#just traumatized ex english major things

[zorosdimples]

[purplesurveys]

1655

Name all the pets you've ever had. We had a number of goldfish when I was a kid but I had always named them all Goldy hahaha I was never creative. We had Tobi (rabbit), Kimi (dog), Mitch and Andie (lovebirds), Arlee (cat); and currently we have Cooper and Agi, both dogs.

Are you on break, or do you still have a couple days of school left? I haven’t been in school since 2020 and have no plans on going back.

Do you like Stephen King novels? I’ve never read his books, but I’ve seen a handful of film adaptations – The Shining, Carrie, The Shawshank Redemption, and Misery.

Have you ever had a macaroon? I’ve had both macaroons and macarons and never had a positive experience with the former, largely because I hate the taste of coconut.

One of my friends dislikes animals in general. Are you like her? No. But seriously? All animals??? Even cats or dogs????

Do you prefer being on time, or do you not mind being late? I’m early or on time for the most part, but I’m not nearly as anal as I used to be about punctuality. I fully credit that to the pandemic and how it taught me not to take things so seriously, and these days I never really put myself in a rush anymore.

What is one adventurous thing you'd be willing to do? (ex: skydive) Travel to outer space.

Have you ever made a bucket list? Not really; I feel like that would just pressure me more than anything. I have a couple of major life goals I mentally keep track of, but it’s hardly a bucket list.

What subject at school did you absolutely hate? Chemistry, physics, calculus, and trigonometry.

How many cell phones have you gone through up till now? My current is either my 8th or 9th, if I’m not mistaken.

Italian food or Chinese food? Chinese.

Do you have more than the standard earlobe piercings? Nope, I have exactly just the earlobe piercings you mentioned.

Ever studied a foreign language? I guess I can count English as something I had to study? since I was raised speaking Filipino and very little English. I took up Spanish on Duolingo during the pandemic but never got past the tenses; and I’m self-taught in written Korean.

Don't you hate it when your family eats all the ice cream at home? Nah, never was too big on ice cream anyway. They do finish the tubs all the time though and very quickly too; you were very accurate on that.

Ever been in a near death situation? If so, what happened? I wouldn’t say so. Worst thing that’s ever happened to me is probably either a dog bite or the time my cousin inadvertently dragged me further underwater while I was already struggling to breathe, but I wouldn’t call either of these near-death scenarios. Traumatizing, but I was nowhere near death.

Do you like to make flash cards when you study? No, I always found that method to be so wasteful on paper. I used to just rewrite all my notes on a yellow pad so I remember the lessons, then capitalize what needs to be capitalized and highlight what needs to be highlighted.

Favorite flavor of gum? Just your plain spearmint does the trick for me.

Do you tend to be frugal, or are you more comfortable spending money? Depends on the situation, which isn’t the smartest. I’m ridiculously frugal now that I’m preparing for a trip to Thailand, but if I didn’t have any plans like that on the horizon I’d probably be spending money on food deliveries and clothes rn.

Do you have a connection to any religion? I’m Roman Catholic on paper and will probably be so for the rest of my life, but I’ve been atheist since I was 10.

Ever played a team sport, or are you not sporty at all? Nah. I play table tennis but the most team sport-y that ever gets are doubles.

Do you put posters on your bedroom walls? Yeah, I do. Since having my room renovated in December and having all the posters taken down, it hasn’t been a priority though; I like the way my room looks now.

Do you sleep with one leg sticking out of the covers? No, my near-25 year old ass remains a proponent of the whole monster-grabbing-your-foot so I never do that hahaha. These days though I do tend to wake up with my blanket already entirely kicked off since it has started to get hotter where I live.

I have extremely weird, frightening dreams. Do you? I only get nightmares when I’m depressed, and thankfully I haven’t had any nightmares in like, two years. Says loads about my mental state as of late. :)

Has anyone ever told you that you're a good singer? No, because I am not.

Ever been to the Big Apple? If not, do you want to visit? No, and sure! New York and Illinois are the only two states I’m looking to visit; otherwise I’ve got no plans to travel to the States.

Opinion on Gangnam Style? I absolutely despised the song during its heyday, but my stance on it has considerably softened in recent years when I realized how talented Psy is. I will say he has other songs I find better though! New Face is really catchy, and of course there’s That That which I can never ever ever EVER dislike.

Do you ever watch TED talks, live or online? No, I always irrationally hated those lmao. Always seemed a little bit pretentious/condescending to me.

Did you ever watch the Lizzie McGuire movie? I LOVE THAT MOVIE. It’s all I watched when I was 5. If you popped it on for me at this moment I could probably still recite a good 70% of the lines.

If you did, do you know what the guy that played Gordo looks like now? (ew) Damn, why ew? Unless he’s since been exposed to be a gross pervert or abuser I think that’d be a pretty harsh way to refer to him haha.

How many email accounts do you have? I have one work email and two personal ones.

Ever shamelessly played Farmville on Facebook? I never did get to play Facebook games; I wasn’t allowed to make an account during the time when the games were crazy popular. I don’t feel like I missed out though.

Are you a big fan of dessert? Nope. Not too big on sweets.

Ever had a brush with the paranormal? If so, describe. No. I don’t actively believe in it just so that I also don’t end up being paranoid all of the time.

Were you one of the popular kids in high school? I’d hate to call myself popular but I was in one of the more-recognized cliques, I guess? One that was also associated and regularly hung out with the popular cliques in and out of school; I think it’d be fairest to say that.

I dare you to write the name of a person you strongly dislike. JV.

Do you know the band Vampire Weekend? Yup.

What do you think about Marilyn Manson? Sketchy.

In general, do you prefer going out or staying home? Going out.

Biggest trouble you've ever gotten into at school? Does it count if it happened in kindergarten? LOL my friends and I were called out in a sermon because we were excluding some kids from joining our circle, and they ended up crying about it which is how it came to light. 

Apart from that I never got into much trouble...in high school I did try to provoke the teachers by being super vocal about my same-sex relationship at the time (Catholic school, I’ll let that speak for itself) because I wanted to test what lengths they were willing to go to do something about it, but for some reason we were never confronted about it, never got called to the counselor’s office.

Do you own one of those "professional" DSLR cameras? I did, but I turned it over to my sister when we realized it was she with the talent for photography and cinematography, and she ultimately took it with her when she enrolled in a film course. Then she accidentally dropped the poor camera to the ground during a shoot, smashing it to pieces :( and that was the last I heard of it.

Does it bother you when you see a 6th grader with a bunch of gadgets? Maybe not bothered, but shocked? just because it would be such a jarring sight compared to my own experience when I was in Grade 6. I know phones and laptops are pretty much a necessity now, even in school; but that was definitely not the case when I was 12 in 2010. Getting caught with a phone or even a damn iPod back then literally brought the entire batch into a standstill and had everyone subjected to an inspection – bag inspection, body frisking, taking off your shoes, the whole shebang.

Favorite pair of shoes? My Ivy Park Forums.

Where were you on 9/11? Probably being put to bed. I was 3 at the time, was living on the other side of the planet on a different timezone, and had no clue what was happening. Any food in particular you just can't get enough of? Sushi, takoyaki, chicken tenders, anything truffle.

Did you buy yearbooks every year in high school, or did you not bother? Eh, the thing here is you only get yearbooks when you’re in the graduating class because only the graduating classes would get shot for photos, so it was never something to collect unless your family is SUPER extra and wanted to get every single yearbook for the hell of it. And nobody ever did the latter.

Do you have Restless Legs Syndrome? I do. It sucks. Nope.

Are you a fan of British Youtubers? (Marcus Butler, JacksGap, etc) I was pretty much the ambassador for the crew back in the day. What a time. It was Zoe Sugg, Joe Sugg, Caspar Lee, Alfie Deyes, Tanya Burr, Jim Chapman, Oli White, Marcus Butler, Niomi Smart; by extension Jack and Finn, Jacksfilms, KickthePJ, Dan & Phil, Will and Arden, Louis Cole, Louise Pentland, hell even Pewdiepie and Marzia too...and then didn’t the crew even have an EXTENDED extended version? Hahaha like Grace/Mamrie/Hannah, Tyler Oakley, Connor Franta, and Troye Sivan who would collab with them from time to time. It was genuinely an awesome and fun phase to spend my teenage years on. I even saw Joe/Caspar/Oli when they visited Manila in 2015 :)

Jalapeños: yay or nay? I LOVE jalapeños.

Did you ever play Minecraft? Nope, never understood how it worked.

Did you ever have a Club Penguin account? Were you a member? I never played it. I tried it once, but it didn’t appeal to me.

Favorite concerts you've been to? Did you scream until you were hoarse? I do make it a point to scream as much as I can for shows I get tickets for, because I don’t go to a lot of them anyway. Favorite show I’ve been to so far was Paramore in 2018.

So where were you when the Boston Marathon bombing happened? I was at home, on Tumblr, knee-deep in the wrestling community, watching the events unravel in realtime and deathly worried for my mutuals who I knew were living in Boston or near the city.

Rainy days on the weekend: yay or nay? Any rainy day is an instant yay for me, unless I’m driving lol.

Do you look down on girls that wear shorts with Uggs? No, but then again nobody ever wears Uggs here so.

Californian girls talk and dress a certain way, don't they? Idk.

Ever crushed on a teacher? If so, what subject did he/she teach? Yeap, 2nd year high school, biology.

Ever take an art class? If so, what'd you think? I took an art studies elective in college and loved every bit of it.

[terramythos]

TerraMythos 2021 Reading Challenge - Book 9 of 26

Title: The Priory of the Orange Tree (2019) 

Author: Samantha Shannon

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Third-Person, Female Protagonists, LGBT Protagonists

Rating: 10/10

Date Began: 3/12/2021

Date Finished: 4/12/2021

1000 years ago, the world burned. Draconic creatures terrorized the land, led by a horrific evil known as the Nameless One. But then something happened that sent the monsters into a seemingly endless sleep, and the world has rebuilt in the centuries since.

But the Draconic evil begins to stir in its slumber, and the divided nations of the world have little chance to stop it. Eadaz is a mage from the Priory of the Orange Tree, sent to spy on the northern queendom of Inys. Legend has it that as long as the royal line continues, the world will be free from the Nameless One. While it's a long shot, Ead guards the young Queen Sabran closely to preserve the peace. However, as she and the queen grow closer to each other, Ead has to decide where her loyalties lie. Meanwhile, her close friend Loth is secretly sent into exile by the royal spymaster due to his controversial friendship with the queen. Supposedly sent as an ambassador to the newly Draconic kingdom of Yscalin, he soon finds himself out of his depth, entrusted with a deadly secret.

In the isolationist Eastern country of Seiiki, Tané wants nothing more than to become a dragon rider. The dragons of the East are old, wise, and revered as gods-- eternally opposed to the Draconic legions of the West. However, the night before the choosing ceremony that will decide her fate, she breaks isolation and discovers a young man from the West on the shore. Rather than report him to the authorities, she and her friend smuggle him to the island of Orisima, the only place Westerners are permitted. Niclays Roos, an old man exiled to Orisima by Queen Sabran, soon finds himself caught in the conflict. He believes if he finds an elixir for eternal life, he will finally be able to return home. When he's forced to shelter the forbidden Westerner, Niclays' entire way of life is upended-- but he is soon granted the opportunity to escape his exile.  

'My grandmother once said that when a wolf comes to the village, a shepherd looks first to her own flock. The wolf bloods his teeth on other sheep, and the shepherd knows it will one day come for hers, but she clings to the hope that she might be able to keep him out. Until the wolf is at her door.’

Full review, minor spoilers, and content warnings under the cut.

Content warnings for the book:  Some sexual content. Blood, gore, violence, traumatic injury, suicide, and death. Torture and execution. Miscarriage. Body horror (kinda). Drug use.

Clocking in at just over 800 pages, The Priory of the Orange Tree is a long, detailed story. I tend to label things Epic Fantasy when they have world-changing stakes. While Priory certainly fits that criteria, it's the first fantasy book I've read in a while that really does feel like an epic. It stars a huge cast of interesting characters from many walks of life, all of whom find themselves caught up in a world-spanning conflict. It captures the sense of a standalone, grand adventure that shorter fantasy novels of today don't typically reach.

With a book this long, it would be easy to ramble on forever about everything I liked. However, I'm going to try to keep it short and simple.

One of my favorite things about this story was the sheer depth of the world. Lots of people compare this to The Lord of the Rings not for its tropes, but the attention to detail regarding the countries, politics, history, religion, and so on. I'm inclined to agree with this assessment. The world felt alive and multi-dimensional. I could pinpoint many parallels to our own mythologies and histories-- particularly drawn from Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. There's also a clear love of language in the story via its beautiful prose. I like to think I know English pretty well, but this book taught me quite a few new words! Might fuck around and call sunsets "rutilant" from now on.

I thought all four leads were interesting. Ead is kinda the "main" lead of the novel, although Tané overtakes her in the latter half. Everyone had different personalities and backstories, and I genuinely enjoyed all of their arcs. Niclays in particular would be an easy character to hate; of the four, he's the most selfish and does some real questionable shit. At the same time, it's hard not to sympathize with him. He's a sad, unjustly exiled elder who's lost the one man he cared about, and finds himself in a desperate situation. These types of characters are interesting to me; a glimpse of what anyone can become given the wrong circumstances and cruel treatment.

With stories like this, one of the most satisfying payoffs is how the different characters and stories come together. It was interesting to see how their paths converged and diverged over time, and ultimately how everything tied together in the end. I also appreciated the character relationships. I liked that Loth's close friendships with both Sabran and Ead were intimate yet platonic without some awkward love triangle.

From some story specifics... I'm a sucker for the bodyguard romance trope, and seeing it done with women in a mainstream novel gave me life. I thought the romance between Ead and Sabran was really sweet; I didn't see how it would work early on since Sabran was a little insufferable, but she had hidden depths (oh god, another weakness of mine). I also really liked the idea of traditional European and Asian dragons being diametrically opposed, and that being a core theme of the story. Intelligent and/or talking animals are another thing I adore in spec fic, so I dug characters like Aralaq. Kalyba's ongoing relevance and gradual exposition was also neat; I love minor world details that turn out super relevant later.

Also, the entire final battle/ending sequence was SO good. Really creative and action packed. Action scenes often blend together for me (and can be logistical nightmares) but Priory's climactic ending was just awesome. I don't want to spoil specifics, but it reminded me of many beloved epic battles in modern fantasy. Avatar the Last Airbender, How To Train Your Dragon, and Pirates of the Caribbean all came to mind. 

My main criticism with Priory is that often, the plot relied on convenient coincidence to get the characters out of a jam or otherwise advance the story. I can excuse a minor contrivance or two for the sake of a smooth story, and the scope of this book is big enough that it'd be hard to avoid. But some are nuts. For example, Loth gets rescued from certain death by a giant ichneumon while traveling through the mountains. We later learn the ichneumon is Aralaq, a friend of Ead's, and he just happened to be in the middle of nowhere, far from his home, and stumbled upon Loth. Loth, who ALSO happens to be Ead's best friend... which Aralaq presumably doesn't know?

Another is the MAJOR SPOILER regarding the rising jewel's location. I didn't hate the twist itself, but there was so little build up to it. I wish there were more early hints to justify it, because with setup it would be a pretty cool development. These things didn't ruin my enjoyment of the story, but the borderline deus ex machina (machinae? machinas?) did take me out of it a bit. It’s possible I missed stuff so I’ll give some benefit of the doubt. 

Overall, though, The Priory of the Orange Tree is a fun, world-spanning adventure. Like any long book, it's an investment to get into. However, if you're looking for a standalone, feminist fantasy epic, this is certainly a good place to start.  

[palomafxrd]

* ALEXA DEMIE, CIS-FEMALE + SHE/HER  | you know PALOMA FORD, right? they’re TWENTY-FOUR, and they’ve lived in irving for, like, all of their life? well, their spotify wrapped says they listened to CASH RACE BY TINASHE like, a million times this year, which makes sense ‘cause they’ve got that whole A HONEY TONED VOICE SPEWING HARSH WORDS, FRESHLY PRINTED PROTEST FLYERS, PINK GLOSSED LIPS SMOKING A ZOOT IN A BRAND NEW LAMBO, thing going on. i just checked and their birthday is JULY 24th, so they’re a LEO, which is unsurprising, all things considered. ( zoey, she/her, 23, cet )

♡ pinterest to be shared tomorrow !!

hello hello !! <3 my name is zoey and i am very excited to join this group. there’s so many of you, ahhh. i’m not going to lie to you, going through the blogroll was almost intimidating BUT i am happy to be here and introduce you all to my newest darling, paloma ford. down below is a short summary of all the things you need to know about her ( this post will be edited and extended to a more complete character biography later. i’m just very tired and wanted to get this post up before bed lol ). now, please excuse me whilst i go read all of your intro posts and get to know everyone. 

EARLY LIFE: ( location: lilac ridge )

paloma ford is the only daughter to two illegal immigrants from mexico. 

her parents arrived in north carolina when paloma’s mother was nearly nine months pregnant, living undocumented for years

growing up, paloma’s family got little to no financial aid or help to integrate into society. her mother barely left the house and did not speak english. she worked as a maid at the palm motel whilst her father worked a mechanic job at a car rental place in town. 

it did not take long before the financial struggles began to take its toll on the family. paloma’s father became heavily relient on alcohol and marijuana to function. the poor man would sometimes leave his family for days on end to drink with new-found friends, leaving his wife to vent for herself.

HIGH SCHOOL / COLLEGE:

as soon as paloma entered high school, the young woman knew that she wanted to be an activist of some sort. 

her father left when she was fifteen and, realizing that she could never afford to go to college (and study politics like she wanted to), the teen turned to quite a fascinating side hustle.

in her senior year and college days she was notorious for ‘dating’ older men for their money. despite rumors spreading around town that she was selling her body for materialistic gains, the truth of the matter was that she never took part in any sexual activities with these men, she simply accompanied them to diners and sat pretty. the goal? save up enough money to build a better future for herself (and get that fendi bag whil she’s at it, ya feel me?)

today, at twenty-four years old, paloma has recently graduated from college with a major in public policy.

paloma is working on starting her own non-profit organisation dedicated to help children of illegal immigrants. 

her ultimate goal is to become a prominent figure in local (perhaps even national) politics. she wants to improve labor laws for illegal immigrants and strive towards immigration reform. 

big dreams for a young woman, ay? she’s feisty, hehe.

ABOUT PALOMA:

however, paloma did not grow up from her troubled childhood unharmed. it was hurtful to lose her father to addiction at such a young age and she has never forgiven him for leaving her and her mother (hello d a d d y issues). 

because she grew up in quite a disadvantaged position compared to her peers stemming from richer or more established households, paloma has always suffered from great self-confidence issues. 

paloma feels that she can’t show weakness. she needs to portray herself as a woman that has her shit together. if she does, she falls three steps behind everyone else. 

thus, she may seem like a stuck-up, arrogant, overly ambitious brat sometimes but it’s quite the facade.

deep down inside she is such a sweetheart though. :’-(

all she cares about is taking care of her mother, her career and good times on the weekends

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS:

over the past years, paloma has been focusing solely on her education and career. this has lead to her surpressing a lot of negative emotions and traumatic experiences stemming from her childhood.

now that she’s graduated, paloma likes to surpress said emotions by drinking fancy cocktails over the weekend. lately it’s gotten so bad she’s been smoking marijuana on the regular.

now for the great cliffhanger: will she go down to the same drugs that ruined her father? (i don’t think she will skcjakjd she just needs some good friends ok)

i want ALL the plots. if you are interested in plotting, please like this post and i will messag you when i get back from work tomorrow. if there is one particular connection that you are interested in or would like to know more about please don’t be afraid to holla at me !! and if you have any fun, toxic, dramatic, angsty, lovey-dovey, wholesome ideas i am all ears. <3

WANTED CONNECTIONS: ( + more to be added tomorrow )

best friend // childhood sweetheart // high school sweetheart // sibling relationship // party friends // exes (good and bad) // friends with benefits // enemies // frenemies // drug dealer // lifelong friend // neighbours // roommates // smoking buddies lol 

[akari-hope]

Now hear me out. Tell me about this blonde shithead kid cause we all Already know ur emo so. :/

(Don't have to this is clown violence)

FDJHSBKNGFDHJBKNGFDBHJKGFDNBGFHJDKBNGFDHBJ okay so

ig a quick preface of spoilers for the ffvii compilation? the original game has been out for longer than i’ve been alive lol so i kinda figure everyone knows big plot points or is okay with finding them out at this point. i’m not gonna go into tons of detail bc we’ll be here all day, but i am gonna mention major plot points from it bc...well it’s impossible to talk about cloud without mentioning some of that stuff.

i’m sure anyone with like. even passing familiarity knows the gist. cloud’s the protag of final fantasy vii, he’s got a big sword, he’s not exactly the most sociable guy. plot-wise, he’s an ex-member of “soldier” (a group of super-soldiers in employment under the shinra electric power company, infused with “mako”, a form of energy) turned mercenary, and at the start of the game he’s employed by the eco-terrorist group “avalanche”. cloud doesn’t exactly care about their cause of stopping shinra from slowly killing the planet, he’s really just there for the money, and as a favor for his childhood friend tifa.

it doesn’t take long before we start to figure out cloud’s got some kind of history he’s repressing, though. he’s haunted by strange visions of a man named sephiroth, upon meeting aerith she immediately thinks he reminds her of someone, and when cloud tries to recall certain memories he just...can’t. as it turns out, cloud DID use to work for shinra, but was never a member of soldier. he got that story from a guy named zack - a dear friend of his, who (to make a very long story very short) died protecting cloud after their escape from an experimentation facility. cloud was suffering from severe mako poisoning, and catatonic, only finally coming to by the time it was too late to do anything for zack. zack’s last wish is for cloud to life for them both, to be “his living legacy” or “proof that he existed” (phrasing varies between the japanese and english), and gives him his sword. blocking out the traumatic event, cloud’s brain reconstructed a narrative in his head, where he lived zack’s experiences.

however, as anyone who played the original ffvii will know, we don’t actually learn the entire truth of this until pretty close to the end of the game, when tifa finally helps him piece together his real memories. the entire game, essentially, we’re playing as a guy with dissociative amnesia, slowly remembering the tragedy he went through and the losses he suffered, and rebuilding his sense of self along with it.

something about cloud really resonated with people, i think. the way his entire arc was basically going through the 5 stages of grief, and coming to terms with himself and the people around him...emerging a hero at the end not bc he was necessarily great or special, but bc he had something he believed in...he was and still is a really great protagonist. not to mention that his arc in advent children always gets to me...”there isn’t a thing i don’t cherish”...yeah...yeah...

anyway the tldr is that he goes through so much but still holds onto the things he cares about and he makes me cry

[some-jw-things]

So I’m not all that familiar with this religion, but after seeing it explained isn’t there some legal course you could take to try and get it dismantled? Or at the very least make it easier to escape for those who want to?

I don’t think having the Society legally dismantled would help anything. Jehovah’s Witnesses are already outright or functionally banned in like a half dozen countries. In countries with mandatory military service, they go straight to jail. In countries imposing a temporary draft, they go straight to jail. This really only makes things worse

The most famous ongoing case is the situation with Russia. Jehovah’s Witnesses are classified as extremist and under ban there. Imo from reading about it, it wasn’t actually about them being a doomsday cult. Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t vote and it sounds like Putin realized he had a population of thousands of people in his country where not a single one of them had voted for him. And the result of the ban has been the European Court of Human Rights going to bat in favor of JWs, all members of the Org going underground and into hiding, and some really shitty treatment of members.

That narrative has been used to further JWs’ persecution complex. If they’re being mistreated by “the world,” then that means they truly are God’s people and all the prophesies are right. It means everyone in the world is cruel and hateful. It means that only Jehovah’s Witnesses have love among themselves and you can only find happiness within the Org. A religious ban validates every single thing the Org tells its members and also actually fulfills several specific details of their doomsday prophecies. Also— being in hiding, only able to trust other cult members, unable to speak about the religion casually and hearing about pillars of your community be held by the state and tortured— is a really great way to make sure you don’t criticize the group you’re part of. Jehovah’s Witnesses already forbid members from listening to ex-members’ criticisms, and saying something negative about the Org is called apostasy— arguably the biggest sin they have. All serious sins are punished with disfellowshipping, aka shunning. I have to imagine that in that situation, most JWs are on way higher alert than normal to look out for apostates or potential false Witnesses

Religious bans hurt a lot of people, help no one, and make active members leaving a whole lot harder. Also in places like China where preaching/missionary work is banned.... they just find a way around it. They’re extremely careful and get visas to “teach English” and keep the fact that they are JWs secret

Legally, the only thing I want done about Jehovah’s Witnesses is governments actually fucking investigating their sex abuse database and also judges to stop letting kids be killed for their parents’ religion. A minor cannot freely consent to give up their life when every adult in their life (who they are dependent on) is pressuring them to, especially given that they wouldn’t have much of a life left if they refused. That’s not a free choice. Free acceptance of a blood transfusion isn’t safe and would be life-ruining, but refusal leads to immediate death. I know if I had been in that situation at 17, I would have chosen to die for my family’s sake, even though I no longer believed in the religion and desperately wanted out. Plus a ban on child marriage, which isn’t directly a JW issue, but it’s not disconnected either

Though on making it easier to leave: there was a bit of discussion like a few years ago about the idea of ex-cult safe houses. It wasn’t really a serious discussion, due to everyone participating being broke traumatized teenagers, but in an ideal world, I’d like to see that happen. It would be infinitely easier to leave a cult if you had somewhere to leave to.

Cults isolate their members. JWs forbid members from socializing with anyone not in the cult, with the only exception being for preaching. Most JWs are only close with other cult members and have no social safety net beyond that. There is no one who’s house you could crash at, even temporarily. Some have managed to get put in foster care, but with me, I didn’t even realize that was an option until I was over eighteen. That leaves homelessness or shelters as the only remaining options. When I first cut ties, I figured a homeless shelter would be a worse situation than the one I was already in, and I was uncomfortable with the idea of taking a spot at a battered women’s shelter. My situation isn’t exactly the sort of thing those places are meant for

But if there were even just a few ex-cult safe houses in like major hubs, then there would be somewhere to go to. I think there would be a real benefit in that for a lot of people.

There’s also been a few documentaries made about JWs in recent years, some of them focusing mainly on the sex abuse cover up. That’s great for awareness, but in an ideal world, more awareness would go with outreach. This is mainly a mental health reform thing, especially in schools, but there need to be other spaces that offer that too, esp children’s spaces. More JW kids are homeschooled than not. There should be ways to reach out for help, confidentially and for free

[msucal]

howdy hey! i’m clem and i’m the mun of kangmin cal lee! 1/2 of the junior prefects in geumseong and your president of the transfiguration club!! i’m super glad to be here with my baby and i can’t wait to plot with you all!! i’ll leave some facts about him as well as plots under the cut!!! if you want to ever hit me up, my twitter is @hclywould and my discord is iloveyeonjun#2510!! otherwise, like this post and i’ll hit you up to plot!!!

ABOUT CAL

born in jeju-do and lived there until he turned around 8 to 9 years old to two muggles / no-majs. 

moved to california (haha) do to more family opportunities there. not only that, but they wanted to see how he would do in a new country!!! he goes by the name calvin. 

funny enough, not too long after they got him into school, he discovered his magic and started getting weird looks from other kids in his school because of it! pretty soon, they all started rumors about him and he felt very alone there

after they got him out of that school in hopes of trying to figure out what was wrong with their song, a wizard from the school of ilvermorny stops by their houses and helps give his famiy information on who cal is and about the school. wanting the best for him, they enrolled him into the school. 

wonderful! he’s in an environment surrounded by other people like himself! surely that means that he’ll be in a better mental state, right? not quite. thanks to the fact he revealed that his parents who are no-majs, a group of kids at ilvermorny started picking on him because of that. so much so that they pranked him and essentially humiliated him in front of the entire year if not the entire school. the leader essentially traumatized him enough that it becomes his boggart. 

desperate to move back home, cal goes to his headmaster and asks if there’s possibly a school of magic he can transfer to in south korea. they find one in the city of seoul, talk to his parents about it, and moved back there!!! and there, he worked his damned hardest to excel in magic (except in herbiology teehee) to prove that he was more than just a muggleborn wizard and that his magic is his own. 

around this time, he also decided to go by the nickname cal, half of his english name so that he could remember all the pain he went through and use it as motivation to work hard. trying to make something better out of it!!!

enrolled into mokseong (house geumseong haha house pride) with outstanding grades with a transfiguration major and a minor in muggle history.

has been trying to succeed more and more ever since. that’s why he’s a prefect and the president of the transfiguration club!!!

personality wise? easygoing and charming!!! will try to find a way into your heart, platonically or not! will tease you just to get closer and make u laugh (or be pissed w him he is not afraid) 

very intelligent and analytical. he wants to learn a LOT and in some situations, it’ll just be him being nosy bc he wants to know more about a person. 

though he’s always trying to be a good role model, if u mess with him, he will prank u!!!!

outside of campus, you’ll usually find him at madame menageries, asking madam about what she knows about each class and information about students ... sometimes at joyful jokes because prankster 

PLOTS!

with depth 

you are his rival! you essentially cannot stand him because of the fact that he’s gotten more achievements than you. no matter who you are and what your family is, you try to find a reason to doubt whether his achievements were earned for him. and a part of you is still trying to find something to be better at than him. (0/1) 

cal is secretive when it comes to talking about his past, but he seems to be open about investigating others and wondering about theirs. it’s almost to the point where you want to do the same to him, not only because it’s bothering you how he does it carefree to others, but because you are genuinely so curious about his reasons. he finds it charming that you wish to know more about him, but he finds it annoying how insistent you are. (0/1) 

cal should’ve been more aware of who he was throwing pranks on because the moment he threw that he threw a dungbomb at you and he saw the way you react, he knew it was over for him. and though he tries to act all buddy-buddy with you about everything, you still want to get back at him for such a childish act!!! (0/1) 

in contrast to the last four plots, this plot is more adoring of cal. you admire him and his resilience as well as how hardworking he is. you do recognize that sometimes he can be a bit much, but you can’t help but feel as if he’s someone to look up to!! you don’t even have to be close to him to know that he’s wonderful!!! (underclassman to junior, 0/1) 

while cal dares not to play the sport, he has a fascination over quidditch. specifically, how the players act with it. though not a player, he is a fan and he is willing to give advice to people who are new to the game or are now taking an interest in it. dare he say it, he’ll be face paint kid and even give you a test to see how well you know it. (0/1) 

transfiguration is your weakness and you wish to improve on it. why not go to the help of the transfiguration president? he’s always willing to help those who struggle at what he’s best at. (0/1) 

having muggle parents and essentially “lived” as a muggle for part of his childhood, you wish to know more about his experience as living in that environment. whether you wish to share similar experiences or learn more about it for an assignment, you go to the young geumseong student for help. (0/1) 

though cal is essentially easygoing and carefree, he is still a prefect and will hold that responsibility. so if you’re a troublemaker geumseong student, even if he’ll sometimes tag along with your mischief, know that you will be given a warning from him. (0/1) 

you want to dye your hair a new color and you go to him, a colovaria master, to ask him for advice on which color you should try and if he can put that color on you!! just to be safe!!! (0/1) 

though he’s very vocal about how he is proud of being in geumseong (esp bc of professor aurora song saying she’d be in that house), he does like hanging out with hwaseong students. specifically you because you’re his partner in crime when it comes to pranks! yes you both frequent joyful jokes together. (0/1) 

EX PLOTS!! it’s very clear that cal is the charming type and he’s even charmed his way into some people’s hearts~ but of course, love isn’t primarily his main focus now. so naturally, he’s gotten with a few people and you could’ve gone for a few months, but one’s thing for sure is that there’s reasons as to why you are split, heavy or not. (1/2) 

OTHER, NONSPECIFIC PLOTS! 

freshmen he can call freshies, but in an endearing way... even if you are annoyed or honored. 

fellow quidditch fans!!!!

prefects!!! esp upperclassmen who like doting on him (or teasing him... he’ll take either) 

in contrast to that ^ upperclassmen who don’t really like him that much 

fellow members of his extracurriculars!!! transfiguration (haha flex), duelling, ancient ruins, magical creatures, and defense against the dark arts!!!

if you are in magical creatures, please pull him away from the niffler bc he’d probably try to baby it even though IT’S A CREATURE!!! THAT CAN STEAL HIS MONEY!!!

ilvermorny alumni!! even though he attended one year!! maybe y’all can bond about your houses

he’ll also bond with hogwarts alumni, but he’ll make fun of your accents. 

bilingual, so go to him if you need help speaking either korean or english!!! or even if you want to speak konglish to him. 

bubble tea friend!! or really, people who just like madam. he loves madam. 2nd mom. 

more to come when i get a brain to think fo more!!! 

[santiagoeu]

⟨ TAYLOR ZAKHAR PEREZ. CIS MALE. HE/HIM. ⟩ though the mist might prevent some from seeing it, SANTIAGO DE ANA is actually a descendent of D I O N Y S U S. it’s still a question of whether or not the TWENTY-FIVE year old LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAJOR from TEQUILA, MEXICO has taken after their godly parent completely, but the demigod is still known to be quite LOYAL & STUBBORN

.basic info

NAME: pablo santiago de anda sauza

PRONUNCIATION: SAN-tee-AA-goh 

NICKNAME: santi, tiago, chiago

GENDER: cis male

PLACE OF BIRTH: tequila, jalisco, mexico

DATE OF BIRTH: november 23, 1995

AGE: twenty-five

SEXUAL ORIENTATION: bisexual

MAJOR: landscape architecture

EXTRACURRICULARS: Vicepresident of the botany and gardening club, bird watching member, vicepresident of the latinos student association, eonia choir member, traveling club president

SPORTS: water polo captain, cheerleading member

.character inspo

TBA

.background

I WILL MAKE A PROPER BIO SOMEDAY, NOT TODAY

tw: death, drugs use

born in tequila, mexico. his mother was the daughter of an important family. the family business was tequila and they were very conservative. that’s why when carolina came home with a man, pregnant and unmarried her family kicked her out.

the man, the father of this baby was none other but dionysus. i guess he liked that carolina was a tequila heiress bc shots! but he actually did love her? i mean at least he stayed for a year following santiago’s birth. then he was like i miss the party life gotta yeet

little issue here son of a gun dionysus never told her he was a god, so she know how to raise a demigod without knowing.

he spent six years in mexico city with his mom but when he was 6 years old and earthquake struck, or that’s what everyone believed. it had been a monster and dionysus actually showed up and saved santiago but he couldn’t save carolina.

upon hearing the news, carolina’s family were like meh poor caro and her bastard child but... his uncle had a heart and traveled to mexico city to pick up his nephew and raised him as his own.

he considers his uncle, his father and loves him more than anything.

he had a nice comfortable life and it was boring until his 12th birthday when dionysus came back to claim him.

his uncle was like “uh, what?” but in order to prove that he wasn’t lying dionysus took them to a dope party in ibiza, which is not suitable for a twelve year old but dio be dio.

anyway, his uncle was like “okay you be telling the truth” and he allowed santiago to go to different camps.

things were smooth until santiago turned 15. he became a party animal, and started doing drugs which concerned his uncle but santiago was like “yo, tío, it’s in my blood”

he got in sooooo much trouble and failed school even if he’s not dumb he just never wanted the party to stop

he touched rock bottom (sort of) when he drove his ex boyfriend mad. after that, he was like bye mexico and just jumped from party to party for two years.

he came back when he was 20

he worked at the family’s estate until a monster, again, found him for using his powers to help the agave plants and almost destroyed everything.

after fixing the estate, his uncle said it was for the better for him to attend eonia and he agreed bc he loves his uncle and doesn’t want to put him through more pain

full bio (NOT YET)

.personality

Santiago is a fun person to be around, he can be a bit intimidating and definitely not the friend you call whenever you want a non honest opinion. He’s brutally honest but he doesn’t say things with malice, instead, he would help you out. Despite his honesty, he is very kind and grateful for what he has. He is a family guy, and still calls his father who lives in Mexico every day. He can be very sarcastic and sometimes people don't understand his humor. He is also very proud of his roots and will try to find any excuse to brag about his country. Sometimes he can be too demanding and some would even describe him as arrogant, but that's just a facade. He loves to argue because he's so stubborn and always thinks he's right, but overall, he's happy to help and a very loyal friend.

.powers

chlorokinesis: this is the skill santiago has more developed. he first noticed when he moved back to his family’s estate in tequila. it had been a difficult time for his family because a rival company had poisoned their agaves plants, so they were losing almost all their plants. he was very young to understand what was happening but he sensed that something was wrong, and he always had a thing for communicating with plants. his mother always believed it was just kids stuff, but really, it was his powers manifesting. he was able to communicate with the agave plants and he healed them, ever since, his family’s estate has had the best agave plants in the region. he was a special relationship with nature, especially plants, he considers them his best friends and he feels at ease in a place full of plants or vegetation.

alcokinesis: party trick!!! no wonder santiago was the most popular kid at his high school. somehow he always managed to get alcohol, his friends often wondered how but he never revealed his secret, mostly because they would think he’s insane. now that he’s at eonia he doesn’t do it as often because well, he has siblings and he’s a lazy mf. he doesn’t mind not feeling the effects of alcohol, after all, that’s what drugs are for, no?

cause madness: it’s a power he discovered when he was about seventeen and he’s only used it once and by accident. he had a relationship with a classmate but he decided to break up with santiago and as someone who doesn’t know rejection he felt very bitter, like never before. it also didn’t help that mentally he was drained after partying too much and too many drugs. they had a fight at a party and he said some hurtful stuff, out of spite and apparently he said the magic word or whatever and that threw his ex off the edge. it was a very traumatic event and he still feels guilty because he doesn’t know how he did it or how to fix it.

natural acting abilities lol no. he’s a terrible liar, has stage fright and finds theater boring

ability to appear at any party being held: pitbull aka mr. world wide has nothing against santiago’s party skills. after he drove his ex mad, he spiraled down and pretty much lived a party lifestyle for the next two years.

.headcanons

Born in Tequila, Jalisco but he and his mother moved to Mexico City shortly after his birth. He returned to Jalisco when he was six. 

He can speak Spanish, English, Greek and Portuguese

He’s a bobarista at tea-o-logy

Loveeeees nature, and he’s always talking to his plants

His family has money but he doesn’t talk a lot about it.

Favorites: Como agua para chocolate by Laura Esquivel (book); Scent of a Woman (1992) (movie); De música ligera by Soda Stereo (song);

Again, no one asked me but I will reply: “Ella, does Santi hates Iker?” “Well, thanks for asking. Yes, he does. He’s fucked half of his siblings.”

pinterest | | wanted connections (dont look mace, there’s nothing here)

[letting-them-take-liberties]

VolFes 2020 Shop Event Report

That got intense so fast.

Crossposted at Wanderlust.

Because of the current situation and the company probably not wanting to risk it, VolFes 2020 got cancelled and instead was turned into a pop-up shop so that they can sell the goods meant for the event.

Around an estimate of 99.5% of Japan events are mostly all about buying merch, so it felt like a bloodbath of sorts as everyone around me was spending money like it grew on trees (someone I know spent at least USD2,000 for merch alone). I’ve been attending Voltage events for three years now and it always amazes me how far the fangirls will go to spend for their favorite character (I’ll be calling them ‘oshi’ [推し]) from this point forward.

As mentioned in this post, it is always good to go to an event on the very first day to avoid disappointment and loathing when the merch you’re eyeing gets sold out.

I took a leave from work for Day 1 of VolFes 2020 Shop as I knew that it would get crazy; the last few merch buying events I’ve been to left me exhausted, even if all I did was buy. It can get pretty intense at times since the people I hang out with can really get wild with the buying spree.

It was announced in the website that they would allow a free-for-all-entry to anyone wanting to buy goods after 2PM. My friend Y and I took this opportunity to eat lunch and relax since it’ll take time; between her and I, she was more tense and kept checking Twitter for any announcements. As for me, I was a bit more chill, knowing that if they run out of goods, I could still buy online.

If you’ve read my past entry, Y is a huge Saizo fan, so she’s more into this merch buying than I since she has to compete with a lot of fangirls for Saizo goods. I’m happy that with Masamune and Ieyasu, the competition for merch for the both of them isn’t as tense as Saizo’s.

The Chara announced on Twitter that the free-for-all entry would be delayed by an hour, so we took our time to have some dessert, then head off to Ikebukuro Marui. While waiting for the distribution of the designated timeslot tickets, Y and I decided to go to the nearby bank so that I could get some money (thought to pay in cash to keep the expenses lower), and on our way back, Y met an acquaintance who was just on their way out as they were done buying merch.

The acquaintance started asking Y what she would be buying this time around, and Y confessed to not buying anything related to Ouji/Be My Princess series as she had gotten disappointed before with her merch pick. 

(Spoiler alert: her oshi is Ivan Chernenkov, she tried to get can badges of him by buying up to the maximum number of can badges allowed in one transaction (20 for that event), and ended up with no Ivan. That traumatized her that she swore off buying merchandise from that series.)

Acquaintance was with a friend, who then started asking Y if she could buy 20 (!!!) can badges from Ouji-sama no Propose EK (Be My Princess 2) 10th Anniversary art plus a bromide from MiraPuri (Kagami no Naka no Princess Love Palace), with 20 being the limit for can badge purchases.

At that point, Y turned to me, who was simply listening to the conversation, and said, “Kiyo isn’t buying any Ouji trading can badge merch, right?”

I gave her a confused look. “Yeah, I’m sticking to KoiRan and Ouji, with hardly any trading merch on my list.”

The acquaintance’s friend then straight-up asked me, “If you don’t mind, would you buy me 20 more can badges for Ouji EK 10th Anniversary art? I’ll give you some money to cover for the expense.”

I then took out my list (in Google Sheets); the acquaintance’s friend started dictating to me her wishlist. Upon seeing my list written in English, she gave me a look and then said, “Oh… uh, I can’t read English–”

“No worries, I got you covered and I wrote it down. So you want 20 can badges for Ouji EK…”

“Yeah, the ones with the grandsons! 20 of those, and one bromide from MiraPuri!”

Total cost of the merch was JPY9,020, enough for her to get three bonus postcards from MiraPuri.

We then promised to meet up after the buying so that we could hand over the goods, then off we went inside the building to wait for the ticket distribution.

This is the part when my friends and their other friends (at that point, I didn’t know them) got really disappointed and pissed at the free-for-all entry system that had a designated timeslot entry ticket.

If you didn’t know by now, if there’s one thing that sets off a local in this country, it’s the horrible queue/entry ticket system. It’s no exaggeration when someone says that queuing is a national sport/pastime, so if an event is crowded but has a good queue management system, a lot of people would be willing to put up with that.

However, if there are fewer people but the management is horrible, people would really criticize the hell out of it.

Which brings us to Day 1 of VolFes 2020: the website states that the entry ticket they will be handing out will be given at random, which means that even if you arrive late during the distribution of the entry ticket, there is still a chance for you to be able to secure an early timeslot.

Ex. Person A arrives at the venue at 1:30PM and has been waiting for the entry ticket distribution to start, which is an hour away. There’s a chance that they’d be given an entry ticket for the last time slot, which is at 7:40PM ~ 8:00PM.

Person B arrives at the venue at 2:30PM, the designated start of the distirbution of the numbered tickets. There’s a chance that they could get the earliest time slot to buy goods, which is at 3:00PM ~ 3:20PM.

What upset my friends was that when it was time to distribute the tickets, everyone made a run for it as soon as we were asked to queue, and when they gave us the entry ticket, we got a really late timeslot since we were positioned at nearly the end of the line. 

In other words, the entry tickets they gave us was based on how "late" we got to the line; the ones that got ahead of us got an earlier slot, despite the fact that the website mentioned that the time slot on the entry ticket would be shuffled and handed out at random.

Everyone around me was ranting about how half-assed (they all kept throwing the word 中途半端 [chuu’to han’pa]) the whole system was (they could have stuck with a full online timeslot reservation system for Day 1 and Day 2), and how they didn’t go through with the promise of giving out the entry tickets that shuffled the entry time of the attendees in the spirit of equality and fairness, while I figured out the loophole of the system. 

No matter how early you arrive, if you’re not fast enough to queue for the entry tickets as soon as they ask you to, high chance of you being given the last timeslot.

Since we had two hours and twenty minutes to kill, we all headed for dessert at a nearby cheap restaurant and just chatted with one another until it was time to go in.

Unlike last year, VolFes 2020 is smaller, more compact, and you had less time to have fun and enjoy.

Admittedly, the merch line up is better and much more gorgeous, but goodness, there’s just too many of them that it was difficult for me to decide which one I should purchase.

In the end, I decided to skip out on buying the maximum number allowed for buying random merch and stuck it out with getting 3 ~ 4 can badges.

To prevemt the spread of the virus, anyone who enters Ikebukuro Marui and the building had to wear a mask, sanitize their hands, and had 20 minutes to complete their shopping, from picking out the merch to paying at the checkout counter. They only allowed up to 8 people at a time at the shop so you had to plan your purchases. All of us shopping had a list that we referred to while searching for the goods because entry to the venue was controlled and you are not allowed to go back in anymore after paying. 

If you missed out on an item, you’ll have to ask someone whose timeslot to buy the goods is different from yours to buy your merch, you go back the next day, or you order online, which means there’s a three-month waiting period before you receive the item.

Day 1 of the shop was on a Friday so I still had another day to think about any additional purchases, so even if I missed out buying merch, it’s not really a big deal.

[I’m chill that way]

With the buying done, my friends and I headed to another cheap restaurant across the street. Just like last year, the majority of them used that time in the restaurant not to eat, but to open their merch in blind packaging to check and see who they got. If it’s their oshi, they keep it, but for the ones that are not their oshi, they carefully place both the item and the shining packaging inside a ziplock back so that they could trade it with the others.

After we ordered dinner, Y got a message that her acquaintance was at the restaurant we were at, which meant it was time for me to hand over the merch. The girl who asked me to buy for her was so thankful that I think I actually got really shy over it haha.

When I got back to my table, the food was there, so I ate dinner and continued chatting with Y, who also took the time to multitask by eating and opening the merchandise she got. Sad part was, not one of the items she bought for Day 1 contained Saizo, which made me feel sad for her. It’s really rough when you spend so much and end up with no oshi; it’s really the worst feeling in the world.

Y had an early day for Day 2 of VolFes 2020 Shop so we all parted ways early as everyone was exhausted from stressing out whether merch would get sold out on Day 1 and from simply buying goods.

Day 2 wasn’t that eventful, aside from us buying more goods (I bought Ivan’s goods this time around as my priority was Yakov’s), and I ended up trading all my Saizo goods with Y for other characters. Nothing against Saizo, but I know that someone who isn’t me would actually cherish him more than I will ever do.

———-

Not sure if anyone’s interested to see what I bought, but let me know if you’d want me to post photos of my haul.

———-

More event photos:

[lewis98omigod]

Digital Activism week 6

In 2019 and 2020, not only have we heard lots of tragic news among celebrities and athletes, but also especially in 2020, the most devastating issue everyone encounters is the Covid-19 pandemic which has totally disrupted our daily lives and now we all start practicing the new normality which consists of 3 elements, 1-metre distance, put on face masks and wash hand frequently after back home from outdoor. However, if we broaden out horizon in terms of global news, we probably realize that some nations are suffering not only just purely pandemic thing, but also some ongoing protests against the government. For instance, In Hong Kong the protest still persists although has it been quelled temporarily due to the fear among Hong Kongers over the upcoming Chinese Security Law which is mandated typically for Hong Kong Special Administrative Region since Hong Kongers are concerned about the high possible of the restriction of freedom of speech towards them. Likewise, in the US, lots protests are going on over the issue of police brutality, especially the incident of George Floyd who was dead due to suffocation while his neck was being knelt on by one of the police officers although the public attempted to stop this tragic but it proved futile. This tragic has sparked anger among the Black community and soon, a series of protests took place across the nation. In this topic, we will look into how digital activism works in reflecting upon the rampant issue. 

Digital Activism towards long hour working culture among Japanese workers

This drama entitled “ Watashi, Teiji de Kaerimasu “, which means I Will Not Work Overtime, Period! in English. It was released in 2019 and soon had drawn international attention for its criticisms of Japanese corporate life. The story plot revolves around the lead female role as an office worker, whom she decides that she will never work overtime, and regularly leaves work at the official end of the day. Since then, she has conflict with other employees, who usually stay at work until much later. Besides that, long-hour working culture has traumatized her ever since she was young when her father whose corporate life meant that he did not spend time with his family. Her bosses at the company, who see her refusal to work overtime as a lack of commitment to the company and its clients. Her situation is complicated by the arrival of an ex-boyfriend who joins the company. She gradually convinces her fellow workers to go home on time in order to save their health and relationships, but ends up breaking her original commitment, which results in her hospitalization and the demise of her own relationship with her fiancé. In overall, this drama has highlighted how long-hour working culture affects the health and family relationship of workers as they tend to have little time to spend with their family which end up suffering an inharmonious household. In some cases, we have heard news about Japanese office workers died due to fatigue and the increased divorce case in Japan is getting more common as husband never spends time with family after busying with tons of workloads. 

According to Brasor (2019),  The most common complaint from white-collar employees at Japanese companies is about the meaning of “quitting time.” The feeling is that even if a worker has finished their tasks for the day, it is considered bad form to leave the office before their colleagues or supervisors do. There are, of course, no established rules that dictate such conduct, and it can be perceived as a custom but even after three decades of debate over the question of unnecessary overtime and lost productivity in the Japanese workplace, there is still great hesitancy on the part of employees to go home “on time.”

Furthermore, a survey conducted by Japanese government showed that around one quarter of Japanese companies require employees to work more than 80 hours of overtime a month. Sarcastically, those extra hours are often unpaid. Japanese workers on average didn’t use 10 of their paid vacation days, and 63 percent of Japanese respondents felt guilty for taking paid leave.

As mentioned earlier, long-hour working culture has caused workers died due to fatigue. Taking a real-life case as an example, an employee of Japan’s largest advertising firm, Dentsu, jumped to her death in 2015. The cause was said to have been depression caused by overwork. The case generated widespread attention and renewed calls to change the long working hours and illegal unpaid overtime highly common in Japan. The aftermath of this issue has pressurized Dentsu’s CEO to resign over the controversy and the company was fined for violating labor standards as she had been reportedly forced to work 100 hours of overtime a month. After the death, Dentsu made changes within the company, including turning off lights in the office at 10 p.m. in an effort to force employees to leave (Saiidi 2018).

In conclusion, this drama portrays the long-hour working culture in Japanese society that has been rooted ever since. As we all know that, drama is the mirror of a society. Often we agree up to a point that dramas actually are delivering a message to the viewer about current society. As soon as the drama has been released, it has drawn the attention of Japanese government about the well-being of workplace and since then, lots of debate have been carried out in the parliament with an aim of enacting a law which can protect the employee’s well-being and revise the structure of traditional companies workforce as majority of traditional companies have a mindset is that employees should be always available at work and employees should be ashamed of applying holidays. Although work-life balance in Japan has yet to be achieved, but who knows in the future?

Reference list:

Brasor, P 2019,  TBS drama misses an opportunity to shine a light on genuine workplace issues, The Japan Times, viewed 13 October 2020,

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/18/national/media-national/tbs-drama-misses-opportunity-shine-light-genuine-workplace-issues/

>.

Saiidi, U 2018,  Japan has some of the longest working hours in the world. It’s trying to change, CNBC, viewed 13 October 2020,

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/01/japan-has-some-of-the-longest-working-hours-in-the-world-its-trying-to-change.html#:~:text=CNBC%20Explains-,Japan%20has%20some%20of%20the%20longest%20working%20hours%20in%20the,extra%20hours%20are%20often%20unpaid.>.

[cariiibaez]

The time when I thought I was called to the religious life...

When I was 19- 20 years old, I was still taking my courses for my field of study. I had a guy friend who was a selfish and distant person, but I still talked to him. He was not a good person because he insisted me to make me a “Christian.” One time he introduced me to a buff male who supposedly did bible studies. I am all here innocent and a door mat around him. They belong to the Protestant Christian church. At first the guy who was my friend showed up to the Bible studies but sooner or later he stopped and ignored the text messages. I know, I know, he betrayed me. I stayed with that buff guy and his bible studies.. I was so innocent and curious. That guy was a young, ex gangster who was in jail before. I started talking to him about my beliefs and my interests in literature especially chastity and purity. In short story, one time out of the blue, he calls me names. He tells me to be a nun and tells me ugly names about the catholic faith. He said how come I don’t paint my nails and pamper up like other girls with make up etc. He said to me: “I am going to pray so you become a nun.”

I didn’t know why he acted like that but I knew he killed my innocent nature. I was quiet and calm. Much calmer than I am right now. I wanted to tell other people but I was so shy and hurt. I didn’t know how to open up about this to others. I talked to my female friend and she said she can see he is not a Virgin. I was not understanding the concept of virginity at that time. But she said that it is too obvious because he is a gangster. The gangster life has a lot to do with losing your purity and learn a lot of bad things. and also the way he looks there is no way he is a virgin. I wanted to tell her what he told me but I was so scared. i quiet myself down. I was hurt and wanted attention but I left myself alone. Sooner, I started hearing voices in my head. I was imagining of the mental disorder Schrizophrenia. I saw shadows following me. I heard the word nun in English and Spanish. (That buff guy was a Spanish college major) This lasted for a year and some time. I really wanted to speak up but I was so scared. I started asking God questions wondering why he wanted me to be a nun if I am taking courses for my field of study. I want to finish college and get my degree. I don’t want to be a nun because I want to learn about the world. Even though I said this, I started researching about convents and reading history about the religious life and other religions. I asked questions all the time as well. One time the voice came into mind very creepy voice. A voice that made me have nightmares. Still, I stayed alone and I went to the park. While walking around the near park where I lived near by, I sat in the park and did some relaxation techniques. While doing these exercises, I asked to my self to show me who is the person telling me to be a nun.

I had a dream of that buff guy. Now, before this, this buff guy showed up in my dreams all the time. I was terrified and scared of him. I was tired of imagining him all the time. One unexpected day, I saw him in the college library and he was hiding from me. When I asked myself that question, I started seeing he was the suspect of this voice for me to be a nun. I could not control it. I didn’t know how to speak up because people won’t believe me.

One time I was scrolling through Facebook, and saw a page for religious calling. I signed up for a personality test and I got the Dominicans group. I did it out of mere curiosity because I could not control this voice. Now, I get emails about attending religious retreats. These emails get annoying, but every time I get these emails it is like a reminder how this buff guy hurt me and I found out I had clairaudience. I don’t like that person at all.

I met an older woman in fitness course while i was a teacher’s assistant for that course. I told my older friend about this because she asked me questions about dating and having a boyfriend because I looked so shy to her. She asked me how come I don’t talk a lot. I told her about the recent story because some reason I confided in her. this buff guy was not my boyfriend and he had nothing to do with me. She said the reason he called me a nun and was so desperate about it was because he wanted to have sex with me. Now, because of this experience, I learned I had the clairaudience but I wasn’t sure what it was. I am traumatized abou this. I am not ashamed of my catholic faith. In fact, I feel so happy about being a Catholic because I believe religion is important in a person’s life. I also like tradition. We learn about morals and I like having a dogmatic perspective about the world. I like to understand people and I am not usually demanding but I am more of a charismatic person who enjoys talking about good and wise things. I am very sensitive and can get into my feelings a lot.

One thing is that I do get traumatized about romantic relationships. I don’t feel I desire one due to what has happened to me. I feel I need therapy but I don’t know what to say. Not many people understand why I cry a lot either. (I am a highly sensitive person) Whenever I ever get a romance life, I prefer someone who is gentle, down to earth guy. But I also don’t understand what that means. I never had a boyfriend but when I was 22 years old, I was going to have a boyfriend and I told him about chastity and purity. I am just curious and thought he was going to be curious like me. He seemed like a good guy at that moment. That guy didn’t had a girlfriend before. We were similar like two raindrops. That is why I liked him. In my perspective, I wanted us to read the book love and responsibility by John Paul ii. The book discusses the types of love. But sooner or later, I felt he thought I was judging him because I mentioned about this topic. I don’t know what he thought because I never told nobody about this either. He didn’t asked me more questions but I got bullied by him as well. Now, this guy who was going to be my boyfriend insists he does not trust me.

[thecheesybrie]

Struggles and Triumph

  There is an abundance of struggles that I have faced and overcome in my life. With 11 years of childhood trauma and mental abuse, I was diagnosed two years ago with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and clinical depression. This may have been my DSM-V diagnosis but they don't quite paint the full picture.   

 During the time I became fully aware of the impact of my childhood, my partner of six years, and husband of two had a secret. He had kept this secret locked away for over 80% of our relationship. Together, we had a little girl. She has just started kindergarten and the sweetest little person I have ever had the pleasure of making much less meeting. Though we hadn't been married for long, I never thought the life and family I had built would ever come crashing down. Raised in a Mormon household, our society taught us to believe that families are to be together forever. That once married, you are a unit, sealed, for eternity.

  So you can understand my shock to his secret and I quote, "I don't love you. I don't even like you. You're a terrible person. I never wanted to get married. I only did 'cause I thought I had to..." I remained in that office chair as if I was glued. Realization sunk in further with his pained, seemingly constipated expression. His fingers entwined. His knuckles, pale-white, anchored him to his seat. 

 A year later, I can stare into his eyes an understanding expression spread throughout my face, while a thank-you calls to his ears. If he hadn't finally been honest with me, I would never know what true love was. I don't believe I would have been given the courage to walk into that psychiatrist's room that I had throughout my long history been known to cancel or walk out before even meeting him. I would not have chosen to begin my journey of self-discovery. It was after this major depression, that I truly found not just my passion, but a love for myself.

  I was forced to leave the home we have begun building together. I had never lived on my own. It terrified me. The idea that ALL is in my hands I am responsible for it wasn't just me that would be impacted, but my daughter too. My heart had set on the safe and enriched area of Kierland Commons. The events, the community, the lifestyle, and the people I greatly enjoyed. But, no longer did I make twice the income. It was a blow being informed I had too low a salary to afford the area of my dreams. This shouldn't have come to a shock to me. I was raised in a family that was always trying to keep up with the Jones'. So much so, my mother has almost been sent to jail twice for fraudulent checks. I have never used a checkbook and I never will.

  I had six months to move out of that home. I was being forced out, without alimony or savings. One can assume this is not an easy task. However, I am a stronger person for it now. So, I saved everything. I cut costs. I stopped throwing money at books, clothes...etc., all of the unnecessary, luxury items. Being a person raised in an "I want" household, it was an internal struggle not just with my environment, but genetic disposition and learned behavior. But, I did it. I researched financial guidance, money-saving methods, and budgeting plans. I enjoyed it. Finances were scary. Until now. Four months later, I had consolidated my loans, cut out over $500.00 of impulse spending, and began creating means for a secondary income. 

  This idea has paved the way for me to see my true passion. I am an ambitious person by fault. When I was seven I wanted to be a veterinarian. But, I couldn't put down animals. When I was 15, I wanted to be an actress but my self-esteem couldn't handle the culture. College came and I found a love for languages, learning, and a fascination with the human mind. There was a mystery to it. However, I put myself down. I told myself my math skills wouldn't be up to par. I gave up before I even began. I accept this. I know now I wasn't ready. After my Psychology Associates, I transitioned to English. A love for language and people came together. The moment I graduated, I craved more. My ex-husband knowingly held me back from going, which I know now, promising "next year", year after year.   

  Over the summer, I got an idea for a blog. It had been something I'd considered for years. I thought I was afraid of publishing my prose due to it not meeting my expectations. If it wasn't good enough for me, who would really care to read it? But then, I realized for others to care I had too, myself. 

 With the habit awareness, I was forming, the healthy decisions I was making I started Trans-cranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to alter the brain chemistry childhood trauma had formed, I worked through my hyper anxiety finally taking my first calm breath, soon after, I met a man who appreciates me, for me. With conscious awareness, I started discovering new things about my daughter every day. And, through the start of this blog, I uncovered my passion for helping others not just through one outlet. Through the translation of prose in multiple languages, certification within therapy and psychiatry, my desire to start a company that brings cultural-ism and capitalism together for the common good of people and with the knowledge, I will be gaining in the Psychology and Digital Audiences major program tracks these life goals will be thrust forward into creation.  I decided to take every step that I had ever feared and I don't ever intend on holding back. 

[hxghlysuspect-archive]

Zion info - warning: long

triggers: Eating Disorders ; Self Harm

info on zion -

note, i do and am continuing to do research on DID. i am in no way making fun of or glamourizing DID. if you or someone you know has DID and you notice im doing something teribly wrong or some of my information is wrong, please feel free to speak up if you wish. i only wish to learn more

Name: Zion Birthdate: Sep 15, 2000 Pronouns: He/They Favorite Color: #ee799f

Description:

Your basic tiktok Eboy. 5 ft 7. 19 years old. Yaoi webtoon artist. Snake owner. Video gamer. Has DID MOTTO: I'm here for a good time, not a long time - Bisexual - Submissive but bratty.

Acts like he has maybe 2 brain cells to rub together. Born in Australia but moved to South Korea with his mother after his parents divorced. Speaks Korean perfectly but still has his aussie accent when talking in English.

Is in university as an art major, minoring in dance

is allergic to cats.

His snake is a Sunbeam snake named Ra [ PHOTO ]

His mother hates his snake and once tried to sell it online but Zion found the listing and chewed her out- things are now tense between the two over this matter.

Mother has no idea he draws yaoi online for income

Piercings: - Ampallang [ NSFW if you google ] - Labret [ PHOTO ] 

Tattoos: - One very bad koala tattoo thanks to Atlas, about 2 inches tall, on the upper part of his ass. Thanks Atlas- TATTOO

                                   Clothing style: Varies.

Formal style is often consisting of capes (Not like super hero capes) and button down shirts. Rings. Chokers & chains. Think Eboy meets goth vibes i guess? 

I.E.: Photo One || Photo 2 

"Dressed up" consists of over sized torn shirts, knee highs / tights, and heeled boots.

I.E.: Photo One || Photo Two His more casual look consists of over sized shirts that slide down his shoulders and skinny jeans. Chokers, chains, & charms. Lots of oversized sweaters & bat wing shirts. Like Eboy meets homeless man xD

I.E.: Photo One || Photo Two Shoeware consists solely of black boots (heeled & flat) Jewelry = just google eboy jewelry xD Locked necklaces, dangly chain earrings, leather chokers.

Owns a collection of messenger bags of varying styles that he always has one of on. - [ Keeps his drawing tablet in there along with a notebook & other misc items. ]

Almost always has Ra on him- around his neck, curled around his forearm, around his wrist. Sometimes hell clean out his bag and put a soft towel in it for him to sleep in it (youll see him carrying his notebook & tablet in his hand during these cases).

Is Far sighted, so has to wear glasses for reading/drawing/etc. Owns thin framed round glasses:

Zion in Glasses

Zion has three things that he tends to hide from people.

He has a major eating disorder. He's been hospitalized twice for bulimia, once when he was 12 (in for 6 months) & then again at 16 (in for a full year).

He has DID, with 3 altars. Ace (Protector), Atlas (Persecutor), Rue (Gatekeeper). I'll include notes on them below

Zion can't feel pain, never has. His alters do however and if injured, Ace will tend to attempt to front to draw attention to it or get him fixed up. As a result of this, Zion has to be extra careful about physical activities because he can seriously hurt himself and simply not realize.

                                       DETAILS ON ALTERS:

                                               Atlas - Persecutor

Roughly 19/20 years old  

He/Him

Heterosexual

Fronts when the host is in a state of upset (mentally low, depressed, ED is getting bad)  

First appeared when Zion was 13, just after his first stint in the hospital  

Purposely binge eats to make the system sick, is homophobic, purposely starts fights with all of Zions friends to push them away 

Outted him to his mother  

Hates Ra. Will hurt/release/kill him if given the chance. 

Will destroy Zions altar if given the chance  

Tell people he's sleeping with that he has some std, that hes only fucking them because he pities them.  

Will cheat on partner if Zions dating  

Dresses like a complete eboy - long sleeved shirts layered under a dark over sized shirt. Light wash jeans, chains.  

Will often poke holes in the body (new piercings)  

Allergic to soy

+ Triggers  / None  

- Triggers   / The host (Zion) being in an extremely negative head space ; his ED flaring up badly ; Being ANGRY

Often writes in marker. When texting, he curses alot & often speaks in short speech {k. ttyl. w/e.}.

Will start or end messages with a middle finger emoji.

ex of handwriting:    [ PHOTO ]

                                                  Ace - Protector 

24  

He/Him

Has 20/20 vision

Fronts when Zion is stressed or just really needs to step back

First appeared when Zion was 8 right around when his parents started to fight all of the time    

Is the dominant one of the system {As in sexually. Zion is typically a bratty bottom, but Ace is dominant & a top}

Personality is alot more relaxed, more of an observer than a talker 

Is the one most likely to try to act like the host rather than out them as having DID    

Is non religious but respects the hosts choices

Is more preppy in the way he dresses - slacks rather than jeans, polos & button up shirts.   

Gay af    

Allergic to Almonds

+ Triggers  / Certain Songs (Wrong by Max ; Flesh by Simon Curtis )

- Triggers   / The host (Zion) getting hurt ; Zion being in very stressful situations ; Zion being in situations where he could get hurt

When texting, he starts or ends the message with a book emoji to specify its him.

Always ends sentences with punctuation

ex of handwriting:   [ PHOTO ]                                                 Rue - Gatekeeper 

Younger?    Approximately 16/17

She/Her

Sexuality unsure

Paints over Atlas' pages when he's being rude  

Keeps Atlas in check in the inner world.  

Locks away traumatic memories so they don't trigger Zion  

As she grows stronger, can control who fronts & when (meaning she could keep Atlas from fronting)  

Is heavily interested in Augustes work  [ @absque-nocte​ ]

Is very interested in dark topics (death, blood, etc)

Clothing style is alt goth. ( See: Zions dressed up style above )  

+ Triggers  / Talking about death or blood ; Night time (New moons esp)

- Triggers   / Atlas being active

Childish, often written in paint markers. Metallic or glitter preferred.

When texting,ends the text with a skull emoji. Hops topics at random

ex of handwriting:   [ PHOTO ]

Zion hand writing example:      [ PHOTO ]

                                Alter visual head cannons:

Ace:  Brown hair, brown eyes, always very well put together. About 5′8 (Same height as Zion). Slightly paler than Zion himself.

                                                [ PHOTO ]

Atlas: Black undercut hair, tattoos & piercings, blue eyes. Paler. 5′10.

                                 [ PHOTO 1 ]   [ PHOTO 2 ]

Rue:  her hair is shoulder length. Black eyes & kitty fangs. Short, like around 5ft. Very pale.

                                                [PHOTO ]

Note: they don’t look that way outside of the inner world, but this is how they perceive themselves.

[katieelizabeth]

What would you call your body type? Definitely curvy

Are you a morning person? Yes and no. I’m taking sleep meds for nausea so right now waking up is kinda hard. 

Have you ever been to Target? Loveeeeee Target

Do you like iced tea? Iced tea is always my jam

When is the next time you’ll be at work? Hmm it’s kinda up in the air right now. I’m itching to get back tho.

Do you have a savings account? Yes. one for myself, one with my boyfriend

Has anyone ever hacked your accounts before? Only once.

What color bedsheets are currently on your bed? Currently grey

Have you ever been to Disney World? If so, how many times have you been? Yes, I wanna say total like 6 times.

Does grammar and capitalization mean anything to you? It absolutely does.

Are you good at wrapping gifts for others? My boyfriend thinks I'm a terrible wrapper hahah

Do you have a dirty clothes hamper in your room? Yes.

What would you say is your favorite television show? If I had to narrow it down, probably Skins. 

Do you enjoy big holiday dinners? Yes and no. I don’t care for holiday dinners with my family but I love holiday dinners with my boyfriends family. 

Is there any piece of jewelry you’re constantly wearing? I’m not married or engaged but I do wear a small silver band on my ring finger.

What is one thing you desire as of now? To be able to just go and sit down in a restaurant. This virus has everyone living in fear and I'm tired of it and want to live normally and enjoy my pregnancy

What kind of phone do you have? An iPhone XR.

If you could move anywhere, where would you choose? Canada or London

Do you blog a lot, if at all? No not really. I used to when Xanga was big.

Is your present hair color, natural? Nope.

What makes you the most angry when it comes to people? My boyfriend thinks that anytime my opinion is different than his, then I'm trying to argue with him. It’s so fucking frustrating. 

Describe your current outfit? Anaheim Ducks shirt and matching pj pants hahah

What was the last thing you ordered online? Some toothbrushes lol

Have you ever felt as though you were drifting apart from a best friend? Ive had two best friends in my life completely shut me out before. It sucks.

What color are your eyes? Poop brown

Have you ever worn color contacts? I have but I could never wear them because of the astigmatisms in both my eyes. Lasik was the best decision of my life

What’s the best thing about a hug? Right now I miss everything about hugs

Biggest fear? Losing my loved ones, death, never getting better/getting worse, never doing anything with my life....

If you have a significant other, how long have you been together? Just celebrated three years

Do you know any genuinely friendly people? Yes.

Do you buy your friends gifts? I try to when I can 

What was the last thing you plugged in? My phone to the charger.

How old are you? 29

What color headphones do you own? They’re black.

Have you ever shopped on Urban Outfitters? No, just a reminder than I'm fat

Where do you buy the majority of your clothing? Amazon, Goodwill

Would you rather wear necklaces or earrings? Necklaces

Do you consider yourself fortunate? Very

Do you enjoy watching fights? Nooo.

Have you ever been in a physical fight? No way

Do you tend to talk badly about people? I try not to but everyone is guilty of that

Where are your parents as of now? Watching tv in the tv room

Does your computer cooperate most of the time? I literally just bought it so yes haha

Does your family have any cheesy traditions? Kind of

When did you last go to a book store? Gosh it’s been a while!

What’s the closest book store where you live? Barnes & Noble.  

How much money do you have on you right now? On hand, $20.

Favorite personal feature? my hair and my lips

Are you wearing make up at the moment? Nope.

Favorite television channel? Bravo, E!, ID, HBO

Describe any piercings or tattoos you might have? 6 tattoos no piercings

Have you ever been fired from a job? INope

Are you currently losing a best friend? No.

Describe the worst day of your life: I’m good.

Do you play any video games? Not at the moment

Would you say you hate anyone? I feel hatred towards racists, homophobics, ect.

Do you think freckles are cute? Very cute!

Last time you went to the mall? Gosh its been a really long time

Name something that’s your favorite color: anything teal

Have you been to Red Lobster before? Yesssss. I want seafood

Do you judge by appearances? Anyone who tells you they don't to some degree is a fucking liar.

Do you follow a certain religion? No thank you

Who is your role model, if you had to choose? Im not really sure

Would you rather have nice hair or lips? Hair.

What are you most self conscious about? Pretty much my whole body

Do you have any family members who live out of town? Yeah.

Do you consider yourself short? Nope, I'm average height for a girl

What room are you in? Mine.

Hoodies or jackets? Hoodies.

Are you outside a lot? No not really. The sun doesn’t like my skin haha

Have you ever been dumped via text message? Nope

Do you like dreamcatchers? Not really

What is your favorite letter of the alphabet? I don’t have one.

Do you hate repetitive people and things? Depends on the situation

Do you think autocorrect is a blessing or curse? BOTH

Do you believe in any particular curses? No.

Ever play a Ouija board? Nope, my mom wouldn't let me growing up

What movie scares you the most? The Exorcist. I can watch the movie now no problem but it FUCKED up my childhood.

What was your bedtime as a child? 9. I remember watching Happy Days from 8-9

Reason why your favorite holiday is your favorite: Who doesn't love Christmastime?

Do you work with any close friends? I work with my baby daddy

Do you consider yourself spoiled? I would say in some way I'm probably spoiled

Do you listen to any country music? yes

Favorite high school teacher: I don’t specifically remember any high school teachers I liked. Probably my French teacher. He was super cool!

Do you ever get drunk? Of course. Can’t drink yet tho until after baby

Have you ever had highlights before? Nope

Favorite number: 7,10

Do you still sleep with any stuffed animals? Not anymore. I used to for a a long time 

 What is your biggest regret in life? Eh I've got a few

Would you say you think you have a mental disorder of some kind? Depression/anxiety. Ive taken meds for it 

Are you normally an independent person? I like to think myself as independent but my boyfriend sure takes care of me. I dunno what id do without him

Do you have any paintings? a few

What is one clothing fad you wish never existed? anything from the early 2000s haha

Do you like to be organized? Do I like it? Yes. Am I organized? NO

Have you ever failed a class before? oh yes

Ever been judged because of your weight? All the time. Not so much as an adult tho

What is your favorite breakfast cereal? The sugary bad ones, ha.

Ever had a wish come true? Nope

Do you regret meeting any of your exes? No way

Do you own any coloring books? Yes haha those adult ones

What’s the meanest thing someone’s called you? I can’t think of anything specific. Probably fat

Have you ever bullied someone? I likely have, unfortunately :(

Do you ever watch Lifetime? Only for the reality shows

Ever tried to intentionally sabotage someone’s grade? God no

Do you own any brown clothing? Hmmm I don’t think so

What color are your walls painted? White.

Last thing you drank: I’m drinking decaf coffee 

Have you ever seen a tornado in person? Noooo.

Do you have an inground pool at your house? Nope

What is the first digit of your phone number?  9

What’s the prettiest town you’ve been to? Anywhere in England

Do you tend to sleep a lot? yes and no. I’m taking sleeping meds but it’s hard for me to fall asleep

Silver or gold jewelry? Silver

Do you sometimes celebrate holidays early? Not usually. My boyfriends family Is out of state tho

Have you ever been in love? Yes.

What’s the best gift you’ve ever received? My unborn child

When was the last time you showered? Last night

Would you consider yourself attractive? Sometimes yes

Has anyone made you mad today? Nope

Favorite smell: Vanilla

Are you afraid of insects? I wouldn't say afraid

Do you have any children? I’ve got one cookin in the oven haha

If so, what are their names? I’ll tell you when I know the gender

Would ever consider having children in the future? MORE children? Lets see how traumatized this first one is haha

Have you ever lived on a farm? No.

Ever played any sports? Oh yes, played soccer till I was 18 

Do both of your parents have jobs? They're both retired from jobs they were at for 40+ years

Where is the best place you’ve been on vacation to? Its a tie between South Africa, London and Colorado

Are you afraid people won’t accept you? Not anymore. Being an adult means getting over that haha

Are you, for the most part, an honest person? I try to be

Did you make prank phone calls as a child? oh yes!

Do you like to make donations? Yeah.

What is your current ringtone? Just the standard apple ringtone

Meet anyone from your past lately? No.

Have you ever called a teen suicide line? No.

Have you ever caught something on fire? Not that I can think of

Ever been obsessed with a show? Ive been obsessed with many shows

What type of perfume or cologne do you use? English Laundry Signature

What’s the last book you read? The book that Ted Bundys girlfriend wrote

Dream career: Zooologist

Have you ever climbed a mountain before? Yes, in Colorado

At what age do you plan to get married? Not sure, we aren't in a rush to marry

Ever been in a car accident? Yes, three

[schoolfullofmorons]

Berhaps share more of this serial killer au????

oh yes of course !!! be warned that gary is not supposed to represent every mentally ill person out there, don't treat ND people like they're murderers it is not good

anyway

[ tw: murder, abuse mentions, arson, drugs, ableism, mental issues, cheating ]

i went back and forth on it but finally decided that i wanted him to go to the asylum and start off following the path of redemption au. however, after getting out of the asylum, instead of his father bribing his way back into bullworth, he gets sent off to a school outside of town, where he knows no one and no one knows him.

you'd think this would be a great opportunity for him, considering his history at bullworth; but the thing about his asylum visit in redemption au is that it's really, really traumatizing, and instead of aiding his mental health, it instead progresses it to the point where he begins to expierence some severe disconnects from reality. in redemption au, he has pete and jimmy to ground him and counteract these once they realize what's going on with him; in this new school, he has no one.

entering his senior year alone proves to be very very difficult as his mental health declines and he ends up falling into the wrong crowd; a group of maybe 3-4 boys who all expirement with hardcore drugs such as LSD. while gary doesn't take them, he is pressured into a lot of situations where he mixes with people experiencing that disconnect from reality like he is; except his is based off of trauma, not drugs. at first he feels accepted by them due to this shared disconnect, until the crowd starts to terrorize him for not being able to cut off his own trauma and mental health issues.

these boys WERE his therapy. his father had stopped paying for therapy at this point since the asylum had deemed him "fixed," and while he was still on medication, he was so far gone that he needed more than that. considering they were essentially the only thing influencing him to keep going, he'd often put himself in risky situations, and almost got killed multiple times.

despite all of this he still managed to get himself into college. he still doesn't know how; all of senior year is a blur to him. all he remembers is sleepless nights and crying in stranger's bathrooms. but freshmen year comes fast, and a nineteen-year old gary takes his first steps towards adulthood.

his father decides to teach him his version of "responsibility" (which in reality is just child neglect) and takes him off of his medication. he tells gary that if he wants help he'll have to pay for it himself; he's an adult now, he should take charge. the thing is, gary can't mentally hold down a job and keep up with school. it's too much and tends to very easily overwhelm his autism. so, he just quits cold turkey. 

he stops hanging out around the boys he was previously associated with and started hanging out a lot with his abusive roommate. this roommate was often very ableist towards gary but gary took it since he literally just, didn't have anyone else. and he was tired of being lonely.

he enters his sophomore year and nothing is getting better. he's started having violent outbursts that are worse than those he expierenced in high school, and his roommate and him have been fighting. so he decides to quit school and drop out. this decision is impulsive and doesn't last very long. 

when he enters his house he catches his father cheating on his mother. his father hits him for what he witnesses and threatens him. gary knew that his home wasn't safe to go back to but he had longed for some sort of familiarity. this was familiar. the abuse was familiar. and it made him really, really fucking angry.

he burned down his father's house that night on a whim, killing four people: his father, his father's mistress, his mother (who was sleeping upstairs), and one of the servants. many other servants and butlers were injured. panicking, he went to his roommate and begged them to lie to the police about where he had been, essentially admitting to the crime. his roommate agreed, sick with power, and lied to the cops, saying him and gary had spent the night studying in their room.

gary got a burn scar from the fire on his forearm and started wearing a lot of long sleeves after that. it's very rare to catch him without them in this au.

he drifted around in a sort of daze after that. he had just killed his parents and he felt both relieved and frightened, but his brain refused to process any of it. he went to his father's funeral, where most of the town of bullworth had gathered. gary's family was tied as wealthiest in the town, rivaled only by the harrington's, and they were extremely popular. teachers, lawyers, students, everyone showed up, even people who didn't know him. 

one of those people was a cop who told gary he was sorry for his loss. it was outside the funeral, and gary was smoking a cigar. gary panicked as the cop turned; why would a cop talk to him? did he know what gary had done?

gary leapt on top of him and strangled him, then stuffed his body in a nearby dumpster and fled in a panic.

surprisingly, he didn't get caught then. he wasn't even questioned by authorities. he returned to college, but was soon called back to bullworth to sort out his father's will. his father had left him everything. gary became rich, yet didn't know what to do with it. at this point he was terrified of therapy, wondering what his therapists would say if he confessed to the murders or the anger issues, and was paranoid that the medication was poisoned. paranoia made him refuse to ask for help and he put forth all of the money to pay for his college tuition, stuffing the remaining sum into a savings account.

after that he attached himself to his roommate. while they had been "friends" before, they didn't hang out often. now gary sought to hang out with him all the time. gary was terrified of being alone with himself, and terrified even more of having another breakdown.

sophomore year ended and junior year rolled around. him and his roommate got in a huge fight. roommate called him overbearing and went to hit him; gary whipped out his pocket knife and stabbed him.

he took great care to hide the body of this one; he put it in an incinerator and burned it. when he went back to the dorms and cleaned up he was shaking. he hated himself. he decided that night that he'd focus completely on school; he was a psych major who wanted to become a therapist to give kids what he had never had.

he met jimmy again his senior year of college. jimmy had went to a tech school and become a small-town cop. he didn't seem fazed that gary was his ex-rival and instead made peace between them; jimmy even introduced him to several of his children.

jimmy wasn't exactly dating anyone, but was kinda dating everyone. he cared for his kids, both adopted and biological, from past relationships he had had, but tended to jump around from relationship to relationship quite quickly. he never abandoned his children however and sought out to give them the best life they could have. that's why he was a cop. 

gary didn't know any of this at the time and found himself falling in love with jimmy. it was the first time anyone had looked at him with kindness for four years. he was lonely and he was tired of himself, so he erased the past from his memory and vowed to start over. and he did. he began dating jimmy a few months after their reconciliation, where he was able to meet lola, gord, pete, and talk with zoe over facetime. it felt like a blessing in what had, until recently, been a rather cursed existence.

he found out jimmy was a cop about a month and a half after dating him.

during this time he swore off of killing, but it didn't last very long. he was assigned a project in english with a classmate. said classmate started coming onto him very strong. gary said no, he didn't stop, and gary killed him.

this one was messy. he was so shaken by the circumstances leading up to the killing that he couldn't empathise with himself that he had just killed another person, again. he fled to jimmy's apartment, drenched in drying blood, and begged him to let him take a shower; he lied, saying he had gotten in a fight with someone, but jimmy wasn't stupid. there were no obvious injuries on gary's person except the burn scar on his forearm.

gary showered and they didn't talk too heavily about it, but jimmy began to get suspicious. he checked into gary's history and realized that people who got close to him tended to disappear. a few days later they had a fight about it and gary ran off to a local club, just trying to get somewhere where people wouldn't know him and wouldn't say his name like he was a monster.

he wandered around the building and found some of his old friends, who gave him a gun and a shiny knife. he was fascinated with them and set them on a nearby table. girl came onto him, he freaked out, and he shot her.

this time there were several witnesses to identify him. he fled back to jimmy's apartment to try and explain but it was of no use. he was arrested, the town rejoiced in their safety and he was given the death sentence.

and that's serial killer au.

[heysnowflake]

50 Questions

1. What takes up too much of your time?

My job. Plus overthinking pretty much takes up 24 hours of my day.

 2. What makes your day better?

Spending quality time with loved ones, I’m a simple gal. Also a Rattler must be in hand at all times.

 3. What’s the best thing to happen to you today?

When it happens, I’ll let you know

 4. What fictional place would you like to go to?

Ooooooh probably Rivendell

5. Are you good at giving advice?

I’ve been told that I am so I’m going to say… I guess?

6. Do you have any mental illness?

My peers would probably disagree but, as far as I’m aware, I have no mental illness xD

 7. Have you ever experienced sleep paralysis?

I don’t think I have? Oh god I hope not

8. What musician inspired you the most?

Hans Zimmer

 9. Have you ever fallen in love?

Yes, yes I have

 10. What’s your dream date?

Going to the zoo during the day, going to the fair in the evening, then a walk on the beach

 11. What do others notice about you?

My hair is usually the first thing people notice because it is curly as fuck.

 12. What is an annoying habit you have?

I break my chocolate bars into the individual squares and have to put them in size and ingredient preference (like if it’s hazelnut chocolate bar for example) before I eat them

 13. Do you still talk to your first love?

No, I haven’t spoken to him since I bumped into him a few years ago

 14. How many exes do you have?

As in people I’ve actually dated, around 6 I think

 15. How many songs are in your playlist?

I have many playlists for each of my own specific categories and each one has at least 100 songs on them

 16. What instruments can you play?

The piano is my main instrument, the recorder, the xylophone and I’m just starting to learn the kalimba

 17. What do you have the most pictures of?

Undoubtedly, my dogs and the dogs I work with take up the majority of my camera roll

 18. Where would you like to go before you die?

Australia

 19. What is your zodiac?

Virgo (technically Virgo/Libra cusp)

 20. Do you relate to it?

Honestly, I couldn’t be more of a Virgo if I tried

 21. What is happiness to you?

Happiness is being able to find the good in every day

 22. Are you going through anything right now?

Nothing tremendously traumatic. Simply in an interesting phase of my life. I’m making decisions I wouldn’t normally make, some are amazing, some not so much. But I’m working towards a better me and that’s what matters.

 23. What’s the worst decision you ever made?

The entirety of 2016 was the worst decision I ever made

 24. What’s your favourite store?

For groceries- Sainsbury’s. For clothes- I’m torn between boohoo, misguided and asos

 25. What’s your opinion on abortion?

It’s your body and your life, so it is absolutely your choice. And it should only be your choice, no one else’s.

 26. Do you keep a bucket list?

No, weirdly enough. I’m that organised bitch that keeps lists for everything but I do not have a bucket list… yet.

 27. Do you have a favourite album?

I don’t really remember albums, I’m more of a playlist kinda gal

 28. What do you want for your birthday?

I’m not materialistic when it comes to birthdays, Christmases etc. as long as I can eat a great meal with good people, that will satiate me more than any physical gift

 29. What are most people’s first impression of you?

Usually that I’m very polite, sarcastic and somewhat witty.

 30. What age do you seem according to most people?

Different people have assumed I’m either much younger or older than I actually am. One person thought I was 25 when I was actually 18, at the time. Then another assumed I was 19 when I was actually 23, the age I am now. So the general is between 18-30 xD

 31. Where do you keep your phone while you’re sleeping?

Charging somewhere just out of reach from my bed so that I actually have to get up to turn off my alarm

 32. What word do you say the most?

‘Oof’

 33. What’s the oldest age you would date? 45, I think- I’m a very firm believer of age is just a number. But obviously, realistically, I’d want to date someone that I can have a foreseeable future with so I figure a just over 22 year difference is a good maximum.

 34. What’s the youngest age you would date?

18 or 19, I reckon. That’s a 4 or 5 difference from my current age.

 35. What job/career do most people say would suit you?

An accountant or teacher

 36. What’s your favourite music genre?

Musical and/or rock

 37. If you could live in any country in the world, where would it be?

I do love the country I live in, but I have to say, living in New Zealand would be awesome

 38. What is your current favourite song?

My all time favourite song is Shattered by Trading Yesterday, but at the moment, the one I am listening to most at the moment is Paris Holds The Key To Your Heart from Anastasia

 39. How long have you had this blog for?

Blimey, I just checked and I think it was December 29th 2011… so that would have made me just 15. So, 8 years.

 40. What are you excited for?

The possibility of what the future holds. And also the fact that the Sims gallery is coming to console this year. I know that’s sad but it’s true.

 41. Are you a better talker or listener?

Listener, for sure!! I genuinely love hearing someone’s story and learning more about them. I also am one of those people that love to ask ridiculous questions and hear their answers.

 42. What is the last productive thing you did?

The other night, I went with my gut and it led to a very productive night wink wink hint hint smiley face

 43. What do you want for Christmas?

Just a bloody good Christmas roast

 44. What class do you get the best grades in?

When I used to be in education, my best grades were in music, business and English

 45. On a scale of 1-10, how are you feeling right now?

I’m a solid 7

 46. What can you see yourself doing in ten years?

Being a teacher actually, but the future isn’t something I think about all that much. I like to take each day as it comes.

 47. When did you get your first heartbreak?

I don’t feel like I’ve had a true heart break. I’ve definitely had my spirit broken before though.

 48. What age do you want to get married?

Ideally 30-37

 49. What career did you want to have as a child?

A vet

 50. What do you crave right now?

A person I am currently waiting for to finish work