#like u want me to revise my explanation... but u also don't want me to go back to my initial response in revise it???

[pyr0peyt]

This Edgenuity shit actually pissing me right the fuck off TWO PROJECTS in a row you've gotta be fucking kidding

[abimee]

so tbh i was hard on nier:a while playing it cos i don't really like a lot of the anime tropes BUT i really like tragedies and i was promised some twists, and got some. but i wanted to ask you how you felt about the pacing. basically, did it feel like there was a solid line connecting plot points, or do you feel like certain things happened at random? barring the fact that yoko taro said he literally wrote the story out of order, is that how it felt to you? imo it felt really rushed through super cool parts and like things that were annoying or setpieces ran on for too long. ig i'm still fked up over how much it fell short of my expectations bc even after playing nier:a completely thru and h8ing how absurdly film-student its tone and ideology are, i was hyperfixated enough to read some of the side literature and learn drakengard lore. tl;dr, nier:a is cool and has some fun parts but i wish the android were more mature (or artificial) in physicalilty to avoid weird anime loli baiting in the fans and also they'd asked a writer to help revise and implement the og author's ideas okay bye thx for reading my rant ♡ i'm glad u had fun and ur fanart abt a2 and the indoor grill made me cough

ill gladly listen to people bitch about yoko taro ive had PROBLEMS with this man since a young age ☝️☝️☝️☝️

I was actually thinking about the pacing and insertion of certain scenes/plot points today because admittedly like. okay this might be all over the place but

The start of the game (Route A + B) was like pretty solid pacing I think due to being low risk, and I thought it was cool that the game let you see 9S' side of things --- but it really started to fumble when it got into it's moe complex storylines in C-D-E and went on to deposit a lot of information on it to the point where it felt like we were forgetting entire plots and characters because something new and shiny showed up

Like okay first off. Adam and Eve and the aliens. We never once got any sort of explanation WHY adam + eve killed the aliens, or why the aliens made the machines, but within that general thought we did learn that humans died before going to the moon (and possibly even before the aliens came?), and that YoRHa's only goal was to fight the machines until a specified amount of data was gotten and then they were to explode. Never did we get more elaboration on the aliens or adam/eve, and while we got some YoRHA spotlight stuff it also entirely just decided that explaining the true mission behind making YoRHa and why the androids had to die is beyond it. Which frustrated me because it Brings Up Ideas but doesn't specify if thats the true reason, like we learned that the machines fight purely because that was there sole reason, and so they made an enemy for themselves purely to enact that goal that the aliens gave --- but then it even goes ''haha okay but hear me out'' and introduces Red Girl and this vague idea of the Machine Ego and wanting to defy their masters of the aliens, but then DOESN'T ELABORATE WHY. Like we don't know WHY adam and eve and the machine ego wanted to develop enough to defy their machine logic and purpose because it wraps back around to ''theyre human just like us because they want to defy their masters because.... they're human like us?"

Like it often felt like some concepts or plots brought up walked itself in a circle, dog-chasing-tail style, where it's entirely contained within itself and refuses to expand upon it's existence, which then causes it to get sort of left behind when the plot finds a new fancy idea to latch onto. Like how quickly the story introduced, focused on, then discarded Adam & Eve is almost criminal because of the things it could've done with them literally as the closest approximation to what the Machine Ego/Red Girls wanted, since they defied their creator's orders to be their own selves. Eve especially feels wasted in this regard --- like if the plot spent a little more time focusing on Eve & Adam in a B-plot scenario showing Eve and Adam learning more from humans and even leaning into Eve's wants that we saw in his mind when 9S hacked him (the human home built around him and his brother, and his brother wanting to go somewhere peaceful with him). Like they even could've tied that to when they get on the Ark and leave and Adam is holding Eve, that's literally Adam bringing Eve somewhere peaceful, but because those two instances are so seperated from each other and their own sort of throw-away concepts it becomes hard to Remember the tether between those two thoughts

This is also my biggest problem with A2's writing, I can only assume she's meant to be a Kaine-type character (and boy did my eyes momentarily widen seeing Emil say ''it must be fate that we've met!" to her) where her reserved nature and somewhat limited character blends in with her personality, but they really could've just given us like at least 2 more hours-game to learn about her past rather than just infodump us with her lore in some logs at the Resistance Camp. This is another problem Red Girl had where I feel like the fact you get unit data on them that basically explains away the confusing parts of their involvement in the lore felt cheap because this game has over 40+ hours under it's belt but couldn't be damned to give us information on our main antagonist directly in the game instead of in a post-credit LOG?

Like okay. I love my baby boy emil. He is the most special boy in the world to me and I am so happy seeing him get a pretty decent character arc for himself in the sequel to his original iteration. But why do we learn information about Emil more easily than the Red Girls? No unit data paragraph, no document information to read, no external book needing to be sourced. You learn whats up with him, why his big event out in the desert happens, and how it ends. You even get TWO special areas involving him. Red Girl gets to speak for a little bit and then vanish. It just astonishes me a bit

And it's not like the game doesn't try to expand characters last-minute either, that entire cutscene where Pascal reads Nietszche and then gets surrounded by the baby machines before the events of the Factory/suicide felt so forced in suddenly that it felt rather obvious something was going to happen. And I say this as someone who was in tears seeing Pascal get called ''uncle Pascal'' and see him defend the children in the factory --- it was super obvious that they possibly didn't originally plan that scene but needed something to really show that Village acted just like a human community with children and babysitters and family. Like not to be like ''this couldve been something beautiful'' but i think giving us a little time between A2 and the Village more could've done something beautiful. A2 getting the necessities to build the slide definitely made me drop to my knees but I noticed even the LPer was confused why A2 had a crying child inside of her as her enemy at the end of the hacking (like how 9S had 2B at the end of his destroying his memories), but the game didn't do anything with that besides lightly imply A2 lets down her mean bit for children sometimes (and again. why is this Kaine behavior). And then the fucking laughing children sound at the end of the route where she hacks 9S and she looks to the sky like ? This is all very interesting but it doesnt mean anything.

NOT TO MENTION 2B BEING AN EXECUTIONER TYPE. COOL CONCEPT BUT IT DOESNT MEAN ANYTHING IN THE END. It's just another thing to tack onto 9S's migraine of learning everything is a lie but nothing gets DONE with that incredibly interesting though afterwards because we never see 2B after that because she's been dead for a while now. We had a brief hint at it when we heard that transmission of 2B being her new name but the payoff just doesn't work if you just state it and then not do anything with it.

There's many cases of this and I notice it with how much questions I have that simply have no answer in this game despite the fact we have nearly 5 routes worth of time that could've gone into either sticking to like 3 ideas to the end or bridging the gaps, Which the story Does Do Sometimes! Red Girl talking about fucking up its own network to make pacifistic machines that want nothing to do with the war, the lie of YoRHA

OH MY GOD ALSO. SPEAKING OF RANDOMLY PUSHING STUFF IN. OPERATOR 210. The fact that they wanted to pull the whole ''she was curt and distant with 9S but secretly saw him as like a son because she wanted a family :(" could've gone INSANE if they didn't decide they wanted to bring that idea in at the last possible second and make 210 randomly baby 9S (and then make him point out how strange she's acting), and then ignore that until we get to the cutscene that they wanted to make for it. Like they could've had 210 start out as curt and distant, but as 9S operations with 2B got more dangerous she could've started laying on the doting mother thing, but it just came so abruptly in Route.....C? That it felt forced and rather last-minute, like they finished writing A and B and someone walked in and went ''wait I want 210 to see 9S as her son :(" and this is how they crammed it in

oh this post isnt even about the pacing i'm just talking about dead end plot concepts. But I can definitely see where you're coming from there because we spent an awfully long time with the Resistance only to know so little about them, but it defos felt more ''a lot of stuff is getting brought up but we dont have enough time to give it developing room because we want to bring in the next concept asap". A2, the forest king, Red Girl, hell even Pascal and Adam & Eve all suffer this. the only person who really got a steady character Was 2B and 9S but 2B felt like she got cut short and just became a puppet for 9S' plot which is so tiring how often we get dual man/woman protags and the woman's story just becomes part of the man's story and she becomes a nebulous concept. that yoko taro brand Misogyny

I SPENT AN HOUR TYPING THIS? I haven't even gotten to how I feel like 9S' plot feels like it was destined for something more but got bottlenecked for time and cut off at the like 80% mark

I can definitely feel that though of feeling like Nier:a didn't meet expectations, when I finished all the routes and the playlist i was watching just Ended I genuinely sat up and bed and just felt a deep sense of ''THAT'S IT? THATS ALL?"

it's crazy too because I really, REALLY loved what it had going and im going to be thinking about this game forever but it also just left me feeling like i'm missing something so badly that when I try to think about it sometimes my mind just draws blanks like im left speechless at it.

Like that was nier: automata? that was just 40 hours of being asked what it means to be alive

[scary-senpai]

For the fanfic ask game...I can't actually decide. XD How about any two of your choice?

Ahh! Thank you so much bestie <3 I really appreciate you dropping an ask. I did not get to this on Tuesday because brain melt (!), but seeing you in my notifications made me smile <3<4

You also get a third bonus question because You Are Great.

(link to fanfic ask game is here--feel free to drop a note! asks are my love language)

C: What character do you identify with most?

Garou. I've always gravitated towards overtly angry, troublesome male characters and I've recently come to suspect it has something to do with gender: growing up, I felt a lot of anger/frustration/confusion over my identity (not my gender identity, necessarily, but more like How to Human as an Autistic person). To navigate this, I over-corrected by confirming to whatever my idea of femininity was, in the worst possible way. (I guess I would say I'm a cis-female but I've never really cared that much).

Since I spent a lot of my adolescence trying to make myself smaller and weaker (because that's how I thought girls/women were supposed to be), I suspect if I had been AMAB I would have focused on becoming bigger and stronger.

In any case, I understand the quiet desperation of exercising until you pass out because of that lingering sensation of not-enoughness.

I also talked a bit about spending seven years with a toxic mentor that was frustratingly competent about a bunch of stuff (but just... horribly misguided when it came to personal relationships), and when I use one of the techniques he taught me (whatever Fist of Flowing Water Crushed Rock is, but for emotions), I inevitably flash back to that scene with Garou and the Tank-Top Gang ("I hate using this because it reminds me of him--").

Anyway, after that I left that job I went to touch grass/do something completely different (work in a yoga studio) because I just needed to... scrub toilets and fold a bunch of towels and untangle all the things I'd learned that were (in a sense) true, versus the concepts I wanted to embody and believe in and manifest. Additionally, my experience working there also informs some of the scenes I write with Garou in the dojo (mostly him griping about how nobody seems to take chores as seriously as he does, or how he keeps finding other people's underwear in weird places with literally no logical explanation for why that might be).

L: How many times do you usually revise your fic/chapter before posting?

A thousand times, possibly a billion.

Just kidding, but it feels like too many. (The first chapter of Collateral Damage took me like eight months...I probably should have put it on ice for a bit, honestly)

Fic was my way of learning to write again, and I've never written any longform fiction, so multi-chapter fic in particular have been an experiment in how my brain works, and the tools I need to efficiently craft a story. If there are multiple layers to a scene, I don't always have the mental processing power to work out each aspect at once (what the character's say vs. what they mean, what they do / how they do it / what this indicates about them, plus any undercurrents of narrative tension or symbolism or whatever). So that's been a whole thing. I think I'm getting better at it, though. Flumptober Sexy Chess scene had a lot going on (and completely derailed all my deadlines), but knowing that I can labor on a beloved chapter for weeks instead of months was... a milestone, honestly.

"Kill your darlings before they kill you" is my new mantra, and unfortunately I had to learn that the hard way.

U: Share three of your favourite fic writers and why you like them so much.

@beileil, you're one of my favorite authors because of the way you blend so many things: humor, plot (specifically mystery), characterization and lovely prose. Even in an AU, the characters are very much themselves but they're also new and unique. One of my bad writing habits is that I will sometimes skip over description if it doesn't really speak to me, but with your stories I hang on every word--I remember reading the Hero Detective Agency and feeling completely emerged in that universe from the beginning.

@sharuruwrites, I think you are excellent at putting characters in Situations. I like how you manage to zoom in on some of the grittier aspects of characters (like how bloodthirsty Toji and Sukuna can be, or how Gojo is So Very Immature and Extra) and, without glossing them over, somehow make these traits more endearing (or at least understandable/relatable). I feel like every scene and small detail moves towards some sort of purpose, and if I blink, I'll miss something.

I guess my third favorite fic writer is my brother. I wonder if he remembers that we used to write silly stories about Mario sometimes (I was 12 or 13 which means he was 9 or 10, so I was probably typing while he was dictating). I am both insatiably curious and afraid to ask. In any case, he's still a hilarious storytelling and I hope to write more (original) things with him some day.

[hiilikeanimelol]

⚠️important please read⚠️

OK so unfortunately over the weekend I was kicked out of my house and had to stay with my grandparents, as u can probably gather from this home life is a bit shit atm.

A brief explanation of what happened is that my parents seem to forget I was physically abused for the first 12 years of my life and that if someone grabs me and screams I will go into panic mode and beg them to not hit me, it doesn't matter who they are I will panic.

Because of this little issue I don't know how active I will be on here for a bit. I won't give a date as to when I will return like normal but I am going to step back while things return to some sort of normality. I also have exams so I'm getting my last bit of revision done too.

Want to mainly focus on my mental health atm, still 3 days clean of SH but I feel an eating struggle coming back as I can control that and not home (again everything is a wreck)

This isn't a permenant goodbye its just a 'see u when I'm in a better mental state ig x

[sapnaptwt2]

okay i *might* be wrong but im pretty sure you live in india and ur my age and if you are, HOW ARE YOU PREPARING FOR BOARDS???? i am LOSING my mind and my sanity and you seem very cool pls teach me how to cope (if you don't live in india,,,,,hi this is awkward, ur very cool im just stupid lol)

i do live here no need to be sorry! also i don't hv boards this year but i hv taken enough weird stressful tests so i can help :)

so what u should do is reserve 2-3 weeks before ur boards to prepare. each day in that time period take up a third of a subject's syllabus (one subject a day meaning in three days ull complete it whole). now we don't want to take a lot of burden so don't even think of doing more than a third of a subject. it'll stress u a lot so a big no no. now when i say take up a third of a subject a day what i mean is firstly divide ur syllabus into 3 parts. try grouping similar topics together into 3 groups. take one up each day. so here what u do is go thru ur notes, read the chapters, go thru the extra stuff if ur teacher gave u any. now write down the key terms n questions of the topics to help u a bit. this also helps u to find out the topics u don't understand or forgot abt. fr this u can watch videos on youtube (go fr khan academy they hv really nice methods), ask ur friends or teacher or go on sites where there are simple explanations (go fr brainly here). the key here is to understand not memorize bc understanding lasts longer.

now like this cover up all subjects in those 2-3 weeks. if u feel that's less time it's okay take abt 4 weeks it's no harm. everyone has a different pace.

sit somewhere peaceful. take ur headphones n play white noise or instrumentals of u can't find a place that's not quiet (i hv a brother so this helps A LOT). take frequent breaks after every one n a half hour like a 5 min walk or just a trip to the kitchen to eat something or just go on ur phone fr a bit (but not too long that'll throw u off schedule). keep a water bottle with u (even some snacks if u can it'll just save u trips to the kitchen). now it's not important when u do it (take whatever time is fine fr u like morning or evening whatever feels better n whenever u feel more motivated).

now the day before the exam go thru the keywords n questions, take a reading of each chapter, revise whatever is there n see if u can understand everything. if u can ask someone to quiz on each topic just so u can be on the safer side. n if u can't just pull up a quizlet from the internet to practice. do loads of quizzes n quizlets to help u more.

most importantly don't panic abt it, don't cram the goddamn info it's not gonna help, avoid last minute study if u can (i procrastinate a lot so i most of the times do last minute study but TRY TO AVOID IT), if someone simply tells u to do stuff or makes u go to a event or something while u prepare fr boards tell the person to fuck off bc the exams are more important here.

if u need anything more just dm me :)

hope u slay these fuckers :)

[botanyshitposts]

You've talked about identifying lichens in class before on this blog, but if you don't mind me asking, how do you do that? How do you (or I guess how did you specifically) identify the lads?? I'm not asking for a tutorial on identifying lichens on my own btw, I'm just really curious on how exactly you went about it? I'm rlly new to botany so sorry if the answer is obvious !

okay, so this is something i didn’t know until i hit college, but biologists of all kinds usually identify things using something called a dichotomous key, which is kind of like a choose your own adventure/process of elimination thing. it’s a guide that has statements in numbered pairs, and as you pick which statement best represents the organism you’re trying to identify you’re pointed towards other pairs, which eventually lead you to either 1. the name of your species or 2. another, more specific key that will ask you more questions about your subject. 

keys can be as general as a continent or as specific as a county, and they vary widely based on what the key is meant to identify, too, but the big one used in north america is Brodo’s ‘Lichens of North America’, which has been hugely influential in reviving modern lichenology since it came out in 2001. it’s also a required textbook in my uni’s lichen course. although this version has the keys, there’s an expanded and revised spiral bound version containing only the keys that’s way more affordable; my uni’s herbarium has both versions on hand, and when i identify The Lads in there i usually use the version with just the keys to narrow down a species, then look it up in the full textbook. unfortunately, the full textbook is an ENORMOUS (beautiful!! well illustrated!! detailed in species info and general biology!! but enormous) coffee table book and i left it in my hometown for this semester bc Lichen Teaching Time is primarily in spring. 

because i don’t have my book with me, i’m gonna take some examples from the arguably second best lichen key source and one that’s coincidentally free to download online: Bruce Ryan’s Working Keys to Lichens of North America (note Brodo’s endorsement at the top of the page, lmao). note that in terms of practicality, Ryan’s keys are a bit out of date, but it’s a good example. 

a key like this has to give us a place to start, so the ‘synopsis’ file when you expand the .zip is the first key that we’ll run our species through, and it’ll guide us to which key to go to from there; in an actual physical lichen key, this key will be the first one in the book. for the purposes of this, im gonna imagine i’m trying to identify the (common where i live) species Xanthoria candelaria, which is pretty distinctive from the fact that most things in the Xanthoria lichen genus are like, bright orange or yellow:

okay. so. here’s the first page.

so right away we have our first pair. if we take a sample from our lichen and put it under a microscope, and the algae we see is a blue-green color, it’s a lichen that has a cyanobacteria symbiont instead of a normal green algae symbiont, so it’s pretty easily narrowed down within the category of ‘Lads With Strange Inner Lads’ and therefore sends us to the cyanolichen key. Xanthoria has a normal green algae symbiont, so we’re directed to the second pair, where we’re asked about the growth form of the lichen. this lichen has the foliose growth form (kind of off the shits, but also pretty restrained), so we’re on to the third pair. 

aaannd we hit our first redirect to a separate, more specific key; our lichen is foliose, which leads us to the fourth pair, which leads us to the foliose key. so far, pretty simple. unfortunately, depending on what you’re working with, things can tend to get pretty spicy after the main key; like, the farthest i’ve ever gotten lost in a key like this was probably around 150-170(?) pairs in, and that was with a really ambiguous lichen that i kept hitting dead ends with (kept getting redirected to a slew of wrong species on). easy identifications usually take me like, 15 minutes, while the hardest ones (like the 150 pair multiple-key monstrosity) can take me up to four hours or more. it really varies. 

so like, for a technical key like this it helps to have a grasp on the vocab around the organisms you’re trying to identify, BUT there ARE a bunch of ID sites you can find online that use the same concept in a waaayyy more accessible way, like the gobotany general plant key here. like, i’m good with lichens, but for most plants i don’t think i’d be able to go like, full-on scientific dichotomous key like that. anyway thats probably more of an in-depth explanation than u wanted but yeah lmao