#me: this won't be as comprehensive as everyone else

[sonicboomseason3]

a brief recap of what has been going on with the sonic movieverse in the past several months:

paramount has come out in public support of israel

keanu reeves, a man who has publicly rubbed elbows with none other than benjamin netanyahu, reportedly gets cast as shadow for the upcoming third movie

james marsden, the guy who plays tom, got exposed as having written a letter of support for a convicted pedophile

there's fucking??? zionist propaganda in the knuckles series???

kind of connected to the last point but adam pally, the guy who plays wade, is evidently pro-israel too

this is a complete and utter joke.

EDIT AS OF 4/30/24: if people see this version of the post, i'd really appreciate it if you reblog it instead of the other versions, as it's the most updated one with all the information that i want included. thank you :]

you know, it's been a few days since i've made this post, and some of you (not most) are staying determined in defending/justifying/giving the benefit of the doubt to keanu for that photo with netanyahu, whether it's because "it was a decade ago," "him being civil to someone he ran into at a party one time doesn't mean anything," "he's probably just silent because his pr managers won't allow him to speak up," etc. i've made my thoughts on the matter quite clear by directly responding to these people, but at this point, i'm tired of both seeing them in my notes and repeating myself, so take this as my final word on the issue.

i can't help it if you don't think the photo with netanyahu is damning, and i'm done engaging with everyone going out of their way to tell me that. i obviously disagree, especially after finding out that 1. the host of the party, arnon milchan, is a former israeli spy who has a history of developing israel's nuclear program and promoting apartheid in south africa (information that had broken out a few months prior to the party and thus would've been fresh news around the time keanu chose to attend) and 2. keanu has been caught hanging around at least two other weirdos, but if you don't find any of that to be cause for reasonable concern, then there really is nothing else i can say afaik.

with all that said, i'm beginning to realize how strange it is that these people's first instinct when seeing this post is to start debating about keanu's political stances without ever acknowledging any of the other bullet points. you guys realize that this isn't just about him, right? i know tumblr reading comprehension is known for being piss-poor, but like… you realize that i was trying to make a point of how there are MULTIPLE terrible things that have broken out about the people and company involved in the sonic movies, right? and yet, a lot of the people leaping to speak on keanu's behalf in my notes are completely ignoring the parts where i bring up paramount, pally, etc. all in favor of zeroing in on the singular point about keanu and making bad faith assumptions about me for holding him accountable. really makes one wonder where your priorities lie if, in a post that talks about so many other things, me accusing an a-list celebrity with, according to google, a net worth of almost $400 million is where you draw the line and apparently the only thing worth your acknowledgment.

ultimately, what i'm trying to say is that the intention of this post was just to gather up everything that i had been hearing for the past several months and put it all together in one place. there were a bunch of people who didn't know about at least one of the bullet points before seeing this post, and i'm glad that i could help inform them, that was what i was hoping to do! but as for the keanu thing, i've said pretty much all i can say for now, and i don't want to derail the original post even more than i may have already. unless something new comes up, i'm done talking about him.

[the-bees-patella]

ok, well now what.

My fellow Americans: hello from your local pissed-the-fuck-off former community organizer.

You're probably seeing a lot of calls to support each other right now, and that's all well and good in principle. Where we tend to stumble is largely practical: we're not sure where, how, or when. The same way it works to make a plan to vote, make a plan to help. A few key points:

Please do not get impatient if the organization's response to you is late or generic at first, or if what you're asked to do isn't what you offered. A lot of local organizations—where your impact will be the greatest—are very small and 100% volunteer-run. You're here to help. Don't be one more thing they have to manage.

Be honest with yourself and the organization about your capacity. If that's a couple hours on a weekend from time to time, that's great. If that's driving people places once a month, if it's a small, regular donation—whatever it is, it's one more person helping who wasn't before. The point of doing it all together is that none of us can do everything, and it isn't on any one of us to do it all. It's much easier to scale up your participation than it is to take on a big responsibility and back out.

Stick with it. Everybody's fired up right now, and many organizations won't be lacking for personnel or funds...for now. They'll need you when it gets boring, when people get tired and busy. Whether it's recurring donations or one shift a week, stick with it for as long as you can, which is why see point 2 above. The need will not stop. The help can't either.

My aim with this brief list of organizations/funds is not to be comprehensive, it's more a starting point of both actual orgs and the types of opportunities there are out there. I highly encourage you to look around in your local community. There are people out there working on creative solutions in innovative ways to problems you didn't even know existed.

I know it might sound small or facile, but I promise, going out there and talking to real people will help. Just go to one meeting, on Zoom, in person, anything. Start there. Everything you're able to do is more than there was before.

Fascists thrive on despair and isolation, on mistrust and fear. But there is good in this world, it's worth fighting for, and you're part of it. The time is now. Let's fuck them up. (List below the cut).

If you're on bluesky, here is a much more specific list of organizations. If you're not, reply to this post or send me an ask with your region and I'll respond if I can. Everyone else, please feel free to add your local organizations in the reblogs. Make sure you do your vetting first; please link to a direct source/person/means of contact if you add something to the list.

Trainings and support for leaders to run for public school boards

And library boards

Black and brown youth organizing

Labor organizing in the South/Southwest

Mutual Aid in NYC/Donate to keep that mutual aid active

Mutual aid/volunteer orgs in DC

Supporting and training young progressives to run for office

Collective action against medical debt

Climate action

[thebibliosphere]

Okay, I have ordered a protein powder that I *think* I can tolerate. (Naked Rice, for anyone else in my situation. Thank you to @beneathhergaze for finding this for me) So we will see how this goes.

Also thank you to everyone else making suggestions. I feel bad shooting most of them down. I promise I'm not trying to be difficult. I just have complex health needs, and often, the most "obvious" solutions won't work for me.

To the people who read my "can't eat red meat due to allergies" and still sent me messages telling me to "just eat red meat," I am bonking you gently with the reading comprehension hammer.

To the one person who assumed I'm anti-red-meat for moral reasons and went on a rant in my inbox about how "people like me" "claiming allergies" are the reason allergies aren't taken seriously, I am bonking you considerably harder with the "don't be a fucking dick" hammer.

I'm literally allergic to red meat and red meat by-products. It will kill me. Maybe don't make assumptions about what people can and can't be allergic to just because you've never heard of it outside of alpha-gal syndrome. Dickhead.

Anyway. Thank you to everyone trying to help. I really appreciate the efforts being made to alleviate the mental load of figuring this out. When you're chronically ill, it can really just feel like one more fucking thing you have to deal with, and the temptation to say, "I'll do it when I feel better," is high, but in reality, you won't feel better until you do it so, yeah. Thank you. 💖

[cirilla-fiona-riannon]

The Beast Wants to Tempt the Little Rabbit (Epilogue)

Translations may not always capture the exact nuances or tone of the original text. Expect grammatical errors and inaccuracies. Not proofread.

Matias: "Don't move, or else I won't be able to get it off."

(Get off what?)

His fingers tickled my cheek for a moment before moving away.

Matias: "I finally got it."

Emma: "Was there something on me?"

Matias: "Just a hair."

Emma: "I didn't notice, thank you."

(Maybe it was his way of not interfering with my mysterious rule, just because I mentioned I have to space out once a day.)

(I really think he's a kind person. He even politely goes along with my lies.)

------------Flashback-----------

Matias: "A crime is a crime. Your excuses hold no meaning."

Matias: "If you still wish to make excuses, do so in court."

Matias: "Whatever the reason, the law is something that must never be broken."

Matias: "Criminals have no right to beg for mercy."

---------Flashback Ends--------

I became a little curious.

Emma: "Could you teach me about the law now?"

I placed my hand on the law book, and he nodded.

Matias: "Sure. As a token of my gratitude to you."

Emma: "Then, may I ask one thing?"

Emma: "Is there no leniency in Acroite's laws?"

(This has been bothering me for a while now.)

In Rhodolite, judgments often consider the circumstances of the offender.

(But judging from his attitude earlier, it seems like Acroite...)

Matias: "I can't say there's none at all."

Matias: "There used to be, but now, as a matter of principle, there isn't. Regardless of the circumstances, we uphold equality under the law."

(Just as I thought.)

Matias: "Strict laws have contributed to making Acroite the safest country on the continent."

Matias: "For example, crimes like fraud rarely occur because everyone in the country knows that the law is strict."

Emma: "Are the punishments severe as well?"

Matias: "Compared to your country, yes, they are. There's no need to show mercy to criminals."

Matias: "Everything is the fault of the guilty. This is the unshakeable foundation of justice."

(His country seems quite cold.)

While I believe that humans are creatures prone to making mistakes, his attitude suggests he doesn't even forgive those mistakes.

(Is this justice for the sake of equality?)

(My emotions might influence me, but I guess that's one way to look at it.)

I accepted his views without affirming or denying them.

Matias: "By the way, is there a specific number of minutes for your rule of spacing out?"

Emma: "It's over now! Sorry for the trouble!"

Emma: "I'll focus on your lecture from now on. Thank you in advance!"

Matias: "Leave it to me. I'll cram the law basics into you in a few hours."

By the time we left the shop, the sky had already turned red.

(I might have underestimated the lecture.)

The lecture in which he began using the book turned out to be more comprehensive than I thought.

I was able to understand everything thanks to his easy-to-understand explanations, but perhaps due to the dense content, I still felt a little dizzy.

Matias: "Sorry. I got a bit carried away."

Emma: "Please don't apologize! It was very informative."

Matias: "Well, if you say so, but I may have overdone it since you were listening so attentively."

Matias: "I often get told off by my juniors for this, but finding the right balance is tricky."

Matias: "Especially with women. Honestly, this is my first time giving a lecture to a woman."

Matias: "I'll have to imagine and practice every possible scenario when I go home."

(This is his first time giving a lecture to a woman.)

I was surprised because most of the women we passed by would look at him when he was just walking around like this.

Jin and Nokto often attract female attention, but in his case, I feel a compelling "force" akin to butterflies drawn to honey.

Emma: "Are there no women around you?"

Matias: "There are plenty. But they're all unique."

Matias: "Whether they are as pretty as butterflies or as lovely as bunnies, they all change their attitude when I approach them."

(Ah.)

Matias: "But you, on the other hand..."

Suddenly, Matias stopped in his tracks.

Matias: "Miss Emma, are you sure there's nothing wrong with you when you're with me?"

Emma: "Hmm, I don't think so."

The moment I replied, it was as if a dam had burst, and his charm overflowed, leaving me breathless with its intensity.

(He might be like this, but his presence feels like it's breaking some law.)

The overflowing charm of the most law-abiding prince, who seems to have gone to destroy order himself, is a guilty verdict in every sense.

(But he doesn't seem to be aware of it.)

Matias: "You're my only hope."

Emma: "Huh?"

He smiled warmly and clasped both of my hands.

Matias: "I thought I would never meet my ideal queen because women's attitudes often change, but..."

Matias: "If there's a woman as level-headed as you, there's still a chance."

Matias: "And someday, we'll greet the morning together, wrapped in a blanket, watching the early snow."

Emma: "Prince Matias?"

Matias: "Ahem. Anyway, you're my hope."

Matias: "I now have another reason to thank you."

(I may not fully understand everything he's dealing with, but he seems to have his own struggles.)

Emma: "I've received more than enough thanks today. I hope you find your wonderful queen."

Matias: "Yeah."

Emma: "And, Prince Matias, my house is just around the corner."

Matias: "I see. That was quicker than I thought. I guess this is it then."

Emma: "Yes. Your lecture was fun and informative. I feel like I've become a bit smarter! Thank you for today."

Matias: "That's what makes you such a lovely woman."

(That charm again.)

Dizziness washed over me as he smiled charmingly. I tried to let go of his hand, but he held on tightly, stopping me.

Matias: "Would it bother you if I said I find it hard to leave?"

Emma: "Did you say something?"

Matias: "No, it must be your imagination."

(----?)

Matias: "If there's another chance, I'll teach you anything you want to know."

Emma: "In that case, I'd like to hear about your student days next."

(I'm really curious about their student life.)

Matias: "Sure. There's no shortage of stories from our school days."

With a sudden change of demeanor, he lifted my hand and kissed the tips of my fingers.

Matias: "Until we meet again."

Matias: "Emma, I sincerely appreciate it."

Emma: "Likewise."

He reluctantly released my hand and walked away.

His beautiful figure gradually grew distant, and the gaze of the women also shifted away. 

(Matias is a kind and good person, but I wouldn't want to meet him in a courtroom.)

Part 1 ╎ Part 2 ╎ Matias End ╎ Epilogue

[daytaker]

The Gang's Tumblr Pages

Inspired by this and my own reaction to it.

Lucifer

Perfectly curated, perfectly formatted, and whenever there's a major change to the tumblr format, he simply leaves the website altogether in a huff of peacock feathers.

Lots of HD photography of nature getting reblogged.

Has an extremely complicated and specific list of tags he uses for every single post.

He only reblogs text posts that are sufficiently visually appealing. Very few meet his high standards.

You could look through his entire blog and not learn one single thing about him except that he's a perfectionist to the point of neurosis.

He has a lot of professional art blogs following him.

Mammon

Oversharing oversharing oversharing!!!!

He regularly gets himself in trouble by shouting about the shit he's done into the void of the internet.

Tried to have a tagging system but forgets about 7/10 times.

Reblogs himself all the time to say "AND ANOTHER THING!!!"

He hates looking at the actual blog pages. The text is always so tiny and some of them start playing music and changing his mouse into a weird shape? No thank you.

He has very few followers and he doesn't really care. Who goes on tumblr for the social element? Weirdos, that's who.

He's insanely easy to troll with anonymous asks. Everyone has done it. Even Lucifer, though he wouldn't admit it.

Some of his best asks:

"did u just post that you're okay with the idea of ponies and unicorns breeding. like no shade on that conceptually but why."

"If you reblog another 'reblog this for good luck' post, I will personally break down your door and steal your skin."

"ur ugly" "yeah-huh" "ugly" "no i won't 'come off anon and fight u' whhy don't you come ON anon and fight me?" "'i don't know how' sounds like something a chicken would say"

Leviathan

He just makes a blog like one of us. Fandom stuff.

Except he's multifandom to the extreme. It's impossible to keep track of his interests because he always has so many simultaneously.

He has the most followers of the brothers just because he gets so deep into so many fandoms that they come rolling in.

He has blocked all of his brothers except for the twins. They're okay.

His blog is a chaotic mess but there is order within the madness. He has a masterpost of tags that explains everything if you care to look at it. (I don't recommend it.)

Satan

It feels stupid to even put this in writing but...cat pics. Endless cat pics. That's like 90% of his blog.

The other 10% is a mixture of book recommendations and analysis, Lucifer shade, and a comprehensive, ever-expanding list of shit Lucifer has done to make Satan angry. It's a very long list. It's organized by theme.

"Lucifer inflicts unjust punishments." "Lucifer makes unnecessary snide remarks." "Lucifer simping for Diavolo and MC (pathetic)."

His blog itself is very minimalist and clean.

He's another fastidious tagger. He tags the cat pics by color, breed, age, number of cats, setting...

Asmodeus

He's not very into tumblr. It's like Devilgram but more complicated and less popular.

Sometimes he'll post or reblog 'aesthetic' things. Moodboards and the like.

In general though, he doesn't really 'get' tumblr.

People don't post selfies very often. Weird.

Beelzebub

Food blog.

Just food.

Reblogging hot dogs.

Reblogging nachos.

Reblogging ice cream.

Nothing else. Ever.

Belphegor

"This minimalist Tumblr has no posts."

No posts.

Default profile picture.

Sometimes he'll like something.

Usually he just looks at it.

Diavolo

There is no order. Only chaos.

He hardly ever uses it, then he'll come online and reblog a million things that have nothing to do with each other. Then he'll go silent again.

He has no tagging system.

He has no custom theme.

He is very friendly to all anonymous askers though.

Barbatos

Barbatos would never have a tumblr. Don't be ridiculous.

Solomon

He only posts very rarely. He prefers to lurk.

When he does post, it's something weird as fuck, like reblogging statistics about owl pellet contents.

He likes to keep people on their toes.

Simeon

Reblogging inspirational quotes, pictures of nature, and general positivity.

That is, once he figures out how the website works.

That takes a really long time.

What is a queue? What are tags? Why is it called a "reblog"? How does he track activity? How does he navigate the homepage? Why does it post things in such a strange order? What is a "Blaze"? What is a draft? Custom URL? Custom Theme? Sideblogs? Mass Post Editor?

Someone please help him.

Solomon probably does that.

Luke

Baking.

He uses tumblr for recipes and images of baked goods.

But tumblr isn't even the best place to go for that, so he isn't on very often.

He sometimes likes Simeon's posts, just as a show of support since he knows how hard Simeon works to post anything anywhere.

[kiragecko]

How to Support People With Faceblindness/Prosopagnosia Online

This isn't super important. I'm pretty sure I'm not the only faceblind person whose response to not recognizing people was to stop caring about celebrities (and most live action). Unless it's an important political post, we're unlikely to NEED to recognize a random image on Tumblr. But if it you have the energy, this really helps:

Caption photos with the names of whoever is in them. Even if it's someone like Elvis Presley or Donald Trump, who EVERYONE recognizes.

I can't consistently recognize Marilyn Monroe. And I don't want reassurance that she looks just like someone else, so you understand. There will be someone you don't understand, and I still won't be able to recognize them. I'm bad at faces.¹

-

I notice that reaction images are especially hard for me. People LOVE seeing how much context they can remove while still leaving a reaction image recognizable. I have to guess that the zoomed-in eyes are probably still the Obama reaction image from years back. They're just eyes to me. Even normal reaction images are hard if they don't have distinct enough poses.

If you can mention the person's name in the alt text or a caption below your reaction image, it would help a lot.

-

This doesn't apply to people whose names aren't well known. If their identity isn't adding to the meaning, I don't care who it is.

For example:

With the 'then perish' Obama meme, part of the humour is that the then-president is the one telling us to die. So mentioning that it's him aids my understanding of the meme.

With 'Dead Dove: Do Not Eat', mentioning that the actor is Michael Bluth, or that the scene is from Arrested Development, allows me to go find out the context if I want to know more. (Which might have stopped me from distributing misinformation to thousands of people about the meaning of the phrase!)

As far as I can tell, the fact that the 'snakes started manifesting' guy is named Uhrie Anthony is NOT particularly important to the meme. I don't need to recognize him from somewhere else to understand what's going on.

-

I don't struggle nearly as much with cartoon characters. Just live-action/real people. Not sure if there are faceblind people that will struggle that way. It's still nice to get context for where some anime character is from, but it doesn't affect me the same way as seeing a random blond woman on my dash, and trying to figure out if she's a singer, an actor, an activist, or something else completely.

-

¹ I'm not annoyed, just trying to support those who struggle with reading comprehension. This isn't about the individual people I'm mentioning. It's about my ability to recognize ANYONE.

[leebrontide]

Ok so I said I would do a post on “reasons you’re not writing” from the POV of a writer/therapist who works with anxious, depressed, and neurodivergent clients. If you dig that, read on.

But firstly, a disclaimer. This list is far from comprehensive. Don’t yell at me if your experience isn’t represented. This is a tumblr post. Have realistic expectations.

Also, sometimes the reason you’re not writing is that your other obligations are just taking all of your energy and focus. Fixing that is well beyond the scope of this.

That said, here’s a bunch of barriers I see people run into all the time.

1) You’re afraid of failing, and subconsciously feel like it’s safer not to try.

This is a tricky one, because it's probably messing up many areas of your life, which in turn means you're going to frequently feel stressed out in general, which speaks to the point above.

This is around about where the general internet will tend to offer you an array of affirmations to use to sooth yourself. And that's fine. If those work for you, then use them! BUT, if the affirmations aren't working, then friend you have a bigger project on your hands.

You need to get comfortable with failing, particularly at creative projects. I know that can feel scary and vulnerable, but you won't take risks if you can't fail, which is going to hem in your creativity so hard that your motivation will starve. This is why people talk about writing a garbage draft. Not because they want to make garbage, but because they need the option of making garbage in order to take risks. That may or may not work for you, but either way, you really might wanna look at how to lower your stakes.

2) You’re not sure what you’re trying to communicate.

You can make things happen in the story, but you feel like you’re wandering around aimlessly. You don't find you're making decisions with conviction. It might be hard to really fall in love with any of your writing decisions.

For this one, I suggest stepping back and figuring out what the core of your enthusiasm for a story consists of. That CAN be a message or philosophy. It can also be a feeling or a vibe or a dynamic. That gives you a structure that you can build your decisions around, that you can be enthusiastic about.

3) You switched hyperfocus. And maybe your new hyperfocus is a lot of fun, but you feel sadness thinking about the WIP you left behind.

This one has a similar need to the one before, with an added layer of nuance, because you're probably already struggling with identifying what does interest you. This can make people feel really hopeless and helpless.

I have three totally different suggestions for this one. The first is to just be patient with yourself. Sometimes it's good for your brain to just indulge, and let your brain mine for dopamine where it can. Like, lean in. Spa day for your brain, as long as it's feeling good.

Secondly, see if you can find creative ways to weave your hyperfocus into your writing. Is there a dynamic in your favorite show that can inspire your writing, even if it's an original work? Do you want to take a moment to think about how transportation works in the history of your world? Can you consider your MCs relationship to old movies?

It doesn't always work, but sometimes instead of trying to switch things over, you can build a bridge, that gives depth and texture to your work.

Finally- consider embracing short fiction! Do some writing inspired directly by the hyperfocus du joir while it's around.

4) You feel like nothing you say will be interesting to anyone else.

We understand this is a self-esteem issue, right? You're gonna have to develop the trust that your experiences are not so utterly unrelatable to everyone else that your perspective has no value.

Friend, you are a human, with human experiences, writing for other humans. Trust me, you can do this.

It can help to think about your actual convictions. What do you know? What have you experienced? What matters to you? Funnily enough, the cure for feeling like nothing in you is worth expressing is to pour more of yourself into your writing.

5) You’re collapsed. It’s hard to feel enthusiasm and energy for things.

You're not gonna like this, but for this one I encourage you to put your keyboard or notebook down and stop trying to write right now. I know that when you're feeling better the writing feels good, and you're trying to feel better because everyone is telling you to feel better.

But it's not working, is it? If it was, you wouldn't be reading this.

For many people, writing requires them to be able to feel investment and excitement, because those feelings help steer them towards what's going to work and be exciting for the reader.

Your best bet is to focus your energy on finding gentle little activities that aren't so hard to focus on. Ideally, ones that get you moving just a little bit. You'll have a better time writing when you're less collapsed.

Shaming yourself and getting hopeless and anxious because you can't do this really difficult task right now will make you more collapsed, not less, which will be the opposite of helpful.

And yes, these are depression symptoms. Consider reaching out for supports and assessment around that if you can.

6) You can’t figure out the next step.

Thank God for the internet, this one is a lot more actionable than it used to be.

The first thing to do here is step back and ask yourself "where am I getting lost?" If you have someone to talk this through with, even better.

Then you hop on to your favorite search engine and type in "Stuck on my outline 2nd act" or "can't get started editing" or whatever. People LOVE giving writing advice. There's plenty around. Read some advice! Try things out!

Now here is the critical point- when and if that advice fails, stop and figure out why it failed. For example, I have a short term memory disorder. Most writing process advice is for people who do not have short term memory impairments. So a lot of the advice just plain didn't work for me.

By figuring out that my subpar memory was in the way of my writing process, I was able to put together processes that work for my specific brain and my specific process. You can read about that in more depth here and here.

Frankenstien yourself a process out of stolen bits of other people's processes, with an understanding of your own personalized needs as the lightning that brings it all to life. If you have even traits of ADHD or autism or other forms of neurodiversity (no diagnosis needed) you might also google "ADHD editing hacks".

Finally, and maybe most importantly, chuck anything that you can't adapt right into the trash. I don't care how great the writer who gave the advice is. That's what works for their life and their brain. You have neither. Writing advice is only as useful as it is adaptable.

7) You think of yourself as someone who doesn’t finish things, possibly with history to back that up.

Oh, I feel this one. This was me so hard. For so long.

Make room for the idea that you can and will change over time. Getting shit done is largely a matter of developing a bunch of skills. You've already developed so many different skills in your life that you might not even recognize some of them as skills. But I promise you that you have.

But you see #6? Go read that one again. If you're not finishing things, it's because there's something missing in your routine and process that you haven't developed skills around yet.

I'm not gonna tell you it's easy, but you can find and isolate the barriers and figure out ways around them.

8) You have too many projects and feel frozen when you try to pick one to work on.

Ask yourself if this is a real problem. It may be! Maybe you dream of making a living off of your writing! That requires a level of consistency.

But it also might just be that you've had it drilling into your head that not finishing things is some kind of personal failing.

Write out all your WIPs and story seeds.

See if some of them can be mushed into one. Some AMAZING stories come from people combining story ideas that seem separate into a single story. That's fun.

See if some of them are not for finishing. What's that post going around? Some stories are for finishing, and some are just for "getting the wiggles out"? That's solid advice.

Maybe some stories are just for daydreaming on the bus. Maybe some stories are actually only 1/3rd of a story, and you want to leave it to grow in the ground before you try to do anything with it. That's incredibly valid and common!

If you actually look at the stories that you have that are for finishing, right now, you may find a much more manageable number. And if you only have like 2 or 3 things you're working on, you can just let them take turns as the passion for each project takes you.

Keep a file somewhere of these undeveloped ideas. I have a scrivner file that has each idea it's own little sub-document so I can add thoughts to them for years as they percolate.

9) You get lost in preparation and don’t make it to the page.

A couple different things can be happening here. One thing that may be happening is that you're just a writer who needs a lot of research and prep time before you write. I'm like that. I will prewrite intensively for a year before I write a single sentence. That sounds ridiculous to a lot of people but it works with how my brain works and then when I do start writing I can easily and happily churn out a consistent 2-4k words per hour. If it works it works! Don't let anyone shame you!

The other option is that you feel like you're going to get something wrong/fail/get in trouble if you get anything "wrong". You feel safer doing research, so that's where you stay.

Only you can figure out which it is. Introspect. Then you know whether to focus on managing anxiety or just keep preppin.

10) You want to write, but when you sit down to write suddenly it’s two hours later and you’ve written like 5 words but curated 3 new playlists, read some fanfiction, and argued with some strangers on the internet.

Brains are rough, aren't they.

There are two schools of thought here. Both work, but not for all the same people.

Option 1 is to clear distractions. Download one of those apps that keeps you off the internet. Put your phone someplace that you need a ladder to reach, so you have to very actively decide to go get it. Noise cancelling headphones. Comfy clothes. Protein rich snacks and a beverage within easy reach. Pee ahead of time. Make a routine out of it to train your brain into associating this with focus.

Option 2 is to figure out the optimal level of distraction. When I write nonfiction I almost always have mindless home renovation shows on at the same time. Because nonficiton writing isn't quite stimulating enough to hold my attention. So my attention wanders and I end up doing something that WILL hold my attention. When I write fiction, I need music OR to be outdoors where I can look at trees or clouds or people on the sidewalk. I can't watch any kind of TV.

Think of your attention like a pie chart. Different writing tasks may take up different percentages of that pie. If you're awesome at focus maybe you can just put 90% of your focus on writing, and the other 10% is just making sure you don't forget to eat or something. But if you can't reliably conjure up more than 70% for one thing, then fill the rest of the pie with things you can easily pick up and put down. I only look up at the home decorating shows when my passive audio scanning suggests it's something I want to look up at.

These are both good approaches. Ignore anyone who demonizes either. That only means they've found the version that works for them.

You have your brain. Build a process for your brain.

I hope this helps. I have a free monthly newsletter if you like hearing my rants. It is...not consistently about writing advice or mental health. One time I wrote about how genetically modified goats are related to French colonized Madagascar in the 1800s as well as the modern US military. One time I broke down modern challenges to medical privacy practice policies. This is all to do with what I write but in an idiosyncratic way.

Cause I gotta write about what I care about.

[whumpbby]

Tbh i really hate when ppl act as if Jiang Cheng was "rotten from the start" and never actually cared about Wei Wuxian as a brother. Like, in the latter's case we can see he cares very much but that care is very much mixed in with many negative feelings, it's like when you love someone but they hurt you but you still love them, you want things to go back to the way they were before but they can't and they won't. On the former it's pretty much canon that he was an ok if high strung young man and losing everyone he ever loved in very close proximity to each other is what made him be the way he is today, he's not evil (he'd be hotter if he was) he's just angry and bitter for very valid reasons

I think it takes an extreme case of Protagonist Bias to think that. And not even following the actual protagonist's thought process - just being biased on their account in some sort of a projection. Kids these days got to used to having their bad guys colour-coded.

People are so desperate to cast a villain to the Happy Couple they will grasp at any straw to justify their opinion. They will ignore every piece of text that explains in detail why things are happening and why he's acting the way he is - even to the point of ignoring the protagonist explaining what happened and how. They will literally ignore the protagonist they're wanting to stan just so that they can have their villain. Wei Wuxian needs to be massively nerfed and woobifed for the whole shitshow to start making sense. Literally, a man with no agency! Poor helpless victim! The poorest little baby, no one suffered as he did!:(

Meanwile, Jiang Cheng's biggest sin in the novel?

He's not nice.

That's it. He tried to protect Wei Wuxian from his mother. He did all he could to bring Wei Wuxian home after the war against his best interests. He walked away from Lan Zhan being a dick when he could have easily caused him problems. He only ever fought Wei Wuxian when it was either staged or he was attacked first (in the much brought up ancestral shrine scene that people don't seem to have actually read).

But he's not nice about it. He's not even stoicly stiff like the ever-amazing Lan Wangji (who only ever cared about one thing in his life, and it's the man he wanted to fuck roughly in the bushes-_-).

It was barely a decade from having his whole extended family horrifically murdered, so obviously he should be fine by this point. (We can ignore the main plot of the decade-in the making-revenge-plot, that's not important, that's not a theme at all!) At least he should learn to repress his trauma! Because that ended great for the protagonist, right?:)

You need an intense case of lack of comprehension to miss the fact that, until the very moment of the Core Reveal, every bit of information Jiang Cheng had available to him pointed directly to Wei Wuxian being at fault for the tragedy his life became. The only doubt cast upon that conclusion was the spark of love that he could not kill. JC trusted Wei Wuxian for as long as he could. He trusted him - against a myriad of signs that he maybe shouldn't have - until the man killed his brother in law.

That's where any sane person would stop and reconsider.

And yet he was still willing to be convinced otherwise - until his sister died in his arms.

Like, this is what it took for JC to snap.

If someone says that Jiang Cheng was "rotten from the start" that only tells me they have skipped the whole fourth of the book that tells us in detail why Jiang Cheng wasn't a bad kid and how much he loved his family and Wei Wuxian. It tells me that they are here only for the romance and can't see anything else, certainly not character development (why would they? Wanxian don't develop throughout the story in any impactful way except of "oh, hey, we can be together and not care about anyone else - just like we did it before, but now with fucking included!"). It's like people who don't read books cannot comprehend the fact the author thought about this shit and put it there on purpose. It's not something that just happened to fill the pages between the Romance bits for the word count. That's, like, the actual meat of the story? These people have the critical thought capacity of a fucking tiktoker-_-

The author is telling us: look at these kids that were raised in a broken family and how it affects them as teens and young adults. How it affected their relationships with the people they love and demolished their self-worth. Look how a broken family can leave it's children scarred for life!

The idiots online: one is an innocent angel that never did anything wrong and the other an evil, selfish and hateful brat, got'cha! I am very smart!

-__-

[viennacherries]

First of all I love your work!! I keep rereading kiss the cook. I have a request God! Gale/Tav. A spicy fic about Tav and God Gale’s first time since he’s turned into a god.

anon. anon im so sorry. this turned into angst. please forgive me <3

NSFW

read it on ao3

~~~

Tav hasn't seen Gale since he left in search of the crown, promising to find her and bring her with him to Elysium. She'd believed him, but she thought he'd have come to her by now.

It's been 6 months. She's starting to lose faith.

She isn't completely convinced that he's going to come to the party. Withers insists he sent Gale an invite, but she's trying not to hold her breath. 'Trying' being the key-word here.

The truth is, she's desperate to see him again. She aches for him. He completes a part of her that she didn't even know was missing. He's soft and gentle with her in a way no one ever has been before, he's all light touches and tender caresses. He smells like old books and cinnamon, and he brings her more comfort than anything else could. She'll do anything for him. She just wants him back.

Withers is encouraging everyone to raise their glasses, finishing his toast, and her heart sinks at the realisation that Gale won't be turning up.

She wishes he would turn up.

Shadowheart is midway through saying something to her, clearly trying to take her mind off of him despite it being a fruitless cause, when a blinding beam of light flashes down from the sky.

It's like a bolt of lighting, the speed at which it descends, and there's a long pause where the light persists as if frozen in time, before it slowly fades away. Gale stands in its place and she runs to him, ecstatic, before her footfalls slow as she takes him in.

He did it. He found the crown. He became a God.

He looks so different. His whole body shimmers chrome, catching the light like an errant jewel in a necklace. His hair, once soft and flowing, seems sculpted to his head and body like a statue, every hint of his natural colour replaced with the same otherworldly silver as the rest of him. His eyes are glowing pits, no longer the soft warm brown she so loved looking into. They seem to create their own light, which wisps and curls around his eyebrows like ink through water. He looks glorious.

He looks new.

He spots her, smiles, and crosses the remaining distance. He stops a foot away.

"I had hoped I'd see you here." He says, and his voice. It's so different now. It echoes and reverberates as though he's stood in a vast cave, it screams of power and strength. It's his voice, still, but it doesn't sound like him anymore. There's something missing from behind his words that makes them feel slightly empty.

"I..." She feels shellshocked, "I was starting to think you'd forgotten about me."

"Forget you? Never." His words make her heart sing, but his tone is all wrong. She knows he means it, but it just sounds so... lifeless.

He keeps talking, "I'm afraid time works quite differently in Elysium. I didn't realise how long I'd been gone, until I received Withers' summon."

All the time she spent, the months dragging on, missing and longing for him, had felt like mere moments to him. It makes her feel a little bitter, but she pushes the feeling down.

He's still talking. Something about 'the finer points of divine ascension' and how 'mortal comprehension' isn't enough to fully understand. He found the crown, he reforged it, he took control of it. The Karsite Weave has become the Galarian Weave. He commands it.

Tav swallows around the lump in her throat, "well, I'm ready to come with you."

His face twists into some sort of amusement, as if he finds her eagerness endearing. When he speaks, his tone is that of a teasing reprimand. "I see you won't be claiming the dominion of 'patience' in the heavens. All in good time, my love. For now, mortality has one more night of enjoyment in store..."

He takes her hand in his, and her skin tingles where they make contact, as though molten electricity courses through his veins. He leads her away from the party, and she hears the woops and catcalls of the rest of her friends as they fade away from view.

When he presses his lips to hers, it feels like static shock. When he runs his hands down her arms, it feels like the air right before lighting strikes. When he slowly undresses her, ready to worship her body as if she's the immortal being, not him, her skull tingles and her eyes water. It's so intense. He's barely even touched her and it's so, so intense.

He strips her slowly. Reverently. He has nothing but time. He has no need to rush, no need to worry. Everything is so different now. There's no hiding in tents trying to be private, there's no sneaking off in the night and tucking themselves back into their clothes before they get caught, there's no stolen kisses when everyone's looking away. He has eternity. They have eternity.

When she's laid on the ground, stripped bare for him, he lifts her legs over his shoulders and descends on her core with his mouth. He moves his lips like he's sending a prayer through her body, like she's the conduit to his devotion. His tongue ghosts over her nerves and she feels like a lighting rod the way his energy travels through her, as though seeking to ground itself through her fingertips as she digs them into the dirt.

And when he lays his body across hers, enters her with one smooth thrust, it's blinding pleasure. Every stroke he takes has lights blinking behind her eyes, every thrust like a jolt of power travelling up to her throat. When she finds her release it crackles through her like an exposed wire touching water, and when his follows shortly after her vision goes white with ecstasy at the feeling, as though his very essence is spreading through her marrow.

They lay together for a while, staring at the stars. He tells her of Elysium, of the endless ocean of constellations and the rivers of pure light. He speaks about his domain, how the Crown of Karus is kept safe at the centre of it, how he protects it with his immense newfound power. He waxes poetic about the shrines that have already been erected in his honour; several in Thay, and a grand temple under construction in Amn.

It dawns on her, all at once, that he hasn't asked how she's been.

She feels a pit open up in her stomach.

He tells her about the fathomless power at his disposal. He tells her about dragging the crown from the Chinonthar. He tells her about his disagreement with Mystra, when she learnt of his ascension, and his plans to challenge her further in time.

He doesn't ask about his mother. He doesn't ask about Tara. He doesn't ask about her.

It feels like she's ripping in half.

All too soon they're standing at the edge of the river.

"So, it's time for me to return to the heavens. The question is - do you wish to join me? To become a God at my side?"

Her stomach lurches.

She wants to. She wants to remain at his side, for all of eternity. She wants to go with him and build a home with him in the sky, a domain of magic of their own creation.

But she also wanted to create a home with him in Waterdeep. She wanted nights together curled up next to the fireplace, while he played piano with his magic and read arcane books to her. She wanted to sit on his balcony with him, watching the water, holding his hand in the evening breeze. She wanted the date night he promised, with his homemade hundur sauce. She wanted to meet his mother, have tea with her, call her 'mother-in-law'. She wanted to marry him.

And as she stands with him, as he is now, she takes him in. His eyes are luminous trenches, no longer a warm chocolate brown. His skin, once tanned and soft, is cold and silver. He doesn't smell of old books, or cinnamon; he smells like petrichor - like earth soaked in thunder and rain.

She stands with him, hand in hand. But he doesn't feel like home anymore. It feels like he's a million miles away. Like he's already gone back to the heavens.

"I can't"

When he leaves, she wishes she went with him. Then she wishes he'd stayed. Then she wishes he'd never found the crown.

She wishes he'd chosen her.

She sits, knees clutched to her chest, and she sobs.

A small ball of fur and feathers curls into her side. A tressym.

They mourn together.

[fatphobiabusters]

Fatphobia is so popular and normalized that you don't even need to watch fatphobic shit for YouTube to recommend it to you.

Making fatphobic shit is also so lucrative that you can get 500,000 views on a less than two minute video made by AI, meaning that you didn't even have to do the work yourself. All you have to do to get half a million views is put a picture of a fat person as the thumbnail and make the most unoriginal garbage pile of a pun that you can think of to slap on the video as a title.

And you want to know why?

You want to know why everyone and their mother loves to freely harass fat people? You want to know why this makes half a million views on a video that doesn't even meet the two minute mark?

It's because fat people are one of the only oppressed groups left who you can abuse and oppress with zero backlash. We aren't protected by anti-discrimination laws. There's a single organization that gives a damn about our oppression, and it's not even a powerful or well-known organization to people outside of the very small community of fat liberationists. You won't even be shamed on social media beyond a tiny percentage of accounts like this blog. I can't begin to describe how many fatphobic bigots I have dealt with over the years who were people who claimed to be "progressive" and said they supported equality. So many fatphobes I have dealt with had pride flag icons and argued to me that fat people aren't oppressed because "[insert whatever other group here the fatphobe was using this time] has it worse!" Fat people have even been thrown out of the body positivity movement that WE. STARTED.

So if I can't even rely on "progressive" people who give a shit about everyone else to give a shit about me? People who claim to care about equality and all of my other oppressed identities but treat me like the dirt underneath their feet as soon I'm not "fuckable" to them? You can see pretty fucking clearly how this world has a strangling hold on fat people and refuses to let go of their last punching bag that has zero consequences for pummeling into the ground.

The world knows that you will endure consequences (legal, financial, and/or social) for being bigoted against any oppressed group with a mainstream activism movement, so that's why conservatives and progressives alike wipe their brow in relief that there's at least one group they know is okay to harm as much as they want without having to worry of backlash.

And for the people who never developed their reading comprehension skills, no where did I say that other oppressed groups don't have it bad. No where did I say that other oppressed groups aren't still harmed today. Stop it with your bad faith takes and attempts to make this another "piss on the poor."

There's a major difference between what I endure as a fat person and what I endure for my plethora of other oppressed identities. If you discriminate against me for being gay, there's anti-discrimination laws and policies. There's financial losses to your business by the people who will boycott you. There's loss of reputation. There's loss of relationships, social status, and trust. People have even lost their jobs for being homophobic. It's not perfect, but it's far from lacking consequences.

But when I'm discriminated against for being fat? All those people who supposedly cared about me for being gay are not only silent when I'm discriminated against for my fatness, they often actively support the fatphobia I faced.

That is the fucking difference.

-Mod Worthy

[kimbapisnotsushi]

ojiro aran headcanons bc @luminouschaotic asked me if i had thoughts (which was. a while back) but i'm out of town for two weeks in a couple days and won't be on much so i wanted to get this done before then so LET'S GO!!

aran has like spidey-sense Chaos Instincts™️ honed by years of taking care of the miyas so much so that on his first day at inarizaki he feels a tingle down his spine and turns around just in time to catch akagi michinari falling out of a tree

aran, being the kind soul that he is, goes over to help. because if there's anything the miyas have taught him it's that if you don't intervene early on there WILL be even more severe consequences down the line than if you'd just helped them in the first place

it basically goes "hi i'm ojiro what do you need me to do and how much plausible deniability can i get from this"

don't worry akagi had just been get a paper airplane bc he might be a little shit but he's a little shit with morals who cares about the environment

he didn't get the airplane the branch broke before he could

akagi tells aran that he's going to try one more time and asks aran to stand under the tree so that aran can catch him if he falls again and aran's dreading the day akagi and the twins will finally meet

i actually think it WOULD be funny if kita and akagi had been childhood friends or something previously bc a) SOMEONE had to have been akagi's handle before high school and b) it just makes sense in my head

also i think a fundamental aspect of the shiratorizawa and inarizaki rivalry that we're overlooking is reon and aran bonding

like. they get it. they know what it's like. loving a place that does not always loves you back. having a home that does not always feel like a home. it can be hard, sometimes. but if there's one thing they agree on it's that their teams ALWAYS have their backs

(lev and liam my lovelies i have NOT forgotten about you)

also this just makes the whole "aran's irrational fear is tendou satori" a thousand times funnier

since it's established that aran references older pieces of media i like to think that means he sits down with like idk his grandparents probably and they watch all kinds of things together

sometimes the only other people who get aran's references are people who ALSO sit down and watch things with their grandparents (kuroo, kageyama, kita. . . )

the haikyuu club of good grandchildren . . .

anyways so that's how kita and aran become friends!!

oh my god . . . do you guys think his sister had those small kid puppy crushes on any of his friends . . . .

my vote is akagi or the miyas do you know how funny that would be

i think a bit that akagi does with aran is saying "oh my god this is just like [insert fictional media here]" when something (usually an Event™️ involving the miyas) happens and aran going "STOP SAYING THIS IS JUST LIKE [??] AND HELP ME"

when the third years graduate aran gives gin a gift and tells him not to open it until he gets home

when gin does open it he finds a booklet titled "how to survive the miyas: a comprehensive guide by ojiro aran" and it's at least a hundred pages long

the first page is an emergency contact list with the numbers of the miyas' parents, aran's parents, and every hospital/clinic within a fifteen-mile radius

definitely prefers a real newspaper to a digital one

i think the whole of the inarizaki third years are tech-averse tbh if you took them to one of those restaurants with the little robot servers with screens for faces they'd slow blink at it like really confused cats

this sucks especially for suna bc every time he gives his phone to one of them when he wants pictures of himself with someone or something they always come out blurry or too much exposure or some shit

i think aran and oomimi go hiking with each other on the weekends and are always pestering everyone else to go with them

they win when they promise everyone, yes, we can go out for brunch and boba after

(do the twins fall into a stream while trying to cross it? yes. did they still go to brunch afterwards, sopping wet? also yes. aran doesn't think he's ever laughed harder in his life.)

[en-busca-de-mi-ikigai-blog]

Listen, we know Byleth was a seasoned mercenary before arriving to Garreg Mach and got nepotized as a teacher, right?

We know they were good, great even, their father, THE Jeralt, having taught them from a young age. However, something changes when they are saved by Sothis and get Divine Pulse.

And no, I don't mean it as just "well, they now have superpowers", yes, they have, but, forgive me for being all Spiderman, "with great power comes great responsibility", and suddenly they start to test the limits of their powers and being more aware.

What I mean is, if someone got hurt or died before, ofc it would hurt, but I mean, that's the life of a merc, am I right? And they'll have to move on. With muttered emotions, they will move on. But now, they feel their emotions more; and what's more, now, they can prevent it. And it's not just their father's merc company (since they stay with Byleth during the war, I suppose they are good friends), no, they now have A BUNCH OF noobs, I mean, students, to take care of.

Imagine the newly acquired responsibility, no, you can't shrug them getting hurt as perks of the job, even if you did your best to save them, no, now you have to actually go back in time and figure a way to save them AND win the battle, improvising and calculating more options than you ever had before, on the fly. Someone used to just make strategic decisions in the heat of battle to minimize damage they now have to physically repeat the situation and go over the different options they couldn't before to not only minimize damages but to possibly nullify them. Because they can and because they care, more than they ever thought they would.

And no, I don't mean it just in the sense they have emotions now and feel more than they ever felt before, oh, no, I'm thinking of the AFTERMATH.

I can picture them being absolutely exhausted, tired beyond comprehension, physically and mentally, after some of the wars worst battles, their mercenary friends had never seen their leader this worn out, and sure, the war is costly, and ruthless, and unforgiving, and Byleth is not only a leader of a mercenaries band, they are now also a general in an army, and have taken upon themselves to protect every-last-one-of-them, have sworn it to themselves, upon the grave of their father, to never be in a situation where "what was to happen was fate" as Sothis put it.

And oh, they're sweaty, and bloody, and their clothes ragged, and muddy, and their breath is coming all jaded but they have a fierce look of sheer determination after every dire situation where they manage to save an ally that nobody else had seen before, even in the ashen demon's face. This is a new kind of demon, Byleth, the mercenary, the teacher, the vessel of the Goddess, more than a force to be reckoned with, a pure force of nature that will stop at nothing to fulfill their destiny.

But it has a cost, and their body will hurt, and they wouldn't be able to sleep a lot, planning strategies or dwelling on the mistakes that have cost them plain soldiers lives, because not even they could protect literally everyone on the battlefield. They had to prioritize their students, because they're too important, too crucial, not only as generals, but as what feels like lifelong friends. And they owe them, because hadn't they fell at the assault of Garreg Mach they could have helped them. Because if their students survived this long without them, they sure as hell won't let them die an awful death while they're in charge. And their muscles are sore, and they have an exhausted look, and their body shows scars, but their eyes keep showing that determined gaze before and after each battle, as if their heart was engulfed in flames. And it is, the crest of flames beating in their chest, helping them live, fight and reaching the future.

Because if they can't prevent fate, they will ensure it happens according to their own terms. Even if it costs all their energy, how many tries it takes.

[cerastes]

I will be going to Okinawa at the end of this month! Also gonna hop to the main island and do a weekend in Kyoto. Any advice?

NIIICE

Well, we could speak for hours about advice when it comes to traveling to Japan, really, but in general, keeping it concise and to the point, I'd say:

Don't tip in restaurants! It's seen as rude because they are paid already, there's no tipping culture for eateries over there.

Also, there's a table fee! Consider this the tip if you must cognitize it somehow, but basically, when you go over your receipt, you'll always see 200 yen or something on top of what you ate. Don't start a fight over this, it's just the table fee, AKA the fee you pay for using a spot in the restaurant in the first place. It's usually something small like 200 yen, and it will also include courtesy snacks like water and usually edamame

Don't point at things with your finger, it's rude. This is not Japan exclusive obviously but Japan is one of those places in which it is rude. Also, don't point at things with chopsticks, that's REALLY rude. In general, don't toy with chopsticks, those are tools with which you consume food with, and should be treated with respect.

Buy your deodorant over there. Strong scents, perfumes and deodorants are usually seen as disruptive (as in, you're invading the smelling space of people), so they use odorless, neutral deodorant there. If you use odorless already, you're good to go, but leave the AXE at home.

Keep your voice down in public transport, and don't take phone calls while in it. You can make small talk (in fact, a few times, some Japanese people talked to me in the train to ask me where I was from and some stuff like that!), but don't be loud. Basically, respect everyone's right and pleasure to a pleasant trip or commute. Return phone calls after you disembark.

Have a Map app on you. It will save your life and make it much easier! Likewise, get a 3/4/5G wireless connection rental card for your phone while you're over there! They are very affordable (I paid something like 70 bucks for 31 days of 4G) and having internet on the go is immensely helpful, from translations to maps to calls to just browsing things on the go or looking up something you might not know.

I recommend looking up some cultural things in general before your trip, so you don't make faux passes. Japanese people are in general really kind and comprehensive to foreigners and won't hold you to the same social scrutiny as they would another Japanese person, but in my experience, they really like it when you actually show an intent to engage with the culture. There's passing by, and then there's actually showing you've at least looked into it, and they really appreciate it. I got away with a couple of free drinks one time in Osaka, even, because the master was like "no yeah you've obviously been keenly aware of how to go about things". Even the few times I messed up by going where I wasn't supposed to go or entering a few off-limit places, talking with authority figures and explaining how that happened to them was smooth as butter and they completely understood and didn't mind the misteps, and gave friendly advice on how to prevent that from happening again.

Absolutely carry a bag with you everywhere. There's very few trash bins in Japan so you'll always want to have a bag or some such to store your bottles and empty snack bags and takoyaki sticks and everything else until you can find an elusive bin or go back to your hotel and throw your stuff there. A lifehack here is that you can sometimes find trash bins near vending machines, but do make sure they are not just for cans!

These are my Primer For Japan, really. Have Fun!

[11queensupreme11]

Silly cute AU Idea Percy using Loki's cloak runs off to the mortal realm I'm thinking Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, or on the other side of the world Kazakhstan [not really the other side but you get what I'm trying to say hopefully]. And she just does her darndest to blend in and avoid the yanderes. She's successful until one day when she's in her late thirties early forties when she can't refuse a work trip to the ocean or something else plot convenient. More props if it's post her falling in love and baring child. Or they find her because she falls in love, bares children, and is eventually widowed. And that's how they find her one of the chthonic deities see her former husband's memories.

I swear it started out as cute old Percy in a cottagecore scenario raising kids. And it turned to middle age Percy protecting her already broken family and heart from some yandere gods. Who to them a couple decades is nothing. And you have the Angst of Posiden, Apollo, Hades, Anubus, Loki, and the Cu Guy (I can't even begin to spell his name I only know bare minium of him.) face the reality that Percy is still part mortal and will die long before they could even spend a few centuries (which are also like nothing to them) with them. I excluded Beelze because he'd just bam your a God now. That's your punishment for making me worry. [I'm under the impression he's the only one who knows how to deitify someone if that's not true... oop... I missed something. My reading comprehension skills makes me wonder If I'm the Demigod sometimes xD.]

actually, even if percy dies, she'll still go to helheim to get her soul judged and then eventually get to valhalla so they don't really have to worry about her dying........

BUT THEN YOU GOT LOKI AND BEELIE WHO KNOW SHE'S NOT FROM THEIR UNIVERSE 😬 they don't know what's gonna happen to her if she dies in their universe, will her soul just go to valhalla like everyone else's? what's gonna happen??? then there's the whole breaking soul issue (she only has two years so she'd technically already be obliterated for this AU but let's pretend she has more time lol)

not every god has the power to ascend a mortal to godhood. the supreme deities definitely can and so can beel (but that's only cuz he's just THAT powerful in my fic hehe), but the other gods don't know if it's safe to ascend her (cuz they think she's the product of an incomplete/failed ascension) only beel and loki know, and beel can turn her but she won't let that happen 💀

[sreegs]

‼️READING COMPREHENSION WARNING‼️

Read and comprehend the topic of this post above the "read more" link before attempting to respond. This is your only warning. Violators will be mocked and blocked.

A GUIDE TO TIPPING IN AMERICA FOR TOURISTS AND VISITORS

AND ASSHOLES WHO SOMEHOW LIVED HERE THIS LONG WITHOUT UNDERSTANDING THIS

This post is going to cover tipping people in restaurants/eateries and private transportation. Tipping can also apply to many, many other service industries including but not limited to: movers, handypeople, mechanics, etc. Since this is meant to be brief and focused on info relevant to visitors and tourists, I won't discuss that here.

You're tipping 20% minimum on your food and public/private taxi rides (including lyft, uber, etc). Include this in your budget calculations for engaging with these services.

I was going to jokingly just end the post here but let me explain. Minimum wage laws in the US allow employers to pay their employees UNDER FEDERAL MINIMUM WAGE if they're in an industry that receives tips on the regular. Taxi drivers are self-employed and have to pay for the costs of the lease on their vehicle, gas, and give a cut to their garage or ride service provider.

Therefore, capitalists have shifted the cost of paying a living wage to these people on to the consumer rather than the employer. No amount of arguments against tipping culture is going to magically fix this overnight. That's the long game and we're trying to abolish this shit. Therefore, you are tipping 20% minimum. Today.

Even if you did not like the food.

Even if the food was cold.

Even if the server didn't seem cheery and smiley.

Even if the taxi wasn't as fast as you wanted it.

Even if the taxi smelled a little funny or the driver didn't talk the amount you like.

If you did not suffer immediate physical harm or harassment or discrimination at the hands of the service person who provided you the service, full tip. Five stars if you have to rate them in an app. Perfect marks.

Does the above statement seem strange to you? It shouldn't, because remember: capitalists have forced you to cover the full cost of the service. THIS IS NOT THE FAULT OF THE SERVICE WORKER.

Cash is King

Tip in cash if you have it. Credit card companies can't take a chunk out of cash tips. And if someone who works a low-paying job can grab a bit of cash under the table, away from the eyes of the IRS, then they will do more economic good with that money than the tax cut that goes to pay for bombing other countries.

How do I figure out a 20% tip?

Easy. Look at the total (THE TOTAL, WITH TAX YOU FUCKING CHEAPSKATE). Double it, then divide by 10 (move the decimal place one over to the left). Round up the remainder to the nearest dollar. That's going to be at least 20%.

What about counter workers?

There is some confusion on how to tip people who work at a counter in cafes and fast food establishments. Because they are not considered tipped employees and they get minimum wage.

The rule is, if during your transaction the POS (point of sale) register asks you to add a tip, you add a 20% tip. If you see a tip jar, you tip. If neither of these things happen, you don't tip

What about food delivery?

20% minimum tip. You called/ordered via an app, and magically food showed up. In any weather. 20% tip.

Bonus Holiday section:

Let's say you're visiting America during the peak American holidays when it's either a common "dining out" holiday or a holiday where you usually spend time at home with family. This includes, in chronological order:

Valentines Day, Fourth of July Weekend (the whole weekend), Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve and Day.

You tip even more on those days. 30% minimum. I've tipped 100% on meals and rides on Christmas and Thanksgiving. Because those people are taking the time out of spending the day with friends and family, what everyone else is doing, to make sure they have enough money to pay bills and survive in America. And no you fucking bigot, you don't get to eye up the server and figure out if they celebrate Christmas or not.

FAQ:

I can't afford a 20% tip. How do I pay for this?

You can't afford the full service or experience. You don't buy it. Next question.

Where I come from, we don't tip that much/not at all. Why do I have to do this?

You're in America now. You have to do this. Please, feel free to engage the worker in a spirited debate about tipping culture if you feel like you need more info. I'm sure you'll learn something new.

I have a tipping system. You see, first I start at 10% and for every...

Your system is bad and you're a cheapskate. 20% minimum.

Hey wait a minute, I'm an American and I have strict rules about who I tip and how much. And 20% is too high! What are you talking about?

Every decent human being quietly judges you for being an asshole. You are disliked by the people around you who tip like normal people. You are not going to become rich some day because you saved $5 on a tip. Own up and tip.

I ate at an expensive restaurant. Surely I don't have to tip 20% on a bill like this, do I?

Yes you do.

Holy shit. I'm going to follow this guide but wow. Do you Americans really live like this?

Oh buddy wait till you encounter states that don't list the tax on the price tag.

OH MY GOD TUMBLR KEEPS BREAKING THIS POST. ANYTHING BELOW THIS GIF GETS FUCKED PLEASE TRY TO BEAR WITH ME

[sugarlesswriting]

After the leak for the new Batman issue came out I've seen some Batman fans make some.... choice opinions.

Be to be fair they always have some... choice opinions.

Like guys idk how to tell you but the writing is not making him the good guy here. It's like the whole Tower of Babel incident and how fans misinterpreted the plot.

Some of the things that I have read and made me roll my eyes

'Jason deserved it.'

He did in fact not deserve to be mind fucked because he decided to work with Selina. Batman made him a god damn agoraphobic. We see him sitting down, in a prison cell, trying to convince himself to get up but can't because he is in so much fear. Have you guys ever been in a position where you know you need to move but can't because your anxiety won't let you? Let me tell you it sucks and I know that this is fiction but it just rubs me the wrong way to see how people treat this situation. (Probs because that type of anxiety hit to close to home)

'Bruce has been betrayed by his entire family so of course he's going to fight them.'

Shut up. Just shut up. We all know that it's Zur en arrh that's making him think that what he's doing is rational but no it's not. The writing shows that he is not in the right for doing so. Reading comprehension is nice and you guys would be lucky to have it.

'Selina's a dumb whore and Tini Howard is the one who made this plot happen.'

Selina's plan is dumb but your misogyny is just POPING with that one. And you guys know how I feel about people saying Howard forced the Selina plot. No Editorial told them that they wanted an event with the batfamily because it would sell a good amount of comics. That's what these events are for. Please, guys, you have to understand how marketing works. Comics have been doing this for a long time.

I feel the same way when fans bitched about Tom King and how he ruined the wedding. No editorial ruined the wedding because THEY WANT TO SELL COMICS 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻. (And this is said by someone who also doesn't vibe with Kings Batman)

I just think Zdarsky had more to work with when it came to the plot because he wanted to continue his Zur arc. Idk if Howard had anything to bring with Catwoman, but if someone who's read her work let me know if she could have done something else (genuinely curious not being a jerk lol)

I also find the premise of the batfam going against Bruce himself interesting. I just think it's neat. I liked to see how everyone reacted to what Bruce did to Jason. Like, when Dick came down HARD when he found out about Jason. How he was about to just beat the shit out of Bruces face even if he passed out. Dick had to be stopped by Tim who was trying to be the voice of reason. Damien was ditched by Bruce and we had the moment with Tim hugging Damien and telling him it's going to be okay. Then you have Bruce slightly coming back to his senses by throwing the batarang down for Dick to use.

Was the Selina vs Bruce a bait and switch to what the actual war was going to be? Because the Gotham war that involves the batfam going up against a Batman who's a danger to himself and others is a plot that I like.