#not even to start on the logistics of scheduling labs when i am up at college and a min of 3hrs away from the main center most of the time | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

loquaciousquark · 10 months ago

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I see @eponymous-rose doing these sometimes and I've always thought it was so much fun, so here's a Day in the Life of a clinical Associate Professor™. For reference, I've been seeing patients & teaching at my current university since finishing my residency almost a decade (!!!!!) ago.

9:30 - 10:00 - Precious precious office hours, spent answering emails from students, colleagues, and a guest speaker from a national organization I'm trying to coordinate an event for in two weeks. Everything's lined up except the venue (all our regular lecture halls are booked), and of course we discover this just outside his window to refund his airline tickets. Rats.

10:00 - 12:00 - Clinical lab! I'm coursemaster for two complex lecture/lab courses in the spring (protip: never let admin do this to you), so right now I spend most of my week in the classroom. Friday AMs are my advanced procedures lab, & today the students are doing intradermal and subcutaneous injections of the forearm and eyelid. This course can be really scary for them, so I go to a lot of effort to get them mentally and emotionally prepped, practicing approach and needle manipulation, etc. All of them do wonderfully, and even after cleanup and taking the biohazard bag down to disposal, I'm out on time.

12:00-1:00 - Guest faculty candidate lecture! Our full-time faculty has been down by about five people for a few years, and we also have three more of our remaining full-timers out on medical leave until late February, so we are hurting for help. This applicant gives a phenomenal talk on diversity and optometric scope across the several continents she's taught in over the last twenty years. It's an extraordinary talk and I honestly learn more geography than I expected.

1:00 - 2:30 - Lecture! Advanced procedures lecture to the third-year class, usually the only barrier between them and their weekend. I really like today's lecture and it goes well, and even the chronic dozers in the side seats stay awake.

2:30 - 2:45 - Intended to be an interview/tour with the faculty applicant, except here comes the first wrench. Just as she gets to my office, the colleague delivering the speaker lets me know she's having tech trouble with her Zoom-in guest lecturer and also there's a very upset student in the hall outside the classroom. I go down with her right away; student is okay, just got some very bad news, and when I'm sure they're settled with their friends & support system I help the colleague with the tech.

2:45-3:10 - Tour finally happens! The students we encounter are chipper and cheerful (not always the case in practical season!).

3:10-4:00 - Meeting with my clinic coordinator to prep for next week's practicals. My other big course this semester caps with a high-stakes clinical entrance exam; in essence, the students must perform a complete, independent eye examination from start to finish, and they can't enter clinic with "real" patients until they pass. The setup & scheduling for this practical (which runs over three weeks) is probably the most complicated logistical nightmare of my year. However, my coordinator is amazing, and within the hour she has a detailed list of both her tasks and mine and will report back as each prep step is done.

4:00-5:00 - Desperately trying to finish this schedule, answer my most urgent calls from patients, and finish some time-sensitive grading. Another colleague comes by and asks what I thought of the guest speaker, and when I say I didn't get much time in my interview with her, she suggests I tag along to the faculty dinner with her tonight at 5:45. A fantastic idea! I'll just wear what I have on, yeah?

The faculty dinner is at a five-star steakhouse. I'm wearing scrubs and a pullover.

It's okay, I have time to make it home and change! I can make it!

5:15 - I accidentally overwrite 90% of my completed schedule with an old, mostly blank copy, and don't realize it until after saving multiple times (I was on a different tab in the spreadsheet).

5:15 - 5:45 - Meticulously recreate the schedule as quickly as I can. I've already emailed out some assignments to the students, so I can't start over from scratch (which would have honestly been faster). Finally finish & send out the details to needed parties.

5:45 - 6:35 - race home, feed the dog, change into slacks and my favorite blazer, race out to the steakhouse.

6:35 - 8:30 - I arrive just before the salads come out, hallelujah! I have the best steak I've ever eaten in my life, as well as have a fantastic conversation with the candidate and the other faculty. The time honestly flies by, and when I realize what time it is I'm feeling very guilty about leaving the dog. Still, I'm sure she'll be a fantastic fit for the program, and it's honestly a relief to have my questions about some of her experience answered.

8:50 - home at last, at last!

8:51 - I discover my fly has been unzipped all night.

8:52 - 9:00 - I indulge in paroxysms of shame until I rationalize that the restaurant was incredibly dim, I was sitting the whole time, and my undies are also black. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine.

9:00 - now - hot bath, a book of poetry, and a double bourbon. After today, I feel like I've earned it.

#optometry /#a day in the life #quark rambles #long post for ts

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maniacalgenius · 19 days ago

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10.17.2024

sheesh, it’s been a while. sorry about that guys!

I’ve been Overwhelmed pretty much… for the last few weeks 🥲 i had a breakthrough the night before last prior to the all-nighter i was *planning* to pull (i did not end up doing so) that at this point in my undergraduate career, i qualify for reduced tuition, so i actually don’t need to be making myself miserable over my GPA for scholarships. which is FABULOUS because i have been incredibly overwhelmed over that for over two years, but now dobby is a free elf! i had an exam this morning and another one tomorrow morning but after my epiphany last night, i’ve spent the day in the same sort of numb state that i was in at the end of this past spring when i was first assured that i would be diagnosed—as in, incredibly relieved and too burnt out/overwhelmed to do much of anything except for feel my relief. praise the Lord! He is so so good in every moment.

i made the really hard decision to drop choir after our mid-semester concert this weekend. singing at my last concert with this group made my emotions run high all weekend, and i will miss rehearsing and performing, but it made my schedule exponentially more complicated logistically; on top of that, i wasn’t able to attend often enough to even know what was going on, so it was a huge mental load to set aside that time every week just for me to make practically zero contribution to the group and not really be getting the choir experience. it just didn’t make sense for me anymore.

for my remaining three semesters i will only be enrolled part time and won’t be in choir, so things are looking a lot more manageable starting in january. until then, here is my plan:

🧬 repeatedly immerse myself in the video lectures my biochem prof provides starting as soon as possible to compensate for my incredibly slow processing speed

🧬 attend all review sessions for micro

🧬 attend virtual help sessions for genetics lab reports so i’m not up until 2 am wednesday nights trying to get through those with my lab partner

🧬 attend genetics (lecture) office hours for help on all the homework so i don’t lose points

🧬 get together with micro lab group to study

🧬 do three (3) academic tasks per day (ideally)

1. little guy on campus!

2. genetics was cancelled yesterday so i had a chill morning

3. on monday night after friend group Bible study one of the guys whose house we meet at offered me orange juice and crackers and then did this 😊 i’m a little (read: a lot) 🥰🥰🥰 for him but it’s okay

4. ice cream with two of my choir friends and my cousin after the concert this weekend!!

🎶 song on loop: this weekend it was "the view between villages" - noah kahan and now it's "orange juice" - noah kahan

📖 current book: i finaaaallllllyyyyyyy finished i have some questions for you by rebecca makkai. the ending wasn't as unsatisfying as i was expecting it to be, but still i didn't really appreciate it. the problem child by michael buckley and peter ferguson (the sisters grimm, #3) is my current comfort book on my phone.

🕰️ time focused: hahahahahah really funny joke

hopefully i will be making another post later tonight with my three (3) academic tasks i’ve accomplished.

#studyblr #studyspo #student life #college life #about me #academic weapon #study blog #lifeblr

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cruisercrusher · 5 years ago

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Dicktiger week day 6- Bad Plan (unanticipated)

(Re upload bc tumblr messed it up the first time)

Well, Dick thought to himself with a sort of detached humour, this is one fine pickle I’ve gotten myself into.

The seconds on the bomb kept ticking down closer to zero. Dick looked back at the computer, the flashing screen, and back at the bomb. He sighed, far calmer than someone in his situation ought to be. But, if this was the end… well, this was the end.

After Dick and Tiger had gotten the information needed from Marco Guillespe to lead them to the surveillance tech he’d paid to have developed, Spyral had started dissecting it right away.

There wasn’t enough information there for them to recreate it themselves— thank goodness— but according to a series of emails that had been included in the files Dick had stolen, the code wasn’t finalized yet. Also thank goodness.

But now, after three weeks of nonstop deciding and analyzing and narrowing it down, Spyral had managed to pinpoint the location of the lab where he tech was being made.

Remote and half underground in some forgotten and barely inhabited area in rural India, Spyral was sending a small team to clear out the facility and steal the plans. So they could “make sure it didn’t get into the wrong hands”, or so they said, but Dick had little faith they wouldn’t simply replicate it for their own uses.

Spyral teetered the line between evil and technically-not-evil on a good day. This surveillance program, absurdly unethical in its invasiveness by all worldly standards, would be the exact kind of thing that would push Spyral right into the fully evil category.

That was something that Dick couldn’t let happen. The whole reason he was even with Spyral was to stop that from happening.

Pretty lucky, then, that he and Tiger were the leads on this mission.

They moved in silently, surrounding the lab on all sides. Tiger gave the signal, and the agents moved again, slipping in past the alarms and security, following Dick’s lead inside

As much as there were many aspects of being a spy that Dick did not enjoy at all, this was pretty firmly in his comfort zone. Stealth missions were familiar territory.

Of course, the next phase wasn’t very stealthy at all, but the former vigilante would cross that bridge when he got to it.

Until then, Dick snuck through the facility towards the main security office, tailed by four more agents backing him up.

Neutralizing the security guards in the office and taking control of the building was easy. They hardwired the distress alarm so it wouldn’t go off when they destroyed the lab, and Dick sent the all clear signal to Tiger and his team.

Then he was out the door and making his way to the main lab, this time not caring for stealth— now, time was of the essence. He took down security guards as he went. He left the unconscious bodies like a trail of breadcrumbs behind him, knowing Tiger’s team would be sweeping the halls and clearing everyone out of the building.

He hadn’t even needed to pull his gun yet, instead continuing to use his signature escrima sticks— he was glad Spyral let him use them.

Dick slid down the ramp leading underground towards the lab and took a running head start once the door was in sight. He aimed a flying kick and busted the door right in off its hinges with a thunderous bang.

“Sorry to crash the party,” Dick smirked even though he knew none of the shocked software engineers inside could see his facial expression, brandishing his escrimas, “but—“

He was cut off by Tiger and his team coming in behind him.

“Enough of your quips, 37.” Tiger said, then, to the room at large, “You’re all under arrest. I suggest you come quietly— struggling will be futile and no one is going to come for you if you scream.”

Tiger barely even had to point his gun at the room of scientists for them to immediately drop what they were doing and raise their hands in surrender. The other agents started filing them out of the room, and Dick went over to the main computer to get to work just as a large metal crate was wheeled in.

This lab had way more thorough security measures than Guillespe’s desktop did, that was for sure-- for one, getting into the main computer was a little more complicated than a simple password. And surely there would be more roadblocks and traps to come-- but Dick was prepared for those.

Dick focused on getting into the computer while Tiger directed his agents to wheel the crate over to near the computer system where Dick was working and open it up. Inside was one of the three bombs they were going to use to blow up the facility. He watched out of the corner of his eye as they got it set up and ready to go. Tiger walked over and watched over Dick’s shoulder as he kept working at the computer.

“You’re confident you’ll get out with the plans in time?”

To the untrained ear it just sounded like Tiger was reaffirming the mission was set to go smoothly, but Dick was no untrained ear. He smiled up at his partner.

“Aw, don’t you worry ‘bout lil’ ol’ me, Tony,” He said, saccharinely sweet, even reaching up to pat Tiger on the cheek. “I’ll be fine.”

“Ugh,” Tiger pulled back with a groan of disgust. “Don’t call me that. Just keep your comm in and don’t do anything stupid, you idiot.”

“How could I?” Dick gestured to the computer. Beside them, the other agents finished setting up the bomb and got it online. “What could I fuck up from here?”

“I’m sure you could find plenty.” Tiger retorted, then pressed a finger to his comm to check in with the rest of his team and the bombs. “Is everything synced up?”

He must have gotten affirmatives, because then he nodded at the other agents, and they all left the room, probably to finish clearing the building while they still had time. Tiger made to follow them out, then turned back to Dick.

“Remember--” Tiger pointed a stern, bordering on menacing finger at him, “The mission protocol. If you do not have enough time to download the plans and get out, then evacuate immediately. Don’t be a self-sacrificing idiot. Understand?”

Dick laughed. “Aw, Agent 1,” he crooned. “Careful. I might start to think you care about me.”

Tiger scoffed and turned away once more. “Of course not. I am not attached to you, we are partners, not friends.”

“Partners with benefits,” Dick reminded him, just to be annoying. Tiger smacked him upside the head.

“You’re wasting time,” he grumbled, and left without another word.

As soon as Dick was alone in the room he spun around in the chair, the smile falling from his face and replaced with a more somber one.

You cared about your last partner, he thought bitterly. And look how badly I managed to fuck that up for you.

There had been too many variables, too many unknowns for him to have been able to form a solid plan on how to destroy the tech plans and make it seem like he hadn’t done it on purpose, so he was going to have to do a lot of improvising.

He glanced at the clock on the bomb. It had started counting down already-- they were on a tight schedule, Spyral could only hang around here for so long before someone noticed-- but there was still plenty of time. There should have still been plenty of time.

Dick went back to work on hacking into the computer. He had to make it seem like he at least tried, after all.

Things had been going perfectly well, everyone had been arrested and cleared out of the building on time, the bombs had been set up and were set to go off on time, all the other agents had gotten out on time, and according to Dick’s last update he would also be done and out on time. But still, a sense of unease followed Tiger as he paced just outside the blast zone at the entrance to the facility. He checked the remote detonator in his hand-- there were only two and a half minutes left on the timer before the bombs would go off. He frowned and looked back at the open entrance, then back down at the timer.

He didn’t want to admit it, not even to himself, but he thought having Dick alone in there was a glaring flaw in the plan-- not even for logistical reasons. It was exactly as Dick teased him about earlier-- he was worried.

Dick should be out by now-- down to two minutes, and it would take that long, even running at top speed, for Dick to make it from the main lab to the entrance and out of the blast zone.

Something wasn’t right. He activated his comm and was about to demand another update when suddenly a blast door slid shut over the entrance to the facility, inside, through the quickly closing gap, a red light was flashing that had not been before, and they could distantly hear an alarm. Tiger and the other agents yelled out, running back to the entrance, but it shut before they got there.

Damnit, Tiger thought, gritting his teeth. “Damnit!” He repeated out loud. Then into his comm, “Agent 37, what is going on down there! Agent 37, respond!”

“Okay, that should be about it…” Dick muttered to himself. “Just gotta plug in and…”

He’d managed to get through all the different layers and levels of security right on schedule, all while brainstorming stories of failsafes and corrupted files, and was finally ready to enact the final step of the plan. He pulled the USB out of his pocket and plugged it into the computer-- and that was where things went wrong.

All of a sudden every screen in the whole lab turned red-- and the lights overhead turned red and started flashing, and an alarm started blaring so loud Dick had to cover his ears.

“Shit, what the fuck!” Dick yelled over the blaring siren, looking back at the main screen-- there was a message displayed in large black text over the red background. ‘UNAUTHORIZED DATA READER INSERTED. INITIATING FAILSAFE 22B-1’

“Fuck!” Dick heard a sudden heavy metal thunk behind him, and looked over his shoulder to see a secondary blast door had closed over the entrance to the lab. “Fuck!”

He ran over and started looking for a way to get the door open just as his comm crackled to life.

“Agent 37, what is going on down there! Agent 37, respond!” Tiger roared in his ear. Dick could barely hear him over the alarm.

“Uh,” Dick shouted back, still scrutinizing every inch on the seal of the door. “I think I’m trapped inside!”

“Inside the building?”

“Inside the main lab! There was a second emergency door that closed over the doorway, and I can’t get it open and I don’t have anything to break it open with!”

“Fuck!” Dick heard Tiger yell through the comms.

“Fuck!” Tiger yelled. He reared on the agent closest to him. “Get this door open!”

“Agent 1, with all due respect--” the agent replied, “There’s only one minute left before the bombs go off. Even if we could get the door open, we wouldn’t be able to get Agent 37 out in time.”

Another agent pitched in-- extremely unhelpfully, in Tiger’s opinion. “We need to clear out of the blast zone.”

Tiger snarled, and spun away from the door, following the rest of the team back out of the blast zone towards the shuttle. Blood was roaring in his ears, he could feel the tips of his fingers tingling with oncoming numbness. Dick is going to die, he thought helplessly, trying not to choke on it. He’s going to die.

“Agent-- Grays-- Dick,” Tiger said into his comm. “I-- I’m sorry… we--”

Well, Dick thought to himself with a sort of detached humour, this is one fine pickle I’ve gotten myself into.

Resigned to the knowledge he wasn’t getting out of there, Dick walked away from the door and slipped under the desk furthest from the main computer, tucking himself into a neat little ball in the tight space.

“Agent-- Grays-- Dick. I-- I’m sorry… we--”

“I know, Tiger.” Dick said. “It’s okay.”

He couldn’t see the timer on the bomb from there, but he knew there were only seconds left. He closed his eyes. “I--”

The first thing Dick felt when he woke up was confused. The second thing he felt was pain.

He cracked one eye open against the bright white lights above him, trying and probably failing to stifle a groan of extreme discomfort. It took a second for him to realize someone was there, and that someone was talking to him. He slowly, slowly and painfully, turned his head-- his neck was in some kind of semi-brace-- to the side.

Helena was standing to his right, looking over some kind of clipboard in her hand. “You sustained severe internal and external damage from both the blast and the whole building falling down on top of you,” she was saying. “Some burns, mostly lacerations, broken bones and damaged organs. Both your legs are broken-- your right tibia and your left femur, and so is your collarbone and your left humerus. Several ribs. We had to do extensive surgery on your knee, it was all kinds of messed up. Your lungs were severely damaged, one punctured by a rib. Your stomach was also damaged, but not punctured, and you can thank God that your spine is still completely intact.”

She finished her speech, setting the clipboard aside and finally actually looking Dick in the eye. “But despite all that, somehow, you’re expected to make a full recovery. Welcome back to the land of the living, 37.”

There was a hint of a smile in her eye. Dick squinted at her, still struggling to comprehend pretty much everything. All of that went completely unprocessed. “...Huh?” His throat and tongue both felt like sandpaper.

Helena blinked, and looked at her watch. “Oh, your painkillers are probably worn off by now,” She said. “I’ll give you another dose.”

“N--no, I don’t need--” Dick tried to protest on instinct, but the second he tried to move sparks of pain went rocketing up and down his entire body, and he couldn’t stifle his cry of pain this time. Helena nodded.

“I’m giving you another dose.”

Dick watched, detached and still confused, as she administered the painkillers. “So… I’m not dead?”

Helena couldn’t help her smile this time. “No, you’re not dead,” she laughed. “You have the big guy over here to thank for that.”

She pointed towards the other side of the bed, (Dick only just then registered he was in a hospital bed in a private room in the medbay) and Dick-- slowly-- turned his head to look. To his shock, slumped over in the hard plastic chair and fast asleep, was Tiger.

“You have no idea how many agents’ heads he almost bit off demanding we dig you out of there.” Helena continued. “He yelled at me, too, when you got back. A lot. The man has balls of steel. And a soft spot for you, it would seem.”

This time her smile was a little softer, a little indulgent. “I understand the feeling. He refused to go and rest pretty much the entire time you were in surgery-- we could hardly even get him to sit down. He didn’t crash until it was confirmed, with certainty, that you were stable and going to pull through.”

Dick looked back at Tiger with no small amount of wonderment in his eyes. Helena reached down and patted his undamaged shoulder. “Get some more rest, now. I’ll save your debriefing for until you’re a little more lucid.”

With that she turned on her sharp heel and stepped out of the room, closing the door quietly behind her. Dick watched her go and then turned his head again (moving was easier now that the meds were kicking in) to rest his gaze on Tiger’s sleeping form. He tried to remember if he had ever actually seen Tiger sleep before.

Tiger ducked and sheilded his eyes on instinct when the building exploded, despite knowing they were out of range of debris. He stared at the site as the explosions continued to light up the night sky and tear the building apart, the ground around it ripping up and caving in on itself, knowing and not caring about the openly distraught expression that was surely on his face.

Everyone else watched in silence, and Tiger fought the urge to fall to his knees in the sand.

Dick… no…

No.

Suddenly Tiger face hardened and he clenched his fists, turning back to his team before the dust had even settled.

“Agent 14,” He snapped. “Call in backup, we’re going to need debris removal hardware and a full search team.”

Lucky for everyone around, the agent didn’t protest or question him, just ducked immediately into the shuttle to contact HQ. Tiger turned back to the destroyed facility, determination pulling the lines of his body stiff like stone.

I’m not losing another partner tonight, he thought. I refuse.

I am not losing him.

Tiger jolted awake, jerking in the chair and almost punching himself in the face when the hand he’d propped his cheek on slipped. He shook his head, trying to clear it of lingering bad memories that had chased him into sleep, and caught his eye on movement from the hospital bed before him.

Dick was awake, eyes wide open and slowly trying to reach towards him with his-- mostly-- uninjured arm--

Dick was awake!!!

He almost fell out of his chair, spared a second to feel embarrassed by his displays of clumsiness, and grabbed Dick’s hand out of the air, placing it back at the man’s side on the bed.

“Grayson--” Tiger resisted stuttering when Dick didn’t let him retract his hand, his grip surprisingly strong for someone who had just survived an explosion. “You-- you… idiot.”

He seethed suddenly. “Didn’t I tell you not to do anything stupid! Didn’t I give you clear and strict orders not to--” He cut himself off when he saw Dick start to smile, then smile wider, then start to laugh.

It was a soft and raspy thing, Dick’s voice rough from lack of use in the days he had remained unconscious and sedated, by no objective terms should it have been beautiful in any way--

And yet--

And yet…

Tiger looked away. “Stop that,” He muttered. “Stop it. You could have died. You were going to die. You-- I--”

Words failed him, and Dick’s expression softened. “Sorry,” he said. Not teasing. Not poking fun at anything. Just genuinely apologetic for making Tiger worried, for making Tiger upset. Tch. As if it had actually been his fault at all… no one had predicted the lab would seal itself.

“Idiot,” Tiger said, squeezing Dick’s hand before he could think better of it. It was the only thing he could think to say. Dick grinned again.

“Pretty badass that you yelled at Helena,” he said, and Tiger blinked-- how did he know about that?-- “And you… well, you saved my life. Again. That’s two I owe you now, right? I should say thank you.”

Tiger looked down, finally tuggung his hand free of Dick’s-- and immediately missed the contact. “Idiot,” he muttered again. “You don’t owe me anything. Now get some more rest.” He stood from the chair, and Dick obediently settled back into the pillows.

Tiger walked around the bed towards the door, and made to leave, but paused despite himself in the open doorway. “I’m… glad you’re alright, Dick.” He whispered, unsure if Dick would even hear it. Then he flicked the light off and left, closing the door behind him. He didn’t look back.

No matter how badly he wanted to.

#dicktigerweek2020 #dicktigerweek #dicktiger #dick grayson #tiger king of kandahar #writing #my writing #fic #my fic #dc #dc comics

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revasnaslan · 6 years ago

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For the ship thingy, how about entrapdak?

i live for asshole stoic villains who are soft with their significant others who throw them completely off guard, so am i surprised i immediately latched onto this ship when canon made it clear it could fit that aesthetic?

nah, not really

under a cut cause this got really long

who hogs the duvet? entrapta, i suppose??

who texts/rings to check how their day is going? hordak checks up on entrapta quite frequently during the day, although if you asked him about it, he’d probably insist that he was just checking up on her progress, not because he likes listening to her talk or anything.

who’s the most creative when it comes to gifts? hordak, probably. like i’m not saying entrapta gets spoiled, but entrapta gets spoiled. i saw a cute post by @nya-kawaiidesu suggesting he gets a special staff specifically to make her tiny foods, and i for one, love that idea

who gets up first in the morning? y’know i’m not convinced that hordak even needs to sleep, so he’s just up at all hours doing whatever it is he does with his time… and entrapta, though she needs sleep, keeps one of the worst sleeping schedules known to man so even if she’s ‘up first’ who knows what time of day it’s gonna be at. also for your consideration, dear anon, entrapta falling asleep on hordak and he’s just *beleaguered sigh* before continuing on with his work and not moving her.

who suggests new things in bed? they both are pretty damn ace to me (entrapta is bi ace and hordak reads as really demi to me), so idk how much of that they’d actually do lmao

who cries at movies? i actually have no idea, cause i honestly can’t see either of them doing that?? at least not at the moment

who gives unprompted massages? gonna be honest, my mind immediately went to that one john mulaney bit

Hordak: “I was sitting up in bed a few weeks ago like… [groans] You know, life. And my wife was rubbing my shoulders, which was very nice of her, but then she started singing to herself. “Monkey, monkey, monkey man. Monkey, monkey, monkey man.” Not at me. Not to be mean. This was a song from deep in her subconscious. I don’t even think she was aware she was singing it. But it was certainly not the first time she had sung it.”

who fusses over the other when they’re sick? if hordak is a cyborg, can he even get sick? like on one hand, entrapta fussing over him and doing research on how to properly care for something as simple as a cold is hilarious… on the other hand, hordak hasn’t been sick a long ass time because cyborg, so when entrapta gets sick, he has no idea how to deal with it and is like convinced she’s dying while also trying to play it cool cause fussing over your sick girlfriend isn’t really conducive to the whole Evil Overlord Look

who gets jealous easiest? hordak probably… cause entrapta doesn’t seem to really be able to read the room at all, so even if someone was doing something, i don’t think she’d care or pick up on it at all?

who has the most embarrassing taste in music? entrapta, next question.

who collects something unusual? I enjoy the idea of hordak collecting little baubles and trinkets over the years he was presumably exploring and such, although I doubt he would publicly display them anywhere, so if he has a room in the fright zone, they’d be there.

who takes the longest to get ready? considering hordak is mostly cyborg and he seems to need daily maintenance on that stuff, he probably does. actually, entrapta fiddling with his prosthetics while he’s preparing for the day is something i need now.

who is the most tidy and organised? hordak, clearly. like at least the horde has files and labels… entrapta seems to work with organized chaos and a system only she’d really understand.

who gets most excited about the holidays? entrapta, probably. hordak doesn’t really pay attention since he’s not really interested in etheria?? i feel like entrapta could change that a bit tho

who is the big spoon/little spoon? well obviously hordak is the little spoon :P like that’s just facts. If the massive dude isn’t the little spoon to his much smoller wife then, dare i say, what’s the fucking point???

who gets most competitive when playing games and/or sports? i have a feeling entrapta is more outwardly competitive, at least in comparison

who starts the most arguments? they don’t seem very argumentative to me… like outside of entrapta basically demanding that hordak tell her what he’s researching, they don’t really argue again?? heated debate about logistics between two scientists i can see tho

who suggests that they buy a pet? idk if they buy a pet, but given entrapta has a little robot guinea pig looking thing, entrapta probably makes them a pet, much to hordak’s befuddlement. also they have imp, i guess? XD

what couple traditions they have? I have a fic idea in mind where entrapta kisses hordak on the cheek while working in the lab out of excitement, and hordak is utterly perplexed by it but he’s so thrown for a loop that he doesn’t really have time to react negatively before entrapta has completely moved onto something else, and then eventually it just becomes a habit for her to do that when she leaves the lab and when she doesn’t remember to do it, hordak gets a little grumbly and feels neglected like a kicked puppy

what tv shows they watch together? i think that entrapta would really like the etheria version of how it’s made

what other couple they hang out with? i mean… are there any other couples in the fright zone they could hang out with? the only other ship that i like from she ra is scorpia/catra… which honestly, scorpia and catra having to sit through a “double date” with hordak and entrapta is hilarious

how they spend time together as a couple? canon showed us that they spend a lot of time together in hordak’s inner sanctum so…

who made the first move? entrapta did, except hordak did not realize she was making any kind of move (he’s either really really out of practice with this whole romance thing or he has very little experience with it, i have yet to decide), so he’s stuck pining while entrapta is under the impression they’re already in a relationship, and she notices him being grumbly while pining and she basically sits him down and is like “you’re my partner and I care about you, so please tell me what is wrong so I can help” and hordak is just like ??????????????????

who brings flowers home? if you replace ‘flowers’ with ‘first one’s tech’ then probably entrapta??

who is the best cook? entrapta either does not know how to cook given she had chefs making her tiny foods or she knows how but has very little time for it in between her experiments. idk if hordak knows how to cook, but given i’m not sure he even needs to eat at all...

send me a ship

#rev's rambling again #entrapdak #entrapta #hordak #Anonymous

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dresupi · 6 years ago

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love in a zero-gravity climate

Darcy Lewis Crack Challenge 2019 | Day 8: Anti-Gravity |

Summary:

Darcy’s Tuesday is nothing special. She’s just sliding through a portal into space and helping a shirtless Captain America pilot a SHIELD spaceship back to earth.

All in a day’s work, right?

Steve wasn’t usually in the lab on Tuesdays.

Darcy couldn’t believe that was her final thought before she was sucked cleanly through the hole that had opened up in front of them. She could have had any number of distressing thoughts. Like… “Gee, I hope there’s oxygen where we’re going” or “Gosh, I hope the lifeforms we encounter are friendly.” But no. Her first and only thought as she and Captain America were being slurped into another place in space was the downright KevinSmithsian thought, ‘Steve wasn’t even supposed to be here today.’

Darcy’s day had started off just fine. Up and out of bed after only hitting the snooze three times. That had to be some kind of a personal record for her. She’d grabbed coffee for herself and Jane, arriving at the lab only a few minutes later than her scheduled time, as opposed to her usual half an hour late.

Like always, her boss was working diligently. Possibly through the night, but Darcy had delegated that particular worry to one of the lab’s many interns. Scientist wrangling was behind her. She was only here to make enough money to pay off her student loans. And to work alongside her bestie. After she’d done that? The sky was the limit.

Meaning she hadn’t really figured things out that far in advance.

But that was really, okay, wasn’t it?

Jane was testing some portal gun, Darcy wasn’t sure of the exact logistics, but there was definitely some theoretical math involved because Janey had filled three whiteboards with her calculations.

Much of the morning was spent calibrating some of the more touchy equipment so Jane could pull the trigger thingie on the portal gun and swear at it for not working.

Or at least, that’s what Dr. Foster was doing. Whether that was what Jane had in mind for her Tuesday was up for debate.

Darcy left for lunch, bringing something up for Jane on her way back. It was then that she noticed the Star Spangled Man with a Plan himself. He was standing over near Tony talking in a very low and solemn tone if the expression on his face was any indication.

He was wearing a white t-shirt and jogging pants. Sneakers.

So he was probably fresh from the gym. Or headed there afterward. Yeah, definitely that second one because he wasn’t sweaty or anything.

But did he sweat, though? Darcy nearly toppled over a rolling cart that Jane had pushed away, too deep in her thoughts to notice its existence until it stopped her from moving forward. She ran into it, hitting her hip, which smarted and made a hugely loud racket that she really hoped no one heard.

They did hear it. Of fucking course.

It interrupted Steve and Tony’s discussion of boring and brought Steve over to inquire as to whether or not she was okay. “Are you alright?” he asked, his brow furrowing with a worry that made her cheeks feel hot. Why was Steve Rogers worried about her clumsiness?

She wasn’t okay, but it wasn’t because of the cart. And she didn’t know how to tell him that, so she opened and closed her mouth like a fish, but no sound came out at first. Dumb nerves.

It was at that precise moment in which Jane pressed the button on the doohickey gun again, opening up a swirling, sparkling black hole in front of Darcy and Steve.

Darcy let out a tiny screech as the hole’s force pulled her towards it, the absent thought of ‘Steve wasn’t usually in the lab on Tuesdays,” floated through her head. She heard Jane’s frantic voice calling her name. Or the beginning of it, anyway. Just “Dar!”

And that was as far as Darcy got before the wormhole spit herself and Steve out and closed behind them.

She panicked the second she opened her eyes.

Floating. They were floating.

She sucked in a deep breath and was met with no resistance. No horrible feeling like her lungs were about to explode or she was going to drown.

“Leapin’ fucknuts,” she exclaimed, reaching out to brush her fingertips over the wall of the room they were in.

No. Not a room. There were windows. A windshield. Some kind of crazy piloting apparatus. And nothing but black sky and stars out the front windshield. It was small, the area. No longer than about twelve feet of ‘walking’ space from the windshield to the back of the craft.

“I was going to go with ‘holy shit’, but yours is better,” Steve said, chuckling a little as he floated past. Below her. He seemed oddly calm for someone thrust into zero gravity in outer freaking space.

“Where are we?” Darcy asked, looking around rapidly for something to hold onto. She settled for what could have passed as a towel rack on the ceiling, clinging to it like a scared cat on a tree branch. “Does any of this look familiar to you?”

“This certainly feels familiar,” Steve muttered, probably thinking she wouldn’t hear him. But she did. She really fucking did and she wished she hadn’t.

He used the floor grate to pull himself forward and to push up. His eyes scanned the room as he floated up to the ceiling. “Actually, this does look familiar… I think this a SHIELD ship…”

Darcy hated that he used the word ‘ship’ and not ‘plane’ or ‘quinjet’.

“Does that mean you know how to pilot it?” she asked hopefully.

He made a scoffing sound. “Not a ship like this. I only know planes. But I do know there’s a comm under the pilot’s seat. Emergency backup battery. We should be able to contact someone on the ground and let them know we’re here. And we can get further instructions that way.”

Steve pushed off the ceiling and Darcy heard a tiny tearing sound.

Alarmed, she looked up just in time to see Steve’s white t-shirt fluttering past so she was treated to an eyeful of Captain Pecs and his Glorious Abs.

Steve either didn’t notice or figured it was a lost cause in the situation they were in. Either way, he didn’t address it. Instead, he rummaged around under the pilot’s seat. He found the comm right where he said it’d be.

He sent out a call. “This is Captain Rogers… I’m not sure where I am, but I know I’m in outer space. There’s a civilian with me, get back soon. Over.”

A voice, clear as crystal responded. “Come again, Captain? Over.”

Steve planted his feet on the ceiling and repeated his message, only to be treated to a long silence.

“How are you there, when we just clocked you in NYC?”

He glanced back at Darcy for confirmation and she floated over, grabbing the comm. “I work for Dr. Jane Foster. She was working on an interdimensional wormhole generator and might have accidentally sent us here. Wherever ‘here’ is. Uh. Over.”

The man on the other side didn’t miss a beat. “Is she in NYC as well? Because I have on file a frantic call from that area thirty seconds ago. Lots of screaming, something about a wormhole? Over.”

“Affirmative, over,” Steve replied.

Darcy pressed her hand to her heart. Her Janey was already looking for her.

“Okay, we’ll get more info once you’re back on Earth. In the meantime, we’ll get the power reserves turned back on. It’ll take a little while, but the only other way is to switch it on manually from the outside. You’d need a space suit. There are two on board, but neither of you is trained for that. “

Steve got some kind of look in his eyes, handing the comm to Darcy, who hurriedly signed off and floated after Steve, having to push off the windshield to do so.

She’d have no way of actually stopping Captain America in normal situations. But since there was no gravity, she could wrap her arms around his waist and yank him backward if she hooked her feet around the headrest on the pilot’s chair. Which she did.

And it really was a power trip, watching that muscley fella fly backward every time he made for the back of the ship, to where the space suits were.

“Let me go,” he said, attempting to spin around and just ending up spinning himself in place.

Darcy tried not to laugh, but it was hard.

“Stop it. I’ve been trapped on a doomed ship before,” he reiterated. Like she didn’t know.

“I know, dude. Everyone knows what you did. You’re in every US History book. Is this some kind of claustrophobia or…”

“No. I signed up for this. You didn’t.”

Darcy tilted her head, throwing a look his way that could have frozen ice if they were back on earth. “Dude. Do you think I didn’t sign up for this? My boss is a renowned astrophysicist. I handled the Dark Elf invasion. And I totally beat Thor in hand to hand combat.”

“You tased him while he was weakened,” Steve retorted. “And no. You didn’t sign up for perilous situations like this.”

“First of all, don’t take my victory away from me. I know you’re freaking out a little, but really. There’s no need to be rude. I’d never tell you that you didn’t beat Thor in hand-to-hand combat.”

Steve smirked. “I beat Thor in hand-to-hand combat.”

“Okay, not to be a stickler, but you didn’t. I did. Weakened form still counts.”

“Fine, you beat Thor and I didn’t. But--”

“Look, I’m an agent with SHIELD too. I’m learning self-defense from the Black Widow. I have a badge thingie just like you do. My clearance level isn’t as high, but whatever. The point is, I signed up for this, knowing damn well something like this would happen. And I’ll be damned if Captain 1940s-Booty-Shorties is going to manhandle me into a submissive role!”

He stopped struggling, but it didn’t matter much, it was still spinning them around until he reached out and placed his palm against the wall. “1940s Nooty Shorties?”

“I saw the pics, Cap. I know those were booty shorts and tights.”

He smirked a little and stopped trying to ditch her.

“Fine. So we’ll just sit here until they turn the remote power on?”

“We can thank our lucky stars that there’s oxygen in here,” Darcy mused as they slowly spun around the cockpit. Like the slowest and least controllable 3D tour ever.

“Not to burst your bubble, but I think it might be limited to what’s already here. The fact that we came from a place with oxygen also probably helped matters. Some got sucked in with us through the wormhole.”

“And you’ve been sucking it down in your attempt to Herosplain this situation to me?” she gasped, clapping one hand over her mouth.

“You mean save you? Because my argument was that I was the best candidate to go on a spacewalk and turn on the backup power.”

“No. I mean herosplain me. Like I didn’t fight the Dark Elves and I don’t know you have some kind of superhero complex about self-worth and whatever.”

“Touche…” he replied. “I won’t do that again, sorry. I was just…”

Darcy filled in for him. “You were just being Captain America. But I think this situation calls for Steve.”

“Steve, I can do. I think.” He reached out for one of the handles. “So… you wanna turn flips or something to pass the time?”

“I don’t really believe that you aren’t going to make a break for that space suit, but actually, yes? I’ve always wanted to have a zero-gravity flip contest.”

She had to yank him back from the space suits three times, and from the look on his face, he could probably keep this up all day. But so could she.

Darcy resolved the situation by wrapping both arms around his bare waist and hanging on for dear life.

“Are you going to hug me all day until the gravity comes back?” Steve asked, a smile apparent in his voice.

Darcy shrugged. “Maybe? You can’t go outside with a whole-ass me attached to you.”

“Fine, but I’m hugging you too.” He proceeded to twist in her arms and wrap his beefy biceps of justice around her shoulders, resting his chin on her head. She almost let go of him, but she had a sneaking suspicion that was what he wanted.

She sniffed. “Why are you hugging me? I’m not going anywhere.” She glanced up at him, her eyes meeting his for a long moment.

“Okay. Me either,” he conceded.

She snorted. ��Ha, LIke I actually believe you”

“You don’t believe Captain America?” Steve joked. “I stand for truth, justice, and freedom. If you can’t trust me, you can’t trust anybody.”

“Yup, that’s right,” she replied, her arms tightening around his body, pressing her cheek snugly to his shoulder. “I’m not falling for that, Rogers.”

“Fine by me. I’m enjoying this.”

So was she, but she kind of wasn’t going to tell him that.

Their little cuddle-fest was interrupted just a few seconds later.

“Captain Rogers? This is SHIELD Mission Control. We’re turning on the gravity boosters and are ready to talk you through your return flight to earth. Are you ready? Over.”

Darcy felt Steve laugh a little. “I feel like I should ask for ten more minutes…”

“How about I give you double that when we land back on terrain I’m familiar with?” Darcy asked.

“What do I do with my twenty minutes?” he asked.

“That’s entirely up to you,” she replied, cheekily

He smiled that genuine smile of his that had ceased being about honor and patriotism and had started being something that made Darcy a little weak in the knees. Gravity or no.

“We’re ready, SMC. Tell us what to do first, over.”

Darcy couldn’t help but smile a little. She had plans. With a guy. To land a spaceship and spend twenty minutes doing… well, the specifics didn’t matter. She was making plans. Apparently, the sky wasn’t the limit anymore.

Not bad for a regular Tuesday, honestly.

#Shieldshock #Darcy Lewis #Steve Rogers #Darcy/Steve #dlaf2019 #Crack Challenge

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haleyreads4you · 5 years ago

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No Laughing Matter

Why Gotham’s Crown Prince of Crime Doesn’t Deserve a Backstory

If you haven’t heard, DC is releasing a new live action movie entitled The Joker, scheduled to be released on October 4th later this year. The movie is supposed to take us on a journey to see the beginning of this notorious villain, and hopefully give a better understanding on why he is the way he is. Usually this is fantastic! Villains, bad guys, antagonist, whatever you call them, are always so much more interesting when you get to see the reasoning behind their actions, and after all the Joker has done, who wouldn’t want to know. The short answer, is me.

The longer answer, (which I’m about to give you,) is that honestly, no real DC or Batman fan should want to see a Joker backstory. Believe it or not, he actually has one already, and I promise you it’s not going to be the one you see in the movie. It simply isn’t that complex. If you can’t tell, I am a huge DC, (especially the Batfam,) fan, and if you’re not that’s okay! I’m honestly shocked if you read this far without being a DC fan. Nonetheless, I’m going to be giving as much background as I possibly can to flush out my points throughout this, so you don’t have to possess prior knowledge. Now, I will not claim to be an expert on DC, or Batman, and especially not on the Joker himself, but I do like to think I know quite a bit. That being said, if I miss something, or get the facts wrong, feel free to refute me! A huge point of all these dumb essays I’m writing is to get the conversation going! Now with all the logistics and introductions out of the way, here’s why I think the Joker doesn’t deserve his own movie (or back story.)

The Joker is arguably the most famous of Batman’s rogues. With countless reiterations, and big name stars playing him in adaptation after adaptation, it’s no wonder that he’s built up a name for himself. Not only that, but the Joker is one villain whose actions we simply can’t explain. We know Two-Face, AKA Harvey Dent, was seriously disfigured after a man he prosecuted threw acid on his face, destroying his lucky coin in the process. The incident made him crazy, and he wrecks havoc on the city with his destroyed coin asking people “heads or tails?” We know Mr. Freeze, AKA Victor Fries, became a criminal after a failed attempt to save his terminally ill wife left him with sub-zero body temperatures, forcing him to wear the cryo suit forever. His involvement with crime is him still attempting to raise funds to find a cure for her. We know one of my personal favorites, Scarecrow, AKA Dr. Jonathan Crane, an ex psychology professor at Gotham University remains obsessed with the idea of fear and phobias. He now uses the citizens of Gotham as his lab rats to test his ever evolving fear toxin. I could keep going on, (Batman has an impressive rogue gallery,) but the point is we know why all the villains do the things that they do. We don’t know that for the Joker, and out of all of Batman’s rogues, he’s the one that continues to commit the most heinous crimes of all. It leaves us all asking why? Why does he do the things he does? It even leaves Batman stumped. Heck, it leaves other villians stumped!! Ra’s Al Ghul, head of the League of Shadows, has said he doesn’t like working with the Joker, because he’s wild and unpredictable. According to this logic, the Joker should be first in line to get his own back story.

To find the reason why he shouldn’t we have to look pretty far back in this character’s history. When the Joker first appeared in the Batman comics, he never appeared simply as “the Joker.” Multiple iterations of this simplistic “backstory” have been done, and can also be seen as far back as Batman: Year One, (even though the “Joker” himself is not actually featured,) but each time the Joker always appears, it is always first as an unassuming lowlife calling himself “the Red Hood.” This is so freaking important to how the Joker impacts the characters around him, and I’ll tell you why soon, but I can almost guarantee you it is not going to be in the new Joker film. Not only is this Red Hood portion of the Joker’s career important for reasons to be later explained, but it’s also important that in multiple, though not all, iterations of the Joker’s introduction it’s Batman’s fault. Not inherently of course. Batman always catches the Red Hood in some kind of factory, (a popular location is a playing card factory,) and in an attempt to catch him, the Red Hood always ends up falling into a vat of acid. This is the vat of acid that of course warps his appearance, (the white skin, green hair, and red lips,) and what ultimately drives him mad. In how he actually gets in the vat, well sometimes he jumps on purpose, because he’s been cornered by the Bat, sometimes he just slips, and Bruce is too late to catch him, but either way it’s always something that weighs on Bruce. It’s another reason on top of Batman’s no kill policy that he can’t bring himself to end the Joker. Despite paralyzing Barbra Gordon as Batgirl and murdering his son, Bruce can’t end the Joker, because he partly feels like the Joker is his fault. It’s his mess that he made, and a mess that he has to fix.

This introduction of the Joker as the Red Hood and tying his creation to a young emerging Batman is so important to the characters’ relationships to each other throughout their still changing course of comic history, that to negate it with this upcoming movie is almost like recreating a brand new villain. It is also important to note that because the Joker started out as a masked criminal, he remains a John Doe to this very day in comic history. This is crucial to not understanding the Joker, (an important aspect of his character,) because any time a new rogue pops up, Bruce tries his damndest to learn their real identity. Identifying the person beneath the horror helps him better know what angle to work at when going up against them, as well as what to look for, and realizing that violence usually isn’t the best answer for dealing with them. By keeping the Joker a John Doe, it keeps not only us, the audience, in the dark about trying to understand this psychotic character, but the characters in universe in the dark as well. By not knowing the Joker’s past or intentions, it actually makes him scarier, because it leaves him unpredictable, and, in a sense, strips him of his humanity. By giving this character an actual identity, you destroy the mysterious unknown behind the character, make him human enough than an audience can relate to him, and almost, in a sense, strip him of what makes him a good villain in the first place.

Now my last, and what I personally view as one of the most important reasons, on why the Joker really shouldn’t have his own movie, is because it would destroy his tragically beautiful connection to Jason Todd. If you missed it earlier, I briefly mentioned that the Joker killed Bruce’s son, and that was because I planned to go more in depth now.

I need to stop referencing material that hasn’t been written yet. If you don’t know, Jason Todd is the second character to take on the mantle of Robin. Yes, there was more than one Robin. As of current day material, there are four officially recognized holders of the mantle, (sorry Stephanie,) in the order of Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Timothy Drake, and the current only blood son of Burce, Damian Wayne. Jason was taken in by Bruce off of Crime Alley, after he was found trying to steal the cars off of the Batmobile. Officially adopting him as his own and taking him under his wing, Bruce soon hands the mantle of Robin to Jason as Dick had recently left, and the two take to the streets fighting crime and punching bad guys. Unfortunately, this doesn’t last very long, and Jason ends up beaten nearly to death by the Joker with a crowbar in an abandoned warehouse before the Joker blows it up, seconds before Bruce arrives. Oh no. (There’s a very iconic picture of Bruce holding Jason’s dead body, if you google “batman a death in the family.) This was an absolutely pivotal part to Bruce’s character. How Bruce acts after the death of Jason had been unseen before. He became violent and angry, and almost crossed the line he swore to himself he’d never cross. Jason’s death is a staple in DC comic lore.

That isn’t the important part here though. The important part is what comes after. See, 95% of the time, if a character dies in the DC Universe, it’s not for very long, because comics. A couple of years later, Jason is brought back to life via the Lazarus Pit with the help of the League of Assassins. As I’m writing this, it is one in the morning, and I am too tired to explain why the Shadows were involved. If you’re really interested, there’s a crap ton of information on it on wikis and stuff, so it won’t be hard to find. Anyways, Jason comes back to life really messed up and in a murderous rage. He heads back to Gotham to hunt down Bruce but this time not as Jason Todd, not as Robin, but as the Red Hood. It’s perfect cinematic poetry! Yes, cinematic!! Under the Red Hood is one of the most famous comic books about Jason Todd’s return, as well as arguably one of the best DC animated films of all time! But that’s not the point. The point is, that Jason Todd comes back from the dead, and the alias he takes up is the same alias that his killer once owned. Jason does eventually kind of come back to the “good side” as a sort of anti hero, but the parallels between him and the Joker are gorgeous. Both driven mad after being thrown into a vat of mysterious liquid, except for where it was the Joker’s before, it’s Jason’s after. The idea of a young boy being beaten to death, only to come back and take the name of his killer should shake you to your core. Not only that, but imagine Bruce’s horror when he realizes there’s another terror ripping through his city bearing the same name his arch nemesis first wore. And that��s before he even realizes it’s his resurrected son! You can’t dismiss writing like that, especially when it comes to comic books! DC especially, openly admitted that its story lines take place in the multiverse, which basically means anything goes. That’s where you get stories like The Flashpoint Paradox and Crisis on Two Earths. The fact that this idea of the Red Hood being passed down from the Joker to Jason seems to be a universal constant cannot be overlooked. By giving the Joker a more in depth backstory that strays from the one that currently exists, you rip that hard work out of the author’s hands, as well as destroy an impactful connection between some of the Batman Universe’s best and most complex characters.

This whole thing ended up being a lot longer than I anticipated, so thank you if you made it to the end. All of this being said, I stand by my opinion that out of all that characters in the DC universe, the Joker should be at the end of the line to get his own movie. Will I still end up seeing it in theatres? The jury’s out right now. I’m a broke college kid living in New York; there are more things I want to see than a movie I don’t think should exist. I might watch it one day, as the assumption that all of these points won’t be made in the movie is made purely off of the trailers and not the content of the film itself. If I ever do watch it, y’all will be the first to know, but until then this is where I stand. Don’t let this ruin the film for you if you planned on going to go watch it. Like stated in the beginning, these are all my own opinions, and I prefer the comics to the movies. The movies can also be seen as existing in their own realm, and in that case none of my points stand at all. It’s up to you to make your own judgement.

But ask yourself this, as you sit down in the theatre with a large tub of popcorn. What do you think people will benefit from trying to see into the mind of the one of the world’s most famous psychopath?

#personal opinions

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wallabywannabe · 6 years ago

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Long life update post ahead!

I officially don’t work at Pet Supplies Plus anymore!! The retail burden is lifted! The people I worked at there were all great-(honestly. There were some people that I had worked with there who were Not Great but none of them are there anymore). Working there was a really important step in my life and marked the beginning of the truly stable climb out of the dysfunction-producing depression that i’d been stuck in for so long. It morphed into a a much more functional depression and I acquired so much confidence because other people saw me as hard working, reliable, and efficient. I couldn’t be those things for myself yet, but I could be those for work.

But I was underpaid-the people who benefited from my hard work had no control over my salary-and I needed health insurance before I turn 26 in October. So I’d been looking for a new job for 9 months. And this is something I’m constantly trying not to be ashamed of but still am deep down--I still haven’t finished my bachelors. Because I still have so many mental hang ups when it comes to completing a class-doing homework, showing up to lectures, turning in assignments. That’s where the dysfunctional bit started, and that’s going to be the last thing that will become easy to do again. Because it really used to be easy. And it is still easy for me on a physical level-my brain works just fine when it comes to the understanding and completing---it’s just the mental everest that sometimes pops up first that I have to climb that’s hard. I think that is shame-based too. I feel too old to be taking these classes, to have classes that I still haven’t taken yet. To know that my little sister who is 4 years younger than me is going to graduate before I do. And sometimes I just can’t face that. That’s the part that’s hard.

But anyway, not having a bachelors obviously was a hindrance in the job search. And I got rejected so much! SO much. Which is great, because it means I applied to so much, and as you know, I only received rejections from a small portion of jobs that I didn’t get. And also, i got really good at receiving rejection which is a life skill that will probably help me just as much as all the therapy I’ve been through.

There were a few times when I got really close to a job, but I had to turn it down because the location made it not worth it, or a few I just never called back because I realized when I got the interview I could never do that job. But mostly it was not hearing back from anything and rejections.. And then the best job out of any that I had applied to so far came along--in biology research, the field I want to go into, at U of M, a permanent position, close to home, full time, benefits, didn’t require a bachelors, excellent for my resume, great people, interesting subject--and I got it. After all those rejections, I got the one that mattered. And I’m still actually getting rejection emails from jobs that I applied to months ago, which is great because I didn’t want those anyway! I wanted this one! It must have showed.

And I started 3 weeks ago and I’m so confident in myself and my abilities that I haven’t even been nervous once. It’s very refreshing to be doing something with enough structure and is important enough that there’s always someone there to ask questions and make sure you’re doing something correctly, and I”m taking advantage of that because I didn’t have much of that at my last job. However, I genuinely don’t have a lot of big questions or uncertainties about anything so far. I’m getting better at the procedures the more I do them of course, but if I’m worried that anything might have gone wrong I report it to my lab manager right away, because she made it very clear that she appreciates that and I get the impression that she would never be upset with honesty and is always ready to brainstorm a solution to any problem or mistake. I did some DNA/RNA extractions last week and I got reasonable DNA concentrations but the RNA concentrations didn’t make sense, so she’s going to run the same samples this week and we will try to isolate where I went wrong. She didn’t phrase it like that, but I wouldn’t be hurt if she did, because clearly something happened and I would very much like to figure it out! And I’m not nervous about that either. But otherwise, I’m getting the hang of things and only need to do a bit of fine tuning here and there now and again.

I have a confession to make, which I haven’t told my therapist or anyone about yet...but I stopped taking my medication. I realized I was running low and I didn’t get it refilled and instead just tapered off. That was not the right thing to do, as any doctor or therapist will tell you, it’s best not to make medication changes a) without consulting your doctor and b) in the middle of a major life change. And it’s weird because I’d been very pleased with how well this medicine worked for me (prozac, of all things! The most basic answer!). I’ve been on drugs that didn’t work out before, but I’m not of the mindset that I want to have an end goal of eliminating all drugs. I figured if I needed to take a prescription forever, no big deal. I have to take an antihistamine almost every day too. But when I ran out of the prescription I just felt like yeah, it’s time. I felt the familiar feeling of uncomfortable excitement that happened when I waited too long between doses for a few days, but it was easily assuaged by a few deep breaths and then I went back to business, and it faded completely. Fortunately prozac withdrawal is pretty simple and I was lucky. (disclaimer: that is not the case with many antidepressants! I withdrew from Pristiq mistakenly once and I was half convinced I was an alien species living in a human body. Kind of makes me wonder about some of the psychiatry recommends these days for mental health issues--if there’s risk of introducing such a dramatic instability, is it really advisable to try them at all? but that’s a topic for another post. Or preferably a paper in a psychiatric journal written by an actual doctor.)

Anyway I lucked out with that. I still actually have some left so if I had need to go back on it I easily could have, but I really don’t feel like I need to or want to now. I’m actually doing more cleaning and getting my life in order outside of work these past few weeks that I had been before, which is probably due to this job that I love with this nice normal schedule. And I will have weekends completely off now too, every week, and I think that will make things even better.

There weren’t any classes that I could take for my major over the summer so I haven’t had school these past couple of months which has made things very easy. And with a 9-5 weekday job now, I won’t have much room to take more than one or two classes a semester for the imminent future, which is nice workload-wise, but it does put off my graduation date even farther. That only matters as a point of pride which I will probably always struggle with whenever my graduation year comes up in the future even after I graduate. But it doesn’t really matter logistically, because I have a good job with benefits and I will be on track for yearly raises, and by the time I do graduate and decide to move on to grad school applications I will have a wealth of hands on lab experience already.

I was kind of thinking that I’d start saving up for a car and consider moving to a house with a yard and getting a dog in the next year, but I think I will put that off into the more distant future, probably renew my lease here again. Right now I”m 2 blocks from the campus where I go to school, and I’m directly on the bus route that goes straight to my work. If I were to get a car I wouldn’t even use it to go to and from work because parking is so expensive to park close, or I could park for free and take a shuttle but then that would make my commute just as long and more complicated than taking the bus anyway.

Instead I’m going to put the car on hold and get this hyperthyroidism treatment for Wendy my elderly cat done. I’m going to make an appointment to get the preliminary tests done tomorrow at my regular vet. The actual procedure will probably have to be done at Michigan State. It has a very high success rate and negligible side effects. The only reason I’ve been on the fence is because of the cost. But I have a better job now, and the reason I adopted this cat was to give her the best quality of life possible. Other people raise their eyebrows when I bring it up, because she’s 16 and has other health problems, but it’s not like she’s on her deathbed! She can only feel better once her thyroid is working correctly! The main exception being that she might gain some (much needed!) weight which would put more strain on her arthritic joints, but I have to think added muscle mass will help with that.

Delilah, who had been blessed with healthy teeth until now which has been much appreciated by me considering the teeth brushing attempts have failed and she won’t touch raw bones yet, does need to have dental work done at last so we will schedule that too. And then I’m going to try to brush her teeth again because I haven’t completely given up on that!

#text #mypost

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360digitmg-dataanalyticscourse · 4 years ago

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happy-meo · 7 years ago

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Don’t Judge Sweet & Sour - Chapter 15: New Manager?!

Is there an expiration for dreams? And can anyone achieve them alone?

Summary: Lee Maia (OC) is the daughter of Big Bang's manager and has basically lived her life helping out behind the scenes of idols. She finally decides to defy her father's wishes and finds herself auditioning for Big Hit Entertainment. But through a series of events is instead, offered a deal; in order to debut, she has to last a full year as a manager, stylist, and coordi for genius producer Min Yoongi, infamous among the staff world as being particular and rude. Desperate and hard-headed, she accepts the challenge and finds herself in the midst of psychological warfare with Bangtan's talented rapper-producer. Meanwhile, Jeon Jungkook, the Golden Maknae, knowledgeable on all things related to Big Bang, steps out of his comfort zone and reaches out to help Maia through her hard times. Adding in the unique vibrant personalities of the rest of the Bangtan Boys and unexpected development of feelings, will Maia become the manager and friend the boys need? And will she survive the year and achieve her dream of debuting as an idol?

Yoongi x Lee Maia (OC) x Jungkook (ft. BTS members, Manager Sejin) Fluff, Angst

Read the full story on AFF (leading up to this chapter)

Links on AFF: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14

Links on Tumblr (full chapters weren’t put up until the later chapters): 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18

A/N: This is one of my earlier fanfictions, but it’s one that I truly want to see to the end. So little by little, I want to piece together this story I had planned out about 2 years ago. I want to cross-post it fully on Tumblr and AFF for the subscribers and fans I have reading it on there so bear with me as I fix up the links to accommodate both :) <3 Enjoy!

"Whoa, Noona. Looking nice!" Hoseok cheered.

Maia blushed as she fiddled with the end of her skirt. "It's not too much?"

"No, you look really good." Jungkook assured her.

"Yeah, and wearing heels immediately makes you taller than Yoongi." Jin teased. "So that's a bonus."

Yoongi scowled, but was too tired to make a comment.

"What's the occasion?" Jimin questioned.

"Oh. It's my first company meeting so I wanted to look...decent?" she mumbled shyly.

"It wouldn't have anything to do with that cute, young PD, would it?" Namjoon nudged her playfully.

"Well I mean..." She played with the tips of her hair. "...it wouldn't hurt to look nice to him too."

Jungkook's eyes widened and Yoongi rolled his eyes, but everyone laughed it off.

"Well, sorry we're not part of this meeting. It would've been nice to see you at work." Namjoon patted her back. "But seeing as you've handled a lot worse--" his eyes flitted towards Yoongi. "you'll be just fine."

"Thanks." Maia smiled, grateful for the encouragement. "Anyway, get to practice. I've already taken enough of your time, and I don't want to be late."

She shuffled them along.

"Come to my studio after you're done." Yoongi grumbled before he stalked off.

She snorted and made her way to the conference room.

Yoongi tapped his pen anxiously on his table as he watched the minutes tick by. It shouldn't be irritating him this much. Shouldn't she be focusing on achieving her dream instead of parading around trying to attract men? And it was just a stupid staff meeting. There was no need to wear such a short skirt and a see-through blouse. He bit the inside of his cheek before hurrying out of his studio.

"Yoongi hyung?" Jungkook tilted his head curiously as he spotted Yoongi pacing in front of the conference room and mumbling to himself intently. His eyes glanced down at his elder member clutching something in his hand.

When voices were heard getting closer to the door, Yoongi hurried to hide and Jungkook flattened himself in the hallway corner as well, to avoid being seen.

"Oh Maia." The handsome, young PD called out as she stepped through the door.

"Hm?" She turned, surprised at being addressed.

"I thought you really brought up great points at this meeting. Sorry they didn't all get through." he smiled.

She giggled and waved her hand. "I'm just happy they were considered. I'm new to this whole thing so I'm sure there's a lot of logistics I don't quite understand yet."

He nodded, "Anyway, I also wanted to say that uh... you look really nice today."

Maia's cheeks warmed and turned a shade of pink. She bit her lip to stop herself from grinning like an idiot. "Th-thanks."

"I'll see you around!" He waved.

"See you!" She raised her arm and returned the gesture as elegantly as she could.

Maia giddily turned around, only to be taken aback by a grumpy looking Yoongi in front of her.

"Holy cr--Yoongi!" She clutched her chest. "What're you doing??"

He shoved sweatpants into her arms, "Wear it. Now."

"What in the world? Why?" She argued.

He scoffed, "Your legs are as white as mine. Hide them."

"Excuse me??" She raised an eyebrow, offended.

"You need to wear PANTS! Pants only, got it?" Yoongi wasn't sure what he was blurting out anymore. He just knew seeing her wear such an outfit made him feel uncomfortable and irritated. He didn't want to delve any further into that.

"No. Take this back." She chucked his pants at him.

"Friggin hide your legs or I'm going to sue." he argued.

"Are you drunk?" She looked at him incredulously.

"Noona." Jungkook stepped in. "It's a bit chilly in here. Here."

He threw one of his hoodies over her shoulders. Maia relaxed and pulled the warmth around her.

"Yeah it was getting cold in there."

Jungkook smiled. "How was it?"

Yoongi rolled his eyes as he watched the two conversing happily, as if he wasn't right next to them.

"Stupid. I was just trying to be nice." He muttered as he trudged back to his studio.

Maia curiously watched Yoongi disappear, wondering what his random outburst was all about.

"So you know, I've been seeing Min Yoongi outside of his studio a lot more often."

Maia was in the break room waiting for her coffee to blend when she overheard some of the female employees talking.

"Yeah, he's really handsome in person, isn't he?"

"I heard he had a bit of a temper, but I really haven't seen it."

"He does have that hott bad boy vibe."

She fought back a snort as she grabbed her coffee and put a cap on it. Little did they know it wasn't a vibe, he really did have a nasty temper.

As she continued on her way to meet with Manager Sejin to talk about the week's schedule, she spotted a crowd of trainees peeking through what she knew to be BTS's dance studio. Curiously, she waltzed closer to see what was happening.

"Suga's in there! He's practicing!"

"Look at them! They're all so handsome and talented!"

Maia smiled warmly as she watched their concentrated looks as they tirelessly practiced their dance routine. It made her heart pang with jealousy. She, too, wanted to spend hours perfecting her skills and stage. Sipping her coffee, she quelled herself by repeating "one day I'll be there".

"Suga's smiling! He's smiling!"

Her eyes flitted to where Yoongi was laughing at his members acting silly and she found her lips curling up at the rare sighting. But suddenly, his eyes locked with hers through the window and she panicked, immediately darting away, praying he didn't catch her creeping with the other girls.

"Maia?" Yoongi questioned to himself, but when he blinked, he only spotted some trainees outside.

He shook his head and returned to his spot. "Must be seeing things."

"I think we need to find you a more active hobby." Maia hummed as she sat on the couch of Genius Lab.

Whenever she didn't feel like training, she wormed her way into Yoongi's studio, and at first, there was a lot of resistance and bickering, but eventually it eased into a routine. Scheduling was much simpler when they worked together and voiced their opinions to compromise anyway.

"Are you talking about me or yourself?" Yoongi drawled.

"Ah I was checking to see if you were listening to something. But you were just wearing those to keep an appearance up." She grinned.

"I wasn't listening to anything cause I knew you'd badmouth me eventually." He hissed.

"I always badmouth you to your face so don't worry about that." She nonchalantly stated. "Anyways, I'm serious about an active hobby." "Forget it. I have basketball. I'm satisfied."

"Tch. A new one. Something that you could do on your own."

"Why are you bringing this up?" Yoongi exhaled and spun around.

Maia waved a piece of paper. "Your medical exam didn't come out so good."

"Yah! Don't look at my papers!" Yoongi attempted to grab it out of her hand, but she pulled back as she continued to read. "They recommend getting exercise." Then she successfully let him rip that paper from her grasp and spoke to him. "When you're not working, you're sleeping. Your bones are cracking when you move and you're not even thirty. I am extremely concerned for your health."

Yoongi glared at her blatant use of dramatics.

"How about boxing?!" She clapped her hands. "It could also be a good stress reliever. You seem to have a lot of pent up, untapped anger. So instead of using your mouth, you could use your fists."

"Aish." Yoongi chucked a pen at her. "You think everyone's like you, huh?"

"It's all in the name of self-defense." She laid a hand on her heart. "I have never used my skills for selfish purposes."

He eyed at her skeptically.

"You could also try running with me. I go every other morning."

"Forget it. I'm not a morning person." Yoongi exhaled. "And running for fun sounds absolutely horrifying."

"No, you're just not a 'waking up' person." She corrected. "And I mean I can always race you or attempt to chase you. That would make it less fun and make you run all the same."

"Putting my headphones on." Yoongi rolled his eyes, having enough of her antics.

"Boxing it is then. Congratulations! I'm going to find you a place to start."

"Do whatever you want." He exhaled.

Maia's lips curled up, knowing that meant he liked the idea but didn't want to say it outright.

"Maybe ballroom dancing?" She teased.

"Don't you dare." He hissed.

She giggled as she lay down on the couch, tapping her clipboard.

"We have a few more people looking into your ballad. What should I tell them?"

"It's not ready." He muttered.

"I thought it sounded alright?" She hummed.

"I want to make lyrics too. Not just a track." He admitted.

Maia stopped her tapping and stared at Yoongi's back, clicking away on his keys. She smiled warmly.

"I'll tell them it's not complete then."

Yoongi lips turned up in small smile as he continued scanning his screen.

Tae was whistling and skipping happily after having had a successful trip to the bathroom, when he overheard his manager's voice.

"Maia...we'd like to talk to you about being Changmin's manager."

His eyes widened as he peeked into the room to find Manager Sejin, his sunbae, Changmin, and Changmin's manager all sitting there with a serious atmosphere. Gasping, he sprinted straight to the practice room to tell the others what he happened upon.

"GUYS! WE HAVE A PROBLEM!" Tae bellowed.

The boys turned to look at him inquisitively.

"I think Maia's going to be reassigned and won't be our manager anymore." Tae frowned.

"What?!" They all gasped, save Yoongi who didn't have much of a reaction.

"Yo." Yoongi called her. "I'm heading to the studio."

"Oh. Can't babysit you today, sorry." Maia chuckled into the phone.

"Oh?" Yoongi questioned, the recollection of what Tae overheard slipped into the forefront of his mind. "Why?"

She chuckled. "I'm going with the other coordis to shop for your stage outfits."

Yoongi remained silent for a few seconds before asking, "Can I tag along?"

"What?" Maia asked, unsure if she had heard him correctly.

"Don't act so surprised." Yoongi grumbled. "You're the one that told me I needed to experience more."

"I'm just -- wow. I mean...I guess. You know people might see you if you tag along."

"No shit." Yoongi snorted. "I mean you're picking clothes for me. Wouldn't it help if I was actually there?"

Maia exhaled, "Why do I already hear you disapproving of everything we're going to choose?"

"Probably accurate. But you'll probably force me into them anyway." he shrugged.

"Very true. I'll come pick you up in 20 then. Look decent."

"Don't I always?" Yoongi smirked.

Maia snorted before hanging up.

"Hyung? Going to the studio?" Namjoon asked as he spotted Yoongi slipping into his shoes.

"Oh no. I'm going shopping with the coordis." He stated nonchalantly.

"What?" 5 heads shot up from the living room.

Yoongi averted his eyes from their incredulous looks. "It's not a big deal."

Namjoon gestured to the others to calm down. "Okay, well enjoy."

"That's not fair. I wanna go too." Tae pouted.

Yoongi's phone rang and he quickly picked up. "Yeah, I'm heading out. I know! Sheesh it's only been 30 seconds, calm yourself woman."

He huffed as he stuffed his keys into his jacket pocket and shut the door behind him. The dorm was in silence, except for the faint noise from the television.

"You know, I hope she's really not leaving." Jimin frowned. "Yoongi-hyung seems to be more himself when she's around."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"I'm sure the company knows what they're doing. We just have to have faith." Namjoon reassured. "Besides, we still don't know the full story."

When Yoongi stepped into the van, he was surprised to find that the other coordis were sitting in the back, looking a bit uncomfortable with his presence. He didn't blame them of course. Politely, he bowed his head to greet them and they did the same.

"It makes my life easier that you decided to tag along. I was just going to wing your measurements." Maia grinned. "You got a bit chubbier from the old measurements they gave me."

"What? Excuse me? I have been keeping very fit." He retaliated, knowing full well it was a blatant lie.

"Mhm." Maia chuckled. "We'll have to see."

Yoongi huffed. "Why did I even agree to come?"

"You're the one that asked to come, need I remind you?" she commented.

He grumbled, knowing she was right. "Shut up and let's go."

"This is ridiculous. What is with this print?" Yoongi groaned as he stepped out of the dressing room.

Maia bit her lip, amused. The other coordis were also trying to hide their reactions as well.

"It's fashion." Maia circled him, trying to envision his stage outfit. "Maybe some accessories will even it out. Your ripped black jeans. Mhm."

"Don't you dare get this shirt." He warned.

"Is that a challenge?" she smirked.

"Why I'm going to--" Yoongi gritted his teeth.

"Going to what?" she chuckled.

Yoongi curled his fists, annoyed. His words hardly work and he knew he would lose in a physical battle. When did Lee Maia overpower him this much?

She giggled at his obvious internal battle.

"I'm kidding. I'm not getting it. A little too frilly for this comeback concept. I just wanted to see how you would react to it."

"You are such a nuisance." he groaned.

"Maia, we're going to the next store." The other coordis called out.

"Okay." she smiled sadly.

Yoongi caught her expression and felt a little guilty, knowing it was because of him that she was a bit of an outcast amongst the stylists and coordis.

"Should we also head out?" he asked.

She chuckled. "Well unless you want to get arrested for stealing, I suggest you take off that shirt first."

He rolled his eyes, "I was going to."

"Mhm." Her eyes twinkled mischievously. "I do really want you to try a few other things before we go though."

"This is terrible. I'm never going to do this again." he whined.

"Oh please." she waved her hand. "You can try on stuff you want too, you know. It's your chance to shop for something not a monochrome color."

"I have more than monochrome colors in my closet."

Maia looked at him, unconvinced.

Yoongi exhaled and turned to change, knowing he was digging his own grave.

"I'm glad you came." She spoke as he was putting on the next ridiculous outfit she had put together.

"So you have a Barbie to dress?" he answered.

"No...I was worried that it'd be awkward. But it's actually turning out to be a fun outing." She admitted.

Yoongi frowned. "You know it's me and not you, right?"

"It's a little of us both." She laughed.

"We're an interesting pair, I guess."

"That we are." she hummed.

"So...what's the next few weeks schedule looking like?" he questioned, once again plagued by Tae's assumption of her leaving her current position.

"Busy. I might not be around as often so I'm glad I can actually see how these outfits will sit on you." She stated nonchalantly. "I saw some stuff I want to check out. I'll be right back."

Yoongi frowned, unsettled by her response. Was she really being reassigned? Was it because of him?

A few minutes later, she handed him much more legitimate outfits to try on. He actually liked the fit and style, making a mental note to buy it after he was done performing in them. Time flew by as they fooled around. She made him perform some of their dances to see if the clothes weren't too tight and wouldn't constrict his movements. At first he was reluctant, but eventually got comfortable enough to be silly. They were so engrossed that they didn't realize how much time passed until the other coordis returned.

"Oh shoot. We didn't see the other stores." Yoongi worriedly glanced at Maia.

She chuckled, "Don't worry. I already ordered them early and they're at home."

"Then what was this for?" Yoongi raised an eyebrow.

She shrugged. "Extra outfits for when you're feeling like being annoying and I need a back up?"

The other coordis glanced at each other.

"None of them drive either so yeah..." She mentioned as she grabbed some bags from the coordis kindly. "Let's go?"

Yoongi's lips curled up, realizing she was trying, in her own way, to be accepted by the others. If she was trying this hard, did that mean she wasn't actually leaving?

True to her word though, Maia was around less frequently in the next few weeks, and all the members were growing restless with her absence. She would also pass up studio duty and Jungkook's offers of practicing choreography with her. They would only see her as she drove them to and from schedules, and on occasion, monitoring their stages. But she didn't stay for long, always rushing elsewhere. Were they just making a transition?

Yoongi was fighting back his urge to lash out at someone else doing his make-up, but it wasn't working too well, having grown accustomed to Maia's technique. Although he knew Maia had instructed them on his preferences, as he observed from them checking their phone nervously before doing anything to his face, it wasn't the same. He couldn't sleep while he got his make-up and hair done, which left him infinitely more cranky than usual.

On one particular day, she waltzed into their practice room, as bright and vibrant as usual.

"Hi! Just checking in on you guys!"

She was greeted with warm hugs and lots of yelling.

"What're you doing here?" Jungkook smiled.

"Oh the CEO asked to talk to me so I'm on my way there." She laughed. "I heard the music so I hoped you'd all be here practicing."

She glanced at Yoongi, who avoided eye contact, knowing she was taking a jab at him.

The members started nudging each other. They had had a group meeting just earlier, and decided that they should all confront Maia about the situation they overheard and express their own sentiments and opinions on the matter. But they never designated who would bring it up. They tried to push the other to say something first, but no one knew how to.

Yoongi exhaled and tugged at Maia's ponytail.

"Ah! What?" She glared at him.

"Stay." he stated.

"What?" Maia blinked.

"I - You're a decent manager...so stay...stay as our manager..." He confessed and was met with her blank expression. "It'll be a pain to get someone that sucks more than you!"

The other boys shook their heads at his terrible attempt to convince her.

"What're you talking about? Are you trying to start a fight or compliment me?" Maia questioned.

"I'm telling you not to go to anyone else and stay with me!" Yoongi blurted out.

Maia turned red, and everyone gasped at his confession.

Yoongi realized what his statement sounded like and he got immediately got flustered, "I mean as my manager."

He looked away, trying to save face. This was why he never should talk about his feelings.

"Wait. Where am I going? Why wouldn't I be your manager still?" Maia looked around, confused. "What's going on?"

"I heard you talking to Changmin hyungnim about being his manager instead." Taehyung admitted.

"I know we're a handful, but we really like you noona." Jimin frowned.

"Don't leave us!" J-Hope clutched his heart dramatically.

Maia took a good look at the boys and laughed, causing them to look at each other, quizzically.

"I'm not going anywhere!" she breathed. "Changmin's manager's wife is just about to have a baby, so I was filling in as their temporary manager when he has to tend to his wife and kids. I'm still your manager."

Yoongi felt his cheeks warm and his first instinct was to run and lock himself in the studio. But Maia glanced at him then around to the others and grinned, "I'm glad I mean so much to everyone. And I wouldn't dare leave you guys. I like you all too much already, and besides, I've worked so hard to get here," She and Yoongi eyed each other. "so I won't give this spot up so easily."

"Group hug!" Taehyung cheered.

"Wh-wha?" Maia blushed as 7 bodies crowded around her.

Yoongi squirmed, having been pulled in by Jimin and Jin into the huddle. He was right against the side of her body uncomfortably, forced to watch her laugh and her cheeks turn a shade of pink in the center.

In the cover of their arms and yelling, he allowed himself to smile slightly, relieved that she wasn't going anywhere just yet.

CHAPTER 16

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adapted-batteries · 7 years ago

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Nothing like starting your day with having the "vaccines don't cause autism" arguement with your parents...it's not like science actually matters, right???

Sarcasm aside, it annoys me to no end that my mom thinks this way because it literally isn't true, and she apparently thinks it's better for kids to die of mumps than maybe be autistic, nor does she want to recognize that I am autistic apparently (seriously I stim in front of her, microplan my schedule for spring semester, eat the same breakfast every day, I'm not hiding it at all).

It sucks she won't listen to me either. She actually pulled the "you millenials" card when I tried to explain that the doctor falsified his data and got his license revoked. Apparently my education in being able to interpret the many scientific reports that disproved that connection isn't enough to her.

I don't even want to go into arguing the logistics of if vacciences did cause autism either. There's no data to support not being vaccinated because there's nothing saying that not vaccinated kids have lower rates of autism...there's no baseline to compare to because either the parents don't have kids who survive to be diagnosed, or they don't go to the doctor anyway and won't be diagnosed.

I'm not actually that annoyed now, but this morning it took me a bit to get off that topic on my drive to school. At least people at my school don't believe that crock, my Assessments of Individual Differences professor actually brought that up in comparing information gathering methods to prove/disprove things.

I still have to limit my internet use at home, so I'm not that active, but the 17th is almost here. Until then, I just get on sometimes at school, but I've been busy between class and working in the psychology lab. At least I've neen productive.

#flynn rants #actuallyautistic #autism #vaccines don't cause autism

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docandprof · 7 years ago

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Why Did This Week Suck and Not Suck so Much?

Salutations good sir!

Man this week was a rollercoaster of emotions. Honestly probably one of the hardest weeks I have ever endured. But before that, lemme take a hot sec to answer some of your questions and comment on you. First and foremost, I'm SUPER proud of you and how much of an adult you are becoming! Your life seems, if not more than, as crazy as mine does. It always brings a smile to my face when you tell me how you are breaking out of your shell in more social and professional environments because when it’s us and the gang, you are more than sociable, so I see it as more the world is getting to see the true version of you, a dorky pensive goofball. Even though this wasn't in your post, because we talk outside of said blog, I was really happy that Lyss was able to go see you two and spend some time with ya. I can’t wait to see you all for Thanksgiving, which is just a few short weeks away!! Also, when are you coming home for that? I'm gonna be in Iowa from that Tuesday until maybe Friday morning so I wanna see you when I can before I have to leave again. You might have to share me with Jaynie at that point because I'm not gonna have tons of time to see everyone. Ummmm your question for the week was kinda hard because I would want everything to be magical. Buuuuut, if I had to choose, I would probably go with something inconspicuous like a magic watch that when you open it or interact with it in whichever way the player sees fit, a portal opens from which you can pull/store anything like Hermione's bag. Or it’s imbued with some sort of element and you can get creative with what it can affect, like you click it and you turn into a flame-man or different parts of you take on the characteristics of the different elements a la Ben 10. So yeah, something like that.

Now for my week in retrospect! Let’s see, Halloween here at school is more of a big deal on the weekend (Halloweekend is what they call it) because that is when all the parties are, so I stayed in and studied and did work like a good lil noodle. I did dress up in my Superman onesie while I did work so that was kinda in the Halloween spirit. So lemme just preface what my academic week entailed and then we can get into it. Monday: 3-4 page Spanish paper was due, Tuesday: Orgo lab report due, Wednesday: Test corrections due for my Bioclocks test, Spanish essay test, History of Warfare test where like every subject involved some iteration of Charles, Frederick, Philip, Henry or some Pope, Friday: massive Orgo test, big project due at midnight for my Brain Damage class, and another assignment for said class. And inbetween all of those things, I had to study for all 3 tests, perform a continuous sleep study on myself, help mediate/console 2 friends who are dating/like each other but being stupid so I'm being the good friend who listens and tries to help, AND still dealing with my own emotional shortcomings. Ok got the picture? Simple enough? Good. OH! And I planned out the rest of my classes for the rest of college in order to be prepared and efficient for class registration, which is tomorrow for me.

So I did what I had to do and I buckled down, studying and working on everything while trying to be a good friend for these two love birds. Now I think the earliest I ever got to sleep this past week was 3 in the morning, and I woke up at 8 every day, so my body was really pushing its limits. I didn't really feel stressed out in the beginning of the week, which is normal for me. You know me better than anyone, so you know that I'm pretty calm under pressure and don't panic, which I just consciously realized is all God. I always knew that everything I did wasn't by my own strength and that I am extremely blessed and favored, but it never really registered in me that the reason for my stress-free life is because I have faith in God that he will take care of me and everything will work out in accordance with his plan and if God provides for the birds, why would he not provide for his own beloved children. So that was pretty cool to actively know that. Now back from my sermon of the week to our previously scheduled programming. Totally ok during the week, and then Thursday hit. I was feeling like crap, like actual crap, no figure of speech there or excuse to include some profanity, I was really not feeling well. But I had already asked Nidhi if she wanted to go get breakfast that day at 9 because I haven't had a real breakfast in forever. I ate like 3 bites before I started to feel worse. So we do breakfast and then move to go do work. Standard stuff, studying, tried to eat a lil something for lunch, couldn't. So I went back to the house and kept studying until I finished the notes and felt like I had an ok grasp on the material. Later that day, my friend Jordan came over and we were studying together and she would ask me a question about something, but I just had no idea how to answer, so we moved on to the practice test which we both usually do pretty well on. But we couldn't even make it past the first question without having to look everything up and I was getting really frustrated at that point because I had been studying for over a week. Now at this same point in time, in addition to the friends in love problem thing, I was getting frustrated with myself over this whole Jaynie situation because I'm me and I haven't told her how I feel and it has been eating at me for a bit and she has been busy so we hadn't been talking a lot and you know how I get attached to the people around me, so not talking to one of my favorite people was pretty frustrating. And we were talking at the time of my failure to even attempt the practice test and I was telling her that I was getting frustrated amongst other things. She asked me what was wrong and if I wanted to talk about it, and I said yes and no because it’s complicated and I wanted to tell her everything but it’s hard to tell her some of the reason for my anxiety was because of her and my feelings for her so that worsened things on my end because she could tell I was losing it, so she used my own advice I gave to her earlier that week against me that I needed to talk to someone and not internalize my feelings. So at that point I kinda just lost it and left the house to go on a walk. I was gonna call you because I tell you everything, but it was like 1 in the morning at that point and you were asleep, and I was gonna call my dad because he and my brother have a close relationship and I know that he will always be up and willing to listen and give me some advice, but I didn't do any of that. Instead I called Jaynie. I had no idea what I was doing, but I knew that I had to hear her voice. Luckily she answered, and I was initially just gonna call and say thanks for helping me through it and that I was gonna call my dad afterwards, but I never did and we ended up talking for a little bit and it felt really good. She knew that the best way to calm me down was to ask me about other stuff like the crappy dodgeball game and some other stuff to get my mind off things and it was really just what I needed. We didn't really address anything else major, even though I really wanted to bring us up, but I didn't and after we were done on the phone she sent me nice text telling me that I always had someone to call and that I don't always have to be perfect. So outta my ashes of a first mental breakdown came some solace and some good in that one call. But yeah, that was my week.

As for this upcoming week, I'm pleased to announce that Jaynie will be coming back for the weekend because I invited her! Nidhi is dancing in the Diwali showcase on Saturaday, which is an Indian festival thing and she is super excited to do it, so I figured it would be a nice surprise if her best friend came into town to see her dance. But we are ALSO going to another concert after Nidhi’s dance and that is gonna be fun because we know the band personally. More on them later in the recommendations. And so we had this all set up to surprise Nidhi, but things kinda got twisted around logistically, so we had to tell Nidhi about it since Jaynie is gonna be staying the weekend with her and she didn't wanna just blindside her like that, so I told Nidhi what was going on and she was so happy, so I'm pretty excited for this weekend for 2 reasons, which are pretty obvious and need no further words ;). The only thing I have to get done this week is to write a research paper for Friday, but I think that’ll be ok. Life is on the upswing right now.

Ok recommendation: this band we are seeing is called Arlie, and the guitarist was the RA of the floor my friends and I hung out on all the time last year in Memorial and we are good friends with him. But they just signed a record deal, and they have their single out on Spotify right now and it is actually decently popular with like over a million listens already, so check out Arlie and their single because I think you would enjoy it. Question of the week: have you ever thought about watching Silicon Valley on HBO? I have seen the first episode and am wondering if you would like to watch with me? Oh, I also have watched all of the Bloodborne and Dark Souls 3 play throughs on IGN, so praise the sun for that!! Now that I have once again plot dumped on you, I bid thee farewell.

With all my love,

the doc

P.S. - don't forget to tell Dev happy birthday!!

#arlie #diwali #firstmentalbreakdown #itisdone

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find-your-rp-partner · 8 years ago

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not all monsters do monstrous things.

hi friends, i’m sians c: i'm a taurus, i like long walks on the beach, and i'm looking for some rad people to write stories with.

i roleplay both fandom and oc, but lean more towards fandom. in particular i would do bad, bad things for some teen wolf goodness.

TEEN WOLF (this - no - fit)

i’ve only just finished season three because i suck. however! i’ll probably finish season four this weekend. letsbehonest. i don’t mind au’s, non canon compliant rps, or spoilers (know most of them come to that and have read an /embarrassing/ amount of fanfic let me tell you–-) essentially, if you don’t mind me being behind, i will love you forever.

i play both oc and canon, faves to play being stiles, derek, erica, cora, lydia.

and not that pairings need to be a thing, but oh lawd, the following make me wriggle-like-a-happy-puppy happy:

stiles x derek <3 isaac x scott isaac x cora stiles x cora stiles x erica

(can you tell i just really love me some stiles?)

any mix of canon and oc pairings i’m so down for, so lemme know if there's something in particular you're feeling

plot bunnies:

i don’t have anything solid in mind, tbh, so i’m going to throw random prompts and see if anything sticks.

~ "dude, it's beacon hills" with the magic of beacon hills waking from its dormancy and becoming a hotbed for supernatural shenanigans, the ragtag beacon hills pack have caught the attention of more traditional packs - which have beacon hills in their sights. whether they are friend or foe remains to be seen, with rumours ranging from alliances to out and out war. at the same time, that magic is calling all sorts of supernatural beings, some long thought extinct, to beacon hills seeking sanctuary. so with distinguised packs and powerful creatures descending on beacon hills, the influx of buff dudes wearing camo and barely concealed weapons can only mean one thing: hunters.

~ "and i'm standing here like a frickin' idiot all by myself with a handful of magic fairy dust!" a curse is cast over beacon hills which causes its citizens to live out fairytale scenarios. although it may seem harmless kissing frogs to try and bag a prince, the origin of fairytales are much grimmer (pun not intended, but damn it kinda works): the little mermaid ends up sacrificing herself back to the ocean, the pied piper disappears with hundreds of children, and little red riding hood - well, anything to do with wolves makes the pack a bit antsy. and it’s down to the pack to break the spell and bring back those caught up in the curses web.

~ “you need to be that spark, stiles” stiles has been brushing up on his magical education, and as such has become quite the mini harry potter. he’s not quite sure if he’s a witch or a druid - he’s bad with the politics, he just knows he’s a total badass now. so of course, /of course/ it turns out deaton's been hanging around to train him as the emissary for the hale pack. and of course, /of course/ derek’s being a total sourwolf about it. but the ragtag pack is making waves in the magical world, and the coven of witches that have just blown into town aren't shy about taunting the hale pack and trying to draw our their resident magic weaver. they want blood, figuratively and literally.

~ "what's this look on your face?" "what look" "the kind of look that makes me want to punch you" "oh my god you are so derek's sister" juggling magic lessons with deaton, lacrosse training and general school madness, stiles and cora's schedules meld enough they tend to be paired together for pack duties: the snark factor is ridiculous. even school's not much of an escape when they're made permanent lab partners. the rest of the pack tend to find other things to do if the pair are in the vicinity. she's biting and intense and he's fluent in sarcasm, and neither can quite work the other out. but damnit she's observant, and clever, and stiles finds himself challenged by her in ways no one else has matched. and damnit, apparently he has a thing for intelligence and sarcasm and the ability for someone to be able to kick his ass /and/ looking drop dead gorgeous doing it - who knew? but they way that derek is starting to death glare him more and more, and the knowing smirks from some of the others in the pack, he’s apparently slower to realise his feelings than those around him.

aaand yes. any character/pairing-centric ideas above can easily be replaced with different characters/pairings. if any aspects of the above interest you, awesome! if they don’t, still awesome! i’d lovelovelove to hear any ideas you happen to have, and we can come up with some stuff together too.

logistics and boring things:

i roleplay third person, past tense, paragraph form, via email.

length doesn’t matter although mine tend to be on the lengthier side. i.. i ramble, haha.

reply time varies. most likely i’ll reply every few days, i’m most active over the weekend. if you’re looking for multiple posts every day, i will most likely (read: definitely) be a sad disappointment.

in my twenties (oh lawd, haha) so would prefer you be eighteen plus, lovelies. i do like smut, not gonna lie, but it doesn’t need to permeate the story. plot = love.

standard limits apply, really. no thank you to bathroom play and gore/vore. pregnancy/mpreg isn’t my thang, possibly other things but they’re hard ntys. no judgement, just not my scene c:

pairing wise, i don’t mind any gendered pairing and i muchly love to double.

i’m pretty chill about most things although i will most likely end up totally fangirling over our characters and plot and stuff like the total dork i am. yey? (“dude i heard this song and omg it totally reminded of that scene where…”)

tldr. roleplay with me, i’m so lonely xoxox

other genres:

of course i roleplay things other than teen wolf, silly billies. i play either canon or oc unless noted.

~ harry potter. any era, next generation preferred.

~ percy jackson and olympians/heroes of olympus

~ disney’s descendants.

~ h20: just add water. oc preferred.

~ jim henson’s labyrinth.

~ kingsmen.

~ misfits.

~ twisted/modern retelling of a fairytale.

~ reincarnated greek gods.

~ anything modern fantasy supernatural.

i have a few plot ideas floating around for most of the above, so feel free to ask about them. and again, i’d love to hear any and all ideas you happened to have.

contact:

if any of the above piqued your interest, awesomeee. drop me a line with what you’re looking to roleplay and whichever other random goodness - favourite colour, ice cream flavour, banana bread recipe - have at it.

[email protected]

hope to hear from you, sians x

#rp partner search #fandom #harry potter #email #submission

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braindamageforbeginners · 6 years ago

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Cycle 5, Day 1

A friend recently asked me why I wasn’t writing a novel based on my experiences, and I could only say I didn’t really know how it would end. She pointed out that I was a reasonably imaginative person; but the reason why I’m writing this is because so much of what happens is beyond comprehension, let alone imagination, that just trying to imagine it would be disingenuous and/or a disservice to anyone else trying to figure out how to do it (in this case, it’s a couple of comments that I never would have expected myself to make; albeit in a “Good God, I never realized I was that witty” way). We’ll get there shortly. AUTHOR’S NOTE: I am presenting this particular reminiscence in the logical order, not the actual temporal order in which they occurred, because the way it actually happened is almost too chaotic for me to keep track of, let alone make fun (basically, I spent a lot of the day retracing steps because there was a hold-up getting lab results, and the chemo nurses and pharmacy don’t do anything without those labs).

The first day of every cycle is, scheduling and logistics-wise, a bit difficult (I’m refraining from using a certain synonym for “disaster” that involves four-letter words out of respect for some of my religious friends who may be reading), since everyone wants a piece of you, almost literally. I get blood-draws, a consult with one of the Warlocks (or their legal representative, as it were), and an infusion (which takes two hours in and of itself). Today was made a little harder because Senior Warlock is usually the one who oversees me, but he was out for the day, and he is old-school in a lot of ways (there was a line in the immortal neurosurgery memoir, “When the Air Hits Your Brain” that “the most incompetent bedside disaster [on behalf of a physician] is better-received than the most expert-managed care by phone”); definitely in that he wants to lay hands on me directly before clearing me for another round of chemo. Although I’d say that Junior Warlock is probably equal in terms of competence, he actually tends to read what various nurses, tests, PAS, etc. tell him before actually coming in the room. Which means there’s a lot of people who I see before Junior Warlock is ever on-scene, and there’s not a whole lot left for him to do/test by the time he arrives (unless something’s wrong), apart from a quick once-over. Don’t get me wrong, if there’s a problem or question or complaint, he’ll move on it, but if I’m just showing up to get medical clearance and everything’s going well, I only see him for ten minutes. Which is fine, but it’s kind of a let-down after 40-some minutes of assorted technical staff and assistants filter through to get a quick once-over for medical clearance.

At the joint blood-draw/IV installation, the nurse found my radial vein (that’s twice in a six-month period; that’s pretty good) on the first try. Which is great news for me; the farther from my shoulder and neck they go, the better time I seem to have the next day, side-effects-wise. I guess there’s a reason nurses don’t go for it more often, though: NURSE: I think I can get that vein, but are you sure? We’re going to rip out a lot of [arm] hair when we take the tape off, SELF (unexpected line #1): Given what I’m paying for this, I’d say that you guys can throw in a free Brazilian wax. I realize that cancer wards aren’t exactly comedy clubs, but I almost feel bad for making that poor woman laugh that much over a vaguely-dirty joke. Come on, cancer patients, I can not be the only one in there trying to use humor as a defense/coping mechanism. Then I got handed off to another nurse: OTHER NURSE: Is there anything I can get you? SELF: I always ask you guys for a steak and a carton of cigarettes, I’m already paying the price for that lifestyle, I might as well enjoy it. OTHER NURSE: I think we have juice and some crackers around here. I suppose that’s sort of like steak. SELF (unexpected line #2): Yeah, if you have never seen or heard of steak. Apart from that, the perfusion was unremarkable.

What is worth note is that, due to an odd schedule glitch, I didn’t have to be in the hospital until 12 pm, which enabled me to get a good nights’ sleep. Or it would’ve, if not for the nasty tendency of the sun in SoCal to come up at 4 am and start burning a hole through my eye sockets. I’m exaggerating that, but it’s kind of what it feels like, especially since I have have a weird, glitchy diurnal pattern thanks to the chemo. Also, getting injection that late means I might sleep through the worstest/weirdest side-effects, although I’ll be waking up tomorrow with Temodar in my veins (for those of you wondering, standard chemo for brain cancer comes in massive horse pills that you choke down ten minutes before bed, so you wake up all lemony-fresh and not severely-possibly-fatally hungover at all)(this effect gets worse as the week wears on, because you take Temodar for the first five nights of each treatment cycle).

Anyway, since I’m staying up a few extra hours tonight, let’s celebrate my almost-functioning brain by doing some math. Depending on whose data you use, brain tumors/cancer have an occurrence rate of 1-5 per one hundred thousand patients. We’ll use the upper-end of that (which, I think, is the CDC’s 2014 data), which, as a decimal, is 0.00005. Now, in the last few weeks, I’ve been contacted by a few folks with parents getting brain tumors/cancer (they weren’t always specific), and I know of at least another friend with a brain cancer-plagued mother. Including me, that’s four people I know of or have heard of. with brain cancer. I realize we’re jumping way over Dunbar’s number (the hypothetical upper limit of “maintainable relationships” - or, in practice, “people you know”), but rounding my social media friends up to 500 (the folks in question contacted me that way, but I have personally met all of them, so I figure the math might sort of even out) and assuming everyone has two parents gives me a rate of 4/1500, or, a brain cancer rate of 0.00267 in my immediate sphere of influence (I like to call it the Splash Zone, but that’s just me). That’s over 50 times the upper CDC estimates. Admittedly, this is all self-selecting, and I’m a statistical outlier already, but it does make me suspect that we’ve either been dramatically low-balling prior estimates of brain cancer, or there’s something new in the water (lead, if you live in Michigan). Or, as I suggested, the Baby Boomers are just getting into their carcinogenic prime; but it does offer a glimmer of hope (in a weird, almost-parasitic way, I’ll admit) that there’s going to be a massive influx of GBM patients. Which is good for current brain cancer patients (sort of), because it might mean more political and economic incentive to do something about this accursed disease. Certainly there’ll be enough patients to provide better statistical data than we’re seeing. Of course, that could just be the experimental chemo finally catching up to me.

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dawnajaynes32 · 7 years ago

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Catching up with Françoise Weeks

Photography by Joni Shimabukuro

Friends, I am so excited to bring you an interview with one of my cherished friends, Françoise Weeks. Over the years of blogging we’ve featured Françoise and her unique floral designs often, although it occurred to me recently that it has been awhile since we last shared a chat here on the blog. So here goes — hope you are equally inspired as I am by this amazing botanical artist! ~Alicia

Photograph by Theresa Bear

Hi Françoise, Thank you for sitting down with us for a chat! I know our readers would love to learn more about you and your flower business! Can you share with us how many years you’ve been a floral designer? I started my business in 1996

Photography by Ted Mishima

How did your career in the floral industry start? Starting a business was beyond daunting so I put that dream on a shelf for many years. When there was talk that the medical lab where I worked might close it’s doors, I made the leap. The learning curve – especially the business aspect – was huge. For 2.5 years I kept working at the lab part time while growing the business, focusing on weddings and events. My husband remodeled part of the basement; 5 years later we had a wonderful small studio built in the back yard.

Photography by Gwendolyn Severson

Many floral designers that I speak with seem to experience a bout of burnout somewhere along their path, is this something you’ve faced at any point in your career? Like most designers I have…

Photography by Joni Shimabukuro

How did/do you work through burn-out and how did you move on to the next stage of your career? In 2003 I had started to teach some evening classes in the studio at the encouragement of my sister. It wasn’t until 6 years later, when I started to teach workshops in the studio (at the request of one of the wholesalers) that I made it a goal that teaching would become my main source of income. Little did I know at the time that when I would have the courage to take the workshops on the road in 2013 (there are so many logistics involved and it took 2 years to override that fear of failing and finally give it a try) that this dream would become a reality. I still do some events, very few weddings and some freelancing. I love sharing mechanics and techniques, as well as how to look at botanical materials through different eyes. Watching how students interpret the information, which flowers and textures they choose to design with to make their gorgeous creations, makes my heart sing every single time. Looking back, teaching has come full circle, even though I only taught in schools for a couple of years after graduating from college. I must say that teaching adults, who are passionate about flowers, is way more fun and rewarding than teaching middle schoolers math and science…

Photography by Alba Betancourt

How do you stay inspired and keep fresh at 20+ years in the floral industry? In my book curiosity and perseverance are key as well as making the time to explore new ideas and different products – unusual flowers, textures and supplies alike. Nature always has been my biggest inspiration. In this day and age of social media we have access to be inspired by the work of so many brilliant designers from all over the world, run with new ideas and mold them into our own. It is always fun and often challenging, to come up with different concepts and figure out how to implement them. But it always opens new doors for more experimenting and thinking outside the box….

Photography by Gwendolyn Severson

We’d love to hear about some of the highlight moments in your career, an event of experience that you’ll never forget! Traveling to teach workshops has opened a whole new world for me. Meeting so many flower enthusiasts in person from all over the US and in many other countries, sharing information and learning from so many in the meantime, visiting flower farms in places I never thought I would go, has enriched my life immeasurably. Last year I had the opportunity to volunteer for 4 days at Fleuramour. It was the 22nd year that this extraordinary flower show took place at an old castle in Alden Biesen, a small town in Belgium. I witnessed the progression of large installations and connected with so many incredibly talented designers. It was simply brilliant.

Photography by Theresa Bear

Françoise, Can you please share with our readers what workshops you have coming up that they might like to sign-up for including online and in-person workshops? Yes! I have an online class about designing Botanical Jewelry Design. Plus, two in-person workshops coming up – A workshop in San Francisco, CA on March 3 & 4 where we will create botanical jewelry and dresses. Plus, a workshop scheduled at my studio in Portland March 12-14th which will focus on woodland and botanical couture designs.

Thank you, Françoise, for the chat, so good to visit with you!! Friends, you can follow Françoise’s flower journey here on her: Website: http://francoiseweeks.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/francoiseweeks/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/francoise.weeks

Oh, and I should mention that I have studied with Françoise and thoroughly enjoyed learning from her while taking a woodland workshop. You can read my re-cap here.

Photography by Ted Mishima

Photography by Gwendolyn Severson

Catching up with Françoise Weeks syndicated post

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