I care abou' 'em."

Dr Hayes was a bit surprised, though she did not betray her thoughts. "You've met people? Shop keepers and the like? Or members of the public? Co-workers?"

"Combina'ion," she said.

"That's wonderful, Jocelyn," said Dr Hayes. She practically beamed at her patient. "What do they do?"

"Why's et mattah?"

"Just want to know who you are meeting, is all."

Jocelyn looked a trifle offended, though she entertained the question. "A stable maid, a wai'ress, an ol' lady, a saleswoman who's 'elpin' me ou' wit' a projec', an’ someone else."

Dr Hayes looked on impassively. "You are gravitating to the working class, and avoiding the criminal," she said.

"Ta th' bes' o' my thinkin'," she agreed.

Dr Hayes thought for a moment. She decided to address the largest hole in the entire list. "Who is this someone else?" she asked.

Jocelyn could feel herself flush, slightly at first and then blossom into a deep crimson. "Met a woman," she said.

"How?"

"Followin' 'er place ta place 'til she go' th' drop on me."

"That's not healthy," said the doctor.

"Nah, nah, ya go' it all wrong," said Jocelyn.

Dr Hayes gestured for her to continue, though the look on her face was one of extraordinary skepticism.

"I tol' ya... back when I firs' was firs’ leavin’ th' monestary. I called ou' fer th' Director. And all I 'eard was 'Hawke'."

The doctor nodded. "I remember."

"Foun' a lead on a person in Unit 8. Din't recognize 'er. E'eryone else di' tho. Beautiful, she is. Curves..." her fingers retraced the route they had taken the night before.

"That's fine, Jocelyn. It's the following I am worried about."

"Yea, yea. So I talk ta people 'ere, people there. Et's 'ow I met all th' people I di'. Jus' talkin', wantin' ta know my mark before'and."

"Before..."

"Before we met," said Jocelyn. She gestured at the faint roadrash covering the left side of her face. "She foun' me firs'." She chuckled.

"I see. Work related, not ... something else."

"Good Gods, I ain' tha' crazy, doc."

Dr Hayes smiled gently. "No, you are not."

Jocelyn grunted an approval. She leaned back in the chaise, leather creaking. She closed her eyes and began deep breathing.

"So what is troubling about this person?" asked the doctor, noting her breath.

Breathe in... An image of blue lips rushing to meet her own. Breathe out... Her heart, fluttering. Her body and mind, so warm. She continued to deep breathe:

"Yanno I 'ave trouble talkin' 'bou' myself, my pas'..."

The doctor nodded. She started to write, taking note of the body language and the spoken dialogue.

"Donnae wha' et was 'bou' this woman, bu' et's like I donnae go' no armor, like I..." She looked distressed, but oddly happy at the same time. "...Doc, et ain' serious. I donnae think it'll ge' serious or nothin'. Bu' in tha' momen', bein' touch'd, bein' kiss'd... I ain' le' no one do tha' in a long time, no' on tha' level.”

The doctor finished note taking. She leaned back in her chair, steepling her fingers. "Who was the person before this?" she asked.

Jocelyn bit her lip. “Please, no...” She started to breathe faster. “I cannae...” Dr Hayes reached across the coffee table just to touch the back of her patient's hand. It seemed to help calm her.

"Me dea' baby's fathah," Jocelyn said after a moment. "'e was a goo' man by rights, ‘til 'e met me, an' then 'is life fell apart. We were gon’ be married: sea commandah ‘n’ ‘is wife. An' then the life we made ... et died inside me," she said. She swiped at her eyes. "Lemme tell ya... Tha' man... 'e 'ad a way o' makin' me feel safe, like I was needed, wan'ed, impor'ant. Beau’iful. Tha's 'ow Vyn made me feel for jus' a secon'."

Dr Hayes watched her patient grab a cloth and wipe her face. She remained otherwise neutral, though supportive.

"This encounter with this woman l, this Vyn ... it made you feel important and safe?"

Jocelyn looked at her boots. "Ya lef’ somethin’ ou’... et’s somethin’ I’ve been 'earin' et all week, doc."

"What's that, precisely?"

"Tha' I'm beau’iful, doc,” she replied. Her voice cracked. "Donnae think I though' tha' in years. Til this week. An’ yanno, I felt tha' way las' nigh'."

"Did you two..."

"No, no. No' like tha'. Jus' a kiss 'n' nudge 'tween new 'quain'ences."

Dr Hayes's eyes lit, ever so briefly. "You deserve these things, Jocelyn. You do. And they're coming to you."

Jocelyn bit her lip. She looked up at the doctor. "Yanno wha'?" she asked, thinking about that wine vault she had found, the people she had met, the job she had. "I'm... I'm thiknin' yer right. These are nice things, an’ they’re 'appenin' ta me."

"To whom do you think the credit belongs?"

Jocelyn flinched. She closed her eyes. "I cannae answah tha' now, ya see."

"Why not?"

"Et's no' th' righ' time, yea?" she sounded a little peevish.

Dr Hayes nodded. "If you're not ready, let's not talk about it just yet. Deal?" The women nodded to each other, a tacit, unspoken agreement. "Now, then. What else happened this week?"

( @lovelydeadlysocialite / @zeehva @kat-hawke )

[thelawyerthatwaspromised]

Why Jon Snow’s Climax Shouldn’t Involve a Battle

How should Jon Snow’s story end? What are we supposed to think about his character this season? Does he deserve to end up on the Throne, perhaps married to Sansa Stark?

To understand my view on Jon’s story and why I don’t hold anything against him so far in Season 8...I think we need to go back to the root of his story. 

Generally speaking, it helps me to analyze a character by asking myself “what’s the ONE THING they want more than anything else?” I’ve come to one big over-arching conclusion: Jon Snow just wants to be loved and “belong” in the context of a family.

That might seem simple but it’s so deeply relatable and complex that I can’t help but feel like it’s been layered many times over within his story.

I’ve written before how Jon Snow shares a ton of similarities to Superman/Clark Kent. A hidden prince from a lost civilization. Raised as a son by a morally upstanding man (the Catelyn issues are a twist on Jon’s upbringing). Confronted by the “last of his kind” and forced to choose between the world he grew up in or the world where he biologically came from. Both Superman and Jon deeply desire to “belong” and it’s something that works in any literary tale.

Superman has every power you can imagine but the second a person feels alone and isolated, they become instantly relatable and sympathetic. 

In a lot of ways, Jon Snow is the same way. He left Winterfell because he just never truly felt he “belonged” though he ached to every day. He joined a sacred order who, no matter their pasts, become his new “family”. Certainly appealing to someone like Jon. He wants to be a Stark, but that seems impossible. So he will remove himself from that environment. 

His most meaningful relationships are formed upon the realization that these different people he meets at the Wall really CAN be like family to him. Sam, Grenn, Pyp, Edd, etc. They all hold a special place in his heart. And yet...Winterfell still calls to him. 

He nearly abandons the Watch on more than one occasion when he gets word of the goings on in the south. And yet he works. And works. And he makes friends of wildlings. He betrays them. He fights them. He makes friends of them again after his brothers elevate him to command.

Then his brothers kill him.

And it’s such a big moment. Jon has only ever wanted to belong to a family. To have true “brothers” and to be accepted. He thought he had that in the Watch. He treated them as a real family. As if he could trust that, even if they disagree, they’re all in it together. 

The place Jon forced himself to go because he never felt he could belong in Winterfell has now rejected him. We saw how rejected he felt. It was about more than being betrayed, it was that he was betrayed by the people he viewed as his FAMILY.

Jon was fully ready to give up. There was seemingly no place for him. Then Sansa road through the gates at Castle Black and put Jon, as Kit Harington puts it, back into a state of action. She reignites him. And he feels that maybe, just maybe, his place is to safeguard Sansa. Maybe he’ll feel he CAN belong, given that purpose. 

They go on to win back Winterfell, together. And yet Jon is thrust into the position as the figurehead of the North when he’s named king. So Jon is meant to rule the place in which he left in the first place because he never really felt like he belonged. Being king doesn’t feel earned to Jon. It’s easy to read in his demeanor. He is good at ruling. He likes helping people. 

But there’s always this same cloud hanging over his reign. 

Worse, in Jon’s mind, is that everyone trusts him for a job that he doesn’t feel he deserves and he doesn’t feel like he’s particularly skilled in performing. He has the trust of all these lords and ladies. He has Sansa’s trust even though he has lingering guilt over the fallout after BotB. And the worst thing imaginable happens; he makes the decision to leave again, this time to try to save the North - and he feels he must betray their trust by surrendering his crown to Daenerys Targaryen.

Jon’s NEVER felt like be belonged in WF. He’s never felt like he deserved to be king. He feels he betrayed their trust. He knows why he did what he did, but it still cuts him every single time he’s reminded of what he did. 

And then Jon is hit with the single hardest thing he’s ever had to deal with: he learns the very essence of his being has always fundamentally been a lie. The one thing Jon has ever held onto about himself..the one thing that ever made him see SOME value in himself was the belief that his father was Eddard Stark. 

Now, that’s gone. Jon, who’s NEVER felt value in himself, who’s NEVER felt like he belonged even as Ned’s son, is plunged into a brand new pit of self-doubt and sense of longing. As Ned’s son? Sure, he could serve some type of role in Winterfell and feel good about it. He could protect Sansa, and then later Bran and Arya. He was forced into a situation where he feels he betrayed them. And now his own identity feels like a betrayal. 

Jon Snow in Episode 4 is in the darkest, deepest state that we’ve ever seen him. He doesn’t feel like he deserves to stay in Winterfell. He doesn’t feel he even deserves to have Ghost. Afterall, the dire wolves were for Ned’s children. Ghost’s physical appearance in Episode 4 is Jon’s inward appearance. He’s mangled. Beaten. Mostly destroyed. 

This is why his status as the “heir” isn’t really changing his course. He has fear of Daenerys and what she might do to his family and that has prevented him from processing one of the most traumatic things an individual can possibly be forced to suffer. 

On top of that, the only way his new “family” will accept him is by REJECTING THAT HE IS A MEMBER OF HER FAMILY. It’s perhaps the most psychologically damaging thing I can imagine. Jon feels lost that he’s not who he thought he was...and the only way he can continue to exist is to lie to himself and the world and pretend it’s still the truth and it’s all because the person who represents his new family is actively preventing him from belonging.

So Jon is aloof. He’s emotionally volatile. He’s clearly depressed. He’s anxious about anyone contesting Daenerys even though he now knows she’s rejecting his Truth. Jon’s given up on belonging. 

It might not be well-liked by some in the fandom...but...

Jon needs rescued

He’s in physical danger, of course. But he’s faced that a million times over. That’s not what is crushing Jon’s spirit. It’s his own self-hatred. 

Depression is beating Jon Snow in Season 8.

This is a fairly profound arc, IMO. It’s subverting expectations, too. Because Jon’s issues aren’t so different from the Hound’s. He’s not that different from Jaime. But Jon’s identity crisis is different because he always WANTED to belong to House Stark contra Jaime or the Hound. Either would likely be relieved to learn they aren’t trueborn sons of their houses. 

Jon is devastated, though. His entire essence was ripped away and now the family he learned he COULD belong to has rejected the very idea that he can ever publicly be acknowledged as a member. 

He’s in a clear spiral. He’s distancing from Sansa and Arya because he feels like he could never deserve the trust they’ve already given him. Their love and support aren’t being accepted - but it’s not because he doesn’t want it, it’s because he hates himself. How could he feel differently? Given his story. There’s a self-hate that CAN’T be resolved (in his mind). He sees no escape. He’s dutiful. He wants to protect the people he loves. And Jon DOES love. But he feels so unworthy of it that he thinks the only option is to disappear and be forgotten by them. 

So why should his climax not involve batte?

Because, in his heart, Jon Snow isn’t just about fighting. He doesn’t enjoy it. He doesn’t want it. Jon wants peace. Jon wants to be loved. Jon wants to feel like belongs. Jon wants to be HOME.

The fact that he still wants what he wanted at the start but he’s constantly sacrificed his own wants for the good of the people he loves makes me confident that the only suitable climax for Jon is a confirmation and realization that he is loved and he belongs. And he needs that as a part of accepting who he really is. Dany can NEVER provide him what he NEEDS because she wants to force him to hide it. The ONLY scenario I see that can fit Jon Snow’s character is being “saved” by Sansa Stark.

And no, I don’t think this has anything to do with the trope of “woman saves man” shit where he’s otherwise destructive and unkind. Jon deserves the love that Sansa would give him. He deserves the home that they could build. He deserves to have the truth of his origins accepted. He deserves to be a Stark, but not based on a lie. He doesn’t see any of this, though. And that’s the great sorrow of his portrayal thus far. I think it’s incredibly accurate and moving, but Jon Snow doesn’t see his own value. He knows Sansa and Arya and Bran and his friends care for him - but he can’t see himself being worthy of it. 

That’s why Sansa working so hard to validate Jon. To crown him. To make him a Stark...it will mean EVERYTHING to Jon. He’s already given more than any reasonable person could be asked to give. He’s accepted that he must, for the protection of his family, go south and just try to keep people alive. He’s given up what he wants. His whole arc since he left for Dragonstone last season has led to him giving up on happiness. Nothing makes this more obvious than the moment Sam and Gilly tell him that they plan to name their baby “Jon” if he’s a boy and all Jon can say in return is that he hopes they have a girl. He can’t imagine a worse fate for their child than to be like him. 

Jon needs saved. Not from physical danger. He needs saved from his demons. He needs home. He needs love. He needs a family. He needs to belong. And most of all, he needs to know that he deserves all of it. 

Jon IS emotionally stunted right now. He IS emotionally closed off. But I’m starting to see that it’s not just poor writing. It’s a function of his state of mind more than anything. His attempted goodbyes tell me as much. Given the chance for positive emotional interactions, Jon chose self-hate. And it made me ache inside.

At the root of it, this is why I can’t see any other end for his character. I truly see Jon’s emotional catharsis as a climactic moment for the series. Much like Frodo turning and smiling to his friends as he prepares to leave Middle Earth was the *actual* climax of the LOTR movies. But here, it’s not Jon finding relief in LEAVING but in STAYING. 

As a Stark. With love, and children, and a home. Even if that home doesn’t end up being Winterfell. And I really truly believe that all of the choices Jon has made this season - including all the things we’d WISH he could say but hasn’t - will culminate in Sansa proving to Jon that he is the man that she knows he is. 

Jon needs his pack.

[call-2-arms]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm. 

tagged by: stolen from my other blog :)  tagging: @snowbrn​ @threads-of-destiny​ (Fenris) @thedasonfire​ (Solas) @serbrienneoftarth​ @scndor​

My muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated 

Is your character popular in the fandom? YES / NO. Hard to answer, and I wouldn’t say he’s UNPOPULAR, he’s just... not as popular as say... Dany or Jon are? Or even Cersei, tbh. If there were a more middle ground option, I’d definitely he’s more middle. Sometimes I feel like he’s a forgotten character despite the massive role he’s played in the series. 

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. Not only is Jaime known to be attractive and look the part of a king in the entire series, but Nikolaj is honestly just a super attractive male with a smile that could kill. I haven’t heard many people say that he’s an unattractive person, so this is definitely a yes. He might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but he’s enough of a looker that his reputation proceeds him. 

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. Okay so... this is complicated. Because many would see Jaime as weak because of his flaws, which is fair... And then they would also say he’s weak because he doesn’t have his sword hand any longer. But overall, Jaime is a strong character throughout the series, especially as a swordsman. He is one of the best swordsmen in Westeros, and I think there are MANY people who forget that little fact about him because in the series he was softening by the end of it. I think that’s where the fandom can really misinterpret Jaime. He definitely has his flaws, but he’s still an exceptionally strong individual. 

Are they underrated?  YES / NO / IDK. I think so. I think it’s mainly because I feel like he’s misunderstood by a lot of the fandom. I’m not excusing any of his shitty behaviour, but when you’ve got heroes like Jon Snow and Dany, and even Sansa, and strong villains like Cersei, Joff and Ramsay, I think they are all the face of the series. Those characters are the main characters that people think of when they see Game of Thrones. So Jaime is seen more of a support character, even with his ties. Most people think Lannister, they think Cersei and Tyrion (because they have so much more screen/book time than Jaime does). That’s the thing about GoT though, I feel like there’s no real “main” character. I feel like no matter who it is, there’s always a little love for them in the fandom, and I love that about the fandom. But overall, yes, I would say he’s definitely the third Lannister when thinking of the siblings.

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO. He’s kind of the entire reason why there’s a war in the first place tbh... He pushed a kid out a window and all hell broke loose :’D 

Were they relevant for the main character? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG. He’s a member of one of the great Houses of Westeros. He plays a big part. 

Are they widely known in their world? YES / NO. Oh yes, greatly known, and for many reasons. Mostly he’s known for being a king slayer, though. 

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. It depends on who you ask, but throughout most of Westeros and during the series, he does not have a good reputation. Well known for his fighting skills and handsome features are about the only good reasons, everything else comes down to his relationship with his sister (sexual included) and the fact that he is a man without honour. Only by the end of the series does his reputation change, and even then, it is small. Jaime will never recover from what he has done.

How strictly do you follow canon?  — I’m fairly strict with what I go with. I stick to a strong, canon foundation because it’s a part of Jaime that is essentially who he IS as a character. It’s why I enjoy writing him, and I’m not going to take that away from him. The only divergencies are the fact that I prefer he not die in season 8 and I also write my Jaime as demisexual/romantic. 

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.  —  Jaime is complicated. There is no saying he is a simple character, he has layer upon layer, and discovering that is a joy. Or at least it is for me, lol. I, personally, think Jaime is such a UNIQUE character because he actually isn’t a liar compared to his siblings. Between the bickering, Jaime is actually exceptionally forward, but because people don’t expect any Lannister to be honest, it’s a joy seeing how he can use that to his advantage. He often says cryptic, sarcastic comments that people think are him being sly and dishonest, but he’s actually being completely blunt that it’s hard to tell if Jaime is actually telling the truth or playing a game. I think that’s just a really fun trait to explore when getting to write and interact with him. Also, who doesn’t like interacting with a sarcastic arsehole? X’D Deep down, Jaime has a lot of complicated issues, however, especially when it comes to family and how he is supposed to be seen. He says he doesn’t care, but he cares deeply, he brushes everything off like it’s nothing, but he’s crippled on the inside. Jaime is just one of those really strong on the outside but weak on the inside characters, and I love getting to explore that. 

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  — I think the fact that Jaime has been in an incest relationship for his entire life, that would definitely push people away from really caring or interacting with him. And if that’s a trigger for someone, then I totally understand why they’d want to stay away. That’s fair. Jaime can also come off as selfish and cruel, with a bad temper. People might not have the PATIENCE for him, when that’s really what he needs. He needs someone to help guide him to be a better person, to remove himself from the toxicity of ... well, his entire life, lol. He can also, like mentioned in the last questions, be cryptic as fuck. He is handicapped, he can be emotionally unstable, has PTSD and honestly just has a LOT going on, and trying to push past that to make him grow as a person and a character could be too much for folks to deal with (I think that’s a plus, but I can understand why he might not be popular lol).

What inspired you to rp your muse?  —  Jaime has been one of my favourite characters ever since I got interested in the series. I was nervous as hell to join the GoTRP community because I’d never read the books before (and still haven’t finished them lol), but I adored his character from the start, especially when a redemption arc began to happen. Look, I’m a sucker for redemption arcs and character growth, learning about his past and his secret about why he killed the Mad King. Those things are things that draw me to characters, villain characters who try to be better, who learn, who become softer. I LOVE that growth, and that’s definitely what kept me interested in Jaime. His in depth character only made my drive for wanting to delve into his head stronger. I love complicated characters, I love grey characters, I love characters that have layers I can pick through and analyse. I have also always been highly interested in sexual mental health and health in general (and have been interested in psychology for ever since I was little lol), so he was right up my ally. 

What keeps your inspiration going?  —  Definitely rewatching the series (which I desperately need to do lol), and reading the novels (which I’m VERY slow with but absolutely love them!). What really keeps me interested is definitely my RP partners though, and keeping active within the writing community. I love getting to interact with everyone. 

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO / I SINCERELY HOPE I DO? I have severe duplicate insecurities like most people do, but I’m pretty happy with the grasp I have on Jaime’s character overall. It’s hard to write post season 8 Jaime without a book to go to and compare against the series, so I try and keep them pretty level with each other and find a happy place in the middle. I also know I most likely write Jaime a little more emotionally traumatised, but I try to keep what happened to him real, and that has repercussions. 

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO / SORT OF? I need to move them over to this blog, but NOT ENOUGH. I really need to rewatch and continue the book series to get my head around more headcanons. Also I just haven’t had ANY time this year for much at all when it comes to headcanons, because I am so exhausted after work  

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO. For Jaime, unfortunately, no. I keep most of my drabbles to my Dragon Age protags. I would love to though... if I had time, lol. 

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO. Absolutely. Hyperfocus like a champ over here, lol. 

Are you confident in your portrayal? YES / NO / SORT OF? I think there’s always room for improvement, but I’m pretty happy with my portrayal so far. I try my hardest to keep him pretty canon, and the feedback I’ve had from my partners has always been so kind and reassuring <3

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO / SOMETIMES. I’ve been writing Dragon Age for so long... I feel like I don’t know a lot of the lore when it comes to GoT. I sometimes have to Wiki things I forget, names I don’t remember, and alliances and plots because I’m BAD with politics okay? I’m terrible with it all. Writing helps me learn those things, but if I’m not interested, I find it tedious to go and research (ASD/ADHD).

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO / SORTA. It depends. Some things I really don’t care about, others I do. It entirely depends on my mood and the day, and how the stars align lol. Or... how tired I am, haha. It really just depends. I will be more sensitive if I’m hurt from someone that means something to me, or someone I look up to. Other days I just can’t be fucked because I’m too old and tired to deal with it. 

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?  —  I’m going to have to say “no” on this. It’s purely because i’m not ASKING for criticism. If I was, then that’s fair because I’m actively SEEKING to be better. Right now, Jaime is a hobby and not a muse that I am constantly working on. He’s a tertiary muse that I’m here to just have a good time with and research when I feel the need to. Outside of that, if you don’t like my portrayal then you don’t have to interact with me and that’s fine. If you think my Jaime is too emotional, I’m working off mostly season 8 things which we have no book to look back on, so it’s mostly me basing everything off his past reactions and character development. If you have issues on the way I see his and Cersei’s relationship and it being toxic despite his love for her, that’s a whole diff convo lol. At the end of the day... I’m writing him the way he comes to me, and if you don’t enjoy it then that’s all good, just don’t get in my face about it. 

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  —  Absolutely, they help with getting to know little things about him that I may never have thought about before. I love those kinds of character development questions. 

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?  —  I guess it depends on what type of headcanon it is. I generally try and base my headcanons off solid evidence within his character background and events within the series. If someone doesn’t agree with me, it’s literally not the end of the world and it’s not worth arguing over--we all have out different portrayals and I’m not the original writer lol. If you’re going to get cranky at me because my Jaime enjoys the company of men as well once he’s able to explore himself sexually, then I really couldn’t give a fuck. As a gay man, it helps me enjoy the character a little bit more and identify with him, and I write Jaime as demi anyway. Plus, I also don’t write it in a sense that it’s not something he doesn’t struggle with considering Westeros is not open to such things. 

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?  —  same as the above.

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  —  I don’t actively go looking through Jaime hate tags, so I’ve never run into this? If someone follows me and hates Jaime, then I just think it’s stupid that they followed me in the first place? Obviously now that he’s on a multi, that’s a little bit more complicated, but everyone is free to not interact with him and still interact with my other characters here lol. If I follow someone and then see them actively posting hate about him, I would simply unfollow. That’s it. I’m not here to fight and argue, I’m here to have a good time, and I’m not going to force anyone to enjoy a character they don’t. 

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  —  Mistakes happen, I don’t always look over my reply before posting, and more often then not, I’m tired as hell when I’m writing anyway so there might be errors from time to time. I can guarantee there’s probably some in this meme lol. If a little red squiggle doesn’t come up beneath the word, then I’ve probably not fixed it. In saying that, if you’re coming to me every time I make a typo... I will begin to get annoyed. It’s a small thing, get over it and move on. If you can’t, then maybe I’m not the right person to be writing with if it’s causing you that much stress. If I’ve completely butchered a sentence (which has happened!), then just give me a polite nudge and go “hey did you mean to write this instead?” and I’ll probably feel embarrassed and laugh about it and be like yeah sorry, I meant that :’D 

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?   —  When there’s not a pandemic going on in the world, I’m certainly very easy going, lol. It takes a fair bit to piss me off, and it’s got to be pretty repetitive for me to start going... mmm, there’s a pattern here and I don’t like it. But generally speaking, if you’re nice to me, I’m nice back. I don’t go looking for fights and arguments, and my nature has certainly meant people have abused me in the past. I’m often too empathetic and because I avoid trying to make a fuss and cause confrontation, I often let people do whatever. I’ve... somewhat learned from past experiences to NOT do this to myself, which I guess has made me a little bit less easy going. That and just generally getting older and not having the time to care about petty things might make me come off as a hard arse at times. But look... I’m not going to be a dickhead to anyone who doesn’t deserve it, okay? I get we’re all anxious, I get we’re all curious, I get that we all have opinions. Don’t be a dick and you don’t have anything to worry about. I can sometimes be blunt, but most people learn that that’s just me. Maybe it’s an Aussie thing, maybe it’s a me thing. Probably a combination of the two... my mother always did say I was very blunt. >.> Sometimes that’s a good thing when people want or need advice, but if it’s not what you want to hear, then don’t come asking, because I can be very honest. 

[gelo-p]

Am I qualified to write this? ^^;;

Also known as just “putting T10 into perspective” because frankly this isn’t any different from just telling someone to “play like hell” XD

First things first: FLAMES (which means... STARS)

You’re going to need a lot of stars, so if you don’t have an ungodly amount of them yet, please support the game buy the premium / happy boxes since they give you the most stars for the lowest price. HOWEVER, you will need to log-in for 25 days to reap the full benefits.

If you don’t have enough time until the event you’re gunning for, you’re gonna have to really support the game buy the standard star packs instead.

Second: BESTDORI IS YOUR FRIEND

Create an account on Bestdori to get specific numbers about your team (EP gain, CP gain, Band power, Max score, etc.), using the Team Builder. Please note that Bestdori assumes you’ll always FC (there’s a setting to account for Perfect-Great, but no setting to account for Good / Bad / Miss), and it’ll give you the maximum numbers possible. We know that’s not the case in real life, so we’re going to account for that later.

Also, familiarize yourself with the various pages (Events, Event Archives, Team Builder) while you’re at it. ^^

Ready? WE CAN DO IT GO GO GO~

I. Setting your Target EP

Okay, so getting into a desired tier (T1, T2, T3, T10, T100, etc...) is all about your final Event Points (EP). Nothing else. Problem is, you don’t actually know how much points you’ll need - the moment you think you’ve figured it out, everyone else goes nyooooom~ *insert Lamborghini sounds here* and raise the bar for you. So, you got no choice but to overestimate right from the start (if you underestimate and find out later on, you won’t have enough time to catch up no matter how hard you try) and just believe that your final EP will be good enough.

I really wish there was a good method for estimating the final EP needed, but the sad reality is, there isn’t. You’re going to have to rely on past data and even then, you’re going to have assume that everyone else trying to do the same thing is going to outcraze you.

Let me give my case as an example.

I wanted to T10 Cycling Seasons, which is a Challenge Live Afterglow event. This being a major event (major just means “all members involved are from the same band”), I knew that I had to check other major events as basis. The last major Challenge Live was My Ideal, so I headed over to Bestdori’s Event Archives page for that event to get a feel of how much EP I’ll need.

From this, I saw the final cutoffs for each tier. We know that the event took 9 days 6 hours (click on the event banner for more info; also an event is always N days + 6 hours), so this page is essentially saying,

“To get T10, you need to play at a pace of 65,320 EP/h continuously for 9 days and 6 hours.”

Now, we know that you can’t actually play 24/7, so we have to translate this to something more reasonable. If you’re only going to play, say, 14 hours a day, then realistically you’re looking at:

9 days x 14 hours/day + 6 hours (you want to be awake for that final 6 hours) = 132 hours

Which means:

14,501,103 EP / 132 hours = 109,857 EP/h. For every hour that you’re awake.

Now, again, this is just for My Ideal. I want to translate this for Cycling Seasons, an event I would later find out to be 8 days 6 hours. So, I actually want to get:

8 days x 14 hours/day + 6 hours = 118 hours

110,000 (rounded up) EP/h x 118 hours = 12,980,000

“Hmmm, that doesn’t sound right, Afterglow fans are crazy AF.”

Let’s recompute that using 16 hours a day instead: 14,740,000

“This is enough I guess..?”

Spoiler alert: the actual T10 cutoff for Cycling Seasons is 18,497,685.

I personally did 19.2M.

This brings us back to:

“you’re going to have assume that everyone else trying to do the same thing is going to outcraze you.”

I would later learn from T1′s post that they originally contemplated if “18M would be enough for T10”. This just goes to show that you’re just gonna have to sell your soul to Babanbo-sama and hope you get to be the highest bidder.

THERE WAS NO POINT TO THIS CHAPTER WAS THERE :’D

You can’t just base your target EP from some past event. Shoot for the moon and go. Go hard, or go home. T10 or bust.

II. Setting your actual Target EP, and then some

TL;DR - use Bestdori to check your team’s power, assume you’ll play 14 hours a day, and do the Math.

I’m not kidding. Unless you can find a friend who will play the remaining 10 hours per day for you, that is the maximum EP you can get. Okay maaaaybe if you play 16, maybe 18 hours a day. But you’ll need to take breaks. Eat food. Take baths. Talk to your Ran Nesoberi and ask them why you’re doing this. Realistically speaking, you’ll really only have 14 hours of gameplay per day. You can play for 7, rest for 5, play for 7, rest for 5 if you want (again: be awake during the final 6 hours). But completing your daily quota is important. It’s easy to think “I’ll just... catch up tomorrow”, which I did once, not gonna lie, but you’ll find out that you’re just waking up earlier than usual and getting tired earlier in the day than you planned to.

And then you’ll find yourself playing juuuuust a little more each day. Which is very good for your score, but bad for your health. But hey. You’re already crazy enough to try T10 solo anyway ^o^

So. Go to Bestdori, and use the Team Builder.

1) Select the event you’re gunning for.

2) Select Multi-Live (never play Free Live for competitive) and set the parameters. Make sure your team is actually good enough to join the Grand Room (any less and you’re fucked), and assume you’ll be playing with reasonably strong players.

This is where having friends/private rooms come in handy: you know exactly what their team is, leaving much of the guesswork out.

3) Select a META SONG you’re comfortable with playing a lot. Meta songs give you the most points for the shortest amount of time, that’s why you see them get picked a lot.

Relax, you’ll rarely encounter players who pick 27+ Meta songs. Most of the time it’s going to be Jumpin’, Home Street, Fuwa Fuwa time, Unite from A to Z... so practice those songs a lot.

(Nyan Poi, Tokimeki Poporon, and Initial also makes that list. Also, if there’s a newly released song, expect it to be played a lot. Looking at you, Kyu~Mai Flower... just glad Fire Bird was released after my event)

FC’ing in Hard is better than getting inconsistent results in Expert. If you’re already tired, pick Hard. No shame in that.

My personal pick is Home Street. ^^ I sometimes pick Tokimeki Poporon though, even though it’s not as good meta-wise, just because my fingers can auto-pilot it even when I’m half-asleep.

Also pick how confident you are in getting Perfects / Greats. There’s no setting for Good / Bad / Miss, so be careful. Realistically you should be able to clear 90 / 95 if you’re aiming for T10.

4) Set your cards and items, although you should have set this already in the Cards section under Profile. This subsection is mostly for cards you’re planning to get, or you just wanna see what a fully-decked team can do.

That reminds me - make sure you have all Area Items for your Band / Attribute maxed out! This will help a lot. Prioritize the items based on the band you’re going to be using.

5) Calculate!

“Park” is there to help you get a very specific number of EP. It’s what people use to get exactly 10,000,000 points / 7,777,777. So for now, choose Maximize Event Points.

Always pick 3 Flames (you won’t have time for anything less), and take note of the EP in the left side (4,380). For Challenge Lives, also note the CP (219).

Now, CP is actually just EP / 20 rounded up, so you can still derive that even if you only note the EP.

IMPORTANT: This is the maximum EP you can gain. I find that -200 (in my case it was 4275 EP, and thus 214 CP) is more realistic. Initially I set it to 4200, but found after Day 4 that I was waaaaay above target, so I set it to 4275 later on.

Also, note the “Afterglow - Powerful” below. This refers to the Area Items you have to use.

As you can see, I cleared 250k Band power, so I’m actually able to use the Grand Room.

6) For Challenge Lives:

Go back to the Live subsection, and pick Challenge Live.

For the song, you have to pick one of the songs that’s actually available for the Challenge Live. Click on the event info, and see what the songs are.

In my example, for Cycling Seasons, it’s best to pick Scarlet Sky (either EX or Special, note the color under R). However, I find that picking the song I can FC consistently is better (for both my hands and for estimation), so I stuck with Brand New Days on Hard. It’s okay if you don’t know which song to pick yet, you can just decide during the event once you’ve tried them. However, for the purpose of planning this early, stick with the first Hard song.

Recalculate for the Challenge Live.

Again, as a safety net, assume you won’t always get 26,380. In my case, I estimated it to be 25k (initially 26k). It’s a little drastic, but I’d really rather assume the worst case. Realistically I was getting 26k most of the time, but when I was really tired it’ll dip down to 25k (I got 24.8k sometimes...).

And that’s from playing in Hard.

For other event types, you’ll find that the same team will give you different scores. Challenge lives just have lower Multi-Live scores because you’re expected to compensate using the Challenge Live.

OKAY~! Now we have the EP and CP / Multi-Live, and EP / Challenge Live. Time to estimate how much points we can actually get from that.

(The calculation is going to be different for other event-types, I’ll provide that later)

Multi-Live Score: 4275

Challenge Points gained: 214

Challenge Live Score: 25000

A Challenge Live is going to require 800 CP (you won’t have time for the 200/400 variants), so...

Number of games to activate CL: 800 / 214 = 3.74

Each Multi-Live game requires, on average, 3.5 minutes (this number drops to 2.8 minutes if you can find friends to consistently quickly pick songs with) to complete, so that’s 3.74 x 3.5 = ~13.1 minutes. Add to that the time required to complete a Challenge Live, which is around 2.37 minutes, and we get 15.47 minutes to complete a “set”. (Again, this is just on average)

In one hour, you can complete 60 / 15.47 = 3.87 sets (round down for safety!).

So how much score can you get per set?

Well, a set is 3.74 Multi-Lives (@ 4275 EP each) + 1 Challenge Live (@ 25000 EP), so:

3.74 x 4275 + 25000 = 40988 EP / set. You have 3.87 of those per hour, so

40,988 x 3.87 = 158,623 EP/h.

That is going to be the final EP/h (at least for every hour playing).

Multiplied by the number of active hours for the entire event (14 x 8 + 6), we get:

18,717,514. But I scored 19.2M, remember? Which means I played some more, and had a good safety net based from my estimates.

That is how you get your final EP target.

To just summarize...

FOR NON-CHALLENGE LIVES (which I didn’t give an example for XD ):

*** for VS lives, assume you’re in 3rd place; safer to assume you’re in 5th

0) Active hours = (num hours per day playing x num days) + 6

1) Get (safe) Multi-Live score from Bestdori

2) Assume each Multi-Live is 3.5 mins long

3) 60 / 3.5 = 17.14 games per hour

4) 17.14 games x Multi-Live score = your EP/h for every hour you’re playing (let’s call it active EP/h)

5) Active EP/h x Active Hours = final EP

6) Number of flames needed = 17.14 games x 3 flames per game x Active Hours

FOR CHALLENGE LIVES:

0) Active hours = (num hours per day playing x num days) + 6

1) Get (safe) Multi-Live score, and CP gained per multi-live

2) Get (safe) Challenge Live score

3) Assume each Multi-Live is 3.5 mins long, assume each Challenge Live is 2.37 mins long (adjust for the actual song)

* note that this is the duration OF THE LIVE, not THE SONG. From when you press the “Live” button to the next time you do.

4) A “set” is an 800-CP Challenge Live + the Multi-Live games required to collect 800 CP

5) A set takes (800 / CP gain x 3.5 mins) + CL song duration to complete

6) A set score is worth (ML score x 800 / CP gain) + CL score

7) 60 / Set duration = sets per hour

8) Set score x sets per hour = your EP/h for every hour you’re playing

9) Active EP/h x Active Hours = final EP

10) Sets played = sets per hour x Active Hours

11) Number of flames needed = 3 flames per ML x 800 / CP gain x Sets played

Probably easier if I just provide a Google Sheets link :))))

------

At this point, you’re really just going to have to pray that this is enough to get you to the tier you want.

Whale for cards if you have to. Get the best team possible. All members should belong to the same band (THIS IS REQUIRED); all members should have the same attributes as much as possible. For now, events let you get away with different band members, as long as you get the same attribute:

But some time in the future, events doing the opposite - you’ll need the exact members to maximize your gains.

(this is widely considered a dick move to force players to try and roll for specific characters... but that’s a business for ya’).

Get Level 5 skills. Maximize your area items (I’ve already said that...). Get cards with score-boosting skills (preferably the +90/+110% based on HP, +100%, +115% for Perfecs, etc) - this is very important for Challenge Lives. For Multi-Lives, only your leader’s skill matters. Stay awake for 1 or 2 more hours per day (hahahaha...) The point is, when gunning for T10, you’re going to need every help you can get.

Find private rooms to shorten that 3.5-min-per-live thing. You get to cram more points per hour this way. You can also ensure people only pick Meta songs, to keep your score average higher than the safety net.

If you can find someone to play for you while you sleep so you can maximize 24 hours per day instead of being limited to 14 hours, please do so. You can play for 7 while they play the other 7. This way you’re not as dead. T1 and T2 accounts usually have ~4 to 6 of these people, that’s how they can get crazy high scores.

IF YOU HAPPENED TO CHALLENGE 10x 24/7 ACCOUNTS, YOU HAVE NO HOPE OF GETTING INTO T10. No amount of effort will get you there.

Thankfully most of the time there’s only like, 1 to 3 24/7 accounts. If by the end of Day 2, you see that you’re outside T10 and all of them have crazy high scores (even though you’re on track), cut your losses and play for T100.

“Don’t put in effort for T11.”

III. Some Tactics, I guess?

For non-Challenge Lives, there are no tactics involved: just keep playing. Seriously. If you wake up and you’re outside the tier you want, keep playing and hope the others are sleeping.

For Challenge Lives, it can get a little bit interesting.

See, everyone wants to get as many points as they can, buuuuut nobody wants to put in more effort than they need to (unless they’re making a statement).

And that’s where the Challenge Live mechanic comes in. See, in other event types, what you see is what you get: the EP/h by the other people is consistent. You know that if you sleep for 3 hours, they’ll get ahead with an EP equivalent to 3 hours.

But in Challenge Lives, it’s possible to get your EP to accelerate. To nyooooom~. It’s not a secret that playing a game that’s 2.37 minutes long but gains you 25k points is waaaaaay faster than 3.5 minutes per game but only 4275 points. And that’s why you should hide your CP as much as you can. You’ll still consume some CP per day (it’s not possible to consume all that CP is just 6 hours...), but leave enough to do a final 6-hour sprint.

“Is there a point to this?”

Well... yes and no. If your opponents are reactive, e.g. only puts in effort when they feel like the others might surpass them, then it’s a huge advantage for you, because once you start nyooooming during the final day, they’ll have no time to react anymore. That’s what I did, and went from T11 to T6 in 5 hours 11 minutes. You just want them to “relax” during the first few days, so that they don’t put in too much effort (they’ll all still nyoooom during the last day anyway!). The worst you can have is an opponent that decides midway to be a 24/7 account, because they felt threatened by your score.

HOWEVER, if your opponent thinks the same way as you do, and only believes in the final EP, then chances are they might also do the same thing. Then it’s anybody’s game.

But maaaybe you can catch one or two off guard.

NOTE: Playing the same song over and over again for 5 hours is... tiring. At the end of it you might have broken fingers like I do (my left thumb barely works right now) XD

IV. Some Tips, I guess? Is this different from Tactics...?

Also compute how much effort to get into T100 (basically the exact same process; however, you CAN use the T100 EP tables found in Bestdori. Just double that. That’s still a reasonable estimate). You’ll be able to see how many flames are needed to do so; once you reach that amount of flames (but while going at a T10 pace; so around 2 full days), decide if you can actually keep up or not. If yes, then by all means, keep going; if no, relax a bit, and just try to stay around T50. If you kept up with T10 for 2 days, you’re almost guaranteed to be in T100 with minimum effort during the remaining days.

You should prepare an Excel Sheet to track your progress. One column for “Flames” used, another for “Challenges Played”. Every multi-live, you insert a “3″ into flames. Every Challenge Live, you insert a “1″ into CL’s. Kinda like this:

I personally add an “estimated time of completion” (see the value in E?) just to make it easier to visualize what time I’ll be done for the day. For this screenshot, it shows I’m actually ahead by -0.3 flames and -17.32 challenge lives.

In a separate sheet (but same file), I have the target for the current “iteration” / “day”. This lets me divide the effort into days / half-days.

Again, it’s probably going to be easier to explain if I just provide a Google Sheets for this ^_^ (or an Excel template)

...I’m not sure if “track T10″ scores has any use at this point. THEY WILL TRACK YOU, that’s for sure. However, I did gain confidence that they’ve already used up their CP during the last day, because I was tracking them. I also knew how much their ML and CL scores were. So I knew I still had enough CP to catch up. So maaaaybe it’s useful after all..?

As for the free flames... forget it. Don’t rely on the flame regen. Recover 90 flames every time (which is around 1 hour 45 mins of gameplay to consume) so you don’t break your momentum. “There’s only 10 minutes left until the next flame, maybe I should wait it out?” Nah-ah. Unless you’re in the middle of a major break (e.g. sleeping), don’t wait for the flames to regen. Assume that you’re going to pay for every flame you’re ever going to need. While you’re taking breaks you can probably watch ads, but it’s not going to make much of a dent. You’re gonna get some free flames from leveling up, but don’t account for that.

When playing in the dead of the night, have some Netflix in the background. Or just some TV. Anything that’ll keep you awake.

IF AT ANY POINT YOU FIND THERE’S NO INTERNET, start consuming your challenge points (use mobile data). You’re not allowed any downtime. It’s a sad reality, and it might ruin your pace / surprise, but nothing you can do about it.

During Multi-Lives, join the sticker spam. It’ll at least make you smile. Dooon’t join too much though, sometimes they keep that going and cost you so much time... Xp

------

I can’t think of any more tips aside from these ones ^_^; I’ll update this once I have those Excel sheets ready / cleaned up.

Good luck and have fun~ ^o^

EDIT: Here’s a Dropbox link to the T10 Calc. You’re going to need Excel though.

1) Estimate using the EP Estimator sheet. This will give you all sorts of info.

2) Input the current day into the Tracker Meta sheet. (Nothing else to change there) This will give you your flames / challenge live targets for the day.

3) Input your progress in the Tracker sheet. It’ll give you an estimate of when you’ll be able to complete the current iteration. ^^

------

*thinks about it*

*really thinks about it*

How is this any different from just “play like hell” ?? @_@ There’s nothing new about this advise at all XD (except maybe put into perspective just how much time and resources it’ll consume)

[kihyunswrath]

about monsta x sasaengs

fellow monbebes i just read kimchitokki’s twitter and i’m fucking pissed and there’s just one thing I want to say about it and that’s the tl;dr: i know it upsets you but do not take her words seriously like for real

like. the chances of her having a normal job and then still finding out a PLENTY of private info about several groups at once, following them all around the world and literally breaking into their houses without ending up in jail? slim. sure she might follow the groups around, she might be wasting all her life and money on stalking them, like i don’t doubt it for a second that she pushes her miserable ass wherever she can get and that mx members would like to throw up at the sight of her, but that’s literally why she has turned to all of you guys to fund her lifestyle. that shit’s expensive.

she with 100% certainty pulls stuff out of her ass to make money and continue her abusive behavior. why else would she be so generous sharing them juicy bits about idols’ private “personalities”, their unhealthy habits, fights they’ve had and same-sex relationships, exes and idk, next she probably claims she knows what color their underwear is every given day? think about it. she writes about it in the most public platform possible, both in korean and english? if she has such an easy access to all that and is actually sharing their private info in exchange for profit, starship has been so careless about their privacy that she wouldn’t be the only one knowing about this stuff. meaning none of those things would be secrets at this point. we would all know. 

her lack of empathy, kindness, reason, intellect and sanity is one thing, but it’s another thing that people literally fund her because they think they truly need to find out if and who mx members are dating or if they... like, whatever, smoke?

like for real. most of her replies are so dumb, sweeping generalizations that i could also write similar replies. i have common sense, i have been a fan of mx for a long time and i have studied korean ent industry for years. but i’m not asking for money because i’m not a dipshit, so whatever, here’s my helpful replies to the most burning questions we all want to know! for free! so you don’t have to go ask her the same things and pay for lies!

1) are they in a relationship? of course they have or have had relationships, they are people. just most likely less often than people would like to believe, given their lack of time to do fucking anything but dance/practice/perform themselves to early grave. yes, with 99% certainty at least some of them are dating right as we speak. yes, most likely at least one of them is gay/bisexual/etc. because statistically speaking, that’s just plausible. none of us fans will ever end up with them, so we should be happy if they ever get to date anyone - that means they’ll be happier and receive extra energy and inspiration and will be taken care of. if you trust and love mx members, you can also trust the people they have chosen. and in the extremely unlikely case one of you would end up dating one of them: it still doesn’t matter what they are choosing to do with their lives right now. 

2) are they dating idols, fans, foreigners? lol who’d be able to provide for them the best? most likely people who they can... like. meet more often than once a year, who understand their daily struggles, who aren’t pisspoor - and given the idol industry standards they’ve gotten used to over the years, they most likely will also be attractive people around their age. so most likely not fans, nor foreigners. and most likely not that random idol you’re thinking of. 99% of the time it’s someone you’ve literally never heard of.  

3) do they smoke? do they use drugs? do they drink alcohol? probably, probably, yes. like for real, these people sleep 0-5 hours per night and are constantly expected to look, sound and seem absofuckinglutely stunning and spotless. it shouldn’t be humanly possible, and perhaps it isn’t. they’ll use shortcuts, whatever those might be, and consuming unhealthy stuff is like. one of those.

4) and the previous point includes plastic surgery and other body modifications/injections/meso threads/expensive treatments. mx has money, plastic surgeries are common practice, plastic surgeons are good at what they’re doing, and idols are literal representatives of that whole industry. plastic surgery wouldn’t be nearly as big of a business in korea without hallyu.

5) do they end up fighting sometimes? yes, just like everyone else. could their personal ways of handling arguments get in the way of fixing stuff? obviously. could it sometimes take time for them to recover from fights, breakups, disagreements, leading them to appear unhappy for a period of time? yes, that’s life. could one of the members be less familiar/close with someone else within the group? again, yes, that’s more likely than not. could one of them be somewhat distant with everyone within the group? let’s be real. they have other friends too, life outside of this job. they might grow distant at times and focus on themselves/their other friends more. or they might not want to hang out with each other very often outside of schedules. it also has absolutely nothing to do with us. it doesn’t benefit any of us to learn whether they have been fighting about something. as long as they don’t explicitly express their concerns, we can assume things are going just fine. they don’t need to be absolutely best best friends in order to still enjoy working together - and yet, them fighting and having disagreements is not a sign of them not being best best friends, so there’s that too.

6) could they be sick or having a dangerous diet? yes, probably one of them is sick right now, or recovering. being an idol is a very unhealthy job in itself, plus people do tend to get sick from time to time. we can offer them our constant support, care and love and ask them how they are doing, we can ask them to get more rest and keep eating well. but that’s all. they have their own support network who truly know what’s going on in their lives, and there’s nothing more we could do either way. and despite their unhealthy job, they are all young, physically active and have an access to good medical treatment, so the chances of them dying all of a sudden without us having the slightest clue is like. almost nonexistent. 

7) are they different behind cameras? well idk what do you think? do they pick their noses, examine the gunk they found and eat it afterwards when they’re alone? do they have farting competitions? do they scratch their balls and continue their day without washing their hands? do they have explosive diarrhea and pimples they pop in front of the mirror? do you think there would be a horrible stench coming out of their mouths in the morning? yes to all of those questions and all the others i didn’t list but we were all thinking of nonetheless. they are probably much less friendly, considerate, cheerful or tactful in real life. they might be, like, not even the smartest or nicest people you could imagine, because they’re human beings, and that’s ok. they’re already doing more than they ever needed to, and nothing so far has indicated that they are actually evil people in real life. 

8) are they going to enlist or disband soon?  monsta x is literally doing better than any other group starship ever had. they’re doing better than 90% of other kpop groups. starship staff would probably rather cut their own heads off rather than disband mx (before everything is sucked out of them). having said that, shownu has to enlist next year, and the 93-liners will join the year after, so obviously that means the remaining members will have to focus on solo stuff and such. but that most likely will be a breath of fresh air to them, since they no longer have to be so hyper-focused on those insanely tight world-tour schedules. maybe they’ll finally have more time to be creative, learn new skills and produce more carefully constructed stuff. so even though it’ll be sad for us fans, it also has good consequences.

and like i’ve said 1000 times before: be happy for whatever monsta x or any other kpop group decides to do, because they quite literally did not have to do it. they are full human beings who are doing this because they wanted to. because they decided to see the effort and work through all the hardships. they owe us nothing. they don’t have to do anything for us. their public presence is a bonus, a gift, an additional benefit, an extra perk we have a privilege to see and enjoy. we gave them their success, our money and our time, but that was our own decision. they can decide to quit and walk away whenever, no explanations needed. they can change the course of their careers and do things differently, and there’s nothing we can do about that. we can only be thankful for whatever content, whatever glimpses of their life we could see, and we have absolutely 0 right to ask for more. 

__________

so there. everyone buying information from kimchitokki or even considering doing that: please stop. even if she was right about everything, which she obviously isn’t, you’re supporting a psychopath who isn’t capable of loving anyone but herself. she doesn’t support monsta x - she’s the one causing them illnesses, depression and stress. she’s a fucking gross disease and needs to waltz straight into jail. 

[commander-hanji-zoe]

Do you have any advice for a new blog?

🌸 Oh this is such an interesting ask, I’ve been thinking about it for a few days now, sorry it’s taken a while to get back to you but I was thinking how best to answer it! While this blog has only been around for 3 years and I’ve only really started posting in it recently, I have had my main tumblr blog for 10 years and several side blogs with quite a few followers so I’m hoping I can provide some insight! I do apologise as this turned into a bit of a ramble that I feel is about tumblr but beings to overlap into life advice lol - I blame my age. 🌸

1.) I would say firstly, enjoy it. I feel sometimes there’s a lot of pressure to get loads of followers, create new content etc. and you can forget why you’re here. I got tumblr to reblog photos of things that made me happy from bands to tattoos, movie stuff, art etc and occasionally I would forget that and end up getting bogged down in comparing stats and myself to others. So yeah, enjoy it and remember why you joined ^_^

2.) If you love work that others create (writing/art/gif sets etc.) show your appreciation not just with likes but with comments and reblogging where you can/feel comfortable doing so. Likes are great and always appreciated but comments help to inspire and reblogging means more people will see their work. It encourages content creators to continue creating, it’s also a really good way of gaining followers and make friends. If you support others they will likely support you in return. 

3.) Share the art/fan art/cosplay photos you love as per above - but don’t repost work. This was something I wasn’t really aware of when I first joined tumblr, a lot of people would just save photos from google or deviant art (it was a very different place back then) and post them on tumblr to show appreciation. But often there would be no artist detail or link to the artist, instead if you find something you like reblog it from the creator. If it isn’t on tumblr and you’d really like to post it here, contact the creator and ask their permission to post - then include a link in the post and explain you have the artist’s permission. 

4.) Talk to people :) - Okay like Alice in Wonderland here’s some advice I could really use sometimes! Through tumblr I have met some of the most amazing friends. When I first started out I started chatting to a girl who went to the same Uni as me, we met up to go for coffee, browse record shops and saw The Vaccines together. I’ve also met numerous people who encouraged me to go to Hobbit Con in Germany - I had the most amazing time, remained friends, one of them came to my wedding. I guess the message here is that internet friends are great and you never know what a friendship can blossom into. If there’s someone whose work you admire or blog you love, don’t be afraid to reach out and send a message, even if you feel a bit silly (I often do!). 

5.) Tags - My take on tags is pretty simple, tag correctly. I often tag things quite heavily but I make sure that I only tag characters that feature in a post or fandoms that feature in that post etc. You often come across posts where every character in the show has been tagged, I get why people do it, it means the post will come up in more results but it is rather infuriating when you’re looking for something specific. It also looks messy and can make things hard to find on your own blog. So yeah tag the show/film/book etc, tag the relevant characters, add whatever tags you want regarding your feelings/emotions about the post or thoughts on it. But ideally keep it relevant. On that note, tag ships (people often blacklist ships they dislike or that they find problematic) so doing this helps everyone. Anything that’s only really suitable for people 18+ tag however you see fit (due to Tumblr’s changes last year we had to revert to tagging things on the citrus scale again so I tag anything like that as lemon as well as nsft) Finally Trigger/content warnings - I do use them, some people put warnings on everything, some people don’t do at all. Again like with shipping it is helpful for people who have  

6.) Remember to take breaks - tumblr can be a little addictive and easy to pass time (like social media) so remember to take breaks, when you get back they’ll be loads of new stuff on your dashboard to look at ^_^

7.) Follow loads of blogs! I probably should have put this higher up. But have a think about the kind of content you want to see and spend some time searching for blogs that fit that, I also find it’s nice to follow some more aesthetic blogs or blogs that are calming/relaxing, seeing things like that on my dash is always a reminder to have a breather!

8.) Enjoy playing around with themes - decide what you want your blog to be about (and remember there’s nothing wrong with having a main blog that’s a little bit of everything you love as well as personal stuff!) and then have fun with the settings. There’s a lot of free tumblr themes, some of which are pretty neat and user friendly in terms of customisation. Don’t be afraid to ask questions if you’re stuck. 

9.) Side blogs are also really great. I begun to create side blogs because I didn’t want to spam my main blog with Game of Thrones, The Hobbit, Red Dead Redemption 2 or Attack on Titan, so I created side blogs. I still post about all these things on main but not as frequently. A side blog can also be good if you want to create a blog you can share with employers - I have a side blog for my photography and one for my writing. Sideblogs are also a good way of keeping certain material away from the blog where people in real life are most likely to find you. Generally I won’t post 18+ material on my main blog, so smutty fan fiction etc. goes on the side blogs. As a side note, when you have a side blog you cannot like posts or ask questions as that side blog - it will be from your main blog. 

10.) Try not to get disheartened if you create original content and it doesn’t get a lot of attention at first. When you create a blog it can take time to gain followers/traction. But remember as per point 1, that Tumblr should be fun and creating content should first and fore mostly be for you and your enjoyement. But if you continue to create, tag appropriately but also show appreciation for fellow creators there’s no reason why in time you won’t flourish. And as per point 3, if you reblog others work there’s a chance they in return will reblog your art. 

11.) There’s extension kits you can get for tumblr, I know some people use them and find them helpful. I’m not sure they’re as poplar/needed now as they used to be. I used to use one but don’t feel the need now, however might be worth a google or asking someone more knowledgeable to see if it’ll work for you.

12.) You can blacklist tags through settings, if there’s any ships, characters, things you’d rather not see on your dash or that you find upsetting or triggering I’d recommend blacklisting them. If people tag correctly you shouldn’t much/if any of it. 

13.) Under blog settings you can also choose whether you want your blog to be searchable via the email address you registered with and on google. I switched this off pretty much as soon as it became a feature! My blogs, even my main blog are a piece of me which is only shared with a select few people in real life. I really do not need my colleagues, employers, certain family/friends finding this! 

14.) Use Queues! I adore a queue.... Once I discovered they were a thing I try to have around 100 posts in my queue on main at any time. You can amend how many times you post a day (mine is around 8-12 times, I change it when i go away). It just means your blog remains active even if you can’t really log on for a week or two or if you’re on holiday. Occasionally I’ll add original posts into my queue with writing, it can be nice to come back and see the feedback. A lot of people put ‘queue’ in the tag, but you’ll realise most people have a quirky tag. For example on main mine is - one does not simply queue their way through tumblr. And on my red dead blog it’s - I had a god damn queue! Sadly on here I haven’t got one yet! 

15.) Finally I would say engage in discourse as little as possible. It can be tempting and while drama can be fun for a while, even just to watch from the outside it can quickly escalate into something nasty and toxic. At first you might want to join in but tumblr can be, well it can be a lot at times and very noisy with everyone screaming their opinions and trying to be louder than the person before. I would say no fandom is inherently toxic, but it happens. A fandom I was heavily involved in last year had so much discourse and there was so much drama that even though I wasn’t involved in it my anxiety was through the roof, I had a panic attack over it and felt paranoid. After speaking to other older members in the fandom I felt much better (they too were annoyed with what was happening) and we realised that essentially a lot of it boiled down to a real lack of critical thinking. I’m not saying don’t get involved at all, sometimes I have seen things where I’ve felt things need to be said/action taken especially when it comes to intolerance and hatred. But I would say when you do engage - pick your battles. (I hope this last one makes sense). I started writing a lot more and going into the politics of it and ranting about bigots and then thought that’s probably enough! 😁

I hope this post helps! Like I said I’ve never been asked something like this so it took a bit of thinking but these are some of the key thoughts I had. 

edit - I meant to add that obviously the above is just my opinion and based on my experiences on tumblr/thoughts about things.

[yogaposesfortwo]

Teachers and Studios on Bringing Their Yoga Classes Online

If we were told a few months back that all studios would be closed, retreats cancelled and public classes banished we wouldn’t have believed it. Yoga Teachers and Studios livelihoods rely on their students to show up and when this isn’t possible, times can be worrying.  It is astounding to see the yoga industry evolve to offer classes online, whole studio timetables now available online and teachers and students working together to bring yoga to our homes when we need it most.  We caught up with some Yoga Teachers and studio owners in our network to hear about how they have adapted to the change. For those who are feeling overwhelmed by the change, we hope that this piece will lift your spirits – because we are all in this together, collectively hoping to share happiness, health and love to one another, however we can.

Jess Horn

What are you offering? I am offering my full schedule on line, x 6 – 8 classes a week, with live streaming, donation based classes. I’m also providing some free content including short videos and some Relaxation evenings/ home retreats which I’m hoping to help as many people as possible relax, connect with their bodies, de-stress and manage anxiety. Also to provide a sense of community and move away from fear into connecting with hope, love and the best qualities of humanity. I’m also going to put together a short course – Introduction to Meditation –  for the home office – How to navigate these uncharted waters with more ease. What challenges have you faced or what have you been surprised by? I’ve been surprised at how much it’s helping people. I’m getting really positive feedback and its great to see how many people are keen to join in and embrace new technology!  I have faced a few teething issues (like muting myself accidentally half way through a class!) But each time I do it, it gets a little easier! What is your advice would you like to share to other teachers and the yoga community? If you’re a teacher, now is the time for seva, (service) and your students need you now more than ever, so do reach out to them. As teachers we have the toolkit, the science of yoga, to help them to regulate their nervous system through their breath and find space and calm amongst these crazy and uncertain times. Don’t be afraid about being on line, if its new for you, it can be challenging, but start small, maybe doing a little live, or even pre-recording a video and sharing. You don’t need loads of fancy equipment, or a huge space and it doesn’t matter what you look like, just be authentically you! Remember Done is better than perfect! So move through the self doubt as the world now more than ever, needs your yoga!  I know that many of us rely on our teaching for our income so do ask for a donation / payment if you’re offering full classes. Maybe offer smaller free offerings or donations for those who struggle financially. At this time we need to dig deep, double up on our self care and practice what we preach! If you’re a student of yoga, reach out to your teacher and tell them what you’d like them to share and how you can support each other. We don’t know how long this will go on for, so we need to all pull together and provide support for each other and the yoga community! 

Trisha Champaneri

What are you offering? All my classes are online now – so that’s mainly yoga flows and meditations.  I’ve got something going on every day as I’m trying to keep busy and my regular clients are really needing their practice more than ever.  I’m streaming via Zoom and IGTV and my schedule is on my website. From Monday EVERY DAY at 8:30am, I’ll be offering a daily meditation and motivational video on IGTV.  I want to help people get their ducks in a row early doors, so they align with their intentions and get the most from their day.  This type of grounding work is so valuable and consistency is absolutely key. I’ve got clients that will put this on for their kids too when the schools close.  Hopefully it will set the tone for the day and give some structure to the people who follow it regularly.    What challenges have you faced or what have you been surprised by? Teaching online is TOTALLY different to teaching in real life.  I don’t think I’ve ever fully appreciated that and I’m massively out of my comfort zone!  I am learning something new with each class and it’s really giving me a sense of purpose at the moment.  It’s also given me a real respect for anyone that has ever put themselves out there online and shared this type of work.  It takes guts.   Another challenge is the logistics of course.  Generally I’m okay with tech stuff, but wouldn’t say that I’m the best, so I’m having to learn a lot on that front too.  Currently I’m taking donations for classes (from those who can afford to pay) via my website, but I know that this could be a lot slicker, so I’ll aim to refine that in the next few days.  Classes are obviously free for key workers.  I am pleasantly surprised by the way in which we’re all supporting one another.  The teaching community, small local businesses, everyone really, we’re all rooting for each other and I love that.       What advice would you like to share to the other teachers and the yoga community? Wash your hands and don’t touch your face.  Seriously though, If you’re thinking of doing something similar, DO IT!!!! You can set up streams for your regular students if you’re not comfortable with opening the net wider.  Honestly, it’s easier to set up than you think.   I’d also ask people giving completely free classes to question what that says about the value that you place on what we offer as practitioners.  For sure at the moment, there will be people who cannot afford to pay and they should not have to. But there will also be people who can afford to make a contribution and they absolutely should.  We are all turning to these practices to ease the heightened feeling of anxiety. How can that not be worth something?  Essentially, as I am learning, you just need to back yourself and get on with it.  I know teaching is a very personal and vulnerable thing, but what you offer can and will help someone.  If you have the capacity to do this, then you must, particularly in this time of need and uncertainty. I wish you all the best of health and am sending high vibes to everyone. 

Paula Gardiner, Space2be and The Yoga Lighthouse

What are you offering? We’re offering on-line classes to all of our members. We have also created social media groups where our teachers are sharing videos and free resources. I am in the process of expanding our on-line offering with some pop up events to learn new fun skills eg. quiz night, knitting group , arts and crafts, strictly come dancing classes (learn some basic steps). A variety of activities to keep our members active and inspired. What challenges have you faced or what have you been surprised by? Technology! Communicating with members via so many different ways WhatsApp, Texts, Social groups and making sure everyone has seen the communications! Also making so many quick decisions – not knowing if they are right but no time to procrastinate – trust your intuition! I have been so surprised how important classes are to people a familiar face. How well the on-line classes have been received. I did one I loved it. Connection is so important right now. It’s amazing what we can do in a week if we have to! What is your advice would you like to share to other teachers and the yoga community? Advice – it doesn’t have to be perfect just get something up and running asap. Keep your community close, involve your Teachers, ask for help, communicate not just email get on video pick up the phone. Think what else do customers need. Kindness will go along way so think long term not short term.

Nicole Andrews, FloYoga

What are you offering? We are running a full schedule on Zoom that is booked through mind body from Monday onwards. We started with some donation based classes on IG live for the last few days to trial out how online would work with our community. What challenges have you faced or what have you been surprised by? Really surprised by how much people wanted us to continue at home and its been so amazing the amount of support from our community and beyond practicing at such a challenging time with us and donating to help keep us alive! Challenges are things like music and how to set it up and use it online, how to see if everyone is getting what you are teaching and it is clear or the level etc in class, we hope to get some people using webcam when we go on to Zoom to combat this. What is your advice would you like to share to other teachers and the yoga community? It can be nerve–wracking especially the first couple of times, but like anything new it just takes practice and then you get more comfortable. It’s almost like a reminder of what it was like to start teaching all over again, and has you questioning everything as it’s live for the world to see! Without the ability to have live feedback from students in the room you don’t really know much till after. So really believe in yourself and what you’re doing, it can be daunting as there’s so many offerings but it’s no different to the options in person. Don’t compare yourself to other offerings online, let’s all support each other where we can and enjoy this new challenge! The post Teachers and Studios on Bringing Their Yoga Classes Online appeared first on Yogamatters Blog. Author: Yogamatters Source: https://www.yogamatters.com/blog/teachers-and-studio-owners-on-bringing-their-classes-online/ Discover more info about Yoga Poses for Two People here: Yoga Poses for Two Read the full article