#im a normal well adjusted person

[ganemouchie]

Sevika and Heimerdinger fighting for my favourite character title (we dont talk about the range)

[maflufla]

I just finished rereading LN 3 of the apothecary diaries and I need to ramble for a bit

One of the things that is clear and emphasized a lot in the these initial volumes is how much maomao is scared of accidentally committing an infraction unknowingly and been punished (killed) because of this. That is her reasoning behind wanting clear limits and direct orders, as in her narration she mentions multiple times that that makes her life easier.

Even in situations where the people in higher station are clearly showing signs of affection towards her (I'm thinking about when the emperor pats her head in the labyrinth-shrine), she has her guard up and is still very aware of the image she presents as to not "accidentally offend a noble and get killed".

And then we get at the end of volume 3, where the hunting trip offers more proof than ever that Jinshi is much more important and high up in the chain than she had previously thought, and that the whole situation is VERY messy. And she is obviously resentful and stressed for being dragged into this, because the undeniable truth is that she is the one that stands to lose the most. But still, when Jinshi offers her the ox bezoar she then SHUTS THE DOOR IN HIS FACE and it's such a funny and very maomao way of showing that she is a little bit closer to him and can let her guard down enough to let her excitement for pharmaceutical ingredients consume her necessity to maintain propriety (lest she gets beheaded for being accidentally rude as she always thinks????).

She knows that her own feelings about people are not something she is very in tune with (she knows how she feels about her dad and maybe her sistersand thats about how much she recognizes), so we the readers are not going to get a direct declaration from maomao about how she feels about jinshi. I like then that we get progressive and subtle glimpses of how she starts to let her guard down and feel more at ease in jinshis presence, that she becomes a little bit more rude, outspoken, direct with her observations and conclusions in her investigations. We get to see her talk more and narrate less, and I find it such clever and subtle way to show that she is warming up to him.

[exaltior-a]

Every day I try not to be a hater to people in fandom who completely fall for a characters facade or false perception of themselves. Like girl the narrative device tricked you.

[adhderall]

well as you can see besides being ugly as all fuck I'm also extremely bitter so that doesn't help at all in making me appealing. but it also comes with the territory you see, being treated as a hideous freak of nature for your whole life kind of does things to your psyche.

also going into shit in the tags as an extreeeemely jaded individual who's been on every side of the discourse and KNOWS it all VERY PERSONALLY so I know many people will find all sorts of different reasons to hate me (if they want ig) because I'm ~politically homeless~ at this point because I'm sick and tired of everything but whatever

(also fuck I ran out of space in the tags so another post maybe idk. )

[e8luhs]

being traumatized is crazy. ive been living in the same metaphorical home in my mind for the past 22 years and i am finally moving out and now that im moving out im looking at that old home in my mind and im going "oh my god the floorboards are rotting out there are leaks everywhere the ceiling is caving in theres black mold theres roaches in the walls how did i live like this for so long and not realize something was direly direly wrong" but it is because that house was all i have known. the maladaptive coping mechanisms and the incredibly fucked up rewiring of my brain is all ive known for 22 years and im only just now realizing how deep it goes

[basilpaste]

I’M SO SORRY I SAW YOUR VERSION OF THE ISABOOB RANT FIRST AND I THOUGHT YOU WERE BEING LIKE. UNIRONIC. LIKE I WAS GENUINELY CONSIDERING UNFOLLOWING BECAUSE LIKE WHAT?? I WAS GIVING YOU THE BENEFIT OF THE DOUBT BECAUSE I DIDN'T KNOW THE CONTEXT AND I THOUGHT IT WAS LIKE COMMENTARY ON SOME BIG ISAT FANDOM DRAMA I HAD MISSED I'm so glad i know it's parody now. like. thank god you're sane. I’m so sorry

NO HOLY SHIT I SHOULD HAVE LIKE. MARKED IT AS A COPYPASTA.

pix, pastell, and i (and a handful of our other pals) have been clowning on the ask pix got all day. the post was inside baseball which is why it wasnt rebloggable.

i, for the record, believe that a: the isaboobs post literally isnt sexual it was a bit that i think was posted because of a vc joke??? or at least a discord joke. and b: its important for minors to be friends with people who are older than them and for people to not act like 17 year olds are incapable of making jokes that air on the side of raunchy. and also c: its a screenshot of an actual asset in the game with the caption 'isaboobs' and not that deep.

[abimee]

ruyan is literally so beautiful that i get ill looking at her

[5hrignold]

i like to think charlie was just really annoying about the events of episode 8 for a while. whenever he has to do something he doesn’t want to he’s like remember what happened last time you forced me to do something? and he always uses the excuse ‘cmon i was literally born like yesterday’ for absolutely anything even when it’s been like half a year since it happened

[thresholdbb]

Do we need to yell about Kate Mulgrew at 2 in the morning? Not at all

But do we need to? Yes, absolutely

[pikslasrce]

evil rpf where you can see something happening but you dont like it one bit and want it to end

[bandtrees]

“My only hope is for one word. A simple, trivial word from a certain person…”

bungou stray dogs is an anime that iv had a fondness for since like..2018. but only now am i doing fanart for it, as iv gotten back into it via a rewatch with my friend ^_^ akutagawa was my favorite character as a mentally ill 15 year old and continues to be my favorite character as a mentally ill 20 year old

[lanshappycorner]

Sometimes I look outside my scope of mutuals and I'm like.....I'm glad I'm not them (whole essay in the tags)

[socialpermadeath]

Right wing politicians want to "return to the good old days" but don't want to bring back the 91% to 92% marginal tax rate of 1950-1963. Those are the good old days you're talking about and a lot of what made them good was that "excessive" tax for the top 1%.

[itsbrucey]

Sorry guys I live for three things and that's D&D, Bears, and my Ocs and I've been trying to draw my little guys more bc they make my brain BLEED

Fun little chart thing so I can just. Be free . And now you gotta look. I'm still drawing DnDads stuff too DON'T SWEAT!!!!! like here look

Glenn Wip.

[jakowskis]

shout out to the way i wrote an 8k owandy thing in one go two months back but then i stopped bc i hit a sappy part where they were gonna talk abt Feelings n my emotionally stunted ass pussied out JGKFKFK owen ass moment of me. andy was like can we PLS hav transparent communication here and me and owen in the fic both went 😬 lmaooo

[its-no-biggie]

okay idk who needs to hear this but ive seen it in so many fics and its a huge pet peeve of mine. if youre writing a character getting choked (as in, grabbed around the neck) and you want them to pass out and not require an urgent hospital visit, you should not be describing them having a hard time breathing or "cutting off airflow".

like, okay. in order to make someone pass out, you have to prevent oxygen from getting to their brain. and on its own this wont do any major damage as long as the brain starts getting oxygen again very soon (it cant go more than a couple minutes without or youll start getting permanent brain damage). [NOTE: im not a medical professional. its probably not very good for you to deprive your brain of oxygen at all. but like for fanfic purposes theyll be fine afterward as long as they start getting air again right away.] so you can do this by preventing oxygen from getting into their body at all (i.e blocking their airway), OR you can prevent blood from carrying oxygen to the brain by cutting off circulation. and when youre talking about grabbing the neck from the outside, that second one is absolutely the one you want.

now, it is possible to choke someone out in a way that restricts airflow- by applying pressure to the front of the neck and crushing the windpipe. and this is what i usually see described in fanfic, BUT damage to your windpipe is extremely bad news. needs-immediate-attention-or-you-could-die bad news. you can certainly write this one if thats what youre going for- its also extremely painful so i can certainly see it having uses. and if the goal is to KILL someone by choking them, then this is obviously a perfectly fine method. but if you want someone to pass out from restricted airflow WITHOUT needing an ambulance, a tight seal over the mouth and nose is a much much better way to go. its not that hard to accomplish- any kind of plastic bag will make a nice tight seal. im sure duct tape over the mouth and then plugging the nose would also do the trick. additionally, sticking..... *ahem* /something/ down their throat far enough to completely block their airway would do the same thing, as long as you have a way to get it back out so they can breathe again.

but theres a nice easy way to cut off circulation to the brain- theres a major vein and artery on the sides of the neck that take blood to and from the brain (the carotid vein/artey). so by squeezing the sides of the neck, you can make someone pass out while doing almost no damage at all- it doesnt take a lot of pressure, so it might not even hurt that much. but you know when you wrap something a little too tight around your finger, and it swells up and turns red and gets that kinda pressure feeling in it? the same thing happens in your head. you can even try it for yourself- squeeze the sides of your neck for a couple seconds and see what it feels like.

and since the bloodflow is cut off, air can be coming in and out of the lungs just fine but none of it will get to the brain. (this way can also kill someone btw. although i imagine it would be less painful.) you may have heard people talk about this technique in terms of being safe in the bedroom, but thats not because it "feels good". it makes you pass out, which can be erotic in certain contexts, but even if youre into it it probably wont be a fun time outside of a controlled environment. and this is also the way they do it in some martial arts- youve probably seen a chokehold at some point, where they have their whole arm wrapped around their opponents neck? theyre not pulling back to put pressure on the front, theyre squeezing with the elbow to put pressure on the sides.

"but if i cant describe them struggling to breathe or pain in their neck, what can i describe?" good news friend, i have had the displeasure of almost passing out on several occasions, and i can describe the kinds of things that happen! first youll start to feel lightheaded, and that will keep getting stronger and stronger. you feel kind of disoriented and like youre going to fall over. might get a bit nauseous. your hearing will gradually fade out until everything sounds kinda muffled and far away, which makes your own voice sound really loud in comparison. then your vision will start to go black around the edges, and your ears will start ringing, and presumably that will get worse and worse until you cant even see or hear anymore. im guessing at this point you would probably fall over and that would be it. out like a light.

its a scary feeling! youll probably go into fight or flight pretty much right away (even if youre doing it consensually- your body will think youre in danger and act accordingly. from what i understand, thats part of the appeal- its like the thrill of riding a rollercoaster), so your heartrate and breathing will speed up and other things that happen in fight or flight. also, i described it as really slow but it can take anywhere from 5 seconds to several minutes depending on how much of the oxygen is cut off. like when someone sees blood and then passes out right away? yeah thats a real thing. and that happens so fast you probably wouldnt register what was happening before you were out. but getting choked out would probably take at least 10-15 seconds if i had to guess, longer if theyre doing it poorly.

anyway im not a writer so i dont have much in terms of specific writing advice like pacing or what to focus on or whatever. and im not an expert either- all of this is based on martial arts knowledge, basic biology and anecdotal evidence, so feel free to correct me on anything ive said here. and obviously you dont have to write it to be perfectly realistic if you dont want- im just trying to share some info about this for anyone who didnt know how it works and wants to write a more accurate portrayal