#it's mostly just a matter of building the site for them and i'm having to relearn how to do it

[aizawashuichi]

hi hello am i allowed to be down bad for jessica because PPLEAASE ONE CHANCE I COULD TREAT HER BETTER </////////////3 L LET ME HAVE HER <///////////3

also also is there any references you made of her because AUG i wanna draw her so bad. she's my favorite girl ever.

DUDEE AHH YES and soon we'll have enough people to have a rescue team for her like that one fbi meme AHHH

ALSO thank you for the comment!! I'll reply later in the evening but LITERALLY GIGGLING AND KICKING MY FEET when I first read it at 6am <333 i am so happy you are enjoying the story !!! and reading your thoughts is the best thing ever !!

AND THE FACT THAT YOU WANT TO DRAW MY SILLY OC?? WOAH. insane. but if you change you mind, just the fact that you thought about it means a lot to me. your art style is insanely good, you convey emotions so well, and i feel bad about not being able to commission you anything but broke uni student living with her parents in the middle of nowhere so no summer jobs and money :((

as for the reference, I haven't drawn one. I just have a bunch of images to help me visualise her, because 1. I still have to learn how to draw and 2. I write from her point of view and so I'm seeing what she sees. unless she is in front of a mirror, i can't see her in the scenes. I can't explain it but yes asjdhfkjsahfdkj

so here are some of her features through pictures.

Physique - inspo: uzu swirl

(they also cosplay jujutsu kaisen btw !! thought you should know)

ANYWAY. i think they are somewhat flexing in the first pictures? i am not sure but that is more or less what i think of standard Jessica to look like. i did think of giving her the "sleeper build", the one where you don't notice they are strong until they flex, but no. i want her to look strong and bigger regardless of what she does. and she's also 175cm/5'8" tall.

i also found this fanart by samanthadoodles that matches my vision in a way. don't know which character this is and the description doesn't say but wow (link)

putting it here just in case you don't have instagram:

spoiler kinda - she has scars on her arms from self-harm. she got laser treatment when she arrived in the US but she still got visible white lines running across them. she also got new scars from her work (indirectly but very intentional). she says to make the others seem less noticeable but girlie is lying.

that's also why she prefers long narrow sleeves, so they won't ride up and expose her arms, but when she is with people she trust she allows herself to breathe. like the green and very fucking expensive silk nightgown she bought with L's money (this is in chapter 3).

she wears any style as long as they cover her arms. she can also use skin colour arm sleeves if she needs to.

Face - she has a friendly face to strangers. i also imagine her to be quite pretty. redheads are always beautiful, that's the law.

she looks like the typical redhead from Ireland - so freckles everywhere, green eyes, defined features. this is not like standard but i gave her reddish eyelashes that don't seem to exist unless you look up close.

and since you give characters their unique features, there's this site that talks about irish noses lmfao i only think about this kind of stuff when i have to make a character yearn to touch and feel that body part and nobody does that to her, so give her what you wish. i trust you with her.

she's almost 26 (as far as she knows) and looks still young, helps the fact that when uv radiation reaches level 3, she has to wear sunscreen so she doesn't burn alive. she should start at 2 but… hmm there's a certain pattern there.

Hair - anne of green gables kind of red (your sketches are in black and white so i don't think this is matters lmao). mostly straight. a bit wavy at the ends. she still has to learn how to properly take care of it. but this is lore. has nothing to do with what you asked lmfao. she also has bangs.

i don't know if there is anything else that could be relevant lmao BUT anyway. THANKS SO MUCH FOR THE ENTHUSIASM !!! SCREAMING AHHHHHHH

[andmaybegayer]

I'm thinking of getting one of those robot vacuums, but don't know how to start picking the right one. Do you have opinions on the matter? Do you like yours, and if so, what model is it?

I have a Xiaomi S10 EU, which is a midrange model that I think is now discontinued in favour of the S20? Xiaomi does a pretty good job with their designs, my family have various Xiaomi models that all work fine. Roborock is another brand I've heard good things about, and they're an offshoot of Xiaomi and seem to be where a lot of design innovation is so presumably that's a good sign. I assume iRobot is still making Roombas but I've never used a Roomba.

(The craziest new stuff from Roborock includes a robot arm for picking up and moving small objects out of the way? Crazy, you can now teach stabby to thrust!)

A few notes

1) They work best if you can keep your floor clear and generally free of small objects, and obviously don't navigate stairs and steps well. My apartment has very little stuff on the floor, and all my cables and wires are tucked into corners and along skirtings. If your wife has filled your house with chintz you may have a hard time getting a robot around on the floor.

Robovacs love to eat bag straps and shoelaces and charging cords, so if you tend to have those laying around on the floor and don't have the wherewithal to clear them up, you'll probably spend a lot of time untangling things from the brush.

2) They can handle most area rugs, but not all, e.g. it handles my thin cotton living room rug with short tassels without an issue but I have to move my thick kitchen floor mat out of the way or it'll eat the longer, thicker tassels. You can mark areas as no-vacuum zones if this isn't your bag.

3) Definitely spring for one with at least LiDAR, which you can see by the little stick-up lighthouse module on the top that houses the LiDAR module. Without LiDAR the robot has to just bump around semi-randomly to navigate, which is slow and inaccurate. It can build a map but the map is very poor and it barely knows where it is.

With LiDAR it knows exactly where it is, because it knows where it isn't. The very newest and most expensive bots do away with rotary LiDAR and just use forward looking cameras and 3D depth sensors to do VSLAM but if you're going for that price range from a big manufacturer you'll probably be fine. Most companies list their sensors on their site, but they often use weird names so it can be hard to tell.

(see above, with and without a LiDAR tower. Some very new models can retract the LiDAR tower to go under low furniture.)

4) You can cover a lot of house without needing the self-emptying base stations even if you run it regularly, I'd say probably around 200m² in a fairly ordinary dust environment. In my 50m² apartment I run it at least every weekday and empty out the integrated dust container once a week and that's usually fine, and I don't have any particular air filtration running, but I do keep the windows mostly closed when I can.

5) Speaking of maintenance, I don't use the mop feature on mine but it does keep your floors cleaner while requiring more attention to be paid to water levels. I'm actually going to try using mine more now and see how that goes. This is one thing where I think the stations might make sense even for a pretty small apartment. My brother uses the mop feature on his all the time and he likes it.

6) General maintenance: not that much! It'll buzz you on your phone when it thinks a component has hit end of life but so far I don't think anyone is using DRM to force you to use first-party parts or making you throw away things that are working, you can just manually reset the timers, although so far when the warnings do come up I tend to agree that it's time to replace a part.

You have to empty out the dust and change the water, and if it eats something you might spend a few minutes detangling the rotating brushes. The brushes will get knotted with hair and need cleaning every couple weeks to months depending on how much hair and how long it is, but most models come with a little knife tool for cutting the hair. Never tried the models that advertise that they don't get tangled.

7) Bonus nerd shit you probably shouldn't do. If you really do not want your Robovac connecting to the cloud, there's some work on developing self-hosted management servers that you can point a rooted robot at, and of course you can root your vacuum cleaner, because it's just an embedded Linux box on wheels. The open source management server software is called Valetudo.

[insanescriptist]

Im so scared because of this election and what it means for my loved ones and I.

If you're a global nonnie,

I'm sorry; you believed in the intelligence and humanity of the average American voter and were denied both.

Obviously Trump being elected is going to embolden the worst politics; either to use or abuse or both, the world and it's peoples. Not just in the current warring areas, but all over the world.

And remember, Trump is currently 78; he could easily die of natural causes within the next four years. Without Trump's star power, a lot of that momentum will die fast.

If you're in the US nonnie,

If you live in a Blue state, your state's likely to stay Blue, with all that being a Blue state entails

If you live in a Red state, your state is likely to stay Red, with all that being a Red state entails

If you live in a Purple state, it's likely going to swing one way or another and I wish you the best in surviving the politics and the political ads

Further US specifics under the cut

Like I'll be real and say I'm disappointed my state's not more purple, which is the best color anyway (side effect of living in the South; it's very Red Republican politics) but it is what it is; we just gotta live with it or deal with it so... most posts I've seen going around have focused on the importance of letting yourself grieve, choosing an issue to focus on and avoiding burnout. I think I'll focus on awareness somewhat. Just things to watch out for. Because there's going to be all sorts of obnoxious crowing and cawing about everything. I'll touch on things and if I had the time and energy, I'd link to various stories and sites but most of what I'll say here is easy enough to verify in broad strokes with a couple of internet searches.

If you're worried about the economy... yeah that's a valid worry and probably not the way you're thinking. You're thinking another trade war (Mexico would love it if there is btw, they benefited off of the last one and the Farmers who had soy in their fields as part of that rotation lost so much money) which would be ow for the US again, but mostly survivable as trade wars only focus either a trade good or trade partnership. The lesser issue but more concerning, Trump will slash anything he wants (regulations mostly) to ensure an economic boon because that's what people want and will notice by year 2 and 3 of his second term. What they'll celebrate. That and cheap gas. What they won't notice for a couple years is the further loosening of food regs (see all the recent food recalls and outbreaks) and what people won't notice for decades is the infrastructure issues (building regs for housing and ofc infrastructure in general.) There's also the various other safety regs and requirements built into the laws, no matter how shitty it is ie workman's comp. Regs are built in blood but business don't care if their money is bloody. But yeah, these reg slashes are going to crop up with after effects for absolute decades afterwards. Don't believe me? You should watch more housing renovation programs; there's various types of plumbing and electrical regulations that can absolutely date your house. And yes, the housing insurance companies can spot them and also not tell you about them, but certainly charge you for the increased risk. That's just for the housing regs btw. Industrials regs concern entire industries, like how much carbon your car can emit to be considered eco-friendly to what sort of pipes can be laid out where. No one wants to be the next Flint, Michigan but it could easily happen and probably with something else. There's buildings made less than 50 years ago that are made with materials considered unsafe by standards now. There's also banking shit to consider with businesses and housing. The oodles of various office and retail space unused which um. The banks care a lot about unused office space that can't even be refit into human housing. Empty retail space can eventually be filled with another business. Empty offices less so now that more businesses are less tied to the office as a place. (Reduces other business' overhead.) Banks hate having empty unprofitable buildings in their portfolio, but at least the interest rates are back to "normal" percentages. Like I won't get into the the money generation/shuffle game that's going on with the US debt, other than 2.4% is sustainable for political purposes and not humanitarian purposes, because boy would it be nice to slash the national debt. Really make the dollar worth something that way. Sure, I'll take getting paid more, but I'd sure like to be able to also buy more with my pay. Because foodstuff is still going high because of various supply issues due to climate issues, the newest banana plague, in addition to many, many recalls. Like does no one remember the arson going around various meat farms several years ago? The various poultry farms ended because of avian flu? Long story short, the food prices are still so high because supply is pretty fucked up. Stores have been jumping through so many hoops to get supplied, that the logistics people are probably Olympic level rhythm dancers by now. Which is an additional complication to the whole ongoing recall issues whenever there's a bad batch of anything. They're a bit too busy ensuring supply to always have all the documentation in order. Which obviously, recalls work best when stores know which products to pull. More economic news though, Trump is going to be so good for businesses. And so bad for the people.

If you're worried about your medical health, that's also a valid worry. Especially with his comments on various known vaccines. Like the standard ones we've had for ages. Might wanna get those touched up. Medical red tape is annoying to wade through at the best of times but he's not in office yet, so plan accordingly. Make the most use of your health benefits this year and next year (they're already set for the year), since the year after will be once he's in office and things will obviously shift to some degree with whatever health insurance you've got, if any. A little medical debt in prevention is more than worth the expense of cure later. Get the cavities seen to. Get that pap smear. Refresh your vaccinations. Do your tests, get your bloodwork ran and go through it bit by bit. Take your damn vitamins. (And your meds.) Because again, those regulations? Those are going to get more loosey-goosey. In some things. More tight on some things than others. It's going to vary by state politics. Like my state for example does allow for birth control but not for abortion. Would I like abortion to be an option, yes, because my state is terrible about supporting families after the birth of a child beyond WIC and SNAP benefits. Daycare waiting lists can be over a year and maternity/paternity leave is something of a joke depending on what/who you work for. About the only solid boon I can think of would be Trump's loosening of the health regs, that might entice some nurses back to nursing, easing that lack of human resources in the health care system. As a red state, there were so so so many nurses I've talked to that quit/retired rather than take a booster shot for Covid or even the original Covid shot. Which is a whole different story, but not for here.

If you're worried about your public safety because you're part of a vulnerable/minority population? Yeah, be concerned. Trump's political leanings and what he says emboldens all kinds of impulses in the worst people. So they might actually go through with impulses they wouldn't otherwise act on. The KKK might try to recruit again. Which I wish was a joke, but they actually did try to have a public, local to Izzy, meet during Trump's previous term; they got scared off by the locals. So general advice Look at travel recommendations/warnings when going through parts of the US. Plan trips carefully. Consider moving to friendlier places if able, take precautions if unable or unwilling. Keep to a buddy system. Stay with friends in public. Make your plans for if the worst happens so you don't anxiety spiral. Know who to crash with in an emergency How to get copies of your important documents if they're all ash or being held by another party etc. I know no one really does this nowadays but know your emergency contact's phone number!!! Still very important information. Your phone can be dead, lost, stolen or confiscated and along with all the data on it and with it. (Those phone cases with the wallet attachment? How delightful, a lost phone that has a wallet attached, especially one with a photo ID of any kind is a golden goose for anyone looking to do a little identity theft. Because in order to call to put cancels/holds on all your cards, you've gotta have a phone.) Also as a reminder, your biggest and best shield is your confidence; the moment you act like prey, you'll be treated as such by those looking for targets. Do your murder strut and your main problem will be people asking you for directions and grannies trying to get you to go to church.

[blessedarethebinarybreakers]

Hi Avery! You may remember me from "my church is going on its RIC journey" several years ago! Covid set us back but we've made some progress with enacting inclusivity in our building, including participation in our city's Pride, officially naming two gender neutral bathrooms (i worked SO hard for this), celebrating RIC Sunday, and slowly starting a Faith and Diversity section in our library!

I wanted to ask though - the affirming committee (which I'm on) wants to include some resources on our church website for brand new allies who may know little to nothing about the LGBTQ+ community! Things like definitions, explanations of pronouns... I wanted to know if you had any advice or suggestions for places I could look, for both super basic resources and ones with a Christian lens!

Thank you so much for all you do!! - Moth

Oh hey, I do remember you; so glad to hear from you again! <3

Thank you for your part in moving your church further into affirmation. I know how frustrating such work can get, especially because it tends to move so slowly; but it is good and holy work, and what you've done and continue to do for your church matters so much.

First, I imagine you're already aware of it but just in case, Reconciling Works has its own webpage of resources, including basic definitions. Definitely makes sense to link some of those!

See this post for my recommendations for some queer Christian resources mostly related to sexuality. One of them, the Queer Grace Encyclopedia, is a database both of basic queer definitions and theology. You'll find a lot of great, simple but well-researched articles on there!

Next, I've got a Google doc masterpost of basic trans stuff, including pronoun practice and how to apologize gracefully when you accidentally misgender someone. I don't recommend passing the whole doc along to your church because Too Many Links gets overwhelming, but if you wander through you can pick out the resources you think they'd find most helpful!

I also have a Google doc of Christian-specific trans stuff; I recommend similarly that you pick out just a few to pass on for the church site. Especially some links from the Transmission Ministry Network :)

Posting this so others can add recommendations!

[samkat10423]

Sunset-died

Lately I've been following @tiaamorosa's Sunset-died story. If You haven't seen it, be sure to check it out. Anyway, I've played this world before. Mostly during a sim world-hop challenge we had over at the old Sims Daily forum, with my all-time favorite sim, Theo Kaplinski. Who was created using my good friend @franglishetchocolat's self-sim that she created and shared on that site. Anyway, it was while Theo visited this world, that she adopted her cat, Marley, and the rest - as we say - is history.

This world was created pre-Seasons, which was fine. But once Seasons came out, sims could actually die from exposure. No so good. When Theo landed on shore, she found a roofless, partially wall-less structure to live in. Again, pre-Seasons it didn't matter. But now - since I have all the EPs and stuff crap - it presents a bit of a problem. So, I'm lending my current sims a hand by upgrading their shelters. In my game, the destruction of SV was due to an alien attack. I used a crash site lot from Into the Future for the downed craft in my town. Several months have gone by and sims are slowly beginning to get their lives together.

One of the first community lots they built was a medical clinic. I ousted VJ Alvi from the Monotone house that he had squatted in and converted it into a small clinic.

The local scientists have provided some solar panels for electricity, since the main power lines are still down. BTW, I haven't placed the rabbithole rug yet, but it will be accessible via those stairs on the side of the building that lead to a basement.

There's a tiny waiting area, furnished with dumpster finds and a general exam area with a chemistry thingie. The other room is the surgical suite. There is also a room where x-rays can be done and a small space for consults. In my town history, most of the equipment was looted from the spacecraft that crashed, since sims wouldn't have had time to get it from the hospital that was nuked - nor would they have anyplace to store it. So, I figure they stole it from the spacecraft. Some of it is pretty advanced for these sims - they are nothing if not backward - so, they are still learning how to use it. Have only killed 3 sims in the process. Anyway, most of these items came from Sandy @aroundthesims3. If you're wondering, those 2 aqua-colored items outside the back door, are porta-potties. There wasn't enough room inside, so this is their work-around.

These are the Wolffs down on what was once their lot. There isn't much left other than a tent and those boxes. I took both of them into CAS and gave them make-overs. Both will be moving elsewhere. Since their marriage was already on the rocks, they decided to call it quits. Actually, Thornton just upped and abandoned Morgana.

And this is who he dumped her for - the ever-lovable Jaime Jolina. They now live in that trailer next door to Erin Kennedy's lot. Jaime is currently jobless, since the clinic hasn't officially opened yet. Thornton has joined the criminal track since that building survived the attack. Because she is in the medical field and considered a necessary worker - a lot like I was at the height of Covid - Jaime's housing was given priority status and was one of the houses renovated first. (I'll share some pics of it in my next post).

Anyway, for now, I plan on only having essential careers in this town - political, medical, police, and science. Then military. And criminal, since whenever disasters strike, it always seems to bring out both the best and worse in people.

[vervainvoyage]

MR5, woot woot! THAT test was the hardest of them all- they wanted me to hack 6 things in a row. Never ask me to do this again. PLEASE.

I'm done with farming for now and getting back to quests, and I have a weird feeling that I got spoiled with some info too soon by doing the Heart of Deimos mission and

being told that apparently, those huge people made me? cool. Nice to know. I like the look of their old buildings, very gold and white, so I can vibe with that. OH and it suddenly makes sense why the extraction points in Orokin ruins look so conveniently designed- because they were designed to be landing points for Frame aircraft. Neat.

Me and Daughter are really vibing, mostly because I applaud her choice of blasting a boyband at full volume on a moon entirely taken over by eldritch mutated meat growth. The horrors persists but we stay silly.

Despite having now... 20 hours in the game, wow, I still run face-first into walls and fall off the map. I applaud Lotus for still wanting me on any missions despite that, though considering how often she tells me to "Focus, Tenno" she might have figured out I just have ADHD and usually forget to put on glasses. She scares me with some of her warnings though- when raiding Vaults, she sometimes says "something's wrong" and DOESN'T ELABORATE. MA'AM. PLEASE. DETAILS.

Also it took my bro a few tries to hammer it into my head that during the drilling missions, when Lotus tells me "The scanner has picked up a target. Go to the dig site" I'm supposed to STAY exactly where I was. Lotus please WHY are you telling me to go somewhere else and then nag me about my excavator getting destroyed 😭 I'm just a little gal, I can't receive this many orders at once, you already know I woke up from the coma a bit uh... uncalibrated.

Anyway, I just finished Stolen Dreams and... well that was a plot hook if I've ever seen one. I am more confused than before that mission. The Codices sound like a random MacGuffin, but I must assume they will show up later and this was just a set up that they even exist. The message though? About "the womb of the sky" being empty? Yeesh thanks ominous machine. Good to know. I'll just. I'll just leave you to it, thanks.

So. It's fun playing a warmachine that goes through enemies like a lightsaber through butter, even if I'm clearly one that lost some vital brain matter during the coma.

[void-botanist]

2024 Review & 2025 Resolutions

My resolutions for 2024 were organized into a few different blocks, but for a better overview, here they are in one big list:

Clear out my askbox: [laughs while crying]

✅ Clear out my drafts: I did it at the beginning of the year and then immediately filled up my drafts again.

✅Follow up on a few ancient tags that I’ve been thinking about for months: I did at least one of these!

Create the Hall of Fame list: I thought about it a lot but didn't actually retag anything.

✅Catch up on my reading list! At the top of it are vacantgodling’s Cage, outpost51’s Between a Rock and a Hard Place, writernopal’s As a Stranger or a Friend, anoelleart’s Protolith, and theskeletonprior’s The Bishop of Black: this was a partial success. I made a good start on Cage and read AASOAF 1 plus 2/3 of AASOAF 2, but I didn't get to BRHP, Protolith, or TBOB. They're still on my list tho!

Write more lesbian smut: didn't get very far on this one, but that just means more to write later.

✅ Figure out Sid’s deal - and for that matter the rest of the plot of AOM that right now is just mud: AOM mostly makes sense now, and it's a lot of people making these faces at each other!

Do another pass through Nicea to fill in some of the ideas that are just empty scenes, consider Declan and Tristan more critically, and edit in Isabel’s infamous ex (he’s great actually but infamous for context reasons): I did a little bit of this but honestly I don't think I wrote that much on Nicea this year at all.

Continue doing music-inspired scenelets in some capacity, maybe to kickstart Nicea a bit: music definitely inspired me but not so directly.

Finish my other sex scenes that are just sort of hanging out: uhhhh also didn't do this but I tinkered with some of them.

✅ Get deeper into cultural worldbuilding, especially with Pajiir: there's still a lot more to do but I got some more stuff figured out!

✅ Continue cultivating better art habits (draw from the shoulder ugh) and consider actually learning to touch type for real to save my wrists: didn't learn touch typing but I got a lot better at drawing from the elbow and/or shoulder. I still need to keep working on it tho.

Have my Spotify Wrapped 2024 be at least 1/3 Black artists: ngl, my Wrapped is a mess. But I did listen to way more Black artists across genres whose songs are on my playlists now, and of my 16 favorite albums that I first listened to this year, half are by Black artists.

✅ Get back to cross-stitch and other fiber arts: I didn't finish anything but I did make progress on an ancient cross-stitch and crocheted a little.

✅ Make powerpoints: I finished one for Night Shift and started like ten others.

I completed or made good progress on 8 of 15, which is not bad! But this was honestly too many resolutions to keep track of, even though I was gonna do some of them resolution or no.

2025 Resolutions

Finish one unfinished piece every month. Doesn't matter what it is - art, writing, music, code - I'm gonna get it done.

Finish one thing from my reading list every month. This one might not happen on a monthly schedule but at least I'll be reading stuff continuously!

Clear out my askbox and drafts and this time, don't let them build up more than 20 things each.

Get my nekoweb site into a more complete form. I want there to be setting and character reference pages along with more writing and maybe an askbox or a linktree?

Listen to more jazz. This year I branched out more into goth and hip hop, which I'm gonna continue doing, but man I love jazz and I just want to listen to a ton of it this year. Recs are welcome!

This isn't everything I want to do that's relevant to this blog, but it will help me stay on track, I think. Maybe I'll do a monthly update.

Anyway, thank you for joining me this year! I'm looking forward to seeing what you all get up to next year, and I'm very glad to be mutuals/friends with a number of you! Happy 2025!

[athenawasamerf]

hi i love ur blog sm!!! i'm studying in egypt for around 9 months as part of a university program and i was wondering if you had any advice for me (based off ur pinned post- if u don't live in egypt anymore u can ignore this!!!!) both as a woman and just in general. if this isn't something you'd like to talk about feel free to ignore! i hope you're doing well <3

Hey! Welcome to Egypt, also known in the region as the mother of the world.

Mostly my advice would be to steer clear of anyone trying to sell you things on the streets. Don’t take taxis, Uber is more expensive but safer and you’re less likely to get scammed. Idk if you speak any Arabic but try to learn some, it helps in navigating day to day life without getting scammed. Most everyone speaks English (badly, lol), though, so it’s not a requirement. Don’t walk alone at night, don’t trust Egyptian men for half a second, ever, no matter how well you think you know them. Try to make friends quickly, Egyptian women are very friendly and welcoming and extremely helpful. Don’t be afraid to ask for help and support from friends and neighbours. If you’re in Cairo, beware the metro system, it’ll always take at least twice as long as you think it will. If you’re in Alexandria, trams are a good way to travel around if you know what you’re doing, but you’ll have to get to know the tram lines.

Don’t trade currency on the black market, keep to the banks and currency exchange outlets. Don’t drink tap water, and don’t eat from dodgy looking carts unless you have someone’s assurance you won’t get sick off of it.

And, most importantly, enjoy your time to the fullest. Try all the traditional food, explore the museums and historical sites, try to find social media pages and influencers who share ‘hidden gems’ around where you’ll be staying.

Download talabat (it’s a food delivery app and it delivers groceries as well) and mrsool (it’s basically an app to like… get someone to pick up/buy/deliver something for you for a fee) once you get here. And get an Egyptian SIM card on arrival, I recommend Vodafone but be aware coverage might not be great depending on where you are, a lot of areas don’t get any cell coverage inside buildings.

If you’re going to be in Alexandria, hit me up for recommendations if you’d like! And have fun!

[sonicasura]

As you wish.

So like I mentioned yesterday, my mom has basically given me new inspiration while I'm still suffering through burnout on my Kaiju Pet Au. So here is what these talks have done when it comes to the transformation stages from a wild kaiju to a pet one.

So the first year, kaijus don't change a lot on the outside as most of the changes begins inside to prepare for the more drastic ones to come over the next four years. Any real physical change you'd see is that the kaiju grows a bit bigger here and there, which can cause some balance issues if the new hight is a bit one-sided in certain parts. Or worse for that matter.

Remember Ava, Kafka's older sister in my au? Her shell out grew her by a good bit, forcing my turtle kaiju to basically roll everywhere to be able to move. Which was not good for Okonogi as she's not the strongest person around, specially when she needed to give her kaiju a bath cause Ava defently could not clean her shell on her own like this. It was also not helped that Okonogi lived on the second floor either. Her nabors where really confused what all those crash like sounds where at first, until they saw the little kaiju struggling to get up the stairs. Her place did not have a elevator.

Kafka and Yomi also struggled here too. Yomi's mushroom tops grew too wide and forced his owner to have a rope connected to each other when they went outside on a windy day. The little mushroom suddenly found he could fly with how wide they where and stuggled to navigate the house as the new tops blocked a good deal of what was happening above him.

And Kafka? For some reason his tail wanted to be a really long snake and cause many tripping hazard for himself, Mina and her parents. And unfortuantly for him, a lot of people accidentally ended up stepping on said tail or put something heavy on it without knowing it. He is understandably not happy when it happens.

The secon year brings a lot more changes then the first. Once again, a kaiju grows to a new hight, mostly that of a medium sized dog at the most, thinks labs and collies. They also start develop their legs and arms, should they not have them to begins with and various other body parts starts to take on a humanish form too. Though of you kaiju is insect or aracnid based, they will spin a coocon during winter and due most of their changes then instead.

The third year is where every kaiju, regardless of type, gets to the middle point and what is commingly know as the awkward stage due to how odd and unbalance they are in this form. They are learing to use their new limbs, they grow again and losses bits and pieces that just would not work at all ect ect. This is where most of the outer changes happens and it leads to a lot of accidents. And if they have powerful abilities as well, haywires can happen for lack of better words.

This was also the year Kafka lost his wings and the tail he has had since the day he hatched. Yomi is the most lucky out of the three since he has a very simple build. Though he does find himself struggling with his own balance as he grows way taller then what is usual for pet kaijus. And take months to learn to duck his head when going through doorways. This is also the stage where they start to wear cloths, albit sparingly until their more humaniod form is more ready.

The fourth and fifth year, the kaijus mostly start growing into adult size, starting out as 7 years olds that looks a little sickly due to the fact that they usually don't have the needed muscle mass for their builds. The finaly few phsycial changes also happens between these two years, with some actually growing an extar set of arms or other much needed parts when needed.

By the time Mina is colleage age, Kafka is his full hight of 200cm. Which can be awkward at times. Yomi has his first canon form at the same hight(at least form what the wiki site tells me) and Ava is a wopping 300cm tall. And yes, she loves to that fact very much, much to both Kafka's and Yomi's annoyence.

I won't lie that I nearly laughed my ass off at the thought of a big cap Yomi just flying away like a runaway kite. Right now it's that time for Sandhill Cranes in my area to have and raise their chicks. You can say it's easy to imagine how awkward pet kaiju look in the middle stage if you see fledging Sandhills.

[the-firebird69]

We had posted about land and you lost the thing no he lost it very funny but what we're saying is there's lots out there for sale $3,000 500 of them are Trump's and he has two small developments of 20 or 30 houses each large ones there are five we're talks I'm going on about three of them and we're going to offer them some houses and first dibs on some more and some onesie Tuesday lots maybe and we're getting a call from one of the others they want to begin as soon as possible they have about a hundred lots and they want to hire my husband in some capacity and he has the distance now and really they want to hire him to do some sort of estimating and it's not very hard and yes he needs to do it off site and needs the use of a company vehicle for a while and they approve that they say and it will help because going there and back it'll draw the Trump away and she says no way and he has to move him trying for another stuff drawing board it needs a landline and we're going ahead and we're going to talk with them today and that's four out of the five and the fifth one is thinking about it I didn't want to know what kind of deal they want to know what kind of deal and it was kind of stupid because you build for other people and you don't want to and starts huge fights this will start fights but not with the builder and they're amazed and how dumb it is so we're going to head and probably deal as well then they're empty lots that are not developed and they're not plotted we're in talks with them about those there's probably four that are 200 acres and we didn't mention that before but we mentioned other stuff. And there are about five that are around 1500 acres and we're going to sit down and talk to them about that because the 1500 would be like a mixed use mostly apartments some condos and some houses and they would have a certain number and we will gift a certain number two he says it. Oh yes the house is in the community that you saw would range from 1.5 million to 2 million on the average and 2.5 million at the high end and it's because they're 2500 square foot so really it's not just for anybody but you guys preclude each other anyways once you set up a trailer and it's several other things to mention and this land is not free we have to pay for it but it is not really that much money and it's not a matter of money it's not necessarily true everybody fights and it's not much money and it's real..... You make the money real and they do it on purpose to say that we have most of the houses because they don't want him moving back here to Florida and that's the warlock they wanted to Utah and California and one of their Islands so we're going to go ahead and it should be profitable experience and easier than we thought other properties too and businesses should start coming to us

Hera

This is the concept that people don't want out there they don't want him going out west and it's the empire

Thor Freya

You don't want to go out west either well it's not really true

Mac Daddy

The stuff about Trump trying to set us up got out and it's being looked at an examined and we're going to question them we have some of it in and it's real

Stan

Is that enough of this with the biggest enemy and he says of course you're stupid that's why I can't stand it anymore this guy's berating us it says go somewhere else someone else will berate you I don't want you here you're a nasty piece of s*** I sort of get something I'm going to get beat up and yeah you can beat up every day inspiring me to interrupt because you think that it makes it you look good or something people don't want me Disturbed believe it or not and they see her method in Iowa and they said they saw it and they're going after an idiots in New Hampshire and killing them all it's hard to differentiate no hers are women and they find you disguised as women and they're killing you for the disguise can you go faster hopefully you'll be cleared out

[gorgonarcher]

Game 2 - Pathfinder 2e

Okay, so I've gotten into Pathfinder a bit recently after a long period of time being a bit doubtful of it. A lot of the public APs I've seen of it have not really made me confident it was something I'd enjoy. However, with recent Hasbro nonsense, my group has tried it out a bit and found we enjoyed it. We're currently playing a Anathema Vaults just to test it out and some of us have converted Icewind Dale: Rime of the Ice Maiden to PF2e and is playing that (though it wasn't in a time slot I could make, unfortunately).

In any case, we've found it to be a lot more granular, the cookie cutter nature of D&D being my biggest complaint with it. And allowing for a lot of flexibility in concept. But let's get to making our gorgon archer.

Archery is just a matter of getting the proper proficiency, but as usual, I'm placing the impetus on archery and gorgon-ness so we'll want something a bit martial-oriented. This brings the following options front and center:

Fighter

Ranger

Rogue

Monk

There is a Monk ki-spell called Medusa's Wrath that is literally the stoning gaze available at level 16. So it could be a good option. Given my normal direction on a full fantasy Gorgon Archer is more along the lines of a Ranger, I'm likely going this direction just for the different flavor. However, Medusa's Wrath can be reached via dedication feats taking at least two Feat options.

And yes, there is a definite archer monk build.

Now the issue with doing a ranger and multiclassing with a monk is that there is a key point of "gorgon" that is mostly going to be accessible by also dedicating into Witch for the Living Hair option. So that would be five Feat choices in total given over to getting that spell. Not terrible given just how many Feats you get in this game, (either one or two new feats at every level) but still a bit of an ask.

Besides, as I said, monastic archer is an interesting flavor to take.

Now, for Ancestry (race for people used to D&D) there's a couple of options:

Nagaji - snake people

Vishkanya - human-like snake people

Once you bring Heritages (think subraces) into then Human and Elf become good possibilities too. First, while each Ancestry has it's own set of Heritages, the developers have said it's okay to mix and match them to represent mixed blood. Which means, for example, you can give a human a heritage from Vishkanya.

Now for Heritages, there's a few that aren't attached to specific Ancestries. These are things like Nephilim (encompassing both tieflings and aasimar for those familiar with D&D), Aiuvarin (half-elves), Dromaar (half-orcs), and so on. One of these that appeals to me especially for this is Beastkin (think shifter with more shapeshifting). However, I just noticed a thing.

I've til now dismissed interest in the Nagaji, purely a taste thing, I'm not much interested in people without human heads. Doesn't seem to bother me with stuff like Disney movies. But looking at the Nagaji there is a heritage that avoids that: Sacred Nagaji (official art below)

So I'm going to go ahead go with that.

Which brings me to background. I usually do something a bit outcast-ish for a Gorgon Archer, but this feels a bit unnecessary for this character since there's entire snake-people cultures. Plus, again, let's stretch from my normal. (Not that many people have seen my other builds, since I doubt many have seen my old blogger site) but, anyway.

So on to Background. There's a lot for Pathfinder, I don't really want to lean too heavily into the "sacred" thing or the typical monastic monk (sort of a problem with the class being named monk... not all monks are actual monks.) In this case, I'm going to go with Courier.

So that gives us:

Ancestry: Nagaji

Heritage: Sacred Nagaji

Background: Courier

Class: Monk

So, let's get to determining Abilities. The way this works is we get bonuses for each of the following:

Ancestry: Two, usually one set and one free.

Background: Two or one depending on background

Class: One

Since we're going archery, we'll be doing Dexterity where we can.

The nagaji set boost is to Strength and we'll add the free one to Dexterity.

The courier background gets two boosts, one has to be to Dexterity or Intelligence and the other is free. They can't both be Dexterity because you can gain a boost to the same Ability from the same source. I'm taking Dexterity for sure and I think I'll go with Intelligence for the second. Why that and not Wisdom? That'll come up later.

Monk gives us one boosts to either Strength or Dexterity and we'll go with Dexterity.

In addition, at first level we get four boosts each of which has to go to a different Ability. We're going for Dexterity, Constitution, Wisdom, and Intelligence.

This makes the states look like the following:

Strength +1

Dexterity +4

Constitution +1

Intelligence +2

Wisdom +1

Charisma +0

You can actually do these things in whatever order you want, the game has a suggested order, but also are explicit that you can do things in any order. Especially for things that may have requirements. In this case, I'm going to move to Skills next, as that will determine what feats are available.

First, some Skills came with Background and Class

Courier provides the following Skills:

Society

A Lore skill related to the City you're from.

Class provides the following training, not all of these are skills, but I'm including proficiencies as well:

Trained in Perception - most classes seem to start with this.

Expert in all three Saving Throws - seems to be a Monk thing

Expert in Unarmored Defense - Monk thing

Trained in Simple Weapons

Trained in Unarmed Attack

Trained in Monk ability save DCs

Trained in 4 Skills plus Intelligence (+2 here)

10 Hit Points + Constitution per level (that's right, you don't roll HP)

So, I have to pick 6 skills

Acrobatics for maneuvering

Athletics for climbing

Deception for intrigue

Diplomacy for etiquette

Stealth for intrigue

Survival for travel

Now we come to feats. There are four kinds:

Class Feats - abilities particular to your Class

Ancestry Feats - abilities particular to your Ancestry

Skill Feats - abilities particular to your Skills

General Feats - general capabilities

Most martials, Monk included, get a Class feat at 1st level. All classes get a Class feat at each even level afterward.

Characters get one Ancestry feat at 1st level, then it seems at 5th and each 4 levels afterwards, but this seems to be a determined by class, so their may be some classes that get more or fewer Ancestry feats.

Skill feats are definitely a class thing with Rogues getting a Skill feat every level and other classes seeming to get them every even level.

General feats seem to come at 3rd level and every 4 levels after, but again, some classes might be different.

We get one right away because of the Courier background, Glean Contents, which allows her to figure out what papers contain without disturbing seals or with only a quick glimpse. Then we get an Ancestry feat and a Class feat.

Class feat is easy: Monastic Archer Stance. Because we want to be an archer.

Now the Ancestry feat. There's two that stand out, one is Cold Minded, which gives a +1 to saving throws vs emotion magic and Serpent's Tongue which gives the Scent ability. I'm going for the Scent ability in this case to be able to catch awareness of enemies.

That gives us the following end result for 1st level:

1st Level Sacred Nagaji Courier Monk

Strength +1

Dexterity +4

Constitution +1

Intelligence +1

Wisdom +2

Charisma +0

Hit Points: 11 AC: 19

Fortitude +6

Reflex +9

Will +7

Monk DC: 17

Trained Perception: +4

Initiative: +2

Skills

Trained: Acrobatics +7

Untrained: Arcana +2

Trained: Athletics +4

Untrained: Crafting +2

Trained: Deception +3

Trained: Diplomacy +3

Untrained: Intimidation +0

Trained: Lore: City +5

Untrained: Medicine +1

Untrained: Nature +1

Untrained: Occultism +2

Untrained Performance +0

Untrained Religion +1

Trained: Society +5

Trained: Stealth +7

Trained: Survival +4

Untrained Thievery +4

Weapons

Fist +7, 1d6

Tail +4, 1d6

Longbow +7, 1d8

Class Feats

Monastic Archer Stance

Ancestry Feats

Serpent's Tongue - Scent (Imprecise) 30ft

Skill Feats

Glean Contents

Features

Sacred Nagaji Tail - 1d6 Unarmed, Brawling

Sacred Nagaji stability +2 to Fortitude and Reflex saves to resist Grapple, Trip, and other similar abilities.

Flurry of Blows

Low-Light Vision

Powerful Fists

That's it for 1st level done for. I'm going to continue on to 4th level however, to reach for an important bit for the gorgon concept: snakes for her. Granted, we can just describe her as having snakes for hair, but when the option to represent something mechanically, I'll take it and since I can't do more than fluff it at 1st level, I'll move on to 4th.

2nd Level

For the second level, we get into how Pathfinder does multiclassing. It does it, as it does most things, through feats. We're going to take a Dedication Feat for the Witch class, which is why we wanted Intelligence at +2 to meet the requirements.

Dedication Witch gives the following:

A patron

A familiar which knows two Cantrips.

The ability to prepare one Cantrip per day.

Training in a skill based on patron.

For patron, we're choosing Spinner of Threads, feels like that goes in with intrigue a bit. This means she gains the Occultism skill and gains spells from the Occult list. For a familiar, we're going with a sparrow.

For the two cantrips, Approximate and Message. She'll probably prepare Message on most cases. But Approximate would be useful for some investigations.

She also gains a Skill Feat and I'm taking Streetwise so she can gather information through Society instead of Diplomacy.

3rd Level

At this point, we gain our first General feat. As a note, when you get a General feat you can instead take a Skill feat. In this case, I'll take a General Feat, Incredible Initiative so that she gains +2 to initiative. Initiative usually uses Perception, but you can make a case for using other skills, such as if you're being very stealthy (Stealth) or start with a battle cry (Intimidate)

She also gains the following Monk features:

Mystic Strikes so her unarmed attacks (and bow attacks while in Monastic Archer Stance) count as magical.

Incredible Movement so she gets +10ft to Movement and +5ft for every 4th level after.

We also get to increase a skill. We could increase one of our skills to Expert, but instead, we'll take another skill to complete our intrigue concept: Thievery.

4th Level

Now we get to another Class Feat which is going to be "Archetype Feat" which are basically the multiclass feats. And we're going to take the feat we dipped into Witch.

We taking Basic Witchcraft, giving us a 1st or 2nd level Witch Class Feat, which will be Witch's Armaments. That gives us a choice between claws, fangs, or living hair. We're obviously going for living hair.

Now, we take a Skill feat which will be Ambush Tactics, which means she has a good eye for spotting ambushes within a terrain she has a Lore for... Cities.

And now at 4th level we have our Gorgon Archer. You'll note that AC has gone up. Level is part of all calculations, including AC, Attacks, save DCs, and Skill bonuses. Untrained skills do not increase so they would just use base Ability score.

I'm also going to say right now that going for Living Hair is not optimal, but it is a good flavor and what I'm looking for. Also, the hair, while a weak attack, has traits making it useful for disarming, tripping, grappling, and is also agile, meaning it doesn't suffer from multiple attack penalty as badly.

4th Level Sacred Nagaji Courier Monk

Strength +1

Dexterity +4

Constitution +1

Intelligence +1

Wisdom +2

Charisma +0

Hit Points: 54 AC: 22

Fortitude +9

Reflex +12

Will +9

Monk DC: 20

Trained Perception: +7

Initiative: +2

Skills

Trained: Acrobatics +10

Untrained: Arcana +2

Trained: Athletics +7

Untrained: Crafting +2

Trained: Deception +6

Trained: Diplomacy +6

Untrained: Intimidation +0

Trained: Lore: City +8

Untrained: Medicine +1

Untrained: Nature +1

Trained: Occultism +8

Untrained: Performance +0

Untrained: Religion +1

Trained: Society +8

Trained: Stealth +10

Trained: Survival +7

Trained: Thievery +10

Weapons

Fist +10, 1d6

Tail +7, 1d6

Longbow +10, 1d8

Living Hair +10, 1d4

Class Feats

Monastic Archer Stance

Witch Dedication

Basic Witchcraft: Witch's Armaments: Living Hair

Ancestry Feats

Serpent's Tongue - Scent (Imprecise) 30ft

Skill Feats

Ambush Tactics

Glean Contents

Streetwise

General Feats

Incredible Initiative

Features

Sacred Nagaji Tail - 1d6 Unarmed, Brawling

Sacred Nagaji stability +2 to Fortitude and Reflex saves to resist Grapple, Trip, and other similar abilities.

Flurry of Blows

Low-Light Vision

Powerful Fists

Witch's Patron: Spinner of Threads

Mystic Strikes

Incredible Movement

Occultism Witch Cantrips: Approximate, Message

I thought I was going to stop here, but I'm going to go ahead and push to 20th because Medusa's Wrath happens at 16th level and when I've gone that far, might as well go to the end. On my blogger, I'd do summaries every 5 levels. Instead, I'll just do the level up decisions and then summarize at 20.

5th Level

This is one of the few levels that only comes with a single Feat. In this case it is an Ancestry Feat. For this I'm taking Nagaji Spell Familiarity which gives her a list of three cantrips she can choose between preparing each day. These are Daze, Detect Magic, and Mage Hand.

This level also comes with a Skill Increase and four Ability boosts.

For the Skill Increase I boost Society, and for the Ability boosts I choose: Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, and Wisdom.

Dexterity doesn't go up here because once you get to +4 it takes two boosts to go up. So I'm going to buff up my lower Abilities a bit first. Boosting Intelligence gives her another basic skill training, for that I chose Medicine.

At this level, her Perception, Unarmed attacks, and Monk attacks (like bows) are now up to Expert proficiency.

6th Level

Now we get another Class feat and a Skill feat. For this I'm choosing:

Ki Strike - our first Focus spell

Forensic Acumen - now that she has training in Medicine, more intrigue

Now we have to choose whether her Ki spells are Divine or Occult and I'm sticking to theme and going with Occult.

7th Level

At this level we get a General feat a skill increase and the first Path to Perfection. That's basically a choice of a saving throw to increase. Now, Pathfinder has retraining, but the third path goes to Legendary while the first two go to Master. I'm going for Reflex at this point.

For the General Feat, I'm choosing Feather Step, allowing her to Step into difficult terrain, which is normally not possible. For the Skill Increase, I'm going to increase Deception to Expert.

At this level, she also gains Weapon Specialization, adding damage to weapons and unarmed attacks.

8th Level

At this level we get another Class Feat and a Skill Feat, for these I'm choosing:

Pinning Fire - Letting her immobilize a target she hits twice with a Flurry of Blows from her bow.

Eyes of the City - letting her use Society to Gather Information instead of Diplomacy

9th Level

At this level we get a Skill Increase, an Ancestry Feat, Monk abilities increase to Expert, and Metal Strikes so that her unarmed and bow attacks (while in Monastic Archer Stance) count as Cold Iron and Silver.

Skill Increase: Society

Ancestry Feat: Guarded Thoughts - making it hard to read her mind.

10th Level

At this level we get another Class and Skill feat, and four more Ability Boosts.

Ability Boosts: Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Charisma

Class Feat: Ki Rush - burst of quick movement

Skill Feat: Biographical Eye - this is the Sherlock Scan

11th Level

At this level we get a General Feat, Skill Increase, and the second Path to Perfection.

General Feat: Ancestral Paragon for a bonus Ancestry Feat

Ancestry Feat: Nagaji Lore

Skill Increase: Deception

Path to Perfection: Fortitude

Now, Nagaji Lore comes with a couple of things:

Training in Occultism and Crafting, but she already has Occultism, so instead we take Intimidation

Training in Nagaji Lore

12th Level

Another Class feat and Skill feat.

Class Feat: Elemental Strikes - adding elemental energy when using Ki Strike

Skill Feat: Lie to Me - ability to trip people up that try to lie to her.

13th Level

At this level we get another Ancestry Feat along with her weapons and unarmored defenses becoming Master in proficiency.

Ancestry Feat: Disruptive Stare, to make enemy spellcasters have a tougher time.

14th Level

Another Class and Skill Feat.

Class Feat: Focused Shot - lets her ignore cover and concealment.

Skill Feat: Quick Jump - lets her jump quicker

15th Level

Now we get one Skill increase, one General Feat (which I will turn into a Skill Feat), the third Path to Perfection, and Greater Weapon Specialization.

Ability Boosts: Dexterity, Intelligent, Wisdom, and Charisma

Skill Increase: Society, now it's Legendary

General/Skill Feat: Legendary Codebreaker

Third Path to Perfection: Will

Increasing Intelligent gives us another basic Skill Training. And I'm taking Performance for that.

16th Level

And here we come to finally getting Medusa's Wrath because it's a new Class Feat and a Skill Feat.

Class Feat: Medusa's Wrath

Skill Feat: Slippery Secrets - so it's harder to catch her in a lie.

17th Level

At this level we get an Ancestry Feat, her unarmored defense advances to Legendary, and her attacks count as Adamantine.

Ancestry Feat: Nagaji Spell Mysteries. Allows her to prep Charm, Fleet Step, or Heal once per day.

18th Level

And now we get another Class and Skill Feat:

Class Feat: Diamond Fists, since Monastic Archer Stance causes these abilities to affect her archery, it carries over. Each successive hit she makes in the same round does more damage.

Skill Feat: Doublespeak, the ability to say one thing and mean another.

19th Level

Now we get a Skill Increase, General Feat, and Perfected Form which basically means she can't roll less than a 10 on her first strike each turn.

Skill Increase: Thievery

General Feat: Reveal Machinations

20th Level

The last Class and Skill feats. The level 20 Class feats are the typical capstone abilities and for this case, I'm taking Enduring Quickness which basically gives her an additional action every round purely for movement. I'm running out of exciting things for Skill Feats though.

Class Feat: Enduring Quickness

Skill Feat: Underground Network

The final build is this:

[threewaywithdelusion]

For your fic writer asks, if you don't mind doing two:

👻 What is your wildest headcanon?

💕 What is your favorite fic that you’ve written?

What is your wildest head canon?

I don't know that I actually think up headcanons. I think of plot bunnies and then write stories about them and I change the perceptions of the characters' backgrounds as needed for each story. Maybe that means I have many headcanons? But they're just Schrödinger's headcanons that only become real as needed.

What is your favorite fic that you've written?

This is such a hard question for me to answer. My fics are my babies and thought it's easy-ish for me to pick out my favorite from each fandom, it's hard to pick a favorite overall. It's also really interesting to me because my personal favorites tend to be some of my least popular fics. I'm a horrible predictor of what other people will like. This Buffy fic holds a special place in my heart as the first fic I ever published, back on Elysian Fields (a ship-specific Buffy fanfic site), before I even started using AO3: B's New Vamp I wrote that when I was 15 or 16 and I still think it's the best I've ever captured any character's voice. I'm also really proud of A Yes Isn't Always a Yes, which is an All For the Game fanfic. I wrote that fic because I was desperate to read it and I really like how it turned out. It deals with some heavy subject matter and focuses on a conversation between two characters who rarely interact in canon/fanon, so figuring out the right dynamics and voices was a bit of a challenge, but I'm really proud of the final fic. It's one of my favorites I've ever written across any fandom. Once I finish it, I think my Stranger Things soulmate fic will also be one of my favorites because I love playing in the soulmate world I came up with. I don't usually do a lot of world-building because I mostly write canon-compliant fic, so writing a soulmate AU has been really fun. Unfortunately, the last chapter is currently making me want to tear my hair out, so I'm not sure when that will be done.

[jocasta-nightstrider]

@error-i-dunno-what-went-wrong hi!! I hope it's okay to tag you (if not just let me know and I'll delete this!), but yes, Balance has a sequel! The sequel's called The Zone of Adventure: Imbalance, it's a 3-episode miniseries set 10 years after the day of Story and Song. The basic premise is that our four main heroes ("Taako", Magnus, Merle, and Davenport) are dragged out of adventuring retirement by our DM Aabria Iyengar to stop one last Big Bad who has a mission to kill Them Specifically for reasons you find out in episode 2 lmao. It's a very very VERY good sequel, too!! It's honestly my absolute favorite part of the Balance universe!!!

I put "Taako" in quotes a lot, because in the sequel "Taako" changes a LOT about themselves. I'll try not to get too spoilery, but the way Justin plays out his subplot in the series is basically one big transgender allegory, intentionally or not lol. Their new chosen name is Jocasta Nightstrider, and that is what I will continue to call them because it's clear being "Taako" was really bad for their mental health. Jocasta ended up changing their name, clothes, voice, and how they dress, and sets off to start a new life where only the people closest to them ever knew their deadname, completely starting from scratch to build a life that they have control of and isn't ruled by the debilitating expectations everyone expected from him before. I can't say much more than that because that's MAJOR spoilers, but that's the basic gist of who Jocasta is! They're very very very very important to me :]

A lot of people never actually knew there was a sequel- the series was hosted exclusively on YouTube due to it having video to accompany it, and since most people listen to The Adventure Zone on podcast-specific sites, it never really went anywhere. The incredibly small fandom for it just kind of fizzled out within a week of the final episode airing. There was just too few people talking about it or making content of it to keep it alive. It's um. It's mostly just me nowadays. It gets pretty lonely in the tags, but I understand why Imbalance never really took off. Just posted in the wrong place at the wrong time, I guess. I still post stuff about them in the hopes it'll convince new people to see it, and because my interest in it has stayed very high for the almost 2 years since it released (that's hyperfixation for ya lol), but I'm content staying in my little corner of the internet making silly doodles of an unknown series for the rest of time if I have to lmao, this blog is purely because I love Imbalance and it doesn't really matter if anyone else does or not, I guess.

But yeah! That's the basics, and who Jocasta is, and why I continue to run this blog! If you wanted to watch it it's pretty short, only 3 episodes so it's not a super long commitment. If you skipped over the liveshows there's gonna be a few jokes/npcs that might be referenced without much other context, but all the other liveshow-based stuff has enough context within Imbalance itself that it shouldn't be too disruptive. Uh, here's the link, if you want it! Thanks for putting up with a bit of a ramble, lol! I appreciate it!

You ever think about how Kravitz Nightstrider, The Grim Reaper and Hunter of The Risen Dead, and his paramour Jocasta Nightstrider, once one of the Seven Saviours of the Universe turned Fate-Defying Warrior, sound like they would be such cool fucking characters.

And then you listen to the series and they're both absolute fucking dorks who use dumb stupid fake accents that they're both really into for the other person and they bicker about doing the dishes and they have a fluffy little pomeranian together and they fell in love over tentacle hentai and drunk pottery class and have been happily together for over 10 years as of the sequel. And they're one of the best fictional couples in existence also

[ltleflrt]

This whole backlash against printing fics irks the fuck out of me, and I got some shit to say about it. Mostly "Fuck You" but here's some nuance:

On the surface, I understand where the naysayers are coming from. It's a legitimate fear that making a profit from fanworks will bring down the C&D Hammer on fandom. I get that. Do not put on the One Ring, or you'll risk the Eye of Sauron.

But here's the thing. Fuck capitalism. Fuck digital only. We're living in the digital dark ages, and 100 years from now huge swathes of our history, fact and fiction, will be lost to our descendants because there will be no physical copies of our lives for them to find in old libraries and boxes in the attic, etc.

Creators deserve physical copies of their creations, and so do the other people in the world who love them.

I don't want to profit from letting people print my fics. That's why I use Lulu, since they have an option to set zero profit and make the links hidden so only fans in the know can get a copy. Other printing sites I've looked at in the past don't have those options. In fact, the first time I ever even thought about printing one of my stories was when I won NaNo for the first time and one of the prizes was a coupon for 3 free printings of your story. HELL YEAH, that's a copy for me, a copy for my beta, and a copy for the artist who made the cover for me. Perfect! But I ended up not using that coupon, because the site required I set a profit margin, and did not have an option to make it private. Ummm, no thanks. Not worth the risk. And even though the profit margin could be set as low as ten cents, I did not want to make ANY money from my fic, because I know that would be breaking Fair Use rules. I found Lulu instead, and decided to let other people get copies too, because I'm nice. And if I don't, it's not like I can stop them from doing it themselves, no matter how much I'd rather they not do that.

But that's not good enough for the Reporting Trolls. Their argument is that it's not possible for it to be completely profit free, since Lulu makes a profit on the printing costs and the shipping carriers make a profit off the shipping costs. Someone is making a profit, and that's unacceptable, even if that someone is not Me, The Person Who Made The Printing and Shipping Worth Paying For.

I would like anyone who thinks that to delete your accounts where you read fanfiction. AO3, Wattpad, FFNet, LJ, Dreamwidth, hell even Tumblr for the short ficlet stuff that only gets posted here. Because even if the website it self isn't profiting, (AO3 for example), the companies that sold them their server hardware made a profit. Since utilities are privatized, the electric company that runs those servers are making a profit. IF YOU PRINT IT ON YOUR PRINTER AND PUT IT IN A 3 RING BINDER, the paper, printer, and ink manufacturers made a profit from your dinky little print out. The companies that build all the parts for your computer or your smartphone made a profit on your portal to the internet, who profits from your monthly subscription, just like your electric company profits from the power it takes to run your pc or charge your phone battery. IT'S A SLIPPERY FUCKING SLOPE, AND YOU NEED TO LEARN WHEN TO BACK AWAY FROM THE LEDGE.

We live in a Capitalist Hellscape, and if a company could figure out how to charge you to breathe and for every single beat of your heart, they'd fucking do it. So get off your goddamn high horses with this "wELL SoMEonE iS makINg PrOFit" bullshit. Or if you truly believe that, shut off every account you own, turn off your utilities, and go live in the woods and make up your own goddamn stories, which you can only share orally to the local wildlife. They give kudos by biting you and giving you rabies.

(not to mention; these assholes don't go after fanartists who are ABSOLUTELY making a profit off their work. but noooo, Flirty can't format a fic for print and allow other people to pay for the printing service and shipping, while never seeing a penny of that herself, despite all of the GODDAMN WORK I HAVE PUT INTO IT, WRITING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE INCLUDED FUCK YOU VERY MUCH. fuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufuckyoufucky--)

[kittykatinabag]

I thought that having "motherly" female managers was the worst type of manager, but I'm starting to think that controlling white men might be worse on a whole other level.

Quick recap: End of last year, my old supervisor and my current supervisor got told that they would be basically switching sites. They basically had no choice in the matter, which is fucked up on the company's part but we'll shove that aside for now. So basically all of January and most of the last few weeks has been them trying to learn each other's tasks and going back and forth between the two sites (they're about 10 minutes away from each other). Our team understood this and figured that managerial support would be relatively light and a bit muddled for this transition. We grumbled some but ultimately our job is fairly easy day to day and most of the stuff we do, we don't need managerial support beyond one off things.

I wrote in a previous post about my one-on-one "get to know you" meeting I had with the current supervisor and how it was slightly uncomfortable in some aspects and how my instincts were starting to ring alarm bells. I chalked it up mostly to him having very anxious energy, him being stressed over the transition of job tasks and kind of lack of support from higher management on how to deal with this thing they threw on his plate, and basically being a divorced middle aged white man. After talking with our newest team member, a women who I think is slightly younger than me but maybe is around the same age, apparently he went a lot more in depth with personal details with me than he did with her. Her own on-boarding has been totally bungled in this supervisor switch process and I feel bad for her because basically nothing was prepared for her and its taken her weeks to even get her equipment and badge access. I try to apologize to her every time it comes up because I feel bad. Anyways...

This manager. He's honestly extremely infuriating. The other woman in our team gets super pressed about his actions more so than I do (sometimes to a ridiculously nitpicky extent), but she's also one of the driving forces behind what we're doing about it.

Basically he comes in saying that he's not going to change anything at least until he's learned all the work tasks. Then he proceeds to try and change practically everything he can before even shadowing us on our tasks. The first team meeting where it was just him leading it without our previous supervisor there, we spent no joke an hour and a half mainly going over the two timekeeping and pto policies that our company has. I'm pretty sure we all understand the policies. But the new team mate asked about how long of a notice he wanted for any pre-planned PTO, which he said as soon as you know. Which fine, sure. The new team mate nodded and clarified with something like "okay, but what is the minimum amount of time that you want to know ahead of time" and this guy stares back and just shoots off something like "read the policy, the company minimum for non-sickness related pto is 24 hours" One of our other team mates, sensing that the question really wasn't answered because he had worked jobs where different managers liked different amounts of prior notice to schedule floater staff, asked again: "okay so the minimum is 24 hours but if we know sooner we should tell you? How long of a notice period would you like" And this manager guy, just repeats the same "policy" answer, basically word for word. At this point we all look at each other and just drop it. Its not a fight worth fighting right now.

He also is annoyed that we primarily communicate by text. We do this because half the time outlook doesn't notify us about emails and sometimes the dock is super busy and needs our deliveries off the floor quickly and texting is quicker than emailing when everyone is scattered around the building. Also all of us hate teams. And I get it, if you're not one of the workers its a lot of texts, but like just mute the conversation, or set it to not give you pop up alerts.

He low key has anger issues, and frequently gets frustrated when he thinks we're not understanding what he's saying. But he also won't make an effort to rephrase anything and just keeps repeating the same statement over and over again until one party eventually just accepts it to diffuse the situation. He talks condescendingly and harshly to all of us, but especially to the two people of color on our team. Like its blatant and disgusting. Especially since he doesn't talk as harshly to me, the younger looking white girl. It honestly makes me gag sometimes and if I catch him making weird comments or quips I try to call him out on it (without being too aggressive).

The greatest example of this is with our new team member. I said above she's probably younger/around the same age as me, but she's also black. This manager asks the young white guy coworker off-hand if the new team member identifies with multiple pronouns/nonbinary/not as a she/her, something along those lines. On the surface, its sort of fine, besides the fact that he's asking another person instead of the person he's curious about. But I want to point out that he did not ask that about me. The one person on the entire team that actually identifies with more than one pronoun. Its not like our new team member is any more or less outwardly femme than I am, she's probably more tbh. There's no androgyny here folks. I, and the other woman coworker (also white), saw this as at minimum a potentially racially charged assumption. Especially paired with how he treats our Bangladeshi site lead.

Honestly just a bunch of icks and bad feelings around.

And that's not even getting into the whole basically forcing us to use our PTO on the holidays that our contractor site has but we don't have, even though this was never a thing before now. We calculated it out, and it came out to over 100 hours of PTO/floating holidays we would have to use if we didn't have tasks to do on the days that the dock was open (we're basically SOL when the dock is closed unless we have trainings). Since I've not been there a year yet, I get 128 hours of PTO and 3 floating holidays. So about 152 hours. Maybe less, I might have mathed that wrong. Subtract the mandated 40 hours of sick time and that leaves me with like 5 hours of PTO to take all year. Crazy. I'm skimming over a lot of the details because this post is already a text wall, but this is the thing I am most pissed off about because these site-specific days off vary by site and if I were at a different site I wouldn't necessarily have to use my PTO on those days which I find extremely unfair.

There's more things about this guy that infuriates basically all of us, but I'll leave those out because they're more personal to each person. And some of them are a bit ridiculous tbh.

So we all came together and made a word document about most of our complaints and concerns. This week the supervisor''s supervisor was finally back on site, and since we know she's very understanding and cool, we did a little incognito meeting and all aired our grievances. She said she'll definitely talk with her supervisor about some of them, especially the thinly veiled racism and PTO thing. I know she's also been a bit miffed with him too about some things they talked about in their extra one-on-one after our team meeting today so I think she's motivated to figure something out.

But yeah the vibes have gotten so bad that at minimum, 4 of us are actively seeking other employment, and the other two are highly considering it. I never really stopped actively seeking so not sure if I should count me in this, but it certainly motivated me to do more than a cursory glance at job boards and to apply to a couple positions.

Its also February 10th, he's been our supervisor officially since January 4th (I think), and without our old supervisor being attached at the hip since the end of January/beginning of February. That's how fast this has happened.

This post is a bit of a placeholder for the shenanigans the new supervisor is up to, I'll probably update it later tonight when I'm home from work.

But holy shit was my intuition correct.

[iridescentmidnights]

I'm... almost scared. What's Reboot Grandpa Max like?

He’s just casually mean to Ben and Gwen (mostly Ben) all the time and he dismisses Bens feelings and achievements. He’s low key negging Ben. He has some nice moments like in “Villain Time” where he makes an award for Ben who wanted to feel appreciated. But that doesn’t make up for 1) telling Ben his video game accomplishments don’t matter and saying Ben isn’t a real winner the first red flag 2) making it that it WASN’T his idea for them to go on the road trip and have him not wanting to do it for a joke when the kids are KIDS and mildly annoy him like they straight up implied Ben and Gwen’s parents didn’t want them around for the summer to make a joke that Max didn’t want to spend time with them either 3) then keep repeating the joke “haha kids are so annoying when cooped up let’s have Max be passive aggressive and dislike them it’ll be funny” 4) and rn what made me hate him and declare it’s on site is we all know Ben LOVES Sumo Slammers and Max is so disinterested he ignores Ben wanting to get a limited rare card, but when Ben gets it anyways Billy Billions has his bratty villain hissy fit and that’s fine! What’s not fine is Max taking the card Ben has successfully protected and RIPS IT APART to hand it back and say sharing is caring! 🤬🤬🤬

Like it’s pretty clear I can empathize with Ben here since I’m currently hyperfixating on Ben 10 in general. And it made me so mad because unlike the OG series this Ben isn’t a jerk. He’s such a good and sweet kid that just has all this energy and a little reckless. And it’s fine he’s a little selfish every once in a while so let the kid have the card! Billy is putting people in actual danger!! Why punish Ben?! Max is lacking in so much depth or character because he’s almost never active in the plots so it makes all these little things build up fast and super noticeable. I miss the Max that loves his grand kids unconditionally, who was their loving moral backbone and would never just ditch them when they acted like children! This grandpa Max wants to whine about not getting squid ice cream MY grandpa Max wanted to actually spend time with his grandkids.