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kustas · 3 years ago

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i would love to hear about letter bee. worldbuilding is very near and dear to my heart and SO is hearing people talk shit about bad media. CHINHANDS.

Blows you a kiss... We share common interests! Without further ado, the in-depth LB rant. Under a cut, this is going to get long.

For the sake of potential future readers on my blog, I will keep this relatively spoiler-free. Let's start with...

The good:

the art. despite being way uh, "prettier" than what I usually prefer, it's really, REALLY well drawn, technically good and with a lot of style. The backgrounds in particular are gorgeous, drawn with thick black shadows and chunky lines, almost like Mignola's art at times but more delicate

the setting. i am a huge sucker for when fantasy goes full in to make you experience an alien world and here it does.

the plot - while the writing isn't the peak of the series, the way the plot is structured progressively revealing more secrets about how the world works is really fun

The bad:

the writing. while the worldbuilding and some characters are real good, others suffer from being two dimensional and there's parts of the story that are shallow, repetitive or way too boring

treatment of female characters. you don't escape the sexified designs, less presence than the male characters, and while it's not as blatant as in other series they're too objectified for my taste. in classic bad manga fashion some of them being underage makes this worst

while that's a me complaint, there is a contrast in the designs of the side and main characters I find a bit disturbing, the MCs having more classic "anime" faces while the side characters being stylized, have more charm.

The setting:

TLDR: mineral post apoc industrial fantasy in a bug based alien world

A post-industrial revolution society mostly based on European Victorian times on an isolated continent. On this planet, the sun died out, leaving humanity to live in constant darkness, but men built an artificial sun, providing the light and warmth needed to survive. The sun is unfortunately too small to shine it's light on the whole continent, and the outermost regions remained a cold, barren wasteland. Those who can't rely on the sun, humans and nature alike, subsist on geothermy, an important source of which being amber in which are preserved ancient insects with physical properties that make the mineral channel energy. Being a primary ingredient in most high technology, it was mined out in places, leaving them barren. This leaves a world that's a lot of stretches of empty desert peppered with stone towns, where having flowers in your back yard is a luxury.

Under the sun, a rigid class system developed, pushing out the people who couldn't resist to said outer regions, while the richer get to live the closer to the light. The capital of the country, right under it, is inaccessible, and the government tightly controls checkpoints between the three regions of the country, but the pass to cross them is only awarded to government workers. It's a thinly veiled theocracy, and even if many in the outermost regions openly hate the government, there's not been successful uprisings, and they control both the largest food supply on the planet and the supply of the type of firearms you need to fight back hostile insects found in the unpopulated regions, who "feed" on humans in a way that doesn't immediately kill you but leave you in a state where you cannot move or eat so you slowly die out anyway. That and other misc environmental threats like the terrain make travel close to impossible for the common people.

Some of the only ones to travel the country are the postal service, the protagonists of the story - they're assigned a gun and a pass and travel alongside a "backup" companion. They toe a fine line in the public opinion between carrying the communication of the country on their shoulders (this is not a society who's discovered long distance communication yet) and openly working for the government, earning the distrust of many people. The main character befriends one at a young age during a formative moment of his life, turns to completely idolizing him, and signs up to join their ranks the day he can. As a starry eyed kid entering the workforce he's hit by a series of dissapointements about how the world works.

...Also, all energy in this world isn't electricity, it's a world-specific energy that drives both people and machines, mostly based on your memories. It's what'll power your gun and what the insects will eat. If you get caught, you'll forget how to life, if you shoot too much, you'll forget how to live, but by writing down your life, you create and put a bit of it in every page.

The plot is centered around the sun. It hasn't functioned well, always. One day it turned off, but most of the people who saw it with their own eyes forgot everything. The government's been trying to use the scientific knowledge they have to find better energy sources to power it, while a rebel faction tries to take them down.

The dissapointement

I have to preface this saying that this is my opinion and I have NO way of knowing if it's true or not. But I think what killed this series is the shonen format. The worst moments of the series come from fighting scenes - this is simply not a series suited to that, they all have guns so it's boring as hell, and while attempted there's no real progression to the main character's abilities. At it's best is when you find out stuff about the world, either through plotless deliveries in regions you don't know, or through moments of the story that reveal new things about the setting. At it's very, very best, it gets slightly horrific and makes me dearly regret that this is not a full blown collection of fantasy horror stories. But all of this gets pushed asides when it's time to go back to the plot which involves the action. Yahoo -_-

I've read another work by the same author, an abandoned samurai series called Renka, and I love it. The way it's drawn and paced make it without exaggeration one of my most inspiring manga. The fight scenes are short, gnarly, and really, really well drawn. So that's not the issue... The issue is especially trying to force the story into an upbeat, kid friendly epic with large scale combat. When it's about postmen in a desert... I can't help but think than in a better world without the joug of shonen manga publications the author would have written this as exploration fantasy about alien mad science.

If you are curious about it all

Read it. Don't watch the anime. The anime took out everything I found good about the series and did not keep it. The manga's art is worth it.

Chapter 52 is the last one where I remember something interesting happening, you can stop after that. If you get bored because there's fighting, flip until the fight's over, they don't usually have big plot significance, they just feel like filler.

That's about all I that comes to mind right now. Feel free to HMU about specific parts of what I've said or if you have any questions!

#answered

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rigelmejo · 4 years ago

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April Progress Update, and May Goals:

*bear with me this is gonna get long.

I’m going to first just look at April goals and see if I did them, then afterward summarize everything I did this month (cause it was a lot more than I planned ToT)

Chinese study plan from April:

1. Read anything

Well, I did read. However my goal to read hanshe to chapter 80 and Zhenhun to the end of the sundial arc never happened. I did read a lot though. I ended up focusing mainly on extensive reading.

Chinese chapters read: 62 (I counted graded readers/小王子 as 1 chapter for every two that I read, but this number is probably still inflated... compared to my normal 20-pleco page chapters I probably read 31-40 of those-kind-of-chapters length wise).

Chinese stories finished: 4 (Pleco Graded Reader Butterfly Lovers, Chinese Short Stories, Mandarin Companion Journey to the Center of the Earth, 小王子 - you can tell this is where my attention went this month).

Chinese Listening Reading Method chapters done: 14.5 (4.5 Silent Reading, 2 Chapters of A History of Humankind, 1 chapter hp, 1 chapter Alice in Wonderland, iffy but like 3 chapters 小王子, iffy but like 4 chapters of the Xiao Mao cat story - I should note that for Silent Reading, 小王子, Xiao Mao I only looked at the chinese mostly so more step 2, and for the others I did step 3 as recommended). Also I realize... I should probably count this with hours instead of chapters, because hours are where the original poster about LR mentioned when milestones are hit. However, being realistic, I do not do things in hour segments so I’m not sure any tracking will be as easy as this way...

A cool thing potentially about L R Method? I found some resources recently that will make this a lot easier (Bidiread is a site that can make parallel texts for you, which made silent reading MUCH easier since the audio doesn’t perfectly match so you NEED to see the chinese even if only doing step 3, to make sure you can keep track of where you are in the text when the audio skips paragraphs). I also found Francais Par Le Methode Nature as videos on youtube with audio and the text visible (is that not simply L R method step 2 but its all comprehensible, i love that book). And I found a few files on youtube of audiobooks with english audio and chinese/english parallel text on screen (a bit backwards in process but i’m curious to test it), one youtube channel who does chinese audio with parallel texts on screen (phenomenal!), and I remembered the site bilinguis exists which is excellent for French if you wanna try L R Method (it has a few french audios with the parallel texts). Also in the case of A History of Humankind - the audiobook for once is very closely synced to the actual chapter start/ends, so it was just easier to do L R Method with.

2. Listen to Chinese Spoonfed Audio, shadowing when I can

YES I did this! I was on 11 last month, now I’m on 15. (so 4 audio this month) Yes I realize that wasn’t a lot of improvement T-T. What can I say I am not very good at being disciplined. However I did learn something interesting this month ABOUT listening to these so I think I might do it more - I listened to some in the background while playing games, then later listened to them again (also why I only got through 4 - I was replaying audios maybe 2 times). And when I listened the second time I could understand nearly all, whereas obviously when playing my game I only caught parts of it. So I suppose what this showed me is partially listening and partially focusing still may have some benefit in helping to learn the info - and well obviously its easier to make time to play audio when u don’t need to focus 100% on it.

I also did some other misc listening to random stuff without any plan: 6? audio 1 of DeFrancis Beginner Chinese Reader, 1 audio of FSI Chinese, 2 condensed audios of Guardian (which was so cool?? also so cool i can follow along so well now??), 1 dracula chapter audio (don’t even ask i don’t know either), tian ya ke audio drama ep 1.

Chinese show episodes watched: 28 (You can see here is where my time went listening wise lol - Two Souls in One is GOOD u might wanna check it out, is all I’m saying, especially if the taiwan drama Bromance was ur thing, or the anime Ouran Host Club, or even Bureau of Transformer to a degree. I watched up to ep 25 and once its all aired to the finale I’m gonna finish it.

Optional going through my hanzi book: I burned out on this, but it was a good use of my time when I felt like writing. I only wrote/studied maybe 30 hanzi, and maybe 50 hanzi+radicals in my Radical-Specific hanzi book. If I continue, I think my goal will be to just continue the Radical-book to completion. Realistically, longer term, I need to go through the freaking Alan Hoenig’s Chinese Character’s book just to get the hanzi and their rough meaning to stick in my head (and learn the pronunciations through well context and vocab how I normally do). Right now I just learn through reading, but its an issue of sometimes I just end up associating one hanzi with the new word I learned but then as soon as I see it in a new word I don’t even remember having seen it before. If I paid a bit more attention to distinguishing I might notice when I’ve seen them before or they’re new, and have more starting info to relate to the character to attach the word info onto. (its a convoluted way of me saying if I have things to connect to each other I remember better even if it makes little sense to connect them - if I know car and pet, carpet’s easier to remember even though it has nothing to do with cars, cry in french ‘pleurer’ was easier to remember once my brain thought ‘plume of tears’ even though that makes no sense. i just remember things better than seeing pleurer and having no idea what to attach it to at all - even if i heard it means cry, if i don’t have a thing to associate it with i’ll forget easier. or melancholy - i had to associate it with melons, and cholly - reminds me of words for sickness so heavy-sick +sad is how i started finally remembering that word cause wow did i look it up over and over as a kid).

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Japanese study plan from April:

1. continue through nukemarine’s memrise courses.

Okay I did do this!! Congrats! In March I had completed LLJ 3 - Kanji, 289/318 finished in LLJ 4 Tae Kim part 1. As of April, I have completed: LLJ 4 Part 1, LLJ 4 Part 2 51/365, LLJ 5 Core Vocabulary 420/1020. So yeah! Going quite well, in that I consistently did it - I realized for me the best time to do it is playing video games oddly enough, or watching youtube - just do it in between areas, or ep scenes/videos, as a short 5-10 minute break. Since I like taking breaks from things anyway. Like audio, its hard for me to find ways to get myself to do stuff like this (except worse cause I don’t vibe with flashcards).

My goal for May will probably be finish LLJ 4 Part 2, LLJ 5, and start LLJ 6? I can dream right...

Also, a cool note: I found audio-flashcard files that people made of the Japanese Core 2k vocabulary deck and sentences, with english-japanese audio. (If anyone wants a link just let me know). So now if I DO eventually get burned out on flashcards, I could switch to using those. They would work about as well as the Chinese Spoonfed Audio files I have (which work extremely well for me - audio flashcards I just listen to are so much more suited to how I study lol). However, I’d like to stick with Nukemarine’s decks as long as possible while I can focus - they cover grammar explicitly which helps me a lot, and the reading practice COMBINED with constant audio really helps me learn the readings of words. Which is something I need for japanese a LOT more than chinese.

2. continue reading Tae Kim’s grammar guide

Ahahahahaaa hahaaa... did not do it. Nope.

What I did do that was grammar related:

Watched Cure Dolly lessons 1-5 (and will probably watch more as I seem to click well with those explanations)

Read 24 pages of Japanese in 30 Hours while transcribing actual japanese into it (and will probably continue to read it, its so short I should just DO IT in a couple days, it also fulfilled my desire to write stuff)

JapaneseAudioLessons.com - read the wa vs ga explanation, reading the portable japanese grammar notes document right now (its 11 pages I’ll finish it today). I’ve said it before but i really LOVE this resource, and they have so much for free. I absolutely recommend if a beginner wants Pimsleur or Michael Thomas or some other paid resource etc, to just go to this site, download their full lesson grammar guide (its like 311 pages like a real textbook) and go through all their free audio lessons. You will cover a lot of ground (more than Pimsleur or Michael Thomas), and all for free. In addition, I’ve bought some of their kanji teaching books and they’re overall my favorite for remembering kanji specifically (yes more than Heisig’s RTK by far, and more than KKLC - although the Kodanshi book is a good reference to have around). I’m not kidding at all when I say just try this site’s free resources if you’re trying to use free stuff, its the closest I’ve found to an audio only teaching method, or an audio/textbook-like combo, that’s this much stuff and free. (For non free, I actually liked Genki if you do everything in it).

Other misc things done in japanese:

Watched Dracula the Musical in japanese with no subs. It was super hard, but also not so hard. It changed my life. 1000/10 would recommend watching it if you even remotely like dracula OR vampires - featuring a lesbian Dracula/Mina, and more importantly a story change about who kills Dracula, and Dracula and Mina’s agency and choice being the driving force of the ending. These story changes I LOVE and I now want them in more adaptations moving forward, its what I always craved of the ending of Dracula and never got - Dracula as a person (not monster), Mina as a person (not prey), and their choices influencing how the story ends and by whom (versus Van Helsing/the establishment symbol regaining control through annihilation of the ‘threat’ to that norm). Also it gave me a new interest in Japanese plays which is cool. I did not expect to love them this much! Also gave me a boost in japanese confidence, in that I no longer feel as “scared” to try immersing in japanese or in some kinds of content that seemed ‘harder’ - and that was a big hurdle I was too afraid to do, in the past when I studied.

Watched a few more lets plays (lets guess maybe 3-5 sections of 20 minutes?). Persona 2 innocent sin (cool to see me follow along despite not knowing the game), Final Fantasy IX (this one I saved, and could definitely pick up words from since I know some of the story and the lets player read everything - I should look up FFX), random stuff.

Tried to play some games in japanese! I’m going to go with this was about 3 hours. I tried crisis core’s opening to the first save point - it was playable (I can read most of the menus), and I can follow enough text to get the overall gist - however it was draining as so much is text only (I FORGOT how much reading is in this game). Great for reading practice I suppose. Also great in that it definitely reset my expectations about what is ‘doable’ for me - however I do think KH2 is probably still the easiest game i should start trying games with (since I have so many of the controls/menu memorized and can waste less time re-reading the tutorials), and since I know so many words by memory I’ll be able to focus more on grammar (whereas in CC I was glancing through kanji trying to keep up with the live action scenes). A bit too much reading for me to tackle again for a while, it was draining lol. Then I tried persona 3 for psp - first, i like the ps2/ps3 version better ToT. Second, also somehow I could read enough to survive - but the reading again took time, a lot isn’t voiced, and there are not frequent save points. So again I just played to the first save point. That one I may try again before CC though, because a lot more of the language is daily life stuff I could glance through and speed-read-guess lol, or could actually use if I learned it. Also occassionally p3 reads out loud which is nice. I suspect the Visual Novel I got will actually be best for practice (despite me not knowing the plot at all), because I’m guessing more of the lines will be voiced. All this reading would help me more if I could hear it voiced - and I may want to watch more Lets Plays, and Audiobooks on youtube, mainly for that fact: subtitles that i can read WITH audio so i can practice listening and reading together.

Tried reading a bit! First, some mangas I had (though I only read a page of each) - mainly it was just nice to see mangas are more accessible now. they’re about as readable to me rn as manhua were in chinese at 6-8 months in. I can just about follow the main gist, more if I use a dictionary for details. Also thanks to @yue-muffin telling me, learned I can look up words on iphone in the web browser just by highlighting words and clicking “look up.” Life changing. That in combination with me finding some japanese scripts of Final Fantasy games online (and I’ve always been curious what localizations changed), and this has been a little reading I found myself doing just because i felt like it. I didn’t read much - the equivalent of several dialogue boxes (the games i played made me read a LOT more lol). but I liked that i could see their kana when i looked them up, sound the sentences out to myself, contemplate them (so intensive read). Also if you have Speech tools enabled on your phone, you can swipe down with 2 fingers and it will read the page aloud - I used to do that a little with chinese on dual chinese-englist mtlnovel pages since it WILL read both, but Pleco reads chinese better so unless i’m only-listening i switched to pleco for that. But for these scripts it works great! (occasionally it will read all-kanji titles like chinese though lol - not once its into japanese sentences though). I thought it was really cool I could basically emulate what I do in Pleco for chinese, in a normal web browser for Japanese. (Also, for websites, Idiom app seems to work ok for reading Aloud as well - possibly better - but ios iphone “Look up” dictionaries are MUCH better than Idiom app’s).

In summary basically I surprisingly enjoyed reading and might keep trying to do it just because its interesting. However in general, first: I really want 2k words done in Nukemarine’s LLJ courses (LLJ 7 would put me at 1k common words, LLJ 12 would put me at 2k so...), and I’d really like a better grammar foundation (Cure Dolly, or japanese audio lessons grammar, Nukemarine LLJ also obviously fits that task with the grammar portions, really anything). While I want to play games, again I just really realize... how much easier my life will be with a better basis of knowledge first lol. Reading I can do in bite size if I want, but playing games is Draining in between saves right now lol. While i CAN do it right now, unless its a game i really can tune out with (like KH2 maybe) then its just too intensive right now for me to tolerate too much of.

Also, again, I think doing Nukemarine’s LLJ decks as breaks while playing games/watching stuff is working great, going to keep doing that. And listening to audio flashcard files while I have dead time (like level grinding). I have been listening to the Chinese Spoonfed audio, but other options could be: the english-japanese Core 2k audio files, the Japanese Audio Lessons files (which once years ago I’d listen to while excerising). For now I’ve focused on Chinese Spoonfed audio because I know I need to FINISH something before jumping to something else lol.

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French stuff I did in April:

Listened to 6 chapters of Francais Par Le Methode Nature (and read some of them - oh i missed this book its my fave way to learn and it finally has audio!!)

listened to some bits of audiobooks (i don’t even know why, i don’t know - dracula, frankenstein, carmilla, sherlock)

read a little of Le Petit Prince (idk 3 chapters? browsing my book after finishing in chinese and... ok my heart is still a bit ;-; ... i’m gonna need to recover from this story...)

read a bit of dracula (again... idk why... also it was kind of a L R Method step 2 attempt in that I listened to audio too, but really I mainly just... read)

L R Method: 2 Chapters of Alice in Wonderland (step 2, because I have not tried step 3 yet).

What is funny as hell to me is both how many words I look up when I contemplate intensive reading (again life changed by the fact i can just highlight words and click “word lookup” on my phone). But also how I already... know I can thoroughly read without doing it. Like... yes I can look up a word I fuzzy-know to get clarification, but even my phone auto-gives me french-french dictionary first and sometimes only (is it because my google is in french), i’ve been used to french definitions only for years.. and also like... i know when i read a whole paragraph i get whatever words were fuzzy before? just read some of dracula again today and its fine. its fine. again informational texts are easier for me - but dracula being a lot of letters ‘describing what happened’ suits me quite easily (and somehow manages to be less annoying to me than the english version). like... alice in wonderland was probably the harder for all the quick adjectives/verbs used in just one or two paragraphs when i was still re-remembering vocabulary i used to know lol. Like... in a dream world i’d love to test L R Method and see HOW MUCH it can teach a person. But like... while french would be the easiest to test it with? I kind of realize i’m also at a point in french where i have more benefit just continuing to read in french and listen in french (to fix my poor listening skills). referencing the english is not really... particularly necessary, it just usually slows me down. while i’m missing a LOT of words for fluent speaking/grammatically ok speaking - i don’t think listening reading method would really help me with that, since reading sure hasn’t. if any readng material might it’s francais par le methode nature just because it drills simple correct grammar construction, and reinforces it, and teaches grammar through context. but all my other reading materials... are more comprehension...

Anyway in SUMMARY wow i did a lot more than i expected this month!

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Next months goals!

Chinese May Goals:

***Read anything. Great plan, has been working great. Ideally I would like to: finish Xiao Mao book one, and then either continue another Xiao Mao novel or start one of the other stories rated 2+ ease. I am considering 许三观卖血记 because its about as easy as the little prince, I’ve read an excerpt and its historical fiction so generally practical. Or 流星·蝴蝶·剑 by Gu Long if I want to work on a base in wuxia words from an easier novel. Or 他们的故事 by 一根黄瓜丝儿 if I’m ready to return to it - although this one is longer (the other stories being more like 12-20 chapters) so I’d prefer to save this for later. For any of these - look words up as desired since I’ll read them in Pleco. Ideally as my ‘harder’ reading I would like to either continue hanshe (intensive reading), or continue guardian (extensive reading) - so its a matter of if I want to look words up.

***Continue listening to Chinese Spoonfed Audio (please can i Finish it please ;-;)

Optional: experiment with Listening Reading Method. With the finding of those videos on youtube, I’d like to make my life literally as easy and streamlined as possible and literally just TEST L R Method by doing it with a few of the videos I found. It literally cannot get easier than premade videos with audio.

Other optional: listen to misc audio (I would love the time to watch the tian ya ke audiodrama WITH its subtitles then listen without again), watch shows, read Alan Hoenig’s Chinese Characters (i doubt this will happen), do some of my Radical-hanzi book.

Japanese May Goals:

***Continue: Nukemarine’s LLJ courses - ideally finish LLJ 4 Part 2, LLJ 5, and start LLJ 6. (this truly can be basically my only study method if I can’t do more). THIS IS THE PRIORITY. The quicker I get ALL of this done, the more of a foundation I will have to do Anything else.

Hopefully: Continue some kind of grammar explanation beyond Nukemarine’s stuff - either Tae Kim (unlikely but i was at chapter 10 before), Cure Dolly (i’m on 6), Japanese Audio Lessons Grammar, Japanese in 30 Hours while writing japanese in (I’m on page 24). Again this is a higher priority as it will make anything else easier.

Optional: Reading in any form - so video game time, lets plays, audiobook youtube with captions, actual reading as desired (like scripts). Including this because I know I will eventually try again lol.

Optional: listening in any form - so another musical! maybe listen to japanese audio lessons, or the core 2k audio, or a lets play, etc. I find I’m probably less likely to listen to something but it might happen!

French May Goals*:

*aka if I feel like doing it because french has no real goals at the moment! -3-)/

***Continue watching Le Francais Par Le Methode Nature videos. (There’s only 33, they’re like 10 minutes long or less, its about basics, PLEASE). I remember this book took forever to read 1/3 of when i was an upper beginner, well now surely its less slow going? especially because read aloud its as fast as the speakers voice! so it is not time consuming and i’ve wanted to finish this book forever! i could at least finish it up to where the audio files match to!

Read???? Read??? Honestly I’ve just been wanting to read Dracula and Carmilla in French its a vibe I’ve been in. Its not high priority or anything but hey it might happen. If it does happen, ideally I’d like to listen to an audiobook too around the same time (maybe after, or have the page read, idk). Just because while reading refreshes my vocab, what I really want to build up is listening/pronunciation. To get to a point where I can listen and shadow would be nice.

Tied to above, try L R Method? Not a high priority, though it would be super easy to test! Just because I already started testing it with Alice in Wonderland... but that basically amounts to just reading practice with audio again, for me.

I found Merlin in french so THAT is a thing.

Honestly the only thing I really want to do ‘study’ wise in french is finish that freaking book, especially now that I can listen to audio with it. It’s a nice foundation and I’d really like a refresher/fill in any big gaps in my learning. Anything else about french written here is mostly a reminder to myself to LISTEN to audio when possible, and try and improve that skill a bit if I go and read.

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Real fast CORE SUMMARY:

Chinese: READ easier stories rated 2+ and keep getting through some, in combination with reading the harder hanshe and Guardian. Also listen to Chinese Spoonfed audio whenever u remember! Attempt some L-R method with the youtube videos you found. Immerse as desired.

Japanese: continue Nukemarine LLJ courses. Also do some grammar study somewhere, and immerse as desired.

French: listen/listen-read to Francais Par Le Methode Nature. Also read/listen as desired - ideally combining the activities.

*in all cases, where possible, combine listening-reading or try to practice both skills. (So reading in Pleco - play audio afterward to practice, play Guardian condensed audio in down time, with audiodramas follow subs when possible, when immersing with anything try L-R like strategies to add practice with both skills).

#rant #april progress #april goals #may study plan #study plan #may goals #may #what i learned from this is... i have no fucking structure guys #im a mess i just do Whatever #only thing close to ANY structure is that with chinese im fairly consistent about reading #someone help me come up with a cleaner study plan?#or is the fact just that this is Just how i study???#do i just need to bounce and do random stuff?

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thepeanutbutterwizard · 4 years ago

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Ninjago/Avatar au Pt6

The second half of Book 2 (hopefully)

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5)

So Garm finally reads the letter from Wu. It starts off as a normal pseudo-journal entry, but after it mentions finding the Garms old armor, but no body, it turns into more of a normal letter. Wu says that he’s missed his brother since he was banished, and that he hopes that they’ll be able to see eachother again soon if Garm is alive, and ends with Wu saying that he normally burns the letters he writes to Garm, so that no-one else finds them, but that he feels hopeful that this one could actually get to him. It’s touching stuff.

Lloyd picks up earthbending almost immediately, unlike Aang. The element Lloyd is going to struggle to learn is fire (if you don’t count his airbending being self-taught. He picked up airbending really, really fast, but bc he’s been making stuff up and trying to do what Maya did with her waterbending [Maya’s had decades to hone her style tho, not just three-ish years, but he’s like someone learning ballet only from YouTube, for only a couple of months] since there are no more airbenders [or so they think, bc none of them saw Morro airbend at the North Pole]), and I’ll get into why that is when it comes up. They haven’t had Garm start to teach Lloyd any firebending bc they’re trying to go in the order as much as they can, but Garm has finally convinced Kai to learn more than just the basics, and he picks it up really quickly.

Meanwhile, Morro is taking care of an injured Wu (and accidentally making him suffer through poorly-made tea). Now, Morro is onboard with Wu wanting to leave the Fire Nation behind; unlike Zuko, Morro isn’t trying to win back the favor of some distant parent, the only family he’s ever known is Wu, and he’s not about to abandon Wu for a bunch of people who would probably kill him as soon as they could no matter what he did for them, and Harumi made it clear that no-one in the Fire Nation is going to be extending them any mercy.

Once Wu wakes up, Morro does yell at him for doing something as stupid as taking a hit from a well-trained firebender to protect a stranger (Wu hadn’t gotten around to telling Morro ‘hey, you know that guy with the big burn scar who’s traveling with the Avatar? That’s my dead-but-not-really-dead older brother. Pls stop trying to stab him’, and Morro wasn’t there when Garm revealed his identity in the North Pole), until Wu tells him that Garm is his brother. This leads to Morro yelling out ‘You mean to tell me that the Avatar is my cousin?!?!’ And that how Wu learns that Lloyd is Garms son (’wait, what?’ ‘Have you really gone this long without noticing that the Avatar calls your brother his dad?’ ‘I’ve had a lot on my mind, give me a break!’), and now he thinks that Garm and Maya are married with three kids, one of whom is the Avatar.

They make their way to Ba Sing Se, with the help of the White Lotus. Wu isn’t the leader of them (he isn’t super old in this au, imagine what he looked like in S9, with the mustache), but he is a fairly respected member. I still haven’t come up with a Jet character who would work, and I am open to suggestions. If I do find a good character, they will definitely throw hands with Morro (mb Shade? Just cut out the romance subplot in S1 and pick a couple of EM’s to be the other freedom fighters?). And yes, Wu does get his tea shop in the upper ring (Steep Wisdom), and Morro tries to be happy and supportive, but even though he is fine leaving the Fire Nation with Wu, it does still feel like he wasted years of his life, both in chasing the Avatar and just trying to prove himself to everyone back in the Palace, so he’s pretty grumpy.

Now back to Team Avatar: at Maya and Garms insistence the kids have been picking out their little mini-vacations. They know that they only have a limited amount of time before the comet arrives, but Garm and Maya want these kids to be able to be, y’know, kids, at least a little bit, in spite of the fact that they’re growing up in a war-torn world. Kai want’s to check out that glacier-spring place by the desert, it’s kinda underwhelming, but they get fruity drinks out of it. This whole time Kai and Cole have been getting closer to each other. Kai feels a little guilty, like he’s betraying Zane’s memory, but talking to Maya and Garm about it does help him start to feel better, and it helps his over-protectiveness start to abate a little.

Jay wants to pick a really cool mini-vacation to impress Nya, and he asks the people who are in the glacier place if there’s any place around those parts, and ends up learning that about a year ago some lady showed up saying something about a huge spirit library in the desert that she was looking for. They never saw her again after that, and figure that she must have died out in the desert. When pressed (and payed) one of the artistically inclined staff members roughly recreated the sketch of the library, and vaguely remembered the area on the map she said she was going to search, and with that Jay has his mini-vacation picked out.

They set off and find the library. Cole chooses to stay outside with Ultra (who can’t fit inside) bc he thinks they’ll be safer if the only earthbender stays outside incase something goes wrong, and if they need to get out of there fast he’d only slow them down with his legs. Everybody else heads into the library and meet Wan Chi Tong (did I spell that right? I’m too lazy to check), who agrees to let them use the library if they 1) don’t intend to use the contents of the library against anyone else and 2) contribute something to his library.

Lloyd and Nya both use their wanted posters (they both thought they were awesome [Lloyd bc he’s 13 and Nya bc you can’t convince me that Nya wouldn’t be thrilled to have a wanted poster bc she’s been fucking with a tyrannical regime] and incredibly accurate considering the art had to have been done by someone using other people’s descriptions, and they totally intend on framing and hanging at least a few of their posters up in their rooms when all this is over), Kai has a copy of a poem that Zane wrote for him, Garm has his brothers letter (he doesn’t want to give it up, but he has nothing else), Jay has a blueprint from one of his inventions, and Maya has a copy of a story in a series that Koko had brought back to the South Pole over the years. Wan Chi Tong comments that about a year ago a researcher had arrived and had offered him another part of the the same series. He mentions that they should be careful, as she never left, and has been primarily researching the Avatar.

Everyone has an idea of who this mysterious researcher could be (except Jay), but they decide to be cautious all the same, just incase she isn’t who they think she is. They all start discreetly searching for anything that could be used to help them fight the Fire Nation, and they end up finding and empty placard saying something about ‘the Darkest Day in Fire Nation History’, but when they go to check part of the section on Fire Nation (that library was enormous, y’all cannot tell me that Zhao was able to destroy absolutely everything that the library had on the Fire Nation. It could only have been the last few decades/mb centuries of Fire Nation history), as well as a campsite that was full of scrolls having to do with the Avatar and different bending techniques (and a few misc scrolls about random things like cooking, engineering, etc). As they’re poking around the campsite, who else comes around the corner but Koko!

She has her nose buried in a scroll as she’s walking, so she doesn’t notice them all until Lloyd happily calls out ‘Mom!’, and goes in for a hug. Koko drops the scroll and has a happy reunion with her son and husband, as well as with Maya, Kai, and Nya, and she and Jay are introduced to each other. Koko explains that she’s been able to stay in the library so long was bc she managed to get the fox assistants to like her enough to start bringing her food and water. She also explains that she’s been doing nonstop research into the Avatar State, the Air Nomads and airbending, and the Fire Nation (though she’s really quiet about that part so they don’t catch Wan Chi Tongs attention and ire) and shows them that planetarium thing and that she discovered the eclipse. (How did she make it out to the library without a flying companion or something? SHe’s just that much of a badass.)

Koko had been saving up supplies and charting a course out of the desert, and planning to leave the library as soon as she could, but now that they’ve showed up with Ultra she can just grab her things and go. Someone, probably Jay, gets a little too vocal about how they have a chance to beat the Fire Nation, and cue Wan Chi Tong sinking the library and trying to add them to his ‘collection of specimen’. Garm and Koko are a dynamic duo, with Garm distraction the angry spirit while Koko gathers all of her scrolls and supplies together while Maya gets the kids to the exit.

Meanwhile, Cole is holding up the library, and trying to help Ultra fend off the sandbenders that showed up to capture and sell the dragon. Cole is able to put up a bit more of a fight than Toph was (meaning that he was able to get one or two good hits in) bc being in the desert doesn’t impair his vision (the sand does tank his mobility just as much as it would anyone with prosthetic legs tho), but he isn’t able to stop them or even hold them off long enough for everyone else to get out. Cole, despite being initially afraid of the large dragon, had quickly grown to be one of Ultras favorite people in their group (like, third favorite. Kai will never admit that he’s jealous), and is pretty upset that he wasn’t able to save him. More on Ultra later.

So Lloyd is really upset about losing his companion, just as much as Aang was. He doesn’t act out (for lack of a better word) as intensely as Aang, since Ultra wasn’t the last thing he had left of his people like Appa was for Aang, but Lloyd is still rightfully pissed off. He takes off shakily on his glider, leaving everyone behind before trying to search for Ultra and the sandbenders, ignoring his families protests. Koko starts working on getting them out of the desert using the route she had plotted out (using the sun and shadows to orient them and get started in the right direction), and starts planing out how long her food and water (she had the good sense to bring those from the library) will last between all of them. The answer is: not long enough.

Kai (and mb Jay too) is the one who has the bright idea to drink the cactus juice, bc while Kai, like Sokka, (and Jay tbh) is smart enough to know that drinking a strange liquid out of an unfamiliar plant is a bad idea,but the fact that it is a stupid idea doesn’t stop him. Wait, y’know what? Jay definitely tries the cactus juice, but instead of acting as out-of-it and inebriated as Kai does, he acts like he does in S9, weirdly chill and disconnected from reality. He’s still tripping balls, but he’s reacting to it differently from Kai. Cole just ends up carrying Kai piggy-back, even though the sand makes it harder for him to move (he’s crushing, and he’s the only one [adults included] whose physically strong enough to carry him for long periods of time) (also Kai awkwardly and drunkenly flirts with him. Everyone pretends not to notice for Coles sake) and everyone else takes turns holding onto Jays wrist and leading him through the desert or else he would have wandered off and died.

Lloyd gets back to them, landing hard in the sand, holding back tears bc even though he’s upset and could use a good cry he knows that they need to conserve as much water as they can. He’s got his family there to comfort him (even if Kai and Jay are kinda incapacitated atm), which does help him a bit, but he’s still rightfully upset. They find the abandoned sandbender skipper thing, find the vulturewasp hive, and come across the sandbenders. Cole is able to pinpoint the sandbender (no idea who this guy would be, Ninjago character wise) who lead the others to take Ultra via his voice bc Cole a) was trained in a myriad of performing arts thanks to his father, primarily singing b) has perfect pitch and c) never forgets a voice bc of that.

Lloyd goes full Avatar State, but is comforted and calmed down by his parents while everyone else books it. The sandbenders tell them that they sold Ultra to some guys who were going to take him to Ba Sing Se, and then they take them out of the desert (with the sandbenders getting the Death Glare from all of Team Avatar the whole way. Koko totally punches the sandbender who lead the others to steal Ultra once they’re out of the desert.)

They make their way to Ba Sing Se on foot, with Lloyd trying to get a handle on his emotions (and worrying everyone in the process), and they run into a family with an expecting mother/wife (I am also taking suggestions for who these characters could be. I’m pretty tired while typing this so I can’t think of anyone) and try and get on a ferry to Ba Sing Se. Cole, whose father is well known and wealthy, uses that fact, his double amputee status (he ‘accidentally’ slips out of one of his prosthetics. Kai catches him before he hits the ground), and his acting skills to get them tickets without passports.

And we get best girl Pixal back! She helps Team Avatar help the pregnant family go through the Serpents Pass, and it goes pretty similar to cannon, except instead of a situation where Sokka is overprotective of Suki, Jay picks up on how much Pixal likes Nya, and sees that Nya, his crush, reciprocates those feelings, and gets a bit passive-aggressive w/everyone, but Pixal especially. It doesn’t last long, bc Jay is a hormonal teenager who realizes he’s being a dick fairly quickly, but it does help fizzle his crush on Nya a bit (sorry again to any hardcore Jaya shippers who were hoping for that in this au, but it’s really not my cup of tea).

They also help deliver the couples baby, but Maya and Koko are the ones helping take care of that. Team Avatar get to the outer wall, just to see a huge Fire Nation drill heading closer and closer to the wall, ready to start tearing through it...

#ninjago #ninjago au #ninjago avatar au

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comradeocean · 6 years ago

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I haven't read Arya x Gendry in like ... 6 years. I caught up a bit this week. Here are some I really like!

[30 some fic recs after the jump]

post 8x01 Arya keeps looking for reasons to visit Gendry in the forge. - mmh post episode askbox fic

Somewhere to Begin, MissAtomicBomb (mrs_nerimon) The Stark sisters share a moment in the wake of some impactful reunions. - lmao my most frequently used GoT tag was "westeROS" (remember Ros???) followed by "Stark famly dynamics." So Stark sisters hashing things out... my kryptonite

Beautiful & Deadly Sharp, vlaurie17 Learning to fight with a sword were some of Arya's best memories. Sansa, however, was hesitant. “What do I do with it?” “Stick ‘em with the pointy end,” Arya smirked. Sansa just rolled her eyes, “Obviously." - also Stark sisters revisiting being Vengeance-made-girls together and practising to knife someone

I'll sing for you, Ravenclawpride06 Set post 8x1. Gendry wants it bad. Arya wants it worse. Was going to more explicit but I left it vague, felt it fit better in the end. All the pining! - I’m soft for the pining

This is my wish, crazychipmink "As he studied the drawing she had given him, he slowly began to let himself believe that she was real and alive and well. He had thought about Arya so many times that the memory of her was worn in his mind. Fragile and faded, like a piece of parchment that had been read too many times. To tell the truth, sometimes, he couldn’t even remember what she looked like, only that she was the only thing he ever wanted, ever wished for.” - season 8 episode companion fic series - ao3 tag: weapons design processes are long and require many iterations - “Davos assumed he was waiting to play his part in the great war to come, but in reality, Gendry was waiting for the next remarkable thing to happen to him. Perhaps if enough remarkable things happened to him, he would finally let himself believe that the most remarkable thing that had ever happened to him had happened.” wow ok

Who are you waiting for? crazychipmink [incomplete] "She had Arya’s face and Arya’s voice and even Arya’s smile. But despite all that, he felt like he had just spoken to a ghost. An unnatural ghost of Arya, pretending to be the girl he was in love with. Gendry had traveled to the end of the world to find her, but now that he finally had, she was gone." - the angst universe evil twin version of the fic above - we will take it bc we love to suffer - and also bc the author promises "fluff" and "eventual romance" ok sounds real but ok

the thing with feathers, yanak324 If anyone is capable of bringing the old Arya back, it’s this man in front of her, which is precisely why she must walk away. - a more (immediately) optimistic read of how Arya's in episode enactments of being No One might have gone

and in the end, jeeno2 [incomplete] Five times Gendry Waters is an idiot and the one time he figures things out. - Gendry being dumb is kind of a thing and I'm not always the biggest fan of how it plays out in fanon but this is sweet!

The She-Wolves of Winterfell, vixleonard The pack survived. So has the Stark habit of keeping secrets. - 2nd generation Stark girls. Arya's daughter matter-of-factly saying "Stark women don't get married" - a whole ass mood.

Mid-Battle, Mary_West Sandor has something important to say to Gendry - if only Gendry can live long enough to hear it.

season 8 AU My Lady sanctuary_for_all Gendry and Arya find each other again. (AKA the plotline Gendry deserved in 7X07) - fic convention I am 100% here for: Arya scrabbling around Gendry's face looking for the seam. fic convention I am 100000% here for: Arya throwing off her glove in order to do so and then holding her hands against his cheek

Nights are for You (or Five Times Arya Visits Gendry in the Forge and One Time Gendry Visits Arya in the Castle) ASwornStark She hasn’t visited the forge since Jon returned home with the dragon bitch (the Stark sisters’ favored name for her) and him in tow. - reunion fic

season 7 Before We Jump, MissAtomicBomb (mrs_nerimon) Arya Stark's bastard boys bond on their way to the Wall. - anything for some good rowing references and bastard subjectivity

earlier laughing 'till our ribs get tough (that will never be enough), belasteals "Gendry took one look and laughed so hard that wine came out of his nose, until Harwin gave him a thwack alongside his ear." - A Storm of Swords, Arya IV (or, Gendry's POV on Acorn Hall) - real ones can't get enough of book canon and Acorn Hall.

Butcher, elephant_eyelash Gendry and Arya by the fire, discussing jacket potatoes and thinking murderous things. - perfect meditation on food and hunger and care

Dissimulo, Somnio, jeeno2 She is no one, now. But still the boy with the black hair haunts her dreams. - honestly the showrunners are cowards for not going there. let No One be Vagina Dentata Personified 2kwhenevertheBraavosiseasonsaired

post canon/canon divergent Charcoal, elephant_eyelash All about winter and feeling the cold. - weird how I'm obsessed with self-loathing and wintry alienation and the weight of history and ancestry but also devotion also love. super weird totally unexpected

Five Things Gendry Only Says in the Dark, jeeno2 Where no one else can hear him. - loneliness, shame, self-loathing. the important emotions. oh and spoiler alert some joy.

Like Wenda, Furious_Winter "...she could ride with Gendry and be an outlaw, like Wenda the White Fawn in the songs." - my favourite canon AUs are Arya and Gendry with the Brotherhood and my absolute favourites of those are when they are apart (who's ever heard of a marauding smith??) but have some of miserable bittersweet understanding and they glower at each other and make each other jealous and everything is unspoken but this is it this singular love they have for each other that doesn't quite work out. I've just realized that most of these recs are highkey angsty oops. anyway, this fic is like the most complete and perfect distillation of everything I want. - also this is so richly detailed and complete in itself. immensely satisfying. - yeah ok Furious_Winter is actually the master of post canon together but not Arya/Gendry love is not always enough fics. I'm just going to recommend all of them: - The Wolf's Head Helm [The Starks are back in Winterfell and Sansa is Queen in the North. One day, Arya receives a gift from an old friend... - Arya is in Sansas's queensguard.] - A Means To An End (incomplete) [Arya Stark has returned from Essos and has been staying at the Inn at the Crossroads. Things are not nearly as simple as she sees them. - fuck this one hurts so good] - A Bastard At Heart [Arya and Gendry marry other people for the good of the kingdom 'cause they're self sacrificing like that. the last line took me outtt]

the truth is, baby you're all that I need, belasteals “You were jealous,” he laughed, almost shocked. “Arya Stark of Winterfell, jealous of a whore.” - sirens This One Is Not Angsty sirens

A Girl Meets a Boy, Hotpie A girl takes a face; a girl takes a lover. - possibly my favourite Crossroads Inn fic. love the Faceless Man stuff. love the detail of Needle having a smallest spot of rust, from Braavosi Steel Pox and Arya feeling a ways about it. love picking up the Melisandre thread.

So Easy To Love, Val_Creative She misses Gendry's complaining, too enthralled with staring. "You smell like Dennett's underarms," Arya murmurs, leaning in, going for blunt honesty. Gendry opens his mouth, beginning to laugh, turning uproarious and smiling. She's never seen anything more beautiful than this. More kissable than Gendry's mouth. - the summary makes it seem like it's all kissing when there is actually a big chunk of plot - in service of eventual kissing, yes, - but! spoiler alert! they don't even get to it in this fic! not exactly - maybe why I love it a lot??

With Bells in Her Hair, semicolonlife [incomplete] The further south they travel the more Gendry starts to wonder if he truly knows this woman who wears Arya Stark's face. As he begins to doubt himself more and more, Gendry becomes obsessed with the strange bells she wears in her hair. - ruthless slightly wonky Arya is my favourite Arya.

Wayfaring, Rainfallen An accidental series centered on the same basic headcanon of how Gendry found himself in the North and how Arya found her way back to it. - wolf girl Wolf Girl WOLF GIRL

Seen, sanctuary_for_all Being important matters less than who you're important to. - He wasn't sure what that verdict was, however, until she returned the unfinished sword to rest position with a deeply satisfied expression. "I am going to kill so many people with that sword." It was probably a bad sign for his long-term sanity that Gendry felt deeply complimented by that. "Happy to help." my useless heart: pikachu face - see! I like fluffy HEAs too

Hearts, sanctuary_for_all Arya comes home to her family. (Future flash) - look, I just think it's really important that even married and with children, Arya continues murdering people uwu

other AUs/misc I'll Run (Run To You), belasteals “You would rather marry a lowborn knight than a high lord, then?” She grinned, all bared teeth and sharp eyes. “I’d rather marry no one at all, else I'd not play at this mummer’s farce.” “What about the man who outruns you?” “Nobody outruns me.” (Greek mythology fusion: Arya as Atalanta, Gendry as Hippomenes. Arya vows only to marry the man who can outrun her in a footrace) - Atalanta, Mononoke, Arya. same energy.

#game of thrones #arya x gendry #gendrya #fic rec #asoiaf #no featherbed

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unrelatabletrichfeels · 6 years ago

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Do you have any coping skills with trich that might help

I’m afraid I’m not sure. It likely heavily depends on what triggers your trich for you individually, but I’ll try to offer a few suggestions. (Though you could say I’m a bit bad at “coping” with it since I freely pull from places that aren’t places that people scold me about, and most distress I’m caused is because of others commenting, not my pulling itself.)

If caused by boredom:

- Try to keep hands occupied by anything. In class? Taking notes, doodling, bringing something to fidget with, getting really acquainted with how the zippers on your jacket feel. If walking around somewhere? Taking in your environment, how things look, how things might feel; asking questions internally, etc.

- Can you afford to daydream at that moment? It’s likely not a good coping skill, but it does keep me occupied sometimes; only issue is that I sometimes autopilot pull during my daydreams, so it likely only helps sometimes/in some situations.

- Internal companions. I don’t know if it’s a common/good thing to just have internal companions you chat with when you’re bored or restless and want to talk but can’t, talking to them is nice and can distract from the boring situation outside.

If caused by sensory deficiency:

- Same fidgeting advice as above. Feeling things, everything that’s not hair, finding fascinating textures that can drive your attention in another direction. Running the tongue over teeth with interesting feelings is in the same vein.

- Do you ever do the thing where you clasp your hands together and squeeze each one one at a time while letting the squeezed hand’s fingers straighten? I know that’s very specific, but human paw pads are lovely in a squishy way, so in situations where I don’t have to be using my hands, doing that can be a nice distraction.

- If able to, music sometimes. If not able to, if your brain operates as an internal video player, you can watch something, which can sometimes distract. But also, there’s also the autopilot thing, so not sure if that would help.

If caused by anxiety:

- The fidget cube has one side that’s smooth, calling a soothing stone or something…? But regardless, whether it’s that or something else smooth, rubbing at things both occupies the hands and calms you down can help with this a bit.

- Hats! I know I talk about my hat a lot, but I really like it. It doesn’t always help me not pull, since I can just pull underneath it, but it reduces my anxiety in public, and since anxiety sometimes triggers my trich, it can reduce pulling that way.

Misc:

- One time, for a week, I collected all the hair I pulled into a jar instead of throwing it away or keeping it scattered. It was… a lot. I don’t remember the result, but if seeing the damage can repel you from repeating it, it could help?

- It’s again not a good coping skill, but sometimes swapping pulling out for other things/habits, but more useful if not in public, probably; I sometimes gnaw at my fingers to stop them from reaching to my head to pull, or rub at my face, or clap, or bite my tongue and hold it in a cat ‘blep’ position. Things that occupy the hands in general. This ties into the sensory stuff, probably.

Anyone else is free to add on of course. Sorry if nothing here is really helpful and has been repeated 500 times with no helpfulness. If you’re a bit more specific with your own trich triggers, I can try to think of other ways.

#asks #trichotillomania #Anonymous #help

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ilovereadingandilovebreathing · 7 years ago

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Sticks and Stones

A/N: Remember that Roman angst I hinted at? Well, here it is. Apparently, Marin (aka ssides) inspired me to write a thing a while back, and I’m finally posting it. This is kind of a companion piece to “Perfectionism Killed the Prince...But Love Brought Him Back” but not as angsty.

Summary: In which Roman is having a bad week, so he goes through and looks for Prince hate stuff. The Sides try to help, but eventually come together for the best case solution.

Word Count: 3,853

Characters/Pairings: Roman, Patton, Virgil, Logan (platonic/familial LAMP/CALM)

Genres: Angst(ish), turns into Hurt/Comfort

Warnings: self-deprecation, cyberbullying, crying, arguing, yelling, implications of perfectionism (let me know if I missed any!)

Tags: @irish-newzealand-idian-dutch @ssides @pantasticpanini @anxious-but-whatever @celiawhatsherlastname @misc-merde @anxiousoddish @didsomeonesayprince @fandomsofrandom @leesacrakon (let me know if you’d like to be added to or removed from my general tags list)

Sometimes, when you’re having a bad day, you want to escape from the world, enshroud yourself in a cocoon of social ignorance, and wait out the storm. Often times, Roman is this kind of person; usually, he blasts Disney music or distracts himself with creation to keep the negativity at bay.

Today, however, isn’t one of those days. Roman doesn’t want to ignore the hate, the trolls, the spam comments.

He does deserve it, after all, does he not?

He’s only produced garbage ideas all week long, so it’s only natural that people should lash out against him. He’s only ever caused conflict in a Sides video, so why shouldn’t people complain? He’s only ever antagonized the other Sides, so why shouldn’t loyal fans call him out?

They should. They should. They should.

“Hey, Virge?” Patton asked, glancing over his shoulder at the Side slouched at the kitchen table.

“Yeah?” The Anxious Side didn’t even look up from his phone.

“Can you go get Roman, please? This is almost ready.”

“Do I have to? His room is just so…extra.” His lip curled in disgust.

“I think it’s fun!” Patton smiled, and he shot the slouching Side one of his signature puppy-dog looks. “Pleeeeeaaase, Virge? I don’t want to leave this alone.”

“But Patton, we’re in the MindScape, nothing’s-oh whatever.” Virgil sighed and stood, knowing full well that arguing with Patton was useless. “Be back in a minute.”

“Okay, thanks, kiddo!” Patton started to hum as he stirred up whatever was boiling in the pot in front of him.

With a small shake of his head (and an even smaller grin), Virgil sunk out of the kitchen and into the hallway in front of Roman’s room.

“Roman?” Virgil knocked on the Prince’s door, surprised to find the knob locked. “Hey, Roman? Patton wants you to come downstairs. He made….something…”

“I am not ready at present, but I will come down when I am, thank you, Virgil.”

Virgil’s chest began to pound. Princey sounded….angry? Sad? Some weird, uncomfortable combination of the two? Whatever it was, he didn’t like it, and it instantly set his instincts on edge.

“Hey, Roman, are you…okay?” He heard Roman try to quietly clear his throat.

“Yes, of course, Virgil, I’m fine.”

Virgil bit his lip, knowing something was up, but also knowing how stubborn Roman could be. “Uh, okay, then, I’m going back down, but you need to come, okay?”

“I will. Thank you.”

Virgil sighed for the second time in 10 minutes and decided to take the long way back to the kitchen.

As he padded down the stairs, he saw Logan still settled in on the couch, his nose buried in Carl Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot.”

“Hey, Logan, food time.” Virgil approached the Logical Side and tapped him on his knee to pull him out of his reverie. “Also, haven’t you read that already?”

“Yes, but there is definite benefit to reading a work on multiple occasions, particularly if said work is by Carl Sagan. Also,” Logan sighed, marking his place. “I don’t see why Patton goes through the trouble of cooking for us. We do not actually require physical sustenance, and even if we did, Roman could simply conjure food for us.”

“I think he likes it.” Virgil’s gaze strayed toward the Side happily humming in front of their kitchen stove. “Gives him…purpose, or something, you know?”

“Perhaps…”

“Good evening, Space Bland!” Virgil flinched at the Creative Side’s sudden, loud entrance; he turned sharply, throwing Roman a peeved glare to which the Prince returned an apologetic grin. “I see you’ve found a new novel to nerd over.”

“It is not a novel, Roman-“

“I know, I know, it’s an informational, expository text; I was going for the alliteration there, Logan. Work with me for once, man.” Roman’s tone had a hint of a bite to it, but he quickly covered the action with a dramatic, what one could call, stage sniff. “Oh, Patton, precious Padre, that smells heavenly! Your culinary craft really has improved!” Roman strode grandly into the kitchen and grabbed Patton from behind, wrapping the father figure in a warm bear hug that lifted the smaller trait off the ground.

“Well, thanks, kiddo!” Patton choked out with what breath wasn’t forced out by Roman’s tight embrace. “I know you like spaghetti, so I really tried to do it like Joan showed Thomas this time.”

“You’ve done well, Padre, and you effort is acknowledged!” The Prince set Patton back on the floor and sat in his place at the kitchen table, idly scrolling through his phone while he waited for the food to be done.

Virgil quietly left Logan to finish the chapter of his book and silently slipped into his chair across from Roman. The Anxious one studied the Creative Side’s features carefully, noting the slight downturn of his lips and eyes and the hint of a crinkle on his forehead. He watched, his eyes widening a bit, when Roman roughly hit the home button on his IPhone, sighing to himself and seeming to click onto a different app.

“Everything okay over there, Princey?”

“What?” Roman didn’t even look up from his phone; Virgil could see the light blue of the Twitter loading screen reflecting off Roman’s face and eyes. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Fine.”

Roman’s eyes suddenly scrunched together; the prince bit his lip and slammed the phone down on the table.

“Whoa, kiddo, everything okay?” Patton jumped a bit and turned to face Roman. He plastered on his best care-free smile, but his eyes radiated concern.

“Y-yeah, fine, of course. I’m just going to….wash up.” Roman explained lamely, rising quickly and taking the stairs two at time.

“Well…that was-“

“Weird. Odd. Unsettling. Foreboding.” Virgil grumbled, reaching for Roman’s phone before Patton’s indignant tone brought him to a screeching halt.

“Virgil Sanders! What are you doing? That’s Roman’s phone!”

“Pat, there’s something wrong with Roman. When I want to get him earlier, he was acting really weird, and now this? I want to see what’s up.” Virgil flipped over the phone and managed to tap on the screen right before it went dark. His eyes scrutinized the screen for just a second before a frown re-shaped his entire countenance.

“You may think my precious Logan’s an egghead, but at least he’s not an Egomaniacal Prince!”

“Virge, what’s wrong?” Patton came behind Virgil’s chair and looked over his shoulder.

“The Prince character is so obsessed with himself that if he saw himself in the mirror, he’d fall in love and never leave that spot. #Narcissist.”

The fatherly trait’s eyes instantly filled with tears when he read the text on the screen. “Roman’s….reading hateful things about himself?”

“Roman is so bossy! He’s bringing them all down by trying to be in control all the time!”

“What the heck?!” Virgil’s voice was laced with concern. “Princey….why would he do this?!”

“Why would I do what?” Roman asked as he breezed back into the room, his familiar smile on his lips before he registered the presence of his phone in Virgil’s grasp. “Virgil.” Roman began evenly. “Why do you have my phone?”

“Because you’ve been acting like a-“

“You’ve been…off…and we were concerned.” Patton cut in, shooting Virgil a look.

“You could have simply asked me instead of commandeering my phone.” Roman’s tone was ice.

“I tried to ask you, remember? Upstairs? And you ignored me!” Virgil bit back, turning the phone so that the screen faced Roman. “And WHAT is this? Why are you reading this garbage?!”

“Just for….constructive criticism….”

“These aren’t constructive!” Virgil cried, flipping the screen back around. “’Roman is such a bully.’ ‘That prince character annoys me; he needs to tone it down.’ ‘I hate-‘”

“Enough!” Roman erupts, roughly snatching the phone from Virgil’s hand and quickly turning from the other two Sides. Before he can stalk out, though, Logan is in front of him and blocking the doorway.

“What is happening in here? Why the sudden commotion?”

“Roman’s reading hate comments about himself.” Virgil deadpanned, and Roman threw him a bitter glare.

“Roman? Is this true? Why would you engage in such illogical behavior?”

“It’s not illogical, Admiral Apathy.” Roman bit off. “It’s gathering input from our fans on how I can improve.”

“Come on, Princey,” Virgil rose and came up beside Roman. “You don’t believe any of that crap, do you?” Virgil sighed and swiped at Roman’s phone, barely missing the device as Roman jerked his hand away.

“I…..maybe.”

“Stop it.” Virgil looked him square in the eye. “I know what you’re doing. You’re feeling bad about yourself, so you’re throwing a pity party and looking up hate on the internet as the main event.”

“I-“

“I’ve done it, too, and I can tell you it doesn’t make anything better. You still feel crummy afterward, but now you have a whole new set of insults to throw at yourself.” Virgil suddenly looked exhausted. “Look, Princey-Roman. It doesn’t so you any good to sit there and feel bad about yourself. Trust me. You have to get up and prove to yourself that you’re better than that.”

“But…” Three pairs of eyes widened as Roman’s lips trembled, his voice quiet and quivering. “But what if…I’m not?” The Prince swallowed a sob and sunk out of the kitchen before any of the other three could react.

“Ah, geez.” Virgil mumbled, rubbing the back of his neck as he gazed at the spot Roman had only just occupied and wondered how they were going to fix this one.

“Hey…Princey?” Virgil knocked lightly on Roman’s door, cursing himself for giving into Patton’s idea of playing rock-paper-scissors to see who would go after Roman first. After a few beats of silence, he continued. “I….uh….I’m sorry I stole your phone and looked at it. That was….a crummy thing to do, and I shouldn’t have invaded your privacy. Forgive me?”

Silence.

“Logan, you’ll have to talk some sense into him.” Virgil rubbed his eyes, groaning as he fell back onto their couch. “He won’t listen to me.”

“I shall do my utmost.” Logan assured him, straightening his glasses and shoulders as he sank out of the Common Room.

Logan approached Roman’s room, pulling out a small lock picking set from his back pocket. He’ll probably wish he’d never conjured this for me after this…

“Hey, what the-”

“Roman,” Logan threw the Creative trait’s door open. “I apologize for not knocking first, but, considering your current state, I doubt that you would have answered my calls anyway.”

“You’re not wrong there, Four-Eyes.” Roman mumbled, still scrolling through his phone. He’d wiped all traces of his sorrow from his face.

“Roman, this sort of behavior is highly illogical and not useful. You’re really only stroking your own ego this way, but in a sick, childish form of-“

“You wouldn’t understand, Logan!” Roman suddenly screamed, jumping up from the bed and throwing his phone down. “You don’t get emotions, right? You’re Mister Logical, Mister Processing, Mister Emotion-LESS.” Roman was shaking now, his hands in fists at his sides. “You don’t get what it’s like to feel disappointed, like an absolute loser and a failure because you’re Mister Perfection. Well guess what?! The rest of us don’t get that luxury, so just LEAVE. ME. ALONE.”

Logan gasped when he suddenly found himself back in the Common Room. He’d landed firmly on his tailbone when Roman, in the force of his fury, had literally thrown him out of his room. “Well, I have never-” Logan’s face was beet red, and Virgil could only lay stalk still on the couch as he rose from the floor. “-dealt with such a childish, petulant, selfish, self-absorbed-“

“You two okay in here?” Patton asked, confused at seeing Logan back so soon.

“Yes, Patton. Virgil is quite safe from my wrath, but that Prince, that royal bas-”

“Logan, language!!” Patton reminded him loudly.

Logan took a deep, steadying breath through his nose. “No emotions indeed, Prince. You see this?!” Logan yelled to no one in particular. “This is anger, Roman! This is rage, frustration, and…..and hurt!” He cried at the ceiling, his voice cracking before the final two words. Looking both Virgil and Patton in the eye, Logan nodded curtly and sunk out of the room, into his own realm to calm himself down.

“Well, looks like it’s my turn to take a swing at it.” Patton plastered a wide smile across his cheeks as he materialized out of the Common Room and into the Prince’s domain.

“Hey, kiddo.” Patton whispered as he appeared in Roman’s all too quiet room.

“Not now, Patton.” Roman replied. The Prince was now laid across his bed, resting on his side and facing away from Patton. The Moral Side could hear the steady click of Roman’s finger nail hitting his phone screen as he scrolled.

“Come on, kiddo, you gotta stop doing this to yourself.” Patton scooted closer to Roman on the bed. Quick as lightening, Patton quietly and precisely plucked the cell phone from between Roman’s fingers.

Patton’s curiosity turned to full concern when the Prince merely slouched into his bed in response, not even trying to get the phone back.

“What’s really going on here, Roman? You and I both know that hate comments are only critical and not at all constructive.”

“They’re not hate comments,” Roman grumbled. “They’re feedback from fans.”

Patton sighed.

“Roman…I can’t even be too mad at you, really…because I’ve done the same thing.” Patton smiled sadly to himself, staring forlornly at the blank screen in his hands. Roman rolled onto his back, laying an arm across his eyes as a sort of shield against the truth.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” He mumbled, barely opening his lips.

“Yeah you do, kiddo, and like I said, I’ve done it, too. You’ve had a bad week. You’ve already been beating yourself up anyway, or been beaten up, and you’re at the point where it’s not bad enough to really hurt. But you want it to, and you want to indulge in that hurt because it makes you feel more worthy and purposeful, like a victim of a cruel world instead of someone who just needs to learn and grow.”

Patton could see Roman’s jaw clench, but the Prince immediately released it as he removed his arm from his face and sat up on the mattress.

“I haven’t the slightest idea what you are referring to,” Roman threw back. “You do not know my motives, so do not pretend that you do. I have told you, it’s construct-”

“Oh, but I do, kiddo.” Patton whispered, a tremor creeping into his voice. “Because I-”

“I GET it, Patton!” Roman suddenly exploded, throwing his hands up in the air. “You’ve indulged in negative emotions. Congratulations. We all have at some point or another, but I am not throwing myself a pity party. I am not indulging to feed my ego. I am giving myself what I deserve to hear after being such a miserable failure in my role and my duties!” He sucked in a breath, and his voice quieted. “I am no prince. I am the pauper. Now, if you will kindly leave me be to wallow in my squalor, Patton, I would appreciate it.”

“Yeah, kiddo. I’m sorry.” Patton got up quickly, turning from Roman so the Prince would miss the determined gleam in his eye.

“I need your help.” Patton declared to Virgil and Logan as they stared up at him from the Common Room couch.

“So, I take it your intervention went as well as ours did?”

“Yup…” Patton smiled sadly. “Though I think I got a little more intel. I have a plan, and I need your help.”

When Roman finally left his room hours later, he found the other three sitting at the top of the staircase, looking expectantly at his door. “What is this, a floor party?” He muttered humorlessly, moving to sink out before Patton jumped up.

“Wait! Come with us!” Roman hesitated at the desperation in Patton’s tone, considered his request, and came back up.

“Where? Why?”

“Downstairs!” Patton grabbed Roman’s wrists and dragged him to the stairs, tugging at him arms to get the royal to follow him.

“Patton, I’m not in the mood for a movie marathon or-“

Roman froze when he was low enough to see part of the living room. Most of the room was still obscured, but what he could see was covered in tape and paper with text. “What on earth-“ As he got closer, he recognized the Twitter logo. He approached the paper closest to the stairs, and read:

“Roman is my favorite Side. He’s so lively and fun; I have such a crush on him!”

He stared for a moment before allowing Virgil to nudge him to the next one.

“Roman is SUCH A good singer, wow! Just like a real Disney Prince! #Romanfornextprince”

Logan gestured toward the next sheet.

“I think Roman is my new favorite Side. He’s such a complex character. I can already see so much potential for future arcs and episodes for him, and I’m excited to see what happens next with him!”

He slowly progressed around the room, soaking in each comment that was taped to an object or piece of furniture in the Common Room. Some made him laugh, and some made that beautiful smile break out across his lips.

Then he reached the final three sheets.

“Roman is an incredibly talented and vivacious being.” Logan’s voice echoed from behind him. “He throws himself into everything that he does, and his passion is rivaled by none that I have ever seen. He is a pleasure to work with, and he is an inspiration that drives me to do my best. I am grateful for his presence in our group.”

Tears well up dangerously in Roman’s eyes.

“Roman is just the bee’s knees!” Patton’s cheery voice rang out from beside him. “He’s so good at singing, and he’s so much fun to have around! He’s great at making me happy when I feel kinda sad, and I’m always amazed at the things he creates! He’s the best Disney movie marathon buddy a guy could ask for, and I’m so glad to have him in my life!”

Roman attempted a laugh, but a sob slipped out instead. He bit his lip.

“Roman reminds me that even though life can be a drag, there’s always a reason to get up in the morning with a smile.” Virgil’s quiet, even tone sounded from Roman’s other side and sent a chill up his spine. “He works so hard to do his best for all of us and Thomas, and I appreciate that more than I ever tell him. He puts up with so much from us, and I’m always amazed at what he is able to accomplish. I’m glad he’s our prince.”

Tears snaked down Roman’s cheeks, but he didn’t even try to stop them. He read the three pieces of text over and over, running the words and their meanings through his mind. His head bowed when Patton carefully wrapped an arm around his waist and gently rocked them both side to side, humming a wordless tune. He slid his own arm around Patton’s back, and his eyes slid closed as he continued to cry but absorbed the love practically radiating off of Patton.

Virgil tenderly placed his arm across the Prince’s shoulders, and Roman sobbed harder as the Anxious Side tenderly rubbed his shoulder. Virgil got closer to the royal, and Roman slid an arm around his back and pulled him in close.

Roman suddenly felt someone at his back, and he relaxed just a hair when he felt a pair of arms weave around his stomach. A forehead pressed into his back, and he felt a slight tremble come from the being behind him.

“Th-thank you. All of you.” Roman breathed out. “And L-Logan…I apologize for asserting that you lack emotion…because clearly that is not the case.” A jarring combination of a laugh and sob escaped Roman’s throat as Logan squeezed his midsection.

“It’s q-quite alright, Roman. I apologize for not being more…tactful in my approach.”

“You are forgiven.” Roman sighed and wiped his eyes, and he took in a deep breath. “I feel….much improved. Far better. I…am good, guys. Thank you, again.”

Patton squeezed Roman tight in a side-hug, and Virgil brought his arm from around Roman’s shoulders, stretching the appendage as a grin crept onto his lips.

“Hey, Lo, you need to apologize for something else.”

“What is that, Virgil?” Logan asked, brow quirked.

“For calling Roman a ‘royal bast-‘”

“VIRIGIL, NO CUSSING!” Patton cried, hands over his mouth.

“He called me a WHAT?” Roman spun around. “You offer your apologies, but neglect to mention defiling my good name, you…you-!”

“Well, I only managed to say part of the word, so I figured an apology was not necessary. I only called l you a ‘royal bas-, not a ‘royal bast-‘“

“Logan!” Patton turned on his dad voice. “That’s enough of all of this! We were having a nice moment!” He whined, turning to Virgil as the other two continued to bicker.

“It’s okay, Dad.” Virgil reassured him, throwing an arm over his slumped shoulders. “This is our normal, and I think if anything, it shows they’re gonna be alright.”

“I guess you’re right, kiddo.” Patton sighed, watching on with a strange fondness in his eyes. “He’s gonna be alright.”

All of my Sanders Sides fanfics

#sanders sides #sanders sides fic #sanders sides fanfic #thomas sanders fanfic #thomas sanders #tsfanfics #mine

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annakie · 6 years ago

Text

Random SWTOR Blather

Not interesting at all if you don’t play and only slightly interesting if you do.

I’ve basically been off and on SWTOR since it came out. My longest break was less than a year after I lost most of my credits to a GTN scammer, back when 8 million credits was a LOT that I’d spent like months of intense crafting to save up.

At the beginning of 2017 I decided to get serious about playing and joined a guild. They were great for a few months, then things got slow and I dropped out of SWTOR for awhile after Andromeda came out and then my summer was crazy like it always was at my last job and then job drama started happening in the late summer through fall.

In November I went back and things got really awesome again in the guild, and for over two months it was daily log-in and fun, fun times. There was heavy recruitment and we’d have like 20+ on at night and we were running FPs and Ops like, daily, working on Vet mode Ops.

And then the new WoW expansion came out and overnight attendance dropped like a stone, and there was a little officer drama, and then the GL had some RL drama and left and... now the guild is completely dead again. We still hang out on Discord some but no one is playing.

So I guess I’m back in search of a guild of ADULT, MATURE (not in the ERP sense, just you know, like, actual grownups) guild of nice people and no drama on Star Forge. My DPS Trooper and healing Scoundrel are both Command Level 300 and both are well outfitted. Those are my mains. RP Optional, I could do it, I’d be OK with not. So if you know of an active, established guild an oldie like me (I’m over 40) would fit into, let me know.

Anyway, other stuff...

I have spent an insane amount of time and credits decorating. Ever since Strongholds were introduced it’s maybe been my favorite aspect of the game.

I spent just... dozens of hours making my Tatooine Stronghold awesome. Tat was my #1 choice for a main Stronghold because it feels like a place you would actually live, even if it is you know, on a barren desert planet. It has nicely sized, well-sectioned rooms. It really just makes such SUCH good use of the space and hooks it has. It’s exactly the right size to feel like if you live there and have it decorated it’s where a wealthy person would live. I love it. It’s been my Trooper Bethlany’s home for two years now, though I think of it as a “family home” for all my characters. Now I’m constantly now trying to figure out what hooks to remove so I can add new, cool stuff.

It’s not only got an awesome party Cantina/dance hall/casino/sportsbar combo, but a full-service medical clinic, an indoors science room and an entire outdoor science section. An awesome garden, a marketplace, a garage with a welcome area, droid repair section and full monitoring, a decked out master bedroom and Vos-ka inspired guest room, a diplomacy / meeting room, a sculpture garden, a techno war-camp for Aric, and a Rakata / non-technical training / archeology site, a small area dedicated to celebrating Life Day all year round, and a small oasis for large and small animals alike.

But like, I never stopped buying decorations. And when Manaan was introduced I decided this would be the home for my Inquisitor. Manaan is gorgeous, even though the hook situation there is completely wtf. Oh yeah, let’s put a ton of tiny hooks on narrow, already decorated walls. Lets only put narrow hooks along the walls in this huge, open room. Let’s make most of the ceiling hooks angeled, so almost nothing can be put there and look even halfway not-stupid. The entry outside is great, the narrow hallway is terrible, the big room upstairs is so, so frustrating, though the patio is generally nice. The downstairs mostly needs better ceiling hooks. IDK. But, it looks amazing. And I did a pretty good job making it feel like a breezy vacation home, with a very dark and private undersea area fit for training a new generation of Sith. It’s got the majority of my statues out in the entry area, and not a neon sign or non-organic plant in sight. And there’s a lot of plants and stone and water everywhere.

All of my characters use it as a vacation home, my lightsiders (which is... almost all of them) just avoid the undersea part. They’ll go back to their ships for sleeping after a dip in the hot tub, thanks.

I was going to start on re-making Naar Shadaa next and then Umbaraa came out, and I knew that train belonged to my Imperial Agent, Croach. Dark and moody with an urgent feel. I filled it with all the “Cargo” and “precious resources” I could find, with a couple of makeshift sleeping areas for the guards and a slightly nicer car for the Agent and her companions. So many centerpiece hooks to finally put so many misc huge things I had no other use for. Hey, yeah, we totally would be transporting this huge machine and this droid in a big ‘ol jar and there’s some rancor and huge turrets and ginormous droids up top along with most of my collection of rotating Zakuul turrets guarding it. Drop in a bunch of Imp guards standing around, and even made use of a lot of the destroyed speeders and walkers and turrets then slap some blaster marks on the walls to give the place a “we’ve already seen some shit” feel.

And then... my Secretly-a-Double-Agent-For-The-Republic got her Vector back and holy shit the Imps mistreated the Killks, and then oh shit (huge spoilers for Nathema in the IA storyline here) Shara Jenn found out she’s a double agent and welp... any cover she ever had was now blown. Despite going with Acina on Iokath, Croach told Lana to make a deal with the Republic. Might as well finally make the move officially.

So now in my head, the Umbara home is a covert mission, and everyone there is actually working for the Republic... with the train made up to look Imperial to sneak through some checkpoints. Also, her ship resides on Tatooine, Beth is watching out for it (it’s hidden in the garage, while the Thunderclap sits out on the visible landing pad.)

With finally getting the Umbara Stronghold feeling “Done” (though it and Manaan are only like 70% filled each, I don’t want to cram more stuff in there just TO when aesthetically they look good) it’s time to turn my attention to Naar Shadaa. For the first year or so of Strongholds, it was my main Stronghold, but I grew out of it easily and moved to Tatooine, and have always meant to get back to it.

It’d always meant to be my Smuggler’s home, she was my second Main, after all. I’d also bought the Mandalorian War Camp pack in hopes of making my BH a home someday. Because of the server merge I have two Nar Shadaas, and I figured one for each. But looking at my available decos, it’d be a long time until I could make it happen. When Rishi was announced I was excited, thinking I could make it work for the BH, but after watching Dulfy’s walkthrough Video I was disheartened. It is definitely beautiful and awesome for guilds, but it doesn’t really feel like a home for a person. I feel the same way about Yavin 4, btw. It’s an amazing place to visit, and great for guilds, but it’s just not a functional home. Too damp, and no actual rooms, especially not rooms with doors. I’ll hang out there all day, but I’m going back to my ship to sleep.

I still eventually might try to make the base of Rishi work, IDK. It will probably come down to cost.

Anyway, back to Naar Shadaa. I started decorating it for my Smuggler and quickly realized that if I was going to ever get to Coruscant and Dromund Kaas, compromises would need to be made. My BH defected to the Republic at the end of her class storyline, as little good as that did in canon. I think she, too, is going to make a deal with the Republic when I finish her storyline.

Which means either my Counselor or Knight is gonna take a turn for the Imps, I haven’t decided which yet, just to bring back a little bit of balance, and also, see that side of things. It’ll be interesting. I’m going to wait to see what making that decision actually does in the next bit of the story before moving either of them along.

So anyway, my BH and my Smuggler always knew each other in my backstories for them, they were contacts, helped each other with jobs, etc. So when Orna heads to the Republic, she and Red went into business together. They each have a suite of rooms near the front, but the rest of it is their shopping center, battle arena (place your bets!), casino, spa, dance club, and sports bar business. Please, come and spend all your money there, and feel free to use a private booth to make your deals. As soon as possible I’m going to find a second spa to add in that service, too. Torian is happy with the Mandalorian flair the place has, and Theron has a monitoring/spy station. Where better to pick up the best information than the most popular nightlife spot on Naar Shadaa, anyway? The only part that sucks is just one starship hook, so I’ll be rotating which ship is parked there occasionally.

That’s still in progress, but coming along.

Next I’m moving to Coruscant to make it a Jedi training hall and haven for Annakie, Jyn’leeviyah, Kira and Nadia, along with a medical clinic for Doc and an information outpost for Felix.

And then making Dromund Kaas into a Sith academy and Imperial for Sith Warrior Frevi and moody, romantic hideaway for her and Malavai.

...I really need to start crafting and finding more expensive stuff to sell on the GTN. I’m usually careful to stay over like 90 million credits, but I’m running out of good shit to sell. >.>

Anyway, so much rambling. I should actually like... go play.

#annakie's swtor stuff

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owlaholic68 · 7 years ago

Text

OC as companion: Fallout 2 - Carla

Find the FNV template here (not mine). Find blank FO2 template here (mine).

Basic info:

Name: Carla

Race: Human, mixed Mexican/Japanese

Gender: Female

Affiliation: the Wright family in New Reno

Role: Assistant at the Jungle Gym, prizefighter

Location: New Reno, Jungle Gym

Base SPECIAL: 9S 6P 3E 7C 5I 8A 3L

Tagged/Notable skills: Unarmed, Lockpick, Small Guns

Perks: Slayer, Bonus Move

Talking Head Y/N: Yes

Default Inventory: Leather armor, powerfist (requires ammo)

Carla is Stuart Little’s assistant at the Jungle Gym, and a renowned prizefighter. She is the final fight before the Masticator, and poses a significant threat because of her Unarmed damage. Beating her is necessary to gain the Prizefighter title. She has a good reaction to PC with Karma +100 and Wright Made Men, and has a bad reaction to Childkillers, Slavers, and Karma -100 (and will not join these characters).

In order to recruit her, one must defeat her in the ring or pass a relatively medium-level Speech check. She will join low-intelligence PC. If recruited but not defeated, a generic fighter will replace her slot in the “Become a Prizefighter” quest. She will join a PC despite any negative New Reno Reputation.

Initial Description: You see a tall muscular woman with two long braids. She looks tough.

Description after becoming a companion: You see Carla, prizefighter representing the Wright family. She bounces from foot to foot, anxiously looking at her surroundings and flexing her hands.

Comments and Floats:

Floats:

Fear/Defeat: Let’s not try that again.

Victory: Nothing we couldn’t handle!

Use Lockpick skill (Success)(optional): And there! Got it!

Use Lockpick skill (Failure)(optional): This nut’s too tough to crack.

Injured: Could use some help here

Relating to another companion:

(Marcus) You look like you know how to throw a punch, big guy!

(Lenny) You doing okay, Len?

(Myron) Just stay out of my way and you won’t get hurt. Battle’s no place for someone like you.

(Goris) So a deathclaw, huh? Interesting.

(Cassidy) You watch where you’re pointing that thing!

Relating to scenery/location:

(Vault City) A bunch of stuck-up assholes, if you ask me.

(Gecko) We’d better not cause trouble here, these folks seem friendly.

(New Reno)

Ah, the sweet smell of vice and drugs. Now I remembered why I only tolerated this place.

Can we stop by the Wright’s place? Keith and I need to catch up.

Maybe I should check in on Stuart, see if he wants me back in the ring.

(Chinatown) Wow, the Golden Gate Bridge looks even cooler in person. Wait, what’s parked on it?

(Hubologist bunker) *shivers* These freako cultists give me the creeps.

I don’t like this place: We’d better watch our backs here. This place gives me the creeps. Maybe we should make this visit quick.

Level up: I feel like my skills have really grown. Travelling with you is doing wonders for me!

Waiting: (humming a tune) You done yet?

Misc floats:

Nice decor.

My feet hurt. Sorry, I don’t like complaining. But seriously, I think my callouses are becoming new toes.

(PC passes a Barter check) Good. Always save money when you can.

(PC murders an innocent or steals) Whoa, what are you doing? Let’s keep this cool!

Hey, a dog! Here, boy!

Comments/Dialogue:

Standard Greeting: What’s up? What’s our next plan?

Reaction to Low Intelligence PC: I’d better watch your back, make sure no one tries to take advantage of you. You seem nice.

Crippled: *pained gasp* This is going to take more than a stimpack. We’d better find help, and quick.

After healing: Thanks. I’m ready to get back in the ring!

Put your weapon away: Good idea. Don’t want people to get the wrong idea about us.

Open inventory: Good idea. We should always know what we’re working with.

Stay close to me (CLOSE): I’ll watch your corners and you watch mine, got it?

Don’t get too far away (MEDIUM): Whatever you want. Sounds good.

We should spread out a bit (LONG): Gives me more room to maneuver.

I need you to wait here until I come back: Okay, but don’t take too long. You never know what could happen when you’re alone.

Rejoin: Just let me grab my stuff and I’ll be ready to hit the road!

Rejoin, PC doesn’t have necessary requirements (optional): Listen, you’ve changed, and I don’t think I want to be seen with you, okay?

Rejoin (over party limit): Too many people, and enemies will see us coming from miles away. How about you free up some space in your team and then come see me?

I had some other questions: Ask away. You’re full of curiosity.

Leaving/Disbanding: I can’t stand by you anymore. I’m leaving. This isn’t what I intended when I decided to come with you.

Trivia and Additional Info:

Because of her extra move points, Carla can sometimes accidentally move into other NPC (or the PC)’s line of fire, therefore risking damage. She dislikes chems, and will not use any if in her inventory. She can be asked to use her Lockpick skill, often to great success. She can also offer +5 to the Unarmed and Small Guns skill while at the Jungle Gym. This will take two hours of in-game time.

New Reno NPCs have positive reactions to her, recognizing her as a local celebrity. Wright family-associated NPCs will also have positive reactions, as she is an honorary member of their family.

She also has a unique sprite with long black hair.

Best weapons/armor:

Carla performs best with Unarmed weapons and Small Guns (pistols, etc). To optimize her efficiency in combat, she should be given the .223 pistol or the Gauss pistol. One can also get a Mega Powerfist, which she will do devastating amounts of damage with. Be aware that because of her low Luck, she will rarely land critical hits with guns. But because of her Slayer perk, she will always land critical hits with Unarmed attacks.

She does not have animation for big guns (Minigun, pulse rifle, etc) and therefore cannot use them. However, because of her high strength, she is proficient with a great array of weapons. It is not recommended that she be given grenades, as she has an awful Throwing skill and will likely end up killing everyone in your party.

She can be equipped with Power Armor, though because of her high Strength stat, this would be wasted on her. However, because of her low Endurance, some armor is STRONGLY recommended.

Ending:

After the destruction of the Oil Rig, Carla returned to Arroyo with the Chosen One, helping rebuilding efforts. However, about five years later, she decided to leave Arroyo and travel east in search of adventure. The Chosen One would occasionally receive letters from her, telling of exploits and challenges, and would always consider her to be a close friend.

#fallout #fallout 2 #fo2 #oc as companions #oc development #chosen one carla

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protcns · 7 years ago

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Okay before anything else, I would like to clarify that these tips help me. These are techniques that work for me. If they don't work for you or they're not your style, then don't fret! (That doesn't in any way imply that you can't get your life together.) If you find that these tips aren't for you, don't force yourself to follow them! These are just gentle suggestions that you may or may not try out! I hope you guys enjoy!

What's this post about?

Sometimes we just reach that point in our daily living where we're so overwhelmed by almost everything that we don't really know where to start or what to do. In this post, I just wanna give some suggestions that might help you sort out the things you need to do! There’ll also be some handy links at the end of the post!

1. Tie your hair and put on a new shirt.

You will feel much much much better after fixing up your hair and putting on something fresh. No, it won't clear the skies or feed all of Africa, but it will set an "I can accomplish a lot" mood. You'll be at your most productive state if you just feel good in general. And if not good, at least fresh. Wash your face, comb your hair, brush your teeth, drink water, etc. TAKE A SHOWER. Wash away the stress and scrub the burdens off your shoulder. You'll feel really motivated to get down to work, believe me.

2. Clean your room.

Now that your freshening up has (hopefully) motivated you to get some stuff done, straighten up your room or study/work space. Your environment has a direct effect on your productivity according to several studies and articles like this one. If you work in an organized and clean area, your productivity levels will surely go up! Really take the time to go through your old belongings. Put everything in its proper place. Get rid of old clothes that you don't wear anymore (honey, if you haven't worn it in 6 months, you're never gonna wear it). Make sure also that you maintain it (easier said than done, I know). Cleaning your room will also help you gradually get into a working mood, so it'll be easier for you to start working on other tasks.

TIP: Play some fun and peppy music while you're cleaning your room for an extra mood boost.

3. Write out everything in your mind.

Sit down and get comfy. Pull out any piece of paper, can be anything from an old receipt to your favorite stationery pad. Now write. Write down…

everything you have to do urgently, in the near future, in the far future. > e.g. finish an assignment, set up an appointment with the dentist, get into college/find a job

anything that's bothering you or lingering in your mind > e.g. how your crush just followed you back on twitter, how scary it is to send an email to adults

things that you absolutely cannot forget > e.g. return that library book, friend's bday is coming up soon (gotta get a gift!), there's an important test coming up

thoughts, feelings, opinions, irrelevant things > e.g. school's tiring you out, politics are driving you nuts, the stray cat on your road seems kinda hungry today

JUST WRITE THEM ALL. In my opinion, it's better to have your thoughts all laid out visible on paper rather than having them swimming in and out of your mind. Once they're on paper, you can let your mind rest a bit from holding in so much information. Don't write your thoughts in any particular order. Just write your ideas as they pop into your head. It may seem unsystematic for some of you, but just wait until the next point!

4. Organize your mind.

Now get a clean sheet of paper and organize your thoughts—tasks, dates, ideas/opinions, misc.

Tasks: Hopefully you've heard of the Eisenhower Box. If not, do not fear, for I will explain it!

So make this nifty table on your new sheet of paper, and organize your tasks accordingly! But first, expand. If you have quite abstract tasks like "get into college" break these tasks into smaller tasks like "review for entrance exams" or "fill out application," and then classify those tasks into the table.

after categorizing your tasks, make a to-do list! (There are many ways to make a to-do list. What I usually do is start with the easy/fun tasks first then list the more challenging/time-consuming ones last. However, this is up to you! Explore what works for you.)

Dates: Have you considered investing on those really big wall calendars? You should!! Get a big wall calendar and hang it up in your room so you can see it every morning and every night. Fill in the dates with appointments, test days, deadlines, birthdays, and anything else! Having a calendar will help you visualize how much time you have left before a certain event. If you can't get a calendar, other alternatives include a planner, your phone calendar, and/or an online calendar (like Google calendar).

Ideas/Opinions: I'd recommend using a journal (traditional or digital) to keep a record of your thoughts! It's very good to clear your mind of these if you wanna delegate more of your thinking powers on another task. You can also talk to other people! Maybe you've been really bothered by something happening in your life that you really wanna let out. Look for trustworthy companions that you can confide in. After a long hearty talk, you'll be ready to conquer the day once again!

Misc: Anything else that hasn't been covered in the previous categories can be written here. It'll be for you to decide how to proceed with these notes.

Other Resources: Check out these other links/masterposts for more tips on how to get your life together! (highly recommended links are italicized)

Self/Life:

how to get your life back on track | @doitforbobby

how to keep a clean bedroom | @pr3duhtor

uncluttering masterpost | @icademic

small ways to improve your life | @cwote

steps to a better life (mental) | @smoketexture

how to keep a positive mindset | @classicsstvdies

6 ways to destress | @stuydies

how to destress | @thegrangersapprentice

free mental health apps: ios (@recoverywarriorx), android (@goethes)

Study:

how to effectively manage time | @helicion

how to get straight As | @chemistri

have a productive day | @ingeniouslywitty

time management | @gomedorgohome

how to: survive stressful situation (college edition) | @classicsstvdies

how i keep organized and sane in highschool | @braintellect

how to handle having too much to do | @howtomusicmajor

And of course, don't push yourself. If you need to take a break, go! Sleep. Reenergize your body. This period won't last forever, and one day you'll find yourself laughing at this actually short amount of time where you were stressing over the world's end. Trust me.

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