#my sister does it and I'm very knowledgable on the subject

[bloodsbane]

what i love about laios is that he's actually very good at putting puzzle pieces together BUT HERE'S THE THING 1) he needs to HAVE the information, and 2) (this is important) he needs to KNOW it is information he should care about

and i think this could be said of anyone but the thing with laios is that people tend to view his lack of awareness wrt social etiquette and memory problems as pure indifference and/or obliviousness; sometimes they misinterpret his motives based on their inaccurate expectations of him and therefore don't give his thoughts on a subject the credit he deserves

one of the most obvious examples of this happens at least twice in the manga as i remember it, but the most recent incident was when they were trying to resurrect falin. there's a moment where laios mentions reconstructing both of the warg skeletons, as their bones are mixed in with hers. both chilchuck and senshi balk at this, with chilchuck complaining aloud, questioning laios' priorities,

and laios quickly, angrily retorts. his reason for making the suggestion is perfectly logical and practical, but because his friends are used to his interest in monsters influencing his judgement, often in ways they see as frivolous or dangerous, they don't come to the same conclusion. one which i'd argue is kind of obvious considering the situation

we see it again during his fight with toshiro, where toshiro demands to know what laios plans to do to save falin. laios takes a minute to answer, but he DOES answer, following the logic that if falin is a chimera because of (and controlled by) the mad mage, then the logical next step is to confront/defeat/usurp them

then in the following episode, when chilchuck brings it up again, laios explains what he (now) knows about thistle, mentioning that he's the same elf that laios saw in the living paintings, which is why he knows thistle's connection to delgal. the party reacts like this:

i'd say this is an example of them feeling frustration over laios' habit of having 'bad timing', not knowing when or how to speak at appropriate moments. theyre judging him for not saying something earlier, as if he already knew all this but didn't think to mention it when it was relevant, when the reality is that laios only just now had all the pieces he needed to understand the full picture

and i mention this bit specifically because i think it's a great way to explain what i mean by point 2: laios needs to know when information is important and worth considering

which, again, feels fucking obvious. but as someone who ALSO has debilitating issues with remembering important shit, i find this particular element of it pretty relatable and critical to my overall point. it's not laios' fault that he didn't know who thistle was or his significance - why the hell would he assume that a person he met in a living painting, presumably long since dead in reality, should be someone who's face, name, or motives he keeps in mind?

ultimately, i guess what i'm trying to say with all this is that the way others treat laios' intelligence is not congruent to how actually smart he is. one of the things i love most about laios, what is possibly his biggest strength and the reason he is such a great protagonist, is that laios is willing to think things through and find the most logical conclusion to a problem, no matter how outlandish or dangerous or seemingly impossible that conclusion may be. sister got eaten? race back down to go get her. can't afford food? fight, defeat, and eat dangerous monsters. sister's fully digested? use black magic to bring her back. now she's a chimera? defeat the mage controlling her and use that power to fix it.

anyways. what was even my point with this post? i guess it is that laios is smart, at least as smart as anyone else in the cast, arguably smarter than some. he is intelligent and utilizes that intelligence in many ways, not JUST when it comes to monster info (though that is his best and sexiest brand of knowledge)

and also please be nice to your friends with memory problems. it's rough out here for forgetful bitches

[kaledya]

Hey friend, I want to ask you some things about Constantine, I'm planning on making a FanFic about his way from Kid to Prince (Before he re encounters with Charlie).

1. How was his training? Was he trained by Lucifer? Or by Satan?, or by every single Deadly Sin?

2. Why did he lose his Humanity so much? Are there any specific or lots of events that relate to that?

3. When and which enemies he destroyed? If you don’t have it specified don’t worry, this is because after all nobody who fought him lived to tell it.

4. (This one is optional), Would you like to have something important on it? Something you would enjoy? Be honest, after all Constantine is your character.

First of all, I am very glad to hear that you want to write a fafic about him! And of course I will be happy to answer your questions!

1.

In terms of knowledge, he was usually educated by the leading sages of Hell (he had a different teacher for each subject, so he had a well-rounded education) and Lucifer taught him what he knew as much as he could (how to use his powers, how to be a king), while Lilith taught him how to behave in politics, ) Satan was the one who taught Constantine's perception of power in general, Constantine was a person who thought that power came only from knowledge, Satan taught him that power was only power, showed him that he could not survive with only knowledge and taught him that fear was stronger than love and respect.

He also learnt from Leviathan about education and science. He was not very close to the other sins in terms of education. When Constantine went to visit his aunt, it was one of the rare times when he was a child and not a prince, Bee tried to make Constantine happy, not to educate him.

2.

In general, the way he was raised and the training he received did this to him. Lilith and Lucifer had no evil intentions, they wanted their sons to be safe and strong, but they realised a little late that they were destroying the humanity in Constantine with their actions, and when they realised, they were at a point where they could no longer go back, but on the bright side, they did not follow the same thing with Charlie. Plus Constantine was already born with a superior intelligence, which made him less empathetic as he grew up, which came with the responsibilities of being a prince, so he had to grow up early because he had too much on him as a child. And even a normal prince would have to harden himself and control his emotions and act rationalistically in order to rule. Constantine was the prince of hell, surrounded by monsters and nobles waiting to see a weakness in him, and if he wanted to defeat the monsters, he had to become one of them. And Constantine did this, he hardened himself until his weakness or emotions were minimised.

The only person that constantine behaves with his sincere personality is his sister Charlie, I can even say that the face that constantine shows to Charlie is so different that Charlie almost does not recognise her brother at the royal meetings. (In the very later parts of the series, they start to develop a relationship with Serenity like Sherlock and Watson. but this is a very slow developing friendship)

and btw I was inspired to write Constantine by these two books maybe it helps to understand him!

3.Sometimes some demons decide to cross the line and Constantine can execute them. There is no one specific one at the moment, only Lucifer or Charlie can defeat Constantine, no one else in Hell is crazy enough to try to fight him. At least not yet.

4.Thank you for asking but no I've got nothing to add at the moment., and Constantine is my character, yes. but this is your fanfic, you can do whatever you want as long as you keep his personality, have fun! And when you're done writing and publish it on ao3 please tag me on tw and I look forward to reading it!

[megumi-fm]

Hi Meg, I was wondering if I could get your insight on something... I'm interested in bioinformatics as a career but am not sure whether I should pursue just a Master's or try for a PhD. How did you decide how far you want to go with your education? I noticed you mentioned you hope to do a PhD someday? Thank you so much!

hey anon! okay, so in this answer I'ma focus on two things:

my thought process behind finalizing on a PhD

my approach to furthering education

I. Why PhD?

1. I love my subjects. I love the interdisciplinary nature of computational biology and it's sister subjects and I can see myself in academia- constantly learning and researching and exploring. 2. Even on the off chance that if I don't pursue a career in academia, I think I need a PhD anyway? Most high level positions in the industry for life-sciences requires a level of expertise that only comes with a doctorate, and I think my career opportunities (+ growth) will be rather limited without it.

Considering these two points, a PhD would be most suitable for me.

———————

Now, choosing the right type of graduate program can always be challenging because there are so many ways to go about it, and I am a very indecisive person so this was especially difficult for me. Here is my approach

II. Factors I considered before taking my next steps

My Primary Short-Term Goal(s)

I opted for a B.Tech in Biotechnology after 12th grade, and it is through the course of this degree that I realized my interest in computational biology and bioinformatics. My undergrad focused on too many topics and often emphasized wet lab over dry lab, so although I'm graduating with a specialization in Medicinal and Computational Biology, I don't know nearly enough regarding the computational aspects Thus, my short-term goal is to expand my theoretical understanding of the important aspects of bioinformatics & computational biology.

2. Course Options that Work

Now, I know that I want to continue my education, I've got two options- Masters and PhD. When I considered my immediate goal against these two options, I realized four things: a. I'm not equipped with the required dry lab skills to dive headfirst into research. b. I don't know enough bioinformatics to commit to anything long term right now c. I'm looking for a course that feels like an extension of my undergrad d. I want to keep my options open and consider all career opportunities Given these three options (+ course-related expenses + my skill level), it made most sense for me to choose a MSc at the moment rather than a PhD.

3. How the Course Ties in to My Long Term Goals

As I mentioned, my long term goal is to do a PhD. However, my upcoming graduate course is actually an MSc by Coursework degree, which- unlike a Thesis program, focuses on skill development (especially industry related) rather than research. In fact, most Thesis Masters can be converted to a PhD, but my program does not have that option. At first glance, this course might seem like it's going against my long term goal but consider: - Industry related or not, I need to develop computational skills before I can pursue research - After this course I might prefer to gain work experience for a couple years before opting for a PhD. - My preferred uni(s) for PhD are different from my preferred uni for Masters. [^To give an example on the last point, for masters i considered countries/unis known for their quality of education + closer to my home country (this will be my first time living abroad alone) but for my PhD, I'm looking at countries/unis that are pioneers in research for my subjects of interest (even if they are a lot farther away from home)] So essentially, I'm relying on this course to give me the skills and knowledge I need for a PhD in the future, while also giving me a buffer to understand and align my future goals and plans. Jumping from this to a PhD would be a lot harder than from a Thesis Masters, but that's a risk I'm willing to take.

So yeah, this was the way I went about choosing both my short term and long term academic goals. I hope this provides a good starting point for you! Don't stress out too much about it though; the truth is that there is no right or wrong choice, whatever decision you make will warp around your intentions and work for you the way you want it to. Best of luck for your future endeavors!!! I'm sure it'll all work out <3

[sothasil]

hello my good friend and keeper of khajiit knowledge. I have an inquiry for you. How do khajiit babies start out? I've heard they all begin as kittens, which does make sense for most of the furstock, ease on the alfiqs, but I'm having trouble like. making logical sense of it (which I know is dumb for tes lore) and I was wondering if you had thoughts on the subject?

My biggest thing is just the sheer differences that would have to happen in the first few weeks/months/years (however long it takes for a furstock to develop in it's entirety) for the variances between just plain skeletal structure. Because if they all start as kittens, so four legged digitigrades, I cannot imagine the shift to two legged plantigrades makes for a pleasant infanthood. It's growing pains turned to full blast! There's gotta be differences in newborns between four legged and two legged and digitigrade vs plantigrade, and maybe they just start kitten sized, but not actually kittens?

sorry if this is a bothersome ask, you just know so much about khajiit/have amazing world building for them and I figured you could solidly set this into my brain besides just handwaving it and going "it's moon magic!" like everyone else has done rjgtkgjf

Hello Chance! I'll be answering this ask publicly just in case other people are interested - if you'd want it not shared, please say so and I'll lock RBs.

The short answer to your question is we don't know. Khajiit children, or depictions thereof, do not exist in TES. So strictly canonically speaking: we have nothing.

The longer answer: I have had the exact same train of thought before and came to similar conclusions. Not only do khajiit of all shapes and sizes have to grow into these shapes and sizes, but any shape of khajiit has to uh, get pushed out of any other shape of khajiit... For my own headcanon I have solved this with two ideas. The following is all headcanon!

The first thing: the furstock of the mother will in major part dictate how many babies they can have in a single litter. In real life biology, humans have it very complicated, because our hips, made for walking upright, work poorly to give birth. Following this, I think the more humanoid a khajiit is, the less babies they can carry at once.

In my own Khajiit OC families, this is why Ma'Jahrann only has a brother and they are both single litters, because their mom is an Ohmes. But the mom herself (Elaahni) is one of half a dozen litter-sisters, her mother being Alfiq-raht.

The second thing: all khajiit are born as tiny shapeless cat beans. The younger they are, the more khajiit look like each other in terms of furstocks. Some eventually stand upright and others do not. Here is some concept art based on this idea I did for Beyond Skyrim.

On top of growing into their adult body plan, I made them also grow into their coat, with some more humanoid furstocks staying relatively hairless for a khajiit (see my Ohmes concept art). While this makes for rapid, weird growing, this is arguably the case for many animals including humans, who go from quadrupeds to bipeds pretty fast!

For BSE, instead of doing a model per furstock for children which would be a hefty amount of work, we decided on only three at around the same young age as vanilla kids, to "sum up" all furstocks with three yet less defined body types: a quadruped very catlike one, a digitigrade fully furry one with a long tail, and a plantigrade type with a straighter neck; allowing for variety with limited ressources.

For my own OCs again - some older drawings I did of Rezad and Rakkan show them as having short legs and a very catlike baby shape, despite both of them being bipeds, Cathay and Cathay-raht respectively. Again, because as babies, their body plan is more muddy.

Rezad and his dad, both Cathay

This being said - I hope this is inspiring, but again, all headcanon! As with any unexplained lore area, it's your freedom to make your preferred takes out of it :) Cheers!

[vickyvicarious]

He is only a wreck of himself, and he does not remember anything that has happened to him for a long time past. At least, he wants me to believe so, and I shall never ask. He has had some terrible shock, and I fear it might tax his poor brain if he were to try to recall it. Sister Agatha, who is a good creature and a born nurse, tells me that he raved of dreadful things whilst he was off his head. I wanted her to tell me what they were; but she would only cross herself, and say she would never tell; that the ravings of the sick were the secrets of God, and that if a nurse through her vocation should hear them, she should respect her trust. She is a sweet, good soul, and the next day, when she saw I was troubled, she opened up the subject again, and after saying that she could never mention what my poor dear raved about,

Mina is so incredibly curious about what happened to Jonathan. And of course that makes sense, but I think it's worth emphasizing given what else happens in this entry. Even though she is determined not to make Jonathan relive his experiences by asking him directly (remember, she was warned against doing so in Sister Agatha's letter), Mina wants badly to know. Enough that Sister Agatha feels the need to broach the subject again despite her own reservations (she's way vaguer now than she was in the letter; I wonder if Jonathan had gotten more explicit about his experiences since then or if she has rethought her letter since she might worry it would scare Mina off or something). Mina even seems to suspect that Jonathan does remember, at least some of what happened if not all of it. And I'm inclined to think that's true - he may not remember anything concrete, or not much concrete that he also can fully believe isn't madness, but I don't think it's all a blank slate for him. This is reinforced by what happens with his notebook:

I saw that amongst them was his note-book, and was going to ask him to let me look at it—for I knew then that I might find some clue to his trouble—but I suppose he must have seen my wish in my eyes, for he sent me over to the window, saying he wanted to be quite alone for a moment. Then he called me back, and when I came he had his hand over the note-book, and he said to me very solemnly:—

Jonathan notices Mina wanting to read his journal, and he sends her away, almost as though he has to carefully consider what to do next, or possibly feels a need to hide it from even her. This context, of Mina being visibly very curious, and of Jonathan's first impulse being for privacy, makes me love the following scenes even more. Jonathan sitting with his hand over his journal - maybe he was trying to work up the courage to read it himself, and couldn't bring himself to do so. Maybe he was fighting an urge to keep it hidden and protected from everyone, especially when they are obviously eager to read it. I kind of think it might be both.

But that makes his choice to give Mina the journal and trust her with its contents even better. Because he can tell just how badly she wants to know, and he still believes that she will be willing to join him in ignorance. He is willing to trust her to read it regardless, and gives her permission despite possible instincts/memories urging him to keep it secret. He gives her the opportunity to satiate her curiosity, and trusts that she won't burden him with the knowledge he cannot face. And Mina, in return, chooses to give up on her desire to know. No matter how strong it is, she seals the journal shut with her wedding ring and promises him she won't open it unless there is a need. Both she and Jonathan meet in the middle, extending trust in the other and making something of a sacrifice in the process. I think it must have been very difficult to do, for both of them - and at the same time, not so difficult at all, because their love for one another takes precedence over all else.

I also kind of love that this is the first time Mina isn't burdened with a secret she has to carry alone. She's been loaded down with them since arriving in Whitby, and this journal could have become another. But because Jonathan let her choose what to do, she was able to choose not to know for certain. She joins him in ignorance, rather than being isolated in knowledge once again. And while she is still going to be responsible for a lot of things (Jonathan will need lots of help throughout his recovery), she doesn't have to decide whether he was insane or not, she doesn't have to take action about anything that happened to him in the past. I suppose you could say she has the responsibility to read it/let him know should 'some solemn duty' make it necessary, but I feel like the ability to read the journal later makes it more a helpful resource should things get bad than another weight (emotionally speaking).

[w98pops]

TW: SUICIDE MENTION, VIOLENCE

i knew i said i would take a little break, but ive been mentally declining a lot and drawing my silly guys is my way of coping. I never actually properly drew Wendy from 2301, so im filling in the blanks.

I'd like to think of her as a person who never actually... grows up. She just kinda gets taller and more sad over time. Wendy was always very vulnerable but cheerful, and House kinda groomed her into a serious and politically aware person, still unbelievably vulnerable but a viable subject nonetheless. I always had this problem with writing her relationship with another canon character, no one realistically would give a fuck about her and her opinions. Sure, maybe Arcade will pity Wendy because she's "stupid" from a neurotypical point of view, but other than that, she doesn't have any weight in any political conversation that's going on in the Mojave. So I made her really fucking stubborn. Annoyingly so. Wendy just... gets the job done. She's resourceful, efficient and very easy to manipulate. A perfect fit for a House's courier, I think. She doesn't question his orders, she does not care for consequences as long as she has House as her cover (a trait she inherited from her step-father) and she's sometimes sociopathic and numb to voices of empathy. Not in a "edgelord murder killer girl" way but more like. She doesn't see people who hurt her as humans. A coping mechanism that would probably be the end of her, sometime in the future. I mean, she did confront Benny and got really physical. There was no way she could've win a fight against a grown ass man, and Benny did beat the shit out of her, but in the end he was the one with a cracked open skull. I just like to think that her pure madness and helplessness was enough to fuel her mind and overpower something she had no chance against in the first place. SPEAKING OF CHANCE. That's why I think she would totally get along with Chance, the Khan from the comic. I don't really put a thought about how he would've survived or joined her, but they're pretty much soulmates. They have very different backgrounds, personalities, literally anything, but Chance recognises her rage. Her inability to do what's right and the constant fight against unfightable (?) circumstances she's facing every day. I'd like to think he's autistic too. As a treat.

So yeah, she's super uncertain about anything in her life, and that makes her a very useful tool in the hands of a right man. Mr. House mastefully manipulated her personality in a conventional way, taught her the secret and mysterious knowledge of "masking" and sat her down for a few years to teach her ways of the capital and created this really sad but smart and charismatic politician with no real political voice whatsoever. She's also very cute and sweet looking so yeah. He made himself a Tandi. 😭😭 Also he scanned her brains, which would totally not be a big plot point for the future.

Almost perfect, but Sharky is here too, for some reason. He's the biggest pain in the House's ass since Benny. He has a certain emotional intellect, not easy to bribe or manipulate in mental or physical way, he really fucking cares for his sister, and is very aware of the things The Big Guy does to her. See, Sharky wasn't raised by his sister, she was a child herself at that time, and his mother didn't play much role either, too busy bickering with Aletus and then later too busy drinking and fucking in Gomorrah. Sharky was raised by the Strip and the rules of Wasteland. He might not be the smartest guy alive, but emotionally he's mature beyond belief. He's very observant, empathetic and cunning person. Even tho he was mute most of his childhood because of child neglect and untreated autism, he has incredible social skills and a Yes-man in his basement he found while renovating the Tops. He has a plan. Not a good one, but a plan nonetheless.

I have so much OC material I'm ought to write a fanfic. Or a comic, idk. In my dreams, sure, but it's still refreshing to talk about my ocs and draw them, and recieving feedback and praise for my storytelling skills 😭😭😭 it means a lot. Thank you all for reading this far!!!

[izicodes]

I want to get into coding but I’m scared about working for a company and talking to people lol and I don’t think I’m creative enough. what do meetings and the job consist of? i have this assumption in the back of my mind like “what more is there to say/do other than code a website?” haha hope this is ok to ask! it’s super vague tbh I can’t find anything that touches base to a specific level enough online.

also, I’m not a math genius… very insecure about that since high/middle school. do I still have a chance? how does math go into coding?

Hiya! 💗

I completely understand how you feel because I felt the exact same thing when I started working at my current workplace.

Working for a company

Many coding jobs do require collaboration and communication with others. However, it's important to remember that not all coding roles involve extensive social interaction. There are positions where you can work independently or have limited interaction with colleagues.

In my case, I work in the office Monday and Friday. Mondays are when everyone in the whole IT Department is in, except those who are off or on holiday etc. This is what I do:

I walk in

sit at my desk near the window

headphones in

log in

code - occasionally turn around and annoy the Lead Web Developer with cries because my code isn't working (he then solves it in 10 seconds...)

At around 2:30pm is an IT meeting in the conference room. What do we discuss?

IT manager discusses any updates as an IT department as a whole. Any concerns about the technology used in the company. Any bootcamps we need to do internally, how was everyone's holidays, a little gossip.

Then everyone takes turns and discuss what they did the past week

That's it.

That's my company but I assume it's something similar for other companies. It's also important to know not everyone in the IT Department are web developers or work on building websites, not even in the sub-department Dev Team. Our Dev team are 6 members and only 2 (me and the Lead Web Developer) are web developers, so work on the company's websites. The other guys are very script-building and database oriented. All I do is code websites.

Maths in coding

Depends on what you're coding. I work with websites, I use Year 11/Grade 10 level of maths - it's not hard. As a reference, I stopped learning maths as a subject at school at a Year 13/12th Grade level and the stuff I'm using is way easier than what I learnt last - stuff my little sister, who's 14, can understand.

I chose web development because of the little maths. Some people have told me "Oh you'll encounter it one day" - I still haven't after 2 years. I use C# and JavaScript at work and still do very little maths. Maybe loops? I know if you're going to study computer science at university you will have to learn a good amount of maths, definitely harder than what I use!

Here is a list of the maths I use daily, that I can think of:

Arithmetic

Algebra

Logic and Boolean Algebra

Basic Algorithms

That's it. Maybe if I learnt the maths need in programming to the max, it might make my life easier when I am working on my personal projects, but my life is already easy with the little maths I know so I'm good for now.

Designing websites is less maths-y and more... designing in my opinion and experience. "I drew out this design for the website... how do I do I code that?" literally me every time I start a project.

Again, other fields in Computer Science would require more maths knowledge so research that field you want o go into and Google/ChatGPT "What maths is needed in [field name]?"

Hope this helps, my advice may not be the best since coming from a web dev point of view but it's still advice! Good luck 😎🙌🏾💗

[poindexters-labratory]

Explaining FNAF: Hurricane Pt. 1: Before the Storm

Having special interests in FNAF and human nature (especially its oddities) can apparently have adverse effects on a subject. The subject being me.

(Warning, there's a lot)

I have autism, the kind where I get super invested in a niche and can never let it go for just about years on end. My niche is William Afton and his family which has been combined with my trivial knowledge of mental health, mental conditions, neurodivergence, history, storytelling, psychology, etc. to create this conglomerate clusterfuck that is the Hurricane AU.

The alternate universe at its core focuses on the father-son dynamic between Michael and his father William. There are six parts to the Afton Family arc:

Wild Cat

Before the Storm

Blood, Sweat, and Tears

Freddy Fazbear's Pizzeria

Freddy's Emporium

and Reunion

I'll infodump about Before the Storm because that's the first one I mentally created and what I have the most art of.

The lore aspect of FNAF isn't apparent at the moment, that will come later on after the characters are properly introduced with all of their flaws, quirks, positives, negatives, and before the catalyst of the whole plot kicks off, starting from 1980 and ending in 1983. This introduction/rising action section has been dubbed what it is called because Hurricane, Utah and I'm a smartass.

Everything in the Hurricane AU happens very slowly at first and when it kicks off, it shoots like a fucking rocket. It's the small details that have the biggest impact for this first section in order for the rest of the story to make sense, especially why things happen the way they do.

Let me introduce you to the family,

Michael Afton:

Oh, yeah, he's a teenager. Cocky, argumentative, confrontational, and the main character of the entire AU. Before the Storm follows him through his upper teenage years: 15 - 18 (fifteen to eighteen). This guy can fit so much resentment in him. He's also inherently kind, artistic, and stubborn in both a good way and a bad one. His mom left with his baby sister when he was thirteen (13) years old and noticeably hasn't been the same since then. Highly embarrassed of what's left of his family (especially his effeminate, odd, and immature father) plus lack of at-home attention has led to a lot of stunts. He's by no means a hateful person, but he doesn't have the ability to express his unhappiness in a proactive way.

Evan Afton:

A rambunctious elementary school kid. As Michael's kid brother, it's his duty to annoy the shit out of him, and as William's middle child, make him fear for his son's life at times. He isn't careful, so accidents happen a lot with him, see the road rash scars on face, arm, and leg. Through his section he's 7 - 10 (seven to ten) years old, and deals a lot with school, peer, and at-home stress, but he's a generally happy child. He isn't without his quirks, Evan is loud, mean, destructive, and likes to deal with his problems very physically (he's a fighter). Evan deals with night terrors every so often, has some twitches and tics, and by god does he have a temper.

Elizabeth Afton:

Lizzie is far more used to privilege and a quiet home, coming from an estate in London, living with her mother for the six (6) years of her life, but the first summer over to Utah in 1980 led to the interesting discovery that she could be loud, messy, and by her mother's terms, 'un-ladylike'. She provides an outside perspective into a household that has music constantly playing, an argument or fight always happening, and a mess somewhere. She's highly energetic, imaginative, and friendly. Michael had no problem sharing his loud and argumentative nature with her, making her a handful when she comes around.

And William Afton:

Co-owner of Fredbear's Family Diner and Fazbear Entertainment immigrated from London, William has a lot of loves: his children, Henry and his mind, creating whatever he can figure out, and rabbits to name a few. He feels everything with a fierce intensity, and he'll express the intensity. That's typically where problems arise. Especially between him and Michael. Their arguments are usually about not understanding the other. William is a troubled individual, but he does his best to make good choices, but he slips in his decision-making very often. He's chaotic, spiteful, intelligent, energetic, and kinda funny to watch per Michael and Henry's fair opinion. He's fairly young, 32 (thirty-two) years old circa 1980, and at times, acts like a child himself.

Before the Storm has a soap opera feel because the main plot hasn't started, but there's still a lot of backstories to explore and character dynamics to introduce before they're whiplashed by tragedy. The section is treated as a control for what is going to change in on-coming parts. I also just wanted something that felt good with all of the rest being angst.

A tragedy as big as losing a child can take over lives, (especially in a sudden accident) and the family in Before the Storm are the lives that it took. So, this part is an inside view into what exactly was lost.

Feel free to ask me questions; encouraged, really, I love to talk about it. A lot.

[theaddictedwatcher]

Hello everyone!

Today I am delighted to present you the series you were able to choose thanks to the survey done on my Instagram (@theaddictedwatcherreviews) last Saturday and that is ... Oh no, I'm not going to tell you just like that! It's a series created by Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy (yes, that's a lot of people!) in 2008 for the BBC. Need more clues? It's a medieval fantasy series that revisits a great myth. Do you have it yet? Yes, of course, I'm going to tell you about the Merlin series!

To begin with, I'll give you a short synopsis: In medieval times, in the Kingdom of Albion, King Uther Pendragon has banned the practice of magic. Merlin, a young magician sent to the castle to be educated by Gaius, must hide his extraordinary powers in this age of terror against magicians and sorcerers. Propelled as Arthur's valet -the son of the monarch Uther Pendragon and future sovereign- following a fortuitous combination of circumstances, Merlin has sworn to protect his lord Arthur at the request of Kilgharrah -the dragon secretly imprisoned beneath the castle of the monarch Uther Pendragon. And a short technical presentation : Created by : Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy. Music by : Rob Lane, Rohan Stevenson, James Gosling and Michal Pavlicek. Main cast: Colin Morgan, Bradley James, Angel Coulby, Katie McGrath, Richard Wilson, Anthony Stewart Head, John Hurt.

Merlin is a freely-adaptated story of the Arthurian legend that largely rewrites its roots. Over the course of 5 seasons and its 65 episodes, the creators and screenwriters have attempted to modernise the themes of the original legend, including the following examples from the first episode:

Uther Pendragon -played by Anthony Stewart Head- governs the kingdom of Camelot which, in the legend, does not exist under his reign.

Merlin -played by Colin Morgan- and Arthur -played by Bradley James- are approximately the same age, which is not the case in the Arthurian legend.

Morgana -played by Katie McGrath- is the ward of King Uther and Arthur's adopted sister.

Guinevere -played by Angel Coulby- is the mixed-race daughter of a black smith and works in the castle as Morgana's lady-in-waiting instead of being the daughter of the King of Carmelides -a clan federated by Arthur- in the legend.

And there are other alterations that I'll leave you to discover as the series progresses (although I'll talk about some of them below but I'll warn you when I will)!

I realise that, for people familiar with the legend, this can be very confusing and even unpleasant. But, if you manage to put aside your pre-watching knowledge of the subject and give the series a chance, I think you might just enjoy it all the same.

The main cast of the series - although different from what you might expect - has been meticulously chosen. The characters may differ in character from those in the legend, but there's no denying the acting ability of the cast. Some of them were well known before the series, such as Anthony Stewart Head -notably known for his roles in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, in the film The Iron Lady alongside Meryl Streep and more recently in the TV show Bridgerton -, John Hurt -notably known for his role in the Harry Potter saga, in the film V for Vendetta and more recently in the Doctor Who series- and Katie McGrath -notably known for the King Arthur: The Legend of Excalibur movie, the Tudors series and, more recently, the Supergirl series which I'll talk about in a later article. However, the revelations that turned out to be Bradley James and Colin Morgan are not to be outdone either. As for the guest actors and actresses, many of them are well known to the British public, and some even to international audiences. Indeed, actors such as Asa Butterfield (Sex Education), Tom Hopper (Umbrella Academy), Tom Ellis (Lucifer) and Warwick Davis (Harry Potter, Willow, Leprechaun, Star Wars) have enjoyed successful careers since Merlin went on air (and some even before that) and are recognized as major talents internationally. Whether they are recurring, main or guest actors, the unity formed by their complicity both on and off stage helps to make this cast a family with its affections, tensions, passions and losses. The relationship between Merlin and Arthur, despite their complicated beginnings and the fact that their social positions put them on different levels of equality, is a brotherly one. Merlin, on his mission to protect the future King Arthur, will do everything in his power to learn how to live at court and make himself useful to Arthur, who, for his part, will come to recognise Merlin's usefulness at his side and will develop a great affection for him, albeit tinged with teasing. Even during their quarrels, the bond that unites them always leads them back to each other, and to me, this is a fine illustration of a brotherly friendship. The bond between Merlin and Gaius is also important and touching, because, in the series, Merlin was raised by a single mother and Gaius acts as a father figure to him. Indeed, Gaius protects and educates him as best he can. In the end, a real bond and understanding develops between the old man and his apprentice, and I think it's important to show that a parental figure is not necessarily linked to a blood relative.

However, there was one aspect of the actors' performance that I didn't like, but I think that has more to do with the artistic direction than the acting ability of the actors: I'm talking about the fight choreography. I'm aware that sword fighting or even hand-to-hand combat isn't easy, but that's precisely where I think they should have been better choreographed to make the various battles that take place throughout the series more believable. Indeed, when we talk about the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, these epic stories are often punctuated by numerous battles. It was only natural, then, that when I watched the series I expected big, strong, rhythmic and carefully choreographed battles. Unfortunately, in my opinion, most of the fights, especially the sword fights, failed to live up to these expectations…

I'd also like to say a few words about the different filming locations. Pierrefonds Castle in the Oise region in France, near Compiègne, was one of the locations used for the Camelot Castle set. This 14th-century fortress is open to visitors and many of the sets for the series can be seen there.

The series was also filmed at Goodrich Castle in Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire, on Penshurst Place in Kent in England and in Wales. The fact that the majority of the sets are real means that the use of special effects - especially green screens - has limited, as the series ages, the diminution the quality of the images.

Speaking of the quality of the images, I'd like to talk very briefly about the special effects used on the series. As a fantasy series, Merlin necessarily uses special effects to symbolise the magic and mythical creatures that inhabit the kingdom of Albion. The computer-generated images were produced by the British team The Mill, whose credits include the special effects for Gladiator and Doctor Who. However, the quality of the effects varies depending on what is being represented. As long as the effects remain minimalist, such as smoke or a change in the colour of a character's eyes, they have aged well and remain effective in their own right. But as soon as they are more important, such as a fall caused by magic, a physical transformation or the animation of a dragon (this is not a spoiler, the word dragon appears literally in the name Pendragon), the effects have generally aged rather badly, look a little crude and, let's be honest, quite ugly…

On the other hand, one of the aspects of the series that I liked the most was the work that went into the characters' costumes. From what I've been able to see and learn in the course of my research, the costumes chosen for the characters by the series' costume designer, Charlotte Morris, are fairly faithful to the armour and court dress worn in the period that the series aims to reflect. One detail, however, bothers me personally in this temporal cohesion, and that's the cut of Merlin's brown jacket. I find that this jacket, which appears to be made of nubuck, seems too modern, too recent to blend in with the atmosphere that was intended to be created.

Let's take a look at the changes that have been made to the Arthurian legend! BEWARE OF SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH! In the series, Merlin -who in the legend is a druid and in the series a magician- is Arthur's valet, to whom he hides his magical powers while using them to save his master without his knowledge. He is the son of a single-mother and farmer called Hunith and his father is unknown. It was Hunith who sent Merlin to her friend Gaius, a physician in Camelot's court and a former magician. In the legend, Merlin's parentage differs radically from one version to another. Speaking of the origins of the legend, an anecdotal but noteworthy fact is that even Geoffrey of Monmouth appears in the series as a court genealogist. The real Geoffrey of Monmouth (1095-1155) did exist, and he is known to have been the first to write a very extensive version of the Arthurian legend that served as a model for all later Arthurian stories. Finally, in the most remarkable changes, Morgana, who is Arthur's adulterous sister and Morgause's consanguineous sister in the legend, is in the series Morgause's adulterous younger sister and Arthur's consanguineous older sister. END OF SPOIL. All these changes have enabled Merlin's authors to modernise the various themes and make the series more accessible to a wider audience. They also took this opportunity to slip in a few nods to the British literature to which the Arthurian legend belongs.

Finally, as usual, I'd like to end with the series' soundtrack. It was created by Rob Lane, Rohan Stevenson, James Gosling and Michal Pavlicek and for me it's one of the series soundtracks that best fits the genre of this one. Unfortunately, the link I've provided is missing a lot of tracks, but there are enough for you to get a good idea.

That's it for this article on the BBC series Merlin (2008). I hope that if you were reluctant to watch it, I've been able to help you in your choice. And for those of you who have seen it, let me know what you think and whether you agree with me.

Don’t forget to keep an eye every Saturday on my Instagram account (@theaddictedwatcherreviews) if you want to be able to choose the subject of the next article!

Until our next adventures, I wish you a great weekend and a wonderful week ahead,

Eli.

[wanderersrest]

Diabolos Est Machina Part 1: Defining Artificial Intelligence

Special thanks to my sister, who helped inspire me to do this series.

Welcome to the first part of Diabolos Est Machina, the series covering AI ethics in relation to the Devil Gundam! Today, we'll be covering the basics of artificial intelligence! Yes, that's right! This is actually a school lesson!

Something to also keep in mind is that artificial intelligence is a broad field, so we will have to do a lot of defining today. We're going to take a look at what artificial intelligence is, the different concepts that make up the field of artificial intelligence, and why we would create an artificial intelligence in the first place.

What Is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence (AI for short) is a field of study in computer science that focuses on allowing a computer to perceive the world around it as if it were a human. As we are all aware, computers are not sentient beings. The idea behind AI is to make it so that a computer can perform certain tasks where complex decision-making is concerned. At its most basic, an AI is practically a large nest of conditional statements (If X Then Y Else Z). In fact, calling it an AI is even a bit of a misnomer; a more apt name would be Complex Information Processing, but that doesn't roll off the tongue the way Artificial Intelligence does.

When created, the AI is like that of a baby. And like all babies do, the AI needs to learn. And the way most AI today can achieve this is through Machine Learning, since using just conditional statements would be exhausting and prevent the AI from being able to change its outputs dynamically. Machine Learning is a pretty broad and complicated subject itself, but the gist of it is that Machine Learning is the means by which an AI can learn how to do a given task. If you've ever heard of things like Neural Networks (NN) or Large Language Models (LLM), they are both applications of Machine Learning.

The AI has to be trained with a given data set in order for it to be able to accomplish a given task. To understand this a little bit better, lets take a quick look at a field I am actually pretty knowledgeable on: Computer Vision. Computer Vision, as its name suggests, is the field of AI where the general goal is to make a computer able to perceive visual data using cameras. So for something like facial recognition, we would need to train the system on a data set of some kind. So we train the AI on a data set consisting of two things: faces and not faces. The goal during the training phase is to reinforce the AI (in this case our facial recognition software) on what is or is not a face. We repeat this training process until the AI is able to differentiate faces from non-faces.

So, Why Make An AI? What's Its Purpose?

Like any form of automation, the purpose of AI is to perform tasks at a more efficient rate than what humans are capable of achieving. In a more positive light, AI is useful in its ability to remove the human element from dangerous, and in some cases outright impossible, tasks. On the other hand (and I'm willing to bet this is probably what you know AI for dear reader), AI is also used by major corporations to force people out of their jobs for the sake of the bottom line.

Another purpose for the existence of AI is in research, specifically when it comes to understanding how human consciousness works. The idea, like most constructed models in general, is to create a sort of simulacrum of how human intelligence works. There are, of course, a couple of issues with this.

The first is that we don't really know how human intelligence works, so how would we even be able to create something that models human intelligence if we barely understand human intelligence in the first place?

The second problem is that, as they currently stand, AI systems are not very smart.

Okay, IBM Watson is kind of smart, but that was almost ten years ago. Yes, I can feel myself aging rapidly...

But even Watson has the same problem as most AI systems, which is they are reliant on the data they are trained on. And because the data they are trained on is almost always a very specific type of data, it means that most AI systems are only good at doing one specific task and pretty much nothing else.

"But Kaien," you might ask, "What about Artificial General Intelligence? If we just made a system that could handle different tasks instead of just one then-"

NO. It's already enough of a pain in the ass to make an AI system that can handle one specific task really well. The idea that we are close to any kind of general AI that can do a multitude of tasks (let alone do them well) is, to be frank, something a snake oil salesman would tell you. Even when they handle tasks that they are supposed to be good at doing, AI systems can and do fail.

A prime example of a specific AI system failing is Amazon's Rekognition being used by the ACLU to highlight how a facial recognition system can incorrectly flag non-criminals as criminals due to systemic racial biases. It's surprising if this is your first time hearing about facial recognition in a major capacity; not so much if you know that computer vision software can and will occasionally label cats as dogs.

To put it bluntly before moving on: as they currently stand, AI systems in general are nowhere near ready to be used as a replacement for humans in pretty much every scenario where corporate ghouls try to sell them for.

Conclusion

As we wrap up this section of Diabolos Est Machina, you might be asking yourself "But why the Devil Gundam? Couldn't you cover something more iconic like HAL-9000 or Skynet?"

And to be frank, enough ink has been spilled over HAL-9000 (heck, there's an interesting paper you can read that focuses on AI ethics through the lens of HAL ), and Skynet isn't particularly interesting in my opinion due to it being more of a generic "AI overlord who is evil and wants to wipe out humanity." At least AM was an actual character...

And now to sound like a complete hypocrite, the Devil Gundam is interesting. Hear me out: a lot of this stems from the fact that a lot of the plot of G Gundam revolves around various superpowers (including THE UNDEFEATED OF THE EAST, MASTER ASIA) trying to get their hands on what is basically an AI-operated super weapon. Which is interesting, because the Devil Gundam's primary purpose was not to be used as a weapon. And next time, we will turn our focus onto the history of AI in fiction! Complete with HAL, AM, Atom, and even Skynet (without the flippant remarks this time, I swear). And most important to us: the JDG-00X Devil Gundam!

Also Hashmal might get a reference, as will the AV-0.

[amphibious-thing]

Do you have any advice for historical fiction authors who want to try harder to use historical queer language without confusing the average reader? It's something that has been a challenge for me and I've been finding your posts helpful, but I was wondering if you had specific tips on how an author could write better queer histfic for the modern reader.

It can be difficult because it is a balance. You probably don't want to just dump a whole heap of molly slang on your reader all at once. But you also don't want your characters to feel disconnected from the real history of the period.

In regards to molly slang you do have to remember that it was somewhat unique to the subculture. Only people involved in the subculture would be familiar with a lot of the slang. So if you wanted to include a character that uses molly slang you could aways have a character who is not part of the subculture, or new to it, who would serve as and stand in for the audience. This way the explanation of slang words can be weaved into the story in a more organic way.

Of course 18th century queer language is much more than just molly slang. It's good to know what the words mean but also what kind of people would be using them and in what context. For example legal writings will talk about sodomy and sodomites while a casual conversation might be more likely to talk about mollies.

While you don't want to overwhelm the reader you also don't want to underestimate them. If you pepper in historical terminology most readers will be able to pick up on the meaning form context. I think the Montague Sibling series actually does a pretty good job of this and it's a YA historical fantasy adventure novel. If Mackenzi Lee can trust her teenage target demo to pick up what a molly is from context then you can certainly trust an adult audience to.

It's also important to remember that it doesn't have to be perfect. Historical fiction is first and foremost fiction. The most important thing in my opinion is to create the feeling of a full fleshed out world. And for queer historical fiction that should be a world that includes queer people and thus have at least some queer language. You don't have to fill a novel with molly slang to do this, just give a bit here and there where it makes sense in context. The best advice I can give is to do the research and understand the history. If you understand it you will be better equipped to figure out when it makes sense to use historical language and when it makes sense not to. If you understand the rules you will better understand when to break them.

I think this is one of the reasons I like the Montague Sibling series so much. Mackenzi Lee has studied history and while her books are historical fantasy that strong base of historical knowledge really helps bring the world of the books to life. Also I just like that she actually used the word mollies in her YA book!

[Spoilers for the Montague Sibling series ahead]

Though it's not perfectly historically accurate the following scene form The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue feels very grounded in the period. The conversation is between the protagonist Monty and his little sister Felicity. Felicity largely represents the perspective of the popular rhetoric of the day.

"Honestly, Monty, I've never quite understood who's really got a hold on you." "Do you want to know if I'm a bugger?" She winces at the crass word, but then says, "It seems a fair question, considering I've seen your hands all over Richard Peele and Theodosia Fitzroy." "Oh, dear Theodosia, my girl." I collapse backward into the sofa cushions. "I remain inconsolable over losing her." I do not want to talk about this. Especially with my little sister. I came down here for the sole purpose of getting drunk enough to sleep and avoid venturing anywhere near this subject, but Felicity goes on staring at me like she's waiting for an answer. I take an uncivilized swipe at my mouth with my sleeve, which would have earned me a cuff from Father had we been at home. "Why does it matter who I run around with?" "Well, one is illegal. And a sin. And the other is also a sin, if you aren't married to her." "Are you going to give me the fornication without the intention of procreation is of the devil and a crime lecture? I believe could recite it from memory by now." "Monty—" "Perhaps I am trying to procreate with all these lads and I'm just very misinformed about the whole process. If only Eton hadn't thrown me out." "You're avoiding the question." "What was the question?" "Are you—" "Oh yes, am I a sodomite. Well, I've been with lads, so ... yes." She purses her lips, and I wish I hadn't been so forthright. "If you'd stop, Father might not be so rough on you, you know." "Oh my, thank you for that earth-shattering wisdom. Can't believe I didn't think of that myself." "I'm simply suggesting—" "Don't bother." "��he might ease up." "Well, I haven't much choice." "Really?" She crosses her arms. "You haven't a choice in who you bed?" "No, I mean I haven't much choice in who it is I want to bed." "Of course you do. Sodomy's a vice—same as drinking or gambling." "Not really. I mean, yes, I enjoy it. And I have certainly abstained form abstinence. But I'm also rather attracted to all the men I kiss. And the ladies as well." She laughs, like I've made a joke. I don't. "Sodomy has nothing to do with attraction. It's an act. A sin." "Not for me." "But humans are made to be attracted to the opposite sex. Not the same one. That's now nature operates." "Does that make me unnatural?" When she doesn't reply, I say, "Have you ever fancied anyone?" "No. But I believe I understand the basic principles of it." "I don't think you really can until it's happened to you."

The conversation then goes into Monty feelings for Percy which leads to this exchange:

"What are your expectations, exactly? If Percy did feel the same way about you, what would happen? You can't be together. Not like that—you could be killed for it if you were found out. They've been sentencing mollies by the score since the Clap Raid." "Doesn't matter, does it? Percy's good and natural and probably only fancies women and I am ... not."

While its perhaps a bit of an exaggeration to say that they've "been sentencing mollies by the score since the Clap Raid". It works the word mollies, a word most readers probably aren't familiar with, into the story in such a way that the context makes the meaning pretty clear. While Clap Raid might go over some readers heads they will still get the gist of the meaning behind the conversation and perhaps even inspired some readers to look it up and learn some real history.

This scene also takes advantage of words a modern reader would know like sin, vice and natural. They're talking about queerness in a more-or-less historically accurate way without using too many unfamiliar terms.

The Gentleman's Guide to Getting Lucy then gives us this fantastic scene that uses an 18th century euphemism:

He licks his lips, then nods. I reach for the buttons on his trousers, but he cries, "Wait! And I freeze, panicked I've done something else to muck this up, but then he says, "Just ... slowly, yes? Maybe not ... a full game of backgammon just yet." And then every inch of him goes red. "Percy Newton." I sit up over top of him and cross my arms. When he looks back at me with his eyes wide and innocent, I parrot, "A full game of backgammon? What erotic leaflet did you pick up that filthy vocabulary from?" "None!" he protests, but his mouth twitches. "Some." "Some?" Impossibly, he goes redder. "Some erotic leaflets." "May I have their titles? For purely academic purposes, I assure you."

Again the context allows for the readers to gather what is being talked about even if they've never heard the euphemism before.

And in The Lady's Guide to Petticoats and Piracy they even go to a molly house!

It is our only topic of conversation as the three of us walk to the pub in Shadwell called the Minced Nancy, which from the name alone brands itself a place where mollies like my brother and his beau can be together openly.

Tho I have to point out that while minced is 18th century language the earliest use of Nancy in this sense isn't until the 19th century.

[undiscovered-horizon]

"The Just and the Wicked": A Sneak Peek

[FULL FIC >>HERE<<]

We meet again, dear student! Have you met Hermes again? Well, perhaps he's grown fond of you. I know I have. You are such a great listener, always asking brilliant questions and never interrupting. But enough about you.

You know why you're here, there's no need for me to ask such a rhetorical question. It is also the reason we keep on meeting again and again. Last time we spoke of dreams, wisdom and the strange gift of divinity their union provided. Today, I'd like to tell you a story that my mother used to tell me. In fact, I've heard it from her so many times during my childhood that I'd grow furious any time I heard the word 'karma'. It is only in my old age that I finally understand the importance of this tale. Tell me, when you think of justice, what comes to your mind?

"Dear sister!" the young man exclaimed. He was dressed in a white robe that could hardly be called 'decent'. "My heart swells at the sight of you! But I'm afraid I'm not here to ponder our relationship and the lovely memories we share."

"Then what is it, Decay? The longer you stay in Dreaming, the more its genius loci shall rot towards oblivion. Speak fast, brother."

Decay leaned in towards you. His eyes were bright and his smile wide, making it truly hard to believe that he was the one making flowers wilt and corpses dissolve. Yes, he was, in fact, akin to the Trojan horse. "I know the spear is in here, Wisdom. My presence will not make a cloud disappear underneath your sky." For a moment, he stared at you with a strangely triumphant expression that seemed like genuine happiness only superficially - there was mischief, viciousness in his eyes as though he was gloating at possessing knowledge you did not share with him. After he got his presumed satisfaction, Decay stepped away from you to resume his monologue. "I came to inform you about a strange occurrence that needs your insight. I visited Karma not too long ago but not out of my own will. One of the Palaces died."

"Palaces of Justice?" Morpheus repeated slowly. His eyebrows furrowed instantaneously and it was a quite understandable reaction to anyone who knew a thing or two about those strange creatures. "How can a Palace of Justice die?"

"Not by a mortal hand nor by the hand of the Endless," you answered in quiet thoughtfulness. "Is there anything more you've learned, Decay? Tell me, what barbarity preceded this act of treason?"

"Truthfully, I do not know any more than Karma does. Unlike Death," Decay paused to look meaningfully in Dream's direction, "I do not gossip with my subjects, therefore Lion himself did not tell me about his passing. But I did, however, come into possession of something that you might find attractive. It is also, I believe, the very trail at which your insight begins, dear sister."

From the scarce folds of his revealing robe, Decay took out a torn piece of material. It was silvery white, glistening in the diffused rays that lit up Morpheus's palace. There seemed to be something embroidered in a dark thread but the tear run in the middle of the design, making it impossible to tell with utmost certainty what it had once presented. Extrapolating from the remaining lines, one could assume that the silvery, silky material once had an open eye inside a triquetra embroidered on it. There was only one unholy fraction that proudly wore such a sigil:

"Brothers of the Final Truth," you whispered to yourself while still examining the torn material. Finding it on your path, however, posed as many questions as it did answers, dissipating the unpenetrated mists of ignorance. "Without a doubt, the ones that told Rodrick Burgess of Metatron's Cube."

I fear the day is growing shorter yet again, dear student, and the darkness in the absence of the sun is filled with terrors even I am yet to learn about. As much as it pains me to say so, I do not know when we'll see each other again. Telling you this story, I have come to realize that an entire century had gone by since the last time I saw my mother. With the break of dawn, I shall be off to Shangri-La. Should you grow weary of my absence, borrow one of my books. Who knows, maybe between their pages you'd find a story of your own?

[dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram]

This is a bit of a touchy subject in the fandom but do you think Louis is suffering from depression and he uses alcohol and smoking as a way to cope with it? I know we don't have the whole picture but we know that he lost his mom and his sister when he was young, he is estranged from his biological dad, he doesn't appear to have much of a relationship with his step dad, and on top of that he probably went through hell in 1D. He has said that smoking is his vice. He has said that therapy isn't for him but he respects those who go. Journalists always mention his chain smoking. He constantly brings up smoking, drinking alcohol and partying in interviews. He did this a lot in FITF promo, so it's quite recent. When we get pictures of him he 90% of the time has a cigarette or beer or both. I was just thinking about this because of his recent shows, now that he's touring again. He turned up late and hungover to one (he said he was hungover) but continued to drink alcohol. He was even more late to the next one and was again drinking alcohol and was when he met fans after. In his fan reports 90% of the time they mention him smoking/drinking. So either everyone who meets him is lying and he's just posing with drinks and cigarettes, or he's really smoking and drinking as much as it appears. I think losing his mom has really impacted him and I worry about him. He doesn't seem in a good state.

I've decided to answer anons like this. They genuinely seem absurd to me, and I wonder if they're in good faith. But I don't think this view of smoking and drinking (or mental health) is particularly useful and it seems like it's believed widely enough that I should try and put an alternative viewpoint into the world, so I'll try.

You cover three different things - smoking, drinking and depression. These are two common activities and a common condition - yet you're talking about them all as if they need a major explanation. I'm not going to follow your lead and talk about all three of them together, but instead provide an alternate way of discussing them individually.

Louis smokes because he smokes. The fact that a smoker smokes heavily is not something that you need to cast around for an explanation for. Nicotine is very addictive.

I find your discussion of mental health fundamentally unserious. You list all these stressful life events and you're like 'could Louis experience depression?'. Of course he could - anyone could experience depression it's a very common human experience and response to stress. With everyone you interact with and think about it's worth understanding that they may be depressed.

When talking seriously about mental health and touring musicians (particularly former boyband members) - the discussion would need to acknowledge that touring musicians are at increased risk for a wide range of mental health conditions. Rather than treating depression as something unusual and requiring much explanation.

As for drinking - Louis could be an alcoholic, there could be a connection between Louis' drinking and his mental health. There are for a lot of people.

But I just find it very difficult to discuss any of that in the context of breathless claims that a touring musician started late and drank even though they were talking about a hang over. That is like commenting that someone working at an office went out to buy their lunch. Not everyone does it, but it's common enough to be unremarkable. To me this shows a very narrow knowledge of the different sorts of gigs people put on and the range of practices that are normal.

To me this reads as if you think smoking and drinking are bad, but you like Louis and that contradiction bothers you. I may be wrong - but what you say has very strong 'I'm trying to provide a note from the doctor to explain why my fave is doing something bad'.

My alternative is to see smoking and drinking as morally neutral acts that don't require your justification. There could be all sorts of things going on - but we just don't know.

[corrpse]

Hello, & welcome to my writing roleplay blog, featuring Mukuro Ikusaba. I would like to state firstly, this series & things to it are infested with triggering content - this does not mean I condone any of it. I expect critical thinking to be used & not an immediate insults of 'you are just as bad! you are an apologist!' I will not out right explicitly write some of these themes featured. However, as Mukuro is subjected to emotional / physical abuse by her sister & mistakes this as romance, it can be quite uncomfortable for most viewers. Mukuro has developed a co-dependency on Junko, she is confused & has had no real relationships outside of her sister. She is a Junko apologist.

I am still learning about the series. Most of my knowledge is based on the anime, reading the wiki, & tidbits given to me by friends. So, please do not compare me to other DR writers or give me negative feedback if I'm getting things 'wrong'. I am here for a fun time & to learn more about a series I've been intrigued by for many years. This is my first time writing a DR character.

Due to the nature of Mukuro's story, along with events molding her into who/what she is, some heavy topics will be featured here. Such as, but not limited to: Death, PTSD, Suicide mentions, heavy depression, descriptive blood/gore, mature language, artistic nudity & descriptive sexual encounters. <- I will be writing Mukuro over the age of 18.

More on mains/exclusives/affiliates: I do not partner with just anyone.I'm very particular about who I tend to have heavy association with, as I personally believe most do it to have a badge of popularity on their blogs rather than genuine connection between the writer & their blog Canon. I apologize if this seems like a wild reach & assumptions, this is from personal experience who used to actively participate in affiliations, etc.

Regarding relationships in the romance department: Mukuro is multiship. But, forming romance with her will be quite a feat. She CAN feel romance toward others, unfortunately it is pushed down & ignored for the sake of her relationship with Junko.

In addition, please do not only approach me on Mukuro for romance plots. I will only do this with a select few - namely, those I am close friends to / associate with in my pinned posts.

A note on blocking/soft blocking/unfollowing: I don't just unfollow or softblock, I always out right block. I don't like being questioned on it, as my reasoning for doing so is such a long list. However, it's almost never personal... If I don't vibe with you anymore, don't enjoy your tone of speaking, overly aggro in your own guidelines pages, try to police people on how they write or what they write (i.e.; saying they should end their life over something fictional... yeah, no.) I will block, too, if you are overly dramatic, meaning, you like to stir the pot for no other reason than to do it & get clout. If you share callouts, or try to tell me who I can & can't talk to. I'm pro-free mind, as in not following the crowd on harassing someone over a callout. I block if you're a person who genuinely believes what media someone likes is a direct reflection on their own views & morals... grow up. I will also block, if I'm just simply not interested in your blog or character.

I think that's all, so here's a little bit about me: My name is Archeon, "Ark", 1995 is my birth year. I am a Polyamorous lesbian who uses primarily masculine pronouns, however I don't care much for what you refer to me to. I've been together with Yuri 6 years as of May 2024... She is my everything. My favorite color is red, my favorite Pokemon are Gengar & Umbreon. I also write a few characters, mostly known for Makima, Dame Aylin, Mei Raiden, Shadow & Dante... Currently, I am casually re-learning & learning the following languages: Spanish, Japanese, Chinese & German, along with going through a weight loss journey - as of typing this, I'm 6 months in!

Special notes** i.    I am against users who create art or feed writing/roleplay responses with the use of AI, or artificial intelligence. Please refer to this post for further info ->    ii.    edits / border is made by me, the heart & knife image in my icon is made by my friend, S.

Thanks for checking out my links & reading this far, I look forward to writing & chatting together. & Please give this post a "like" just so I know this page was at least visited!

[notetaeker]

Assalamualaikum, hope you are doing well. A fellow muslimah here, I want to start understanding Quran in depth, know and understand it's word to word meaning like Quran journaling. I do listen to online tafseers of Sheikhs but I want to know it myself. I have seen your journals pics about the same. If you don't mind, can you please tell how you do Quran journaling. Like the steps or guides as to how to collect all those tafseers and organise them. Please tell us about the resources too. Books,YT etc you reach out to make those journals.

Please sister, help us in connecting with the Quran. May Allah SWT bless you.

Jazakallah khair

Wa alykum assalam! I hope you're well too! That's so nice to hear that you're interested in Qur'an journaling alhamdulillah it's such a beautiful intention and I pray Allah will put barakah in your efforts.

SOURCES:

I think most of my posts about tafsir are either from my own studies (using translations of Tafsir ibn Kathir, or from Towards Understanding the Qur'an). I personally use those two because they are the ones I'm most familiar with, those are the ones I physically have in my home, and because they usually include all the opinions of scholars about the meanings of things. Like for example if there was ever any discourse about if a surah was makki or madani then they go into who said what and what their evidences were etc. So they're definitely very comprehensive.

I do also often take notes from tafsir classes I'm attending as part of the Miftaah Online program (this semester's tafsir class is for Surah Nur). These are usually done by scholars who have studied in the islamic world and are directly teaching (in english) from the arabic tafsir books.

As for youtube videos/lectures, there's a variety of scholars but I would encourage you to look up the speakers credentials, and what tafsir book they're using as a source etc.

NOTE-TAKING FORMAT

Since I'm in a sisters halaqah group (which i strongly recommend joining if you can find one) many times I'm taking notes with the intention of being able to explain the surah from my notes (which helps when trying to decide what I should write down and what I leave out)

I follow the same format that's found in Towards Understanding the Qur'an which is:

Naming of the Surah - what does it mean? Where does it come from? What is the etymology of the word?

Place / Circumstance of Revelation / Historical Context - Is it makki or madani? Were any parts of the surah/ the whole surah revealed in response to a specific event? What the situation when the surah was revealed? What was the culture, situation etc.

Bigger themes and subject-matter - What does the surah talk about? which ayahs focus on what topic? If you're interested in just the meaning of the qur'an, I would definitely recommend The Clear Qur'an translation by Dr. Mustafa Khattab. It's also divided very nicely into themes and the language is very clear (lol)

Ayah by Ayah explanation - detailed information about each ayah (one of the most interesting parts to me to be honest. The arabic language is so rich with meaning and connotation so even small ayahs have multiple layers of meaning) - This section can be extremeeeely long lol - depends on how many ayahs you want to study at a time - I also use this section to write the meanings of any arabic words I want to remember the meanings of (especially for short surahs)

Personal lessons/Reflections (Considered tadabbur - NOT tafsir) - how do I myself relate to these ayahs? Does an ayah remind me of something? What lesson do I get out of it? How can I possibly apply this ayah to my own life?

Dua - I mean you don't have to write it but it's nice to always make dua that the knowledge you wrote will be useful to you and that Allah gives us the tawfiq to benefit from it and protect us from this knowledge testifying against us.

Inshallah I hope I was able to be of some help! I'm no expert in the matter, just another student of the qur'an just like you, just sharing my experience. May Allah bless you sister for your desire to connect more with the Qur'an. I make dua that Allah makes all of us companions of the Qur'an so that we can be comforted thru it in this dunya, in the grave, and on the day of judgement. May Allah guide us and grant the correct understanding. Ameen.

[eilinelsghost]

Hi!! I’m such a huge fan of your Atandil series and had a question about it - maybe you’ve already addressed it elsewhere, if so, I’m sorry I’ve missed it! I know Balan refers to Finrod as Nóm, the name his people gave to Finrod - but I’m curious as to whether Balan has ever actually called him “Finrod”? Does he even know this is the Elf’s common name? I know very little about Tolkien’s complex etymology so maybe I’m missing some obvious tidbit about how only Finrod’s family call him Finrod or something … thanks so much! Keep on writing - you truly have a gift! 💜

Thank you so much! I'm so glad you've enjoyed the series so far!

That's a great question - and no, I haven't addressed it anywhere so far. The short answer is that Balan has never referred to him as Finrod in the text of Atandil itself so far, but it's feasible that he has done so in Nargothrond in more formal settings. Though typically in those I think he would be most likely to still just use a title instead of a direct name.

Balan knows most, if not all, of Finrod's names by the current point in the series, but he typically defaults to Nóm. "Finrod" is still a bit of a stranger to him, rather unreachable, very "the king, but Nóm is the person he knows and loves. The thing that comes to mind for me on this is thinking of meeting my friends from on here in real life. I don't go by Frankie in my day-to-day (it's my middle name, but I don't use it much even though I prefer it) and hearing all my friends here calling me by my first name would feel so strange - as it would to them to call me by a different name, I'd assume. So it's less of a knowledge thing for Balan and more of a deliberate choice. Nóm is a name of intimacy and by retaining that while he shifts to Nargothrond, he asserts a continued claim to that intimacy in this new setting, which keeps the king-subject dynamic from taking over. And by doing so, he continues to ground Finrod in the same steadiness that drew him to Balan in the first place: Balan sees him, knows him, names him - as himself, not as a performance of kingship.

You joked about a tidbit re only Finrod's family using the name - and that is a thing! Only it's Ingoldo (his mother-name) that the Shibboleth says is "used by his brothers and sister, who loved him." I actually did a little ficlet about that (re Balan) in response to a prompt if you want some silliness with those two as a break from Atandil's ongoing angst. 😂

Thank you so much for the ask! It was so fun to get to talk about this a bit.