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dwellerinroots · 2 years ago

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6 questions

This post brought to you by @thana-topsy; cheers for tagging me! Hopefully you'll get a few chuckles out of it..!

RULES: answer the questions then tag some folx you want to get to know better/catch up with.

Last Song: Like a lot of you here, I listen to a lot of game music; in general, ambient music is my preferred music for work/writing, since in the field it's easier to hear people talking if there isn't someone else talking... And for writing, words just get distracting. Anyway, I'm cheating here, a bit... Song ft. Vox; Air - Sex Born Poison (the line 'Prince from the Biomass' lives rent free in my head) Song sans Vox; Desiderii Marginis - The Sweet Hereafter (just full of feelings mostly...) Song (gaming games for gamers); Chapter 1 Epilogue, Limbus Company (I'm a huge fan of this company's works. They're very literary and just the right level of obtuse. But even still, what a wild ride this was... Oh, spoilers I suppose...)

Last Show: Television? Anime? What are those? Haha, no, I kid, I kid. I just generally place anything I can't consume at my own pace pretty low, you know..? Let's see, uh... I think it was old Sailor Moon. Dubbed, of course. The only way to watch.

Currently Watching: Isn't this really the same questions as above? Gawoaoaoh!? How am I supposed to answer?! I'm in a pickle, the last movie I watched, uh, hrmn, uh... Probably a horror film, probably Body Count, 1986. I'd link the trailer, but I think it's probably too much for tumblr dot com. You should look it up, though, horror is so dumb. (I say, affectionately.)

Currently Reading: Due to life having kicked my teeth so hard I'm talking through my gums, right now, I've mostly just been reading whatever I can take with me to work, so material literature only. Sorry, I'm luddite. I'm on my nth re-read of The Alexiad, and it angers me so much that a certain power is trying to - take the legacy of Ana Komnena (dreamy sigh) for their own. I've also been thumbing through my local birder's guide, as well as a book of regional mushroom varieties. I'm preparing. Also the Making of Doom 3 design book to cross-reference things. What else, hrmn... A friend of mine picked up a pulp sci-fantasy bundle, and it made me want to re-read The Dungeon series. But there's a lot in it, more then I can recommend here, so poke me if you want questionably-written swords, sandals, lasers, and who-knows-what-else recommendations.

Current Obsession: I feel a bit bad, I don't really obsess over - wait, wait, re-do. My WIFE (fictional) [hoarse croaking] More seriously, I don't really obsess over any one media. I love everything lots, and tend to go back to things that I didn't love 'the most' and revisit them even if they were only somewhat important to me. Similarly, even when I love a media, medium, or idea, it's somewhat at a distance. I realise that's quite disappointing to people, but I'm kind of laid-back. Always have been. Let's see if I can still find an interesting answer to this one, though... Oh, actually, it's not an obsession, but I'm obsessed in trying to promote it? The problem is, it's entirely - I feel like if you aren't a child of slavic descent who had bootleg consoles and enjoyed faerie tales and mushrooms, it's probably a hard sell, ahaha... Mushroom Musume is hard to describe. It's the perfect game for people who might have roughly time for one (1) level in ye old Boomer Shooter, but are feeling in the mood for faerie tales. And that's basically what it is; a faerie-tale simulator. It can be a light-hearted, even treacle-sweet story, one that's a little scary, something dark or melancholy, or a combination of all of the three. Sometimes, things that feel like failures are unique steps in that story that turn new pages; and this, combined with the incredible amount of choice and options available, makes it one of the coolest indie games I've stumbled upon. The score is hauntingly beautiful, the art and writing are divine, and short of mystical birds, it's got basically everything I grew up with. (Now one of the devs'll poke me that there are, in fact, mystical birds, probably.) You start as a recluse hermit, raise a mushroom-hominid as your daughter, and then play as said myconoid, just trying to live life. It's a simple joy of a game, and one I'll recommend to my dying breath.

Unrelated Obsession Stuff I've Been Doing: Again, sorry, I'm not really - even the stuff I love, I'll be like, well, 'that's enough of that, then, time to do something else' bahahahaha...

Re-playing Doom 2016; I'm looking forward to Routine, since apparently Mick Gordon did the score for it, and I thought the project was dead. There are still some flaws I have with it as a whole, but it's good fun.

Occasionally playing Civilisation... 3. With Rise and Rule. Listen, my entire family loves turn-based strategy. I really like how Civ 3 and ESPECIALLY R&R handled climate change, yeah? Complexity is often good. Also, I like games I can play for a few turns, thirty minutes over a cuppa, and then save and quit. I know the joke is 'one more turn' but for me it's 'ah, perfect for a lunch break.'

My cousin threatened said that we'll be playing GAUNTLET: DARK LEGACY on the nintendo gamecub (r) (tm) this weekend assuming that bit rot hasn't taken it's toll. It may not be a 'good' game. But if you're telling me you don't hear this and get amped...

Keeping friends and family from further complicating things in their lives.

Faffing about with writing; I'm also a read/writing mode only person, and if I have to choose between reading fics or writing, the latter wins out. If I don't spill a tiny amount of blood/ink I instantly explode, it's known. Ideally, people will make better decisions into the future and I will have more time. But if not, at least we'll always have TES...

Please don't feel obligated to do this sort of thing, but if you wanna have at it... I'll tag @zombiecatboys, @kulgen, @pikkish, @expended-sleeper, @totally-not-deacon, @beloved-lady-alma, @lyriumspectre, @thattalviel and anyone else who might possibly want it. Legitimately, I've never been good at telling what the proper etiquette is, especially when I'm like - 'wowowowowowo! quizzes awesome!' but know how - tiring that can get, bahaha!

#ask game #thana-topsy #queued #this was so much fun - being a goofball is fun.#listen if any of you want STUPID horror recs by the by #i am in your court.#not nearly as as much as my cousin mind but i've got some skills even now.

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anneapocalypse · 2 years ago

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🌻 💥 and 🎙️?

🌻what makes you want to give up on writing? what makes you keep going?

I don't think anything has ever made me want to give up on writing forever. It's just too much a part of me for me to ever give up. On the other hand, wanting to give up on writing on any given day and just play video games, yeah, that one happens. And has been happening in the back half of this month. :P And is usually a combination of me having a hard time focusing and also hitting a point in my outline that lacks detailed and not knowing where to do when I do sit down to write.

Of course ultimately I still want to finish the story, because it's important to me! So in two days I will say something pep-talky about how I only got halfway to my Camp NaNo goal this month but 10k is 10k right, and then with the word count pressure off me, I'll, y'know, fix that part of my outline and keep writing.

💥find your least kudos’d fic - say something wonderful about it.

(Since I answered this one already for my least kudosed fic, I will do the next least kudosed fic for this one!)

Oh, I actually kind of love this one! "Common Room" was a little Femslash February ficlet I wrote 10 years ago about an extremely rare Fallout pairing, Victoria Watts/Mei Wong (which to my knowledge I am still the only person to ever write). @morgueline even drew a really sweet illustration for it, which I was so touched by! It makes me happy to have revisited it (and fixed the broken link to the art piece on AO3).

🎙️which one of your fics would you like someone to make a pod-fic of?

Listen, I'm over the moon if someone picks anything I wrote to make a podfic! (Also I do have a permission statement on both my About page and my AO3 profile, something I recommend for all fic writers to let podficcers and other transformative creators know how you feel about that sort of thing.) But if I had to pick one from my more recent works, maybe "Looking Forward." I think it's a good dramatic piece to read aloud.

#fic writer meme #ask anne #zenstrike #ask meme

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lathalea · 2 years ago

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Hello there! Did you really think I wouldn't participate in this ask game? Well, here I am, and of course, this is about Thorin😂 😈

One thing about myself: I love books, and more importantly, I love talking about books with just about anyone (as if you didn't know that lol)! Basically I'm just a bid old nerd who wants some cuddles while reading together.

I'm a sucker for forbidden love (again, shocker, right?) but this time let's go with friends to lovers. Gimme all the fluff!

And my chosen au is the au that's not actually an au because we all know the Durins survived, aka everybody lives au!

Why hello there, stranger! 💙 Did you really think I'd forget about your ask? Not a chance!

First of all...

(Sorry about the delay though. The heatwave is killing me.)

And now, let's get down to business 🥳🎈🎁 This is both the Imagine Ask Game imagine (💞 - Friends to Lovers with Thorin) and my newest fic for the Armitage Summer Splash event so I hope you'll excuse me the almost-a-fic-but-a-bit-like-an-imagine general style of the story.

WEEK 4 - PROMPT 28

Here are the tarot cards for your ask:

And here is the prompt:

WEEK 4 - PROMPT 28

Trope: Dream Quote: “Let’s skip to the good part.” Image: link

Relationships: Thorin Oakenshield x Dwarf OFC (The Hobbit) Rating: G Wordcount: 4165

You can find this fic on AO3.

Khuzdul: Amrâlimê - my love

Dream Come True

Smaug was dead and Erebor was being restored. Leaving Ered Luin and moving to your homeland was like stepping into a fairy tale. You were born in exile, but your grandmother told you many amazing tales about the true home of your clan. When the time came and Thorin Oakenshield reclaimed the Lonely Mountain, you and your family joined a caravan and headed east.

When you arrived in Erebor, you instantly fell in love with the place. It was even better than your grandmother’s stories. Luckily, your family’s old home wasn’t overly damaged, so you started your new life fairly quickly after moving back in.

As a serious book-lover, you had one dream: to become a librarian. Since your grandmother used to be one of the librarians under the Mountain back in her day, she had taught you all you needed to know to become one. She was too old to return to her former work, but her recommendation along with your earlier work experience in a cosy little bookshop in the Blue Mountains made it possible for you to work at the Great Library of Erebor.

In the beginning, the job meant mostly cleaning up the mess Smaug left and trying to rescue the damaged books or at least copy their content before their frail parchment pages perished forever. You often stayed up late at night, trying to decipher faded runes on the yellowed pages of yet another ancient volume, but it was worth it. So what if half of the time you actually spent on reading books instead of mending or sorting them? You had always made sure to finish the most urgent tasks before treating yourself to another chapter of “Brok The Barbarian” or “The Wuthering Red Mountains” or “The Haunted Manor of Mirkwood”. Well, almost. Sometimes Mistress Gudrun, the head librarian, would find you surrounded by a heap of books you had been sorting all morning with one of them in your lap as you devoured its contents. It was completely not your fault. That book simply happened to open of its own accord—by accident—on a very interesting page. Mistress Gudrun would shake her head with a chuckle and then leave you be. She knew you were one of the most passionate of her apprentices, even if rather easily distracted. But some things could not be helped. Besides, you reminded her of her younger self a little bit.

One night you were still at the library, finishing the task of cataloguing the “Art of War” section when you heard a suspicious noise. A sound of a door being unlocked and opened. And it was not just any door – it was the side door that was only used by the staff to enter and leave the library at any time through a conveniently placed tunnel. It even had a sign: “NO UNAUTHORISED PERSONNEL”.

Then you heard slow, heavy steps. They didn’t sound like any of your colleagues’ steps. What if it was a thief?! You grabbed the heaviest tome you could find and stalked towards that door. In the flickering light of the library lamps, you saw a shadow of a movement ahead of you. Without thinking, you gathered your courage and attacked the supposed burglar with the leather-bound tome. That would teach them not to steal!

The book hit something hard. You heard an “Oof!” and then your priceless weapon was torn out of your hands before you could react. You blinked and your mouth fell open at the large silhouette in front of you. In the faint light you saw none other than your king, the legendary Thorin II Oakenshield. You recognized him, of course, you’d seen him in the Blue Mountains many times before, but never from such a close distance. He stood there, tall and proud, with his dark locks majestically flowing down his shoulders… and massaged his arm with a frown on his face. “Do you assault all the visitors who come here to read?” he uttered an irritated growl.

You swallowed. You had just attacked your king. You hoped that the infamous dungeons of Erebor weren’t as full of hungry giant cave rats as the rumours said. After muttering apologies to your king, you explained the situation and, to your surprise, heard his explanation in turn. He was in need of some light reading after a long day and this entrance to the library was the closest one to the royal chambers. And, of course, he had the key. He was the king of this mountain, after all!

It was your lucky day: he didn’t imprison you or hang for treason and instead you offered him a few books that would make good evening reads. He took them gladly, even “The Crucible”, one of your favourites, a lighthearted story about a Dwarf, an abysmal cook, who tried to make the perfect stew for his three beloved wives. Don’t judge, okay? Culinary novels are an important element of dwarven literature!

This was how your friendship started. Yours and the king’s, not yours and that stew’s of course. Thorin and you bonded over the written word and he became a frequent late evening visitor in the library. Since then, you spent many hours – or even whole nights – discussing the stories you had both read or criticising the authors who wrote too much angst and not enough fluff. And sometimes, you would simply talk about anything and everything.

Thorin appreciated these visits more than you knew. Even if he spent a tiring day with his advisors, he knew that he’d find you in the library in the evening. With you, he could forget about his duties for a short while and enjoy both your quick wit and your charming smile. You helped him rekindle his old love for books, something he hadn’t had the chance to enjoy much when Erebor was lost. But now it was different. He reclaimed his kingdom, his people were safe, and he was finally able to find some time for leisure. So he spent it with someone he learned to appreciate and admire. You. The person with whom he could be himself. Someone who wasn’t an advisor, nor a sparring partner, nor a courtier. Someone who didn’t want to get into his good graces just because he was a king; who didn’t expect favours nor special treatment. Someone he had been thinking of as his close friend for a while now.

One day Dis approached her brother and discreetly let him know that there were rumours of him having a dalliance with a mysterious lover. Apparently, someone saw Thorin sneaking out of the royal wing late at night; someone else saw him returning shortly before dawn, and several nobles commented on the shadows under his eyes when he arrived at the morning council meetings. Some even wondered whether Thorin acted dishonourably, having trysts with an unsuspecting young lady, but not courting her openly. Or worse – what if he seduced multiple innocent maidens under everyone’s nose?! Was that conduct worthy of a king?! “Preposterous!” Thorin exclaimed. In anger, he told Dis what he had been doing and whom he was meeting. She replied, “I suspected as much. I can see that she makes you happy and it fills my heart with warmth. Have you told her of your feelings yet?”

Thorin had no idea what his sister meant. You were his good friend, nothing more! But then Dis told him that he should stop acting like an empty-headed mountain troll. She reminded him that she was not blind and spoke about all the little glances he cast at you when he thought no one was looking. Or about that meeting at the marketplace the other day when you both stood in the middle of a crowd together, oblivious of your surroundings, passionately discussing the ending of a book you had both recently finished. Oh, and the fact that he would rather spend nights in the library than sleep in his own, comfortable bed spoke volumes, too. And what about that tiny issue of him rejecting every single suggestion of marriage she or Balin proposed?

Thorin started seriously thinking about what Dis said. Was it possible that something more than friendship blossomed between you? He recalled the way you smiled at him whenever he appeared in the library. He remembered the reluctance with which he said “good night” to you every time he had to leave. And each time he did, he saw some mysterious emotion twinkling in your bright eyes. The eyes that made him think of precious gems. And then, there was that warmth he felt deep inside. And that tingling sensation whenever your hands accidentally met.

He needed to think.

***

It had been over a week since you saw Thorin last and you started to worry. It was unlike him to disappear this way without telling you in advance that he would be busy with matters of state or that he had to leave for a diplomatic visit somewhere. As far as you knew, he was still in Erebor.

Around that time you noticed that whenever you passed through the library, people would stare at you and whisper. The elderly Master Wurf, the biggest local gossip and the chief of the fine arts section, tsk-tsked at you and told you he expected more of you.

When you asked him what he meant, he simply replied, “Do not feign innocence, young lady, it does not suit you. Have you no shame?” Did it have anything to do with the fact that he stumbled upon you and Thorin late at night in one of the secluded areas of the library a few days before? Master Wurf refused to say anything more. In fact, he started openly avoiding you, and he was not the only one. Even your friends began treating you in a very weird way, suddenly interrupting their conversations whenever you appeared or making themselves scarce. One of them even had the audacity to ask whether you could fix them with a permanent position as a royal clerk since you had “access” to the king. He winked and chuckled when he said it, but you found nothing funny about this. Things turned even less amusing when the amount of crude remarks towards you multiplied and you even received several very improper proposals. And then one day you heard your nosy neighbour speak to her husband, “Look, that harlot is coming! I wonder how much the king pays her for…”

“Stop wagging your tongue, woman, and give me my dinner!” her spouse bellowed.

“Woman?! Woman?! After 157 years of marriage you have forgotten my name, you smelly boar?! I’ll teach you…”

The familiar sounds of their customary weekly fistfight ensued followed by their passionate exclamations of love that usually came after, but you did not hear it. You ran home, teary-eyed, and locked yourself in your room. “The king’s harlot”. Those words stung more than they should. But what hurt even more was that Thorin stopped seeing you so abruptly. In these circumstances, you came to a conclusion: he did not want to see you again. His reputation as a king was worth more to him than your quiet friendship. He did not even have the decency to speak with you in person. Perhaps you were not as close as you had thought you were. Those late night conversations, fiery discussions, private jokes you shared… all of it was gone now. You were left only with memories of those moments, of his cerulean eyes, and of that low, velvety voice speaking your name.

Now, your reputation was ruined. You could wave any hopes of finding a spouse goodbye. No one seemed to believe you, and it was probably a matter of time until Mistress Gudrun would dismiss you from the library for indecent conduct, even if it was just based on some gossip.

As you wallowed in self-pity, there was a knock on the door and before you could say “enter”, your grandmother barged into your room.

“My dear girl, are you sleeping with the king?” she asked in her charmingly blunt way, staring you straight in the eye.

“Of course not, granny!” you exclaimed. That one time when you and Thorin both dozed off late at night in the library and your head happened to rest on his very comfortable shoulder surely didn’t count! You still remembered the moment when you both woke up, staring sleepily into each other’s eyes, his lips barely inches from yours. No, that dot not count even a bit!

“What a shame,” she sighed and sat next to you with a grunt. “So all those things I hear are only unsubstantiated rumours?” “I’m afraid so,” you reached for your handkerchief in an attempt to dry your cheeks.

“And here I was thinking that at least you had some fun!” “Grandma, he is the king!” you gasped. “Oh yes, he is, and he is quite a handsome one, is he not?” she grinned.

“Come on, granny! Thorin and I are just friends! He sometimes visits the library, nothing more!”

“Are you well, my dear? Your cheeks are red. You are not blushing, are you?” “Of course I am not blushing! It is the heat, I must have put too many logs into the fireplace, that is all,” you tried your best bluff.

“If you say so, dear,” your grandma nodded, patting your hand. “Then I guess there must be some misunderstanding with that royal messenger at our door…” “What? What? What? What are you talking about, granny?” you almost jumped up.

“A nice young fellow has just arrived with a dinner invitation for you from king Thorin,” she smiled sweetly at you. And when your grandma smiled sweetly, that was an equivalent of a shark baring his teeth.

“Tell him I’m not unavailable! I’m sick! I’ve gone to visit our relatives in the White Mountains!” you panicked.

“Truly, child? Is that the best you can do? All my teachings for nothing…” she hung her head theatrically. Our last relatives in the White Mountains moved away from there over 200 years ago during the last Orc War. Do you want the king to think that you are related to an Orc?”

“No! Granny! Oh no! I just… I don’t want to see him! Because of those horrible rumours, he’ll probably tell me that… this is the end of our… our friendship,” you sobbed while your heart raced like crazy in your chest. “I can’t… I can’t face him. Not now. I just want to be left alone until it all blows over.” “Very well, my child,” your grandma gave you a reassuring hug. “If that is what you want, I will make it happen.”

***

You spent several peaceful days at home, taking a sick leave. Even your granny agreed that you deserved some rest. Secretly, you hoped that the rumours would soon die down and everyone would once again leave you alone. It felt strange to spend the evenings at home with your family instead of copying the old parchments and waiting for the familiar squeaking sound of the opening door, along with Thorin’s customary “Good evening”. Oh, how you longed to hear his voice once again, to sit with him and simply enjoy his presence…

Instead, two more dinner invitations came, each of them written with golden letters on the best parchment you have ever seen, but you refused them both. Those were the formal invitations from the king, not your friend Thorin, and they did not bode well.

After that, a mysterious package arrived to you with no return address. Inside, there was a rare edition of a book you have always wanted to own. There was a fresh rose sticking out from between the covers and when you opened the book at that page, you saw a note. It contained a very short and very clumsily composed poem about your eyes being compared to gems. You recognized the elegant handwriting at once. And the rune “T” at the bottom of the page.

It was not possible. It had to be a mistake. Thorin never really liked poetry. And what about that beautiful flower? And the precious book?

“Are my old eyes failing me or is this a threefold gift?” your grandma asked, putting her book away.

“Granny, we both know you have eyes like a hawk! Wait… a threefold gift?” you forgot to breathe. The rose. The poem. The book. Three pieces. Exactly like the tradition said. Oh, shoot.

“What will you send him in return?” your grandma’s tone was alarmingly casual. “You can’t keep a courting gift waiting for too long, you know…”

“That’s… I don’t plan to send him anything,” you put the beautiful gift box aside, not wanting to look at it any longer.

“Do you know when was the last time Thorin Oakenshield sent his last courting gift?” you heard your granny’s soft voice.

“I don’t,” you admitted, your throat tightening.

“The answer is: never. The whole kingdom assumed he was devoted to his craft and therefore uninterested in marriage. It seems that we all were wrong and he found someone special after all,” she mused.

“You don’t understand, granny. Thorin is an honourable dwarf. He knows about that gossip and he realises how damaging it is to my reputation so he is trying to do what he feels is right out of his sense of duty. Plus, I’d make a very bad queen…”

Your grandmother just shook her head and, to your surprise, said nothing, leaving you with your dark thoughts.

***

The next courting gift from Thorin came a week later. Another exciting book, another clumsy but sweet poem, and another flower (a daisy, as pink as your lips, as the new poem claimed). Your grandma simply looked at you from behind her half-moon spectacles but, again, did not say a word.

You put the gifts into your wardrobe with an attempt to forget about them. As tradition said, if you were not interested in the courtship, the only thing you had to do was simply not to respond to these gifts and leave them be. And that was exactly what you did. After reading the books, of course. The courting traditions did not say anything about not being allowed to reading them. That was what books were for, weren’t they?

The problem was, the third gift came a week later, another one a week after that, and then they just kept on coming. Your free wardrobe space was shrinking rapidly. Meanwhile, your granny and the royal messenger became fast friends and she even began baking her delicious cinnamon buns every Friday — because that was the day he would come with another courting gift from Thorin. At the same time, you absolutely did not feel any anticipation every Friday morning. You were not interested in empty gifts sent to you out of misplaced pity. Not at all. And yet, you still missed Thorin, your dear… friend.

***

Almost two months passed and everyone seemed to have forgotten about your alleged scandalous affair with the king — or perhaps they had simply become bored with it. The gossip mill of Erebor was now busy with another topic: the royal jeweller’s wife gave birth to twins and the rumour had it that each of the babes was supposed to have a different father. When your grandmother heard it for the first time, she laughed to tears together with the royal messenger who, along with that piece of gossip, brought you another courting gift. A brand new, illustrated copy of your favourite “The Crucible”, a touching poem with loneliness as a main theme, and a simple forget-me-not flower. Now you too had tears in your eyes.

One day you stayed at the library longer than usual, determined to finish making the inventory of the newest books that arrived from the Blue Mountains. You were so focused on the task that you hadn’t heard the characteristic squeaking sound of a particular door being opened.

“Good evening,” the rumbly, familiar voice broke the silence that surrounded you. And then you heard your own name spoken in that very special way you secretly adored.

“Thorin?” you almost jumped in surprise. He stood before you, just as he did that first time you had met here, wearing a simple dark blue tunic that emphasised his strapping figure of a warrior, his hair slightly ruffled, his temple free from the Raven Crown of Erebor, but this time there was no frown on his face. Instead, a slight smile danced on his lips. Mahal, how you had missed seeing him. “I am glad to see you here again. May we talk?” His eyes searched your face and one look into them was enough to melt your resolve.

Your conversation started awkwardly at first. Thorin was convinced that he offended you somehow and wanted to know what he could do to make amends. He wished to understand why you refused to see him and avoided him for so long. Brimming with strong emotions, in a trembling voice you spoke of your disappointment and all the misery the rumours had caused you. “... and when you stopped coming to the library, I thought I lost a… friend,” you finally admitted quietly, stifling a sob.

“You have never lost me. I needed to reflect on some matters in solitude, but now I know that I have failed you. I believed those rumours would harmlessly disappear. For that I am asking for your forgiveness and if it will be granted to me, I still would like to continue being your… friend, if I cannot be anything else.”

While listening to his words, you looked at your hands that somehow found themselves in his large, warm palms of a blacksmith. You discovered that you liked the feeling and the sensations that came with it. You did not want him to let go of you even if you probably should.

“And what else would you like to be?” you asked, unable to ignore the effect his closeness had on you. These were the same hands that gently picked the flowers, carefully chose the books and wrote those awkward poems for you every single week while you were apart. And the regal features of his face were now softened by a hopeful smile that reached all the way to his eyes.

“Do you remember that old parchment we once read together? The one that said: ‘Life is but a book and every day – merely a page’?” Thorin squeezed your hands gently.

“I do, but what does it have to do with you and me?”

“I would like to reopen that book with you. But not where we left off. Let us skip to the good part. Let us write new pages for as long as we live. Together. What do you say?”

“Together,” your voice wavered, “as… friends?”

Thorin’s hands moved to your arms, shoulders, then to your neck, and then cupped your face, making your breath hitch. His face was so close to yours now, your nose brushed against his. You could even feel the warmth of his breath and the softness of his hair against your cheek. As you took a deep breath, your lungs filled with that unmistakable scent of pine needles, leather, and ink. So unmistakably, reassuringly Thorin.

“No, not at all as friends,” he murmured, gently pressing his forehead against yours, and then added one little world that turned your world upside down, “Amrâlimê.”

“Do you mean it?” your eyes widened. “Truly?”

Without a word, Thorin took out a little wooden box out of his pocket. There were his and your runes carved in its cover. When he handed it to you, you took it from him and opened it. Inside, you saw an elegant mithril braid bead and a beautiful matching ring adorned with diamonds – symbols of eternal love. No Dwarf would offer such breathtaking gifts simply out of duty.

You wanted to pinch yourself when Thorin took one of your hands and placed it over his heart.

“Truly. I do not wish to only be your friend. Not any longer. I want to share my life with you, if you will have me.”

Your vocal cords refused to cooperate. All you could do was nod and wrap your arms around him, tucking your head under his bearded chin.

“Is that a ‘yes’, Amrâlimê?” Thorin whispered softly while the gentleness of his arms encircled you.

“Oh, Thorin. I didn’t dare to dream that this day would ever come. Yes.”

He took your hand into his a placed a careful kiss on the back of your palm. And then he slipped on your finger the ring he had made with his own hands during that time you were apart. When you met his gaze, the eternal diamonds shone in his eyes.

On that day you learned that some dreams do come true, after all.

💚 Like it? Love it? Reblog it! 💚

📜 Searching for more stories to read and more art to look at? 📜

📜Here is the masterlist for Week 4 of the Armitage Summer Splash event. 📜

General taglist (please let me know if you'd like to be added/removed): @fizzyxcustard @shrimpsthings @dark-angel-is-back @sherala007 @amelia307 @anyaspidergirl-blog @jotink78 @rachel1959 @saltwater-in-the-afternoon @linasofia @legolasbadass @yourqueenunderthemountain @reblogunderthemountain @guardianofrivendell @elrawienthewhite @tschrist1 @nelleedraws @beenovel @vee-vee-writes @mcchiberry @dumbassunderthemountain @errruvande @laurfilijames @emrfangirl @s0ftd3m0n @lilith15000 @kami-chan1512 @ragsweas @enchantzz @aduialel @myselfandfantasy @thewhiteladyofrohan @elliepie1226 @middleearthpixie @i-did-not-mean-to @blairsanne @fckmini @clumsy-wonderland @wormsmith @mailinsblogofstuff @medusas-hairband @xxbyimm @guylty

Thorin taglist: @narniaandthenorth @i-am-the-raven-queen @ruthoakenshield @jaskierthelover @asgardianhobbit98 @thespiritoflife @justfollowtheroad

#happy birthday #legolasbadass #thorin oakenshield #richard armitage #fluff #thorin imagine #thorin x reader #hobbit imagine #thorin fic #tarot #armitage summer splash #tarot ask game #fanfic #romance #friends to lovers #the hobbit

179 notes · View notes

berlinbabylon · 3 years ago

Note

Hi! A few weeks ago, in an answer, you made reference to Volker Bruch's role in Unsere Mütter, Unsere Väter. I've never seen it and had been wanting to (although I'm arguably less motivated now that Volker Bruch has been so ... ugh lately), but would you mind expanding upon what you meant? This whole situation is so disappointing and frustrating (but I say this as someone who only discovered BB/VB in December of last year)!

Oh boy, where to begin! The issues with Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter are so layered. I guess I'll break it down into: (1) Issues with the miniseries itself, and (2) issues with the reception of it.

1) So as to the first point, it's been a long time since I saw and I don't want to be too negative about it. It's well-made and some parts of it are better than others. I remember that I didn't think the writing was great (that's true for many German productions where the scripts tend to be the weak link), like it relied too much on coincidental meetings of characters in unlikely scenarios and so on. But okay, whatever. The actual issue with the miniseries arises from the way in which it was titled and marketed ("our mothers, our fathers" – of course Generation War sounds a bit more oblique in English and obfuscates that the people behind the miniseries wanted to do something that was supposedly representative of what "our" immediate ancestors went through during the war). From a historian's POV, the group of young people that they chose to focus on was really not in any way, shape or form representative of most young German people at the time and you can't blame the Polish for being pissed about the representation they got (which painted the Polish partisans as antisemitic and the issue with that wasn't that antisemitism didn't exist among Polish partisans but rather that the way the miniseries emphasizes their antisemitism while being way too revisionist about the German protagonists in that regard is just not a good look). A history professor put everything into words that I was thinking back then, it's in German but you can put it through DeepL and I highly recommend the read, regardless of how you feel about the miniseries: https://taz.de/Unsere-Muetter-unsere-Vaeter/!5070893/ ("Nazis are always the others" – yes there are some evil German Nazis of course, the cliché ones, the commanding officers, the Gestapo guy and so on but we are not invited to identify with them, we are not invited to consider them part of our ancestry and we are also not invited to consider that most Germans at the time were not victims of circumstance but active participants in the system, unless we're talking about resistance groups which were obviously the exception and not what the miniseries posits as the core 'generation' – one who, we might add, would've been exactly the one to have gone through the whole youth indoctrination unlike older people at the time). So yeah there's a lot to unpack there in terms of how German remembrance culture works and I'll leave it at that, it's a huge topic that would need its own essay. The miniseries is 'fine' TV but it has a certain role in cultural memory production that is, at the very least, questionable and should be considered with some critical distance from its qualities as a drama.

2) There's another issue though and that's more what I was referring to. Basically Volker Bruch playing a Wehrmacht soldier in that miniseries gained him quite a following of wehraboos and in some cases straight up Neonazis. For the longest time, whenever you were searching for posts about him here on Tumblr, they came from accounts that... man, how do I say this. Okay first of all wehraboos are Wehrmacht stans and I came across a big number of them in this context (and in the context of Volker Bruch fandom specifically) where their tumblrs were all about the aesthetic~ of German Wehrmacht soldiers and I just... to say that I found these blogs disturbing is putting it mildly. Often these were run by young women from countries like the Netherlands, Italy or wherever else in the world and my only explanation for this phenomenon is that they grew up with a very stereotypical view of Germans during WWII = evil, so when they discovered that some of them were young (sometimes handsome) men who were also just regular guys, they took this to mean that everyone had been terribly mistaken to lump in 'regular' soldiers with the SS and so they ran in the other direction. I mean, obviously there are distinctions to be made. But the Wehrmacht was also heavily involved in war crimes, so. All that teenage fawning over black and white pictures of real people who may have been involved in real atrocities... well. But that was still comparatively mild. When I first made Babylon Berlin gifs (before it was shown in the US on Netflix, before I made this sideblog, before there was a sizeable interest in these gifs aside from Volker Bruch stans), the accounts that reblogged them... I mean, there were actual Neonazi accounts among those. One I will never forget. Back then I still looked at reblogs to see if people had some commentary in the tags and so I opened this one blog and it was dedicated to Reinhard Heydrich, the "Butcher of Prague". On the front page, there were reblogs of Hitler gifs. Hitler greeting some kids, people doing the Nazi salute. The rest I've blocked from my memory. I had accidentally stumbled across a corner of Tumblr that was entirely sinister. I felt so sick. I ended up blocking and reporting it but this hellsite never gave me a reply so who even knows if anything happened.

So long story short: Ever since then I've resented the fact that Volker Bruch being in Unsere Mütter, unsere Väter gained him Neonazi followers (also tells you something about the miniseries, doesn't it) and I also resented that me just wanting to make Babylon Berlin gifs meant I had to see this stuff. So I stopped making any BB gifs (or at least any containing him) for a while and it's also the reason I never made many gifs of Gereon unless requested. I don't want to say that I feel vindicated after finding out that Volker Bruch is a complete idiot because I never paid much attention to him personally but I was also never his biggest fan, I find his acting range limited, he has a certain vibe and look that goes well with certain period dramas (actually only 20th century ones because he looked rough in the Goethe movie... I actually much prefer Alexander Fehling as an actor but that's neither here nor there). Anyway, there you go.

#ask #reply #anonymous #volker bruch's wife miriam stein is also in the miniseries #(and in the goethe movie)#honestly they both always gave me a vibe #now that i think about it #but i just thought they were hipsters #(also welcome to the babylon berlin fandom!)#(it's actually been a much better place since it's not just volker bruch fans anymore lol)#(also: normal volker bruch fans exist and i mean no offense to them at all)#(this is just about a certain kind of following he acquired through unsere mütter unsere väter)

33 notes · View notes

rose-lord-of-simps · 4 years ago

Text

AO3 fics

This is a list of AO3 fics I find and need a place to save so I can read them later! I’d save them in a file on my phone but my phone hates me and quite frankly, I don’t blame it.

Note: I also take fic finding requests! I can’t help you find specific fics but if there is a ship here you aren’t interested in or don’t ship but you want a fic for, let me know what genre you want and the ship or x reader and I’ll find it for you! Genres include fluff, romantic, spicy, angst!

Some of the descriptions are the actual descriptions from the fics, however some are just notes I made about them myself. NONE OF THESE ARE MINE AND I AM NOT TAKING CREDIT FOR THEM!

This is mostly just for me but I figured I’d post it so I can create a link for it on my page instead of going through my drafts to look for it.

Guide: ☘️ not completed 🍀 completed ❌ not read ✔️ read 🌶 spicy 🌹 romance 🌵angst 🌼 fluff

If you think an emoji on a fic should be changed, just let me know! I DID NOT PUT ANY TRIGGER WARNING IN THE DESCRIPTIONS! If I think there is something trigger or know there is I will tell you to read the tags and notes but if you read one of these with a mislabeled emojis or you think a 🌵 should be added, please let me know.

On the last day of every month I go through and update the info of if it is completed and how many chapters there are. Because of this some of the info may be wrong as you read this post.

Solangelo

A World Alone

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

10 chapters and part of a Series

🌼🌹 Nico was ready to propose - now he just needed to figure out how. He convinces Will to celebrate Hanukkah for the first time in years. The problem is, Nico doesn't know anything about Hanukkah.

The Ballad of Landon Creek

Completed ☘️ Read not all the way

22/32 updated 2021-03-05 left off on 16

🌵🌹🌼Doctor Will Solace had lived in the secluded Oregon town of Ladon Creek for a year when a mysterious stranger arrived and turned his world upside down.

PLEASE CHECK THE TAGS AND NOTES!

Kiribaku

A series of coincidental meetings

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

3 chapters - left off on 3

🌼 Exactly what the title says

Coat/Jacket

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

1 chapter but part of a series!

🌼 Eijirou wakes up cold, alone, and worried. What hidden truths will he find when he seeks out his boyfriend?

Axis

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 chapter but part of a series!

🌵 Ochako recieves a letter from Bakugo she never wanted.

Not Kiribaku centered but includes Kiribaku

And your name for the order is

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 chapter

🌼 Coffee shop AU where Kirishima is the only one who enjoys taking Bakugo’s order

Tell me the truth (even if it hurts)

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

3 chapters - left off on 3

🌵 little not much 🌹/🌼 Kirishima gets hit with a truth quirk but he isn’t the one telling the truth

Tell me Whatever

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

1 chapter

🌼 mostly, Bakugo gets hit with a quirk and it becomes impossible to be lied to, and Kirishima is so very open

Bien Cuit

Completed ☘️ Read ❌

7/10 updated on 2021-02-12 left off on 1?

🌼🌹 “It’s the best cafe in town! You gotta try it!!” Kirishima exclaimed. “What’s the worse that can happen?” Kirishima asked. Bakugou should have fucking known better than to trust that Shitty Hair for a simple coffee recommendation.

Or : Bakugou Katsuki accidentally ends up in a cafe meet-cute with Deku’s former number one ride-or-die, Uraraka Ochako, and they catch feelings.

Fireflies

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 chapter

🌵🌹 romance and angst, soulmate AU!

Dis-ease

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

2 Chapters and part of a series left off on chapter 1

🌼Kirishima is sick and Bakugo takes care of him

I Missed You

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 Chapter

🌼 After a long mission, Bakugou and Kirishima talk on their couch, some sweet things are said, and their friends walk in on them making out.

5 Times Bakugou Katsuki was soft for Kirishima Eijirou and the 1 Time Everyone Found Out

Completed ☘️ Read not done yet

2/6 Chapters updated on 2021-01-19 left off on 2

🌼 Sunflowers, daisies, and a discussion about bubbles.

Light it up like dynamight

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

1 chapter

🌼 Kirishima had a mission: to discover Bakugou’s favourite band. After all, he had a Christmas gift to buy.

Or, alternatively, in which best bros Kirishima and Bakugou go to a concert and they end the day being more than bros.

Valentine- a Kiribaku fluffshot

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 Chapter

🌹🌼 Happy valentine's day! Well, it's not not so happy for Katsuki, who's finally decided to confess to Eijirou. Much due to Mina's pushiness, he decided to confess through cliched Valentine's chocolates. Although he's nervous and doubtful, a good deal of hope sits buried in Katsuki's chest. But what will happen when the Bakusquad hangs out on Valentine's Day and someone notices the chocolates?

We don’t have to be ordinary

Completed 🍀 Read unfinished

8/8 chapters left off on 5

🌵🌹🌼 A Footloose AU that nobody asked for, but I'm certainly providing.

Sounds a little strange for someone who’s never watched footloose- BUT IT’S SO GOOD I PROMISE!

Gotta KiriBaku Them All

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

1 Chapter

Eijiro Kirishima is a eighteen year old rock trainer in a world full of Pokemon. His childhood best friend Denki Kaminari travels with him to different regions. One fateful day they decide to enlist in a charity tournament at Lumiose City in Kalos. Who will they meet and what challenges will they face? Follow the boys as they make new friends and battle their way through the competition!

Im unsure how to emoji label this one so please read the tags and notes!

Bakugou and his Journal

Completed ☘️ Read not finished

1/2 chapters updated 2021-02-07

🌼🌵? (Unsure how to emoji label this) Bakugou’s journal.

Shinkami

Clashing Colors

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

3 chapters

🌼One month into classes at UA and shinso is being transferred into class 1-A, a small problem being that kaminari has started to have feelings for him and just to his luck, kaminari has been chosen to help shinso move into his new dorm.

(Obviously) They’re Married

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

6 chapters

🌹🌼mostly, Where Kaminari meets Shinso’s dads. But he doesn’t know who they are. Erasermic family!

5 + 1 Things : Kamishin

Completed 🍀 Read ?

1 Chapter

🌼🌵 5 times Kaminari was too loud for Shinso, 1 time he was too quite. Warning: language and brief mention of homophobia

Let me Scream

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 chapter

🌵🌼 Mina made Hitoshi drop an extremely personal note before reading it out loud with Denki present. Denki got mad at Hitoshi for the first time. A while later, he angrily opens up and tells Hitoshi why.

Or Hitoshi and Denki have their first argument as a couple.

You Make It Feel Like Christmas

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

1 Chapter

🌼Kaminari and Shinsou spend their first Christmas together. Shinsou's never really celebrated Christmas and Kaminari is determined to give him a real Christmas

Catch Me

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

5 Chapters

🌼(but read the tags!) Shinsou and Kaminari meet by chance their first year of high school and spend one whirlwind day together that changes the trajectory of their entire lives. Three years later, after maintaining a long distance friendship, they are roommates, nearly through their first year at the University of Osaka. They are forever on the edge of something beyond friendship, but never quite able to take the leap of faith for fear of tainting their memories of that one, perfect day. That is, until Kaminari gets blackout drunk in a night of frustration and Shinsou won't let it go.

Pizza n Fries

Completed ☘️ Read not finished

3/? Chapters updated 2021-03-10 left off on 2

🌼 So here Kaminari sits, the most popular boy in school, alone, idly poking at his school lunch,, pizza. How the school managed to screw up pizza was beyond him, but at the same time he was once given a single slice of soggy bread for lunch. Just as he was about to get up to throw his plate in the trash, it's entire existence disgusted him, a deep voice sounded in, "school lunches am I right?"

We’ll Hold You When the Sky Falls Down

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 Chapter

🌹🌼This is a Kaminari x Jirou x Shinsou fic! Soulmate AU where you can write on your arm and it appears on your partner’s arm!

Denki Who is Not His Boyfriend

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 chapter

🌹🌶(a little bit) PLEASE READ THE RAGS OF THIS ONE AND THE NOTES

Kaminari Denki’s Very Strange Day

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 chapter

🌼 All hail Denki Kaminari, newly initiated drinker of respect women juice, matchmaker extraordinaire. Alternately, Shinsou Hitoshi simultaneously has the worst and best day of his life.

Tododeku

How did I not Know?

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 chapter

🌵 Aizawa is concerned when Todoroki starts to fall behind in class but dismissed it as the boy needing a break and that he would be fine when he came back to the dorms after a weekend of being at home. He never would've thought how wrong he was and how one weekend would reveal a lifetime of secrets about the Todoroki household. Though he just wished that the two teens would have been spared from the crossfire that is Endeavor.

Not Tododeku centric but they’re together

The Prince and the Painter

Completed ☘️ Read ❌

1/? Chapters updated 2021-01-30

🌵🌹🌼 Prince Shoto Todoroki is next in line for the Alterian throne. His father rules the Kingdom with an iron fist, giving Shoto no choice but to obey his every order. He is overworked, depressed, and utterly miserable. That is until he meets Izuku Midoriya, an avant-garde painter who starts to bring the color back into his dull life. But what happens when they start to fall in love with each other? Shoto is a Prince, and Izuku is just a painter, surely this cannot end well!

(Basically a royal AU! Lots of angst, family drama, and of course fluffy love. Enjoy!)

Of Flowers and Tattoos

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

1 Chapter and part of a series!

Shouto owns a tattoo parlor. Izuku owns a flower shop. Love (unsurprisingly) happens.

Property Of Prince Shotou Todoroki

Completed 🍀 Read not finished

9 chapters left off on 4

🌵🌹🌶little bit of Bakugou x Midoriya, prince Todoroki x peasant Deku AU! PLEASE READ THE TAGS AND NOTES!

Lady in Red

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

1 chapter

🌼 Izuku’s mother refuses to tell him who her Valentine’s date is. Tododeku isn’t the main ship but it’s still included so it’s going here.

Something That I Want

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 chapter

🌹🌼🌵(lightly) TANGLED AU ITS SO GOOD OH MY GOSH-

The Cupid Quirk

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

23/23 chapters updated 2021-04-08

🌹🌼 During an attack at school, Midoriya gets hit by a quirk that leaves him infatuated with the first person he sees, which just so happens to be Todoroki Shouto. Due to an unfortunate side effect of the quirk, Midoriya breaks out into a horrible fever whenever they’re separated for too long, so Todoroki accepts the responsibility of caring for him until the quirk wears off. Problem is, Todoroki sort of, kind of, maybe likes Midoriya as more than just a friend, which makes the whole situation just a little awkward for him.

THIS IS AN AMAZING FIC AND I LOVE IT. You’re not gonna regret this read.

Erasermic

So They Follow in Our Footsteps

Completed ☘️ Read ❌

1/2 chapters 2021-01-22 part of a series!

🌵🌼 Eventually, Aizawa thinks, he’s going to figure Shinsou out. He’s gonna figure out what it means to tote around a kid through the zombie apocalypse like a Chanel bag, and what it means to get truly, murderously pissed when they’re threatened.

Zombie apocalypse AU! So- Apocolypse AU’s aren’t my thing so I don’t know why I have this one saved and I’m probably not going to read it, however I found a link for it on tumblr in the Erasermic tag so that’s where it’s going! ALSO READ THE NOTES OF THE CHAPTER!

Miritama

Glowing

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 chapter and part of a series

🌼 Kirishima asks Tamaki about Mirio.

Of Octopus Balls and Contract Flaws

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 Chapter

🌼 Tamaki really had to be careful about what he said out loud sometimes, or else a simple frustrated phrase such as "I would sell my soul for some decent takoyaki" could easily be taking out of context.

Purple Haze

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

1 Chapter and part of a series!

🌹🌼Tamaki wants to know Mirio’s colour. “What’s your color? I wanna know, I wanna know.”

Burst of Sunlight

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

1 Chapter

🌹🌼🌵(possibly) In the aftermath of the Shie Hassaikai raid, Tamaki looks after Mirio. One-shot. Soft Miritama

Summertime:Miritama

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

1 Chapter

🌼 Amajiki Tamaki had always preferred the winter, until Mirio came along. Tamaki tells the story of him and Mirio by following their memories through the course of many summers.

Grossly Incandescent

Complete 🍀 Read ❌

1 chapter

Mirio thinks, perhaps, his journey to find his own sun has found just the right path. Tamaki just do what he's supposed to and ring the bell. Their paths may just merge into one. OR Mirio knows incandescence when he sees it, but it's a bit harder to prove that to Tamaki if he's just going to hide under his hood all day!

Star Spots

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

1 Chapter

🌹🌼 mirio looks so sad, beneath the surface, and tamaki wants to say something, but doesn't know what's best for his best friend. what do you do, what do you say, when your best friend lost something so important to them? or, a series of scenes where tamaki and mirio spend their time in each others company, make confessions, and make it through to the other side.

Moments of Peace

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

1 chapter and part of a series

🌹🌼Mirio wakes up way too early, and he takes a moment to appreciate the love of his life

The “Almost” Perfect Nest

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 chapter

🌹🌼Omega Tamaki likes to take comfort in the nests he creates to have Mirio's alpha scent around. He finds blankets and clothes that smell likes Mirio and throws them all into one big pile. So what happens the day he can't find a specific hoodie that belongs to Mirio? He loses it.

Love Confessions are Hard for Idiots

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 chapter

🌹🌼Mirio wants to confess.

Todoroki x Kaminari

Denki’s Life Essentials:Memes, food, and Shouto

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

1 Chapter

Denki tries to explain what memes are to Shouto and accidentally falls in love.

Hawks x Reader

Amans Avaritia

Completed ☘️ Read not all the way

3/? Chapters updated on 2021-01-05 left off on chapter 3

🌵🌹When the Prince of the feathered-folk Kingdom, Hawks, threatens to declare war on your kingdom, you’re forced to make the worst and best decision of your life.

Let’s Chase the Sun

Completed ☘️ Read ❌

19/? Updated on 2021-02-22

(I unsure what emojis to use) Your whole life you had been sheltered away from the real world, but you weren’t exactly alone in that aspect. You just had less freedom than him. Now, however, you would take him as a chance to live life the way you wanted to. Who cares about the consequences after all? Life isn’t easy, though, and that’s something you’ll have to learn, even with a capable hero at your side. Because to be honest, being with him is the biggest problem of all.

Im unsure what emojis to use so PLEASE CHECK THE TAGS and the NOTES in the first chapter!

Writers

Born Dead

MHA ship writer, mostly Kiribaku I believe

Multi-Ship

Totally Definetly Legit Leaked BNHA Valentine’s Day Light Novel Spoilers

Completed 🍀 Read ✔️

1 chapter

🌼 I honestly have no idea how to describe this, some Momo x Todoroki, and Kiribaku

If you don’t take this friendship, I will shove it up your ass

Completed ☘️ Read not finished

3/? Chapters updated 2021-01-31 left off on 2

🌼crack fic, no one ship specific, super funny!

The Todoroki In-Laws

Completed 🍀 Read ❌

13/13 COMPLETED and part of a series!

🌼crack fic Over 10 years after the fight against the Paranormal Liberation Front, Rumi, aka the part-time hero Miruko and the proud wife of one Todoroki Fuyumi, decides it would be an awesome idea to create a groupchat with the significant others of the other Todoroki siblings. Maybe things would be easier if its members weren’t two Pro Heroes, a former one and a rehabilitated villain, but… Honestly, where’s the fun in that?

Part 2 coming soon... there’s more...

36 notes · View notes

silvermoon424 · 4 years ago

Note

Hello Katy. I'm a huge Madoka Magica and Magia Record fan, I wanted to ask your recommendations on spin offs and extra material to know about the world building and other stories

Great question. I’m your girl! I’ve read all the spinoffs and can recommend them!

I’m going down a list on “most recommended” to “least recommended,” although I think everything on this list is worthy of reading. Oh, and everything on this list (sans The Wraith Arc) has been officially published in English; although I have offered links to read them for free I really recommend supporting the franchise by buying the manga if you can (plus, if you’re like me, you’ll like having physical copies to put on your bookshelf).

1. The Different Story: Imo the best PMMM spinoff and one every Madoka fan must read. It has three volumes; the first volume focuses on Mami and Kyoko’s backstory as friends and allies (which is consistent throughout all of Homura’s time loops), which was originally revealed in an audio drama released with one of PMMM’s Blurays. However, the final two volumes take place in an alternate timeline where Sayaka contracted in time to save Mami from Charlotte. The series explores Mami and Kyoko’s relationship and gives them a lot of depth and characterization. It’s just a really excellent series I can’t recommend enough. Be sure to have tissues on hand.

2. Puella Magi Tart Magica: By far my favorite standalone spinoff and would have been my favorite overall if not for the Different Story. Tart Magica follows the journey of Tart, aka Jeanne d’Arc (yes, that Joan of Arc) as she and her allies fight on behalf of France during the Hundred Years’ War. Not only is this a great PMMM spinoff, it’s great historical fiction; the mangaka did a ton of research on that era and gives a lot of interesting historical background. The characters are also lovable and interesting, especially Tart herself and her closest companion, Riz. I highly, highly recommend this series and really wish more people read it.

3. Puella Magi Oriko Magica: Probably the best known PMMM spinoff because it was released alongside the original anime. Oriko Magica takes place in one of Homura’s alternate timelines, specifically one noted to be very irregular. The titular Oriko is a magical girl who can see the future and is trying to prevent some unclear calamity alongside her partner Kirika. The main girls from PMMM are also important characters, especially Mami and Kyoko (who actually adopts Yuma, a young girl orphaned by a Witch attack). It soon becomes clear that Oriko is willing to stoop to very dangerous methods to prevent the disaster she foresaw.

Oriko Magica also has two spinoffs (yes, there are spinoffs of a spinoff). The first is a collection of side stories that take place in an alternate timeline. The second is Sadness Prayer, which greatly fleshes out and adds depth to the original Oriko Magica. Basically, it recounts everything leading up to the events of the main Oriko Magica as well as showing scenes from Oriko and Kirika’s perspective. The original Oriko Magica is only 7 chapters/2 volumes long whereas Sadness Prayer is 24 chapters/4 volumes long, so you can tell how much is added to the story. I absolutely love Sadness Prayer and highly recommend it. The original Oriko Magica is pretty good too, and you should read it, if nothing else than so you can enjoy Sadness Prayer.

4. The Wraith Arc: The Wraith Arc is an interquel that takes place between the events of PMMM and the Rebellion Story. It’s actually an adaptation of the first draft of Rebellion, before it was reworked into the Rebellion we all know. Imo that shows, because it feels somewhat unpolished and rushed compared to the other spinoffs. Nonetheless, I think it’s worth reading. It follows Homura, Mami, and Kyoko in Madoka’s new world as they fight against Wraiths. However, Homura inadvertently sets off a chain of events that lead to disaster.

5. Puella Magi Suzune Magica: This spinoff follows Suzune Amano, a magical girl who is a serial killer of other magical girls (not a spoiler btw, we find this out in the first few pages). Four other magical girls in the city she just moved to soon become her targets, but they’re not going down without a fight. As the story goes on, we find out Suzune’s motivations. We also follow Matsuri Hinata, one of Suzune’s targets who is trying to befriend her. This spinoff is pretty good and has a great concept, although unfortunately the ending feels rushed and could have probably benefited from another volume. I still think it’s worth a read.

6. Puella Magi Kazumi Magica: A girl wakes up in a suitcase with no memory of who she is. She is soon discovered by Umika Misaki and Kaoru Maki, who reveal that she is their friend Kazumi and that they are all magical girls. The trio soon meet up with their four other magical girl companions and together they form the Pleiades Saints. However, as soon as they’re reunited, a chain of events is set off that puts them all in danger. All the while, Kazumi is trying to regain her lost memories and find out the secrets her friends are hiding from her. Honestly, that’s the best I could do to come up with a summary because over the course of five volumes the events become kind of disjointed and less coherent, haha. I think Kazumi Magica is worth reading, but imo it’s the worst spinoff and lacks the polish the others have. Despite going on for five volumes, it still feels like there wasn’t enough time for the mangaka to flesh out all the different plot elements.

----------

That’s all 6 of the main spinoffs! There’s one I’m leaving out, Homura’s Revenge, which I haven’t read or been able to find scans of. There’s also an assortment of parody/4koma manga, but those are mostly untranslated (except for Homura Tamura, which also doesn’t have scans but has been officially published in English).

As for other world-building, I highly recommend reading through the Wiki’s pages on the various routes in the Madoka Magica Portable game. It’s a game for the PSP that was unfortunately never released in English (although it looks like someone is currently working on a translation), which is really a shame because it has top-notch world-building and characterization. The PSP game is actually where the designs of Candeloro (Mami’s Witch), Ophelia (Kyoko’s Witch), and Homulilly (Homura’s Witch) originate from, which were later used for the Doppels in Magia Record.

#Puella Magi Madoka Magica #PMMM #Madoka Magica #Tart Magica #Oriko Magica #Suzune Magica #Kazumi Magica #recommendation #recommendations #long post #you reagoodmancharliebrown #Ask

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captainshazamerica · 3 years ago

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dude I have no chill when it comes to asks 😅

5. Fav character(s)?

15. Dark trinity or trinity?

17. Teen titans or Young Justice?

18. Fav animated show and/ or movie? (BTAS is supreme to me lol)

22. Fav Robin! ( this is so hard but also not I feel like dick gets it just cuz he was the first )

31. Do you like the character of the joker?

38. Who do you think is the most over looked and under used character?

51. Justice League or League of Assassins or Justice League Dark?

🎪I haven't started wayne fam adventures yet but it looks sooo good and is everyone there!? It seems like everyone's there just from what I've saw on tumblr but I don't remember seeing steph? Please say alfred is there!?

random side note just cuz you like jonny there's DC fear state coming out over fall and scarecrow is the main villian messing s*it up in Gotham and the batfam, I ain't gonna be reading that for a while tho cuz I've put a cap on comic purchasing because I'm making myself broke 😅 but it looks quite cool tbh

Dude I love that you have no chill with the asks omg xD Its so great, I get so excited when I see you do it hahaha

2. Do you like the arrowverse if so what's your fav show? (Mines flash but legends is so so chaotically lit it's a dumpster fire of awesomeness highly recommend that even tho they did my fav kinda dirty they had no need to do that to her but hey) Same, my fav is Flash, tho Im not caught up at all/havent caught up since like mid to late season 4, I got too busy during college and I was kinda getting bored with it, but now that Bart is in it, it makes me wanna watch it again! It was also before I got super into DC so Im sure Id love it even more now. I actually havent fully seen the others, just some episodes here and there and the Crisis crossovers! LoT looks like a chaotic lovable mess though, Ive heard that several times xD Who is your fav that they did dirty?

5. Fav character(s)? I mean its me so I can never chose just one xD Jason Todd, Tim Drake, Gar Logan/Beast Boy, Damian Wayne, Dick Grayson, and Edward Nygma/Riddler are my all time favs!

15. Dark trinity or trinity? Dark trinity as in the 2nd Red Hood and the Outlaws? (Jason, Bizarro and Artemis ) Then def dark trinity haha, I love those 3 misfits so much omg

17. Teen titans or Young Justice? AHH this is soooo hard omg. Like the shows or comics or groups in general?! Like imma go with Young Justice show but Teen Titans overall. They overlap though soo

18. Fav animated show and/ or movie? (BTAS is supreme to me lol) Ahh I actually seen all of BTAS! Ive just seen the first couple episodes and seen random ones here and there but like know everything about it xD Hmmm, for show I gotta go with the Young Justice cartoon, and animated DC movie, a tie between Justice League vs. Teen Titans and Justice League Dark: Apokolips War (the Damirae ahhhh). Though oooh also Under the Red Hood is also a classic and Jasonnnn

22. Fav Robin! ( this is so hard but also not I feel like dick gets it just cuz he was the first ) Ahaha I knew you would say Dick!!!! xD I was gonna ask and be like, its Dick isnt it xD This is like the hardest question ever oh my goodness. While they have all been my fav at point point, Jason and Tim have like been tied for first for the last couple of months. Like I love them both so freaking much. But if I absoltly HAD to chose one, ahhhhh, im going to have to go with Jason, Im so sorry Tim D: But Jason's character is just so complex in every version and his comics are sooo good(tho I love Tim's Red Robin ones too) his arc as a character is just SO interesting to me and his constant battle with himself and how far he fell from being robin and its all so sad but makes such a good character ahhhh

31. Do you like the character of the joker? Ahaha, this one is hard/I have mixed feelings. I have always liked him as villain even before my Batman obsession (and of course use to say he was my fav dc villain hahaha) and tbh I still think he is a pretty darn good villain and there is a reason he is so popular, even though he is an abusive piece of poop. Id like him a LOT more if he didnt abuse Harley so much tbh. And I think DC over uses him waaaaayyy too much, though I do like every version of him, excluding Leto's version, and think the acting is always amazing. So yeah, I guess I do like him but he isn't my fav, but I can appreciate him and his pop culture impact and how good he is as a truly evil unhinged villain who is interesting to watch.

38. Who do you think is the most over looked and under used character? TIM DRAKE!!!!!!!! And Riddler!!!!!!!!!!!

51. Justice League or League of Assassins or Justice League Dark? Gotta go with the classic justice league man

And ahhhh yes you have to read Wayne Family Adventure, its pretty much literal perfection. Here is the official link if you need it! https://www.webtoons.com/en/slice-of-life/batman-wayne-family-adventures/list?title_no=3180&page=1 It comes out every thursday! (tho you can pay to read ahead a few weeks) But yes, Steph is in it too! Her and Tim were being the disasters they are <3 And yes, Alfred is freaking great in it omgggg, you will love him in the 2nd one ahhh

Oooooh, I didnt know that!!!!(its soo hard to keep up with dc comics omgggg) I thought I heard something about that the other day but didnt know what it was/anything about it! Thanks so much for telling me!! I hope they release it digitally on DC Infinite!!!! Cause sameeee

#batanon #i love them #thank you so much love #dc asks #ask game #meredith gets an ask #ask #anon #meredith thoughts #batman

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poseidonwife · 6 years ago

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-GROUPIES and GRETA VAN FLEET and PEOPLE WHO JUST DON’T RESPECT MUSIC- [my own opinion]

So, these days I've been reading a lot of things about Greta Van Fleet and what the fans are doing at their concerts. Apparently some girls flashed the boys and some of them threw their bras on stage. I’d like to point out that I think there’s nothing wrong with this, things like that have always happened at concerts and it’s certainly not a matter of different "eras" or “times”. But some other fans expressed their dissent over those behaviors stating that such ways of doing do nothing but change the attitude of the members of the band towards their audience, distancing them more and more from the fans. Some of them claimed not to endure this kind of behavior and they immediately labeled those girls as "groupies" underlining that those girls are just seeking for attention, at the expense of those fans who really love the band and support it.

Faced with this kind of statements I felt involved because I’ve always defined myself as a "groupie" and I’ve always been proud of it. I struggled and I'm still struggling to make people understand the REAL meaning of the word "groupie" making clear that it’s just a cliché that groupies are nothing more than "girls seeking for fame" or even worse "backstage whores".

I read someone saying that groupies “are usually known as women who follow bands they want to sleep with and that’s exactly what groupies were known for back in the days”. This thing really made me super mad. So now I’d like to explain some concepts and reflections on this.

I want to start saying that it is true, the component of sex and physical attraction was a very strong thing "back in the days" especially in the 60s and 70s (remember that at the time there were the so-called "sexual revolution" and the "free love”, very important elements in what is known to all as counterculture of the 1960s). Many girls enjoyed going to bed with the band members and there’s nothing wrong with that, there’s nothing wrong with free sex, even if it’s a woman who practices it. In support of this I’d like to ask somthing to you: which of you isn’t somehow physically or emotionally attracted by one/or more of the Greta Van Fleet boys? Which of you wouldn’t be happy to date one of them and maybe become their girlfriend? Probably none;

another thing is about fame. Just like it happens nowadays some people just wanted to take advantage of the fame of famous people in order to shine with reflected light and become important. Therefore some girls did nothing but date the band to get in some pictures or some scoops of magazines. But THOSE WERE NOT GROUPIES.

Summarizing these points, it is a common opinion that groupies are nothing more than women seeking for fame and party time with musicians. Even Wikipedia says “The term is almost universally used to describe young women who follow these individuals [musicians] in hopes of establishing a sexual relationship with them or offering themselves for sex”. THIS IS THE POPULAR OPINION, A COMMON PLACE and nothing else. Just a cliché.

Now I’d like to discuss what it really means to be a groupie and what I do and believe as a groupie.

being a groupie goes beyond sex, goes beyond fame and goes beyond the thirst of attention. Being a groupie means, and I quote, “to truly love some silly little piece of music, or some band, so much that it hurts”. Groupies are there for the MUSIC, they’re there for LOVE and GRATITUDE towards music and those who create it and groupies don’t care about becoming famous or going backstage and get noticed. As a groupie I go to concerts and I show respect to the band and musician’s work and support them every day and I love them for the emotions they make me feel. That's it. Of course, it would be amazing to be the girlfriend of one of them and to go on tour with them and live a life like that but THAT’S NOT THE PURPOSE OF A GROUPIE. The purpose of a groupie is to SUPPORT the band, IDOLATE the band, and NOT to go to bed with them;

being a groupie means RESPECTING the band and its members and their choices. This is a very important point especially for all the stuffs going on here on Tumblr over Greta Van Fleet. There are bands that love crazy and promiscuous fans willing to go backstage and "having fun" but NOT GRETA VAN FLEET. The Greta Van Fleet boys have specifically stated that they don’t want to get into that kind of things. Josh said to Rolling Stone: “All of those wild, absurd things that you would like to romanticize about are very honest truth. The amount of excess always around. The amount of women that always want to hang out. It really is all there. It’s tempting, and crazy stuff. But we don’t seem to have too much interest”. And he is not only talking about sex but also about everything else: wild parties, drugs, alcohol... everything. That said, a true fan and consequently a real groupie RESPECTS the decisions of the band and doesn’t try to behave exactly the opposite of what the band wants. Do you understand what I’m trying to explain here? RESPECT is the first important thing. This is what a groupie does: SHE RESPECTS THE BAND.

I summarize these points too: being a groupie means respecting the band in all its decisions, it means to love music and those who create it, it means to support them for what they do and above all it means to go to a concert and enjoy the show because that feeling of being there in the front row is indescribable and it’s the best thing ever. This is what it means to be a groupie.

I want to close this thing saying that as a groupie and proud to call me one I think: those girls who know the intentions of the band [in this specific case Greta Van Fleet] but continue to behave in such a rude way, stripping in front of the band and throwing underwear on stage, THEY’RE NOT GROUPIES but they’re just trying to get visibility from the band without respecting the band itself. They’re not “bad girls” but if they really love and respect Greta Van Fleet and if they really are fans then they should avoid certain behaviors, trying to respect the artists and their work.

Now I ask you, please stop to juxtapose groupies to girls who are just seeking for attention but please know that you too can be a groupie. If you respect the band, if you love musician’s work, if you want to support them in every choice and if you are polite when you approach them, both at concerts and when you ask for an autograph or a photo, then you are also groupies and there’s nothing wrong with feeling that way. Being a groupie is beautiful, it means to love music with all your being and with all your soul.

🌻 Thank you 🌻

[Of course the discussion is open for those who want to express their opinion and same will be my asks. Feel free to say what you think about the subject]

[Down here I’ll leave some interesting links for those who want to deepen the "groupies" topic or those who are simply curious and interested]:

“Almost Famous” dir. Cameron Crowe, is a beautiful movie about groupies and it depicts very well all the things I just said in this post. I recommend the vision;

“I’m with the band” a book from the most famous groupie Pamela Des Barres. She asserts that a groupie is to a rock band as Mary Magdalene was to Jesus and that’s a strong statement but if you know the real story of Mary Magdalene [this is a very good movie about her] then you’ll understand the meaning of Pamela’s sentence;

Some quotes about groupies: “The altar was rock n’ roll, the guys were the gods, and the women were the high priestesses.“ (Gail Zappa) // “Girls get their hearts broken all the time. I figured, if I was going to get my heart broken, I’d rather it be broken by someone like Mick Jagger or Keith Moon.” (Pamela Des Barres) // "Sexual? Sometimes yes, but also friends, helpers, assistants, guides…we wanted to uplift and enhance these people who moved us so much. That’s all a groupie is. They are music-loving muses." (Pamela Des Barres) // “The sex angle is important. But not more important than girls who are also good friends and make you feel like family.” (Jimmy Page) // “You do actually fall in love with them because that’s the only love you can have. It’s not always the physical thing. They actually tell you something.They release different things inside themselves.” (Jimi Hendrix) // “They’re like our alter egos. They’re doing the same thing we are.” (Steven Tyler) // “Being a groupie doesn’t mean you’re backstage doing something sleazy. Being a groupie is like worshipping at the church of rock and roll—and you’re the high priestess." (Pleasant Gehman) // "Real groupies are people who love the music, want to be with people who make it, and that’s it." (Pamela Des Barres) // “We wanted to be a part of this incredible musical brilliance that was lighting up the world. It’s really all about love, you know. People would say, ‘Why did you want to meet these guys?’ Why not? Why not? Why not want to be a part of something so important?" (Pamela Des Barres) // “I dig musicians, I feel they have the most to offer me mentally and emotionally because they think basically along the same lines that I do; extremely creative people. Music is Life.” (Pamela Des Barres) // "For me, it was always the music. I wanted to be in on the cosmic secret. I wanted to get so close to the music I could taste it- and nothing was going to stop me." (Pamela Des Barres) // “They were devotees of the band and would literally service those bands. It was a religious experience for most of those girls.” (Gail Zappa) // “Freedom fighters at the avant garde of the sexual revolution.” (Frank Zappa) // “Most of the girls who come backstage simply want to say ‘thank you’ to us for giving a good concert. Outsiders who think that all sorts of other stuff is going on just don’t know us.” (Robert Plant);

and of course my personal link about groupies

#greta van fleet #josh kiszka #jake kiszka #sam kiszka #danny wagner #gretavanfleet #joshkiszka #jakekiszka #samkiszka #dannywagner #groupie #groupies #relevant with all the groupie discussion going on #me #mine #words #opinion #gvf

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muggle-writes · 6 years ago

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Rules: Answer 21 questions and then tag 21 people who you want to get to know better.

tagged by @elizabethsyson

Nickname: Muggle is my nickname, but when I went by Muggle in person for more than a month at a time, it naturally got abbreviated, usually to Mugz

Zodiac: Aquarius

Last movie I saw: into the spiderverse (same answer as last time. I don't watch that many movies tbh except around Christmas. unless YouTube counts in which case... music of some sort? idk links for the next answer)

Favorite musician: changes by the day. I've kinda been in an acapella and/or folk music mood recently so the Maccabeats and Peter Hollens are in my YouTube and Spotify history a lot recently. also I'm eternally in awe of Forte Handbell Quartet (eta a longer video; i recommend skipping to the techno piece or the Jurassic Park theme)

Last thing I googled: "vine why are you buying clothes at the soup store" (my wife hasn't seen it; also i can't find the vine because apparently it's a much bigger meme than I realized). before that it was "chgrp not root" because work and group permissions are useful when they work

Song stuck in my head: well for most of the day when I haven't been actively listening to something, it's been the Pokemon RSE route-walking music. (but that somehow happens frequently when I'm in the no-music-no-internet room at work, as I was for most of the day, and I don't know how I accidentally trained my brain to make that connection). right now, surprisingly, I don't have any background music playing in my head. I think it's because the humidifier provides just enough white noise that my brain doesn't feel the need to provide its own

Other blogs: my main is @muggle-the-hat and I'm a mod on @why-do-neurotypicals but we've gotten one ask ever so that blog has been dormant for a while. I have a bunch of other sideblogs, but they're all small and I use different screen names on each of them (enby life: no idea which name suits me best so I may as well try them out) so i feel like it would just confuse things to link them.

Following: blogs matching all the themes of my sideblogs, (including this one, which is writeblr), korean langblr, jumblr, assorted fandom blogs, authors of my more favorite fanfictions (some overlap with other categories), and irl friends and acquaintances (including one fandom blog turned irl friend)

Do I get asks: on my main if at all, which isn't really surprising because i have hundreds of followers there and maybe 60 followers combined among the rest. but I get asks far less often than I reblog ask memes so... I'm always happy to get more. I do get tagged in ask games more on this one, but writeblr is actually vaguely organized about tag lists so that makes sense. also I used to get tagged a bunch on my main and I rarely could find the posts again to follow up when I had time to answer.

What I’m Wearing: pajamas. staying warm and cozy

Lucky number: I don't remember what I said last time, but I like a lot of numbers. 64 is a good number. recently I've been debugging software in which 0x3E is my lucky status number and 0x0E taunts me. (um, decimal 62 and 14). Also my other favorite number i can't share until it's no longer the combination to the lock to the Secret Room. (or realistically never because opsec and i shouldn't make public the types of parents we use for that combination lock), honestly I aim to be like.... ah, I'm sure the anecdote involves G.H. Hardy but i don't remember on which side. anyway one mathematician remarked to another about how the id number of the taxi he rode in was sadly uninteresting, and the one I aspire to be like, argued "what are you talking about, this number is interesting because ______" and I'd like to be able to do that for any arbitrary number thrown at me. (hi yes math is good, history is hard, math history is interesting yet i still forget the people even if i remember the math. except when things are named after people, but that tends to be, like, Euler and LaGrange and other people who did lots of cool science things so i remember the methods and the names of the methods separately which never helps)

Amount of sleep: ....depression both screws with my sleep schedule and means I always feel like I need more sleep except when I wake up at 5pm and feel like I've wasted the day. so yeah. I can never get enough sleep

Favorite food: yes (why do I have to pick a favorite?) uh, chocolate in most forms, many other sweet things, red meats (especially if served with potatoes), curry (especially if it has "too much" ginger), fresh-baked bread, chai the way my favorite local Indian restaurant makes it (spicier with just a little bit of sweet, which is the opposite of what i can get from the mocha machine at work which is wayyy sweet with a hint of spice but that inferior chai is still superior to coffee so i drink too much of it). also vegetables which I really don't eat enough of: sauteed zucchini and onions, roasted broccoli

Dream trip: dreaming requires creativity and tbh I funnel that mostly into my writing instead. I wouldn't mind going back to Korea for another visit though

Dream job: my current job is pretty good when I feel productive and when my debugging tools actually produce data maybe??? (they were not being helpful today. but i still mostly like my job.) dream job is probably this but with seniority and confidence and double the salary (while living in a similar area of the country; I wouldn't want to double my salary by moving to work for Google in California and having less available after rent than I do now)

Describe yourself as aesthetic things:

the smell of old books

the first glow of sunrise (the sunrise painting the mountains pink and gold)

a rainbow in the spray from a waterfall

the flicker of distant lightning (watching a thunderstorm fade into the distance)

this picture

Random fact: about me or about the world?

how about a combination answer: when we got our new handbell music this season, we only looked at half the pieces our first rehearsal and afterwards I tried to look up one of the pieces we hadn't gotten to on YouTube because it's got a weird time signature and I wanted to get a feel for how fast it would go and how strict the counting is...... except it turns out we're the first group to ever play the piece. it was commissioned recently but seeing my conductor's name on the page didn't tell me how new it was because he's super prolific. (the fact that it was on printer paper without the publisher's graphics should have been a giveaway but it's only the second time I've been among the first to play one of his pieces so I think I can be excused for not realizing)

Languages: mostly just English, but I took Spanish for years, so I can hold simple conversations in it. I can almost read sound out Hebrew fast enough to keep up in services, and I know some random Hebrew vocab but comparatively no grammar. and I took Korean in college, enough that I can recognize sentence structure but I can really only speak tourist-Korean, though I can sound anything out (if it's typed. handwriting is hit or miss.) in both Hebrew and Korean (and Spanish tbh but i don't often listen to Spanish music) I'm very proud when I can separate the words enough, listening to a song, to translate them without looking up the lyrics. also I tried to learn Japanese from Duolingo when it was new, but I still hadn't gotten the kana straight when it started progressing to kanji so that was a rough time and I went back to Hebrew.

tbh I "dabble" in "language learning" which really means I start a million courses on Duo and stick with none of them. with the notable exception of French, which I acknowledge is super common and probably a good idea to learn but the spelling and pronunciation seem so arbitrary I'm scared to look close enough to learn it properly, and I've never particularly considered starting the Duolingo course for French

I think I lost a few questions, because that's only 18 answers. whoops.

um... who to tag

@abluescarfonwaston if school hasn't drowned you in work yet and @copperscales I'm interested in both of your choices for lucky numbers especially.

... wow I'm blanking on other mutuals I haven't tagged recently. as usual lmk if you'd like to be edited in, or just answer the questions and tag me back, that's great too.

#tag games #i really like that 'describe yourself' question can we keep that around as a poetry prompt?#i think you also tagged me in a 'last line' tag game but i still haven't written anything #my creative energy has been (a) low and (b) directed specifically into generating matching titles for my purimgifts fics #i'll participate if i still remember by the time i'm doing 'real' writing again or you can just tag me the next time that game comes around

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unforth · 3 years ago

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Wanted to reblog today to compile some additional things I've learned since yesterday in one place!

1. To be absolutely clear, of course I'm not telling people "go out and buy books you can't afford in a language you can't read." If you want to buy the books, in Chinese, this guide is here to help, that's all.

2. Regarding 2ha: confirmed, yes, they changed the name for publication, and the cover design too, because the old name and the chibi doggy cover art was too kidsy and cute and gave the wrong impression. Which, if you've read the book, and seen that cover...there is literally zero contesting that, yeah, that cover is totally inappropriate to the actual book content.

3. Also regarding 2ha: the 2 volumes are not the entire book as far as I now know, but I have no information on when additional volumes will be released.

4. Theoretically none of these should be censored provided they are coming from Taiwanese sources and are in traditional Chinese. However, Books TW DOES sell some books from Chinese sources; those would be censored. A couple different people have told me this. One way to tell the source is to see who published it (which is listed on all the search results - run them through google translate and you'll see). Pinxin, Wei Xiang, Jia Fei and Morefate are some of the Taiwanese publisher putting out uncensored versions. Note that I'll own I'm still less positive that all are uncensored, solely because there are books labeled "18+" in the search that don't have explicit sexual content (like Qianqiu), and there books NOT labeled "18+" in the search that I know DO have explicit sexual content (like SVSSS), so maybe I'm just confused how they decide what gets tagged? Cause SVSSS should definitely have an 18+ warning if it's uncensored, at least in the 3rd/last volume, and I can't think of a single reason why Qianqiu should? Unless I'm seriously misremembering? Anyway. Yes. These should be uncensored. I can check that for the ones I bought when they actually get here and I'll follow up on the censorship topic then. :D

5. A person DMed me recommending another Taiwanese bookstore. I haven't used them, but just to pass the information along, the link to their website is HERE, and there's a guide on how to use their page on Twitter. (The guide there is written specifically to help people buy Nanchan, but is generally applicable to other titles as well.)

6. Regarding payment options: ATM is for direct bank transfers and may or may not work outside of Taiwan. In the US, we rarely use direct bank transfers for payments so it wasn't something I was going to test; in Taiwan it's common to do so, and that's what that option is for. However, I know bank transfers as a payment method are also common in Europe; what I'm less clear on is whether the ATM direct transfer option will work with a European bank account, or if the person would have to jump through hoops for non-Taiwan-domestic purchases. If anyone gives it a try, feel free to let me know the results so I can add that info to the post!

7. As a general reminder, just going on to Google and searching for copies of these books for sale is NOT an effective way of supporting authors. Many of the copies you'll see on pages like Aliexpress are pirated/unauthorized prints, and many you'll see on places like E-Bay are either re-sales of authorized copies (and therefore the author has already received the support with the first purchase) or re-sales of unauthorized prints. If you want to pirate the books, you do you (but...yeah, I'm judging you a smidge), but you can do that for free - they're all over Chinese pirate book websites. Don't pay a bootlegger for a pirated copy. If you want to get a legal/authorized copy and support the authors, the list of booksellers I linked in my post, compiled by minmoyu, is all legal, authorized providers. Since, if you're like me, you have no idea what you're doing and will have trouble evaluating the legality/quality of a website in a language you don't speak, and you want to be sure that you're getting a good one, then just stick to that list. Better safe than sorry.

8. If you're primarily interested in the MXTX titles and have been living under a social media rock for the last six months (no judgement, we all curate our experience! I just think it woulda been damn hard to miss if you're active in the fandoms at all...), and you don't speak/read Chinese, remember that you don't need to buy the books in Chinese to support MXTX - you can pre-order the official English translations of MDZS, TGCF, and SVSSS! Bonus, you can do so from Bookshop.org, and support indy booksellers! The first volumes of each series are expected to ship in mid-December. Here's each one:

SVSSS (official English title is: The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System)

MDZS (official English title is: Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation)

TGCF (official English title is: Heaven Official's Blessing)

9. Furthermore, if you want OTHER titles to come out officially in English, the publisher for the MXTX titles, Seven Seas Entertainment, does regular surveys soliciting input from readers on what they should translate and publish next. The link to the current one is HERE. Go, beg for what titles you want next! (I personally have put in 2ha on every survey...)

Okay, I think that's everything! Thanks for the additional info, everyone who contacted me, and I hope this all helps even one person who wants the books get them. <3

So, English-Speaking Danmei Fandoms, You Want to Support Authors... (New Shiny Print Book Purchasing Edition!)

...and, so do I, I still do, just as I did when I made my "dumb white English-more-or-less-only speaking person figures out how to use JJWXC" post (here). But, it's harder now - because a lot of our faves have now been censored/removed by JJWXC. BUT, that doesn't mean we can't still support the authors. I'd been meaning to take some time and figure how out exactly to do that, and now...I have...so here we go, I'm gonna tell you how, or at least, tell you what I did, and we can pray together that our books actually arrive in however long it's currently taking things to ship from Taiwan.

Here goes...

First, I used this post by minmoyu to figure out where to buy my books from. Initially, I wanted to go with a Chinese source, despite censorship issues, because books printed in China are in simplified Chinese, and unlike when I wrote my JJWXC post in June, I've now been studying simplified Chinese for like an hour a day for more than 2 months, so I theoretically could someday read a book I buy. However, after poking at Taobao for almost 20 minutes, I gave up and switched to a Taiwanese source, because I think I can probably figure out traditional Chinese more easily than I can figure out signing up for Taobao (I'm only, like 60% kidding).

I ended up going with Book TW, because minmoyu's guide made it sound pretty easy to use, with a good selection, and good support for international purchasing (I'm in the US). I strongly recommend you use an online translator. I do a LOT of copying-and-pasting into Google translate's Chinese-to-English. If you just go to Google and search "chinese to english dictionary" you should be able to do quick looking up straight from the search results. You'll also probably want a currency converter. xe.com works well. If you're in the US like me, you'll be looking at conversions from TWD (Taiwan New Dollar) to USD. Most of these books, when they're not special editions or box sets, seem to run around 300 TWD, which is about $10 US.

Alright! You've got the book store. You've got a translator. You've got a currency thingy. Now you need books! You'll need the book title and/or author, in Chinese, to search. The website also doesn't 't care if you put in simplified or traditional - you'll get the same results. (But all volumes here are in traditional, as far as I know, so if that makes a difference to you, be prepared).

Here are (in simplified) most of the titles that JJWXC has censored. These ones, I've searched for you and linked, though there are often multiple editions so you might want to do your own searching.

Author: 墨香铜臭 (Mo Xiang Tong Chou/MXTX). MXTX has written three books; all have been removed from JJWXC, and they're all available in print on Books TW.

人渣反派自救系统 (Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong/Scum Villain's Self Saving System). There are three volumes; they're labeled as "starting, middle, and end" or "over, middle, under," it doesn't translate that well sorry I'm still new and bad at this. Anyway, here they are: 上 (start) | 中 (middle) | 下 (end).

魔道祖师 (Mo Dao Zu Shi/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation). There are like four different editions listed, and my ability to figure out how they're different was nil. One is definitely a special edition which is uncensored and appears to be a box set/all the volumes in one. That one is here. It's also available in four volumes, which is what I bought, except I have no idea what I'm doing so I accidentally only bought three, oops. (In my defense when I translated parts of it, it literally said "in three parts." But still. I can read numbers. I shouldn't have made this mistake, sigh.) But, whatever, I'm buying it in English too and life goes on. So, here are those four volumes - the last is marked as 18+ so is presumably uncensored, or at least not heavily censored. 一 (one) | 二 (two) | 三 (three) | 四 (four)

天官赐福 (Tian Guan Ci Fu/Heaven Official's Blessing). I actually didn't do anything with TGCF since I already had bought it on JJWXC, and even though that's now locked I just am too broke for...any of this...much less buying titles duplicative (especially since I've pre-ordered all three MXTX English translations). But at a glance, there's a couple options. The main book appears to be in four parts, or you can buy a set that includes 1 and 2, and a second set with 3 and 4, and those ones are fancy and include some pretty looking merch, too. It's cheaper to just buy the four separately than to get the two fancy box sets but if you can afford them, they look damn pretty. Censorship shouldn't be an issue, since TGCF isn't explicit. 一 (one) | 二 (two) | 三 (three) | 四 (four)

Author: 肉包不吃肉 (Roubao Buchi Rou/Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat). Meatbun has finished...two books I think? and is working on a third? Regardless, Yuwu isn't locked on JJWXC yet, and it isn't available for sale on Books TW anyway. Erha IS, or at least, as far as I can tell, it is...

海棠微雨共歸途 (Haitang Weiyu Gong Guitu). Hey, I hear you saying, that doesn't say 二哈和他的白猫师尊 (Erha he Ta de Baimao Shizun). Yeah, I was confused too, but I've googled a bunch and as far as I can tell, YES, this is correct - like, the edition here was available from Shandian-go, and the translation of the summary talks about Chu Wanning and stuff. So, it was printed with a different name. I'm also profoundly unsure if this is the whole book. Considering that TGCF is like a third shorter, and is four volumes, it seems surreal to me that 2ha could be in only two volumes, but I can't find any evidence that there's more, so. That's where it's at. If this isn't the whole book, the later volumes haven't been published yet. Volumes: 一 (one) | 二 (two). I'd also guess it's censored, though hell if I know how to check that (hey, you were warned this was a guide by a dumb white person who doesn't speak hardly any Chinese, you're getting what you paid for, information and guide wise...the best I can really tell you is, I was satisfied enough that I bought them based on what information I COULD figure out. Whether you do the same is up to you.)

Author: Priest (...is Priest, if you search with English letters, you'll find them). Priest is an incredibly prolific author. I'm not going to list all their works here, just the ones I was personally interested in - today I was in the market for TYK and SPL primarily.

天涯客 (Tian Ya Ke/Faraway Wanderers). If it's available, I sure couldn't find it (remember how I have no idea what I'm doing?).

镇魂 (Zhenhun/Guardian). I already have Guardian from JJWXC, and as I've mentioned, can't afford duplicates, but here it is! The original isn't explicit (I'd call it mature, sex is talked about but not described in detail) so I would guess this isn't censored, but I'm not sure.

杀破狼 (Sha Po Lang/apparently it translates to "Kill the Wolf" - so says Google anyway, I know lang is wolf but the rest is beyond me - but I never see anyone translate it? I always just see it referred to Sha Po Lang or SPL). I don't know much about SPL but some friends and I are planning to try reading it together in Chinese to improve our skills, so I wanted to get it, and also 'cause it's been removed by JJWXC, and fuck censorship. I have no idea if the original is explicit, but it's in a pretty-looking box set and I bought it so I guess I'll find out. SPL is here.

If a title you want to buy in print isn't listed here, you'll need to find the Chinese title and/or author yourself (I recommend searching with both, personally). novelupdates.com is my personal go-to for finding out alternative names and such. To search, you'll want to go to the search bar, put the text in, and limit your search by going to the second option down - the first is "everything," so it searches the whole website, and you'll get a lot of not-helpful results. The second is "books," though I have no idea why cause that's not how I've learned to say books. But, that's what google says it means, so... yeah. Here's an example of a search not on the above (it's Thousand Autumns by Meng Xi Shi, because I'm an idiot and realized while writing this that I hadn't bought it and I have Regrets):

Put in the book title (in this case, 千秋) and author (in this case, 夢溪石) - it lists a whole bunch of auto-complete options, which might help you if you're struggling, just look for the one that matches what you want. And, in the other drop down menu, pick the second one down, and then hit the magnifying glass, and ta-da, you'll get results. The results for this don't look all fancy-pants, cause 18+, but you'll be able to see the title, and checking the next in the location I've circled below can help you double check you've found the right author - like, just make sure it matches the name of the author you were searching for.

You'll want to be careful to make sure you get all the volumes (for example, Qianqiu has 4 volumes).

Okay, so now you've found the book you want, what do you do? Buy it, of course!

The lighter orange button on the right with a picture of a cart is (shock) the one that lets you add it to your cart. And you'll see up top, the cart icon, and the 0 next to it. Add it to your cart and the number next to the 0 will now say one! WHAT MAGIC!

Now, go visit your cart. But, when you try to open it, you'll see - you can't even look at it without making an account. If you have an account, awesome, log in - if not, you'll need to pick the circled one.

One of the cool things about Books TW? They put in the Chinese for each item, and ALSO the English, when you go to make an account! So, the next window you reach looks like this:

(I personally chose gender: none, delightedly.)

Fill this out with your info. You do NOT need to do either of the check boxes at the bottom - they're NOT "have you read the terms..." they're "do you want our e-mails?" - and then click the yellow button. It loads a little weird - it, like, doesn't seem to "take?" or at least it didn't when I did this - but once you've done it, if you go back to that previous page and put in your username, password, and verification code (you'll probably need a new code, cause the old one will have timed out - that link right next to the code box will get you a new one) and hit the big green log in button, you'll be able to get in. And then there's your cart!

(and my real name, oops...oh well, it wasn't actually a secret...)

Next, when you're ready to pay, scroll down and you'll see three buttons:

You want the MIDDLE ONE, not the yellow one. The middle one is "overseas check out," whereas the yellow one is specifically for domestic purchases. When you click that, it opens a pop up. I have no idea what the pop up says, I just clicked the top one again (it says overseas check out, also) and hoped, and it seemed to work right. It opens up a list of purchase options:

The top one is "use your credit card," so it's probably what most folks want (you can use Visa, Mastercard, or JCB), but you might also want the bottom one, which uses ATM code information? I'm not positive; I used the first one. Click the bubble; you will NOT be asked for your credit card info yet. Scroll down, you'll be asked next for your personal information. I've labeled the fields in this screen cap:

When you've put in the info, click the yellow button I circled. I glanced at the drop down menu of countries; it looks like most of the world is there, so you're probably okay most places in the world, if you want to order and aren't in the US.

The next page confirms your cart and address. This is the stage where shipping is calculated, so pay attention - it's expensive. For example, just for SPL...

The shipping is about equal to half-again the price of the book: the SPL box set is $25 US, and shipping it is about $15. If you want to be able to guesstimate your shipping cost ahead of time, I'd suggest adding 50% to of the price of the books to your pre-shipping total - like, my personal purchase was just under $100 US, just the books, and the shipping was just over $50.

Once you've wept for your bank account and recovered from sticker shock, you're ready to proceed. There's a check box below your address, you'll need to check it - I'm not putting a screen cap cause I've hit Tumblr's image limit, but it's a "you've read the ToS" confirmation.

You'll want to hit the yellow button again; I'm NOT going to do that, cause I'm not making another purchase and didn't think to take screen caps my first time through. But, you'll get a pop up - it says a lot of Chinese and has a scary count down but don't worry, it's just a "you'll be redirected to a payment page in x seconds" page. After that, you'll be prompted to enter your credit card information; that page has Chinese and English labels, so it was quite easy to use, and then you'll get asked if you want to get charged as your local currency or in TWD (it only matters if you think your bank will give you a better exchange rate than the one they're suggesting). After that, I personally had to ALSO do a confirmation with my bank, and get a verification code and enter that - whether you need to do that will presumably depend on your banks security. Finally, once all the payment confirmations were done, I was routed to a "congratulations on your purchase!" page, and...that's it!

YOU'VE BOUGHT YOUR DANMEI!!

ARE YOU EXCITED? (I'm so fucking excited for mine omg.)

Anyway, I screwed up and didn't buy Qianqiu or MDZS vol. 1, so I guess I'm gonna have to plan another order for sometime...maybe I'll do another guide, if it might actually be helpful. I dunno. I'm just fumbling my way through all this, and hoping that my willingness to fumble will make other people feel a little more confident fumbling also. We get so much joy from these books; buying them - especially the ones with no currently slated English translations - seems like the least we can do, if we can afford it. JJWXC has made it impossible for us to buy them online, but that doesn't mean we can't still buy the books.

I spent $150 today, and I'm getting MDZS, SVSSS, SPL, and 2ha. On a per-volume basis, my final cost was $15 per book (if SPL is only 2 volumes, anyway, I don't actually know). Considering how much nice editions of Western titles cost on Amazon or at a bookstore, that's a ridiculously reasonable price, and it INCLUDES the shipping. So, really, if you can afford it at all, it's not over-priced at all, and would be even less if shipping were cheaper. It's also cheaper, per-volume, than the English translations will be/are.

Basically: This is entirely doable, English-speaking fandom. So, no more excuses for not doing it, if you have the money.

SUPPORT AUTHORS!!!! DO THE THING!!!!!

#unforth replies #unforth adds #long post #self reblog

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mental-health-advice · 6 years ago

Note

I lost my dad on the 29th of January and it was completely unexpected. Since then, my anxiety has been worse (I was diagnosed with social anxiety three years ago) and I barely eat anymore. I'm pretty much loosing XX per day and so is my mum. I don't know what to do anymore, nobody I know had experienced this and the one person I know isn't comfortable with talking about it (which I respect). I'm in therapy but it's actually supposed to end in some weeks because I was doing better. Help

Hi darling,

I’m so sorry for your loss! Losing someone you love is so incredibly tough, and it being completely unexpected can make it even tougher! I lost my best friend really unexpectedly so I can relate a lot to how you’re feeling. I think for me the worst part was how in shock I was and it not truly getting through to me, because this meant that I spent years having realisation-moments of ‘shit, she’s really gone’ which were really difficult to deal with. I don’t know if this is something you’ve been dealing with as well as grief is unique for everyone. But I just want to say that I understand how incredibly tough this is. It hurts and it will hurt for a while, but we can find a way to make it a bit more manageable for you.

I think a good first step would be to explain to your therapist that while you were doing better initially, this has really caught you off guard and has resulted in you struggling a lot more, so that you’d really appreciate it if you could continue seeing your therapist. Since it’s been a while since you sent this in, I hope this is what happened and that you’re still seeing your therapist at the time! If not, would it be possible to reach out to them again? It’s honestly so understandable that this has had a big effect on you and that you need professional help in dealing with it!

It’s really amazing that you were doing better! However, please don’t beat yourself up for taking a few steps back. Like I said, it’s so understandable! Recovery and getting better takes a lot of effort and energy. Right now, all that effort and energy is going into processing what’s happened and dealing with that in whatever way you can. It’s too much to do both at the same time right now and that’s okay! There will be a time where you can take more steps in recovery again and get back to where you used to be

Do you know why you haven’t been eating properly? Is it because of a lack of appetite, is it because you’ve been intentionally restricting your food intake (disordered eating behaviour), or is it another reason maybe? Dealing with a lack of appetite after something so big happening is really common and it sounds like your mum might be dealing with this too. What happened is so shocking and you’re not really functioning, just dragging through the time. You can feel so many emotions, or you can feel really empty. Regardless of whether you feel too many emotions or just big emptiness, there isn’t much room for the more physical feelings such as hunger/appetite. But it’s actually really important to try and get back into eating more regularly, as only doing so will help your body get back on track a little better. It might help to start with lighter things, as I can imagine that’s more manageable to eat than a full meal.

If rather than a lack of appetite you’ve been struggling more with restricting as a disordered eating behaviour, I’d strongly recommend you to open up about this to your therapist so that it isn’t a behaviour you have to tackle by yourself! Would you also feel comfortable opening up to your mum about it? You’re both going through a hell of a time right now. Maybe you feel like you can’t burden her more with your struggles, but I think you can find a lot of comfort in each other, since your struggles will be so similar! They might not display themselves exactly the same, but the root for the both of you is that you’re struggling to cope with your dad’s death. You’re in this together I might be completely wrong here, but is it maybe the case that you’ve started restricting as a way to gain control? Losing your dad is something entirely out of your control so it’s understandable you’d be looking for a way to have some kind of control. When I first started restricting it was for this reason too and after my best friend died restricting got bad again also for this reason. The only problem is that while at first you might feel like restricting will get you some kind of control, the opposite is true. It might feel like control, but this is only an appearance. I eventually got to a point where I realised eating was actually completely outside of my control and it had become a problem on its own (I’ve since been diagnosed with an eating disorder). The reason I’m telling you this is because I really wouldn’t want you to go down the same road as I have! So if you’ve been restricting to get some sort of control, please take it from me that this will not get you control and please reach out so that you can fight against it all! I’m also going to link our eating disorders page series as there’s a lot of information and helpful tips listed on there.

The weight loss you and your mum are both experiencing is probably a combination of how little you’ve been eating as well as the huge amount of stress you’re both under right now! While this explains the weight loss, it’s still worrying and I’d recommend you to speak to your GP / local doctor if it continues to be a problem! Your GP is there to help you through these tough times as well. Even though they can’t fix what you’re going through, they can be of big help in making sure you and your mum get the right help wherever needed. I can imagine it’s a lot of effort to look into it all by yourself now, so it’s more than okay to ask your GP in guidance there!

I’ve written a page on grief which you can find here. Like I said before, grief is unique so everyone’s experience will be different. Therefore it’s also possible that what helped me will not be helpful for you at all and vice versa. I personally did find it helpful when others gave me suggestions on how to cope with it all, as I was completely clueless myself. I’d try it out and if it was helpful then I’d stick to it, if it wasn't helpful then I wouldn’t do it again. Maybe this is a tactic you can follow as well? While doing so it’s most important that you only do something if you feel ready for it. You can take your time, there’s no time limit to grief! It can be hard to differentiate whether you feel ready for something though. Sometimes you can be ready for something but still feel fear as doing the thing is difficult, but can be helpful afterwards. Other times that fear is there as a sign that you’re not ready yet. I don’t really have good advice on how to differentiate here, except to try and listen to yourself and how you think and feel really well. And remember that you’re in charge! You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to or don’t feel ready for.

One piece of advice that I want to give to you is to please continue to talk. Don’t bottle it all up inside as I can tell from experience that it’s not helpful in any way. When you see something your dad would have liked, you can share that your dad would have liked it, regardless of whom you’re with. Or if you see something that makes you think of a memory, you can share that you’re thinking of him or share the memory. I stopped doing this because at first I felt like it would be too painful for my friends as they obviously were struggling too with her death. And later on I felt like they had all moved on and I didn’t want to bother them with it. Much later I found out that they would have loved to share more memories and talk more about her, but they were afraid of doing so as they thought it would have made me felt worse! I think this will apply mostly to you and your mum, but unless she tells you that it’s too painful to talk about it, please continue to talk to her and encourage her to do the same with you! I always found it comforting when someone else mentioned that my best friend would have loved this or that.

There’s no time pressure on this, as it would be more than understandable for you to not be ready for this yet for a long time, but maybe at some time it can be an idea for you to write a letter to your dad in which you write down the things you’d like to have told him still. Even though of course it’s not the same as actually telling him, it can feel a bit closer to it than just thinking those things or not doing anything with them at all.

I’ve rambled on a lot so I can imagine it’s a lot to take in now! Take your time in reading this and please let me know if there’s anything else I can help with! Losing a loved one is a topic close to my heart and I just always want to help in any way I can. You’re going to get through this lovely! It’s super hard and it always will be hard that you lost your dad like this. But it’s going to get manageable. I believe in you.

Sometimes what seems impossible, is just hard.

Keep fighting beautiful Love Pauline

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sanerontheinside · 7 years ago

Note

Hi! You mentioned in one of your posts that you're taking a class that makes you think about the relationships between American school and American government, and that sounds a lot like a class that I would be interested in. What class is it? I'd like to see if I can find something similar. I'm trying to train myself to think critically about debate and politics and culture and... all the things that help people understand complex issues. Do you have any other suggestions of places I could go?

Hmmmmm…. This is… going to be a bit difficult.

Ok, for one thing, it’s a grad course at my local university, and the program I’m in is Masters of Arts in Teaching. It’s not really one out of a standard class set.

For another: while the class has spent some time focused on how government, democracy, and policy affect schools, the actual goal of the class is to examine how media representation presents schools, and how that affects people’s attitude towards schooling and teaching.

However, I can probably recommend some reading.

Here’s an online course I am kind of curious about. It sounds more relevant to what you’re looking for than my class, I’d say. You will be able to audit the course (the certificate for a verified course usually costs some money, but the audit is free).

Check out other courses on edX, too: it’s a good site for online learning, basically a pool of free online courses made public by various universities. (Harvard also offers a course on American Government, which I’m enrolled in for shits and giggles, but haven’t done more than take a cursory look at thus far.)

Here’s a link to a google drive folder that contains some articles from my class, if you’re curious. I would say some of them are pretty good reading, but I’ve listed a basic summary of each one I uploaded below the cut. I haven’t gotten to all of them yet, though, so I can’t actually be 100% accurate about what’s in each.

Now, of course, since it’s academic writing, quite a bit of it is pretty dry and dense, which especially applies to the first three listed here:

The Hochschild files (read): discuss how, in theory, education and democracy/social structure should interact and better each other.

(A required text for my class, one which unfortunately you have to pay for: Is Everyone Really Equal? by Sensoy and DiAngelo)

(if you’re curious, that link is for Teacher College Press, they have an ebook for a grand total of $27.96. They’re also the only ones I’ve seen offering an ebook. You will need another app, though, to actually read the file: ADE)

Anyon is a study of 5 elementary schools which shows how education is stratified by social class.

Brookings “Big Government” explains (loosely) how the government funds programs.

Democracy and Freedom (FH-FITW) index (read): these are pretty clear, though—it’s the study that compares democracy and freedom between countries. You might’ve seen a post running around tumblr that says, for a country with such a loudly touted democracy, the US sure scored a bit low—this is that source.

American Citizenship “Counting on Character” is an article on a charter schools

Larabee (read): is about the differences between public and private education. This one plays into our actual course goal a bit, because the entire business of school reform is criticised right there on the very first page, as it’s a very media/propaganda-directed process.

Measuring Democracy (read): is godsawful dry. This was mainly assigned to give us an idea of how many types of democracy there are actually. As such, our assigned reading was pg.253-end, so, don’t fall asleep.

A couple of nytimes articles are listed: First Amendment Support and Preparing Students for a Complex World (read), highlighting some interesting generational differences between current teachers/adults/millennials and Gen Z kids. Surface stuff, tho, like our preferences for social media, concern for privacy, and interpretation of the First Amendment—less about why these differences exist.

Parker Against Idiocy (read): before you go getting any ideas about what idiocy is, in the context of this paper—

Idiocy shares with idiom and idiosyncratic the root idios, which means private, separate, self-centered — selfish. “Idiotic” was in the Greek context a term of reproach. When a person’s behavior became idiotic — concerned myopically with private things and unmindful of common things — then the person was believed to be like a rudderless ship, without consequence save for the danger it posed to others. This meaning of idiocy achieves its force when contrasted with politēs (citizen) or public. Here we have a powerful opposition: the private individual versus the public citizen.…An idiot is one whose self-centeredness undermines his or her citizen identity, causing it to wither or never to take root in the first place.

Putting Democracy Back into Public Education (read): bit of an economic perspective, and a focus on why democracy should be a focus in schools.

Westheimer and Kahne: more on what makes a good citizen

Young Citizens and Civic Learning: another research paper, on how to teach civics in the digital age.

To be honest, I don’t know precisely how much these readings line up with your interests? They’re mainly theoretical, and mostly geared towards pedagogy. Some make for pretty good reads, tho.

I’ll probably add some more as we go through the class, and as I do my own research, but I’m leaning more towards curriculum structure/design at the moment. Plus, there’s the finicky part where my content area is mathematics… and that’s not… precisely… very policy related.

… CORRECTION: Math content is heavily politicised and people keep trying to regulate math education and curriculum structure and keep trying to reinvent the wheel, here. But in the more general sense, while it’s an example of policy impacting schools and teaching, it’s less about government control of a school as a whole.

Basically what I was trying to say there was it’s less relevant to my class, but it would serve as a good, and very in-depth case study, if you were looking for a very specific example.

The things to keep in mind: what you’re looking at is a highly intersectional topic. So many things have an impact on the way we teach: media reporting on teaching and current events, economic goals and its current state, policy, etc.

Fun fact: you know how we rank countries by the number of students who pass standardised exams out of high school, yeah? Well. A side-by-side comparison of the exams and the topics tested actually shows that the questions European countries consider ‘qualifying’ are easier: they test lower-level topics than the US exams.

What does that tell you?

It’s a stupid, non-standardised study, your groups are non-comparable, your variables have no damn relationship to each other.

But someone reports that the US is lagging behind in Math and STEM becomes a huge deal and Music and Art programs are poorly funded and businesses like Pearson benefit because they have a monopoly on tests, and we push kids into STEM fields because that’s feeding the current job market to bloating while telling them they can’t get a job with a liberal arts degree.

Furthermore, education is an immensely powerful tool. It has been used (still is!) to destroy upward mobility for the working class, for people of colour, for people in poor rural areas. You can harm so many people by simply not mentioning something (erasure), and hey, it’s not like teachers get much time anyway because they’re supposed to be preparing their students for qualifying exams that permit the kids to advance to the next year.

And let’s not forget that at some point it was a popular notion that these exam results would be used to control teachers’ pay. The exams weren’t even designed to be used for that.

So, everything you’ve ever learned about setting up scientific studies and doing statistical analysis? Yyyyeaaah… well the current White House sure ain’t heard of it, you can bet your last dime, but whoever was doing studies on education before them also sure as shit was not the CDC.

Just.. every now and then, stop, breathe, throw out everything you know, and then keep going.

#brrrrppppfffft... the new life of saner?#education and pedagogy #reading and resources #stuffs #have fun?#this is probably too much Stuff #I'm sorry #Anonymous

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lucystillintheskywithdiamonds · 7 years ago

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Hey Lucy! I'm a long time follower of your blog. Before I even knew what Tumblr was I stumbled across your blog when googling Spock and Uhura stuff and checked it daily before I realized there was an actual website full of folks like you and me who I could freak out with😂. Anyway, enough rambling. Could you recommend me some of your favorite academy era S/U fics on AO3? The website confuses the day lights out me; I can never narrow it down to the fics I want. If you don't mind. Thank you!

hi! ..I’m ..- *blushing like crazy* I’m glad I made you find this crazy site^, LOL

as for your question, tbh AO3 used to be my least favorite site for ff precisely because the filter and tag system was confusing (and there is the ongoing problem of fans of.. ehm.. other ships spamming the S/U tag with break up fics). So for a long time I only used fanfiction.net that had a better tag system (that’s why most of the links I have are from there, but also because most of S/U’s ff are there) until they, of course, made that site a mess too LOL

there are so many great academy era S/U ff that I’m totally, 100%, sure I’ll miss some of them now (and there are many great ones I probably didn’t even read because, as I recently discovered, apparently I didn’t really read all the good ff out there). Also, did you read the starfleet academy licensed novels? because those are amazing too. (I posted some quotes, but it’s worth to read the books)first of all, I suggest you to read everything by @psicygni (ao3 page | The Place Between is epic and so are the others. Oh and Discovery you are late because someone already gave Spock a sis ) @notesfromaclassroom (ao3 | ff.net) and @cgockel (ff.net)

my tag for recs is a good start. There is a Spock/Uhura Archive over ao3 but it isn’t updated with all the ff (this is their ship tag where I filtered out the sp*rk stuff, tho now we might need to filter out sp*nes as well )some links (shameless copy/pasted from an old post of mine), I bet you already read some of those

“Break” ~ YahtzeeLinks: livejournal | AO3author summary: During their final semester at Starfleet Academy, two people who have no intention of ever changing transform each other.a classic!

“Miscommunication” ~ SalR Links: fanfiction.net | livejournalauthor summary: Another take on the how-they-met-at-the-Academy story. This version is inspired by the wonderfully combative Farragut scene in the movie. Fireworks, anybody? ; (this is a bit inspired by pride and prejudice so double awesome)sequel?:yes

for another p&p inspired story check also “Pride and Logic” by Yalegirl03

“What We Think We Know” ~ NotesfromaClassroomLinks: fanfiction.net | AO3author summary:Commander Spock hires his best student to be his teaching assistant-and both instantly regret it.sequel? yes! (you will want to read them because they all make one big series)check the author’s page for the chronological order: NotesfromaClassroom

“Descartes’ Error” ~ StarTrekFanWriterLinks: fanfiction.netauthor summary: Starts with Spock accused of misconduct - specifically with being involved with a certain Cadet we all know and love, and flashes back to how he got in such an illogical predicament to begin with. Romance/Sci-Fi/Humor/Drama - Spock and Uhura Origins.sequel? yes!The Vulcan | Reunion: The Rejoining | What Feels Rightone shots that are set in the Descartes’ universe (but can be read as standalone too):Logical | Vulcan Kissing | Once Bitten | The Bean Jar | Descartes Drabblescheck the author’s page for more: StarTrekFanWriter

“Like the Stars, Like Your Destiny” ~ anodynaLinks: livejournal | AO3author summary: Nyota Uhura has always been drawn to things that resist her understanding. Finding out she’s lived her entire life in an alternate reality is a mystery she’s not sure she can solve. Sleeplessness and self-examination ensue.

“Flawed Logic” ~ PoorQueequegLinks: fanfiction.net | AO3author summary: Spock for all his Human gentility, was by Vulcan standards an utter cad.

“Sufficiently Familiar” ~ PoorQueequegLinks: fanfiction.net | AO3author summary:He calls it a delicate situation. She doesn’t call it anything at all. Spock/Uhura pre-movie angstfest.

“Winds against a Star” ~ valyriaLinks: fanfiction.net | AO3 author summary:An obsession with a brilliant young cadet leads to Lieutenant Commander Spock discovering the truth of the Vulcan heart. A Spock/Uhura origins story set at the Academy. Mildly AU.sequel? yes!Part of the series “Kaiidth“

“The Sum of Both of Us” by igrockspocksummary: The first time Spock asks Uhura out, she turns him down. He is forced to present a logical argument to change her mind.

“If You Should Take Me” by Sigridhrsummary: On the first day of Advanced Vulcan Nyota sits in the front row, takes meticulous notes and tries not to think about the way her professor’s voice makes words like phoneme and morphology sound like something one might say between lovers.

“Historical Perspective on the Changing Politics of a Relationship“ by carnationsandrobots (ao3 link)

“Logic and Linguistics” by lily winterwood

“Caesura“ by Lanesy

Boldly Go: Twenty Sentences by SEEKER-2000 (not academy itself but this one just kills me. One word, one sentence and it all shows their relationship)

some I read recently:

the academy era series by @tomfooleryprime Seventy-Four Hours Later and An Algorithm for Dating

“Trust” by KaCole(not academy era, but it’s a different take of how they’d become a couple post battle of vulcan)

“Improvisations” by powmeow

“The Appearance of Favoritism” by powmeow

“Exegesis” by karikes (still have to read “like birds’ wings” too)

#longhaulhome #fanfictions recs #spuhura #spock x uhura #spyota

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