#is any reading is going to contain both positive and negative things
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ngl i always find it a red flag when someone’s like viciously aggressive towards astrology bc some people’s response is so out of proportion. it’s fine to dislike it or completely disbelieve it & think it’s a waste of time but literally part of being an adult is learning to coexist with other people’s beliefs. the reason responses to astrology in particular are so telling is because you’d have to reach extremely hard to demonstrate any meaningful harm being perpetrated via so its obvious that your response to a little bit of whimsy is to act like a giant baby
#n its so awkward#when people are just very casually being like 'im an aries lol\#and someone goes on this fullblown extremely aggressive tirade#like no one is as serious abt astrology as Astrology Haters believe#i always find myself saying things like 'well obviously if someone is breaking up with their partner because they didn't like their chart'#but then i stop myself because uhhhh. no one has ever fucking done that in the history of earth#and generally when ppl say things like oh my ex was a virgo i should've known or w/e its like because that's a cathartic way for them to#process what happened etc#& one of the reasons things like astrology are like. undeniably helpful regardless if there's 'truth' to them#is any reading is going to contain both positive and negative things#if you have repressed concerns you arent allowing yourself to admit then looking at a tarot spread or a synastry chart is probably going to#present those things to you in a voice you can convince yourself isnt your own and therefore might be prepared to let it speak#so if you ever do get the impression someone's done something drastic based on something like that literally the likelihood is that it was#already within them in which case its a very good thing that whatever form of woo allowed it to come out.#ANYWAY!
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I think I may be autistic but I have no idea what to do with this information and I'm also kind of worried im trying to make myself fit into it if that makes sense? I have been diagnosed with ADHD officially, but I'm not sure, maybe I have both?
"Am I Autistic or Not" isn't really a helpful question. It's so big, and so abstract. Try asking yourself questions that are smaller and more concrete. Things like:
Which sensations are really difficult for me to handle? Do I experience sensory overloads? What can I do to reduce or prevent future sensory overloads?
Which sensations are really pleasurable for me? How can I incorporate more of those sensations into my life?
What activities or topics do I find very stimulating, thought-provoking, or exciting? How can I make more time in my life for pursuing those activities? Where can I meet other people who also enjoy those things?
Which aspects of socializing do I find hard? What do I find draining, uncomfortable, or confusing? Is there anyone I can ask for help understanding the things I find confusing? Are there social performances I can try doing less often, or less intensely?
Which activities seem to drain me more than other people, and how can I get the rest I need? Do I need far more recharge time after socializing than most people I know? Do organizational or administrative tasks like cleaning my house or answering emails take a lot of out me? Is there anyone I can ask for support, or any responsibilities I can let go of (or half ass)?
Finally, where do I feel at home? Which spaces make me feel comfortable? Which communities seem to get me? Who do I enjoy being around? Who brings out a playful, lighter, opener side of me? Where do I hate being and who do I dread being around? What do I need out of my home environment in order to feel at peace? How can I bring more of the positive into my life and reduce my contact with the negative?
Are you Autistic, Anon? -- my answer is, who cares? It doesn't matter. You don't ever have to answer that if you don't want to. Use whatever term you want, whenever it feels right. In the meantime, find the spaces, experiences, and people that help you feel less broken. That might include Autistic spaces, as well as other neurodivergent or queer ones. That's fine. Explore widely. Each one of us is a complex enough person that we can't be contained entirely by a single community, identity label, or space.
Private questions of identity matter very little if we aren't actually living out that identity in community with other people. Find the spaces, people, and activities that are good for you -- and if many of them are also very good for Autistic people, well then congrats, you're our kin, whether your choose to adopt the label or not.
Further reading:
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I mean, let's say the man's Venus sextiles my Saturn, but my venus squares his Saturn.... But there's his Mars conjunct my Lilith (trine sun) and his Eros conjunct my Mars..... Man, I'd really like a synastry reading in exchange for my dream interpretation (i interpret dream/nightmares)
aspects in synastry and composite charts (venus edition)
after a shorter fun post from the same asker about a year ago, i have decided to trial the start a series after popular demand (sorry i'm running behind schedule)! i am starting in the middle of the chart per the request and after chatting with the asker offline. by middle of the series, i mean that i will not be talking about aspects to planets/luminaries before venus in this post - all planets after venus will be included. when an ask is made for planets/luminaries before venus i will go back to aspects where venus is involved (if that makes sense lol).
all of this is in my opinion. some of it you may be like how tf did she come up with this. my answer: intuition and experience with other people's charts that i have available to me. warning i can be harsh: please don't take everything i say as predestined, astrology is possible outcomes not guaranteed ones. plus let's not forget orbs matter, dominance matters, etc. this is just a starting place for when examining a single planet in an entire galaxy. take what resonates and leave what doesn't!
TW: sexual assault, abuse, and infertility.
ADDITIONAL WARNING: this post does contain mature content.
let's begin!
venus-venus
synastry: positive aspects: you can see the admiration for one another. anyone who sees the two of you together can see you both absolutely adore each other. venus-venus couples may get married to one another at some point because venus represents alliances, companionship, lovers, marriage, suitors, and proposals - at the very least, you two may date for a very long time or go to a big milestone event together like prom. you two are likely very affectionate with one another; you do small things for one another that are utterly heartwarming and adorable - could be holding/opening the door, one person giving their coat to the other, etc. you both often check with one another if what you/they are doing "is okay." in a feminine-masculine relationship the masculine is likely a feminist and lets the feminine be dominant / in charge of the relationship. the masculine in such a relationship may also be a gentlemen and unwilling to do or act in any way that makes the feminine partner feel uncomfortable. you two are constantly flirting with one another. you both are probably very hopeful of this union especially since you likely have a lot of fun together. negative aspects: it is extremely difficult for others to tell if you two really don't like one another. some people may think it is sexual tension or a lovers' quarrel, but you two are likely not each other's biggest fans. you could reject each other's advances - this is the equivalent of receiving the retort "you're not even that hot" after you tell someone you won't go out with them. these people aren't long-term lovers; this is the couple everyone thought would be cute together, but they truly hate one another...
venus-mars
synastry: positive aspects: mars person likely performs a lot of acts of service to show that they care for venus person; mars person seemingly worships venus person. the mars person will likely be the first to make a move or ask the venus person out - it could also indicate that the mars person proposes to the venus person (mars is action and venus is commitment and alliances). mars person is likely to find the venus person to be an aphrodisiac; everything about the venus person turns on the mars person - smell, taste, looks, etc. negative aspects: mars person is likely to do a lot for the venus person but often feels unnoticed or a lack of gratitude for doing so. mars person is prone to starting arguments, while a venus person frequently is the type to immaturely interact with them in response (silent treatment, eye-rolls, etc.). mars person is likely to assert their thoughts and opinions in the connection, while the venus person longs for a true partner who sees and treats them as their equal. (***TW***) the mars person may be belligerent/abusive in the connection and likely has so much ambition regarding the relationship that they frequently ignore or cross the boundaries the venus person sets - the mars person is often impatient and thus can rush the physical aspects of the connection (raped, molestation, etc. ***END OF TW MATERIAL***). mars person is likely to underestimate and be unappreciative of the venus person's power - often a mars person will see a venus person as harmless, meek, and/or "cute". pain is a commonality with this synastry aspect / interaction - the mars person frequently causes the venus person wounds/pain that will take a while for them to heal from. venus person can be too lazy for the mars person's liking. venus person may also have a lot of false expectations/hopes regarding the mars person's character.
composite: positive aspects: this is super erotic in a composite chart - mars brings the idea of passion and venus brings the idea of amorousness. this couple often is constantly doing things for one another to show that they love, care, and think about the other person when they are not around one another. they often are the couple who appears to enjoy a lot of public displays of affection from one another - they appear as those they are intoxicated by / addicted to one another. negative aspects: it could feel as though this connection is about competing with one another rather than aiding one another to be their best selves. often this connection is quick to fizzle out. both individuals in the partnership might lack gratitude for each other and what they do for one another. it may feel like this couple is constantly arguing with one another and that there is a lot of immaturity in the connection because of how the two argue (they are both unwilling to compromise in most cases). there tends to be an obvious power margin between the two in the connection. both parties can often cross each other's boundaries and cause discomfort for one another in the connection. the two may underestimate each other in the connection and be pleasantly surprised or utterly unsurprised, which causes a strain (they may cite the other as incapable - their lack of ability is why the connection didn't work out). each person may feel the connection has a strain and that they are wounded from/by the relationship.
venus-jupiter
synastry: positive aspects: venus person generally looks up to jupiter person and admires their achievements. venus person is also enamored by the jupiter person's ability to keep their word. venus person often will celebrate the jupiter person's wins. these two are a match made in heaven - venus person often feels jaded and/or hurt in their connections, while jupiter person knows the perfect thing to say to make the venus person feel better and more secure in the connection. for the venus person, the jupiter person is the most understanding and accepting individual they know when it comes to the validation and reassurance they need. the jupiter person tends to be the knight in shining armor to the venus person's princess in a tower. the gentlemanly jupiter person is often the king of consent; which is extremely appreciated by venus person. the jupiter person's desire for the venus person is often very obvious. jupiter person often proposes to the venus person. the jupiter person often likes to spend a lot of time with and money on the venus person. negative aspects: venus person could envy what the jupiter has and has achieved in life. jupiter person may feel as though they can't 100% rely on the venus person to consistently do what they said they would. the venus person can feel like the jupiter person is gaslighting them or feeding them only what they want to hear (venus person may question the jupiter person's genuineness to them; it might be too good to be true). venus person might feel as though the jupiter person is a misogynist. the jupiter person may feel that they love the venus person more than the venus person loves them. venus person may feel that the jupiter person is extremely clingy. jupiter person may eventually get tired of apologizing and become standoffish: "i don't know what you want from me". venus person can default to immature commentary during fights saying things that are meant to hurt the jupiter person's self-esteem. jupiter person might feel as though they do more in the connection than the venus person does. jupiter person may be a bit careless/unappreciative when it comes to the acts of service or romantic gestures that the venus person makes. jupiter person can be a bit stoic when they are in an argument with the venus person. jupiter person often seeks to improve their connection, while venus person might be too lax to change/improve their connection. the jupiter person can be a bit too possessive for the venus person.
composite: positive aspects: there is a visible abundance of admiration for one another in this connection - they are extremely wholesome and cute together. often the couple is very strong together and can achieve a lot together in the alliance they have with one another. often this couple is very content with each other. they boost one another's confidence and celebrate their wins as a couple (usually, anniversaries are big for this couple). they are very supportive of one another. this pairing knows how to have fun together, and they are often engaged in flirty banter. this couple is often hopeful of a long-term connection - they often get married to one another. frequently, someone loses their virginity in this connection, and/or they often have children together. make up sex is real in this connection - and they both are very generous towards one another in the bedroom. erotic devotion is very clear in the connection. negative aspects: sometimes people see these two as an old married couple - they bicker and give each other a hard time. sometimes, it might seem likely they are putting each other down. it may seem as though the feminine is extremely dependent on the masculine and as though they are trapped by the masculine in the connection. feminines may feel like they are forced into a submissive role in these connections. they might seem to want a lot of space from one another and could even sleep in two different bedrooms. it might seem as though the couple has given up on their own connection with one another.
venus-saturn
synastry: positive aspects: venus person often appreciates the saturn person's ambition and their determined attitude - venus person appreciates that they aren't quitters. venus person knows that one day saturn person will be what they want them to be and do what they want them to do because of their determination. saturn person is often very serious when it comes to building a solid foundation and future with the venus person. the saturn person is often very loyal towards the venus person and never would do something to them that would make them feel betrayed. saturn person has a sense of duty towards venus person and tends to do whatever it takes to please them and make them feel content and cared for in the connection. saturn person picks up on the venus person's habits/idiosyncrasies via self-other overlap. a masculine saturn person is often willing to submit to a feminine venus person. venus person knows that they can rely on the saturn person. saturn person often shares their customs with the venus person. saturn person is very patient with the venus person. negative aspects: venus person may feel that saturn person is hesitant to appreciate them the way they want them to. saturn person can feel apprehensive about getting into a relationship with a venus person. this is likely a relationship in which a saturn person represses and denies their admiration for venus person; whether this emotional admiration exists depends on the moon, while sexual/physical admiration depends on mars and pluto. venus person may not receive the commitment from the saturn person that they crave. saturn person may find they are repulsed by venus person post-coital encounter or say that all they can offer venus person is sex. (***TW***) venus person is likely to have their beauty diminished by the saturn person. saturn can represent disdain, grudges, harm, and hatred, while venus can represent the erotic and consent. this combination with a negative aspect, and depending on the tightness of the orb, can indicate the possibility of sexual assault done by the saturn person; see the story of priapus (***END OF TW MATERIAL***). venus person is unlikely to feel contented with the saturn person long term. if the venus person is masculine, they may be ungentlemanly and lose their chivalrous manner when in a more lowkey relationship with the saturn person - as the saturn person seems to lack gratitude for the venus person's manner and mannerisms. the venus person's immaturity in a romantic relationship may be emphasized due to the saturn person's inability to commit to them. venus person may propose to the saturn person, and the saturn person is likely to reject them. venus person may find saturn person boring after a while, and saturn person may find that venus person cannot be serious after a while. saturn person may fear a long-term connection with the venus person - they could feel as though they can't trust the venus person. saturn person may feel neglected in the connection. venus person may trigger the saturn person's previously experienced trauma to the point of a regressive episode. saturn person could feel rejected by the venus person.
composite: positive aspects: this is a great indicator of a monogamous relationship that is long-lasting. this couple often shares the burdens of life with one another. this couple is often so committed and proud of their coupling that they are the type to promote they are together (monograms, mrs. & mr. shirts, rings 24/7, etc). other couples are the "private but not secret" types that we frequently see on social media (pictures together without one of their faces in the image). negative aspects: this couple may be unappreciative of one another: kind gestures are often overlooked, they neglect one another, they don't seem affectionate/adoring of one another, etc. the couple likely doesn't know how to do nothing in peace with one another - they might not be capable of just relaxing with one another because it feels "awkward". this connection can be very short-lived in some cases because there is likely a lack of romantic commitment between them. (***TW***) there may be sexual aggression between the two (***END OF TW MATERIAL***) or a regret regarding coital interaction. there is likely a lack of honor/chivalry in the relationship - this relationship could present as immature and having plenty of arguments as neither partner is well suited for the other. the coupling could be built on the individuals' shared fear of being alone for the rest of their lives.
venus-uranus
synastry: positive aspects: uranus person may abruptly tell venus person that they like them. the uranus person is often very submissive to the venus person outside of the public's vantage point. often the uranus person is curious about the venus person and will do some sleuthing about them. venus person is typically touched by their interest and fandomship towards their brand. venus person often looks up to uranus person for their intelligence and generally is intrigued by their mind. the uranus person can be very prompt in communicating with the venus person. venus person tends to appreciate the uranus person's ability to be extremely honest in any situation. venus person often finds uranus person's unpredictability to be incredibly attractive. negative aspects: uranus person could cheat on the venus person in some cases. if they are married at that point, the uranus person frequently has to pay alimony to the venus person. venus person is often bossed around by the uranus person and most of the time that irks them. uranus person is known for having emotionally hurt ex-lovers that might get in the way of the uranus person having a successful relationship with the venus person. this is because often the venus person finds information where the uranus person has, for example, a string of texts in which their exes are asking to get back together with them or the exes are angrily messaging them. uranus person can very quickly change their mind about the venus person and withdraw completely from the connection - a lot of the time, this is one of those connections where they disappear with all their stuff taken from the house overnight or before the venus person gets home. uranus person can discover that the venus person was cheating on them, sort of like how hepheatus discovered aphrodite cheating on him. uranus person may be inconsistent when interacting with the venus person. often, the uranus person wants freedom in the relationship or for the relationship to remain inclusive/"open". the uranus person sometimes rejects the venus person's advances and can even be revulsed by the venus person in some cases.
composite: positive aspects: this coupling is quick to come together - one minute they are just friends, and in the next, they are in a committed relationship. in some cases, these two elope or have a "shotgun" wedding. these couples are open to experimentation and/or a third (fourth, fifth, sixth, etc.) person in the connection. this couple often has a healthy sex life, in which they frequently partake in coital relations. these two feel very lucky to have found one another because they share a lot of "unpopular opinions/views" regarding relationships. sometimes, this couple attempts a trial separation and comes back together stronger than before. negative aspects: sometimes there is some heavy drama in this connection where those involved are alleged "swingers", someone is cheating on someone, etc. not everything that you hear about this couple is always true - oftentimes, there is something worth uncovering about this connection. this relationship doesn't typically end cleanly - often, there are a lot of fights and dramatics. this is the couple in which one person wallpapers the room with text messages to show that they knew the other one of them cheated, someone slashes the tires of the other person's car, one person gets locked out and the other throws all their belongings out of the window, etc. sometimes an "illegitimate child" appears in this connection which causes strain. (***TW***) alternatively, it could be very difficult for this couple to become pregnant and have a successful birth (***END OF TW MATERIAL***). sometimes, these individuals are in a falsified relationship so they can get governmental benefits or security.
venus-neptune
synastry: positive aspects: venus person finds neptune person to be alluring and often finds their chaos and creature mind to be beautiful. the neptune person is the first to confess their feelings for the venus person. venus person can be fascinated by the neptune person. with the neptune person, the venus person can feel as though the relationship is the best one that they have ever been in. venus person can feel as though the neptune person is always reading their mind with how attentive they are towards the venus person. the neptune person is often very comfortable with being vulnerable toward the venus person. neptune person is very sympathetic towards the venus person. negative aspects: neptune person could be hiding a whole other relationship from venus person or could be merely cheating on the venus person in a more lax manner. neptune person is the type to disguise themself in public when with or without the venus person - they often want no one to know what they are up to in terms of their romantic relationships. this is likely to bother showy venus who wants everyone to know that they are in love with one another. neptune person tends to be too emotionally unpredictable for the venus person. the neptune person might be insecure about the connection with the venus person because they see the venus person as better than them. neptune person could be a poor wing person for venus person by misrepresenting who they are.
composite: positive aspects: these two tend to be addicted to one another. they often are the couple that will wear matching outfits or appear as though all that exists in the world is them as a couple. this couple tends to be sex-positive and might enjoy spicing up their sex life by making a tape together. this is one of those couples who are in a "private but not secret" relationship - they will post faceless pictures together, that they are going somewhere with "their love", etc. this relationship can feel almost dream-like or as though it is a fairytale. it can feel as though this couple reads each other's minds. a wedding between these two is always so beautiful because they write gorgeously, poetic vows to one another. negative aspects: there is a tendency for these two to become codependent on one another - they can't do things apart without one of them getting annoyed/angry/paranoid about the distance. this couple can be extremely chaotic - in a single day, they could be happy and holding hands, then in mere minutes, they could be arguing over a notification, then one could be threatening to move out, then they could be planning their next vacation together. both individuals can have a history of cheating and not being faithful to one another - so they are likely both suspicious of each other. (***TW***) one of the individuals in the connection might film the other, who may or may not know about the filming, during coital relations then leak the tape on the internet (***END OF TW MATERIAL***). often there is a scandal that arises from this relationship.
venus-pluto
synastry: positive aspects: the venus often feels alive around the pluto person. the pluto person has a gift in awakening the venus person to their surroundings and even who they are and what they are worth. very quickly this relationship becomes exclusive because most pluto people aren't comfortable with inclusive/"open" relationships. venus person is often content in this connection because the obsessive pluto person is willing to do anything they want to keep them happy. the pluto person is likely to treat the venus person like their queen/king. venus person is very grateful for the protective pluto person. negative aspects: pluto person doesn't tend to be trustworthy - they keep a lot of things to themselves and can even keep a sidechick or secret relationship from the venus person. because of this, the venus person should be careful where STIs/STDs are involved (use protection, get tested regularly, see their gynecologist regularly, etc). (***TW***) the pluto person often has an extremely high sex drive, and sometimes, in certain cases, the pluto person can not control their sexual impulses or simply enjoys the power they feel when having sex, so they might sexually assault the venus person (***END OF TW MATERIAL***). venus person tends to be more morally upholding than the pluto person - the venus person can sometimes find what the pluto person does to be "morally atrocious". the venus person is often baffled by what they learn from the pluto person, often it has to do with their obsessive nature or how they betrayed others or even the venus person. pluto people often hurt the venus person - frequently, this is physically or emotionally. venus person comes to loath the pluto person or view them as "evil". pluto person might degrade the venus person and make them feel bad about themselves physically and emotionally. pluto person often feels guilt that they aren't more helpful or better at being in the relationship with the venus person. venus person can feel like the pluto person lies to them very often - the pluto person often is lying to the venus person though they may attempt to gaslight the venus person to cover up their lies. venus person may want to marry the pluto person, but the pluto person may not believe in the institution of marriage.
composite: positive aspects: this is a power couple, and they know it. the couple is happy to exclusively date for a long time - they could keep their relationship on the down-low for a while as well. this is the couple who makes a lot of lewd jokes with one another, and often, you can see that they are comfortable around one another - they can make these jokes without feeling weird or without ignoring one another. they are generally just a super flirty couple. they are the type of couple that keeps each other's nudes in their wallets. sexually, there is often a component of BDSM in these relationships that brings life to their connection and makes both partners extremely pleased. this coupling, in general, reminds me of the smutty novels. this couple may even go to sex parties with one another for fun. negative aspects: this couple often meets unconventionally - on a date with other people, when they are dating someone else, etc. the relationship is typically not long-lasting - sometimes it feels like the relationship is like a vase of flowers that withers away day by day (beautiful and thoughtful at first then smelly, attracting bugs, and rotting away). this couple might have a difference of philosophies that gets in the way of this relationship progressing - for example, pluto can bring nihilism into the relationship "what is the point? nothing matters anyway." the relationship can't grow if both parties do not wish to work on it.
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Say You’re Mine - Miniseries
READ PART ONE HERE
Noah Sebastian x Reader
Warning: MDNI! This miniseries contains triggers that may cause a negative effect to the consumer. This includes cheating, forced proximity, toxic dom/sub dynamics, unhealthy relationships, alcohol, coercion, manipulation, unprotected piv (don’t do this). The reader is consenting and allows these things to happen to them.
Authors note: Thank you so much for the positive feedback! I hope you enjoy part two as much as I did writing it! If this isn’t something you don’t want to read please avoid and I’ll catch you on the next one! If I missed any other triggers please dm me so I can add them. I want you all to be safe when reading my fanfics. Your mental health matters. 🖤
Part Two.
It’s only been a week since you last saw Noah. You’ve been on edge ever since your last “endeavor” with him. Ryan hasn’t noticed anything different, of course he hasn’t. You feel bad that you allowed Noah to manipulate you so easily. It’s what he does best.
A group chat message is sent out about a get together today around noon. Your stomach drops when you see that Ryan replied that you two would be attending.
“I don’t want to go, Ryan” you say immediately when he walks out of the bathroom. He looks at you with a confused expression on his face.
“Why? You had fun last week at the Halloween party, right? I was bummed I couldn’t go” he sighed, sitting down on the couch as you stood in the kitchen making breakfast for the two of you.
You look up to meet his gaze, you offer a smile.
“I did…but it wasn’t the same without you.” You grab the spatula mixing the eggs together, making sure they cook through completely. The buzzer on the toaster goes off signaling the toast is done. He watches you gather everything together for you both, he comes to the table and helps you set up the table.
“Come on, y/n. It’ll be fun. Besides, your plus one will be with you. Please, baby” he gives you that damn pouty lip and puppy dog eyes. You laugh. You step up on your toes to give him a kiss. His green eyes staring into yours with so much love. It made you queasy that you messed around with Noah. The guilt is eating you up inside, yet, you couldn’t bring yourself to tell him the truth of what happened.
“You’re annoying, haha, okay fine. We can go.” He fist bumps the air, you laugh again as you bring over the rest of the dishes for breakfast. He lets you set down everything and wraps his arms around you, bringing you into a passionate kiss.
—
You and Ryan arrived at the house. Ryan shuts off the car, taking out the keys, and gets out making his way to your side to open the door. You thank him, your heart is pounding, your palms are sweaty. You truly don’t want to be here. You don’t want to be put in the same situation again. You don’t want that temptation to be presented to you. Ryan walks in front of you to knock on the door, jolly answers with a hello and smile. Jolly steps aside to let you and Ryan in. Your eyes darted around the room to look for Noah. You’re taken away from your thoughts. You smile, hugging jolly and the rest of the guys. Ryan went off with the guys and you are alone. You walk over to the kitchen, spotting the cooler, and opening it to get out a cold bottle of water. You twist the lid, drinking a large gulp. You look over to see Noah looking at you. You freeze in place, like a deer caught in headlights.
Noah smirks, pocketing his phone. He crosses his arms and sinks into the couch. He’s watching you like a predator watching his prey. You could tell by his widening smile that he loved the effect he had on you. He loved how nervous you would get in his presence. He had you right where he wanted. He couldn’t help himself as his eyes trailed along every inch of you. You are exactly how he wanted you tonight. Uneasy and on edge. He is loving every second of it. You find the courage to follow Ryan, and the guys. You didn’t want to give Noah an opportunity to mess with you, because by the looks of it. He is enjoying this twisted game.
As the night went on, you kept close to Ryan. He had his arm wrapped around your shoulder. His gentle caresses up and down your arm. He places a kiss on your cheek. In the midst of the chatting, you excuse yourself to go to the bathroom. Ryan lets go of you and goes back to the conversation. You look over to see Noah isn’t anywhere in sight. You breathe a sigh of relief as you walk down the hallway to the bathroom.
You close the bathroom door behind you. You turn to the mirror. You look a mess. You run your fingers through your hair to fix what you could. Why did he have such an effect on you like this? You close your eyes, inhaling and exhaling. He must’ve left. You haven’t noticed him for a while. You hear footsteps, your eyes moving towards the door. You realize you didn’t lock it. You rush to the door. Noah pushes the door open, quickly pinning you to the wall as he shuts the door locking it. You yelp, everything is happening so quickly. You look up and whimper. His hand instantly finds your jaw, holding you still as his hand tilts your head to look up at him, his face close to yours.
"Look at you…all fidgety, nervous…and I’ve barely done anything"
“Noah…you need to leave” His hand cups your jaw, his hold is firm. His voice is low as his thumb softly rubs your chin.
"You know I’m not going anywhere, right?"
“My boyfriend is here.” You move away from him. You turn your body around to face the counter, and bathroom mirror.
"I know you can't help how you get all worked up for me.” He gets close and presses his chest against your back. You look up at his reflection in the mirror. It’s all too much. This close proximity of him. You try to turn, he holds you in place. He bends forward resting his chin on your shoulder.
“Please..” You don’t know what you’re begging for.
"Please what? Tell me what you want.”
“I’m going to leave this bathroom, and you are not going to follow me.” You glare at him in the mirror. That smug look is a permanent expression on his face as he listens to you.
"You know you don't mean that. You know you need me to touch you again. I own this body, and you know it.” He purrs, his hand trails along your side. Once again, you are at his mercy. You grip the counter. His hands trailing down your back. He pulls your hips against him.
"There it is. Poor thing, look at you. You’re already reacting to me, and I’ve barely done anything.” He says, rubbing his hand along your lower back. You look at his expression. His eyes are trailing over your body as you’re pressed up against him. You whine at his touch, his arousal right up against you. He smirks, biting his lip, meeting your gaze in the mirror. His hand slowly dancing along your waist, and over your hip bone.
"You know what’s funny? You keep acting like you don’t want this, like you don’t want me. Here you are, pinned against the counter, my hands roaming over your body. You haven’t told me to stop. I think you’re lying to yourself.” He snickers, his fingertips caressing your inner thigh.
"I know you need me. You’re a desperate little thing, aren’t you?”
“Noah…I…I” You look away from his gaze. He’s quick to turn your head to look up at him.
"Do you want me to stop?" His voice is low and husky. His eyes search yours, waiting for your response. You nod your head yes.
"You want me to stop touching you? You want me not to take control, is that right?" A wicked grin spreads across his face. He pulls away slightly, only to settle next to your ear. You return your gaze to the mirror. You lock eyes with him. Did you want him to stop? His smirk grows, knowing he's got you right where he wants you.
“I…” You hear the knock on the door. Noah smirks, the asshole.
“Yes? Occupied.”
“Y/n? You okay in there?” Your eyes widened. Fuck. It’s Ryan. You struggle to find the right words. Noah’s eyes wandering over your body, the door knob is jiggling.
“I…my stomach hurts…I think it was the food we ate earlier” you say calmly, if he only knew your heart was racing. Noah chuckles darkly in your ear.
“You want me to take you home? Or you want to lay down?” Your heart aches hearing his concerned voice. He truly cares about you. You sigh, looking up at Noah’s reflection in the mirror. You should be telling Noah to fuck off, but you can’t. His hand rubbed your inner thigh softly, seeing how this was such a perfect opportunity. He could do whatever he wanted. Even when your boyfriend is at the door. You are his, and he knew you are weak beneath him. You couldn’t deny him. You grip the counter tighter, trying to not moan or make a sound as he ran a hand over your pussy.
“N-no…I’ll..I’ll lay down after I’m done in here” You try smacking Noah’s hand away, he grabs your wrists, holding them behind your back.
“Okay, babe. Let me know if you need anything.” You hear him walk away.
“So what are you going to do, huh? Get me all riled up again then stop? That’s your plan, right?” His grip on your wrists loosen, letting your hands free. They go back to the counter to steady yourself. His fingers slowly dance along your inner thighs, trailing over your clit. You whine, you look up at him. You feel your arousal soaking your underwear.
"Your boyfriend is outside right now, you know? I'm pretty sure you're supposed to be with him, yet you're right here in your ex's arms. You’re whimpering and wanting me instead.”
“Fuck off, Noah” He chuckles, his hands trailing up your spine. He pushes you down firmly against the counter. You cry out, his hand covers your mouth. He leans over you, his breath fanning over your neck.
"Look at you being so defiant when I know how badly you want me. You can't help that your body yearns for me, even just the sound of my voice makes you weak. Don’t you want to be a good girl for me?” You struggle underneath him, but it’s no use. He keeps you in place. Don’t you want to be a good girl for me? It rings loudly in your head. You shiver, the state of submission coming over you.
“Nnn..yes”
"Then say it. Admit you want me, beg me the way you used to…" His voice is low against your ear.
“I..I want you…”
"Good girl. Now admit you need me, tell me how bad you missed me, and my touch”
“I crave it. It’s all I can think about. It..it scares me how bad I want you” Your pleading expression meets his gaze. His fingers gently scratch your inner thighs as he purrs in your ear.
"That's a good girl. You’re so honest, so weak for me. Look at you trembling underneath my touch, my words. You missed this, didn't you? You missed belonging to me. Oh, but you’re forgetting something, sweet girl” He expression darkens. You know what he’s talking about. You calling him his title, the one he burned into your memory, and my god if you forget it.
“Y-yes, sir..”
His growl sends chills down your spine. You look up at him, he is quick to turn your face back to the mirror.
“That’s my good girl.”
“Please…”
"I need words, use your words. Are you going to be a good girl and tell me what you want?” He chuckles darkly as his fingertips brush over your pussy again, barely touching you. He bends close to your ear to whisper.
“I need you. Please…please…touch me” He smacks your ass hard. Your breath hitches. You jolt forward at the sudden impact from his hand. Noah chuckles darkly. He smacks your ass again. He soothes the sting causing you to squirm as he kneads your red bottom.
"Be a good girl for me, and ask me properly..."
“Please, touch me, sir”
"Good girl, where do you want me to touch you?” He smirks, loving how you beg. His roughness is all telling how badly he needed you.
“Please, touch my pussy, sir. Please.” You moan, feeling his fingers trail all the way, slowly, barely touching you. He was enjoying this, loving how a single touch from him can make you lose control.
"Right here?” You whine, a feather like touch. One to make your body tingle.
“Y-yes, sir” Your breath hitches, your head dropping low.
“Do you need me as badly as I need you?” His breath hot against your neck. He nips at the sensitive skin as he moves your underwear to the side.
“Mmm..yes, sir”
"You're being so good, behaving, begging for it. Only I can make you weak like this, right?" He chuckles darkly, and purrs in your ear.
Yes, sir. Only you make me feel like this.” He pulls his hand away. You whine as he grips your throat making you look at him in the mirror.
“You don’t act like it” He teases. He’s toying with you, breaking you down slowly to succumb to his madness. You can only whimper in response, which makes him laugh.
"Look at how you react to my voice. You’re a pathetic, whimpering mess for me.”
“Y-yes, sir”
"Good girl” He whispers. His hand moves to the middle of your back, holding you in place. He knows how badly you need him. He taps your cunt lightly, it makes your toes curl.
“F-Fuck..” The sensation alone makes your head spin. You need more.
"I won't give you what you want till you beg properly, you know that…"
“I..mmmph..” you huff. You do know that. He pulls his fingers away, you whine in protest. You look at him in the mirror.
" Ah, Ah, Ah. Use your words, and I just might continue. How badly do you need me right now?”
“Please, sir. I need you so bad. Please touch me…I’ll be good, and tell you what I want”
"Go on, be a good girl or you don't get what you want” He grins, watching you slowly turn to shambles.
“Fuck me, go down on me, finger me…please do something, sir.” You hate how desperate you sound for him. You can’t help it, he brings out this side of you.
“Good girl”
"Say it one more time for me. Tell me how badly you need me to take control. How you need me to make you feel good.”
“Please…I need you…please touch me, please take control.” You push back into him, your body is on fire. You need some kind of friction to take the ache away. He tuts at you, holding your hips in place, against him.
*He brings his hand down over your pelvis, barely touching, his fingers brushing against you.
"Tell me you belong to me…" A hushed whisper against your neck.
“I belong to you, sir. Only you.” He’s repeating the same thing he did before. No, not this game. Another part of the game is to make you fall apart, and submit to him completely, continuously tearing down your walls. He leans close and presses his chest against your back.
"Good girl, only I can make you this needy. Only I can make you mine. You missed this, didn't you?" He’s so manipulative. So persuasive with his words.
“Even when I’m with him. I think of you.” He grins. His fingers continue to tease.
"Say who owns you, pretty girl”
“You, sir”
“Only me?” He nips your shoulder. You nod your head yes.
“Say you need me. All of me” You feel his hand gliding up your back, into your hair, grabbing a handful, and tugging her hair back to look at him.
“I need all of you, sir” You wince. He smiles darkly at you in the mirror.
"I'm so close to giving you that. Can you promise you'll behave? Can you be good for me?"
“I’ll be a good girl for you, sir”
"Good…"
He rubs your thighs.
"Then beg…" He growls into your ear. Your eyes widened, you just begged him. You practically gave your vulnerable self to him. This is what he does. You have to remember that. He will keep going until there’s not a thought left in your mind, only him and his words.
“P-Please, sir. Touch me..”
"Say it…like you're desperate…" he laughs, barely touching you. It’s slowly driving you insane. He grips your hips, then wraps his hand around your throat*
“It’s all I can think about, please, sir. Please” His hand tightens around your neck, his lips brushing against your cheek.
"Good girl, tell me how bad you miss me..."
“I…I miss you so much”
"Show me how bad you need this…"
“I want you to fuck me, sir. Please, please, please!” You cringe internally, you sound so…weak. He’s right, you are so weak for him.
"Is that all you can come up with?" He grins. He nips your neck. You can hear him almost snicker at your desperation. His voice gravelly, husky as he whispers in your ear.
"Tell me how badly you need me to make you mine…"
“Noah, please. I’ve been on edge for the past week, because of you working me up, and denying me. Please, I don’t want to be toyed with anymore..”
He bites your earlobe. His voice is low and dangerous.
"And what if I continue to deny you?"
“I think I’ll go insane” He chuckles darkly, loving that you’re so needy for him, just aching for him.
"You'll do as I say, won't you? You wouldn't disobey me…"
“No, sir. I wouldn’t, please.”
"Say you belong to me.." He traces his fingers along your inner thighs.
“I belong to you, sir”
"Say it again for me.” He whispers low and dark, loving how hard it is for you to control yourself.
“I..I belong to you, sir.”
He smirks. He caresses along her body and inner thighs. It's so hard for you to not just grab his hand, and make him give you what you need.
"Say you're mine…" Your gaze returns to the mirror, his eyes locked on yours. Your knuckles are turning white from how tightly you’re gripping the counter. His warm hands running along your body, your pussy, your inner thighs.
“I’m yours..” a breathless response comes from you.
"You're mine to take control over, and you know how good I'm going to make you feel. How weak you're going to be for me..."
“Please…please touch me, sir. I can’t take it anymore” These mind games of his are starting to take their toll on you.
"You're so desperate…so needy for me…" He purrs in your ear as his fingers circle around your covered pussy. You buck into his hand.
"Say you need me so badly that you can't take any more teasing, and denial…" He nuzzles against your neck, his lips brushing against your sensitive skin. He dips his head placing a kiss on your collarbone. Your breath hitches, your eyes return to his in the mirror. Your lips part to protest, but it’s nothing more than a whine of need and desire. You let your head fall back against his chest. He holds you tightly against him. A somewhat peaceful moment between such a chaotic scene.
“I don’t want to admit how much I miss you. You’re so bad for me. I can’t help myself around you.” You feel him smirks against your skin. You feel your body melt underneath him. Your hands releasing the counter, your body weak.
"I'm so bad for you, and yet you can't resist me. How unfortunate.” He says against her neck as his hands dance over your pussy. He’s still not giving you what you want. His hands move along your thighs, he brings one up to your stomach, it trails up between the valley of your breasts, up to your neck. He ever so delicately places his hand around your throat. You look up at him, he’s already looking down at you. His hand tightens around your throat.
"Do you want me to take control over you, to own your body, and make you mine?”
“Please”
“Please what, use your words. You’re so quick to forget.” His hand tightening around your throat. His voice low and dark in your ear.
“Ahhh…y-yes, sir.” You reach up to hold his arm. His grip tightens making your head spin, and your body betray you.
"You can't help but give in to me, can you? You want to be mine, to belong to me, to submit, and give in, don't you?" He nibbles along your neck. His grip tightening around your neck, watching your body shudder.
“Yes, sir”
"I know how badly you want it. You're being such a good girl, look how weak you are, look how needy you are. You're trembling in my arms…" He says in a condescending tone in your ear.
"But you're not begging for it, are you? You need to beg me for it, be my good girl.”
“Yes…yes I’ll be good please, sir” He touches your pussy once more, you arch against him. Your body is on edge, the slightest touch from him is causing your brain to short circuit. He tugs down your leggings, tossing them somewhere. His hands roam over your ass. You look back at him, he suddenly stops. He smirks at you, waiting to see if you would beg. He knew you needed it badly, so bad you’d beg for him.
“Take them off, please, sir.”
“There we go. Look at you, being a good girl.” He slowly pulls your underwear down, finally giving you what she want. The cool air makes you shiver, yet, your body is scorching hot. He kicks your feet apart. Your body lowers onto the marble counter.
"Mm…you look so good like this. So vulnerable, and all mine.” He groans, needing you so badly. You see him drop to his knees behind you.
"I know what you need, what you crave. There’s a dark little side of you that’s enjoying this.” He runs his tongue up the back of your thigh. You moan, the feeling of his tongue and hands is otherworldly. You could feel him smirking against you. He knew how bad you needed this. He begins to lick and suck at the flesh around your pussy, but never going where you need him most. His fingers tease around your entrance, through your folds, around the entirety of your pussy.
“So wet. All for me?” You pant, whimpering as his finger is inserted into your core. He slowly moves his finger in and out of you. He places kisses along your inner thighs, working back up to your clit.
“My god, Noah…fuck…please” He stops which causes you to whine and push your hips back. You see him move back slightly.
"Please what…"
“You want me to stop? Hmm? Your soaking cunt is telling me otherwise, you greedy little girl”
“I need more, sir. Please”
"Beg one more time for me”
“Mmph…please, sir.” His hands run up your thighs lightly, the feather like touches tickling you.
"You're such a good girl begging for me.” You enjoyed his praises. He leans in closer to your core, his hot breath fanning over you. It sends shiver throughout your body. He places a kiss on your clit, running his tongue up through your folds. Your breath hitches when he does that, he does it again. He starts sucking your clit into his mouth. You groan, pushing into him. You feel your body shaking.
“You taste so fucking good.” He swirls his tongue around your clit, then over your entrance. You are crumbling fast. You craved this, loved it when he ate you out. He moves his hands to your waist to keep you steady as he worships you. You feel the band in your belly winding up tight, your breath hitches as you feel your release building.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck” You grind against his face, he smirks against you. You know he’s loving how you give into him so easily.
"You're mine, only mine…" He said it in between kisses and licks. You feel your knees buckling. He adds a finger, then another. You arch your back, it feels so good. He huffs, you’re so worked up and wet. There’s no resistance as his fingers sink deep in you. He starts with that agonizing slow pace again. He turns and curves his digits coaxing you, working you as the need for your release grows stronger and stronger.
“Atta girl, so good for me. I need you to beg me to make you mine.”
“Please, make me yours, sir. Please.”
"Good girl, say you belong to me.” His fingers curl up, he knew you so well. He knows exactly what you needed.
“Ohhh fuck…right there…I belong to you, sir!” Your whimpers get louder, he keeps his pace. Simultaneously fingering and swirling tight circle around your clit. You’re so close.
"Say it again…"
“I..I belong to you, sir” You whimper, you are right there on the edge. You wouldn’t dare cum without his permission.
"Again…" He smiles, whispering against you as he nuzzles his nose against your clit.
“I belong to you, sir.” He moved his fingers with such precision, coaxing you to go over the edge. It was so bad and so good at the same time. Your mind wanders back to Ryan. Poor Ryan. He didn’t deserve this…or you. He smacks your ass, a warning. He’s always watching your every move. He must’ve noticed the change in your body language. He stops and stands up, his arms caging you in, his hands next to yours on the counter.
“Don’t think about him, turn it off. You’re only thinking of me. Do you understand? I will leave you with fucking nothing. Only the mess I made of you to clean up. Got it?” You cry out as he smacks your ass much harder this time.
“I said, do you understand me, y/n? Answer me.” He is leaning over you, grabbing a handful of hair, yanking it tightly as his lips brush against your ear.
“Y-yes, sir. I understand.” His eyes watch yours in the mirror. He looks over you in your current state. A disheveled mess just for him. He growls, his nostrils flare. He shoves your head forwards, sinking back down behind you. He goes right back to fingering you, like nothing happened. Your mind is fuzzy, you try to focus on the sensations he’s bringing you. He hits the spots within you and your eyes rolls back. His tongue finds your clit again, sucking harder this time. You squeal, he growls, doing it again. You are panting, hating that he’s coaxing you to your release again within seconds.
“Who. Do. You. Belong. To? Hmm? Whose pussy is this?” He picks up his pace, hitting that spot over and over again.
“Yours. It’s all yours, sir. I belong to you.” You whine and moan. Your knees are buckling. It’s right there.
“Good girl. Good fucking girl.” He pulls away from your clit to bite your thighs, you whine. He soothes the sting running his tongue along his bite marks. He returns to your clit, swirling those tantalizing tight circles, sucking your bud into his mouth.
“I’m..gonna…cum.” He doesn’t say anything, he keeps going. It’s all too much, the band in your belly is about to snap.
“Please, sir. May I cum, please?” Noah could feel your walls clenching around his fingers. You are so close, why isn’t he answering. You look at him, you can see his hooded eyes as he comes up from eating you. He makes eyes contact with you.
"No…" He smiles at that, and stops. Your knees buckle, you drop to the floor. You couldn’t believe he’d deny you again. You look up at him, tears in your eyes.
“Why? I…I…” You watch him towering above you, his mouth wrapped around his fingers, tasting you. He licks them clean, wiping them on a towel. He crouches down on his knees and strokes your cheek. His thumb gently wipes away your tears.
"Good things don't come easy, now do they?” You pull away from his touch. You look away as he stands up, chuckling to himself as he makes his way to the door.
"I'll see you around, y/n. I'll let you go back to your boyfriend now. I want you to remember how weak you are to me.” He closes the door behind him, the tears roll down your cheeks. You wipe them, then look up to see the door is unlocked. You quickly get up to lock the door. You didn’t need anyone to see you in your current state. You gather your underwear and leggings, pulling them back up onto your body. You ached, you are pissed off, and frustrated.
After a few minutes to collect yourself, you exit the bathroom. You walk down the hallway, no one is in the house. You hear voices outside. Ryan is helping Folio cook the burgers and hotdogs. You walk outside and Ryan sees you instantly. He wraps his arms around you, placing a kiss on your forehead.
“You okay?” You nod, the ache in your heart is to strong.
“I’m going to go lay down. Let me know when food is ready.” He kisses you, then lets you go find a room to get away from everyone for a while.
(Don’t hate me. To be continued 🖤)
#bad omens#bad omens cult#noah sebastian#romance#noah sebastian smut#noah sebastian x reader#noah sebastian fanfiction#bad omens fanfiction#bad omens x reader
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Introducing Trilogy
Yesterday I released Trilogy, a new tabletop RPG crafted to support you in having grand adventures in worlds of your own making.
There are several reasons I started writing Trilogy, but the biggest one is that I ran a Dungeon World podcast called Crudely Drawn Swords for seven years and that was a lot of time to think about what we were playing. To a degree Trilogy is the game I wish that we could have had to run the podcast.
Starting from the question "what would a purely PbtA game for epic fantasy look like?" I started thinking more widely - what do I want from a fantasy game? And the truth is that I want a game that supports the structure of characters and their interactions but doesn't tie itself to a specific setting.
Trilogy begins with The Appendices - conventionally in epic fantasy these are at the end and document information about the wider world that might not have made it into the story, but here it is where you sit down as a group and decide what tone you want your game to have, and your world looks like. What kind of place is it? What magic is there? What is religion like? What are the major cultures where the story begins? How would it feel to be in this world? Trilogy doesn't tell you any of these things, it gives you the tools to think through how you want your world to look.
This creates a secondary challenge - without knowing what the world looks like, how could I design character classes for this type of game? Trilogy answers this by going back to the fundamentals - instead of a conventional character class, the playbooks in Trilogy represent a narrative arc. Some of them, like The Fighter, The Priest, or The Magus, look like familiar classes. Others, such as The Volunteer, The Mentor, The Weapon, or The Defeated, are a little different. Character arcs have a set of turning points, story beats that allow you to advance along your arc after you have collected a certain amount of experience. Some are positive and others negative, you choose which ones you want to hit and when, but every character's story has its highs and lows and to get the most from the game you need to lean into both. A character can pass through three arcs as they grow and change, like the three volumes of a trilogy.
The aim of the game is to create a slower but satisfying sense of progression - instead of hit points characters take Stress and Harm like in other Powered by the Apocalypse games that can have both mechanical and narrative effects. That makes combat feel dangerous, but the game also offers more ways to solve problems without getting into combat - I have played games where the player characters never got into a fight, instead resolving confrontations through an ingenious selection of alternative strategies including "lying" and "vomiting magic ink all over the floor." I'm genuinely enthusiastic about this game - I think I would be as excited about it if somebody else had written it. It leans hard into the joy of discovery and the excitement of adventure - you can play it as spooky and whimsical or gritty and hard-edged and anywhere in between.
Because I was writing it I even got to make most of the examples of play roll out as the story of someone's game, something I always appreciate when I read it. It also contains every technique I use as a GM in the hope that even before people get the chance to play it (heaven forbid any TTRPG afficionado have books we haven't got around to playing yet!) people who read it will still be able to use that advice in their other games. So that's Trilogy, the game I've been working on for the last few years. I think it's pretty great and I hope you will too:
Obviously it's a full-priced game and that's a big gamble from an unfamiliar creator - if you want an idea of what it's like in practice we've got the CDS team back together and we're starting a streamed campaign so you have a chance to see it in action. You can find that over on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxpXacko9Nc
The first episode includes me notably failing to use OBS at both the beginning and end, and I can't make any promises things will improve in that regard, but it should be a good opportunity to see how the game shapes up from this start and with this crew I know it's going to be funny and take some wild swings. If you're interested in reviewing Trilogy or you really want to give it a try but you can't afford it, drop me a message
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It’s Kirby Time - Book 9 English Translation + An Update on Blog Happenings
HAPPY NEW YEAR!! IT'S HEEEEERE!! A truly adorable story about Kirby and Meta Knight deciding to spend some alone time and the activities they like to do during that time. Featuring beautiful illustrations painstakingly cleaned up by myself, this one is a must-read for fans of the relationship between Kirby and Meta Knight. Read the full thing at the links below:
Imgur
MangaDex
Google Drive
...But wait, there's more! Because the illustrations are so pretty, here's a link to a folder containing just those illustrations with no text at all! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19z8WLah-ZGES2jnyZOILJKc9kE75Wvs9?usp=drive_link (I'm probably also gonna make a post featuring all these images on their own soon.)
Finally, I have an update regarding the blog. tl;dr, I'm definitely gonna keep doing translations, but the rate at which they are completed and uploaded is most likely going to change soon. I don't know by how much or even if it will be positive or negative. For a more detailed explanation, click the Keep Reading.
So, I got a job! *audience cheers* But the job does not involve translating Kirby manga. *audience "aww"s* Ordinarily I wouldn't get more specific than that since I try to avoid revealing too much about my personal life, but in this case the explanation won't make much sense unless I do, so: The job entails working on fishing boats. This means that there isn't really a set daily schedule or even a weekly schedule. When the boats are fishing, I'm working, and when they're not, I have next to nothing to do.
I've been told by many people that I should expect a lot of down time for that reason, so I'll definitely have time to work on translations. However, I can't predict exactly how much I get and I also most likely won't have an internet connection on the boat. All this is to say that I literally do not know how this is going to affect the rate of translations on this blog beyond just, "It's going to change." I could find that I have so much down time on the boat that translating is the only thing that keeps me sane and I actually get more done. I could find that the boat I'm on is a super-busy one and I get barely any time at all. And regardless of which one of those happens, I won't be able to actually upload anything until the boat gets back into port, which is entirely dependent on how long it takes for the boat to catch all the fish it needs.
The job doesn't start for a couple weeks yet, so I'm gonna try to fulfill a few more requested chapters before then. Once again: I'm definitely going to keep translating, I just don't know how often I'll actually be able to do it. So enjoy this translation, look forward to more coming in the future, and please wish me luck both in my work and in getting time to translate!
#kirby#kirby manga#it's kirby time#meta knight#nintendo#blog update#still not over how pretty this one is...#honestly its kinda cool this wound up being the “new year” post?#wasnt my plan but it worked out that way
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Clow Card Divination 101
In this post I wish to share with you my favorite form of divination!
It's a long one so more under the read more!
The Clow cards (later Sakura/Star cards) are from the manga & anime Card Captor Sakura. The series follows a girl called Sakura Kinomoto who finds a book in her father’s study called the Clow book. The book contains Clow cards which were made by Clow Reed before his life ended; sealed away until Sakura accidentally releases them. With the Clow cards gone and only left with The Windy, the story follows her capturing all the escaped cards. When she finally has all of them it becomes clear she is next in line to become the master of them. Thus, the cards ‘evolve’ into the Sakura/Star cards by Sakura signing her name onto them.
Clow Reed and The Clow
Clow Reed was a sorcerer born with both English & Chinese heritage. His parents were from very powerful families of magic users and because of his mixed heritage, Clow Reed came to be the most powerful sorcerer ever known. He created The Clow; cards encompassing both Western (Sun) & Eastern (Moon) magic. Each card has their own personality and tremendous power. With the creation of The Clow he also created two guardians called Cerberus & Yue.
Cerberus
Cerberus (aka Kero) is one of the two guardians of The Clow. He is bossy, confident and overindulgent, but also positive and fun. Clow Reed left Kero with the task to find the next master of the cards when he died. Although Kero chooses Sakura out of consequence, he becomes her guide for The Clow throughout the story and helps her through many ordeals. His power is that of the sun & western magic and the cards under him reflect his personality and domain. Just like the sun he generates his own energy instead of needing his master’s to survive.
Yue
Yue is the other guardian of The Clow. He is cold, serious and aloof but he has a kind heart. He cared very deeply for his old master, so much so that he had a hard time accepting Sakura as the new one. Yue is in charge of judging the person Kero chooses to see if they are worthy of being the new master of the cards. Because of his hard time accepting anyone other than Clow Reed it took a while before Sakura could convince him; not wanting to hurt him. His power is that of the moon & eastern magic and the cards under him reflect his personality and domain. Just like the moon he doesn’t generate his own magic and needs his master’s energy to survive.
System
The Clow cards work under a hierarchy. The attribute cards rule over the elemental cards and the elemental cards rule over every card underneath. When laying cards, if any of the attribute cards or the elemental cards come up they influence the reading greatly with their meanings.
The Suits
The Light Suit
The cards under The Light stand for all that is everyday life, lightheartedness and fun. The exception to this suit is The Shadow, but without light there is no shadow, thus it is included here instead of The Dark suit. I also relate The Light suit with the major arcana in tarot, albeit the positive side more than the negative side. Positive things like having good fortune or good things that we do not have immediate control over.
The Dark Suit
The cards under The Dark stand for all that is mysterious, unknown, and otherworldly. This includes parts of life we might not like, but still have to go through. Just like the Light suit I relate The Dark suit with the major arcana in tarot. It talks about things we thus far had no control over, but notifies us to think about those aspects and invites us to take the necessary steps for positive change. It will be a challenge and we might even fear it, but life is filled with ups and downs. When we get through our down period, we face the better times triumphantly with an experience richer and we might even be better equipped to handle a similar situation in the future.
The Fire Suit
The cards under The Firey stand for action, passion, temper and upheavals. It tells us that one way or another we need to put our all into it. Whether it’s to keep trying, fully take something out of our lives or try our best to hit that mark. Yes, it may be challenging and the road might be bumpy, but the vitality & creativity of the Fire suit tells us that we can do this. Sometimes all we need is willpower & determination!
The Water Suit
The cards under The Watery stand for emotion, relationships and intuition. Although the Watery is an aggressive card of its own, the cards underneath it tend to be more calm, soft and some are even fun! However, the cards underneath the Watery are also related to how we handle situations and react to the world and people around us on an emotional level.
The Earth Suit
The cards under The Earthy stand for stability, security, & strength. They are about the material self or about things related to the self. Whether this is protecting one’s self, finding balance around one’s self or breaking material cycles.
The Wind Suit
The cards under The Windy stand for communication, truth & clarity. It's about taking a step back and thinking it through sometimes. Although the element of air is related to the mental realm not all cards in the wind suit are related to it. Some are about literal movement as well.
Individual Card Meanings
This is a long list with a few words per card. I am working on a more in-depth document regarding The Clow because many people, including myself, don't think the official fortune telling book really fits with its descriptions. The Clow cards each have their own individual & unique personality which shine through in their meanings. Why not add those into the equation? There are also meanings that come from my personal use of the cards. Use what you feel is right!
The set I bought came with The Miracle card which I use myself so I included it here as well. It does not belong to a suit like The Hope & The Nothing.
The Dark
unknown, uncomfortable, needs over wants, catastrophic thinking, night, challenge, mystery
The Light
day, clear, going to be okay, enlightenment, positivity, encouragement
The Firey
arrogance, passion, rage, explosive, high energy, drive, fire
The Watery
emotions, co-operation, relations, water
The Earthy
body, material, earth, stoic, barren, stability
The Windy
intelligence, mental clarity, bind, mentality, wind, logic, analyzing
The Arrow
shooting your shot, several chances, scattered, many passions, aiming but not shooting, goal-oriented, inspiration
The Big
not as scary as it seems, big heart, non-discriminating, means well, friendly, clumsy, oblivious, ditsy
The Bubbles
clean slate, cleansing, cleaning, make a prototype, there is an idea but nothing concrete, ephemeral
The Change
empathize, change, camouflage, fitting in, mask, invisibility, hiding, aversion to change, mind games
The Cloud
brain fog, confusion, emotionally clogged, pretending to be fine, making the best out of a bad situation
The Create
creation, manifestation, inspiration, writing, paper, art, imagination, creativity
The Dash
avoidance, speed, quick thinking, shy, scared, skittish, escape
The Dream
prophecies, dreams, occult, knowledge, clair senses, veiled, obscure
The Erase
declutter, moving on, lift the veil, revelation
The Fight
giving it 110%, hard work, disciplined, meticulous, brash, actions speak louder than words, exercise, hidden power, assertive, willpower
The Float
detached, big picture, head in the clouds, more than it seems, take a step back
The Flower
friends, fun, longevity, light-hearted, optimistic, joyful, calm, relaxed, party, celebration
The Fly
moving, flying, soaring, travel, big change, transformation, open-mindedness, support, freedom
The Freeze
congeal, frozen, stagnation, cold, many pieces to a whole, sharp, splintered
The Glow
good fortune, kindness, beauty, peace, inspiration
The Hope
positivity, wish, hope, content, look at the brightside, love, oneness/unity, happiness
The Illusion
see what you want to see, imagination, longing
The Jump
leap before you look, reach further heights, pestering, stupidity
The Libra
balance, truth, weighing options, justice
The Little
small, bullying, sadism, annoyance, schadenfreude
The Lock
stability, shut-in, not available right now, familiarity
The Loop
repeat, habit, link, infinity
The Maze
self-created, lost, (feeling) stuck, distorted
The Miracle
divinity, support, family, miracle
The Mirror
leadership, regret, mirroring, confrontation, image
The Mist
toxicity, decay, elusive, destructive
The Move
turning heads, chase, small steps, keeping it small
The Nothing
nothing, void, negativity, (fear of) abandonment, loneliness, despair
The Power
Showing-off, pride, trouble maker, friendly challenge
The Rain
fun, abundance, jokes, free-spirited, chaotic
The Return
a need for change, regret, living in the past, restore, nostalgia, return, learning (from the past)
The Sand
multiple options, jack of all trades, adaptability
The Shadow
two sides, hidden, consequences, the shadow archetype
The Shield
defensive, jealous, protest, protection, help others, idealism, steadfastness
The Shot
obsession, events speed up, hectic times, ruthless, stubborn, willpower, lashing out
The Silent
meditation, contemplation, look within, loud, sensory overload, solitary
The Sleep
sleep, end, momentary peace, forgetfulness
The Snow
witty, control, purity, management
The Song
bliss, happiness, singing, music, song, mimicry, perfectionism
The Storm
bothered, moody, overthinking, uncertainty
The Sweet
sweets, self-love, rest, relaxation, take care of yourself
The Sword
challenge, anger, precision, conflict, cutthroat, confrontation
The Through
omit, remove, invisible, spirits
The Time
time, when, exhaustion
The Thunder
upheaval, sudden, rampage, lightning, tower-moment
The Twin
two people, equal, entwined, together, stuck, co-depend, pattern, fate, cycles, habit (and breaking of), hurting without meaning to harm, duality
The Voice
greedy, communication, all talk no action, venting
The Wave
overwhelmed, tidings, emotionally moving
The Wood
growth, perseverance, gentleness, nature, patience, sensuality, abundance, altruism, fertility, breaking habits
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extremely 👀👀 about this kind/nice spectrum u brought up and how alex oscar lando and anyone else on the grid are placed on the grid..... would love to know more.........
hi there!!! :D omg yes i would love to talk more about this, though of course disclaimer that these are my Personal Interpretations and i love to spout nonsense on the internet LOL. i'll just expand on oscar + lando + alex some more since frankly i don't know all the other driver lore Like That and i don't want to overstep in my analysis! also i'm deathly afraid of chirlies. ok let's move on
to start off... i think the way we talk about celebrity personas obviously requires some generalization + projection since we can only extrapolate what is already being consciously disseminated, and so although i frequently talk about the kind/nice dichotomy or someone's capacity for sympathy vs. empathy (which is kind of a parallel assessment imo) we are of course all complex people who contain multitudes, and i think it's mostly just interesting to examine strictly in the context of racing & racing mentality... if that makes sense!
also wrt landoscar's personalities → one thing i feel very, VERY strongly about despite their differing surface-level interests and social profiles (read: different flavors of off-track sports, both of them being gamers but to diverging levels of visibility, lando's higher degrees of hyperfixation, etc.) is that at their baseline they are extremely similar people, and honestly even very similar drivers and racing "characters," which ultimately kind of colors most of my analysis. if we peel back the layers then oscar and lando are both functional introverts who've been very well-nurtured by similarly robust, persisting, and loyal support systems—oscar spending 99% of his time off-track with his longtime gf, lando's best mates all being from his karting days, their dads being equally objective about yet also supportive of their careers, jon having trained lando since he was like 5 feet tall, etc.—so to me the overarching difference is that they have diametric approaches to how they externalize their convictions, and then obviously since that's what we see/hear day in & day out it generates the existing rift between their media images. per lando on btg:
"Oscar is extremely down to earth. A bit like me, just a very normal guy who's in Formula 1, just a guy that loves to drive cars and compete against people, and that's it."
(incoming egregious amounts of lando psychoanalysis...) despite oscar being the only driver i truly rep, i've always found lando's psyche soooo fascinating because he invites such extreme emotion in people (be it positive or negative), and i think part of it does go back to the idea of being nice vs. kind and ultimately the lens through which his intentions are interpreted by other people. in real-people fandom this is always interesting since it ends up becoming an unconscious exercise in how we perceive "sincerity" in others, even though the underlying paradoxical truth is obviously that any such assessment must always be dispersed and consolidated via a parasocial system (and thus everything is held relative to our own individual value systems... This is totally not the point of the ask. SORRY FOR THE MILLION TANGENTS) anyway as an extremely disillusioned sports fan i actually have a lot of time for lando despite how much visceral judgment he generates in quite a few people, which is totally fair since everyone is fully privy to feeling however they want to feel about any celebrity and i am not here to convince them otherwise lol. but that's just me!
i think to me the thing about lando is that there is almost zero pretense to his character, which some dislike because they find his bluntness off-putting, but imo just means his intentions are generally straightforward and easily digestible. sure, he lacks the spoken filter to not come off as occasionally callous, but at the end of the day i genuinely believe that he's an inherently thoughtful (and "kind") person, especially within the insular system of professional motorsport and the many mental pitfalls that accompany it. a symptom of this is how willing he is to resist more gracious media responses and how very inwardly critical he can be in specifically self-motivating ways, the latter of which sometimes gets misinterpreted due to the rigid yet overwhelmingly popular framework of what constitutes a competitive racing mentality. but like... to Me, lando is just entirely what you see is what you get, bad parts included, and he has zero intention of making excuses for that or pretending to be anything otherwise. which i enjoy!
and which again also goes back to the idea of niceness. (honestly the tl;dr for most of lando's pr scandals is just Oh okay so it's illegal to be neurodivergent now? but i'm trying to be normal so let me not just say that.) a good example is the entire debacle of saying he felt no sympathy for daniel at mclaren in 2022, because i think it elucidates a sort of kindness in objectivity that he very plainly participates in—to lando, being a top-performing athlete means never searching for excuses to soften the brunt of one's failures, himself included, and equally that there is no point playing sorry in front of journalists or trying to reshape their narrative scrutiny since at the highest level of competition any bold-faced externalization of "sympathy" is really just pity. and what point is there in telling someone else that you Feel Bad for their skill issue/struggles when the moment you extend that sentiment you essentially debase their position as a direct competitor and therefore disrespect them even more?
"I want to be the best in the world, I want to prove myself to people. But I've never had the mentality or the confidence to say that or feel like I need to do anything more than normal to show it to people. Do I have to do anything to go over the top and show that to prove it? I don't think so. People say you've got to be brutal and you've got to have this certain mentality. But I just don't think it's true at all. I think you’ve just got to get in the car and do the best you can."
i think the Separation of Church (treating everyone exactly as they are on-track, just another car to size up or keep at bay) and State (being friendly, supportive, and altogether well-regarded by other drivers off-track) is a primary tenet of lando's personality, and it's something he achieves by valuing kindness over niceness. you know the lando/maxf quadrant interview where lando is like: i'm not friends with you because of your achievements in life... i just care about your personality! and he's mainly saying it to take the piss out of him but he also 100% does mean that shit. that's the crasyinsane part about lando to me... god i'm so sorry i need to not go on for a million years but PERSONALLY, i think lando is very much the type of person who can go through an experience, or otherwise see someone close to him go through an experience, and approach it very empathetically to the point he continues carrying on this internal conviction about it even when he's survived or grown past it. like even as someone who mostly believes in Death to Relatable Marketing, i find it really interesting when lando talks about mental health in sports because we get to see both a) the fact that he's grown so much in his own mental resilience from his rookie self in 2019 to who he is now, but also b) that he continues to believe strongly in rejecting the presumed archetype of a successful formula 1 driver, and is steadfast in surfacing that even though... honestly? lando nowadays is a very consistent, well-rounded, and efficient talent who frankly doesn't experience nearly as much of the unproductive mentally-spiraling self-criticism that used to impact his performances to a far more pronounced degree when he was younger and rough around the edges. yet he still feels compelled to affirm that there is No One way to be an athlete (which is significant because "mentality" is such a harped-on concept in all sports, and everyone is always trying unfailingly to extrapolate performance-related projections via vague and completely subjective intangibles to a notably unempirical degree!!) because he does care, deeply, about how people enter and succeed in motorsport. honestly i always feel kind of iffy bringing up commentary re: Women In Motorsport because it often sounds unnecessarily adulatory, but at least in recent times i think he's also shown a decent amount of grace when talking about female fans, girls in karting, that one time he was like Bruh who are you? @ that misogynistic reporter, which...... i'm not going to say majorly influences my opinion of him, but imo being willing to quickly shut someone down like that is an anti-niceness to a productive end that i appreciate, since i think many personalities would kind of just smile bemusedly and try to quickly move on in the conversation.
tl;dr lando thinks feeling bad for people is useless and will never give you that one tidy sympathetic soundbite, but he does care for people vividly, especially off-track, which to him is the only place kindness really matters anyway. when you look at maxf (and i know this is mainly a portrait of codependency unique to their friendship but i do think it reflects his love languages in general) whose career cratered because he mentally couldn't handle the pressure, lando's response was literally to unfailingly engage in failcore househusband chores for him like leaving handwritten notes in his 3rd grade girl handwriting and ironing his clothes on stream........ which... i could go on forever but again. separation of church and state!!!
anyway with oscar on the other hand, i honestly think most things in his life kind of just exist as a function of motorsport LOL. and that he likes surrounding himself with people of similar interests/intellectual level/skillsets, down to his partner studying engineering and wanting to work in the same industry as him....... again, i think 814's baseline characters are Very similar and that they're both great team players with complementary professional approaches, so this is not a knock on either of their personalities, but imo lando is just generally more outwardly sentimental and has also had to do a lot of conscious growing up in the past ~4 years to become more well-rounded wrt off-track interests, whereas oscar basically came onto the grid as this already fully-realized product with far fewer dependencies who is just nonchalantly like, I see my family 3 weeks a year and my sisters just think i'm their lame older brother and don't care about my career at all, but i'm fine with that and i'd make all the same sacrifices i've made over and over again to get where i am!!! also re: oscar's abject lack of interest in engaging with fans one-on-one, an easy example is how lando genuinely values/treasures the friendship bracelets he gets and wears them consistently whereas oscar is just like. Erm. i respect it but that is not for me ✋😭 he's nice about fan things because he understands how much fan support and consumerist interest enable the circus that is formula 1 but he doesn't really value any of it much past the surface-level pleasantries......
why is this answer so long............... idk if you want to hear anything more about alex but i think he's very similar to oscar in terms of this measured external niceness/quiet ruthlessness, especially wrt how they weather team politics, interact with media (noted red bull marketing hater alex albon), and tend to simply Do The Thing To Do The Thing. alex is especially interesting because if you watch his high performance pod it reveals sooooo much of his growth over the years and his current mental framework ("i was having to be selfless, and it didn't really agree with me that much") and frankly even just the way he speaks about himself is fascinating to me but i digress!!! i do think much of lando's tactless impulse yet also apparent kindness comes from his considerably privileged background and the fact that he was shown a lot of Realistic But Also Unconditional Support and thus never had his career actively threatened growing up. so even though he's had to learn to not mentally catastrophize at the f1 level, he didn't undergo the reckoning alex did with his mother/losing rb's team backing/etc., which alex mentions in this podcast as specifically triggering his insatiable desperation to prove himself.......... and so on. alex and oscar to me are both quite similar in how they let more combative thoughts simmer and are very well-trained in responding palatably to the media, but they're also going to resist relating themselves too much to other people's struggles because That Is Not Their Problem, and at the end of the day oscar is uh.... sure he has a lot of appreciation for mclaren and has called prema a family before, but he really only wants to win for himself and is less inclined than lando is to romanticize the spirit of the Team. and so when he says things like "for me, there’s just not any point, especially in self-deprecation, destroying yourself in front of the media," it's a Niceness because his assessments are always entirely self-absorbed in the most productive of senses, as in he truly only cares about what he himself is doing and is never going to waste time worrying about or comparing himself to his competitors' mental approaches!
does any of this make sense. please excuse the monstrous rambling 😭 but also please feel free to follow up with your own takes/lore about any driver if you'd like to, or to tell me that i'm absolutely wrong if you'd like, because i always love to hear about these things!!! :3c
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I think I'm gonna have to do my Wep Ronpet spell early since the supposed day falls at a time where I might be on the road. I'm going to share my spell here and hope it helps anyone who is yet to celebrate it.
Out with the old in with the new spell.
Ingredients:
Red incense paper
Green incense paper
If you don't have these, try and get red and green pieces of paper or use red and green pens/markers for a plain piece of paper.
The ancient Egyptians had many meanings for red and green and in this context, red represents negativity, anger, and evil whereas green represents goodness, positivity, and rebirth.
Four white candles with sticky notes so you can reuse the candles for other things.
Something to burn the incense paper in (make sure to always be careful with this!)
Anything that resembles any Netjeru you wish to invite with you (statues, plushies, stones, etc.)
Steps:
This spell will take two parts. The first part at night and the second part at morning. Before we get into those parts, here's what to do beforehand.
Gather your four candles and draw the following images onto the sticky notes
Next you will take your pieces of incense paper and write what you wish to be rid of on the red piece of paper and what you wish for on the green piece of paper.
For the red piece of paper, concentrate all your anger, sorrow, and negativity as you write what you want to leave behind and be rid of for the upcoming year.
For the green piece of paper, concentrate on positivity, calmness and openness as you write what you wish to come to you in the upcoming year.
Once you have done all that, we can move onto the first part of doing the spell at night, then the second part for the morning. Feel free to invite any deities you wish for both parts of course.
Part 1: night
Whether you choose to perform this part of the spell outside or inside is up to you, though I would highly advise burning the incense outside as you don't want this shit to remain in your home.
Place your candles in the appropriate directions, light them, and invoke their meanings. If you have invited any deities with you, invoke their names and epithets as well. Place the container in which you will burn your incense paper in the center of the candles. Repeat all of this for part 2.
Hold your piece of red incense paper high and say the following aloud:
"Em hotep, netjeru. As the year comes to an end so must all that is written here! I demand to be rid of (read off what you have listed). May it never follow me into the new year. So I have said it, so shall it be"
Now place your incense paper inside the container and burn it.
Envision all you have written down being destroyed. You could visualize Sobek ripping it apart with His jaws or Sekhmet shredding it with Her claws, rhyme not intended.
Focus all your negative emotions and thoughts and visualize them burning up with the incense, vanishing with the smoke.
Once there is nothing but ash, speak to it firmly and say "you are nothing more".
Blow out your white candles and thank your deities for being with you.
Take the ashes of the incense and dispose of them. You can get creative with this by doing stuff like spitting on the ashes, stomping on them, or anything else you can think of.
Wash out your container completely before performing part 2 of the spell.
Once you've cleaned up the space in which you've performed the spell, feel free to leave offerings for any deity you bought with you tonight.
Part 2: morning
Whether you choose to perform this part of the spell outside or inside is up to you.
As stated before, place your candles in the appropriate directions, light them, and invoke their meanings. If you have invited any deities with you, invoke their names and epithets as well. Place the container in which you will burn your incense paper in the center of the candles.
Hold your piece of green incense paper high and say the following aloud:
"Em hotep, netjeru. As the year comes to an end, I wish to manifest and invite good things into the new year. I open myself up to (read off what you have listed). Please hear my prayers and know my love and devotion to you is immeasurable. So I have said it, so shall it be."
Now place your incense paper inside the container and burn it.
Envision all you have written down entering into your life. You could visualize yourself receiving money, being approached by a new lover, or even just new doors opening for you to walk through.
Focus all your positive emotions and thoughts and visualize them coming true within the flames, as if they're being delivered through the smoke to the Gods.
Once there is nothing but ash, speak to it gently and say "thank you for hearing me".
Blow out your white candles and thank your deities for being with you.
Take the ashes of the incense and dispose of them. Dump them into a stream or river or you can offer them to which ever deities you invited with you.
Once you've cleaned up the space in which you've performed the spell, feel free to leave offerings for any deity you bought with you today.
Conclusion
Sorry about copying and pasting stuff for both parts, I just didn't want to make it confusing. I hope this helps some folks out on this Wep Ronpet and future ones too. Have fun and be safe y'all. Senebty!
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Chapter 18: Not Falling
Author's Note
Word count:
Read the rest here!
TW: This chapter contains mentions of suicidal ideation. I've put the paragraphs containing that content in red.
His footsteps sound sober, but he immediately brushes his teeth before doing anything else which sparks suspicion. You won’t be able to smell it on his breath now. Concerned, you open your door just wide enough to lean against the frame and watch him. Damiano breathalyzes himself, rubs his face roughly, and crouches down on the floor in distress. Once he lowers his hands from his face, you can see how distraught he is and your stomach drops.
You walk into the bathroom to check if Dami had done a drug test. It was set in the normal place, on the lid of the toilet. So far everything was negative, which didn’t mean shit. It took heroin several hours to show up. You couldn’t afford to stay up half the night with work in the morning. Of course that didn’t matter, since you wouldn’t be able to sleep without the certainty that he hadn’t used.
“If you took something we need to go to the hospital right now.”
“I didn’t take anything,” he responds, sounding utterly defeated.
“Even if you tested your drugs, you can’t be sure. I’m not comfortable watching you. I want someone with a medical degree doing that and they can take blood to get more information.”
“I didn’t take anything!” he shouts.
“Do not yell at me,” you snap. “Don’t you fucking dare yell at me right now.” He hangs his head in shame. You check the breathalyzer for the most recent results. The screen reads 0.073. Driving in Italy with a blood alcohol greater than 0.05 was illegal.
“You could have been arrested.”
“Barely.”
“This is no ‘barely’ with being arrested. Either you get booked in and have your mugshot on the front page of the tabloids in the morning or you don’t. It is an either/or situation. Tell me what you took.”
“Fucking nothing! The only thing that's gonna come up positive on that test is marijuana and we already agreed that was fine. I swear on my mother’s grave that I didn’t do heroin or coke or anything else. Just booze!” Everything in you wanted to trust him and everything in you knew never to believe an addict. But he had taken the drug test. He wasn’t trying to conceal anything after all.
“I guess we’ll know in the morning.” Damiano scoffs and shakes his head, which nearly makes you lose it. “What the hell happened?”
“I – the weed was pretty strong and everyone kept saying how high they were and I was just like…” He stares at the ceiling. “How is this enough for all of you? I felt so alone and I just fucking craving something stronger. Being at a party without drugs and alcohol for the first time in forever was way more triggering and impossible than I thought it would be. It was too soon.”
“Where's your phone?”
“Take it.” He pulls his iPhone from his pocket and hands it over. “You can have my keys, too. I don’t want any temptation.” Based on his messages, it doesn’t look like Damiano contacted a dealer, but he could have deleted those texts. You put both in the safe for the night and try to calm down.
“I’ll leave them on the table when I go to work. If there's an emergency just come use my phone. Now you’re sure you didn’t use because –”
“I promised I’d tell you and I’m keeping that promise. I know you don’t believe me now, but you will when that drug test comes back.” He stands up and gets a sparkling water from the fridge. “I’m such a piece of shit. Should just do you a favor and throw myself off the roof.” Damiano mutters the second sentence under his breath, but you still hear. Time stops.
“Don’t you dare say that! Don’t you dare!”
“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it.”
“How could you say something like that!?”
“Because I’m a piece of shit.”
“You had a setback.”
“Because I’m a fucking piece of shit.” His eyes water.
“Because you’re a fallible human being and an alcoholic.” Damiano sets his jaw and refuses to meet your eyes. “Tell me what happened.”
“I…had a beer so I’d stop craving the harder stuff. Seth and I got into a really ugly fight about it. Pretty sure he almost took a swing at me.” He shakes his head and takes a swig of the sparkling water. “He stormed out and then I did some shots with a couple guys I don't really know. The taste of the liquor was just…” Dami nearly gags then scowls in disgust. “It brought back so many horrible, messed up memories that I just regretted the whole thing. I got it out of my system so I wouldn’t feel buzzed and left before I did something even stupider. That's why I brushed my teeth. I wasn’t trying to hide anything.”
“I appreciate your honesty more than you know.” He’s completely drowning in self-loathing and you’re not sure what to do about it. Should you do anything about it? Maybe this was a natural consequence that would deter him from drinking in the future. Or maybe it would drive him to use more harmful coping mechanisms.
“I don't know where to go from here,” you admit.
“Can I still sleep here tonight?”
“Yes, of course! This is still your home. I –” Damiano squeezes his eyes shut and a few tears fall. “I’m disappointed, but I love you.” He goes back to shaking his head, this time so hard you worry about his neck.
“Don’t deserve that.”
“Fine. You want anger?”
“Yes, actually.”
“Why the fuck didn’t you leave the minute you started craving hard drugs? Why didn’t you tell Seth? Call me? Call an Uber? Something else!? Clearly, you were looking for an excuse to drink.”
“Fine, I was!”
“So is that how you operate? Are you going to go through life, looking for an excuse to relapse, and take it whenever you can? Because that is not sobriety!”
“Maybe I’m not strong enough!”
“Well, tough shit, you have to be if you want me.”
“I wish I didn’t!” That one stings.
“What, so you could just do drugs in peace? Overdose and join the 27 club of tragic rock stars with endless potential who were too tortured to exist. If you’re still idealizing that, then maybe you are a fucking stupid as you say. Maybe you are as selfish as you’re afraid of being because I am not the only person that loves you.”
“I am a selfish piece of shit!”
“Yeah and you’re a lot of other things, too! Is none of that as good as the drugs?”
“I don’t know! I’m exhausted with waking up everyday, wanting to do coke, and feeling like I can’t tell you because you’ll get scared.”
“Of you ending up in a coma? Yeah, thats fucking terrifying and I get to be traumatized. You should be scared, too!”
“I am! I’m scared shitless that the cravings are never gonna stop!”
“And you really thought I couldn’t understand being tortured by your own mind? Of obsessing over something until you feel sick? You really thought that wasn’t within my capacity? Huh?” Damiano falls silent with wide eyes. “You said you would tell me! You said you weren’t afraid of my emotions!”
“I’m not afraid of your emotions.”
“Okay, then what the fuck? Because in a shocking turn of events, undermining the severity of your addiction has made you feel so isolated that you end up drinking. Not like that's ever happened before. Oh, wait, yes it has!”
“Congratulations on being right about me.”
“‘Congratulations?’ How about condolences? You said you would really try to stay sober. You said you would be open with me. Those are my –”
“– Conditions, yes I know,” he groans and harshly rubs his face again.
“So are you done trying?” Your hands shake so violently that you ball them into fists.
“No! I want our life.”
“But you wish you didn’t?”
“I’m a fucking addict, y/n.” He stares at you harshly. “Of course I want to drown my sorrows in drugs without being disturbed by my conscience. Because that's easy! If I try to have a life then, yeah, the happiness is more profound, but I also risk hurting people I really love. So yes, sometimes I wish the only thing I loved was drugs so I didn’t have to feel this.” He gestures between your bodies then claws at his throat.
“Too fucking bad. Tell me what the cravings were like tonight.”
“I was afraid I was gonna hit someone on the way home because I couldn’t think about anything but getting high, even while driving. Then I hoped that I would get in a car crash because they’d give me morphine at the hospital. And if I was permanently injured, no one could get mad at me for taking pain meds. I’d have a built in excuse. I fantasized about being permanently disabled so I could get high and, for a moment, I even considered driving into a street light to achieve that. Happy?” The initial reaction is fear so chilling it turns your blood to ice water. Could Dami be trusted to drive himself places?
“Tell me the worst of it,” you persevere with gritted teeth.
“Worse than fantasizing about causing a traffic accident to get drugs? Fine. I went to see my grandmother just to steal the pain meds for her hip surgery from her bathroom cabinet. When she told the pharmacy she’d lost them, they wouldn’t give her new ones and I kept them anyway, knowing she’d be in excruciating pain. My own grandmother. She took so much ibuprofen it gave her a stomach ulcer and I actually googled what kind of pain meds they prescribe for stomach ulcers.” You’d read a similar story by a former heroin addict online. The family had assumed the grandfather had memory problems and had him evaluated for dementia.
“Okay.”
“Do you hate me?”
“Not at all.” You take a deep breath.
“Why not?” he spits venomously.
“Because what you do as an addict is not representative of who you are.”
“But I am selfish and stupid?” He tries to turn those words back around to make you the villain in this circumstance.
“Right now? Yes, absolutely and if you’re feeling suicidal you need to tell me that as well. Like, right the fuck now.”
“I’m not going to kill myself over a beer and a couple shots of whiskey, y/n.” The way he rolls his eyes and dismisses you is bordering on an attitude Damiano swore never to take again.
“You say that like relapse isn’t a valid reason to be suicidal. I don’t care whether or not you think it's enough to warrant whatever you're feeling.”
“What the fuck does that even mean?”
“It means that if you don’t want to live, there isn’t a reason small enough that I wouldn’t take that seriously! If you feel like being alive isn’t worth it then…we need to do something about it.”
“I'm fine.” He brushes you off and turns away.
“Because I will not lose you! If that means inpatient psych treatment then –”
“I am fucking done with inpatient!”
“Then I will drag into treatment by your ear. I will sleep in a hospital chair outside the door. I will find people and things that will make you feel okay again.” Dami clears his throat and wipes away tears, not quite subtle enough. Finally, something had given him pause.
“I hate myself, but I am not suicidal. I swear.”
“Okay.” Without rage or hypervigilance to keep you upright, you end up sliding down the wall, onto the floor.
“I’m sorry. This won’t happen again. I’m gonna…I’m gonna talk to my medical team. I have treatment tomorrow.”
“Okay, good.” Your voice cracks and you stare at a wilting basil leaf that had ended up under the counter while Dami was cooking dinner last night. Yesterday was a lifetime away. It was a familiar sensation, when he had a mood swing and you’d fight over something stupid. His moods had been better, you realize.
“I just wanna sleep. It took every molecule of my energy to leave that party and get home.”
“Thank you for coming home.” For the first time, your eyes meet without either party operating on bravado. The pain is so acute that it feels nearly lethal. This was just a reminder of how powerless you were when it came to Dami’s sobriety. He turns away and cuts a chunk of bread from the loaf on the counter. You decide to leave him to make his snack. Nothing was getting resolved tonight, you were both wounded.
Sitting in the bedroom, you read the same two sentences about a dozen times without ever grasping their content while listening to Dami. Everything sounds normal, even though it isn’t. He eats, gets ready for bed, gives Princess a treat. Cheeto recognizes the noisy, plastic bag being opened and looks up expectantly. You listen to each sound, weary of moving too much, since the rustle of the bed sheets might obscure something. If not for his confession, you may have never guessed that he’d relapsed alcohol-wise. Even though it took probably every ounce of his mental fortitude, Damiano had been honest and you’d punished him.
On one hand, telling you was the bare minimum. Why should he be rewarded for the bare minimum? On the other, doing the right thing didn’t make the right thing easy. You spend some time on the emotional support websites for spouses of addicts, trying to discern if you’d reacted appropriately. At an exponential rate, you run out of patience. Empathy, forgiveness, kindness, understanding, none of it was enough for Damiano. He wanted anger just so he had an excuse to be bitter right back. It was reminiscent of the end of your relationship, when you either blamed yourself for everything and wallowed in self-hatred or blamed Damiano for everything and resented the hell out of him.
Addicts prayed for a partner like you, someone who’d done the research and loved them unconditionally. Did Dami beg for forgiveness? No. In fact, you couldn’t even remember if he apologized. All his complaining about how he’d never be enough to the face of a woman who was made to feel the same damn way. You’d never have the right reaction, the right thing to say when it came to his vices. Poor, tortured Damiano was the one who had apparently put all this distance between him and his life partner. When all she desperately, deeply wanted to understand him and the plights of addiction. But no. You couldn’t possibly be capable. It was insulting to your intelligence.
This self-righteous rumination is interrupted by a sound you don’t recognize. Dami was in bed with the lights off. The sound is somewhere between speech and whimpering, so muffled you wonder if you’re hearing it at all. If Princess wanted something she would be louder. You stand up and press your ear to the door. He was crying, which felt like a knife to the heart, but wasn’t necessarily your business. It made sense that he was upset and deserved the space to process that emotion.
Feeling sick, you try to resume reading when the sound becomes louder. So much so that you can hear it from across the bedroom, through the wall, and across the living room. According to what was once Damiano’s bedside clock, it’d been four minutes of sobbing. That kind of hysterical crying was only cathartic for a limited amount of time and productive for even less. Around the six minute mark you get both your anger and ego in check, inserting a bookmark. He was absolutely miserable and you ached to do something about it.
“Fuck all,” you mutter, switching off the bedside lamp on your way out of the bedroom. The two nightlights in the living room provide enough visibility for you to climb in bed behind Damiano. You scoot in close and spoon him, an arm across his chest.
“Hey, you are not falling. I’ve got you, okay?” He stops muffling the noise in the pillow and threads his fingers between yours.
“Feels like it,” Dami forces out between sobs.
“I know, but I am not letting you fall. I’ve got you. You are not flailing all the way to epic disaster. I fucking love you and I see that you’re trying and I am not letting you fall.”
“Okay,” he chokes with a painful gasp. “Okay, I’m gonna stop with the waterworks.”
“By my calculations you have at the very least another 20 minutes ugly crying and eating your own snot, babe.”
“You haven’t called me that in forever.” At first he’s smug but that quickly becomes heartbroken. “Fuck. What the fuck!?”
“Let me get you something to blow your nose.”
“Wait, no! Come back!” Dami sounds so childlike again. It’s the same way he spoke hours before you’d checked him into rehab.
“I’m coming, I’m coming.” You reassure him while returning with a box of tissues. He blows his nose as he waits for you to lay back down. Before you can turn sideways, Damiano tucks his head against your neck and tangles your legs together. You wrap your arms around him and just let him sob, laid on your chest.
“Not falling,” you whisper against his greasy hair. “You are not falling. Your control freak of a girlfriend has an ironclad grip and will stab anyway that tells her to let go.” He nods through the tears which is good. “Stabby, stabby. No more falling.” You squeeze him hard enough to hurt and Dami groans.
“Oof. Girlfriend? Not nesting partner?” You huff in exacerbation, more towards yourself than Dami.
“Fruedean slip. Speaking of Frued, focus on my titties. Those should make you feel better.” He scoots down several inches to be closer to the asset in question.
“You’re right, they’re wonderful,” Dami sighs and nuzzles enthusiastically. The tears mostly stop, then something makes them start up again. It's what you expected, for the self-loathing and grief to come in waves. It's preferable to hearing him drown in it. Just holding Damiano is also really nice and kinda therapeutic. You can feel your own fear response to this evening’s news become mangable. The fatigue from before he came home returns and you decide not to fight it.
“How bad is it gonna fuck with your head if I fall asleep right now? Being in the same bed is just –” You’re interrupted with a yawn. “Weirdly calming despite the, y’know, crying.”
“I’d love for you to sleep here tonight even though I don’t deserve –”
“No, sleepy,” you whine.
“I can’t have a self-hatred crisis, you’re too tired?” Some adamant nodding makes Damiano outright laugh. “Fair enough. How about you be the little spoon and I’ll hold you?”
“Mm, yes please.” Without opening your eyes, you reposition, sighing deeply as scoots in snuggly. “We need to cuddle more.”
“I didn’t know that this was an option.” Something tugs at the edge of your consciousness.
“Wait, are you okay? Because this went from me comforting you to me falling asleep inappropriately.”
“I’m sleepy, too,” hums. Still, something bothers you. There's an insistent voice saying this might be a bad idea, but you decide to tell it to shut up. It felt so right to you and Damiano, both. That was a good reason. It didn’t all have to be intellectualized to hell and back.
“I thought platonic cuddling would be more platonic.” You let out a pretend gasp.
“Is your dick in me and I just don’t feel it?” Dami clutches you close while he snickers.
“No I just mean –”
“Just because you want to fuck me in this position, doesn’t make it non-platonic to cuddle.”
“Okay, well when you put it like that.” He fusses affectionately: playing with your hair, pulling up the blanket, adjusting the sleeve of your t-shirt. “Thank you for coming out here. Sometimes my emotions are like getting a rib tattoo. I know it’s gonna hurt so bad and for so long that I might not be able to handle it. So I just never start, because I’m too intimidated.” You nod while Dami caresses your ribcage. His heavy, warm hand ends up on your lower stomach and he pulls you back against him.
“But you got an entire dragon tattoo from armpit to hip bone in one sitting.”
“Which tells you how terrifying my emotions are. I just spent a lot of months only crying when I couldn’t contain it anymore, which was pretty often, and I was just alone and hating myself.”
“Baby, no,” you coo, aching with empathy.
“It's alright, now. I want to be alright.”
“Damia, that type of anguish leaves a scar. Substance Abuse Disorder is traumatic for the addict, too.”
“I’m going to therapy literally every day, y/n, you don’t need to worry about me processing emotions. Fuck sake, I’m kinda exhausted with examining myself.”
“Been there.”
“Yeah.” He speaks kindly and kisses the back of your head. “I know.”
“Right. Because you probably had to talk me through that panic attack.”
“And you had to talk me through my mood swings.”
“You know, if we didn’t have mental illnesses, we would be unstoppable.” He laughs again and it ruffles your hair. “That’s probably why we’re both so fucked in the head.”
“Yeah, without debilitating mental illness we’d be too powerful.”
“That’s the spirit.” He nuzzles and lets out a content hum, hand venturing under your pajama top to rest on your bare stomach.
“Woah there, cowboy.”
“Isn’t this my shirt?”
“And that's your excuse for getting fresh?”
“Mhm.”
“Explain that logic to me.”
“No, thanks.” This time you’re the one laughing. Dami kisses the back of your head again and a few moments later, lets out a relaxed sigh. The hand on your stomach pulls you closer, fingertips rough with the beginning of calluses. Thomas was teaching him guitar again. Damiano’s body heat seeps through his clothes almost immediately and he feels so solid behind you. You’re glad it's dark, so he can’t see you blush.
“I’m in love with you,” he whispers. It takes your breath away. “Sorry if this is the wrong time to remind you of that. Fuck, it is absolutely the wrong time. God damn it.” You smile and you know he can feel it, because he starts smiling too. “Out of curiosity, which other types of crisis would compel you to hop into bed with me?” You click your tongue in disapproval and lift Dami’s hand while pulling your shirt down, so the embrace is no longer skin on skin. He makes a sound of objection.
“Hush, you.”
“Okay, I’ll be quiet.” You fall asleep quickly after that. Eventually, a slumbering Dami gets too hot and turns onto his back. Forgetting there's someone sharing his bed, he kicks the covers off. All the movement after months of sleeping alone brings you about a third of the way to consciousness. One eye fluttering open briefly, you recognize Damiano and follow him instinctively. Both bodies adjust so you can lay comfortably on his chest. This is where you wake, when the bright light of morning rouses you. Dami is used to it and stays asleep, allowing you a few precious minutes to watch him. The harsh slopes of his face, his long, chestnut-brown eye lashes. Months of hard partying and lacking self-care had given him the beginnings of wrinkles on his forehead, but not between his eyebrows. Propped up on an elbow, you run your pointer finger down the bridge of his nose.
“I’m in love with you, also.”
Notes: Aw, yes. Some more light reading with FilthForFriends. Sorry if you weren't prepared for such a heavy chapter, but I'm kinda proud of this one.
-XOXO Eden
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I haven’t been excited by a new toy in a while, but MGA’s new Miniverse got my attention.
These are available everywhere, including Amazon: https://amzn.to/3GGeEIt
However, that’s not always a good thing. It’s not always a positive aspect of a toy that catches my eye.
The big “what???” of these is that they’re marketed to kids age 8 and up, and contain UV resin.
Now..... Resin is
well it’s
...
It’s not for kids.
Allergies to uncured resin are common (both 2-part epoxy and UV resins) and can be severe.
There are lots of warnings in the packaging. I didn’t read them.
You should wear gloves and a respirator when working with any resin, even in a well ventilated area. There aren’t many proper respirators that fit kids....
Froggy on YouTube was too afraid to open her resin and instead used tinted Mod Podge which worked just as well.
I, however, am old and experienced with both types of resin (though no expert), unafraid of the possible reaction I could endure (I’m familiar with resin allergy and how it can be, so a good test subject) so I figured I’d give these a look to see just how bad an idea they might be for kids.
I did NOT wear gloves or a respirator while working on these kits in the name of science.
My first order was 3x of the Diner balls (there are 3x of the Cafe ones on the way).
I wanted a blueberry cheesecake.
None of my three were any type of cheesecake. I got this strawberry and cake parfait, choco-hazelnut spread and strawberry toast, and key lime pie.
First warning on this one: When I opened the little plastic bag that contained the “vanilla cream”, it smelled of UV resin and left my finger sticky. Some resin must have gotten on the outside of the bottle before it was bagged. It did make me itch at the time, which I was like “oh no....” but I’ll get back to that. One of the other balls had the same experience, but not all three.
The positives: Wow this is cute. There are screened veins on the strawberries, the whole berries have painted leaves, and the cake cubes are textured. These are very nice little minis, if a little under-detailed and obviously plastic.
Excellent for doll houses.
Every tiny bottle of resin has a big DO NOT EAT THIS sticker on it with information if you peel it off and unfold it.
The negatives: resin
You get tools, but they’re insufficient. I’ll address that later, also.
The little fruit and cake packages are difficult to open and I tossed my cake cubes across the desk. I am clumsy.
The resin bottle is VERY difficult to open. While this is good to prevent leaks (presumably), it did result in me and various tools being covered in resin trying to get it open.
Most of these items are a good scale for 1/6th dolls (Mini Me is a Live Action Beauty and the Beast Belle head on a curvy Barbie body). That bread is kind of big, those are bulk peanut butter, and that’s a LOT of vanilla cream.
Speaking of the bread...
I am NEVER opening this. Never. It’s too cute as it is. There is a TINY. BREAD. TAB.
Never.
That freed up one kit’s stuff to mix with the others.
These limes are transparent like they’ve been baked.
The whipped cream tube opens and there are all of these dollops inside, but I’m not the only one that thought they looked like little garlic! With a little toasty-colored dry brushing they could also be meringues.
Anyway, this was my “I’ve done this before.” set up. I didn’t tape down my tape (that’s a vinyl flooring sample, it’s an excellent base for working on UV resin), but it was fine for this small project.
I like to work on baby wipes because the damp, rough texture stops things from rolling or sliding around (it’s especially handy if you’re playing with glitter) and I keep another on hand to wipe my tools or my fingers as needed with the container nearby because I do go through a lot of wipes. Negative to baby wipes is that they’re prone to dropping strings everywhere.
Back to the tools.
You don’t want to touch uncured resin. The tools that come with these kits are playscale. Imagine trying to dig the key lime pie goo out of this jar with that tiny knife (though that set comes with a spoon). You’re going to be covered in resin.
There’s only about 1/3 of the jar full.
I used my normal resin doing spoon which is long and still had to stop to wipe my fingers a few times because I am clumsy.
The same with the tweezers.
These longer ones are much safer.
Each of these three kits has a different texture of resin. This is the “Nutella” which is thick and spreadable. I was using it as chocolate sauce since I didn’t want to use the bread. The vanilla cream was runny, and the key lime pie goo was in the middle.
I was doing this at 5 am in the winter so there was no sun. I used my nail lamp, so I can’t say whether these would set properly in the sun.
Having experience with UV resin, I did the key lime pie in two layers, curing the lower layer of just lime goo first so that the pieces wouldn’t get pushed too deep into said goo, then adding a second, thinner layer to set the fruit into.
I got this all over myself even with my longer, more appropriate tools.
Because the deco is plastic you can’t hit the resin with a flame to get rid of bubbles. Sometimes you can get them to pop if you blow on it hard and fast (POOF!) but I didn’t bother.
Obviously I switched mine up and made a strawberry limeade pie instead, using some of the Nutella to make a chocolate dipped strawberry on top.
As for the parfait, I am disappointed that the cake cubes on the bottom are obscured by the resin. It is very runny, ran down and around and covered them right up.
I also did this one in layers. I was wondering if the white resin would be able to cure because sometimes opaque tinted UV resin, especially white, can’t cure and you end up with a thin, cured crust and then that can be easily broken and uncured resin comes out everywhere.
This white resin cured fine. It’s not opaque.
I’m wishing I’d skipped the whipped cream on the parfait because the bright white of the whipped cream makes the transparency of the vanilla cream resin more obvious.
And this is what I’m left with!
If I hadn’t put the big strawberry on the key lime pie, it all would have fit into the pie crust container.
I cured the mostly empty insides of the vanilla cream and key lime goo containers but not the Nutella because I might come back and use that some day.
Whipped cream bits are back into the can.
I didn’t want to have empty fruit packaging so I pulled out some polyclay canes and refilled them.
Final thoughts
If you were to do these kits as intended, you’d be throwing away most of them. There was a TON of plastic bags inside, three layers of plastic outside, the pie crust and fruit containers and resin bottles/jars would be empty, there are many, many papers inside telling how to use the resin and warnings and the checklist and MGA’s usual “Give us your toy ideas for free!” flyer they include in everything these days.
I didn’t put them in the pictures but each kit does come with a small table that can snap into the ball to use as a dust-free display, and a doily or place mat depending on what you’re making.
I DID get resin all over my fingers. The resin DOES smell, but not as strong as my usual UV resin and it doesn’t sting my nose like my usual UV resin. If I were allergic, I’d be in pretty bad shape right now. As it is, I just feel kind of gross even though I’ve gotten as much off of my hands as I can.
Washing your hands won’t get this off, you need rubbing alcohol, which is where baby wipes come in handy.
Are these for kids 8+?
no
I mean, it depends on the kid. I’ve seen kids that can outcook adults.
Giving this to me at that age or even as a teen would be a mistake. It would end up in my hair, up my nose, on the dog, in my mom’s purse somehow.... I am clumsy.
It depends on the kid, but in general, no. There are very few respirators that properly fit children.
This is for teens and adults who already know how to handle UV resin.
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Get to know your Tav
This is my most recent Galemancer Tav, I still haven't picked a canon Tav yet. We're still in Act 1!
Malisstra Silverhair (She/her)
Daughter of Elistraee, Servant of Mystra| Half-Elistraean Drow | 🌟Knowledge Cleric of Mystra🌟| "Gale, with you I forget my goddess"
What is your Tav’s…
Name from: Her name means student/acolyte(isstra) of Mysteries(Mal) in Drow. Silverhair refers to her silver hair, obviously. If she lets you call her Mal: she'll probably die for you, too
favorite weapon: She started with a rapier, but the moment she found Phalar Aluve in the Underdark it became her favored melee weapon. The fact an Elistraeen weapon acknowledged her made her feel connected to her mother, despite ending up a Mystran cleric instead of Elistraean.
style of combat: She's a dex cleric so a mix of archery, spells and occasionally melee if it comes to that. She's happiest towards the back near Gale though. Hmmmm...🤔
most prized possession: Her earrings are from her mother when she started her adventure to be an itinerant cleric. She told Mal she only need to look to the stars to find both her mother and Mystra within. When she's feeling overwhelmed emotionally positive or negative Mal will fidget with them as a result.
deepest desire: To find love and friendship. Serving Mystra can be rather lonely if one delves too much into their academic obsessions at the cost of socialization. Mal, much like Gale or Lenore, has fallen victim to this pitfall.
guilty pleasure: Smut and comfort trash books with negative societal value. Drizzt fanfiction? oh yes! Manuals on sexual applications of spells that's filled with detailed pictures? It's um....academic I swear!
best-kept secret: Her faith to Mystra is strong, but she fears it's actually a love of books/knowledge/magic that tether her to Mystra. Not pure fervent devotion to her Lady. Sometimes she wonders if She should've followed her mother's footsteps after all. Her growing attachment to Gale and watching how he's treated by the Lady of Mysteries will test her faith indeed.
greatest strength: She's incredibly passionate and filled with big emotions. It drives her to do good and see the beauty in life. To ponder the mysteries of the realms.
fatal flaw: She's incredibly passionate and filled with big emotions. Sometimes they are too big. Sometimes she fails to contain them and makes rash decisions at the cost of herself.
favorite smell: The mixture of weave, ink, and old parchment.
favorite spell or cantrip: Faerie Fire. Her mother taught her how to channel her innate faerzress to cast it, and Mal loves how beautiful it is.
pet peeve: When people can't tell her apart from a moon elf. Or worse, get all racist when they can. Even more petty, people whose eyes glaze over when she tries to explain something.
bad habit: Is the thing in anyway a book? it's going into the chest. She'll catalog and organize it! She hasn't in fact, cataloged any of it. It's all in a pile tall as an owlbear and with Gale/Mal making the mess worse, it'll take Deneir himself to sort it.
hidden talent: She's not half bad with a flute, and can keep up with Wyll in dance. If she wasn't such a NERD in another life she might've followed her mother's footsteps and trained to be a sword dancer.
leisure activity: Playing her flute or reading trash books(in secret of course!).
favorite drink: Wine! And she's embarrassed that she's a bit snobby about it.
comfort food: Whenever Gale makes something Waterdhavian. It reminds her of the time she spent in(ok well mostly under technically) Waterdeep when she was a child.
favorite person: Don't tell her mother but it's a tie between Gale and Mal's mother. And Gale's winning by proximity. Gale's from Waterdeep and they love to talk about the City of Splendors over a glass of wine. Not to mention wine, books and magic. Gale meanwhile is fascinated by Mal's Elistraean upbringing.
favored display of affection: Little acts of service. A patient ear. A light cantrip for reading. A shoulder to lean on. A warm drink on a cold night. Little displays of magic.
fondest childhood memory: Her mother teaching her faerie fire. It made her fall in love with magic.
Thanks for the tag @hotnerdywizard. I'll not tag anyone, but feel free to do the questions if you wish.
#Malisstra Silverhair#my OC#My Tav#gale x oc#gale x tav#gale thoughts#gale of waterdeep#gale dekarios
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— INTRODUCING , 𝐊𝐀𝐑𝐔𝐍𝐀 𝐘𝐀𝐃𝐀𝐕 .
* ◟ : 〔 ritu arya , non-binary + she/they 〕 KARUNA YADAV , some say you’re a THIRTY-TWO YEAR OLD lost soul among the neon lights. known for being both FORTHRIGHT and CANTANKEROUS , one can’t help but think of BULLET MAN by PARIS TEXAS when you walk by. are you still a SOLDIER / UNDERGROUND FIGHTER at JADE TRIBE / RALPH’S BOXING GYM , even with your reputation as the BELLADONNA? i think we’ll be seeing more of you and BRUISED AND BATTERED KNUCKLES , SHOTS OF WHISKEY AS HARSH AS YOU , COMBAT BOOTS MADE FOR STOMPING , although we can’t help but think of FURIO (THE SOPRANOS) , MARLA SINGER (FIGHT CLUB) , TOJI FUSHIGURO (JUJUTSU KAISEN) whenever we see you down these rainy streets.
— STATS . FULL NAME . karuna yadav NICKNAMES . una BIRTHDAY . april 13th AGE . thirty-two GENDER . non-binary PRONOUNS . she/they ORIENTATION . bisexual biromantic FAMILY . none OCCUPATION . underground fighter @ ralph's boxing gym / soldier w/ hanging man & personal bodyguard for marcia ramos MARKINGS/TATTOOS . these tattoos PIERCINGS . triple earlobe piercings and cartilage piercings HEIGHT . 5’4
— PERSONALITY . POSITIVE TRAITS . adaptive, energetic, resourceful, spontaneous, independent NEGATIVE TRAITS . abrasive, crass, destructive, hedonistic, inconsiderate, nihilistic, reckless, tactless LANGUAGES . english, some russian, some italian EDUCATION . she can read MBTI . istp (the explorer) ENNEAGRAM . type 8 (the challenger) MORAL ALIGNMENT . chaotic neutral. DEADLY SIN . wrath HEAVENLY VIRTUE . diligence ZODIAC . aries sun
— BIOGRAPHY . tw: child abandonment, violence THE FIRST YEARS OF THEIR LIFE ARE SPENT IN A STATE OF NAMELESSNESS. A fact destined to perplex the most sensible people around them. It’s a degree of familial neglect unheard of by most, for even the cruelest of guardians are decent enough to pluck their undesirables from nameless obscurity. She prefers things this way. No name they could’ve given her would’ve suited her fancy. It could never truly be their own.
They do not they’re the seventh or eighth child, something they and their nameless sister presently debated as they absentmindedly scrubbed the floor near the doorway. Work came before play and play never lived up to her expectations. Anything resembling a toy in the [redacted] household is subject to the same fate— destruction or an unexplained disappearance.
Fights occurred on a regular basis. Whether as a form of entertainment or a resolution to a disagreement, they have their fair share of brawls for both these reasons. They’re one of the better fighters in the family, in spite of them being one of the youngest. Even the smallest of slights were to be resolved in this manner— this they always insist upon.
Perhaps in some other world, she receives formal training as a boxer or wrestler, a name alongside a well adjusted family, but that is not the case for her in this life. Instead, she is spat into the city streets with nothing but the clothes on her back and money pilfered from her various siblings.
They are crafty in keeping their belly full. That is their only priority in the early days. Staying alive. Perhaps purely out of spite. Enemies come and go with frequency, friends are made every once in a blue moon. Waywardness suits them— they did not find comfort in routine.
Odd jobs, decent luck, and an occasional good samaritan leave you with an occasional place to lay your head. Other nights are spent in parks, shelters, and beyond. They eventually stumble across a fighting ring of sorts. They’re only 17 then— but they pad their age as a way of entering the competition being held. The prize money was hefty— larger than any amount she’d ever been in possession of.
The takedown of their first opponent comes easily. The audience is amazed by how quickly it occurs— but little do they know, you’ve got more anger than your body can contain and hands that have been primarily used for pummeling. Where some dedicate their hands to creation— their hands are a means of a destruction instead.
She doesn’t win the grand prize but performs well enough that they invite her back to train. They’ve got a pretty face and could pack a punch (and could take one too)— you didn’t come across their sort every day. They continue fighting with the ring, making more money than they ever made on the streets. One of the fighters even allows them to crash at their place for the time being.
She’s 24 when first recruited by the Mafia. After being caught pummeling some guy in an alley, she’s roped into becoming an associate. She eventually works her way up to soldier, carrying out hitman jobs, and eventually working her way up to lead enforcer.
Playing by a handbook entirely of your own making is what eventually lands them in trouble. Eventually, their inability to follow protocol is enough to get them demoted. They’re promised their position back if they’re able to stay in line, but for now, they’ve been tasked with working as a bodyguard for MARCIA RAMOS When they’re lucky, Marcia throws them a crumb and lets them handle her dirty work— like in the old days. Perhaps if Karuna plays their cards right, they might actually learn something for once. — FUN FACTS .
Loud, crass, and with a deep love for hard liquor— Marina’s mouth tends to get them in trouble.
While they’re primarily a fighter, on occasion, they’re a lover, and matters of the heart also tend to get them in trouble.
To put it plainly, Karuna is mostly brawn. They have street smarts, but they saw little use in formal education— not when survival was always their main priority.
They’re always down to settle a disagreement with a little hand-to-hand combat.
Has used names prior to Karuna— but there’s no formal record of her ever having a birth name.
Was never the sharpest tool in the shed.
— ; TLDR himbo street rat turned underground fighter slash recently demoted to bodyguard/enforcer for marcia ramos b/c they got in trouble for not following protocol <;/3
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Mephiston - 🎮, 💯, 🔱, ❤️, 💔, 🍛, 🤔
Ryker - 🎮, 💍, 💯, 🚫, 🐈, ❤️, 🤩
Veldreth - 🖊️, 📚, 💯, 🔺, 🐉, 🍎, 🤍, 🤔, 😓
Have fun :3c
I apologize for delaying this for so long, but here it finally is!!!!
It's quite a lot so read at your own discretion....there might be a lot of nonesense in here but that's my OCs (and my writing in general) in a nutshell, really.
Anon, thank you for this, though I had my troubles with some of it and had to think quite a long time about things I never considered for some of these OCs, it was incredibly fun and I do love finding out new stuff about my OCs!!!!!!!!! <3<3<3<3
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Mephiston:
🎮 - what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies?
Once upon a time it would have been training his swordsmanship or just training in general, working, even.
Currently he's enjoying the luxury of being retired, he loves to read, goes on walks (like the old man he is), mingles with other people all around the place and if his magical capabilities hadn't been suppressed recently, he'd be training his arcane skills currently! But alas.
💯 - share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.
Alright so I'm very bad at giving out random facts so I asked a friend of mine to supply me with three things to share:
A food they hate - Fish, he just doesn't like food containing any kind of fish. A very random skill - During the boring parts of his career as a knight Captain, Mephiston sat in his office for weeks at a time to take care of paperwork his predecessor had left behind for him, any source of entertainment is a blessing at that point so he is quite good at stuff like....spinning a pen around in your fingers or hitting the trashcan with paperwork that doesn't matter anymore. preferred sock color – Red, it's actually not too hard to guess, though he mostly wears black.
🔱 - can your oc swim? do they enjoy swimming?
During his youth Coerthas wasn't frozen yet so swimming in the wild during training expeditions with the Temple Knights was still very much an option that didn't result in freezing to death, and Mephiston very much took advantage of that!
Unfortunately nowadays he'd either have to leave Ishgard or go swimming in one of those heated pools in the Empyreum, neither of those options quite appeal to him.
❤️ - what are three of your oc's positive traits?
He's incredibly generous and loves to give away gil, items or anything really, though he often doesn't have much himself, he tries to be generous in other ways.
Mephiston is always ready to offer a helping hand, if people come to him and ask for help of any kind he'll hardly decline, they've put their faith in him and he's not ready to disappoint them.
Though Mephiston values many things, compassion towards others is the thing he puts front and center for himself, and I'd say he succeeds at it quite well.
💔 - what are three of your oc's negative traits?
Mephiston can be incredibly melancholic, letting most things that bother him eat him up from the inside, this can lead to Mephiston doing things like locking himself in his office for weeks at a time and focusing on his work, or a more recent example, disappearing in self-anguish both literally and figuratively for half a year.
He's disorganized to a comical extent, though he's able to get it together for work related things, everything else in his life tends to be quite wild, now that he doesn't have any work anymore, well......
Lastly, Mephiston will lie without second thought if he thinks it'll make the person he's talking with feel better and or stop a conflict from starting.
🍛 - what does your oc's typical dinner look like? do they usually eat dinner?
Though Mephiston can very much cook, he doesn't ever cook for himself (or anyone else for that matter, people never visit him to eat dinner), therefore he almost always eats dinner at restaurants or similar establishments.
As to what he usually chooses to eat; he loves a hearty stew with a good variety of vegetables, if he gets to choose the meat he'd pick lamb.
🤔 - what are some of your oc's quirks/mannerisms?
Mephi has an obnoxiously loud laugh, though most often he tries to hold himself back by just chuckling a bit, he's a bit annoyed by his own laugh.
Whenever Mephiston visits a venue for the first time he chooses one or two items on their menu and sticks with those until the end of all life.
No one has seen Mephiston without his signature lipstick and eye shade in the past century, no one ever sees him put it on either, and honestly, it's probably better that way.
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Ryker:
🎮 - what are three of your oc's favorite hobbies?
Ryker is quite the athletic guy, he's in a fencing club, trains martial arts of many different kinds and loves to go running, unfortunately for his hobbies that's all he's really got going for him.
💍 - does your oc have any piercings? do they want any (more) piercings?
Currently Ryker only has earrings, I would say that other kinds of piercings would probably fit him, though he doesn't really concern himself with his looks so unless someone convinces him to go get more piercings, he won't think of it.
💯 - share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.
Ryker loves to make up stories as to how he lost his left eye, the truth however is much less heroic, he provoked a bar fight with some rowdies once, and one of them broke a bottle and slashed at Rykers face with it.
Though he is a Knight of Ishgard, Ryker was born in Gridania, his family still lives there but Ryker doesn't feel any connection to his birthplace.
He used to have quite long hair but he realized it got in the way during training quite often so he cut it off, nowadays he just keeps his very short hair.
🚫 - does your oc drink/smoke? do they do it regularly, or is it more on occasion or for special events?
Though Ryker often goes to bars he doesn't actually drink all that much, he loves the atmosphere and the social aspect of it, even if his personality and remarks often sour that atmosphere or even make him end up in fights, which is, of course, another reason why he loves to go to bars.
I'm not sure if Ryker would actually be aware of the existence of cigarettes, though if he was, he'd treat them much like alcohol, not smoking all that often but doing it whenever he feels like it, and who knows, maybe smoking would calm him down a bit.
🐈 - does your oc prefer a wide circle of friends or a few close friends?
Ryker likes to keep a large circle of friends, though it's hard to call most of them that, his friend group is primarily limited to his fellow Knights, he isn't too close with any of them and all they really do is go to places together in bigger groups, but it's all Ryker knew for most of his life.
When Ryker was assigned under Knight Captain Godefroy he was invited to dinner by Mephiston several times, apparently the Knight Captain wanted to get to know the Knights assigned under him a bit better and perhaps even reach a level of friendship with them, Ryker however always declined.
❤️ - what are three of your oc's positive traits?
Ryker is incredibly brave, often to his own disadvantage but brave nonetheless, he doesn't scare away from a challenge.
He's very loyal, the thought of betraying the people he serves, his few friends or anyone he's decided to be loyal to, would never cross his mind, in fact, maybe he doesn't even know that betraying is an option in such a situation.
Lastly, he's very simple with his needs, a few sets of clothes, some food, a bed and a task he's assigned to are all Ryker needs to live a happy life, everything else is a luxury to him.
🤩 - is your oc a planner, or are they more spontaneous in their actions?
Though many might think Ryker is unfamiliar with the concept of planning, he has proven to be able to plan quite a bit ahead to reach his goals, however most often he gets impatient and acts spontaneous towards the end of such a plan.
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Veldreth:
Quick exclaimer for Veldreth, he's originally an OC within the The Elder Scrolls universe, whoever submitted this ask will only know of him through his FFXIV au though, so I'll go on a bit about both of these versions in many of these answers!
🖊️ - does your oc have any tattoos? do they want any (more) tattoos?
He does have tattoos! Well, they're all kind of connected so I suppose he just has one giant tattoo?
Being experimental as he is, Veldreth thought "what if instead of having to enchant my clothes or accessories, I just enchant my own body?", and after reading through the dangers of it, hearing of failed experiments in the past and of horrible side effects for successful ones, he obviously had to try it himself.
Part of the process is covering one's own body in arcane runes, and since Veldreth wanted it to be permanent, well, he tattooed them on.
As fate would have it, his experiment was successful!....kind of, if he doesn't have a filled soul gem, or whatever the equivalent of such a thing is in other universes is, close to him at all times, the enchantment drains his soul.
Aside from that though, he now has a permanent bound/magical armor around his body.
But that's not related to the question so forgive me for going off topic!
📚 - what level of education has your oc most recently completed/is currently in (GED, undergraduate, grad school, phd, etc)?
So, neither TES nor FFXIV have any public schools or anything of the kind, however if we go by hypotheticals, I'd say Veldreth would have a PHD in....hmmm, Conjuration!
It is a bit silly saying that, if we go by his accomplishments, he was a valued member of the Vvardenfell mages guild until being banished from it and after a long and arduous journey through the ranks of House Telvanni, he became a Master of the House, I'd say he's far beyond any level of education!
I don't want to put him too high up in his FFXIV au version though, since I want to avoid making him seem too powerful, important or anything of the kind, I fucked up back when I made Mephiston the knight captain of House Fortemps within the city of Ishgard so I won't be repeating the same mistake by saying Veldreth is a "Master of a Great House somewhere in Ilsabard" or a "Grandmaster in Summoning magicks", he's just....quite skilled and knowledgeable on the arcane and all sorts of other things!
💯 - share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.
As you might have noticed, since I will barely ever get to talk about Veldreth this much again and most certainly not his original version, I tend to go off topic a bit and talk about other details about him at every occasion I can, so this won't be three random facts about him that are easily forgettable but more like....three bigger facts that I would probably not have gotten the chance to mention ever!
The people who met him in FFXIV might have noticed his first name, Voryn, and they might also have noticed how I only use the name Veldreth!
Well, Voryn *was* his first name, once he became a Telvanni Master (Or whatever he is in the FFXIV au) he forsake that name though, he deems himself the only noteworthy member of his family and therefore took the name for himself, using the name that was given to him by his parents, the weaker links of the family, would be a dishonor to himself.
Though House Telvanni is known for it's practice of slavery, Veldreth doesn't much care for it, he uses summons to take care of the tasks that slaves usually take care of in Telvanni society.
He has a wizards Tower, his former Telvanni Masters tower was on Vvardenfell but after said Master had....an accident with a pointy object in his back, well, Veldreth inherited that tower by pure coincidence! He didn't like it though so he grew his own on the Mainland of Morrowind, he called it "Tel Dun" which means something like Cursed Tower or Dark Tower in Dunmeri, I like to think he lives in a Tower in his FF14 au too.
🔺- does your oc know how to use any weapons?
Nowadays Veldreth mostly uses conjuration to take care of his problems, summoning things keeps his hands clean, he has been known to handle a dagger quite well in the past though, a good stab in the back can come in very useful at times.
🐉 - what is your oc's favorite mythical creature?
So neither TES nor FF14 really seem to have "mythical creatures" in the sense that they don't actually exist in some way, however I will just go by creatures that the general population might not see in their everyday lives.
For TES Veldreth is a big fan of various types of lesser daedra, due to him specializing in conjuration he has lots of experience in summoning them and even conversing with them, his favorite of the bunch would probably be Daedroth, Crocodile like bipedal Daedra, while Veldreth isn't all too brawny summoning a Daedroth usually makes up for that lack of brawn.
I suppose the closest for FF14 Veldreth would be voidsent, unfortunately I have no idea what kind of voidsent in particular for I don't know all too much about them myself, I'll have to look into it though.
🍎 - where was your oc born? do they still live in/around their place of birth or do they live somewhere else? how do they feel about their birthplace?
So in his original universe, he was born in Morrowind, specifically on Vvardenfell, for his FFXIV au I went with "somewhere in Ilsabard" for now, where exactly, well..... that's a problem for future me.
Both versions still live close to their place of birth, TES Veldreth moved from the Island of Vvardenfell to the mainland of Morrowind at one point while the FFXIV au version most likely did something similar, though he is currently exploring Eorzea.
He doesn't care all too much for his birthplace, he doesn't feel any strong connection with it and is sure he could have accomplished all that he has accomplished no matter where he was born.
🤍 - what are three of your oc's neutral/questionable traits?
Alright so, the difference between neutral/questionable traits and negative traits depends mostly on who you're talking to, so I'll just like three that I would think to be quite neutral, but I wouldn't blame you if you felt they were negative or positive instead of neutral.
While his lust for knowledge is never-ending, he's very content in general, he doesn't care to acquire "more power" or to reach higher ranks in House Telvanni or society as a whole, his current state of life is quite sufficient and the effort that would have to be put into changing it isn't worth it to him.
Veldreth is very absentminded, no matter if in private or in public places, once he starts thinking about something interesting to him he tends to disappear into his own mind, this even happens mid conversation from time to time, it could very well be that his tendency to not care all too much about others as long as he gets to do his own thing and follow his pursuit of knowledge is connected to the latter part in a way, offending people because he just starts ignoring them isn't a concern of his.
Though House Telvanni is inherently quite competitive, once Veldreth became a Master that sense of competition disappeared for him, ever since he's content with his state of life he's become incredibly uncompetitive and doesn't care to prove himself anymore, he knows what he can and can't do and what others might think of him, once again, doesn't matter to him.
🤔 - what are some of your oc's quirks/mannerisms?
Veldreth talks to himself quite a lot, it's a bit connected to him being incredibly absentminded for he often doesn't even realize there's other people listening and he's really just in his own little bubble of thought.
He has a habit of documenting every magical experiment, summoning, or significant event in his life. He keeps detailed journals, grimoires and even scrolls that serve as both a personal history and a reference guide for his endeavours.
😓 - is your oc open-minded or stubborn? are they inquisitive or do they prefer to keep to their bubble of knowledge?
Stubborn all the way, in all honesty, I don't think I need to go further into why and how.
He's very inquisitive, as you might have guessed from some other things I talked about along the way to this question, however he's dead set on learning and acquiring knowledge without direct help from others, if anyone dares try to teach him something his mood will become very sour very quickly.
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hi frank! i'm so glad you're getting so much love in your twilight moments. you've made us all very happy and i think we'd like to try and make you happy as well as you head off into the sunset.
what kind of things make you the happiest?
Roughly speaking I am happiest when I'm able to figure out what's going on around me and manipulate my environment for my own benefit. That is, I tend to be happier when my actions are more effective, which I think comes from the feeling that I am "in control" of my own life.
However, there are many things that increase or decrease that control, and for me they seem to have the same sort of "relative" nature I talked about earlier. For instance, what seems to make me unhappier than usual right now is that my sense of control is being diluted by newfangled social networks. The most obvious example of this would be tumblr and twitter, which emphasize the idea that my friends and associates are much larger and less connected than they used to be. There's also the fact that I'm not sure how many of my tumblr followers are "real people" (as opposed to bots, "professional bloggers" or "trolls"), and that I'm never sure how people's likes, reblogs, and mentions of me are meant (positive, negative, or neutral?). These things don't affect me in any direct, meaningful way, yet they tend to make me feel more uncontrolled than I'd like.
Conversely, the fact that my tumblr followers, twitter followers, etc. are so numerous makes me feel like I'm better "connected" than usual, which is great. This is just the old "I've met more people" / "there are more people to meet" equation.
Which brings me to my other favorite way to "feel in control." One of the things I tend to do when I am feeling happy is to change my room's lighting and ambient noise levels. When I am happy, I tend to want to be curled up in my bedroom, with the lights dimmed down to the barest minimum of "how much light do I need to see?", and with only the ambient sound of traffic and birds outside my window. I guess that seems relaxing and comforting to me?
I also generally want to read books when I am happy (as opposed to watching TV, using the internet, etc.), although this is not quite the same as reading when happy. Reading is the equivalent of changing my environment in a more "tangible" way, which is why I tend to prefer physical books to e-books -- I can flip through them more easily, see what I've read and what I haven't read, etc.
There are many other examples of this "finding a way to change my environment to make it more beneficial to me" thing. For instance, I tend to have an easier time doing things if I can do them on the couch, as opposed to doing them while standing. This has something to do with the position of my head, but I can't say exactly what it is.
Another thing that helps me "feel in control" is if I have the opportunity to do something that benefits me and no one else. This is the essence of "working" for me -- unlike the vast majority of what humans do, work feels like it is really "for me" in some meaningful way. It's possible to view even sleeping as a kind of "relaxing work," since it feels like I'm forcing myself to rest instead of leaving the choice up to my environment. But it doesn't have the same "feel" as work, where I'm actively doing something and there's a fairly clear sense that the benefits are going to come to me and no one else.
(Of course, I could say this also shows that what I really value is "relationships that are highly specific to myself." Work is work because it benefits me, rather than a vague "me" that contains many people, or contains "everyone." Conversely, when I relax, I do so in such a way that it benefits me, and benefits everyone who shares my body. It's interesting that in a way "work" and "relaxation" are framed as opposite poles in our society, when to me it seems like they are both about making decisions that affect only one person -- me -- as distinct from "open-ended" or "non-specific" decisions like "should I spend time in X or Y" which are fraught with many social implications.)
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The JRPG
This morning saw the lifting of a preview embargo for the upcoming Final Fantasy XVI, and with it a bunch of quotes from producer Naoki Yoshida that are being both praised and dunked on in equal measure depending on which interview you happen to be reading. One such interview that stood out to me came from a great video by critic SkillUp whose first question asking to clarify some earlier statements about the evolution of the JRPG genre elicited this response:
One thing he wants to get across is that when we create games, we don't go into them thinking we are creating JRPGs. We are just creating RPGs. The term JRPG is used by Western media rather than users and media in Japan. This is going to depend on who you ask but there was a time when this term first appeared fifteen years ago, and for us as developers the first time we heard it — it was like a discriminatory¹ term — as though we were being made fun of for creating these games. And so for some developers the term JRPG can be something that will maybe trigger bad feelings because of what was in the past. It wasn't a compliment to a lot of developers in Japan. We understand that recently JRPG has better connotations, and it's being used as a positive, but we still remember the time when it was being used as a negative. I remember seeing something fifteen years ago which was basically a definition of what a JRPG was versus a western RPG. It's kind of like Final Fantasy VII, and it has this type of graphics, this length of story — and compartmentalizing what we were creating into a JRPG box. And I took offense to that because that's not how we go into creating. We were going in to create an RPG, but to be compartmentalized we thought that was discriminatory.
I've been a bit hesitant to use the term JRPG over the past few months, as I started to question it myself around the release of Elden Ring. I'd seen some discussion online referring to the game as a JRPG despite not containing any of the mechanic elements I usually attribute to the genre. I asked myself why we use JRPG against other terms like ARPG (action role playing game) or SRPG (strategy role playing game) where the first word in the acronym describes how the player will interact with a game's systems². How is the word "Japanese" really helpful as a mechanic descriptor compared to "action" or "strategy?"
As a genre definition, most people attribute it to games containing turn-based combat, games made in Japan, or maybe some combination of both. Yet in the year 2023 we're far enough removed from the early days of Pokémon and Dragon Quest to be blessed with new titles inspired by those franchises and created by developers all over the globe. 2022's incredible Chained Echoes contains all of the trappings of the JRPG genre, but was created by a small team out of Germany. The upcoming Sea of Stars — similarly inspired by Chrono Trigger — is from a studio based in Quebec. Forum-arguers on the internet would likely disqualify both of these titles from the genre, despite allowing a franchise like Kingdom Hearts — which lacks turn-based combat in favor of real-time action. What this means in our current vernacular is that most would argue an RPG is the "default" terminology... unless it's made in Japan... and that seems like a super incorrect way to consider or classify genre.
In light of these comments from Yoshida³ about JRPG possibly being read as discriminatory, along with its definition being so broadly applied as to become almost amorphic, it seems like the term needs a rethink. In my eyes, it's not too much of a leap given the other RPG sub-genres already in use to say that "turn based RPG" is what most people mean when they say JRPG. Going forward, that's probably what I'll be using to describe games like Dragon Quest alongside the more general "RPG."
That said, all terms used to describe genre can and should be malleable. They should grow, evolve, or dissolve with the times. The most interesting and forward-thinking RPGs of today bear small resemblances to the games that defined the genre, but can be classified as RPGs all the same. What we considered to be a Metroidvania ten years ago looks very different than it does today, and I've gone as far as claiming a Sudoku app can be a roguelike so I'll always be the first to tell you to rethink the vocabulary used to describe creative works.
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¹ There's also the entire bit about the lack of diversity in FF16 and Yoshida's disappointing response. His obviously horrible and close-minded take about a made up fantasy setting only having room for white people doesn't discount his very valid feelings about JRPG as a descriptor.
² Next up we'll need to figure out a new one for CRPG considering a lot of those games are available on an Xbox, which is kind of like a computer... but not exactly.
³ None of this really gets into Yoshida's larger point about finding genre trappings in general to be creative constraints he wants to break free from, and that leads into why people are dunking on him relentlessly for saying blitzball doesn't fit into the world of Final Fantasy which he envisions as a dark and gritty and Game of Thrones-adjacent world instead of one capable of containing small joys in the face of great darkness. I sympathize with wanting to chart your own path — especially when it comes to a franchise like Final Fantasy which was built on a foundation of innovation — but to do so while ignoring the legacy and successes of the past titles will only serve to anger the very people you're hoping to win over.
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