#my formatting stint was short-lived

[dansnaturepictures]

A look back on my 2024: Part 1 of 3-Birds and Lepidoptera

As those who have known me a while on here will know I have done end of year posts reflecting on my wildlife watching and photography year for a long time with the formats shifting a bit in recent years. This year I decided to do something different, my equivalent of a TV soap opera broadcasting a live episode, in that instead of writing up the posts in proceeding months and timing them to go out I am writing them all and posting them this morning/early afternoon.

Beginning with the main veins of my hobby really, birds and butterflies and my ever growing moth interest which obviously sits best next to butterflies. Firstly it was another phenomenal birdwatching year for me with so many species seen and excellent and precious experiences had. I didn’t necessarily know it’d be the case twelve months ago but I have seen over two hundred species of bird this year and the second highest amount I’ve ever seen in a year behind last year. Multiple Firecrest sightings and treasured Waxwing views in their big British winter brought vibrant colour and energy at the start of my year. Ferruginous Duck, Scaup and Red-breasted Goose were three fine rare waterfowl species I saw in Hampshire at the start of the year. The year once again hinged a lot on our sensational trip to Scotland in the spring where blockbuster species Red Grouse and Black Grouse, privileged views of Black-throated Diver, Red-throated Diver and Slavonian Grebe in gorgeous breeding plumage and Dipper were among my birds of the year. Following the cancellation of the accommodation for a holiday planned elsewhere in June we unexpectedly returned to the Yorkshire coast two years on from our last visit where we were immersed in the incredible spectacle of a seabird colony at RSPB Bempton Cliffs and nearby being spellbound to observe Gannets, Kittiwakes, Fulmars, Puffins, Guillemots and Razorbills. We saw two of Hampshire’s greatest birds of 2024 just before each holiday, only my second ever Marsh Sandpiper on Normandy Lagoon Lymington in late April and the Roseate Terns at the same place in May that went on to make history for the county and raise chicks. We were lucky to see another amazing bird in between the two holidays, Stone Curlews in Hampshire.

Three more of my favourite birds really stood out once more this year; mesmerising views of Ospreys in Scotland, Rutland Water, Hampshire and Dorset as I saw more than I ever did in a year, amazing times hearing and seeing Cuckoos in Hampshire, Scotland and Yorkshire in the spring with my first ever juvenile seen including being fed by its Dunnock host at Rutland Water in July and I had another very strong year for seeing electric Kingfishers. White-tailed Eagles seen in Scotland, Poole Harbour and the Isle of White, majestic Golden Eagle in Scotland, Hobby, riveting encounters with Short-eared Owl and Barn Owl and stirring encounters with Hen Harrier and Marsh Harrier made it another top year of birds of prey.

Green Sandpiper my two hundredth bird of the year at Rutland Water, Common Sandpipers seen well throughout the year, Purple Sandpiper, Little Stint, Little Ringed Plover, Whimbrel and Ruff at Slimbridge were key wading birds I saw this year. That Slimbridge trip in February with stop offs in Oxfordshire on the way there and back also producing heartfelt immersive views of Bewick’s Swans and Common Cranee. Super ducks Garganey, Goldeneye and Long-tailed Duck, Great White Egrets seen at some places I never or rarely had in Hampshire before as they continue to be common, January delights seeing Cattle Egret and Glossy Ibis and pleasurable encounters with Water Rail and Cetti’s Warbler especially at Fishlake Meadows where I visited a lot this year were other key birds seen. More stardust was sprinkled on my year with wonderful encounters seeing Yellow Wagtails in Yorkshire and Hampshire, Turtle Dove at Knepp and Tree Sparrows in Moray and Yorkshire. Other big birds of my year included Snow Bunting in November at Sandy Point, Wryneck at Titchfield Haven, amazing Lesser Spotted Woodpecker views in the New Forest, Whinchat, Spotted Flycatcher and Pied Flycatcher, Garden Warbler and Willow Warblers that invigorated me with their serenading song across the week in Scotland.

Close to home and it was an enjoyable and dramatic year of watching Winchester’s Peregrines with new female Mel overthrowing the much loved Winnie I had a good general Peregrine year and the formidable pair of Great Crested Grebes at my local Lakeside Country Park powered through two broods of chicks bringing many joyous moments watching them. Pochard and Tree Pipit were my two favourite unusual finds at Lakeside in January and September respectively. Sparrowhawk was nice to see at home a few times but my best garden bird title undoubtably goes to the female Black Redstart that made us ecstatic with multiple visits to and near the garden in January and February including during the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch.

It was a challenging year for butterflies at times with weather patterns and general low numbers but I still loved watching them this year seeing forty three species the joint third highest I’d ever seen in a year. In spring early Red Admiral sightings were no surprise on sunny winter days with the sheer amount around in 2023 I wondered if confused hibernating individuals would be easy to come by. Small Tortoiseshell especially seen well in Scotland and Orange Tip like Cuckoo seen in Hampshire, Yorkshire and Scotland were wonderful hope bringing species seen at that time of year. Green Hairstreak, Marsh Fritillary, Adonis Blue, Small Blue, Brown Argus and Duke of Burgundy were excellent springtime gems which I felt lucky to see. Comma was an interesting species for me this year being the common one I had to wait longest for, usually expected to be one of the first I’ll see in a year it was my thirtieth species of the year seen at Testwood Lakes in June, I only had to wait longer (two days in fact) to see one in one other year 2018. Then intimate views of a Comma gave me one of my greatest summer memories on a perfect sunny and warm afternoon at Martin Down in July.

Those summer butterfly days were magical this year with Purple Hairstreaks duelling atop the oaks of Lakeside on fine and uplifting evenings and seen at Knepp where the epic Purple Emperors was one we were thrilled to see so well again, Brown Hairstreak flitting high in a tree at Shipton Bellinger and enigmatic Common Graylings on a New Forest heath. Dainty skippers the rare and prepossessing Lulworth Skippers at Durlston, fantastic views of lovely Silver-spotted Skipper and the satisfying sight of Essex Skipper were key species of my year. The blues shone over the summer too with captivating views of Chalkhill on the downs and Silver-studded in the forest. Butterfly Conservation’s Big Butterfly Count was an interesting time in July and August with initially the low numbers this year reflected in my counts before a surge in numbers on the last weekend of it; Marbled White and Ringlet were key species in the count I saw with Gatekeeper and Meadow Brown in high numbers again. There was a whirlwind few days of summer Lakeside walks as those species alongside Large Skipper and Small Skipper rushed into my year with a surge of my first sightings of them in a year in an upturn of weather after a cloudy and quiet spell which will live long in the memory. Wall Brown, Silver-washed Fritillary and Dark Green Fritillary brought exotic colour to my year, as did my last species seen this year in some September splendour at Milford on Sea, Clouded Yellow.

Onto moths and a summer phenomenon over a week or so seeing lots of striking Jersey Tiger moths at a few locations was amazing. My first Magpie moths, Brimstone moth, Yellow Shell, Mother Shipton seen well, Silver Ys, Six-spot and Five-spot Burnet, Cinnabar moth, the Vestal, Brown Silver-line, Purple Bar and Hummingbird Hawk-moth were other brilliant daytime fliers to observe this year. Strong species seen at home including in moth traps this year were Garden Carpet, Lesser Yellow Underwing, Scalloped Oak, L-Album Wainscot, Willow Beauty, Lunar Underwing, Large Tabby and an epic Swallow-tailed moth with the Streamer seen in the wild cottage we stayed at in the Cairngorms. Other highlights were Small Dusty Wave, Pale Prominent, Square-spot Rustic, Riband Wave, Double-striped Pug and Lackey moth helping me to record my second highest ever amount of moths in a year. Emperor moth caterpillar, Fox moth caterpillar, Cinnabar moth caterpillars and Burnet moth caterpillars were colourful delights to see this year.

The photos in this set are of; Marsh Harrier at Titchfield Haven in October, Red Grouse at Lochindorb in May, Firecrest at Acres Down in the New Forest in January, Puffins at Bempton Cliffs and Little Ringed Plover at Kilnsea Wetlands in June, Comma at Martin Down and Lulworth Skipper at Durlston in July, Speckled Wood at Hook-with-Warsash in March, Brown Silver-line at Pig Bush in the New Forest in April, Riband Wave at home in July and Emperor moth caterpillar in the New Forest in July.

[staydandy]

Heroes (2006) - Whump List

List by StayDandy Synopsis : Common people discover that they have super powers. Their lives intertwine as a devastating event must be prevented. (Wiki)

Whumpee : Peter Petrelli played by Milo Ventimiglia (foremost)

Country : 🇺🇸 America Genres : Sci-Fi, Fantasy

Notes : This is a Partial List - I didn't list every bit of whump, just what caught my attention the most • This is one of those shows that over-stayed it's welcome. It really should've ended with 2 seasons. • 5 years after Heroes ended, the spin-off Heroes Reborn (2015) aired, but was canceled after 1 season. • The episode list is formatted season-episode : 00-00

Episodes on List : 6 Total Episodes : 77 Total Seasons : 4

*Spoilers below*

01-02 : Peter attempts to fly, but fails, Nathan (his brother) catches him

01-09 : (near end) Falls off the top of the bleachers, but magically heals after a short stint

01-11 : Arrested ... sick ... collapses, unresponsive

01-12 : Hospitalized, comatose

01-19 : In a fight, stabbed in the head, "dies" (remember he can self-heal)

01-23 : Panic attack, collapses

[pseudoneiiric]

@deathwis​ / @e1dest​​ asked:

cracked knuckles bump along a wrinkled forehead, cautious and flighty. only grazing along the skin enough to feel out signs of warmth ; an inspection half assed given how naturally sun soaked jay is, though he's firm on not pushing it. wood scratched fingers retract back into an equally worked palm -- mangling into a fist as he edges away. no fever, that's good. all thoughts are scattered and red tinted, murky fog of an irritated headache disguising the original reaction to this whole goddamn thing : a peeling sort of primal fear. knees ache from the awkward climb down the muddied slope, dirt caked under janky nails and strands of sandy brown mussed and askew thanks to the humid whipping of air. narrow chest smoothing out from panted breaths, blue eyes a hidden tint brighter since he can now assess the damage. but all that worry's finally being shoved into an even more smothered anger, 'cause fucking god how could jay be such an idiot?

���how'd it happen? when you're out here, you're supposed'ta be watchin' your step.” tyler scolds, all unimpressed and difficult. exhausted gaze rakes over the variety of red lines scratched over baby fat skin. the new holes in hand-me-down clothes. recognizes the ratty remains of dale's old shirt clinging to a wiry frame immediately, which only serves to make him bristle further. lips pressing into a thin line as hollow cheeks puff out in aggression, bracing against the urge to jerk jay closer to force an inspection. not like he'd appreciate it anyway, tyler's sure. finally, intent eyes land on the swollen red of his brother's the kid's knee ; ignoring the way bile crawls up his throat at the sorry sight. “nevermind that, can you stand?” his level tone wavers, voice shrinking a size in barely concealed empathy. it'd wound his pride if he could focus on anything but the signs of pain flickering across jay's face. and being crouched down beside him makes that more than a little difficult.  //  smth smth baby brother had a nasty fall in the woods & scared this man shitless <3

it’s not like jay doesn’t watch his back — something he’s eager to voice with a grumble, since he knows tyler never gives him the benefit of the doubt. dale always gives him the benefit of the doubt with these things, though the youngest holt can’t argue that when he took this nasty spill, the first name he called out, broken and fearful, was tyler’s. knowing that if there was gonna be anyone that could patch him up, keep him safe, it’d be the eldest. his older brother, with a yawning distance between them that jay doesn’t think they can ever close. not with tyler so much older and always scoldin’ him like he’s his pa. the way tyler stares at him at dinner always unnerved him, too, not even bothering to say anything. it’s no secret in jay’s head that tyler’s more like a pa than a brother, though jay can mouth off to him in a way he can’t with pa. takes that small victory where he can, at every opportunity that comes up. “i was,” is what he forces out, though his voice is tight with pain. “you know i always do.”

but he doesn’t give voice to what actually happened, worried that tyler will say something biting about it, and jay’s just not in the mood. not when his knee feels like it’s going to buckle. “i think... i can stand.” but when he tries, his knee immediately seizes up, and he lets himself fall to the ground — better than reaching to tyler for support. tyler probably wouldn’t appreciate jay getting handsy anyway, even though jay hisses at the feeling of stray pebbles scratching his palm. “i think it’s sprained.” the words are said plaintively, lost blue eyes looking around for anything he can use to splint it. he already knows there’s nothin’ around here — if he coulda splinted it, he woulda already done it. “you’ll...” and jay hesitates, not wanting to trigger tyler’s ire by asking him to do something, practically telling him, “hafta help me back home. i remember the way, i just can’t get there on my own.”

[vrishchikawrites]

You know what would be interesting?

JC never lost his golden Core.

And Wei Wuxian did not lose his.

But he still gets dropped into the Burial Mounds. And like I dunno how, but he comes out of there having mastered the new form of cultivation.

Jiang Cheng acts like a dick that's par for cannon. And this Wei Wuxian who has survived the burial Mounds with his golden core intact has no time for his drama.

He definitely confesses to Lan Wangji o ce he is out of the burial mounds.

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji in the Sunshot campain would be brilliant. Cultivating and * *wink wink nudge nudge* * dual cultivating.

JC is seething with jelousy. He has everything. The gentry name, the money and sect leadership but the whole world is only speaking about Wei Wuxian and his like awesome cultivation. Both the sword style and with his flute.

Wen Qing and Wen Ning- Wen Ning convinces his sister to join the war. Wen Ning wants to be on Wei Wuxian's side.

What would JC throw a tantrum over if he doesn't have anything to throw a tantrum over??

Like for example he blames Wei Wuxian for Lotus Pier burning. Obviously it's not his mistake. But one day he is yelling at Wei Wuxian about it and sect leader someone maybe XiChen, maybe Sect leader Nie. Whoever. Comes and like defends Wei Wuxian.

What would he do then faced with the facts? Cling all the more to his warped world view? Or apologize?

It will be interesting to see.

You don't have to take this prompt if it's too messy or whatever. I love you and your writing.

Also, thank you for choosing to write my previous prompt.

XOXO.

(this is a little similar to trapped and patient but also quite different. Hope you like it! The format is a bit different because this is a lot of time to cover in a short prompt)

When he stumbles out of the Burial Mounds, Wei Wuxian is stunned. He can't believe he made it, that he was able to survive it, without his sword.

Wei Wuxian walks forward shakily, one unsteady step at a time, putting distance between him and that wretched place.

He feels weak, drained, devastated in small ways.

But he is free.

---

Yiling offers shelter in unexpected ways. He's able to hide in a temple to recover. His condition is wretched enough that he's mistaken for a beggar. A few people take pity on him and offer fruits and buns.

It takes him a week.

That's all it takes for him to recover.

Wei Wuxian washes all traces of Burial Mounds off him, soaks in icy river water for hours on end until he feels purified and reforged.

Now, he's ready for revenge.

---

Wei Wuxian has only tried his cultivation method on the dead. He has used it to repel the fierce corpses, fierce ghosts, and spirits soaked in resentment.

When he tests the method on the Wens, it proves to be even more effective. They scramble like mindless beasts, driven by fear and confusion. The sounds of his Dizi pierce the air and induce madness.

He watches from a distance, indifferent as the Wens turn on each other, swinging their swords, shouting at phantoms, all sense and intellect gone.

He turns away.

---

Jiang Cheng's arms wrap around him and the fog around his mind starts to slowly recede. He stands stiffly, blinking a little before looking beyond his martial brother.

Lan Zhan is there, staring at him with wide eyes. There's so much open concern on his usually stoic face that Wei Wuxian wants to turn away.

"Wei Ying,"

It is only then, under the power of that golden gaze, that his fugue state dissipates. He sees Lan Zhan step forward, almost reaching out only to pull back at the last moment.

Jiang Cheng pushes him away and punches his shoulder, "Where have you been? How dare you abandon us and just frolic off somewhere?"

Wei Wuxian swalllows with difficulty and answers their questions with his habitual dismissive charm.

But that honest expression of open concern on Lan Zhan's beautiful face doesn't leave.

He meets those golden eyes and feels something shift within him.

Shaking his head, he dismisses the feeling. There's no time for sentimental reunions. He turns his attention towards Wen Chao, unsheathes his sword, and kills him in one clean strike.

There. Done.

---

The war is already in full swing by the time he joins it. His martial brother and Lan Zhan are quick to take him to Qinghe, not even letting him ride his own sword.

"Wei-gongzi, I'm happy to see you safe," Lan Xichen greets, running a discreet eye over him. The older Lan brother's concern is well hidden but Wei Wuxian senses it nevertheless.

The man looks like he's just about ready to banish him to the healing halls.

He opens his mouth to reassure Lan Xichen but Nie Mingjue intervenes, slapping his back solidly, "I hear you're responsible for the devastation at Yiling. Good work!"

Wei Wuxian smiles brightly, hoping to banish that increasingly familiar look from Lan Zhan's face. "Thank you, Nie-zongzhu." He smiles up at the man, "I can give you a full report of what happened if you wish it."

The Chifeng-zun's expression shifts into one of approval and he nods, "I do wish it."

"I would like to know as well, if you don't mind," Lan Xichen says and Nie Mingjue nods before he glances at Lan Zhan.

He chuckles, "Lan er-gonzi can join us as well."

---

Wei Wuxian doesn't realize he's been spending more time with the Lan brothers and Nie Mingjue until Jiang Cheng angrily points it out.

"You're too good for us, are you?" He demands, "Abandoning us in favor of your new friends! Even in the battlefield, you and Lan Wangji are inseparable! Have some shame! How dare you abandon your responsibilities and mess around with that man?"

"a-Cheng," Shijie reprimands gently but her voice is weak.

"Aiya, Jiang Cheng, who keeps track of such things amidst a war? They're all our allies. It's not like I have abandoned everyone." He still trains with the Jiang disciples and leads them in battle after all.

"Wei Wuxian!"

"Jiang Cheng," His voice makes his irritation clear, "Is this really the right time to worry about such trivial matters? Who cares about appearances during war? Are were not all one when on the battlefield?" He asks, narrowing his eyes on the furious Jiang, "We don't know whether we'll live or die when we ride out and you're concerned about who fights alongside me? Just who are you speaking of?"

"Who I am speaking of?" Jiang Cheng snaps in return, "Your obsession with that man is unseemly and reflects poorly on the sect! You know it and yet you carry on shamelessly-"

"My obsession?" He demands, "Just what are you trying to imply, Jiang Cheng? You're going to be a brat just because Lan Zhan happens to be the only one able to keep up with me?" It is no secret that his three month stint sharpened his cultivation in ways people find hard to fathom. He didn’t just develop a new cultivation method, he grew. Surviving the Burial Mounds is a feet beyond the skill and endurance of most cultivators. 

Wei Wuxian has earned his already formidable reputation.

Jiang Cheng reels back at the reminder, his face twisting with rage.

Never let it be said that Wei Wuxian takes things lying down. He has spent a lifetime appeasing Jiang Cheng and dealing with his insecurities.

He no longer has the patience.

---

He reaches out instinctively, pulling Lan Zhan out of a blade's path, spinning around to block the strike with his bare arm.

His thick leather brace manages to minimize the damage and he doesn't lose his arm but it is a near thing.

With a hiss, he crowds against Lan Zhan and brings Suibian down in a sharp slash, cutting the Wen before him from left shoulder to right hip.

"Reckless." Lan Zhan says later as he carefully stitches the cut.

"I couldn't let you get hurt." Wei Wuxian says softly, peering down at the kneeling figure before him. He has seen Lan Zhan in various states of indignity, covered in blood, robes soaked in the disgusting sludge of a war-torn field.

Nothing diminishes his beauty.

Wei Wuxian's heart races, his head spinning as he smells the scent of sandalwood. He swallows as Lan Zhan shifts closer, carefully snipping the excess thread and studying his neat stitches.

This close, he feels overwhelmed and realization dawns.

"I love you," He breathes, stunned.

He loves Lan Zhan. The knowledge strikes him now, suddenly, without warning. "How did I not know?" Wei Wuxian feels strangely dazed. How could he not know? It is so obvious to him, his constant need for Lan Zhan's attention, "I hate it when you ignore me." The feeling of those snapping golden eyes on him when he finally manages to gain Lan Zhan's attention, "It's thrilling when you don't."

He has never met anyone more beautiful, "I find you better looking than any maiden." Lan Zhan's proximity now makes him feel-, "Breathless," He says, "When I'm close to you I feel- how did I miss-"

Lan Zhan grip is like vice around his wrist.

Wei Wuxian stops, going pale as he realizes how brazenly he had just confessed love to a man. If Jiang Cheng were here, he'd definitely gut him with Sandu, "Lan Zhan, I-"

Lan Zhan surges forward, eyes blazing and expression dark.

Warm lips slide over his and his mind goes silent.

He doesn't think a single thought that night.

---

War doesn't wait for anyone and Wei Wuxian doesn't say anything in protest when Lan Zhan pulls away from him. He watches with heavy eyes as Lan Zhan shrugs on his discarded outer robes and glances at him.

"Is your body alright?" He asks and Wei Wuxian feels a blush crawl up his neck.

“No! Of course it isn’t,“ He complains even though his body is buzzing with lingering pleasure. He pouts up at Lan Zhan, who studies him with careful golden eyes, “Really, going on and on, taking your pleasure without any care for my virgin body.“ Lan Zhan’s ears are delightfully red, “Who knew er-gege could be so bold?“

“Wei Ying,“ Lan Zhan’s expression is flat but his voice carries a hint of a waver. Wei Wuxian just grins in response, “Be serious.“

In all honesty, his body is already back to its regular state of being. His Golden Core is still spinning furiously and the lingering energy from Dual Cultivation has healed any aches and pains he might have. 

“Fine,“ He says in a petulant tune, inwardly delighted that Lan Zhan is now his, “But er-gege must kiss me to make me feel better.”

Lan Zhan doesn’t hesitate, leaning over him and gently tipping his chin up for the demanded kiss. 

Wei Wuxian sighs, sinking into it as a curtain of silken black hair forms a private cocoon around him. 

---

The war ends but Wei Wuxian’s problems don’t end with it. Three issues stand before him; helping the Wen remnants, helping rebuild YunmengJiang, and figuring out how to marry Lan Zhan. 

One obstacle stands in the way of two of these three goals. Jiang Cheng absolutely refuses to lift a finger to help the Wen remnants, even though Wen Qing’s assistance helped them win the war. Jin Guangyao may have killed Wen Ruohan but Wen Qing prevented thousands of casualties.

Wen Ning was also responsible for rescuing Jiang Cheng from the Wen capture before he lost his Golden Core. It was fortunate that Wen Zhuliu had been called to visit Wen Ruohan and Wen Chao had to wait to enact that punishment. 

Wen Ning and Wei Wuxian managed to steal Jiang Cheng away just hours before Wen Zhuliu returned.

And yet, Jiang Cheng chooses to side with the Jins on the matter instead of listening to Lan Xichen or Nie Mingjue. Wei Wuxian knows it is partly because their sister is marrying into the Jin clan and they can’t afford to make things difficult for her, but still.

Jin Zixuan will obviously protect shijie. There’s no need to be so cautious, especially if three out of four sects oppose imposing any sort of punishment on innocent people. 

On a personal front, Jiang Cheng’s disapproval of his relationship with Lan Zhan is blatant.

Jiang Cheng can’t really stop Wei Wuxian from marrying whoever he wishes. He doens’t need the sect leader’s permission as he’s not really the member of the family. But his shidi is making things difficult with his sneering disapproval and contemptuous comments in public.  

He has already alienated Lan Xichen completely by calling Lan Zhan’s honor in question (boy did he earn the punch Wei Wuxian had leveled at him - sect leader or no). Nie Mingjue will never side with some upstart over Lan Xichen. 

Lan Zhan himself doesn’t care. He has never liked Jiang Cheng and he never will. He only retaliates when Jiang Cheng tries to attack Wei Wuxian. 

His protective er-gege as no tolerance for anyone trying to harm him.

Which is what, ultimately, breaks Wei Wuxian’s ties with YunmengJiang. 

The confrontation is embarrassingly public. He doesn’t mind Lan Xichen or Nie Mingjue being present but feels upset about Jin Guangshan and Jin Guangyao being there as well. 

“Twin Prides of Yungmeng, isn’t that what you promised me?“ Jiang Cheng demands, “Where will your pride be if you break all of your promises and get into...” He waves his hand at Lan Zhan in disgust, “Is this how you intend to repay us? My father raised you to be the Head Disciple of the Jiang Sect and you would rather be some sort of deviant?“

“Jiang Cheng-“

“And you would side with the Wen dogs too! Was this always your intention? Did you always want to bring down my sect and support its enemies?” 

“The Wen remnants have helped us. They’re not our enemies.“

“They’re not our enemies now,“ Jin Guanyao interjects calmly, his voice soothing and patient, “But surely you see that it may not remain so? We cannot risk another war.”

“They’re barely a few hundred people and we have already taken most of their resources. They’ll live as poor peasants. How can they be a threat to us?“ Wei Wuxian asks. 

“You’re indeed naïve, Wei-gongzi,“ Jin Guangshan says in a gentle, placating tone, “Perhaps your fondness for Wen-guniang is making you turn a blind eye. Beautiful women have a tendency to do that.“ He chuckles indulgently.

The sly implication in his tone isn’t lost on anyone. Lan Zhan’s expression turns frosty and Wei Wuxian feels a surge of fury strong enough to make his blood boil. There are so many things wrong with that statement that Wei Wuxian, for once, is rendered speechless.

“You question the honor of Wei Wuxian of all people?“ Nie Mingjue demands, taking a step forward, “I have stayed silent because Jiang Sect business isn’t my business but I will not have you slander and belittle a proven warrior in my presence!“

“Indeed,“ Lan Xichen says calmly but there’s no mistaking the sharp look in his eyes. Lan Xichen rarely reacts to provocations or interferes in sect matters that don’t concern him. But he’s not going to let anyone upset his younger brother carelessly, “The matter of the Wens is easy to resolve. Let us give them a small piece of land, let them set up a village, and forbid cultivation among them.“

“Er-ge,“ Jin Guangyao begins but Lan Zhan is out of patience. 

He steps back and bows to all assembled before placing a hand on Wei Wuxian’s back, “Wei Ying will choose his own path. Wens will remain free. Wei Ying and I will marry.“ He meets Jiang Cheng’s furious gaze, “Jiang-zongzhu must decide whether his brother’s happiness matters to him.“

Wei Wuxian winces. 

“My brother’s happiness?“ Jiang Cheng demands, “All everyone has ever cared about is his happiness! What about me? What about our Sect? A sect he nearly destroyed because of his loyalty towards you.“ Jiang Cheng looks at him, “Did you forget my mother? My father? How do you intend to repay the enormous debt you carry, Wei Wuxian?“

Wei Wuxian stares back at him, “What is my repayment, Jiang Cheng?” He asks softly, “What will it take for you to consider that debt repaid?” It has been over five years since the fall of Lotus Pier. Wei Wuxian has bled and slogged through war to restore that place to its former glory. He has kept Jiang Cheng safe, helped renegotiate shijie’s marriage, and used his name to draw skilled cultivators to YungmengJiang. 

What more can he give? 

“Loyalty.“ He stills, “You devote your life to YungmengJiang and nothing else.“

Lan Xichen makes a faint, alarmed noise while Nie Mingjue huffs in disapproval. 

Wei Wuxian takes a deep breath, feeling Lan Zhan’s fingers flex on his back. He levels a flat look at Jiang Cheng and thinks on the matter of debts. He thinks about Madam Yu’s refusal to bend, of Jiang-zongzhu’s passivity and lack of planning. He thinks about the Wen’s unprovoked attack on Cloud Recesses and the inevitability of war. 

He thinks of his Lan Zhan and shijie’s Jin Zixuan, without swords and facing an armed group of Wens under Wen Chao’s orders. 

He thinks of love. Of what it means to be truly, unconditionally loved. 

No sorrys and no thank yous. No debt owed for simply being a part of someone’s life. 

He thinks of acceptance that comes with an older brother’s amused smile. He thinks of an uncle’s gruff admonishment to behave followed by a stiff reminder to eat, you’re skin and bones already. 

He takes a deep breath and decides. 

“No.“

[comicaurora]

Because it's currently screwing up my week, I gotta ask you: have you done practice comics before Aurora? How did you prep for it in general?

I absolutely drew practice comics before Aurora. Nothing I ever published anywhere, but I had a few short digital comics, mostly unconnected shorts from Aurora, with one notable exception where I translated a scene from Midsummer Night's Dream into comic form for a class assignment. Before the digital art I had pages and pages in sketchbooks doodled in comic format, some as far back as first grade - the ones that early had nothing to do with Aurora and were mostly superhero-related. I even tried to do a newspaper-comic-style 4-panel format for a while, and I spent one summer in my early teens inspired by What's New With Phil And Dixie (an early comic done by Phil Foglio, creator of the comic-turned-webcomic Girl Genius, which was basically a full-page "gaming news" comic from the age before videogames dominated that conversation and was mostly focused on Magic: The Gathering) doodling comics about Warhammer 40K. Had a brief stint junior year doodling full-page comic-ifications of particularly impactful Doctor Who scenes in my composition notebooks in the back of class. None of it was good, but it was definitely good practice, at least conceptually and for fleshing out a visual and narrative style.

Prepping for actually releasing Aurora didn't involve too many practice comics, but at that point I was already very familiar with the software and tablet hardware I was going to use, as well as the medium of comics in general. That was probably the most important thing to nail down, since otherwise I was going to be learning on my feet more than I had to. At that point I felt like practice comics would just be me stalling, honestly - giving me time to overthink or second-guess myself when I already knew I was going to be learning as I went and I'd done all the preparation I could reasonably do from the outside. There's only so much you can know about what a project is going to look like before you've started it, and you can't frontload all the preparation for the work when you don't know what you're going to need to work on.

I think the sketchy practice comics helped, but probably not as substantively as binge-reading comics did. Newspaper comics, four-panel and full-page comics, superhero comics old and new, Scary Godmother, Asterix, Tintin, Calvin And Hobbes, Usagi Yojimbo, Akiko, Girl Genius, Elfquest, Astro City, W.I.T.C.H., Ranma 1/2, several tragically short-lived manga series running for four chapters each in Shonen Jump - zero consistency in style or layout, no genre limitations, just a really good sweeping awareness of what comics as a medium could look like. Getting a feel for that almost certainly helped me get a running start.

[internalsealpanic]

Cosmonauts

Summary: You always call Tim space related nicknames. No one knows why.

A/n: This is technically a follow up to Art Gallery Smile but it can be read on its own. This was posted on mobile so Idk how bad it got formatted. Will edit when I get to my laptop.

Warnings: mentions of panic attack and anxiety. No graphic detail but just in case. (Yes, I gave Tim anxiety. Fight me.)

Masterlist

Series Masterlist

“IT WAS ZOMBIE ADJACENT,” Roz protests, shoving another one of Tim’s fries into her gaping maw in a vain attempt to stop the petulant pout retching its way to her lips. You roll your eyes hard enough that your entire head follows along with their movement, taking a nibble of your own fries. Roz scowls, mouth twitching the way yours does (4 times to the left and 4 and a half times to the right) it was honestly the only way to tell that you two were related in any shape or form. 

“It wasn’t even close, you deep-fried stick of margarine,”

“It shambled, didn’t it?”

 

“So does Space Case over here when you don’t funnel enough caffeine into his system, what’s your point?” You bite out leaning back, slinging your arm over the back of the bench and over Tim’s shoulder making his breath hitch. Tim can feel his skin heat up. For once, he’s thankful for just how much Roz hordes your attention.  He’s starting to run out of excuses for the color of his cheeks. Not that you ever fell for any of it from the way you hummed every time he stammered out his excuse. 

 

Based on the way your hand flexes and not so subtly moves away, you noticed his flush but made no comment. Instead, you grin- all sharp teeth and cocksure and smug bastard- leveling your older cousin a look which roughly translated to ‘Checkmate, motherfucker’. Despite his apprehension, Tim can’t help the smile that twitched on to his lips. Your eyes flickered to him. It might just be his imagination but Tim was pretty sure he saw fondness chip away at your smug grin. Tim kind of wants to lean into your arm but instead, he leans forward pretending to pay attention hiding his smile in his hands. His face is gonna get tired from smiling too much around you. 

"It wasn't even close,"

"It was freaky looking,"

"Damn woman, you're being real judgy there,"

“Back me up here Duckie!” Roz screeches, shoulders hiking up making her look like a frazzled cat about to hiss pulling Tim away from his reverie. You roll your eyes all the way to the back of your head while Steph just snorts. Tim sighs. None of you have stopped calling him ‘Duckie’ or ‘Ducktective’ after that stint of being ‘Drake’.  Admittedly, it wasn’t his best idea but you didn’t have to laugh that hard and slap your knee. When you were done laughing, you vehemently protested the name change by wearing your precious, well-kept, one of a kind Red Robin hoodie for the duration of the ‘Drake’ thing. You had said it was to bring him back to his senses (sense of fashion).  Maybe you just wanted to fluster him. He certainly couldn’t put it past you. It worked. Oh, it definitely worked. Now, all he could think about was how nice you looked in his colors which inevitably lead him to think about how nice you would look in his shirts, in his clothes- Damn it. He’s doing it again. 

Roz clears her throat. It is loud and rough and it makes all of you wince despite the already loud atmosphere of the cafeteria. Really what does Roz expect him to say? One, Tim wasn’t fully paying attention. How could he when you two are smooshed together on a cramped cafeteria bench with you still wearing your Red Robin hoodie? Tim’s surprised he isn’t keeling over. Two- 

 

“See! Even our darling-” Tim’s brain short circuits. “Space Cadet can’t even defend your bullshit,” you laugh reaching over to Roz’s drink leaning a little too close to Tim’s face. He can almost feel the heat radiating off your skin. 

 

If I lean in just a little more, I could probably…

 

“It isn’t bullshit!”

 

“You’re right! Bullshit has more substance-”

 

“Sooooo, what’s with all the space nicknames for Tim? When do I get one?” Steph asks casually, popping another of Tim’s fries into her mouth. 

 

Has he even eaten any of his fries? It’s almost gone and he’s eaten at most one.

 

You choke making a pained noise, likely due to said carbonated drink going into your nostrils (and possibly your lungs), as you turn away. Your neck visibly red from where Tim is sitting. Based on the sparkle in Steph’s eyes, she can see it too. A manic grin spreads on Roz’s face wide enough that Tim legitimately worries that it’ll split her face wide open. A shrill sort of giggle escapes her which has you whipping your head to her direction to scowl at her. It does absolutely nothing to deter the sheer glee on her face as she sneers back to you. Some secret conversation passes between the two of you. Tim and Steph watch in slow motion as mortification creeps on to your face. 

 

Suddenly (not really), Tim’s thankful that his only sister is practically a saint. At least compared to the horror that is Roz. 

 

Actually, now that he thinks about it, you have a plethora of space-themed nicknames for him when you aren’t busy calling him whatever endearingly aggravating name Steph came up with that week. 

 

Cosmo

 

Space Case

 

Space Nuts

 

Rocket Man

Martian Manhunter

 

ET

 

Marvin (the Martian)

 

And your favorite, Cosmonaut.

 

At first, he figures it was because of his obsession love for Star Wars and Star Trek but no, that couldn’t be it since you had started calling him that long before you two ended up marathoning the entirety of Star Trek instead of working on your project. He can still remember just how engrossed you looked while watching as you hugged your knees to your chest leaning forward as you waited for the next episode to start up with bated breath. Your features highlighted by the glow of the laptop screen making it very easy for Tim to memorize the contours and angles of your expression. Yet another moment Tim really wanted to capture with a photo. You even did your mouth twitch thing without noticing.

 

 He really wanted to just keep an entire album of all the different expressions you made. Wait. That sounds weird. Does it sound weird? It probably does.

 

 Then again, maybe you called him those because of just how much of a weirdo he was. He couldn’t blame you if you did. But he found that highly unlikely. Sure, you can be mean at times (a lot of times) but you were too oblique for that. Years in customer service made sure of that. Your jabs were usually of the subtler, more needling variety. The type that makes you pause for too long.  Plus, you said every nickname with a fondness that made his heart skip a beat. It was like when you called Roz or Steph ‘Fucker’. Maybe a little warmer. Or he could just be imagining that. Probably. Hopefully not. It was hard to get the honey-sweet way you said them out of his head.

 

Maybe they were just jabs. Lighthearted one. They could have just had easily been comments on just how much he spaced out. Tim has a tendency to live in his own head and it shows especially when he’s stressed or tired or both. Sometimes he would completely shut down as a result of excess anxiety. He can still remember the number of times he had let his anxieties run rampant letting them drag him away from the moment. His breaths were too quick to back then. He felt like he was gonna faint but then you just smiled at him like you were there for him which as it turned out you were. You gently squeezed each segment of his fingers until his breaths slowed. Even when he did fully calm down, you didn’t relinquish his hand. You held them firmly in your own even as you looked entirely unsure of what to do and what to say. You didn’t whisper the usual ‘you’re ok’ or the classic ‘you’ll be fine’. No, you just sat there with him quietly. Letting his feelings ebb and flow as he needed them to. 

 

Tim really isn’t sure what he did to deserve even knowing someone like you but he would do it again and again if it meant being able to stick close to you. 

 

Roz, ever the agent of chaos, throws a conspiratorial smile around the table like a flail. You look like you’ve been hit by one.

 

“Sorry, Steph. You won’t get one,” she says glancing at you. Steph pouts before she and Tim follow Roz’s gaze expecting you to glower or snarl or get up to deck her. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time. You just kind of sit there frozen and mortified with a face that simply says ‘Oh. God. This is happening.’. All you can really do is mouth a ‘fuck you’. This obviously pleases Roz. Say what you will about Roz, but there is abso-fucking-lutely no denying that she is petty as hell when it comes to revenge. Nothing is sacred to this woman. Nothing.

 

“Why’s that?” Steph asks innocently, smiling around her bendy straw also enjoying this rare chance to torment you. 

 

“I’m so glad you asked!” Roz answers her voice twisting into a horrifying facsimile of a daytime talk show host. You peel your arm away from the backrest and place your arms over your head and neck as you do in an earthquake drill bracing for impact. By the way, you were shaking, you’d think there was an actual earthquake. Your reasoning can’t be that stupid. 

 

“My dear Stephanie-” Steph scrunches her nose at the overly sweet tone Roz lathers on her name but makes no move to interrupt. “(y/n) only uses space-related nicknames for people they think are- and I quote- ‘waaaaaay outta their league’,” You let out a pained groan and Steph’s face unfurls as she lets out the loudest snort, loud enough to draw the attention of several tables around them. 

 

Tim’s mind is still reeling, still trying to process what Roz just said. 

 

Him?

 

Out of your league? 

 

Excuse him, isn’t it the other way around? 

 

What the hell? 

 

“Tim, for the love of Alfred, please unhear that,” you plead wetly, parking your head out just enough for Tim to see just how red your face has gotten. “God, please unhear it or I might just die,” Tim kind of didn’t doubt that you would. Steph somehow laughs even louder at this. Roz, not one to miss pouring salt in the wound, laughs along with her. You look like you wanted to implode out of existence.  You could certainly try but Tim seriously doubts the universe is kind enough to let you escape. 

 

Yeah, Tim’s brain has officially left the building. He’ll be back at 9 o’clock sharp tomorrow. Promise. 

 

“You mean to tell me that-” Steph chokes, unable to control her laughing fit. “-You’re telling me that you’ve been watching them pine for each other for over a year now and you just let them?!” Steph wheezes still holding her stomach.  

 

Roz looks offended and makes a whiny little noise. “Weeeell, technically I offered to wingman-”

 

“YOU WERE GONNA CHARGE ME FIFTY BUCKS,” 

 

“Hey, matchmaking is hard,”

 

“It isn’t worth fifty bucks!”

 

“You’re right! It is worth so much more,”

 

“God, I hate you,” you groan into the table. 

 

“God can’t help you now, kid,”

Tim frowns, mind backtracking to dissect the information. Apparently, his brain decided to clock back in. 

 

They knew. Even Roz ‘I don’t give a shit what you do as long as it doesn’t affect me’ Andrada, noticed. Was he that obvious?

A year? Wait. No. Over a year. They knew about this for over a year. 

Lastly, what do you mean each other?! As in mutual? Mutual pining? 

As if reading his thoughts, you ask “Wait… what do you mean each other?”

 

Roz blinks at you not entirely sure if you’re being funny. When you give her a look, she slumps back in her chair. “I’m related to a dumbass,”

 

“That you are. Speaking of dumbasses-” Steph whips her attention to Tim giving him a shit-eating grin.”-You said you were waiting for the perfect opportunity to ask (y/n) out, right?” Steph waves her hands doing jazz hands as she points at your still dumbstruck figure. She’s smiling as if she was the world’s best wingman at the moment.

 

 Tim suppresses a groan. “This isn’t exactly how I pictured it,”

 

Roz reaches into her pocket and produces a lighter. Grabbing the last of Tim’s fries and lighting it. “There. Mood lighting. Do the thing.”

 

“Ah yes, because surely the scent of burning potatoes is gonna sweep (y/n ) off their feet,”  Tim said flatly crossing his arms. He knows he’s definitely focusing on the wrong thing but as with all things it was easier to procrastinate. This is especially true when you’re afraid of the outcome.   

 

Roz huffs, waving the fry to extinguish it and muttering something about beggars and choosers. “Trust me kid that isn’t hard to do. Besides, did you not hear the part where I quoted (y/n) about you being ‘outta their league’,” You open your mouth to protest but slam it shut when Roz gives you a lopsided grin looking like she had a mountain of dirt on you which she likely did. He was definitely thankful that she has never met his family. He’s pretty sure Gotham wouldn’t survive. 

 

“How could I possibly be out of (y/n)’s league. I- I don’t- I mean- I’m not-”

 

Your body twists his way fast enough that he’s sure you either have whiplash or a twisted spine. Your eyes are set on him glowering as if he’d said something wrong. He’s pretty sure he didn’t although he did have a talent for putting his foot in his mouth. Your jaw is set tight, your teeth almost grind. He could see the tight hitch in your shoulders. He is 100% sure you’re going to deck him. 

 

“Do you want it listed alphabetically or what?”

 

“What?”

 

“Structure it like an argumentative essay. Speak nerd.” Roz instructs, earning her the full force of your glare. Your face pinches even more. Maybe this was the part where you implode. 

 

You suck in a calming breath before turning back to Tim. 

 

“Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne, you are a fucking moron, and here’s why:” Taking another breath, you turn to face him fully your cheeks reddening but you press on either from pure unadulterated spite or determination. 

 

“You quite literally co-run a multibillion-dollar corporation. You’ve been doing that since you were seventeen apparently. You know several languages and you are not only fluent but proficient. You’re well versed in an insane amount of fighting styles. You are the smartest dumbass I know-” 

“Preach!” Steph jokes. 

 

“-You can basically operate any machinery I put in front of you. I have no doubt you can Macgyver one up if you fucking wanted. You could hack into any system you want just as a joke. You could probably throw the entire global economy into the toilet just for shits and giggles. Need I go on?”

 

Tim looks at you wide-eyed and speechless. You shrink a little as he continues to gape at you but you keep looking him in the eyes daring him to refute your claims. Really what was there to say? As much as he wants to come up with something witty to snap back at you, his chest is too crowded with warmth from the absolute sincerity of your voice. He knows you didn’t set out to make him fall deeper in love with you but he feels like he’s in free fall with your gravity pulling him downwards. Tim can feel the heat rising to the tips of his ears. 

 

You shrink again, your mouth twitching. “I-” Another calming breath. “I said too much. But my point stands!” The infinitesimal gap he felt between the two of you practically vanished. Still, he could do nothing but stare. Words fail him in the most inopportune moments even when you look so desperate for any kind of response.  You swallow thickly looking like you think you’ve ruined everything when the fact was you haven’t. Quite the opposite really. Tim feels like he could take on the entirety of Gotham’s rogue gallery right now. Still, his brain was drawing a blank. 

 

“Mood,” His brain has short-circuited and is now beyond repair. His palm is in his face before he even sees your reaction. You give him an entire speech about how great he is and all he can say is ‘mood’. Looking over at Steph and seeing her phone on her hands, he can tell she’s already transcribing the events to the group chat. Well, It can’t get any worse. 

 

You giggle snort eyes slamming shut from the force of your laughter. Joy suffuses throughout your tense body, loosening your tense muscles. “Thank you for proving my point,” you say between gasps.  

 

Tim falls victim to the infectious smile spreading on your face. He feels the warmth crowding his chest grow fuzzy. 

 

Now’s your chance.  

 

Tim takes a steadying breath. He rolls his shoulder back to straighten his posture. He waits for you to calm yourself a bit. When you do, he asks as confidently as he can “Are you free this Saturday?”

 

“No,”

 

Oh crap. He knew he screwed up. He feels cold seep into his feet.  

 

You shake your head at his panic. “I work Saturday, ET,”

 

“Oh, I-”

 

“I have all of Sunday off though,” A hum of excitement spreads through his limbs. “Name your time,”

 

“9 AM?”

 

You give him a look roughly translating to ‘You aren’t going to lose sleep over a date, so help me’.

 

“11:30?” He corrects. You smile and hum seemingly making the oxygen in the atmosphere disappear. He finds that he doesn’t mind, not when he feels like he’s floating on zero gravity. 

 

-------------------------------------------------

Bonus: 

 

Steph: Tim’s a dumbass😌🙃

Damian: Thank you for stating the obvious, Brown. 

Step: 🙄 Do you wanna hear about it or not?

Dick: 👀We’re listening…

Steph: (Y/n) made this whole speech about Tim and all Tim could say was 'mood' cycgu9c8ychic8td 5d8fcouv9ygpuv

Jason: F

Duke: F

Cass: F

Babs: F

Dick: F

---------------

Thanks for reading!!!!!

Taglist:

@idkmanicantenglish, @batarella, @batarella-mini, @birdy-bat-writes, @anothertimdrakestan, @founduebitches , @lucy-roo

[pointnumbersixteen]

Alternate Endings: a Second Short Interlude to My Character Analysis

We’ve reached the point where it’s time to consider how Cap died. 

I was originally going to write this as a post-script, but decided to write and post this first, just so that the people who aren’t comfortable reading the content of part 7 of my character analysis would have something else to refer to. So, if you’re not comfortable with the content warnings on part 7 (which I’ll probably post tomorrow, once it’s edited) or you’re not convinced of the arguments I make or if you just find it too depressing, here are some alternatives. I think the manner of death that I discuss in part 7 is correct, from the information we have, but I consider all of these viable options, save that in these options I don’t know how to make his ribbons being on upside-down/backwards fit.

Anyway, here they are. 

Option 1: heart attack. I’ve seen a lot of people proposing that he had a heart attack upon hearing of Havers’ death. That bit’s unlikely, as whilst I head cannon that Havers died, he was heading out for the North Africa campaign, and that ended in ‘43, and the Captain lived at least through August of ‘45. Could he have headed up through Italy into Austria afterwards? Possibly, but I’ve got nothing to point to saying he did and am therefore unwilling to commit to it. I personally reckon Havers’ dying in ‘42 or ‘43 and the Captain spending the last two years of the war being sad over it. But that doesn’t rule out a heart attack. The Captain is not the soundest physical specimen. He’s 46. He has bad knees. He mentions a hernia to Allison in s2e5. He runs every morning, but presuming he’s running a 500m loop (which is what I’d guess-timate) he’s not very fast. I wouldn’t rule out a faulty ticker. And from a narrative standpoint, whilst it isn’t the most satisfying, it works: just imagine his frustration at having lived through WWII, never saw any action, and then dying at the end of it the most mundane death imaginable. This would leave no marks, and thus be consistent with his ghost appearance.  

Option 2: a fall. I find this one lacking in narrative potential, and therefore don’t favor it, but it’s entirely possible that he tripped and fell down the stairs and broke his neck and died so suddenly that he didn’t realize it and thus it didn’t affect his ghost appearance. The only thing that makes this one enjoyable is that he’d probably find that even more frustrating than a heart attack.  

Option 3: one I enjoy because I appreciate it when irony is cruel. Just after the war ends, command finally, finally gets around to issuing him the pistol he’s been pining over the entire war. Just in time for him to have no one to use it on. But he’s never handled this model before, doesn’t know it’s ins and outs, and whilst lovingly inspecting it, he accidentally shoots himself somewhere instantly fatal, heart or head, your choice. Again, he’d be dead before he realized what happened, and thus it would not appear on his ghost. 

Option 4: shrapnel. It’s my favorite alternate option (well, besides maybe option 3, but option 3 depends on him being a bit more of a doofus than usual) because it comes in choose your own adventure format, in terms of where the shrapnel came from. 

          Sub-Option 1: pure accident. These things happen. Cap’s unit from what we can tell so far works on experimental explosives. Something could go wrong. He’s standing near whatever kaboomy-device they’re working on after the limpet mine, it goes off when it isn’t supposed to, he takes a load of shrapnel to the torso. 

          Sub-Option 2: mild incompetence. Assume Havers is the brains of there operation (well, he probably was, but to a greater degree than has previously been assumed). Operation William went well because Havers was around to deal with the more trying aspects of it. This time Havers is in North Africa, however, Cap mishandles the latest kaboomy-device and it goes off, and he takes a load of shrapnel to the torso. If you want to link his death to Havers leaving, this is the option to choose, just assume Havers was always the one to do safety checks. 

           Sub-Option 3: sabotage. He doesn’t appear to be well liked by the men under his command. I don’t know how big the concept of ‘fragging’ was in WWII, in the UK, or in the rear, but in the modern US army, it gets frequent discussion, if not necessarily implementation. ‘Fragging,’ for those who don’t know, is the idea of killing a person in your own unit, usually an NCO or officer, who is either incompetent or an asshole, for your own satisfaction and/or the good of your unit, by tossing a fragmentation grenade at them in battle and then blaming it on the enemy. Obviously, no one was going to get away with throwing a grenade at the Captain in Button House, but it’s not outside of the realm of possibility that someone would intentionally sabotage whatever they worked on after the limpet mine, so that it would go off ‘accidentally’ when the Captain was near in order to get rid of him. But they don’t get rid of him, he just takes a load of shrapnel to the torso. 

          Sub-Option 4: we could be kind to him and say he did get a moment of action when he was on his brief stint in France/Germany/Belgium/the Netherlands (wherever he picked up the France and Germany Campaign Star anyway). This could be in whatever way suits your imagination best: infantry attack with a tossed grenade, or a bomb dropped by a plane, or enemy artillery bombardment. Either way, he takes a load of shrapnel to the torso. I think if the Captain had to pick a death for himself out of all of these options, it would be this one. I also think, though, that if he died of an old war wound, he’d never shut up about it.

Whichever sub-option you choose, he would have survived the initial explosion, had the bulk of the shrapnel removed, and then recovered, before being returned to Button House. But of course, as frequently happened, not all of the shrapnel could be removed, some of it couldn’t be reached, and shortly after the war ended, some sharp bit shifted inside him to pierce his heart or a major artery or what have you, and he rapidly bled out internally. Assume all of the scarring from the initial blast is under his clothes and that also leaves him with a ghost with no obvious cause of death on his body. There’s absolutely nothing to say this happened, of course, but there’s absolutely nothing to say that it didn’t, either, except maybe the flipped ribbons, which I could only make fit into my actual choice of cause of death.

Stay tuned for that in part seven of my character analysis. Probably tomorrow.  

[wordmasteracademytoday]

Side Hustles for Writers: Writing Resumes

Have you ever tried to write a resume for yourself? You know how hard it is. You want to impress the reader, but you don’t want to sound like you are bragging. Then what should you include? What should you exclude?

It’s a difficult call – for you. Most of us are at our worst writing for ourselves. Here’s your opportunity to make money writing. You write their resumes for them.

Getting Business

 Getting business is very easy if you live near a college, community college, university, or trade school. If that school has a newspaper, invest in a small ad that reads: Resumes. Professionally Written. Reasonably priced. You can place a similar ad in the local newspaper classified section under employment services or something similar.

Another way is to create a simple flyer with tear off sections and put them on bulletin boards around a college campus. Remember to get permission to post. You don’t want to make enemies with the school. Talking to the administration will help you make contacts with people who might steer students to you. I worked as a professor for many years, and I know that I have made many referrals to local businesses that I trust to out of town students.

 Writing the Resume

 A resume is easy to write. There are two basic formats. One is the chronological approach. This one begins with the most recent job and works back to least recent. This is best with a client with a consistent series of jobs in the same field featuring some level of growth.

Under each job listing emphasize the accomplishments, duties, and skills developed on that job. Use bullet points with each line beginning with a verb.

For instance

·       Developed four online courses that created the foundation for the college’s online education initiative.

·       Taught Public Speaking, Interpersonal Communication, Journalism, and Computer Mediated Communication.

·       Served on several committees including Accreditation, Academic Senate, Language Arts, and Curriculum.

You don’t need to put in everything. Ask your client what skills his or her ideal job would require and focus on those.

At the end of the resume add in volunteer work which might demonstrate their skills, languages spoken, certificates and degrees received.

 The second type is the Skill focused or Functional resume.

Let’s say you have a client whose work history has large periods of unemployment, such as a woman or man who took off time to care for a child until the child began school. It could be someone who was out of work for an extended period of time retraining after their company went out of business or after a disability made them unemployable in their previous profession. Likewise, you might have a person who has worked at several quite different jobs.

In these cases, a traditional chronological resume may not be appropriate. They may raise questions such as

Why were you unemployed so long?

Would you leave this job if another child was born into your family?

You don’t seem to have any relevant job experience in this field. How do you think you can do the job?

That’s where the functional resume is useful. It is also useful for those just entering the workforce such as graduating students who may have academic experience, and even volunteer work, but little or no paying employment.

After the basic contact information with name, address, phone, and email, you put a skill summary before the employment information. This summary contains a listing of skills the applicant has including technical skills, languages spoken, writing or speaking skills, or any other skills that might be valuable for an employer to have to evaluate the applicant’s suitability for his or her business.

This is usually centered like this:

 Skill Summary

Proficient in Image Editing with Photoshop

Speak Spanish Fluently

Skilled at Writing Technical Manuals

Desktop and Online Publishing

 After this you organize the work and volunteer history around types of experience. For instance, when I was looking for work as a college instructor, my background included teaching, radio broadcasting, freelance writing, and even a short stint selling insurance.

With that type of mixed experience, a simple historical listing might make me look like a Jill of all Trades. So, I created three functional categories: Education, Media, and Sales. Since I was applying for a position as a Communication and English instructor, I put Education and Media at the top. That way their first impression will be someone who has a strong teaching background with practical experience in my field of expertise in the “real” world.

So, with a client with mixed experience or who is just starting out but has practical unpaid experience like an internship or volunteer work in the field, this is useful. One word of caution: always designate the volunteer work or internships as such. For instance, someone seeking a teaching position might have a section that looks like this.

Student Teacher, AnyHowTown High School, AnyHowTown, Erehwon. 2018-2019.

or

Volunteer Coach, Cthulhu Community Center, Arkham, Mass. 2019-2021.

And if you catch those allusions you have the same exotic reading tastes as I do.

Aside from organizing the work experience by function instead of a timeline, the rest of the resume looks pretty much the same.

The Up Sell

 This is a marketing term for providing an additional but related product or service. An easy upsell is to offer to write a cover letter for the individual. Basically, in the cover letter, you emphasize the person’s interest in the job, some knowledge of what the job entails, and some general references to their experience pointing the reader to the resume.

Another Up-Sell is something I never did because I didn’t want to, but it can be extra money. That is offering to “facilitate” the reproduction and distribution of the resume. Basically, they give you a list of places to which to send their application package, and you take care of that.

If you have some experience with employment interviewing, or if you want to research it, you can also offer a service whereby you help them practice their interview. There are multiple places where you can find lists of questions commonly asked and tips on improving your answers. You can do the research, that’s how I learned how to handle interviews which I also taught students for almost 30 years keeping up with the changes in the job market as it changed.

 Automation

 While you can’t automate the entire process, if you do a search online for resume templates or resume writing software, you can simplify the formatting which can save you time and effort.

  No, it’s not writing great literature, but it can give you a steady source of

[niseamstories]

Tl;dr: The heavily revised physical edition Dreams of the Dying, my novel set in the Enderal universe, is now available for pre-order via Amazon via my website. Special early bird prices are $32.99 for the hardcover with an illustrated appendix, $12.99 for the paperback, and $2.99 for the eBook. It’s a prequel featuring Jespar, but, for reasons outlined below, opens up a new canon. Amazon.de has yet to pick up the listing for the physical editions, but they are incredibly slow—I’m working to get that done.

Hey guys,

This is Nicolas, the writer of Enderal speaking. As some of you may know, I’ve been working on an Enderal novel, Dreams of the Dying. First released as a web version, I spent the past year completely rewriting and improving the book, adding and removing chapters, revising characters arcs, and improving plotting, worldbuilding, and style. In total, I rewrote the web edition three times from cover to cover. Well, it’s finally time: Dreams of the Dying is now available for pre-order on Amazon!

The English version of Dreams of the Dying will release on October 20. A German (and perhaps Russian) translation will follow as soon as possible.

Please note that this is a rendering and that the actual hardcover looks slightly different, with same format but a matte dust jacket and a matte, laminated case. A big shoutout to Dominik Derow for the cover artwork, Johanna Krünes for her cover design, and Joyce, for her tips, patience, and help with this product shot.

Jaaros Oonai, magnate, visionary, and master of coin, doesn’t muse about whether the glass is half empty or half full—only about ways to fill it.

Jespar Dal’Varek, drifter, mercenary, and master of avoidance, doesn’t muse at all. He’d rather just drink the damn wine.

Two lives that could not be more different intertwine when a strange contract leads Jespar to the tropical island empire of Kilay, the wealthiest nation of the Civilized World.

The mission turns out to be as bizarre as it is lucrative: Jaaros Oonai, the country’s merchant king, knows something that could stop a catastrophe, but he has fallen into an inexplicable coma. Together with an ex-priestess and a psychic, Jespar must enter Oonai’s dreams and find this secret.

What should have been a fresh start rapidly turns into a nightmare, as Jespar slides into a spiral of disturbing dreams, political intrigue, and clashing ideals, where not only the fate of Kilay but his own sanity are at stake. It’s not long before he learns that only a spider’s thread divides the sleeping and the awoken.

And that there’s no greater enemy than one’s own mind.

The hardcover edition comes with an appendix that includes additional lore, such as an illustrated bestiary, a guide to Kilayan fashion, illustrations of the (re-envisioned) seven Light-Born, a short guide to the Makehu language, and much more.

Even though Dreams could be considered a prequel, I didn’t write this as an expansion or fan service but rather as my debut, and a book that stands on its own. This edition differs vastly from the web version, and, though it is up to you to judge, I’m a million times happier with it.

If you’re on the fence and would like to wait for reviews—here’s hoping I get enough—I fully understand. However, if you would buy the novel, you’d do me a great favor if you considered pre-ordering. One of the biggest challenges as an indie author is exposure; since Amazon registers all pre-orders as Day 1 sales, a lot of Day 1 sales would give me a chance to climb in the novel’s category and boost visibility for readers outside the Enderal community. To make this worth it to you, the book will sell for a special early bird price of $32.99 for the hardcover with the illustrated appendix, $12.99 for the paperback, and $2.99 for the eBook, as opposed to $37, $16, and $5. Just follow the link to my website and click pre-order—it will take you right to your local Amazon marketplace.

Unfortunately, Amazon.de has yet to pick up the listing for the physical editions, but they are incredibly slow—I’m working to get that done.

I’m aware the hardcover is in the upper price range, but it uses the best materials, and the illustrated appendix cost a lot to produce. It’s also the only edition where I make a more solid revenue, so see it as a way to support my work, if you wish.

If you’re a patron and pledged $110 or more since October 2018, I’ll be in touch a few weeks before launch to send out your signed hardcover copy right away. Thanks again for your support, Dreams became a far pricier project than I anticipated, and your patronage helped me immensely in covering the cost.

Lastly, a word of warning before you pre-order: For the paperback edition, I took the drastic step to separate Dreams and all future Enderal novels from the game canon. There are two good reasons for this. First, the Vyn games were created over 17 years, the earliest one being Myar Aranath in 2003. Fascinating as this idea may be, it also means that the lore of the Vyn universe was created by a myriad of different authors (the latest and current one being me when I joined the team in 2011). As a result of this, the lore of Vyn has always felt a little disjointed and inconsistent; I initially took these differences as challenges to conquer, but the longer I wrote, the more I realized how much these inconsistencies bothered me and how hard they made it to write the story and the universe I envisioned. Let me assure you that this decision wasn’t easy and does not reflect a lack of appreciation for the work of the previous workers. I stayed faithful to the lore whenever possible.

The second reason is a trickier one: Jespar. This character has been in my mind for nine years now, and I love him with all my heart. Still, the more I immersed myself in the story of Dreams, the more I grew aware of how incredibly constraining it was to write a story where the end is already written; because Jespar is alive in 8234 a. St. (1234 P.L. in new canon lore), you all know he will never be in real danger. Again, there is undoubtedly an intriguing challenge to writing such a “safe” story, but—similar to the lore, I increasingly felt like I was writing with fetters on. 

So, what does this mean? Aside from the fact that anything can now happen, the consequences aren’t that drastic. Enderal is still Enderal, and Jespar is still Jespar, albeit thirteen years younger and at another point in his life. I changed and expanded details about his backstory, but his essential conflicts are still the same, only refined. Major changes include modifications to the Light-Born (their aspects, how they came to be, when and how they disappeared, and the societal consequences of that disappearance), the time frame of the different eras, and a complete rework of the magic system. Minor changes include dates, the spelling of names and locations (Kilay, not Kilé), and others details I tweaked for consistency and worldbuilding coherence.

And that’s about it. I’m aware and grateful for the love many of you have for this world, and believe me, I did my best to honor it; I just realized I cannot tell a good story with one arm tied behind my back. If it’s any solace, I can promise you that new book canon is ironclad – I’m pathologically obsessive about consistency and cohesive worldbuilding, but without a solid framework, that’s a recipe for frustration and disaster. See it as a different but nearby eventuality: details and fates may differ, but the soul of the world remains the same.

If all that didn’t scare you off, pre-order away! I also set up a Goodreads page for the book, so you can add it to your To-Be-Reads or even recommend it to your friends – this is an indie project by all means, so I’m grateful for every bit of support. Please keep in mind that the Goodreads is for the revised edition, not the web edition, so if you’re planning to leave a low rating, I’d be grateful if you waited to read the actual book in October 20. It’s a different experience.

Last but not least, a big thank you to everyone who supported me on Patreon, created fanart for Enderal, or just let me know they enjoyed this game and were looking forward to the novel. This novel was meant to be a 6-month stint but, boy, did it turn into something more. It sounds sentimental, but this last year has been rough personally, and your support and encouragement kept me going.

I hope this story will live up to your expectations.

Best,

Nicolas

Dreams of the Dying (Revised Edition) on Goodreads

My Newsletter

My Patreon

My Instagram

My Tumblr

My Facebook

[retphienix]

It's been 6 years :)

On March 30th, 2015 I decided I wanted a gaming side blog. (so we're early, but shush, it's the month for me)

I didn't know what I'd use it for exactly, but I had ideas- something I always have even if most of them only get as far as daydreamin' or writing out before closing them :P

For proof on the lack of direction the blog initially had- the March 30th date is the anniversary of my first post, an in-depth and lengthy review of Dragon Warrior Monsters for the GBC.

If you know the blog then you know "Extremely long and in-depth reviews" aren't the norm around here. As a matter of fact, that first post is the ONLY one I've done!

The closest I've come to ever repeating that would be the (word of the day) Directionless video I put out on Hades to get a grip on the concept of making videos, but that wasn't nearly as much of a 'review' as that first post is.

Tangent, definitely planning on trying my hand at videos some more for the foreseeable future. Probably not gonna use the tagline Full Impressions that I tossed as a whim for the Hades video but yeah- I'm excited to try my hand at a few videos :) tangent over.

It didn't take me long to come up with what I'd like to do for the blog though :)

A few months later I liveblogged a challenge run of FFT where I used only Ramza- a solo run. - Which maybe only happened because I tried a nuzlocke run a year prior on my main account-

(Nuzlocke | FFT challenge run)

Thanks to that haphazard liveblog experiment I started to realize a couple things which became the primary motivators behind this blog.

1) I LOVE sharing experiences. No brainer, I'm sure, but being able to share my experiences, and compare them with others' experiences, and just that mutual sharing is uplifting and feels good to do.

2) Liveblogging is an EXCEPTIONAL motivator to buckle down and play all those games I said I'd play (cue everyone laughing because I'm still way behind and have an immeasurable backlog).

But I mean that, on both respects. I have plenty of motivators toward the blog today, but if I were to be concise it's pretty much "It's easier to beat games if I liveblog them- otherwise I get distracted and play other games" and "I love sharing experiences and thoughts with people about my favorite thing- games."

Since 2015 I've tackled around 70 games as full playthroughs, and an untold ton as one offs or just to ramble about for a bit.

I've had a lot of highlights over the years, and I don't talk much about it as an overall experience so I thought for the anniversary I'd try to do just that. Not everything- I can't say I have photographic memory that would bring all of it up without prompting after all :P But whatever comes to mind as I browse some of my old stuff- as well as some thoughts on what I'd like to see in the future.

It's gonna be a bit self-centric I assume as I type this preamble to it, so let me say outright that this blog wouldn't be half of what it is without all the people who've given it the time of day over the years.

From recommending games they love or appreciate, to comparing thoughts, to offering kind words for analysis I've done over the years, to pointing out when I'm dumb and misread a situation :P- to, yes, even the people who decided "Fuck this guy's ramble" and deleted my captions before reblogging my gifs way back during Hamtaro (Of COURSE I remember that! It's amusing lol).

This is better because of others, because of the interactions and the people I've gotten the chance to chat with or befriend. It's just a liveblog more or less, my own little bit of fun I toss out for myself if for anyone- so seeing others enjoy this or that from the work I put into sharing my experiences or thoughts is always a joy in itself :)

Anyway, onto selfishly rambling about some tidbits of the past :)

Also sorry but no, opted to not shove a ton of photos in, it does have a handful of links to old posts though :P

This'll be disorganized as heck as I'll add to it over time before I feel it's worth posting (or the tumblr post editor becomes a hassle and more or less forces me to).

First~

FFT Solo Ramza Challenge: Considering it was roughly the first thing this blog has done, it's also something that's stuck in my head a lot more clearly than most of the other stuff I've done to be honest lol.

In truth, this is partially because FFT is my favorite game, bar none. But it's also because the whole experience was pretty new to me. Prior to it I had really only done one self-imposed-challenge that wasn't requested by the game in some manner and that was a nuzlocke run of Blue version.

So adding a challenge to my favorite game was a fantastic experience!

Notes I just wanted to say today about that run: If anyone enjoys FFT I honestly recommend giving it a shot for the unique story it lends itself to. I do recommend skipping the rules until after the second battle but that's up to YOU to decide.

My first post on the subject is me complaining about spending 4 hours grinding out the second fight and, despite hyperbole being my natural state, that was NOT hyperbole.

It DID take 60~ restarts to beat. It DID take 4 hours. The reason is that that 2nd battle is RNG as HECK, you HAVE to have Delita do some meaningful actions, you HAVE to have the enemies miss and make poor plays, you damn near HAVE to crit a few instances to save yourself from taking too much damage.

It's a numbers game to the extreme, so I wouldn't fault anyone for 'cheating' and skipping the 2nd fight for the ruleset lol.

The memory that stands out the most for that run is actually isolated in a post in which Ramza (Purrick in this run) talks like a total badass as just ONE DUDE running into a room full of enemies. I just think on that as a great encapsulated view of what it was like. The run started off face grindingly difficult, but because FFT is a game that offers so much freedom to the player it was extremely easy to 'break' the game into making Purrick overpowered as hell.

That's something I love about some tactical RPGs, I love having the ability to play smart so that I can play stupid later on, and breaking the game into making him one shot god is certainly a good payoff for playing smart early on :P

RetQuick: I miss RetQuick, it was primarily a short experiment I did in 2015 where I'd play a game for a short span of time (REALLY short, like 10-20 minutes) and record that for the purpose of making gifs and saying a short piece on what I thought.

It's one of those formats where the purpose was pretty shallow- but had a reason. I wanted to try making some gifs with some tools that existed online, so I made an excuse to do just that.

I also wanted to play a TON of games, usually through emulation on my sister's PSP, and this let me do that.

These two minor goals came together and so I spent a while making RetQuicks which were honestly more fun to make than they had any right to be. I mean the gifs were tedious but the playing? The thought sharing? The end product ocassionally having more appeal than just a photoset? It was fun.

I'm thinking whenever I have trouble picking a game for the blog I'll revisit the format... sorta.

I already reused it for a short stint to show clips I had no plan on expanding into a playthrough, but that died as well as it was too similar to Tidbits posts (another tag I no longer really use).

My thought is to rebrand retquick as something of a tryout for what game comes next. Play a handful of my backlog games for an hour or so each and say some thoughts before saying which one I'll continue as the main game for that period of time.

Old Tag Stuff: One of those things that only sticks to me since I made the decisions but it's always funny for me to look back on my old posts because I was apprehensive as hell toward making my posts visible. The reason my early playthroughs on the My-Tags page are variants of Ret instead of just "The name of the game so people can find this post" is because I felt like a liveblog would just spam the tag to hell-

Something I don't remotely feel bad for doing anymore.

So I avoided getting any sort of spotlight for quite a while on the blog for little reason.

Why Retphienix?: This is just a dumb thought I wanted to share and I'm sure I've said before.

It stands for retro!

Yeah!

Ain't that dumb and also not a real shorthand? lol

I think I have some sort of deer in headlights anxiety towards naming things, I mean do you think I think Full Impressions is a good summation for a video? I don't. But perhaps that's overshadowed by the other inexperiences and anxiety driven decisions that had- doesn't matter.

Retphienix is Retphienix because I sat there in 2015 and thought "Well... what do I name an alt account?"

My main is Redphienix, which yes, is ALSO a terrible name AND is misspelled. But it's that because of sentimental reasons. As a kid I misspelled Redphoenix when making my gamertag (I knew how to spell Phoenix back then as well, I was too excited about xbox live and misspelled it) and it's become something of a sentimental misspelling.

So I wanted to make a mix on that for my game blog, but I had no idea what. In the end I thought "RetroPhienix? I don't know. Retphienix is closer to Redphienix. I'll do that" and so it was done.

And just like how Redphienix is both bad and misspelled but exists because of sentimental reasons- Retphienix has acquired the same 'flavor' in my eye lol.

Aspirations for the blog: I have no immediate ramp up plans or road map or whatever, and in truth I'll be happy if the blog stays just as it is forever- up until tumblr ends- I cry over lost posts- and I reopen it on another platform.

But I do have blurry half-considered daydreams that I'd like to see happen for the blog through some hard work or shifts on my part.

One is something I'm already doing kinda, hence my embarrassing means of bringing it up a lot lately. Videos- I want those. I wanna make some looks back on series people don't talk about that I enjoy, I want to make videos sharing my thoughts on games I beat for the blog (like what full impressions kinda was, but I don't think they'll have a unified name from here on out). Maybe retrospectives, but mostly when I think of making a video tied to retphienix or me in general it's me looking at a game that said something to me, and saying it louder with my own interpretations on it.

You know the kind, videos where they talk about a video game but not the whole thing- just a singular message they really heard loud and clear from it intentionally or not. I dig those and I know I end a lot of games having plenty to say that could be directed into such a format.

We'll see.

And I'm along for the ride on that one as well- currently I'm keeping my eyes on whatever is directly next, which happens to be "I plan on playing Omori, if it clicks as something to talk about I would like to take a shot at that in a video too!"

The other is that I'd like to build a small community. Wouldn't know the first thing on doing that in a modern sense, but just a little online friend group to chat with and play games together. Something that could open up multiplayer and coop experiences being better shared on the blog and would just in general expand my gaming to what it used to be back on the 360 when I had a large group to play with.

Since the 360 era ended I've pretty much closed off- stopped playing competitive games due to lack of interest- and slowed down to playing all games either solo, with randoms (and no mic usually), or with my cousin. It's a rare instance when I play with some good people like @gamesception or another friend of mine, John.

When I diverted from playing competitive games nonstop toward other genres I didn't intend to also cut out all my online gaming buds, it just kinda happened, and I never really put any effort into rectifying that.

So more or less I'd like to one day sit down and work on a discord server, and then buck up and put the leg work in to make some gamin' buds again, but that's such a vague concept anymore.

Sounds all sad and what not but it's more ambivalent, I made decisions that

changed how gaming worked for me after the 360 and this is just where it landed for better and worse- I'd just like to see if I can make it a little better :P

General things I think when I think retphienix: Honestly? I think of how much fun I've had over the years and how thankful I am to have had an outlet that encouraged me to explore more of the medium.

I REALLY love games. I went to college for games, I've written LEAGUES about games, I've played countless games, my childhood was games, my adult life is games- games games games yada yada yada.

So when I think of retphienix I think of how without it I probably wouldn't have explored a lot of the corners of gaming that I have.

I genuinely, and I mean this, might not have sat down and beaten FF7 for myself and would have considered the amount I played as a kid to be enough.

I might not have played Chrono Trigger yet, and I KNOW I wouldn't have played Chrono Cross, and I'm happy as hell to have played both of those. CT was a mind blowing moment for me that showed me just how good an RPG can be, and CC gave me miles to think of in terms of innovating an RPG and how beholden to the narrative a sequel should be (I don't feel CC should have been chrono at all lol).

I DEFINITELY wouldn't have given New Vegas another chance. And I know I'm a sourpuss on NV, I've been that way since I maxed my achievements on the 360 for it, but replaying it really did reveal to me how exceedingly negative I was being.

My memories had become "It's brown and a boring location >:(" and "The factions all suck and it doesn't do anything with the idea of bad factions >:(" and became "It's... a little brown guys, not a big fan of the area" and "They didn't do enough with exploring the gray factions" while adding "Wait. This is pretty damn fun. And 90% of the additions are stellar. And I forgot about Dead Money, my favorite dlc in any game ever with a story that tears at my heart every time I think of it, NV good actually?"

Faxanadu would have remained a cool game I saw on SSFF and not a game I played to the end and fell in love with the aesthetic feel it has!

Also that's a game I cheated like crazy on lol, I would do it again! Save state scumming games meant to be rudely difficult is only fair :P

I probably would have never sat down to play through Windwaker which was such a positive and uplifting experience that I now get the most relaxed and warm feeling in my heart when I see those blue waves.

There's so many experiences I would have left on the table in favor of like... putting more hours into a live service title or something.

Maybe, and no offense to my cousin or anyone else playing it, but maybe I'd be no-lifing World of Warcraft nonstop just stagnating my interest toward the skinner box mechanics of an MMO?

Some offense, actually but lightheartedly lol.

But beyond the entire games I've played for the blog, when I think retphienix I picture all the time making gifs, all those games I played on the PSP for short stints, buying a retron 5 to add to what I could explore and being stoked when they shipped a freebie box of old controllers to go with it, getting angry at the retron for being a Piece Of Shit lol, crying at the end of damn near every game with an emotional story because I'm a big emotional mess of a person who finds investing and crying at a story way too easy thanks to empathy pulls, oh!-

Getting excited whenever I found that I had a "*controversial*" opinion that no one would care about lol. Like the one that comes to mind is that I thoroughly believe that Dragon Ball Z II: Gekishin Freeza!! for the NES is WAY better than the fandom recognized and appreciated sequel/remake Dragon Ball Z: Legend of the Super Saiyan!

How many people do you hear talking about either game, let alone saying the NES game that is roughly half of the SNES remake is the better one :P But I stand by that! The SNES one is a remake of DBZ1 and 2 for the NES but it loses all the charm and some of the fun of the NES ones by being a lackluster SNES game!

lol

I admitted wholeheartedly that this post would be a lit-

little directionless (gotta love the new tumblr poster making me break sentences like that), but to sum things up.

It's been 6 years. It's been an untold amount of work to be honest- liveblogging a game, at least for me, hasn't been the easiest thing. It's a lot of thinking out my thoughts (heh), it's a lot of learning tools to make the capturing process possible, it's a lot of experimenting, it's a lot of writing and editing, and, well, sometimes it's just tough.

I mean I went to school for coding, not video editing, not writing, not image processing, not this or that- but this hobby has introduced a lot of things even if only at a VERY base level (I admit fully to using online alternatives to make gifs for instance).

I learned a lot about, well, a lot of things in order to use this blog to learn more about games- and all that work has become part of why I've loved all 6 years of this blog.

6 years of gaming, work, and you all- and it's been worth the investment :) Here's to many more and all of you whether you stumble upon this post or not- literally anyone who's interacted in these 6 years, thank you, and anyone who hasn't I offer you well wishes as well.

<3

[caps-lockdown]

Sweater Weather Part One

Sweater Weather

Hey everyone here is the next series I’m working on, mostly inspired by how %#$@ hot it has been here in Kansas (And everywhere else, the world is on fire). This story takes place over the course of a weekend (I know, I like weekend worst case scenarios okay? Leave me be), so it’ll probably be 5-6 parts. Hope you like it!

Pairings: Steve Rogers x PottsRelativeFem!Reader

Ratings/Warnings: Hard R 

For everything from language, crude jokes, ADULT situations/impure thoughts, booze (because it’s pretty much a staple in my fics at this point.), arguments, and an extremely overprotective Tony Stark. Very little angst, as I try to keep most of my fics light humored. But of course there are some insecurities/unsure feelings, as well as sad feels from everything with endgame/ the decimation. Also dead parents.

Also AU in the fact NO ONE DIED during Endgame/Steve didn’t go back. Also as much as I adore Morgan Stark, she isn’t around yet. I didn’t know where this would fit timeline wise, so just ignore the timeline. Kay? Cool.

Slow(ish) burn. Lots of pining

Words: 3,476

Summary: You’ve just moved to New York after a long 3 year stint travelling the world and helping with various charities, taking a new job with Stark Industries thanks to your cousin Pepper. A trip out to surprise Tony and The Avengers for the weekend turns from good to terrible when the a/c at the compound breaks. How will you beat the heat for the record breaking weekend?

It’s in Y/N Y/L/N format, any pictures, outfits, gifs, and marvel characters just assume I don’t own them. Also no Beta, as I don’t ever have one, so the mistakes and reader are all my own.Also her friend Kate isn’t mine either, she’s based after a very close fantastic friend. Enjoy!

Part one

“You just had to get the apartment on the top floor with an out of order elevator?”

You dropped the last box labeled “Kitchen” haphazardly on the floor, wiping your forehead with the back of your hand as you turned to watch Pepper Potts shut the door behind her comment.

“You were the one who wore heels today, dear cousin. And besides, the movers did most of the work.” You stared pointedly at her, before bringing your eyes to sweep over the piles of boxes that filled your apartment. A sea of cardboard that came with the faint scent of permanent marker and small notes of your truck’s air freshener flooded the small hallway and living room areas. The floors were bare otherwise, you not having any furniture at the present moment. “You should also know the elevator will be fixed this weekend while I’m out at the compound catching up with everyone.”

“Doesn’t help our damn case now though does it?” The redhead complained while looking at her tired feet.

“But did you die though?” You raised an eyebrow, turning back to look down the hall. “I just gotta pack a bag for the weekend and then we can head out. You sure it’s going to be ok? Me going out there and all?”

“Are you kidding me?” Pepper looked confused at your sudden question, shaking her head and grabbing your shoulders. “Tony is going to be so excited to see you! No one has seen you since the wedding! Not to mention these team building weekends never really get anything accomplished.” You giggled as you waded through the boxes to your mostly empty room, shuffling boxes as you looked through ones with “clothes” written hastily across them in doctor worthy handwriting.

“I should change. It’s hot as fuck outside.” You muttered, opting to switch out your gross sweatpants and stained-to-hell white shirt to a pair of short jean shorts and a curve hugging blue tank top. Your mind wandered to everyone you hadn’t seen in so long. Three years. It had been three years since you’d been back, spending that time traveling the globe and helping charities after the decimation. Pepper and Tony always called you, kept you updated. You honestly never believed you’d move back to New York. But things change.

The only reason why you had come back was after the whole Thanos thing six months ago Pepper had offered you a job as a receptionist at Stark Industries, you decided that day it was time to settle down. You made sure everything was good with the charities you had been helping out with before putting permanent plans into action though. Purchasing a small apartment in the heart of New York City, your cousin and you kept everything quiet as to your return. You wanted it to be a surprise, mostly to see Tony’s face. Maybe someone else’s. Shoving a few days worth of clean clothes in a duffel bag, not forgetting your swimsuit as your cousin promised you some sunbathing time, you opened the door to see Pepper grinning widely at you.

“You know blue is Steve’s favorite color right?” You smirked knowingly as you moved to the bathroom, throwing your toiletries into the sack and zipping it shut. Of course you knew. The blonde avenger was one of the only things that had gotten you through these tough last few years. When everything went down with Tony, you had decided not to pick sides, but you and Steve fell apart regardless. It started slowly, the two of you drifting from good friends to mere strangers. It hurt but you understood. It’s not like you were dating, or like he would ever see you as girlfriend material. Not that you would ever turn him down if he had just asked you. He was definitely boyfriend material, and him looking the way he did certainly helped things too. You had always harbored feelings of some kind towards him, even if you weren’t sure what they actually were. When the decimation happened, you knew the whole team had enough on their plates to deal with. So after a couple years and more importantly Pepper and Tony’s wedding you vanished off the map, putting your people skills and nurturing personality to good use. It’s not like anyone missed you terribly.

Shutting off the bathroom lights you lugged the bag over your shoulder, reaching to take a stuffed Panda bear, obviously worn from years of travel, and grabbing your keys and purse.

“Got everything? What’s the bear for?” Pepper asked as you double checked the deadbolt after you had shut the door.

“A girl in England gave it to me after I found her some relatives to live with. She couldn’t have been more than seven at the time, yet she had managed to deal with her parents turning into dust a hell of a lot better than some of the adults I had seen. She said Mister Stuffins was her favorite and that he would be my friend so I wasn’t alone. Sweet girl. She wrote me when she got her parents back. I cried for a week.” You turned the small bear over in your hand and placed in the front pocket of your bag, remembering her strength in such an awful time of her young life.

“What was her name?”

“Evangeline, but she demanded to be called Evan.” You snickered as you recalled her nearly ripping off your partner at the time’s head for calling her by her full name. The spirited small child had almost made you forget about the seven flights of stairs awaiting you. Your face fell flat upon remembering, Pepper shoving your shoulder.

“Come on, I’ll race you.” You gaped as the red head went barreling down the stairs, deciding to give her high heeled ass a head start before you ruined her self esteem. She’s going to hurt herself and I’m going to have to help her dumbass to the truck.

~~The Compound, a few hours later~~

“Jesus Christ Tony watch where the hell you’re pointing that damn thing!”

“That’s what she said.”

Steve rolled his eyes at Bucky, watching the comedy unfold before them. Sam sat on the ground, tinkering with a standing Tony in his iron suit, the latter barely missing the former’s head when his repulsor rays misfired on accident. They had been at this for hours, Sam trying to help the billionaire with fixing something that was wrong with his right leg. Tony continued to bark orders at the man who was only growing more irritated by the minute. To be honest Steve didn’t have the faintest idea what was wrong or how they were planning on putting it right, but he wasn’t the one doing it. So he, Banner, and Barnes all simply stood back to watch.

“We miss anything?” He turned his head slightly to the left at the sound of Natasha’s voice, Thor and her returning from unloading the Quinjet for the weekend.

“Tony missed Sam’s head again, but I think they’re about…”

“DONE! Eat a dick Tin-man.” Sam shouted suddenly, hopping up from his feet and clearing the way for a smug looking Stark, who only looked down at his leg and shook it. He turned to give Sam an iron clad thumbs up, who only flipped him off in return, heading over to join the rest of the group that had gathered on the compound’s grounds.

Since Thanos’ attack, the compound had been rebuilt but wasn’t nearly as massive in size anymore. Only one large building that offered housing, training, mess hall, laboratories and a few holding cells sat next to the pad that held the Quinjet. Tony decided that since the battle had leveled most of the original compound, building something a little more simplistic would be the best course of action. Everyone had agreed with him, and Steve felt like it was little more like home this way. And he’d rather be inside right now than standing outside in this hellish heat wave.

The sun was high in the sky, the temperature only climbing and it was already uncomfortable outside. Steve could feel the beads of sweat forming on the back of his neck, the forecast calling for record breaking highs for the weekend. He wasn’t looking forward to it to say the least, and knowing Tony they would be doing absolutely useless things to pass the time. He would pay for a distraction at this point.

The roaring of a large truck engine forced the super soldier from his thoughts, the impressive vehicle pulling sharply onto the compound parking lot with minimal effort. Dust settled as Steve’s blue eyes caught the familiar sight of Pepper Potts exiting the passenger side, fist pumping the air to loud rock and roll that was blaring out of the windows. Very unlike her.

“Honey uh who’s truck is that?! Are you leaving me!?” Tony coughed as he climbed out of his suit, the large mass of metal’s motor being shut off and the driver door thrown open.

“Of course not sweetheart. You wouldn’t last a day without me.” His confused look had the team chuckling as he kept darting his eyes from Pepper to the vehicle.

“Then who the hell is that?!”

“YOUR SURPRISE!” Tony raised an eyebrow as to why his wife was shouting all of a sudden, clearly not catching on.

On cue you jumped out of the truck, just like you two had discussed on the drive up to the headquarters, beaming at the large group of people.

You’d remember Tony’s elated smile for the rest of your days.

“SHORT STACK?! WHAT THE FUCK?!”

You laughed as the brunette man came sprinting towards you, the nickname ringing in your ears as he picked you up slightly, pulling you into a spine crushing hug and making you drop your bag. In all the years you had known him, Tony had been like the older brother you never had. When Pepper started working for him you were visiting with your parents and the two of you hit it off instantly. After their unexpected death due to a car accident a year later, Stark and Pepper were some of the only ones there for you, you three becoming inseparable. It had killed a part of you to leave after the decimation, but he had reassured you it’s what your parents would have wanted you to do. You blinked back tears as you hugged the man fiercely.

“Hiya Snark. I’ve missed you too.” The two of you broke apart, Tony leaning back to hold you at arm’s length, taking in your well toned and tanned body.

“Look at you! I mean look at you! Was there something in the water overseas?” You smacked his arm as he went to hug you again, his obviously excited demeanor spreading over the others, although there was a small hint of nervousness in the air.

“Move it Stark, she’s got a line.” Nat scolded, pushing the man away from you so she could hug you herself, a girlish giggle leaving you as you returned it.

“Dig the hair Nat, you break my record yet?”

“I gave up three weeks in. Pinball just pisses me off.” She shrugged, reaching to give your shoulder a squeeze. Thor threatened to break you in half as he embraced you, Bruce choosing to shake your hand. You decided that the new version of the doctor would take some getting used to, but at least he was wearing shirts now. Your eyes met the uncertain ones of who you assumed had to be Bucky, Steve’s friend. So they brought you home after all huh?

“You must be Barnes. It’s nice to finally meet you. I’m Y/N.  Roger’s talked you up a lot.” He took your outstretched hand firmly, giving you a small smile and nodding.

“Did he now? Funny he never mentioned how he let your gorgeous face slip through his fingers.”

Your jaw went slack as you stared at the man, eyes widened in shock as he shamelessly raked his eyes over your figure. Sam took the chance to rush you, your breath escaping your lungs as he all but tackled you. Everyone laughed as Pepper went to grab your overstuffed duffel off the ground.

“Y/N I’m so happy to see you! It’s been years!”

“I know Sam, I’m sorry I stayed away for so long, just had to think of the bigger picture for awhile.”

“Please Y/N. You were helping people, kids with finding family, rebuilding businesses and houses. Even running soup kitchens for Christ’s sake. Don’t apologize.” He met your bewildered expression with a sincere smile. “Pepper kept us updated. You really didn’t think we would miss you?”

“I had to think of…”

“The bigger picture. We know.” You wanted to remove Sam’s smile off his perfect face when a certain tall blonde walked into your sights. He looked nothing short of amazing, even after these last few years. His hair was swept back into its usual style, his blue jeans and simple t shirt combo making you light headed and he got closer to you. Steve Rogers looked damn good. But you had always thought that.

“You got a hug for me too Doll? Or are you all out?” Your breath hitched at hearing his deep voice, his challenging tone making your heart race.

“Not sure Rogers, why dontcha come over here and find out?” You challenged back, his eyes glittering in amusement as he moved to wrap you in his arms. It never came though.

The large explosion off the side of the main building of the compound caused everyone to jump, panic taking over your senses as Tony reassured you no one was inside.

“That’s good to know Snark but what the fuck was that?!” Your nickname for the man only made him smile before he went speed walking off to go investigate, the rest of you following suit. The blown line of a/c compressors sizzled and popped angrily at you as you got close, Steve darting an arm out protectively in front of you. You let your eyes drink the sight of his large limb, the muscle groups flexing deliciously against the material of his shirt. Tony didn’t look amused.

“What the hell is your arm going to do Cap? You protecting Y/N or flexing your freakish flesh for her?” Tony snapped, the captain lowering his arm guiltily. Rolling your eyes at your cousin’s overprotective nature you stepped forward to take a gander at the busted machinery, the sparks and smoke rising from the group of metal. Tony ran his hand over his face with a sigh.

“Looks like I get to track down some new compressors. Y/N, come with me.” Stark commanded, your face looking to his in confusion as he began to head back towards the main doors.

“Me? Why me?” You asked, not understanding the clearly cranky male’s logic. He scoffed.

“You’re better at people than I am. And I don’t like how Rogers keeps staring at your ass.”

A blush rose to your cheeks, not even sparing the embarrassed blonde a glance as you hurried to catch up with the angry brunette. You could feel Steve’s heated gaze on your back as the two of you walked away, Tony turning around to shake his head at the soldier.

“You better put your eyes elsewhere before I knock them out of your skull soldier!” You contained the giggle that bubbled in the back of your throat as you heard Steve groan, the rest of the team looking on at the two of you and sharing curious expressions.

Later

“Yes I will let him know, thank you so much!” You hung up the phone with a defeated sigh, tossing it to Stark as you paced the living area of the compound. The sun had started to make its way towards the horizon, and after five phone calls you were finally gaining traction on your current mission.

“How many does that make?” Tony questioned, repositioning his sunglasses on top of his head like a suburban soccer mom and scribbling something down on a small note pad.

“That makes the six we need. Six compressors, three deliveries, two electricians to set it up come Monday. I’m sorry but that’s the soonest I could get them here.” You slouched onto the couch next to him, the billionaire lovingly patting your leg. You let your head rest on his shoulder, thinking about how F.R.I.D.A.Y had said earlier you had about 12 hours before the outside temperature would start to affect the building. That was about an hour ago.

“So much for a team building weekend, we should let the others know. I wish there was a way to punch hot weather in the face.” You muttered aimlessly as Tony continued to crunch numbers. His head shot up at you suddenly, a wide smile covering his tanned face.

“That’s it! Short stack you are a genius!”

“You’re welcome?” You nearly fell over on the couch as Tony leapt to his feet, offering you a hand before pulling you out of the living area and down the hall into the kitchens where the rest of the Avengers remained.

“You guys Y/N figured out how we still make this weekend work!”

“Oh yea? Does it include leaving this place until Monday and getting some actual sleep?” Came Nat’s sleepy reply, Bruce pouring her another cup of coffee.

“No! We’re going to work together to beat the heat!”

“Y/N I highly doubt this was your idea.” You shook your head at Sam, clearly you and Tony had completely different ideas on how you all were to spend the weekend. “And Tony it’s supposed to reach nearly a hundred and ten! Why the hell would we willingly be stuck here, with no a/c for essentially two days, in a hundred and ten degree heat?!”

“Because whoever is still here at the end of the weekend doesn’t have to come back for the next four months of team building.” Came your cousin’s response, everyone looking at Pepper with a look of admiration, well everyone except Tony.

“Alright I’m in.” Nat agreed, slamming her coffee mug down, Bruce giving his confirmation alongside Thor. Bucky looked warily at his teammates before sighing, nodding his head curtly in submission. Sam and Steve also agreed reluctantly, not really having a choice in the matter.

“What about Y/N? She’s not part of the team and she shouldn’t have to be stuck here with us!” Sam directed everyone’s attention to you, a small lump forming in your throat as you realized they were absolutely right. So how would you spin this to where they’d let you stay without thinking you were crazy? Chewing your bottom lip in thought, you didn’t miss Steve’s eyes darting from your eyes to your lips repeatedly, a darkened expression on his face before Bucky managed to lightly nudge him, motioning to Tony who was watching him like a hawk.

“I don’t have anything else to do. I don’t start work until Monday and I kind of wanted to catch up with all of you,” You smiled to all of them, Bucky looking extremely pleased with your answer as Stark raised a finger.

“Question. Where are you working and how come I wasn’t made aware that you’re staying here indefinitely?!”

“Don’t worry Snark I won’t be far, I just moved into my apartment over the last few days and I…”

“Last few days!?” Your cousin in law threw his hands up, “When did you decide you would be moving back?”

“Uh…five months ago?” The noise that emitted from Stark’s mouth couldn’t have been English, his eyes narrowing at his wife who only smiled brightly at her husband in kind. She was within good reason to feel accomplished, usually secrets never stayed silent when Tony went snooping.

“Well I for one am all for Y/N staying. We’ll need all the estrogen we can find to deal with you lot this weekend.” Nat chided, coming to stand next to you and patting you on the shoulder.

“Great it’s settled then.” Pepper smiled warmly at you, rounding the island in the kitchen and going to pull out supplies for a meal big enough for a small army. “Now who’s helping me cook dinner tonight?”

A rousing chorus of “Not it!” was heard as Tony took off running in the opposite direction, Steve and Bucky following suit. Within moments you found yourself alone with your red headed relative, the rest of the team becoming scarce to avoid having to cook or prepare.

“I didn’t want them to help anyway. This kitchen would end up looking like the compressors outside.” The two of you laughed as you turned on some light music and got to work. It felt nice to be back.

Tag list: @kaytizzle @cuffski @giggleberts @pies-wands-and-more

[sally-mun]

How long have you and your partner been together? I knwo you've said it's been years but how long exactly?

It depends a little on how you look at it, because there was a big gap in there for a while. Our current stint is around a decade, but if you count when we FIRST started RPing, it’s actually closer to two decades.

Here, let me just do it like this:

1997-2005(ish): Yeah, my RPing dates back this far (probably farther back than some of you have been alive, oof). Back then the internet was still SUPER new, so there weren’t a lot of ways to hang out online beyond message boards and chatrooms – and you were NEVER supposed to go in chatrooms, because that’s where all the stalkers were! However I’d come across this Sonic webpage that I thought was super cool, and in contact info of the gal that ran it was linked a chat where she was known to hang out. It was back during the days of GeoCities (before Yahoo even owned it), and there were only a handful of chatrooms on the site in total. Among them was a room simply called “Games Chat.” I decided to take the chance and went in hoping to find the girl that ran the website. I never did, but this was my first introduction to RPing!

So for those who’ve never done this format, it’s kind of a free-for-all. Whatever screen name you log in with is your character, and everything happens in real time. Your turn is basically one line, and it can be dialogue, *actions*, or both if you could fit them. Yes, the turns are small, but the chatroom format meant that turns were taken rapidly, and it actually covered a LOT of ground in a short amount of time. You could do a single session and call that a day, or you could keep meeting up with the same people over and over to do a continuous game/story. There were basically no hard rules, just ones you established yourselves either before you started or mid-game ((via talking OOC)). Regulars came to know each other while other faces slipped in and out in a flash. Canon characters and OCs basically shared equal footing. It was exciting and fast-paced and I loved it.

Over time things changed a bit; GeoCities was bought up by Yahoo, and at that time “Games Chat” was changed to “Anime Capsule,” since I guess someone on the back end noticed that we were talking/RPing way more about anime than about video games. After a couple years of that, though, Yahoo decided to shut the chatroom down all together – but fear not, one of our users set up our own Anime Capsule on his own sever! We continued there for a few more years, and the chatroom itself gained more and more features that made it an even cooler place, but I eventually drifted away from here as other regulars gradually dropped off. At this point, I lost most contact with my current partner.

Sadly, so far as I’m aware this chatroom no longer exists.

2006-2011(ish): With the Anime Capsule behind me, I was invited by @fini-mun to a forum RP with a bunch of my friends (many of whom are even here on Tumblr now – hi guys!). This was my first time using a message board for gaming purposes, but I really liked it. The downside is it’s much, much slower than chatroom RP, but it was fun to get to use actual prose and narration. This RP is what made me realize just how much I enjoy writing, and it’s more or less when I transitioned to seeing myself as a writer instead of an artist (which is funny in a way, because looking back on my old threads there I was SO TERRIBLE, but hey that’s growth I guess).

For those who’ve never done forum RP, it’s MUCH more structured. There’s an area specifically for character profiles, another area specifically for OOC discussion, and then an area for the actual RPs themselves. Each thread is a specific area and time, and the board maintains a single, continuous continuity. If a character enters one thread, they can’t simultaneously be in another, because all threads are part of the same canon. When all characters leave a thread, that particular thread is archived, and then a new one is started whenever a character comes back to the area. This particular forum also had an “off-canon” area, which was specifically for silly OOC threads, “what if” scenarios, or ongoing jokes.

This was a SUPER tight community for me. We were a fairly small group and kept the forum private, and only got new users if one of us specifically invited someone. It operated pretty well for a few years, despite being a group of only about 15-20 people. I eventually left this group after an incident went down which changed things in a way that could never really be undone. The forum was different, the group was different, and most importantly, I was different. I did my best to linger for a while but it just wasn’t working for me anymore.

This forum has undergone a few changes, but still exists! You can find it here, or message @jammerlee if you have questions!

2008-2010(ish): In the midst of the forum RP, I’d reconnected with several of my Anime Capsule friends on AIM, and we intermittently continued some of our games via AIM itself. This was nice for me, because it was like a throwback to my chatroom RP days, but on a much smaller scale. At this time I reconnected with my current partner and invited him to the forum RP, but he declined, as forum RPing just isn’t his jam.

For the most part, this didn’t result in anything particularly noteworthy, as it was largely one-off instances and a lot of OOC talk. I liked the focused one-on-one aspect of it all, and I definitely appreciated the rapid progress you can make in IMRP, since that was one of my favorite things about chatroom RPing. So, even though I was still at the forum at the time, this also became a regular RP method for me on the side. Over the years I intermittently attempted to get a couple of friends from the forum RP to IMRP with me too ( @fini-mun and @jammerlee being my biggest targets), but in most cases these attempts fizzled. I had a really fun Knuckles & Rouge story going for a while with Deebs, but that eventually died out because of…

2010-2013(ish): …the arrival of Tumblr! I ended up here due to another invitation from @fini-mun, I’m assuming because we’d both left the forum RP and our IMRPing was inconsistent. It’s probably needless to say, but Deebs made a Finitevus character blog and I made a Sally character blog.

The thing is, I actually had a really tough time with Tumblr RP format. I just really didn’t like the serialized nature of the posts because it made it too difficult (in my opinion) to read through things in order, and nevermind the fact that there’s relevant info spread across multiple blogs! It just really wasn’t my cup of tea, but I still wanted to play here with the friends I’d made, so I decided to make my own version of Tumblr RP: I wrote my character blog as though Sally herself was blogging and getting used to using the internet for play instead of work. This turned out to be WILDLY successful, to the point that I even got a lot of fanmail from former Sally-haters telling me I’d softened or even completely changed their view of the character!

Although I don’t update it anymore, the blog itself still exists, and can be found here!

2010-present: This is the current RP with my current partner. Since I was no longer at the forum RP and Deebs had moved away from IMRP, I reached out to my ye olde partner and asked if he would have any interest in RPing a crackship that Deebs and I had been talking about (aka Knuckles x Finitevus). He was intrigued by the idea and we decided to give it a go, and wouldn’t you know it, it’s turned out to be the most stable game of our LIVES. We’ve been IMRPing consistently for the last decade or so, originally on AIM and then eventually moving to Discord when AIM bit the dust. We don’t RP every day like we used to when we were kids, and we take breaks from the main story to do AUs now and then, but for the most part we’re still chugging along and have no intentions of stopping anytime soon!

And even though these RPs are not public performance, apparently I’m writing summary TV shows of them now, so you can view those here at my blog as I intermittently work on them – and while you’re at it, you can support me on Patreon or Ko-Fi because these things take a lot of time and effort and it would really help me pay my bills!

[blackkudos]

Johnnie Taylor

Johnnie Harrison Taylor (May 5, 1934 – May 31, 2000) was a three-time Grammy-nominated American recording artist and songwriter who performed a wide variety of genres, from blues, rhythm and blues, soul, and gospel to pop, doo-wop, and disco.

Biography

Early years

Johnnie Taylor was born in Crawfordsville, Arkansas, United States. He grew up in West Memphis, Arkansas, performing in gospel groups as a youngster. As an adult, he had one release, "Somewhere to Lay My Head", on Chicago's Chance Records label in the 1950s, as part of the gospel group Highway QCs, which had been founded by a young Sam Cooke. Taylor's singing then was strikingly close to that of Cooke, and he was hired to take Cooke's place in the latter's gospel group, the Soul Stirrers, in 1957.

A few years later, after Cooke had established his independent SAR Records, Taylor signed on as one of the label's first acts and recorded "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" in 1962. However, SAR Records quickly became defunct after Cooke's death in 1964.

In 1966, Taylor moved to Stax Records in Memphis, Tennessee, where he was dubbed "The Philosopher of Soul". He recorded with the label's house band, which included Booker T. & the M.G.'s. His hits included "I Had a Dream", "I've Got to Love Somebody's Baby" (both written by the team of Isaac Hayes and David Porter) and most notably "Who's Making Love", which reached No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 1 on the R&B chart in 1968. "Who's Making Love" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. In 1970, Taylor married Gerlean Rocket and they remained married until his death in 2000.

During his tenure at Stax, he became an R&B star, with over a dozen chart successes, such as "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone", which reached No. 23 on the Hot 100 chart, "Cheaper to Keep Her" (Mack Rice) and record producer Don Davis's penned "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)", which reached No. 11 on the Hot 100 chart. "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)" also sold in excess of one million copies, and was awarded gold disc status by the R.I.A.A. in October 1973. Taylor, along with Isaac Hayes and The Staple Singers, was one of the label's flagship artists, who were credited for keeping the company afloat in the late 1960s and early 1970s after the death of its biggest star, Otis Redding, in an aviation accident. He appeared in the documentary film, Wattstax, which was released in 1973.

Columbia Records

After Stax folded in 1975, Taylor switched to Columbia Records, where he recorded his biggest success with Don Davis still in charge of production, "Disco Lady", in 1976. It spent four weeks at number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and six weeks at the top of the R&B chart. It peaked at No. 25 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1976. "Disco Lady" was the first certified platinum single (two million copies sold) by the RIAA. Taylor recorded several more successful albums and R&B single hits with Davis on Columbia, before Brad Shapiro took over production duties, but sales generally fell away.

Malaco Records

After a short stay at a small independent label in Los Angeles, Beverly Glen Records, Taylor signed with Malaco Records after the company's founder Tommy Couch and producing partner Wolf Stephenson heard him sing at blues singer Z. Z. Hill's funeral in spring 1984.

Backed by members of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, as well as in-house veterans such as former Stax keyboardist Carson Whitsett and guitarist/bandleader Bernard Jenkins, Malaco gave Taylor the type of recording freedom that Stax had given him in the late 1960s and early 1970s, enabling him to record ten albums for the label in his 16-year stint.

In 1996, Taylor's eighth album for Malaco, Good Love!, reached number one on the Billboard Top Blues Albums chart (No. 15 R&B), and was the biggest record in Malaco's history. With this success, Malaco recorded a live video of Taylor at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas, in the summer of 1997. The club portion of the Good Love video was recorded at 1001 Nightclub in Jackson, Mississippi.

Taylor's final song was "Soul Heaven", in which he dreamed of being at a concert featuring deceased African-American music icons from Louis Armstrong to Otis Redding to Z.Z. Hill to The Notorious B.I.G., among others.

Radio

In the 1980s, Johnnie Taylor was a DJ on KKDA, a radio station in the Dallas area, where he had made his home. The station's format was mostly R&B and Soul oldies and their on-the-air personalities were often local R&B, Soul, blues, and jazz musicians. Taylor was billed as "The Wailer, Johnnie Taylor".

Death

Taylor died of a heart attack at Charlton Methodist Hospital in Dallas, Texas, on May 31, 2000, aged 66. Stax billed Johnnie Taylor as "The Philosopher of Soul". He was also known as "the Blues Wailer". He was buried beside his mother, Ida Mae Taylor, at Forrest Hill Cemetery in Kansas City, Missouri.

His highly complex personal life was revealed after his death. Having six accepted children and three others with confirmed paternity born to three different mothers, the difficulties associated with executing his will were presented in the TV programme, The Will: Family Secrets Revealed: The Estate of Johnnie Taylor. (Season 2, Episode 5. November 16, 2011).

Awards and nominations

Taylor was given a Pioneer Award by the Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1999. Taylor was also a three-time Grammy Award nominee.

Grammy Awards

Taylor has been nominated for three career Grammy Awards without a win.

Musical influence

In 2004, the UK's Shapeshifters sampled Taylor's 1982 "What About My Love?", for their No. 1 hit single, "Lola's Theme".

Discography

Albums

Wanted: One Soul Singer - Stax 715 (1967)

Who's Making Love... - Stax 2005 (1968)

Raw Blues - Stax 2008 (1968)

Rare Stamps - Stax 2012 (1968)

The Johnnie Taylor Philosophy Continues - Stax 2023 (1969)

One Step Beyond - Stax 2030 (1971)

Taylored in Silk - Stax 3014 (1973)

Super Taylor - Stax 5509 (1974)

Eargasm - Columbia 33951 (1976)

Rated Extraordinaire - Columbia 34401 (1977)

Reflections - RCA APL1-2527 (1977)

Disco 9000 - Columbia 35004 (1977)

Ever Ready - Columbia 35340 (1978)

She's Killing Me - Columbia 36061 (1979)

A New Day - Columbia 36548 (1980)

Just Ain't Good Enough - Beverly Glen 10001 (1982)

This is Your Night - Malaco 7421 (1984)

Wall to Wall - Malaco 7431 (1985)

Lover Boy - Malaco 7440 (1987)

In Control - Malaco 7446 (1988)

Crazy 'Bout You - Malaco 7452 (1989)

I Know It's Wrong But I... Just Can't Do Right - Malaco 7460 (1991)

Real Love - Malaco 7472 (1993)

Good Love! - Malaco 7480 (1996)

Taylored to Please - Malaco 7488 (1998)

Gotta Get the Groove Back - Malaco 7499 (1999)

There's No Good in Goodbye - Malaco 7515 (2003)

Live at the Summit Club - Stax/Fantasy 8628 (recorded 1972; released 2007)

FunkSoulBrother - Fuel/Universal. Retrospective album

[blindkarakul]

LFRP/Contact - M’yhe Tia

(Art by Beansnake) 

Hey there! I’m Griffin, and this is my bastard trash goblin. With the datacenter merges getting close, I wanted to reach out again! I’m not necessarily in a drought of RP or RP partners, but I’m always open to more where I can fit them! I really love meeting new people, and I’ll be excited to have a few friends to chill with come the day of the datacenter merges!

M’yhe likes to be slippery. Subjects with a 🔒 next to them are tidbits of information only attainable through RP!

BASICS ––––

AGE: 25 Summers

RACE: Miqo’te; Seeker of the Sun? (🔒)

GENDER: Male

SEXUALITY: 🌈

MARITAL STATUS: In a Relationship; Polyamorous

SERVER: Coeurl - Crystal / Siren - Aether

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE ––––

HAIR: A sandstone blonde, fluffed and tufted wildly. Longer hair tied into braids dyed scarlet, tips of tail and ears spotted with a sable hue.

EYES: Clouded blue eyes; clearly blind

HEIGHT: Five Fulms and Three Ilms

BUILD: Slightly underweight, though well-toned. Lithe frame, built for hunting.

DISTINGUISHING MARKS: Fangs. Various white tattoos, and chalky face paints of the same hue. Seer’s tattoos.

COMMON ACCESSORIES: Mask // Walking Stick // Trophy Necklace

PERSONAL –––-

PROFESSION: Seer and Diviner, Transient, Prostitute (Occasional), Mark Hunter (Occasional)

HOBBIES: Divination // Brawling // Bad Jokes // Drinking // Dancing // Travel // Hunting

LANGUAGES: Common Eorzean, Hunterspeak, Hingan (Broken)

RESIDENCE: None

FEARS:  🔒 Some

RELATIONSHIPS –––-

LOVER: Ninka'ir Tayuun

CHILDREN: None

PARENTS:  🔒 A Hot Mess

SIBLINGS: None… That he knows of

OTHER RELATIVES: 🔒 Catastrophic

BEST FRIEND(S): Marcella Thorsen, Ninka'ir Tayuun, Selahkiir Tyl'vyr, Tetsuro Wulf, Kina Wilhelm, Sarya, Vishumo Gerdhardt, Mi’ke Tia

PETS: N/A

TRAITS –––-

Extroverted  ○○✸○○○○○○○ Introverted

Disorganized  ○○○○✸○○○○○ Organized

Close minded  ○○○○○○✸○○○  Open-minded

Calm  ○○○○○✸○○○○ Anxious

Disagreeable ○○○○✸○○○○○ Agreeable

Cautious ○○○○○○○✸○○  Reckless

Patient  ○○○○○○✸○○○ Impatient

Outspoken ○✸○○○○○○○○ Reserved

Leader  ○✸○○○○○○○○ Follower

Empathetic ○○○✸○○○○○○ Unemphatic

Optimistic  ○○○○○○✸○○○ Pessimistic

Traditional ○○○○✸○○○○○ Modern

Hard-Working ○○✸○○○○○○○ Lazy

Cultured ○○○○✸○○○○○ Uncultured

Loyal ○✸○○○○○○○○ Disloyal

Faithful ○○✸○○○○○○○ Unfaithful

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION –––-

SMOKING HABIT: Occasionally

DRUGS: Occasionally

ALCOHOL: Frequently

POSSIBLE HOOKS –––-

LIBERTY OR DEATH // M’yhe is very Gyr Abanian– he served the Resistance for a short stint, and may be easy to remember from his time there. That, or he may be memorable from his tribe’s nomadic days.

WELL-TRAVELED // This miqo’te has seen his fair share of the world. While he can be tight-lipped about a good majority of his past (🔒), he may be recognizable from places like Kugane, La Noscea, Gridania, and Thanalan; especially the latter two. May especially be recognizable for the trouble he causes, too…

DANCE WITH THE STARS OF YOUR FATE // M’yhe makes claim that he’s a particularly skilled diviner, often willing to read Sharlayan Tarot, or perform other methods of divination to scry for answers to any question. While he wanders the sands of Thanalan frequently, oftentimes he may set up shop within Gridania or Ul’dah, scraping by with fortunes for coin.

🔒  ECHO: OMENS // M’yhe unknowingly possesses the echo, though particularly weak and underdeveloped. His echo manifests in omens that can affect any of his five senses; symbolic hints of what may be to come, or what may have already happened. He still struggles to comprehend languages he hasn’t studied, and his ability to be tempered by a primal is likely still in question. If you’d like to set something up regarding this, let me know! [I’d like to stress that I do not use this to God-Mod or Metagame. Everything is discussed.]

CONTACT INFORMATION –––-

Heya!! My name is Griffin, I use He/Him, and this is jackass.

I usually like to schedule my RPs to make sure I’m not overlapping responsibilities, and so I can prepare for them, so feel free to message me and I’ll work something out! I have a lot of free-time, and I stay up late, so I’m pretty damn open.

I typically RP on Discord or In-Game! Until the datacenter merges, we can RP in instances, or through Discord/Tumblr IM! I am also totally open to threads on here, or other websites, but I can’t make any guarantees to how on-my-game I’ll be with em.

Discord: Ala Mhigan Thunderfuck#6149 , just tell me who you are when you add me!

Tumblr: @blindkarakul is my RP blog for Yhe, but @spririte is my personal and it’s full of shit. DM me, send an Ask, write a post and tag me! Whatever you want.

In-Game: M’yhe Tia! Gimme a friend request, and we can figure out what we wanna do!

DO’s and DON’Ts

I’m fine with all types of RP, and mun is 18+ so it’s really where we both draw boundaries! 

I know up there it says that M’yhe occasionally takes up prostitution stints, but I’m not looking for him to be a sole ERP character. I’m always willing to set up a pre-established relationship and that’s definitely able to be apart of it, but honestly I’m looking for a bit more out of an RP partner than just dicking down. If RP events lead there, then great! That’s all good by me! But please don’t just come knocking on my door cause you wanna bang. There’s plenty of other catboys willing to do that.

Same goes for romance too. I'm not looking for other romance partners for M'yhe at this time, so don't expect that either. If we RP and its something you'd really like to see, we can talk about it, but I don't want to stack my plate too high with responsibility I can't handle.

Honestly I’m fine with taking IC consequences for things like fights and dumb shit. I also operate by IC =/= OOC so if that’s something you can’t separate then there are probably going to be problems! M’yhe can be a shithead sometimes, but I TRY TO NOT BE.

Things I am not okay with are: Non-Con, Character Death, and probably a lot of other things that I’m currently forgetting. This is deffo subject to change, so honestly just feel free to ask about anything you’re not sure about, and we can communicate like living human persons do my dude.

(Post Formatting Ideas from x and x)

[teachersofeducationhu-blog]

**Social media- **what is and what it does

I have since a very long time been monitoring the use of social media.

To be honest growing up i was quite hesitant to be on social media as i thought it would drown my brain.

But today we're here with you to discuss the good and the bad of social media that are used in todays adolescents.

First of we need to  know what social media is:

Social media refers to websites and applications that are designed to allow people to share content quickly, efficiently, and in real-time.

Social media is also seen as a platform for many groups and ethnicities.

For many it is seen as  as a show case of talents, entertainment,personalities, characteristics, and especially their voices.

Next we need to know the platforms they used:

the youths that we've primarily come across upon use the social media outlets:

Instagram

Snapchat

Twitter

Facebook

Whatsapp

Tik Tok

Youtube

Tumblr

To begin with comprehending our youth we need to understand what they use their outlets for.

You can see many of todays youths on social media. Some using it as their personal platform others using it to conceive trends, observing nearly worshipping their idols, forms of communication, its also a look into the daily lives  of each other.

For instance: celebrity crush and idols

they are the people kids look up to and use as their role models or envision themselves in that role one day whether be reality or a dream.

It gives them something to reach out to, sort of like a goal

As for media entertainment

we all know the use of memes and the use of it for our personal comic relief.

We all spend countless hours looking at memes and youtube videos but what if we could use this entertainment to stimulate and help evolve the adolescent brain development.

In the form of generating their own memes or social vids that are informative.

Gaming and YouTube has vastly taken over the social platform stage.

They are also some of the more novice lucrative ways of making money on a social platform.

Take for instance that recently there was a video game tournament for fortnite where a young teen won over a million dollars by becoming its first tournament winner.

And what better way to broadcast that same tournament but on YouTube.

Where millions of viewers logged in and the broadcaster got paid by the sum of viewers he/ she had.

Psychoanalysis was founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939).  Freud believed that people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining insight.

The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release repressed emotions and experiences, i.e., make the unconscious conscious. It is only having a cathartic (i.e., healing) experience can the person be helped and "cured."

Click here for a video on the theory of psycho analysis

psycho analysis is crucial to understand because if we do then we know our brain develops even in our sleep. And if teens constantly are on social media or social networks and video games it can affect their sleep and the wake up restless, or even worse more dedicated to the social outlets as not to feel left out.

One way we can help beat this is 3 hours before bed time all phones away and give the brain a stimulating activity so that it can function up to speed and breathe and eat knowledge as it is meant to .

Implement family night with boardgames or trivia or a fun activity outsides that can help build your social recognizance.

Giving your body and brain diversity keeps it sharp and uplifting and gives you those extra tools for life.

For instance some of the social idols for todays teens can be what we call social influencers.

A social influencer is someone who uses their social media status to push products on their young audience to buy said product on their social media page for what said influencer is paid for by the brand.

See video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5SOFSjlU0fM

on a site called mom junction I found 11 positive and negative influences of teen on social media

https://www.momjunction.com/articles/positive-and-negative-influences-of-media-on-teenagers_00107975/

I will just use 2 of each:

Help Develop Social Skills:

Many teens are socially awkward. Media gives them the chance to groom their social skills. It also gives them the chance to expand their social circle and develop new friendships. Other benefits include social confidence, heightened literacy in the media, and more social support. Social media diversifies your teen’s social skills, which in turn helps him navigate successfully through modern society

Inspire Them:

When your teen watches an action flick, don’t just despair about the violence. With a little guidance, they can use the movie as inspiration! Maybe your teen will decide to take up martial arts training, all thanks to a Bruce Lee movie! Teenagers look up to celebrities, and when a celebrity tells them to stay off drugs, they just might listen.

Negative theories

Risky Sexual Behavior:

Teenagers are just discovering their sexuality. It is very normal for them to be interested in everything sexual. But the amount of sex in media today can make a teenager confused. Sex without responsibility – that seems to be the message being beamed at teenagers. This can lead to irresponsible sexual behavior and unwanted pregnancies.

[ Read:Teenage Social Media Addiction]

Making Everything Commercial:

Happiness comes at a price. At least that’s the message teenagers get through media. Their life would be perfect if only you’d buy them that hot new game, that happening dress. Advertisers target teenagers to ramp up their revenues. But teenagers fall prey to the idea of commercialization of happiness.

According to Erickson’s Developmental theory, an individual faces a developmental crisis at each stage ( a conflict between a positive alternative and a potentially unhealthy alternative). “…The emphasis on ones own identity at a point in time when the way forward was no longer determined by ones parents or by society…resulting in a crisis of identity”. (westenberg 2008:2)​

​

Now that we have that tackled, let us discuss some of the good of social media:

Ive mentioned previously above that social media is a platform:

for instance the parkland shooting in the united states where a group of students took to social media to voice their opinions after surviving yet another tragic massacre and became activist in their own rights to fight against NRA and force a national debate.

https://www.vox.com/2018/2/26/17054408/parkland-shooting-activist-teens-gun-control

if we were to apply Urie Bronfebenner's theory  of Ecological Theory of Human Development.

Urie Bronfenbrenner (April 29, 1917 – September 25, 2005) was a Russian-born American psychologist who is most known for his ecological systems theory.[1] His work with the United States government helped in the formation of the Head start program in 1965.[2] Bronfenbrenner's ability research was key in changing the perspective of developmental psychology by calling attention to the large number of environmental and societal influences on child development.

Or young high school or college students  or athletes using their popularity on  social media to spread the knowledge of  social injustice

As you can see young adults have used social media to help lead them along the way to do great things these are the most beautiful forms of social media.

Then of course there is the ugly.

Social media is also an open platform, for some  it can allow you to be subsequent to

for instance research has shown that spending to much time on social media can lead lead to depression .

As noted by such research sites such as ivesciences

https://www.livescience.com/51294-cyberbullying-social-media-teen-depression.html

Don't get me with twisted everything in this life there are the good and the bad.

Take for instance social media have given us the means to reach millions if not billions of people across the globe to relay our message but it can also allow you to portray just a an image of yourself but factual and superficial.

CYBERBULLYING

Do you know the dangers of cyber bullying?

Cyber bullying has taken on one of the worst form of emotional en mental damage to it's victims.

There have been an extreme amount of cyber bullying that  has led to the victims committing suicide.

I don't know about you but no child should have o go through so much that they rather take their own lives because of such cowardly behavior from another that hides behind a  sometimes fake profile.

Here is an article from lie science backing thees findings:

https://www.livescience.com/51294-cyberbullying-social-media-teen-depression.html

For instance in adolescents cat fishing has been major issue.

For those who don't know catfish(ing ) is pretending to be someone your not on he internet/ social media .

The most cat-fishers claim to show interest in you and try to either make you fall in love with them or to manipulate you for their own personal cause.

https://socialnewsdaily.com/11296/catfishing-infographic/

Cat-fishing is often employed for romance scams,on dating websites. Cat-fishing may be used for financial gain, to compromise a victim in some way, or simply as a form of trolling or wish fulfillment.Sadly the study found that cat-fishers will use traumatic experiences such as cancer, accidents and death to avoid meeting their victims in real life.

As we look into the psychological make up of cat-fishing its almost always done by one person making of a fake social media platform. It is because it is so easy to mask our through selves behind the windows of social media. Another bad reference is that it is now easier for bullies and psychopaths to reach our youth online through social media.

Other platforms with social media use

Lets take a look into the platform that our adolescents role into.

For instance youtube, youtube was seen for many years as just a media outlet where we could watch short documentaries and comedy stints and especially watch music videos.

Nowadays youtube has a huge role into social media and social development of todays youth.

Yes i know the argument would come as wow really (sarcastically) and others would say thats always been the way it has been ( true) but never like before.

Just a few insight as to what goes on you tube you can see stuff like live video gaming  where you can talk to and relate your skills.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ft54bgeMBlg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc-vvpFft2c

https://video.fosterwebmarketing.com/fosterwebmarketing.com/httpdocs/evm/1080_fosterwebmarketing_017_gina_youtube_h264_640x360.mp4

Also where the can communicate with anime pages, show their life with life vlogs and star in their own reality clips, put on their own personal showcases with live interaction.

The've built up a platform where they can showcase their many talents.

For instance Justin Bieber himself was discovered on youtube and signed a record deal as a teenager.

But social media can also lead to the a substantial difference to the development of the adolescent brain, if you click on the lick here under you can see a couple of test run on teenagers who are on social media and how their brains develop.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QWoP6jJG3k

**Where do i belong **

We have seen an outstanding amount of  young people all searching to find their peers and to adhere to whatever social group.

Take for instance such support groups that help them deal with their sexuality, ideology and identity

LBGTQ

Feminism

race

beliefs & religion

sex & sexual experimenting

social experimenting

every teen wants to find his or her social group or spot in society; and social media in its various forms helps to steer them to that source.

We should always pay attention to our students and kids for they are discovering their paths be it good  or bad they will find person or social peers who share their interest.

Piaget (1936) was the first psychologist to make a systematic study of cognitive development.

Sensorimotor stage: birth to 2 years

Preoperational stage: ages 2 to 7

Concrete operational stage: ages 7 to 11

Formal operational stage: ages 12 and up

The Sensorimotor Stage

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

The infant knows the world through their movements and sensations

Children learn about the world through basic actions such as sucking, grasping, looking, and listening

Infants learn that things continue to exist even though they cannot be seen (object permanence)

They are separate beings from the people and objects around them

They realize that their actions can cause things to happen in the world around them

During this earliest stage of cognitive development, infants and toddlers acquire knowledge through sensory experiences and manipulating objects. A child's entire experience at the earliest period of this stage occurs through basic reflexes, senses, and motor responses.T

The Preoperational Stage

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

Children begin to think symbolically and learn to use words and pictures to represent objects.

Children at this stage tend to be egocentric and struggle to see things from the perspective of others.

While they are getting better with language and thinking, they still tend to think about things in very concrete terms.

The foundations of language development may have been laid during the previous stage, but it is the emergence of language that is one of the major hallmarks of the preoperational stage of development

The Concrete Operational Stage

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes

During this stage, children begin to thinking logically about concrete events

They begin to understand the concept of conservation; that the amount of liquid in a short, wide cup is equal to that in a tall, skinny glass, for example

Their thinking becomes more logical and organized, but still very concrete

Children begin using inductive logic, or reasoning from specific information to a general principle

While children are still very concrete and literal in their thinking at this point in development, they become much more adept at using logic.2 The egocentrism of the previous stage begins to disappear as kids become better at thinking about how other people might view a situation.

The Formal Operational Stage

Major Characteristics and Developmental Changes:

At this stage, the adolescent or young adult begins to think abstractly and reason about hypothetical problems

Abstract thought emerges

Teens begin to think more about moral, philosophical, ethical, social, and political issues that require theoretical and abstract reasoning

Begin to use deductive logic, or reasoning from a general principle to specific information

The final stage of Piaget's theory involves an increase in logic, the ability to use deductive reasoning, and an understanding of abstract ideas.3 At this point, people become capable of seeing multiple potential solutions to problems and think more scientifically about the world around them.

In theory we as teachers should not fear the use of social media but instead learn to harness its powers.

To use it as our umbrella to educate by implementing it into our lessons we can control it for the mos.

For instance the making of a social media  portfolio where they can use social media better in there english class and basically amy skill set you want to embody on todays adolescents.

For some of us with teenage students we can find it off putting but by my observations there are some differential factors in the use of social media and their personal development from said social society.

Some of the factors are :

Culture/ region of upbringing

Race

Morals and values

Religion

and of course age

With all of these factors we should always monitor our children/ students and have them take time for a detox.

We should also try not to hover over them but enlighten them and instead of nag give them a sense of responsibility where then their brain can develop in multiple ways. Think of it as exercise for the brain.

**Live Long and Prosper  & Remember to Elevate and Educate **