#i've been mad about this for a year

[itsmariemccurdy]

PSA

If you post a request for a fandom gift exchange and someone fills that request, whether it's fic or a pod or art or whatever, you ought to acknowledge the gift in some manner. Even if you don't like the gift! As long as the giver fulfilled your request and didn't violate any DNW's, this kind anonymous person has taken time out of their lives to create art YOU REQUESTED.

"But it was badly done," you say. I don't care! That's not the point. I would love to receive literary masterpieces when I request a gift, but a gift is a gift. It's free, something someone volunteered their time and effort to fulfill. That alone is a kindness worth acknowledging.

"But it wasn't exactly what I was looking for," you whine. I care even less! If you want something specific, then you should have been more clear in your request. Also, stop being a brat. *You* should have been more specific. The blame lies on your shoulders. It goes right back to the simple fact that a person volunteered their time and effort to fulfill a request for you, most likely a total stranger. That is kind and kindness deserves some manner of acknowledgement.

A kudos. A like. A reblog. A brief comment. Something.

Someone saw and/or was assigned your request, said "Yes, I can and will do this," then expended the time and mental and emotional energy to give you a present *you asked for*, so maybe, just maybe, you ought to thank them.

It feels pretty crappy to work your ass off on a gift, only to be met with radio silence by a giftee who is otherwise very active online.

[bizarrelittlemew]

i can't wait to be 30+ and still in fandom and i can't wait to be 40+ and still in fandom and i can't wait to be 50+ and still in fandom and i can't wait to be 60+ and still in fandom and i can't wait to be 70+ and still in fandom and i can't wait to be 80+ and still in fandom and i can't wait to be 90+ and still in fandom and i can't wait to look back on my life and know that i loved things deeply and passionately and was inspired to create and was part of communities with incredible people from all over the world brought together by the stories that touched us

[mimimar]

i've been completely charmed by witch hat atelier♡

(art prints)

[thedarkmongoose]

fan expo interviewer: mads, you are tackling a character that's been a part of pop culture for a few decades now — how does it feel to step in a role as iconic as hannibal lecter?

mads: i was… i was kinda shitting my pants

[anipgarden]

Adding To or Starting a Garden

AKA, the beginning of the Plants-Related section of this series.

This is my third post in a series I’ll be making on how to increase biodiversity on a budget! I’m not an expert--just an enthusiast--but I hope something you find here helps! 

Got an area of lawn you’d like to convert to a wildlife haven? An area you can stick some hanging baskets in? Want to know how your garden of tomatoes and zucchinis is already putting in a lot of work? This is the section for you!

It would be dumb of me to not acknowledge that the act of gardening can come with a lot of costs. Buying seeds, buying plants, buying soil, raised bed materials, mulch, etc. … it can all get a bit daunting, let’s be honest! But there’s quite a few ways to get seeds and plants for free or extremely cheap, which I’ll be addressing in this section! The next section will be all about addressing the other Costs in gardening and how to mitigate or eliminate them entirely.

Also, do keep in mind; there’s no need to try and convert a whole area from lawn to garden or unused to garden at once. In fact, it could actually be extremely beneficial to do it a little at a time--maybe four or five square feet to start out.

Front Lawn (or Managing Principles)

If you live in a place where you’re required to have a grass turf lawn (HOA’s come to mind…), try replacing it with native grasses instead! You could even possibly use a low-growing ground cover plant like clover to a similar effect! Reseeding/replacing an entire lawn can be a big upfront cost, but even just letting the lawn be a little messy and tall helps. If the lawn gets patchy, leave the bare spots for a little while and something different will likely pop up! Pioneer species will fill the gaps and provide benefits to other plants around them, support animals, and more! If you want to take the guesswork out of it, you could always research what the pioneer species are in your area and plant the ones you like most. 

Obtaining Seeds for Cheap or Free

The cheapest way to start a garden is by far via seeds. However, seeds can be a bit complicated to grow, and some sources make them… way overpriced. Fortunately there are ways to get seeds for little to no cost! 

Some places sell seeds for as low as a dollar, 50 cents, or 25 cents! The packets may not have a lot of seeds, but it’s definitely a good start for a low budget! I’ve personally bought cheap seed packets at Walmart--the Ferry-Morse and Burpee brands are not what we’re looking for here. Typically the cheaper ones I’ve found are American Seed (which is owned by Green Garden Products, which also owns Ferry-Morse, Livingston Seed, McKenzie Seed, and Seeds of Change. Do with that information what you will), but they’re rarely stocked near the Ferry-Morse ones in the Formal Gardening Section. I’ve most often found them on end caps near the gardening section, so you may have to weave through a few aisles to find them, but once you do there’s an array of flower and vegetable seeds to select from! Alternatively, I’ve found seeds at Dollar Tree sold 2 or 4 for a dollar in Spring as part of their seasonal product; however, when they’re out of stock, they’re typically out of stock for the year. Try to check them out early in the year!

Otherwise, other seed companies like Urban Farmer or Botanical Interests will often have semi-frequent sales in spring and fall, when people are stocking up on seeds--joining their email lists can help you be the first to know when a good sale is going on!

Some foods from grocery stores will provide seeds that you can use in the garden as well. I’ve had the most luck with store-bought bagged beans, peppers, and tomatoes. Some people have had luck with watermelons, apples, citrus, squash, and more. Do keep in mind that you likely won’t get the same variety of fruit/vegetable as the one you bought--the resulting plant may look different and taste different.

Give it a shot! Pick some beans you like--if they don't grow well, at least you can eat the rest!

If you live in the US, food-producing live plants, bare roots, and seeds can often be purchased with SNAP benefits. But what does growing fruits, veggies, and herbs have to do with boosting biodiversity? While food crops aren’t typically native, they still provide valuable shelter for native insects. Some plants even have intricate relationships with native fauna--like the squash bee, a solitary bee which exclusively pollinates cucurbits like pumpkins, squash, and zucchini. And we get to benefit more directly as well! If you’re planting a diverse range of foods in your garden (as opposed to the swaths of single-plant farms that typically produce what’s sent to grocery stores), you’re supporting high levels of biodiversity by providing a variety of plants for creatures to live and hunt around.

Most of the time, when we think of boosting biodiversity with a garden, we think of a colorful flower garden teeming with pollinator species. However, if we’re striving to use native species, it can be a bit difficult to find some species in stores. I can say from experience that trying to find any wildflower seeds other than butterfly weed, purple coneflowers, and black-eyed-susans is… challenging, if you limit yourself to stores like Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowe’s. You might occasionally get lucky with an ACE Hardware or a local nursery, but even then sometimes it can be hard to track down who in your area is selling what--let alone if you live in an area where no one really is selling native plants or their seeds. Not to mention, even once you find a local or online store selling the seeds you want, they can sometimes cost a pretty penny. So what do you do?

If you have the option to, consider gathering native seeds yourself! Get good at identifying the native flora and fauna--or at least, a few target plants and their lookalikes--and get ready to go! Learn where they tend to grow, when they’ll be seeding, etc. Try to identify the plant before it goes to seed (for most plants, it's easiest to identify when flowering), then check back regularly to gather seeds. Typically, if I want to learn how to collect seed from a specific plant, I just search it on Google or YouTube--oftentimes, I'm lead to the GrowItBuildIt Youtube page, so it may be a helpful resource for you as well! Of course, make sure to leave plenty of seed behind so the wild population can repopulate, and seed can feed other creatures in the area. A good rule of thumb is to take no more than 1/3rd of what's available.

Buying seed in bulk is an option if you can afford the upfront cost. Try teaming up with a few friends to buy some bulk seeds and split them amongst yourselves--you’ll get tons of seed! Prairie Moon is a popular site that'll sell seeds by the pound if you can afford the price--though they're in the US, and I believe they focus on Midwest and East Coast natives.

If you want to cheat the system, don’t buy bulk sunflower seeds--buy bags of sunflower seeds being sold as birdseed. They’re typically all black oil sunflower seeds, but they’ll sprout, and they’re fairly cheap for the amount you get!

However, beware generic wildflower seed mixes! Many brands like to sell wildflower seed mixes in big box stores like Home Depot, Target, or even Dollar Tree, but they’ll often include flowers that aren’t native or possibly even invasive in your region! Before you make any purchases, double check to make sure the contained seeds won’t do more harm than good! A quality source of native seeds will provide English and Latin names for all seeds included, and will be native to the region or at least non-invasive. 

See this? I don't trust this.

There’s a good handful of programs online that’ll send you free seeds if you’re planning to start a native habitat project! Poke around online and see what you can find; you might get lucky! The best time to start looking for these is fall and winter, I find--by early spring, many of them are either done or beginning to wind down... though some also start up in spring. Ultimately--just check regularly! You never know what you can find!

Other Ways to Get Plants

Don’t want to start from seed? That’s fair! You can try cuttings! Just be sure not to take too much of the plant while you do so. Make sure you’ve gotten a few leaf nodes on your cutting, and cut any flowers you may have gotten. Make sure to leave some blooms and foliage on the original plant for the creatures in the current habitat--you don’t want to destroy one habitat to make another in your garden. There’s tons of methods of rooting cuttings, many of which have different efficacy rates for different plants, but that’s a topic for another post.

If you find seedlings growing in a place where they won’t be able to sustain themselves long-term, or are in danger of being destroyed, consider relocating them! You may be able to gently dig up and transplant the seedling to your garden. Don’t do this if they’re in a place where they can easily survive--ideally, you’ll be taking plants from sidewalk cracks, heavily maintained public gardens, roadsides, etc. Do be careful while doing this--ensure your safety first!  

You’re totally allowed to join gardening communities like clubs, facebook groups, and more before you’ve even put a trowel to the dirt. These are great places to learn information and advice! Many gardeners are more than happy to help out a new gardener, and will eagerly provide seeds, cuttings, or even baby plants! Talk to some people about your gardening journey and what you’re hoping to do, and you just might find some kindred spirits--or at least get more people interested in the topic! 

Seed and plant giveaways and trades happen all the time in gardening clubs, as well as online! Just poke around and see what you can find! Some are explicitly trades, meaning you’re expected to send something in return, but once you get your feet on the ground with some plant knowledge you’ll be stellar! You may be able to explain you’re just starting out, and someone may send you seeds without expecting a trade, but I’d suggest trying giveaways first. 

Poke around online and see if there’s a local chapter of your state’s native plant society. From there, you’ll likely be able to find a calendar of events--many of them will host plant sales in the spring, with a bunch of native plant seedlings ripe for the pickings if you can make it out and have some money to spare! Fair warning, though, you’ll want to get there early if you can. If they say they’re starting at 10, try to get there by 9:45. Year after year, there’s always record turnout, and they sell out of plants faster than ever. Just trust me on this. I’ve been let down; hopefully you won’t have to be.

Some libraries are beginning to host seed libraries! Check around and see if your library has one! Ideally, the system works best if you also have seeds to contribute in return, but if you’re just starting out I’m sure they won’t mind you taking some seeds! Just consider saving some seeds to contribute in the future and pay it forward. If your library doesn’t have a seed library? Consider asking if they’d be willing to start one! Community interest is a great way to get the ball rolling on projects like these, but they’ll only know the community is interested if the community tells them they’re interested!

Volunteer to Garden for/with Someone Else

Maybe someone in your area wants to garden, but is struggling to find the time/energy. Many elderly people who used to garden simply can’t anymore but still would like a garden. Other people may love to have a helping hand in their garden. You might even find a few people in your area interested in renting and sharing a community garden plot with others, so they don't have to handle it all on their own! They may be interested in increasing biodiversity right now, or may be willing to if it’s brought up to them. You might be just the kind of person someone needs! Since it won't be your garden, you’ll likely need a bit of permission and collaboration to get anything in particular going, but it’s worth a shot and a way to maybe even make friends! 

Again, your mileage may vary with some of these. You may not know where there's a bunch of wildflowers growing in your area, or maybe your local library doesn't have a free seed library. That's okay! Do what you're able to, find what you can find, get what you can get! And there's never any shame with starting small--in fact, starting small can make the project easier to manage and expand when you're able!

That's the end of this post! My next post is gonna be about ways to start growing plants cheaply--low cost seed starting set ups, essentially. There's a lot of good options, many of which I've used myself even! Until then, I hope this advice is helpful! Feel free to reply with any questions, success stories, or anything you think I may have forgotten to add in!

[blu-ish]

It's like candy to me :)

[whenlifedaydreams]

A spy... An assassin... this is so exciting!!

[trans-cuchulainn]

two questions to ask yourself when you start looking for pre-christian material in medieval literature:

1. when are these texts from

2. when did christianity come to this area

i can guarantee you in the vast majority of celtic-language sources (and others) the answer to 2. is several centuries before 1. and at that point you gotta ask yourself... how likely is it that these people would be writing about something that has not been a thing for them or anyone they know for, like, four hundred years (or, in many cases, eight or nine hundred years), especially given that most of the people doing that writing are not merely passively existing in a christian society but are, yunno, monks

there are exceptions! but there are way fewer exceptions than you think there are gonna be! and the exceptions are almost always extremely nebulous sub layers that can't be disentangled from the other layers (which are christian) with any certainty so are always somewhat speculative!

and most importantly those other layers are interesting too, but if you only ever treat them like dirt to dig through to get to something "real" underneath you're sure gonna be disappointed a lot of the time (and you're gonna miss a lot of cool shit that would be really exciting if this was an actual archaeological dig and not a metaphor)!!

[winteriron-trash]

rdj the (whitewashed) electric boogaloo

This is a reminder to everyone who's excited about RDJ's casting as Doctor Doom that this casting is whitewashing. Victor Von Doom is a Romani character and has been a Romani character since his introduction in the 1960s. (Fantastic Four Annual #2 [1964]) Not only that, but his Roma identity and the persecution he and his family faced due to it is integral to his character, it is what forms his identity. (Books of Doom by Ed Brubaker) Even if on the off chance this casting is meant to not be Victor but instead be some variant of Tony or whomever else becoming Doctor Doom, it is damaging to the character to rob him of that important cultural background. Doctor Doom does not exist without that history. Fans have been pushing hard to cast Doom as a Romani actor for years, especially since the MCU has whitewashed other Romani characters. (Wanda, Pietro, etc) This casting is not a celebration moment, it's fucking heartbreaking that the MCU repeatedly ignores the important and nuanced cultural backstories of characters.

I know I can't change anybody's mind on whether or not you want to be excited about RDJ's return to the MCU. But I do think at the very least you should be mad that the MCU is baiting us all and destroying nuanced and interesting characters for the sake of self-referential easter eggs and nostalgia bait. Because that's what it is. Feel how you'd like to feel about RDJ's return, but personally, this is soul-sucking. I had such a deep love for the MCU as a teenager, it was obviously something incredibly formative to me, especially Tony Stark. This isn't recreating what I fell in love with the MCU for. This is turning a well-planned and artistic storyline of adaptations into cheap cash grabs and fan service. Because, I think we're past the point of being able to call the MCU an adaptation of anything. They can use existing characters' names and powers, but to say they're being properly adapted is laughable.

This is not an adaptation of Doctor Doom. This is RDJ the Electric Boogaloo because Marvel's fear of losing the interest of dedicated MCU fans overrides their willingness to tell stories that are genuine to the characters. I don't know what there is to be excited about that. The MCU has lost its authenticity and aside from a few projects, feels heartless. Every movie is a copy of a copy. This announcement isn't something celebratory, it feels like a death knell of a cinematic universe that's so desperate to cling to relevancy it's resorting to nostalgia for a character/actor who hasn't even been dead for a decade. We're not getting anything new, we're just rinsing and repeating the same song and dance.

I get it. I love Tony Stark, his death destroyed me and I to this day, rue the ending he got in Endgame. It misunderstood his arc and it robbed him of a satisfying conclusion. But the solution to that isn't dragging the corpse out of the grave five years later to whitewash an existing character with rich and interesting nuance, just to forcibly tie his existence in the MCU to Tony. Whether he is a variant or not. Why would you want someone else's fave's legacy to be destroyed simply so your fave's legacy can go on? Hell, if we were really all so hellbent on the return of RDJ and/or Tony to the MCU, we have the multiverse for a reason. There were other ways to do it that didn't whitewash and ruin someone else. This just. Isn't something to be happy about.

[seaofreverie]

Sparkstember Day 18: Balls (Bullet Train)

Sometimes (oftentimes) it's true that all you need are Balls. I personally absolutely love Balls. I'm a big fan! Ekhem. Today I'm using the help of (I mean, copying most of the passages from it) my earlier Balls rant that I have written down after my first listen of it back in January. I really love this album and I don't want to completely skip over saying a couple words on it at least but I really don't think I have the headspace to write anything very good for it today. I'll still try though!

So yeah, Balls. It's a great album, fun and chill (in my sense of what I call and consider chill anyway), consistent, as Sparks albums tend to be, and as I suspected / hoped it does fit this specific vibe of driving around at night somewhere city-like and illuminated. Or being on a train deep at night and looking at the world zooming by (if you'd even see much of it on a train at night anyway.....). And I do think that it's not so dissimilar to Gratsax (I'd say now that it's definitely darker and moodier than its predecessor...). So it's interesting to think about how it's considered to be one of the "weak" ones (by music reviewers at least) while Gratsax is so beloved in comparision.

I will admit, I don't really know what the big problem with this album could be. As I said, it's fun, it has the melodies, it has the energy, it has the theatricality (I like seeing how more and more orchestral instruments such as strings are being incorporated into the music, in a way the jump into Lil' Beethoven two years later doesn't come of as THAT much of a shock because of this. The evolution of sound here is fascinating!) I really like the intense beats, just as much as the more laid-back and moodier pieces. And there's lots of gold to be found in the lyrics department as always.

One more thing I wanna say is that at some point I wondered if this music sounds older than it is. Maybe it does? But then I remembered that this was 2000 and honestly when I think about it, there just IS something about this album that fits so well with the Y2K image and vibe and all. Sparks 2000 and all that.

Favourite songs (and other highlights):

Balls: I mean. It's Balls.

Scheherazade: absolutely LOVE this one and I had the strangest impression of it sounding very familiar when I first heard it. Months later I found out that it was just briefly featured in TSB so I think that explains it (I will talk more about my TSB viewings on TSB day. EVERYTHING has to be explained in excruciating detail, lmao)

The Calm Before The Storm: bugsonas 4ever. Song itself is amazing too

How To Get Your Ass Kicked: how can a song about getting your ass kicked be so pleasant and relaxing, it always keeps cracking me up, how perfect that is actually

Bullet Train: I love it how introducing the topic of the song with a "It's the [topic of the song]" is a reoccurring theme on this album. Thank you Sparks for this ode to technology and art (these lyrics always have me giggling). And also it just goes hard as heck

It's Educational: a perfect fusion of / sequel to I Thought I Told You To Wait In The Car and Progress (it's mostly the vocal delivery that reminds me of the latter)

The Angels: such an odd one here but I still like it a lot, I apparently said that it sounds "surprisingly mainstream for Sparks but somehow in a positive way". It's very sweet and I absolutely love how Russell sings here, it's so different from what we're used to but that only makes it hit you even more in the feels, lol. And I actually prefer the alternative version of this song that's featured as a bonus track, and I do think that's in big part because you can hear Russell better on it (or that was my first impression of it at least and it kind of stuck)

[hellyeahsickaf]

Be careful with adrenal supplements it turns out that shit makes you produce adrenaline and my ass got paranoid that I had mad cow disease (I'm a vegetarian) and I almost threw up realizing a bear could fit through my window if he wanted (I live in a major city)

[hanzajesthanza]

also i realize i'm saying all these noble and beautiful things about the channel from the purest depths of my heart. but actually i'm also just doing this because i fucking love the witcher books and it pisses me off that people don't know about them that much in english and i can only go for so long (seven years) with people not knowing that there are books. or that the witcher is from the 90s. or polish.

[theslowestpoke]

Headcanon that Isaac has chronic pain from his fucked up childhood, but doesn't know it because he was usually injured enough to chalk the constant ache in his joints up to being crammed in a freezer long after puberty made him too tall to fit (which is partially true).

The bite isn't actually a cure, it just boosts the healing factor of bitten wolves so high that they appear cured, which is why Erica has a seizure when the kanima scratches her in the library; she still has epilepsy. Derek isn't lying when he tells them it will fix them, he just doesn't know he's wrong. It's not supposed to cure Isaac's claustrophobia or PTSD, but something like fibromyalgia is a neurological disorder, which is what epilepsy is.

Think about the ice bath scenes. When Isaac gets in the ice bath to remember when Erica and Boyd are, it isn't even supposed to be a method that can kill him, but it still makes him out of commission when Scott and Derek break into the bank. Later, when Scott, Stiles, and Allison sacrifice themselves to find their parents, the ice bath solution is not only more dangerous, but they stay in the water for 16 hours, far longer than Isaac did, and they still have the ability to jump straight into action finding the Nemeton. Sure, Scott is essentially already a True Alpha, but Stiles and Allison? Just humans. So why was it so hard for Isaac to recover?

I think it's because the ice bath put Isaac so close to the edge that his healing factor slowed (the claustrophobia of being underwater coupled with taking a kid who used to get locked in a freezer and asking him to voluntarily get into a freezing cold metal tub to access painful memories, all of which is before the actual risk of the ritual that Deaton doesn't even want to describe to him) and it brought all that latent chronic pain to the surface. If you have chronic pain, you know how much more it hurts when you're freezing cold. Even when he meets them to look for Boyd and Cora, he shows up wearing the scarf and a coat because he's still not 100%.

When Isaac gets electrocuted and takes ages to heal from the burns in the hospital in 3B, Scott tries to take his pain and is startled by how much pain Isaac is in. In that scene, Isaac's wolf healing is basically working overtime just to keep him alive, so the pain from the burns (internal and external) isn't the only thing Scott finds.

[ohboy-herewegoagain]

Spoilers but here we go

Ok so. I want to say that I did not look at leaks or anything and I still knew immediately that the sampo in the main story was not Actually Sampo. I figured it was sparkle but that wasn't my own theory, I saw some people say it and it made sense. I knew immediately when "he" didn't introduce himself w his full name, and then I had to pause the game because that's a weird thing to be able to deduce I fear.

But the companion quest?? Oh boy

Because my first thought when Sampo showed up there was "he seems much more... real", and the more he talked in that first scene the more I started to get my hopes up. Props to his VA for being able to have his Sampo voice (which already switches up tonally a lot) and the Sparkle Sampo voice, which sounds very different (if you're insane like me and know what the guy's voice sounds like intimately). In the companion mission he's a lot similar tonally to the Sampo on Jarilo, and I got really excited that we were gonna get actual Penacony Sampo

I had heard that Sampo and Sparkle don't get along, and I didn't guess the 'twist' until right before the end, so I was viewing Sampo's participation in the whole detective thing as a "I am playing along but Aeons I hate that woman". Identity theft is not a joke kids, but the Masked Fools as a general rule seem to disagree

Unrelated, but was anyone else a little disappointed by Black Swan? I got hyped about a semi-omnipresent wise.... i dont know, but she's a lot less formal than I thought. I'll get over it tho

And the conversation at the end... I'm seeing a lot of people assume that this memory (and therefore the dream we go through as the companion mission) is from before the Express lands on Jarilo-IX, but I really don't think so. Watch me get proven wrong, but I really do think theyre setting up another major conflict in Belobog, and Sampo's preparing himself to help out Belobog's citizens. I'm hoping that might be a change for a Sampo 5star, and I desperately want that.

and yes, I think we're gonna get a sampo 5star before a march 5star. She's the logo of the game, her secrets will not be spilled so easily.

I think there's gonna be a huge thing on Jarilo after Penacony finishes up, we're gonna return to the planet to lend a hand, and the threat will be big enough that Sampo is changing his role - his mask - to do something about it. Hopefully, you know, helpfully, but I'll take anything at this point

AND WE STILL HAVEN'T GOTTEN A SAMPO TRAILER YET DAMNIT

[glitchdecay]

i saw this scene being uploaded in english the other day and i can't not rewatch the japanese version because, you know, seiyuu brainrot and whatnot. translations (completely my own) under the cut.

Prompto: What're you doing?

Noctis: Nothing, really. Just spacing out.

Prompto: Huh. I see.

[ Leave him alone / Talk about something random / Wait for him to speak ]

Noctis: Hmph—

Prompto: We went through so much today, huh?

Noctis: Everything's so new to us, too.

Prompto: You can say that again. Things have been super hard, but I didn't expect every day to be so much fun. Y'see, everything I see is new to me.

Prompto: I never expected things to turn out this way or to go out on a trip together.

Noctis: Yeah.

Prompto: How long have we known each other again? It's since high school... So five years?

Noctis: But I've known you for longer. Was it since elementary school?

Prompto: Eh? How'd you remember that?

Noctis: 'Course I'd remember. You stared at me so much.

Prompto: Ugh. [nervous laughter] You see, that's because I have my reasons...

Noctis: But you were still like, "Nice to meet ya!" at the high school entrance ceremony.

Prompto: I had to really brace myself to talk to you that time.

Prompto: [sighs] Kinda takes me back.

Noctis: You could've just talked to me, you know.

Prompto: I know it's easy for you to say— You wouldn't understand, Noct.

Prompto: Back then, I—

Prompto: Sorry, man. It really is nothing.

[ Ask him out of concern / You're concerned but you don't force it out of him / You won't get mad so ask him to be honest ]

Noctis: What is up with that? Just say it.

Prompto: [sighs] All right.

Prompto: You see...

Prompto: I used to be unable to reach out to other people.

Prompto: And I... didn't have anyone that I could call a true friend.

Prompto: I was always by myself.

Prompto: So sometimes I end up thinking maybe I'm not worth anything.

[ "You're joking." / "I kinda noticed." / "Didn't expect that." ]

Noctis: You've always gotten hung up on loads of things.

Prompto: Hehe.

Noctis: See? You're getting hung up on something right now.

Noctis: Like, "I'm the only commoner," or "I'm weaker than the others..."

Noctis: "At least I gotta try to make it so everyone feels at ease," so that's what you've been doing, right?

Prompto: Ah—

Noctis: Being considerate of others is pretty cool by itself. It doesn't come easily.

Noctis: The fact that you do that is just like you, and it's a good thing.

Prompto: Huh? You're saying I can just be myself?

Noctis: Yeah. What's wrong with that?

Prompto: Yeah... well... Sorry if I said anything weird.

Noctis: Besides, I'd never let anyone useless hang around me in the first place.

Prompto: Eh? Why are you mad about that?

Prompto: ... Thanks.

Prompto: Oh, man. I feel like a weight's lifted off my shoulders.

Noctis: Heh. What's up with that?

Prompto: Right, I'm gonna keep doing my best with the things I can do.

Noctis: I'd appreciate it.

[ Obtained the "Pop" photo filter effect. ] ※ Yep, you read that right: This photo filter is called "Prompto" in the Japanese version.

[ferronickel]

I have covid :(