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[sukugo]

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ship tags obikin anaobiluke analuke obiluke r2ani

other tags nonco dubcon anicow lactation

[imagine-silk]

Hello! May I request fallout 4 companions (Nick especially) with Sole who shares the bare minimum of information about themselves? Not because Sole doesn’t trust them, they really enjoy theirs companions company. Perhaps they busy themselves so they don’t have to think about all the little and big things they miss. (I bet Codsworth would find pristine things that Sole would miss (like a favorite movie, vinyl, or comic?))

Sorry if its not something you’re interested in doing right now. The ask kinda came out as a ramble, I’m lacking sleep haha. Thanks again for considering my request!

》Honestly one of my favorite kinds of characters.

【Cait】 She doesn't appreciate it. Her contract was traded to some random weirdo who barely says anything. It took three days before the topic of your name came up. And two weeks to know what you were looking for, who. But in return you don't ask what she does on her own time or what she's done. It feels like you don't mind rather than you don't care and that makes her feel seen. It stays between you unsaid in her eyes.

♡If romanced she doesn't push for any information. You'll tell her if it's important. People think it's weird the two of you to not share about yourselves like normal people but you're happy, that's all that matters.

【Codsworth】 It's just like it was before. He, unlike the others, already knows you. He knows you very well. Not only did you do an intake for daily preferences but he also served you for a few years. While you're out and about you'll do something or say something that sounds like no information to others or out of context and he'll answer, "Just as I was thinking as well." While you camp with some of the other companions he does chores the way you like without needing to ask, making comment on recent events, which makes them jealous for sure. He digs up things from the house he preserved or found and fixes them up brand new before presenting it to you. Songs you liked or wanted to hear. Movies and shows and comics. Clothes pressed for you and the furniture is redone the way it used to be. He knows you and wants to keep it that way.

【Curie】 Low-key doesn't care. She has one thing on her mind and that's her own goal to better medicine. Finding things to do that is all she needs of you. When she goes to be a synth her feelings overwhelm her and you guide her through that. She's never ever asked about you. She'll tell you about what she's feeling but never thinks to ask what you feel. In her defense, is doesn't understand the nuance of social interactions. And to her credit, it works for the both of you.

♡If she's romanced she realizes she wants to know what you feel and if it's the same as her. She's mostly interested in what you feel now rather than what your opinion is in the past or isn't currently relevant.

【Danse】 Right away he doesn't care for it. A mercenary who talks very little can be dangerous. But you followed orders well and are a damn good shot. The way he asks is more like demanding. It was all for a vetting process but still rude. After the intake he didn't care about your lack of openness. Didn't matter to him personally. After BB he suddenly regrets not knowing you. He was so rude and dismissed you as another faceless soldier and you saved him, from the Brotherhood and himself. Now he wants to know you.

♡If romanced he makes effort to know you, like really know you. For a long time he refused individuality so his own sense of self is not great. But you know yourself and make no attempt to hide it. You are so sure of yourself you don't need to explain. That's one of the things he loves about you.

【Deacon】 He thinks you're like him, that you want to hide in plain sight. As much as he gives that to you he's nosy as fuck and takes every chance to learn about you, mostly from afar. It doesn't take any time at all for him to realize you'll just tell him. Most of them are one word answers. It takes him even less time after that to realize you'll comment on things from before the war especially.

♡If romanced he goes out of his way to show you stuff. Old posters and toys. If you follow my headcanon that he's pre-war, he makes old references and generally adds comments on things to bait your answers.

【Hancock】 He thinks it's pretty cool. "Oh, tall, dark, and handsome/beautiful." He does play twenty questions with you 24/7 and is very happy with your half-answers because an answer is still an answer. Plus he knows at least two other people like you. He is the one who figures out that you just don't have the time or think about talking about yourself rather than purposely keeping secrets the fastest. He knows people so he knows better.

♡If romanced he plays with it. You want a kiss? Tell him what's your favorite color. He'll get on his knees if you tell him what you like about your new home. But honestly he'll do it anyways. All he needs to know is that you want him like he wants you.

【MacCready】 He was more concerned about you putting a bullet in his head while his back was turned. Everyone in the Commonwealth was looking out for number one. So imagine his surprise when you were looking out for your number one and it wasn't you. Not only were you looking for your son but you stopped to help every person who asked for help. Your actions spoke to him in a way your words, he figured, couldn't. You didn't need to help him but you did. You didn't take the caps back. And you killed the gunners the second they turned their guns on him even when they said their beef wasn't with you. It was what you did, not what you told him.

♡If romanced he will ask things. Basic ones are like, "How was your day?" Normal questions that are the peak of domestic life. Then the more personal things. Some sound silly, "What's your favorite color?" But most build off of a quick thing you said in passing, "Wait, you've been to California? What was it like?" He trusts you'll tell him the truth.

【Nick】 As a private detective this simply won't do. He gets it at first, you just need him to find your son, it's business. However, you want him to stay with you after that. It confuses him because you made no indication you like him in the slightest way. He's the second fastest to realize you're not keeping to yourself on purpose. As one of the only ones who are pre-war he's able to get things the others can't. He'll talk about things and give his options and bait you into answering it. That was a common way to get people to talk back then when you were trying to be polite and keep up the conversation, even if the conversation stays a bit thin.

♡If he's romanced he makes fun of the fact you forget to say things about yourself. Don't get it wrong, he makes it clear you don't need to share. He's just poking fun.

【Piper】 This simply won't do. She asks as many question as they come up but she gets depressing short answers. You either give one word answers or say you're not really in the mood, on some occasions you admit you don't know, you never thought about it. It takes a long time for her to stop and that's only because the questions start getting old. And you still feel like a mystery even though you've told her everything.

♡If she's romanced she realizes how much you've told her and pushes it. What is your type? How do your lips feel? Why do you look so good? It becomes playful and light, never serious.

【Preston】 In the beginning he didn't realize he didn't know much about you. He took your help selfishly to get him and his people back on stable ground but you told him you were happy to help. So he takes time to learn about you and give you everything he could possibly help you with. In hopes you would share by yourself he gives things to you without any prompt. It doesn't really work most of the time.

♡If romanced he asks things with hearts in his eyes. He is so lovesick he takes all of your half-answers and files it away in his mind. It hardly matters at that point.

【X6】 It wasn't his mission so he didn't care. You owed him no explanation or justification. Doesn't mean he doesn't question you. He asks why you helped someone, why you stopped for a distraction. And of course you give short answers like, "They needed help." or "I wanted to." Later, after the Institute is gone, he sees how you carry yourself and tries to copy it. Obviously he can't so you help him too. You showed him he can figure himself out by himself and he didn't need you. So he held the same opinion; he doesn't need to know you like that.

♡If romanced he's still comfortable with you keeping things to yourself. It's only after months of being together do you realize he's never asked you a personal question, that you've never shared anything that personal. When you bring that to him he tells you that hardly matters. But seeing you make the effort after that gives him a feeling he can't describe. It's a good feeling he thinks.

[suzukiblu]

this is a question that is not meant to come off as judgemental, and if it does i apologise and you don’t have to answer

for you, or anyone out there in the world if they see this,

What is the appeal of (the?) Omegaverse?

Ive never quite gotten it? And it might be the big bold orange, blue and white letters spelling out aroace, or being european, younger than most people who are knowledgeable about that particular genre of content (still 18+) and while I did get on the internet at 11, I didn’t start reading fanfic until 14-15

this is a long and rambly ask so I just want to clarify, this is a genuine question I would like an answer to, no matter how short and sweet, or long and convoluted it may be

It's all good, I don't mind getting questions! And, like, I've written a LOT of omegaverse, so it's a thoroughly relevant question to this blog, haha.

. . . and this definitely wound up long and convoluted. So like, yeah, we are SO gonna need a read-more here, friend. 😅

Obviously everyone's gonna have their own reasons for liking the genre, but as another (much older, I'm assuming) aroace, for me the appeal is the opportunity to use the tag "Fantasy Gender Roles". Like, there's other stuff there, def, but "Fantasy Gender Roles" is my favorite part. Omegaverse is a game where the rules are made-up and the points don't matter, and you can interpret and re-interpret the involved sexes and genders however the heck you wanna, and in fact are ENCOURAGED to. I also really like certain tropes that are common to the genre, like pack dynamics and breeding kink and having babies and feral behavior and courting/courting rituals, I just really enjoy playing with and reading about all of those.

Also, the worldbuilding. I get to do ✨GENDER-BASED WORLDBUILDING✨.

And obvi, like, some people are just into omegaverse for the kink/porn factor, which is totally fair, but personally I am here for ✨GENDER-BASED WORLDBUILDING✨. And then also the kink/porn. Generally speaking a recurring comment I've gotten from a lot of readers is "I literally hate omegaverse but I love yours", so a lot of my stuff is allegedly a decent jumping-on point for the genre if you're looking for that. Like, I'm not the only person who writes omegaverse the way I do, obviously, just I'm a pretty accessible one who's written a LOT of it.

( and in the event you DO want any jumping-on omegaverse recs from my stuff, I'mma just pop a few of them from various fandoms here. no DC-related ones 'cuz I don't have any of those currently on AO3, only scattered in my WIP tags, but hopefully something helpful will be in here. )

original fic

to the victor go the spoils - human omega OMC/dragon [ GENDER NOT FOUND ] OMC; 16.7k; explicit Fantasy AU. This one includes porn but honestly the heart of it is just one of those fairy tales where the protagonist is somehow both incredibly genre-savvy in their story and yet still a total fucking idiot about other people's feelings, and especially considering it's original fic, it is honestly one of the most popular things I've ever posted, hah.

The dragon arrived early in the morning, and by noon the entire village was in a panic in the town hall. No one in the village knew anything about dragons, aside from what they’d heard in fairy tales and stories, and the plans for dealing with it were about that level of sophisticated.

“We’re not sacrificing a virgin to the dragon,” Viktor said in exasperation.

“Well what would YOU do?!” the mayor demanded.

“I’m going to go talk to it,” Viktor said reasonably, and got up from his seat and went to do just that.

.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

does the pain feel better when I'm around? - beta!Sokka/omega!Zuko, beta!Sokka/beta!Suki, past alpha!Mai/omega!Zuko, polyamory; 3k; teen Societal dynamics-focused fic. Zuko goes into heat at the Western Air Temple immediately after the Boiling Rock happens and goes off to den down alone and stay out of everyone's way without realizing that the local betas are gonna lose their ever-lovin' MINDS about that.

“Cool,” he says. “You realize we’ve been looking for you for, like, two HOURS, right?”

“Why?” Zuko asks, sounding confused, which is kind of sad.

“Because the world is full of people who wanna kill you and you didn’t bother telling anyone where you were going?” Sokka says. “Obviously?”

“Oh.” Zuko falls silent. Sokka glances moonwards in supplication. Yue save him from dumb, dumb firebenders.

every act of communication is a miracle of translation - alpha!Mai/omega!Zuko; 5.7k; teen Post-series fic where Mai and Zuko are about to spend their first cycle together and they're both really awkward about working out how it should go. Not actually a sequel to "does the pain feel better when I'm around?", but you could definitely draw a relationship between 'em.

They leave the office, Mai pretending that all her senses aren’t full of Zuko’s warm, spicy scent, and he keeps looking worried. She wonders if it’s THIS he’s worried about, now that she’s thinking about it. They agreed they’d share their next cycles together, but again, they haven’t really talked about it.

They can talk about it now, Mai thinks.

Unfortunately, that means now they actually have to talk about it.

.

Overwatch

even if I do I don't, even if I could I won't - omega!Genji/beta!the-character-who-was-at-the-time-I-wrote-this-fic-known-as-McCree; 5.1k; explicit Blackwatch-era fic where Genji did not fill out his heat partner designation forms and "Fuck or Suffer Unspecified Health Consequences" is gonna make that a problem. Worldbuilding, assisted negotiation, a touch of workplace-influenced pack dynamics, and porn.

“Yeah, you’re hilarious, kid,” Gabe says. “Get back to work. And Shimada, call your heat partner and we’ll see you next week.”

Shimada’s shoulders tense. Gabe . . . pauses.

“Shimada,” he says slowly. “PLEASE tell me you have a heat partner on base.”

“I have a heat partner on base,” Shimada lies. Gabe and Jesse both stare at him, then Gabe calls up his file, takes one look at it, and starts cursing.

don't, don't, don't let's start (I've got a weak heart) - alpha!Genji/omega!the-character-who-was-at-the-time-I-wrote-this-fic-known-as-McCree; 17.3k; explicit Blackwatch-era fic about Genji and the character formerly known as McCree dealing with their complicated feelings about each other and also the cybernetics and trauma and physical disabilities that are fucking up their sex life, including ED.

“You busy?” he asks. Genji stares at him in bemusement, which is fair. Genji’s only ever busy when they’re on a mission or he’s in the middle of an upgrade. “Dumb question. My heat’s coming on, wanna do me a favor?”

“What favor?” Genji asks, still looking mystified. Jesse tries not to laugh at him.

“The obvious one,” he says meaningfully, tipping his hat back and raising his eyebrows at him. Genji looks no less mystified for a moment, then startles. “THERE we go."

.

Marvel Cinematic Universe

come hang (let's go out with a bang) - omega!Darcy Lewis/omega!Johnny Storm; 5k; teen Darcy almost dies again, tries to figure out which omega buys the courting gifts in an omega/omega relationship, and has her first date with a super-hot superhero.

“Was there traffic?” Jane asks.

“I have a date with Johnny Storm,” Darcy says.

“What?” Jane says.

“Oh, and I almost died again,” Darcy says, pulling out Jane’s papers for her. “But that’s kind of secondary.”

“WHAT?!”

pack up, don't stray (oh say say say) - alpha!Natasha + polyamory; 3.4k; teen Natasha collects a harem pack and Captain America is fucking difficult about it.

Natasha is an alpha on a mission, and that mission is simple and clear.

I said you're holding back, she said shut up and dance with me - alpha!Peggy/omega!Steve/omega!Bucky; 10.3k; mature Alternate timeline where Steve and Bucky don't "die" and they all run away from the States to get married and start a family. Illegal adoption and biokids and lowkey pack dynamics involving figuring out how to fold pups into their lives, oh my!! And also, they all get to dance.

“One alpha mating two omegas? Really, Steve?” Peggy asks, mouth quirking wryly. “What WOULD the newsreels say?”

“We’ll go to France,” Steve says. “No one will care in France.”

“I do love France,” she muses.

oh don't you dare hold back, just keep your eyes on me - alpha!Darcy/omega!Bucky, polyamory; 187.4k; explicit MY MAGNUM OPUS, MY WHITE WHALE, THE LITERAL REASON OMEGAVERSE TOOK OVER HALF MY BLOG FOR HALF MY STINT IN MCU FANDOM. I wanted a goddamn female alpha and I wanted that female alpha to be Darcy Lewis, and Bucky was my fave blorbo at the time so the inevitable happened. The inevitable happened for three and a half years and 187,430 words, to be more precise.

Darcy is thirty feet out of Stark-cum-Avengers Tower when she starts craving cinnamon rolls--the sticky-sweet iced-up old-fashioned kind, yummy and messy and dripping gooshy icing all over your mouth and hands and down your yuuuup, yup, that is a super, super fertile omega that she is smelling, holy SHIT is it ever.

“Jesus Christ,” she groans in frustration, then follows her alpha instincts (and, more easily and importantly, her NOSE) to go track them down. They’re in the middle of New York City; middle of the day or not, not checking on somebody who smells like THAT is, like, the ultimate dick move.

.

OKAY SELF THAT'S ENOUGH LINKS, WE MOVE ON NOW, haha.

I will also say, if you're interested in, like, gender-exploratory AU concepts, apiary genders might be more your thing and more easily accessible for you? It's a MUCH newer thing than omegaverse and really only has a few fics around, some of which are linked in the "inspired by" of that AO3 primer linked above, but the concept is a bit more strongly "hive"-based than a lot of omegaverse is "pack"-based, and also there's no physical differences from baseline. I've got a WIP or two going about apiary myself, actually, but I haven't gotten too far into them yet, alas. The only one I've posted anything from is this one Superbat one.

[torialefay]

this may be kind of an unusual question so feel free to ignore it, but i tend to make lots of links and associations of concepts/situations with music and stuff and so i'm curious, what are some songs that you'd pick to describe what it would be like to be in a relationship with chan? or some songs that suit his placements (for example, i think work song by hozier is peak scorpio venus devotion level haha)

okay i LOVE this question!!! (also currently in a hozier phase so i love that you brought up that song.) if you have any other recs, pls send them my way, but here's some that had come to mind:

✨🎶 Dating Channie Sounds Like 🎶✨

the friendship/relationship stage:

i don't think it's just me who thinks that chan is gonna have to know & be friends with someone before progressing to a romantic relationship. i think he could definitely pine over someone for a while and be too scared to say anything. and then if something DID happen between the two of you, you would have to hide it for a pretty longgg time. that's why i chose these 2 songs :)

• human - dodie ft tom walker ✨

• hush hush - the band camino✨

actual committed relationship phase:

• medicine - royal sugar ✨ this gives me such new-relationship, pent-up sexual tension vibes. this man would not be able to stop thinking ab you sexually when you first get together... 100%. sex w/ him is likely initially more fun, like in this song, but once he gets to KNOW you, it gets wayyyy deeper

• tenerife sea - ed sheeran ✨ this one might be a cop-out bc chan has sung it multiple times on channie's room but i couldn't NOT put it in here. moving past the superficial, this song paints such a new, mesmerizing love story. you are elated you finally found your person.

• mess is mine - vance joy ✨ i'm sorry but the lyrics "this body is yours and mine" & "now your mess is mine" is so channie-coded to me. he is offering himself up to you. anything you want from him is yours & he will take on all of your hurt

• fire and the flood AND lay it on me - vance joy ✨ these were just so all-encompassing, i couldn't not include them. you become the most consuming part of his life. he quite literally can't go a day without thinking of you and how fucking attached his heart is to yours. you are his everything and only thing. "i always feel you in my blood" & "your love's always finding me out."

• until you - ahi ✨ this song isn't as relevant NOW, but it really throws me into a pre-debut channie love story tbh. bless his little heart 💔 i couldn't NOT include it bc it's still beautiful.

• anointed - miguel AND religion - lana del rey ✨ these have the same purpose, so i'm including them together. when channie is truly in love with you, he won't fuck you- he fucking worships you. well, you worship each other in the bedroom. and i feel this a million times. he needs something deeper and he needs to feel consumed in it. praising each other until you physically have no stamina left in your body.

tough times/drifting apart/ fights:

sorry but i had to add a couple of angsty songs that i could totally see playing out in a relationship w channie </3

• fleeting love - royal sugar ✨ i 100% see this song being about your struggles with a long distance relationship. not being able to work anything out, but also not being able to let them go. "in the elevator with your passport... goodbye is 10 floors down." you just want him so badly, but you don't know you can do this. you were so happy to have him, even if just for a little bit.

• berenstein - the band camino ✨ chan always talks about alternate universes, so i had to add this one in. the line "at another place in time, you were infinitely mine," it makes me think so much about if you were perfect with channie, and you both knew that... but you simply couldn't be with him because of his idol life. but you knew that somewhere out there in a parallel universe, he wasn't an idol, and you were together like you were meant to be :((((

bonus song:

this song reminds me SO MUCH of chris. the first time i heard it, i instantly thought of him. it isn't a love song by any means, it just makes me think of him && his life/all he's been through ❤️

• time's eyes - riley pearce ✨

if anyone has a song they automatically think of with channie, pls pls pls let me knowwww!!!

[butterflydm]

wot rewatch (book spoilers edition): 2x4

Not only is this one going to have spoilers for all the aired episodes plus any teasers, it will also have book spoilers through book 14: a memory of light (haha let's pretend I didn't accidentally call it book 13 in my previous rewatch book spoilers posts). I am also going to talk about the trailer for ep5.

I love this change to the seals being what's holding the Forsaken -- and Lanfear's side-step of death at the end of the episode shows us why such a choice was required on LTT's part (I am currently assuming it was LTT who was the driving force behind this because of the memory echo that Rand had at the 'Eye of the World' where he was confronting Ishamael). He had to seal them up because they couldn't be killed conventionally, because the Dark One could just bring them back (Lord of the Grave). This is a great change for a visual medium because it means they can keep the same actors instead of needing to swap them out for a new body. It also adds a great new threat level to the Forsaken right off the bat and it gives viewers another reason to understand why joining the Shadow might be compelling. They don't want the wheel and reincarnation -- they want to live on as the person that they are now.

It's also interesting because it means that the Forsaken are potentially widely dispersed and it may mean that Ishy has to actively seek for where they've been sealed up (maybe asking his Darkfriends to try to find more seals like this) -- which may mean that the Forsaken are loosed more slowly than in the books, as Ishamael discovers where Lews Therin hid them. (or they were all released here and we were only shown Lanfear because she's the most relevant one)

3. The reveal that Lady Anveare is Moiraine's younger sister! This episode gives us a lot of information about Moiraine -- one of the big things that we learn is that she's much older than she was in the books. Which is a change I like; so many of the AS that we meet in the books are still within a 'natural' lifespan and it was kinda weird tbh. I think that she (and Siuan) took longer to make Accepted and Sister in this version (hence the note we get about how Cadsuane is the person to compare Nynaeve's rocketing through the ranks to and not the two of them) and that they were already full Sisters when they heard the prophecy from Gitara. This does track with them wearing blue in that scene from the trailer, which is potentially going to be a flashback to the prophecy (fingers crossed! would love to hear it!).

I am curious about how this may affect all the various familial relations in the show! But they were basically ignored completely in the books anyway, lol.

4. "My family have a cabin up near Kinslayer's Dagger". Wanting to take Rand up to the place that was named after how LTT killed his wife and all of the people that he loved -- I mean, yeah. That's Lanfear for you. So... has Lanfear used Compulsion on Rand at all or is it all pure manipulation? I am torn, tbh. She's manipulating him hard, both in the waking world and in the world of dreams. I'm not sure if she needed Compulsion to push him over the edge -- and I feel like her reaction to him implying that he loves her feels very genuine and I don't know if she would be quite that blown away by him saying that if she's been Compelling him to go along with her part of the way. They also might not want to lean too much on Compulsion for subtle things like this and save it for bigger influences. But we may find out more next episode, so I will be patient. He does abruptly change his mind in her favor a couple of times, so that may speak to a hint of Compulsion. If she is using it, she's picking and choosing her moments. (I don't think Compulsion has been mentioned at all on the show yet?)

5. An interesting thought to me about how Alanna approaches being an Aes Sedai with her family: this is potentially similar to how we're going to be seeing how the Wise Ones are integrated with Aiel society. They keep their families and are a vital part of their community.

6. Timing-wise, they do make it clear that Moiraine bonded Lan after her abrupt personality change -- so Lan is probably the same age that he was in the books, with only Moiraine (and some other Aes Sedai) being older. It's also interesting that Moiraine didn't feel any need to have a Warder before she heard the prophecy.

7. I will note again that Egwene does NOT tell Elayne the name of the person that she lost, which I am going to cross my fingers has pay-off later on in the season, with Elayne meeting Rand without knowing that he's the person that Egwene is talking about here. I really do want them to meet without the context of "this is my friend's ex-boyfriend who faked his own death" hanging over their heads. Right now, Elayne has zero facts or knowledge about Rand as a person -- doesn't know his name, his looks, or that he's a man who can channel (she does not even know that Egwene is talking about a man! Egwene says "someone I love more than anything").

8. We get some more foreshadowing of the coup in this conversation with Liandrin and Leane. "If she falls, you'll fall with her." I really am wondering when exactly Elaida will be introduced. I feel like it would likely be before the coup itself happens.

Liandrin, I suspect, will not be going back to the Tower (or, if she does, it will only be briefly, to collect a handful of other Black Ajah members and then head out to whenever it is that the Black Ajah Hunters plotline will take Elayne and Nynaeve next season -- whether that be Tanchico like in the books or Tear as @markantonys has speculated, also, to briefly go back to the previous scene, I am sorry that you did not get your boy! Hopefully we will hear something about him soon). Liandrin torched her bridges with the Wondergirls in this episode, so even if she does go back to the Tower, as soon as she learns that the Seanchan were pushed out of Falme, she would know that her cover in the Tower is blown and that she needs to leave before anyone can learn about what she did.

9. I think the placement of Perrin learning about wolfbrothers is so much better here than jammed into right after Shadar Logoth, lol. Elyas really just rolled up, infodumped, and then rolled away in the books, lol.

10. We still don't know that LTT was Lanfear's ex, which is fantastic and I love it, lol. Show-onlys guessing that Ishamael is the ex that Lanfear keeps talking about is the most hilarious thing in the world and I'm in love with it. I've seen it at least twice now in the non-reader reactions that I've watched.

Haha, Lanfear's reaction when Rand reminds her that he wasn't a virgin when they slept together. Her face is just priceless. She is stabbing Egwene in her mind right now. (does she know it was Egwene? I mean, Egwene being one of the ta'veren actually gives her a shield against Lanfear killing her that she didn't have in the books, since Fain established that TDO sees all five of the ta'veren as important)

11. The show has been establishing so strongly that Rand dreams of having a home, raising his kids, and doesn't want to be... idk a lone wanderer in the wilderness, and it does make me wonder/hope that they'll adjust his ending epilogue and have him going to his loved ones in the end instead of wandering off on his own and wondering which of the women he loves is going to be the first to abandon her responsibilities to join in him wandering around aimlessly.

(it's probably obvious from my description there that I am in favor of a bit of tweaking of Rand's ending!)

12. Learning that the person telling him to 'take' what he wants was, in fact, one of the Forsaken, might be something that leads into Rand pushing away the idea of being allowed to ever indulge in the things that he wants, which would match a lot of his behavior in the books.

13. So, in the books, Barthanes is a Darkfriend. I'm assuming that's the son that Anvaere is talking about, the one that she is marrying to the nameless queen who might be a Galldrian expy. Is Anvaere a Darkfriend? Lanfear didn't seem to like her in 2x3 but, well, she was A Woman who was talking to Lanfear's Man and that might matter more to her than any Shadow affliations.

...still, I'm going to guess 'no', because I don't think the Shadow would want Moiraine to get literally any information on Rand and Anveare's information is a straight line that leads to Lanfear's throat getting cut. But Anvaere's son being a DF while she is not is also very tragic to think about! While Anveare was trying to restore their house the honorable way, Barthanes may have taken a shortcut. Another possibility would be that Barthanes is not yet a Darkfriend but will become so because of the events of this season.

14. I think "Elayne is following them because she's suspicious of why they're sneaking out of the Tower" is a good way to get around the fact that Elayne doesn't know any of the people that they're going to rescue and she ends up getting caught up in it by accident, little knowing how the course of her life is going to change. It really feels like it needed to be something like this because of us losing Caemlyn from s1.

15. I am so glad that Min has a storyline that isn't about following Rand around like a puppy. She has a painful backstory! She has goals and desires that don't revolve around Rand! She has to experience moral quandaries and goes through trauma that actually focuses on her as a person, instead of her being Rand's post-trauma cuddle toy.

16. Okay, so now that we know that Ishamael specifically wants Mat in Cairhien, I feel like that gives us a bunch of information:

a. It implies to me that Lanfear is still working under Ishamael's direction for the most part and that she's essentially "the agent assigned to Rand's corruption".

b. We know that they want to corrupt as many of the ta'veren as possible (from what Fain said in the s1 finale). Rand is the Big Prize but if any of them turned that's a bird in the hand. So, Ishamael is approaching this in a few different ways.

c. It seems like he wasn't certain exactly what was going on with Perrin until 2x3 but as soon as he has realized more about the wolf connection, he worked to try to get Perrin to view it as something evil and dark.

d. Lanfear got put in charge (volunteered, I'm sure) to do Rand. In every possible way.

e. Liandrin got basically "everyone in the Tower" but chose to focus her efforts on Nynaeve and Mat. It sounds like that may be because they were the two that stood out to her more -- she had the (hilarious) impression that Egwene was the one who would 'know her place' when the time came. So she worked on Nynaeve by trying to mentor her openly (while doing some more subtle manipulation). And she worked on Mat by destroying him psychologically.

f. Once the Seanchan are settled in the far west (maybe once Suroth's soldiers are close enough to a Waygate), Ishamael lets Liandrin know that time is up to corrupt Nynaeve and we're moving to Plan B. We've gonna do this the 'easy' way by throwing her at Suroth and let the sul'dam break Nynaeve and Egwene to be obedient.

g. But BEFORE that happened, Liandrin released Mat (with Min tugging him along) out into the world, and we find out this week that Ishamael wants Mat to be brought to Cairhien. Why?

h. Theory: Mat is the back-up plan if Lanfear fails with Rand (which she did). One of the theories that I posted about Mat's viewing from Min (Theory #4) is that he is Compelled to stab Rand. We know from 2x3 that Liandrin could sneak into his cell without waking him. Easy enough for Ishy to do the same with some Traveling. Maybe Mat is already under Compulsion by one of them, with a trigger-event waiting to happen.

Which would be completely devastating for Mat (and Rand) and also (along with Liandrin's torment of Mat in general) lead to a very compelling (ha!) reason for him to seek out a way to prevent channelers from using weaves on him. It would essentially give him the same kind of emotional reaction that we saw from the flicker-flicker scenes in the book (where he was talking about how he's not going to betray Rand) without us actually needing the Portal Stones. Mat will be: a. absolutely traumatized by Aes Sedai in general; b. terrified about weaves being used on him; c. have viscerally been forced to betray Rand against his will.

There is also... hmm, to this point. The first shot of Ishamael in the trailer for ep5 might be a match for the 'Mat is tempted by the dagger' scene that we've seen in some of the other trailers. And Ishamael and Mat getting a scene together would complete the circle of him having an intimate little talks with all the ta'veren boys. Not certain if it's the same place, but it feels like the lighting is the same. Not the later shot of him walking with Suroth but the earlier one of him in a room that looks like it's got some fireplaces going on. I will brace myself for potentially not getting Mat next episode though.

(again, if this doesn't happen in the show, I might be forced to write it. We will see!)

Plus!

i. It could provide a real-time example of Min accidentally creating a viewing while trying to prevent it! She doesn't want to hurt Mat but she also would not want him to stab Rand. But since she is the one who would likely be bringing Mat into Rand's orbit (as she has no idea that Rand is in Cairhien, I don't think), it would show the viewers that Min's viewings are inevitable instead of it just being her telling us that.

I've seen speculation that Min is going to do a U-turn and take Mat anywhere else but Cairhien (presumably accidentally going to Falme) after learning that one of the Forsaken wants Mat there but... but I really really want Rand and Mat to get a reunion lol. Rand was THE most affected by Mat staying behind last season and it would be good to build them up again in anticipation of them spending s3 together, so I'd love if they got a reunion BEFORE Falme. Like, I was so excited to hear Min is meant to take him to Cairhien!

17. I do feel like something changes for Lanfear when Rand implies that he loves her. She stops for a moment and reacts to that, and the vibe of the scene shifts afterwards too. Great meta on the subject here: https://moghedien.tumblr.com/post/727929706072227841/1-it-immediately-sets-up-the-threat-of-going-up and I pretty much agree completely. This is where her true obsession with RAND as LTT was born. She just got everything that she wanted and then it was stolen from her.

Episode 5 next week! So excited!

Looking forward to seeing Lanfear unleashed in the next episode! The saa in her eyes was just... yes. Such a good decision for them to treat TDO's resurrection of his Chosen this way, I think, so that we can keep these spectacular actors. We're gonna get info from Moiraine about the Forsaken next episode, it sounds like, which is exciting.

We also are going to get AVIENDHA! So excited about this. She looks amazing in the trailer. She sounds amazing. She is amazing.

This is also when we're going to get some more insight into the Seanchan as a whole (Loial is with Ishamael and Suroth in the trailer), I suspect.

The other probable important event about next episode is, uh, gonna be more trauma for one of our characters, though. Lots more trauma. So far, most (definitely not all!) of Egwene's trauma has been "horrible things keep happening to the people I care about" (Nynaeve's assumed death; Perrin being tortured in front of her; Rand's assumed death; Nynaeve's assumed death again this season) but now her trauma will include "a horrible thing is happening to me". It might be the 'cliffhanger' of the episode; Egwene getting taken as damane. Since it looks like we're spending some time in the Ways with Liandrin & the Wondergirls first. Or it might happen earlier. I will brace myself!

[sflow-er]

for the writing asks: 4, 16, 23

Thank you kindly for the ask, friend! <3

Coincidentally, @redleavesinthewind also asked 4 and 23, so I hope its okay I split those between you!

4. was answered here.

16. Favourite place to write

Sadly enough, I don't have much of a choice, because I don't currently own a laptop or even a tablet. I only have my desktop and phone, of which I infinitely prefer my desktop haha. I don't actually like spending time in my home office when I'm not working, but it's my only alternative at the moment.

23. Pick three keywords that describe your writing

This is a really tough one because my first instinct is to self-deprecate and start with something like wordy, but I'm going to try to pick positive words.

Backgrounded. I realise the English word isn't as commonly used to mean 'furnished with background (information) and/or considered in context' as the Finnish word taustoitettu, but I can't think of another one-word equivalent so please humour me! I like to think it shows that I put a lot of time and effort towards studying both the canon and the relevant real-world concepts and details. It's labour-intensive, but I think it helps to ground both me and the reader in the world of the fic and the character's perspective in said fic (informed by my understanding of their world, which may differ from fanon takes the reader has encountered before, for example).

Evocative (in terms of prose). I guess most writers aim to evoke feelings, images, and other experiences in the reader, but specifically in my own writing, this shows in word choices and passages that lean into the character's emotions, memories, sensory observations etc. Sometimes it can even show in the general style of prose or structure of the story, which can be used to give the reader a certain feel of the POV character or to reflect their development. I wouldn't say those play a significant part in the narrator's characterisation in all my fics but they have done in some. (Other people's secrets is the most notable example of the style thing and Bright ideas of the structure thing.)

Organic (in terms of dialogue/internal monologue). This can be a tough balancing act when I'm writing characters half my age "speaking Swedish" in English, neither of which is my native language. So I would not necessarily say my dialogue is realistic; the characters are often too mature and they don't speak like real teens, and while I try not to put in too many things that couldn't conceivably be there if this was a Swedish source text that I was very freely translating into English, I always prioritise fluency in English.

However, I do try to make the dialogue organic in the sense that it flows easily and uses words and concepts that feel innate to my version of those characters. I let them be unclear and awkward at times, and I try to steer away from words and phrases that they definitely wouldn't use. (One good example is Walter's internal monologue in The real deal, where Henry's hair is always ginger or a blondish red and never 'strawberry blonde' which definitely isn't in my Walter's vocabulary.)

Thank you again for the questions!

I'm still open for more if anyone wants to send them - list here.

[ask-commander-arild]

OOC Post:

Hi, there! I'm @jnix-2006 and welcome to my ask blog, ask-commander-arild!! I made this blog for @pkmoth's @motherbound-askapalooza, and I plan on participating the entire month of August, but if it does well, I may continue it!! But, bear with me, because I don't use tumblr much, so this is all very new to me, haha. Before we start, I feel I should give a little bit of introduction to what exactly this is. So, firstly, what exactly is an Arild? Well, Arild is an OC I created for the game Mother 3 (Heavy spoilers btw)! He can be seen below!

Art done by @pinkalliums!!! Go check them out!!

Say hello to Arild Eskildsen! A young Norwegian lad of 15 years old who, through a series of unfortunate events, was once a pigmask. I know his design may look a little... 2015, but the design quite literally came to me in a dream, and I would've been stupid not to use it. Now, as much as I'd love to go into detail about his backstory, I wanna save most of it for the asks. I guess the most basic gist is that he was taken from our time, currently in the 2010's but may change later, from a very young age, and made to be a pigmask. Yippee, child soldier! He goes on to be promoted to captain. But after yet another unfortunate event, he ends up being chimera-ified and he gets promoted to commander, but not of the pigmasks... Of what, you ask? Well, we'll get there. For now, here's him as a captain!

Art also by @pinkalliums!! Seriously, go check them out! >:)

Few things to keep in mind for this blog:

1. I don't have many artistic abilities, unfortunately, so this will be a text only blog. Some friends have kindly made a few pieces for Arild, and I will show them off, but for the most part, there won't be much in the way of visuals. If you feel like making art of him, feel free! I would actually love to see it!!

2. Quite a lot of the stuff here is going to involve my own headcanons for the Mother series, especially post-game Mother 3. For example, in my headcanon, Claus survives and becomes the leader of the army, rebranding it in the name of peace, and that is why Arild is a commander. Basically, since everyone has unique headcanons for the series, you can just consider this an AU.

3. There will be mention of a couple real life places that will have Mother-ified names. With any mention of Norway, the name will changed to Fjordland, on account of its many... fjords. Canada is also an important place within the story, and that I have decided to call Mapleland. Creative, I know. I figured I would bring it up to avoid confusion

4. Feel free to ask whatever! Though, obviously, just make sure it's on topic, of course. Silly questions are easy to answer and will usually be answered quickest! Lore relevant questions are a little trickier and may take me just a bit longer to respond to, but I will be happy to get to them!! Also, RP is okay with me, if you want to!!

5. When it comes to asking questions, please don't be weird or anything. Like... being a former pigmask, Arild is a plus-sized character, so a comment about his weight would not be great. More importantly, absolutely NO NSFW. This character is a minor, and that stuff is not okay to ask. I don't think any of this will be an issue, but it's good to mention just in case

6. I do not speak Norwegian, so if I want to sprinkle it in a little bit, I have only on option. Google Translate. I know, I know... it's not the best, but I will try my best to avoid mistranslations or misuse of phrases. I wouldn't want to be the new version of that one post about the Norwegian Butter Crisis, haha.

If you're still here, thank you for reading until the end!! As said, I've never done something like this before, so this intro is probably super chaotic in comparison to other blogs, haha. I am really excited to get started here! I've always wanted to do an ask blog, and I really needed an excuse to flesh out my OC, so I'd say this is perfect! I'd like to give thanks to all the friends, and my bf, who helped me out on this!! Thank you to Moth for setting this event up! Thank you to Hal and a few others for the art! And also thank you so much to my friend Red who helped me create this character in the first place! He didn't tell me what his tumblr was, but he is @/Doc_Glowstick on Twitter!! Alright, I think I've rambled enough now. I'll probably go through this and change it later, but for now, let the blog begin!!!

[tamelee]

Hi I'm the person who asked for education advice.

I would like advice on almost everything you mentioned, the learning aspect itself and breaking down goals mostly. Also just the fear of failure haunts me a lot. Also, you're in your 20s right? Do you live alone, on campus, with parents? Is that hard to adjust to, if you know about that? I really appreciate you answering asks and giving advice on things not related to Naruto specifically haha. Love your art! Can't wait for the chaptered manga you're making 💜

Hi! This took me a while as I was stressing over some things, sorry about that, and yes! Well, I live alone currently and am renting an apartment. It is not hard to adjust to for me personally because I used to live in a house that was empty since I was… well let's just say I’m used to it, but when I traveled and studied/worked abroad I did live with other people which I thought was more difficult to adjust to. All of a sudden there’s so much noise and drama aaahhh >< hehe. 

I hope my tips are helpful for you— long post, read when you have time and grab your notes! 」(￣▽￣」)

.📙⤵

Small note: this system may seem like a lot of work or tedious for majority of people, but setting it up like this is the only thing that works for me and aids my struggle to focus. This post focuses on studying, but I apply this to a lot of other areas as well. I’m still readjusting parts where I feel like it can improve— of course, you can change anything in any way you like! I tried to make it as clear as possible ^^! 

My documentation style: I personally use Notion (almost a year now) to track everything while documenting and organizing my notes. I love how you can create the most aesthetic pages and build your space anyway you like. It helps me structure my life so much better than the note-taking systems I used to have. I'm not kidding when I say it really changed everything for me. For studying, but also other area's, which is why I affiliated with them. There are paid subscriptions, but everything you need you can use for free!

I also have template recommendations if someone does happen to use Notion! (Let me know if you're looking for anything specific!) However, of course you can use whatever program you want to document things/your study. Whatever you use, even if you just write it down on paper, I do recommend keeping it all in the same place by creating a singular overview so you can track your progress more easily, but we’ll get to that later!

My roadmap to achieve (academic) goals:

Goal Setting 

I think the most important thing is to set effective goals that are clear. Proper planning is essential to reaching goals and achieving good grades imo, as well as breaking down your tasks into manageable chunks to avoid feeling overwhelmed. It’s learning how you work, what fits your productivity-style and finding ways to make it easier for yourself.

So take a moment to think what exactly you want to achieve!

You can use the SMART-method (setting Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound goals), to give yourself clear targets to work towards and there are many articles on it if you want to know more about it (you can also look for helpful templates, there are many free ones you can find!), but I combined this with "The 12 Week Year”-method by Brian P. Moran and Michael Lennington. 

(Although I would recommend this book, there’s quite a bit of fluff which will probably make it difficult to get through for people that are neurodivergent. If you’re interested you can also find summaries on Youtube in order to only gain the information you need if you want to use it to achieve goals, but I’ll break it down here as well. Summaries are incredibly helpful, but I’ll be honest and say I’m not sure how to feel about them yet.) 

The 12 week year describes lag and leading indicators in the context of goal achievement. I use these indicators specifically in order to make sure I can Measure my goals. 

I’ll explain with examples:

Regarding your previous ask, let’s take a goal like “getting high grades”. This doesn’t say much yet. 

There are probably several subjects you want a high grade for, so let’s break that down first. There are many smaller goals that exist in that. It’ll look something like this:

Overarching goal: Getting high grades

Individual goals:

Getting a high grade for subject A

Getting a high grade for subject B

Getting a high grade for subject C

Etc,—

Great start in getting clear what you need to achieve, but it’s still too vague, right? Let’s see these subjects as separate goals and break it down further with indicators:

Indicators: 

Lag indicators are the ultimate measures of success or results necessary to achieve your goals. They represent the outcomes. 

Leading indicators are the actions or behaviors that directly influence the achievement of lag indicators. They are individual tasks and the steps that you take to achieve the lag indicator.  

Note: Indicators must start with a verb (like: write, get, draw, finish, etc—) because it indicates directly what the action is you have to take.  Example: “Assignment” doesn’t tell you what to do. Transform it into “Finish assignment on [x] before 16th of May” or something like that. It depends on the goal. 

Now we get something like this:

(Overarching goal: Getting high grades) Individual goal: Getting a high grade for subject A

Lag indicators examples (what’s necessary to achieve the goal): 

Write Essay on [x] 

Finish assignment A

Setup project A

Start project A

Etc,— 

It’ll look different per subject and it may look different for you. Maybe you know exactly what you need to achieve per period or maybe they only let you know what needs to be done one assignment at a time, in which case you can focus on that alone and take it step by step.

It’s already nice to just write everything down and gain a clearer view of the things you need to complete. You’re not pressured to remember anything, because it's all here (I get stressed forgetting stuff). 

Now you have your overarching goal of wanting to get high grades and made a list of individual goals. We’ll consider these individual goals and focus on them because achieving those means your overarching goal will be achieved automatically. 

If you gathered the lag indicators for these individual goals, you’ll now know what (currently) is necessary to get a high grade for subject A and we can start breaking those down into leading indicators.  

It’ll look like this: 

(Overarching goal: Getting high grades) (Individual goal: Getting a high grade for subject A) Lag indicator: Write Essay on [x] 

Leading indicator examples (steps you take to achieve the lag indicator):

Understand exactly what the topic or thesis statement is 

Research topic

Organize, etc—

Write everything you are going to do in order to ‘write the essay on [x]’ as leading indicators. 

Reminder: as the SMART-method suggests: make everything as specific as possible so you can measure exactly what it is you need to do.  Example: “Research topic” can still be too vague but you can clarify what you need to research for what topic, once you understand what it is exactly you need to do. 

Putting in a little bit of effort and time now by breaking down goals like this helps me save a lot of time later, because I have to make less decisions and I’ll exactly know what to do and how much. Tracking your progress makes it a lot easier if you know what you’re tracking and as I said before: decision fatigue is a real thing and emotionally taxing! Making all the decisions before you start working really can help! 

Tip: before starting on the leading indicators, check whether your goals and its lag indicators are SMART. Make sure all of them start with a verb!  Tip 2: if you have trouble deciding where to start, you can refer to the ‘Swiss Cheese’ method which is a productivity “hack” that can help you identify which of your tasks takes the priority. This doesn’t help me personally, because if I planned out what I need to do that day it doesn’t really matter for me which has the priority because I have to rely on many other things, therefore I can’t plan what I do first. I feel like mentioning it anyway, because it can be helpful when making mindmaps. 

So in short:

Determine your overarching goal. 

Write down individual goals necessary in order to achieve the overarching goal.

Write down the lag indicators you need to complete in order to achieve your individual goal.

Break down the lag indicators into manageable tasks (leading indicators) and be specific on the action you need to take. (Example: don’t just put ‘writing the essay’, but ‘write [x]-essay for 20 minutes’.)

Now we can start planning!

Planning

Let’s say you have a week to finish this essay, once you have every leading indicator, you can start planning out what you will do on which day.

Efficient planning helps reduce stress, because you don’t have to wonder if what you’ll do today is enough. We’ll get to ‘tracking’ goals later, but stay open to readjust when necessary though! It is okay to re-plan because there’s always the possibility of something coming in between or you not feeling well! 

As I said before, I use Notion to document everything and I have a separate page for the overarching goals which include my lag indicators, but in my overview I created a table that shows all the tasks (leading indicators) that I need to finish per (current) week. It sort of looks like this: 

I automated it, so when I check off something the amount of times I need to do it (under frequency) that week, it disappears from my overview and I can quickly see my weekly (and overall) progress in percentages, but of course you can do this any way you like or just write it down somewhere. I think this way is great because I need less focus to see whether something's already done or not.

I know that sounds funny for people who don't have trouble with this, but genuinely anything I can do to make it easier for myself is helpful ><

We still need to keep deadlines in mind. I personally like to know what I need to do on which day within the week as well or I’ll end up having to do everything during the weekend. So, I divide these weekly tasks and assign a day to them on a simple weekly notepad I keep on my desk. It looks something like this: 

These days aren’t set, as I mentioned: it’s also important to allow life to happen and still stay on track somewhat :’)

When I finish something I color it!

So in short:

Once you gained insight on your leading indicators, you can start planning. This will look different for every subject, but the method stays the same. 

Create a weekly planning/overview somewhere depending on your deadline. And if necessary, divide the weekly tasks for specific days if you want on a separate planner.

Review your week on Sundays (or whichever day you like!) to see whether you’re still on track and readjust your planning for the upcoming week(s) when necessary.  

Combine Studying with your personal life

The reason why I use a written, separate, weekly overview is because I combine areas of my life on here.

Aside from dividing tasks for my study (the leading indicators) for specific dates, I add appointments that I may have (which I keep in my calendar app), projects, administration/financial-tasks or random things I need to do at home or for myself/others.

I know a lot of people that create to-do lists have trouble with it. If that’s you (me too), then we’ll take it a step further and plan our tomorrow every day.

I use simple note-paper and sort of write things down in order for that day, because it’s easy and quick to grab and scribble on. This really helps to focus on what matters right now. It looks like this:

This is sort of like compounding habits, but with tasks. Some things are much easier to do after one thing than another. A regular to-do list may not work because it doesn’t take into account the rest of your day like appointments or a personal routine you want to work on. It’s hard to gain clarity when all you see is a bunch of intertwined, random tasks— so here you’d organize them bit and add whatever is relevant. Like a little mini-planning for the day. 

On here I also write small silly stuff I have to do that day or keep notes I have to put somewhere else so I won’t forget. (Like appointments I suddenly get, or e-mails I have to reply to, something I want to check later, etc—) 

Tip: Let’s say after a while you still have trouble with this daily mini-planner, you can also just write down (3 or so) your most important tasks for the day and “eat the frog”. You focus on that first while ‘hiding’ all the ones that may not be as relevant immediately. (I’d still keep the other mini-planner though or transform your other tasks into “bonus-tasks”.) 

So in short:

Keep appointments in mind or days when you’ll be busy/outside when planning study tasks on specific days. Add the most important or time-consuming tasks first so you gain a clearer view how much time you have for the weekly study tasks.

Use this weekly planner to divide tasks throughout the week and then make a mini-planner for your specific day on a separate paper/document to organize the day.  

Keeping track

As I said during the planning-step, you can use Sundays (or other days) to quickly review your week and adjust the next if necessary.

A lot within my system is automated, but even if you’ve written it all down, it shouldn’t take too much time (maybe 10 mins, probably less), because you’ve done most of the planning already. You can easily see what and where it needs adjusting.

Be prepared to adjust a lot in the beginning though if you’ve never done this! Eventually it gets easier and you gain better insight how long you work on something or what is realistic for you to do in a day, which is totally fine!!

Tip: If you are more interested in self-development, you can also apply a review-session monthly, quarterly or per project to gain insight on yourself and where you’d like to improve. I personally do this quarterly, but let’s keep focussing on the study~! Tip 2: If you aren’t sure how to create an overview, there are also many, free SMART-method templates you can use. If you’re usually more a visual person, I’d recommend creating visual boards or just add images to make it more appealing. It may seem like it doesn’t do anything, but especially in this current world of distraction, images do help you connect information much easier and can influence how you feel even subconsciously. I do highly recommend doing so. (I personally use a theme per quarter/season >< it’s so extra lmao it’s a good thing I live alone let’s be honest because I'm embarrassing.) 

Studying & taking notes

Well this is a broad subject but I’d recommend sort of observing yourself for a while to really understand more specifically what it is you struggle with. (If you are.) 

Here are some examples for ways you can use notes. I used the ‘Second Brain’ method for a while as well, but I’m most comfortable with the Cornell method. I set it up like this: 

But the most important part here, is this: 

I can clearly see the subjects and the necessary information. (I usually hide them under some toggle text to keep things organized and not muddy up my overview.)

Study cards don’t really work for me, because I need to connect information together, but it’s worth looking into! It might be helpful for you. 

Tip: If you have trouble focussing because you get bored easily which makes you tired so you seek a quick dopamine rush even if that means you start cleaning your entire environment and you procrastinate, etc—… trust me you’re not alone. I do recommend researching whether a ‘dopamine detox’ will be helpful for you (which is not easy, I’ll tell you that). However, this may not work for everyone because sometimes there’s even more at play. That’s why a combination of strategies to make the actual act of studying as easy and clear as possible, is so important.  Tip 2: Always allow yourself to experiment with your routines and keep your health in mind, but if you continue to struggle, please do seek support. Tip 3: If you’re like me and you had to watch/listen to a lot of material, find transcripts or use subtitles! If you have to write an essay on a movie, it’s much easier to get back to information when it’s written down. (And it saves you so much time...) For many movies you can find subtitle files and you can convert them online to remove timestamps if necessary.  Tip 4: Ah, and for my fellow neurodivergent people… if noise annoys you and music doesn’t really help anymore, not even when it’s just instrumentals… see if ambient video’s that have slight random background noises (like a library for example) are helpful for you. For me personally, it’s such a game-changer holy sh- 

Fear of Failure 

Not sure if I can give you some advice on this, because I struggle with this as well. It gets a bit better though when I use this system because it lays down the groundwork for you and with that clarity it gets easier to focus on the task itself. Unless you plan it all out and then end up not doing what you set out to do, and you don’t readjust your planning weekly— it’s sort of hard to fail the action-taking-part. 

If it gets really bad and you end up avoiding your tasks entirely, because you get reluctant to take the risk of failing at something, sit down with yourself for a moment and think whether you may’ve set extremely high standards for yourself. See if you can allow a bit more room in your schedule. Refer back to the Goal Setting methods.

Tip: If you’re interested in making it a habit to study, I’d recommend you read ‘atomic habits’ by James Clear, or find a video that breaks the method down for you if that’s easier.

Know that whatever it is you want to improve in, there are ways to do it. If you feel like you get stuck on an area of your life, most of the time focussing on it with frustration will make it worse. Keep your ears and mind open for solutions while taking a break. 

I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere, any school or anything where they teach you how to actually study in the first place. They should tbh. I think it’s ridiculous they don’t, especially because we get more and more distracted and everything is literally designed to grab your attention and hold it for as long as possible until the next thing comes by. And I’m not sure if that’s helpful to know, but I do believe that realizing that studying in general isn’t easy and schools making it seem like it is by treating it like it’s nothing “you just have to do it” while not teaching you how to do it effectively... is bullshit.

Lastly, it’s all trial and error so please don’t beat yourself up over any of this. If you’re a perfectionist, please don’t feel like you need to set up a system perfectly before starting, because it’s an ongoing thing and not set in stone. It’ll only make you end up procrastinating for the sake of perfecting a system, which may make you feel like you're being productive but you don't actually get anything done and it's not what we want. That’s why it’s so important to be okay with readjusting when necessary! 

Hope there is something in all of this that can help you! Good luck 🌷^^~!

_______

Oh and thank you!! I also can’t wait to release the Manga. I practiced fic writing first and created a Cyberpunk-story, but I’m still a bit hesitant to share it >< (Perfectionism does make me slow as well, but I’m working on improving it 😌)

[thebadjoe]

I’m incredibly curious to know your thoughts after last episode. Nico seemingly being the lone Ace culprit, David admitting (truthful or not) to having seen Arei’s body, and whatever was going on with Eden at the end of last episode are all pretty relevant to your theory. Whatcha thinking?

Woot! Someone asked me a question! Hi hi! :D

I'll try not to spoil it too much because I'm currently working on another theory post to explain all of it. But I'll give a few general thoughts anyways. (DRDT CH2 SPOILERS AHEAD, ALTHOUGH I PROLLY DON'T NEED TO DO THAT BUT WANNA DO IT ANYWAYS)

You're right, a lot of what's been revealed this episode has been incredibly relevant to my theory, both positively and negatively.

I was honestly surprised by the culprit reveal. I honestly didn't think that Teruko would choose two suspects rather than only one, the seemingly obvious one (in my eyes). That was an interesting plot twist of sorts, for sure.

But realisticly, I suppose that it makes sense that she would narrow down to two suspects mainly because even though Teruko knows that the tape disappeared within a certain timeframe, she was way too distracted to notice who took the tape and exactly when.

The one thing I don't understand though is people going out of their way to claim that it was actually a third party who commited the crime and took the tape from them (somehow?). I honestly doubt that such kind of final twist would ever happen, especially being this late into the chapter.

I believe that, as it stands, we are supposed to try and solve the murder mystery once and for all between these two suspects in mind : Ace or Eden.

I get it though, sometimes, you just really don't want eitheir of them to get executed, but still, we can't ignore the painful truth and we gotta push through no matter what.

That aside, I was really happy with nearly all the reveals. Not only we got closer to the truth of the case, but we also learned a lot more about some characters. The one that caught my attention the most, surprisingly, was Rose. I didn't realise until this episode how incredibly rough it must've been for her. Poor woman. I'm really looking forward to see her development in the future.

And of course, that goes without saying, but the cutscene with Eden towards the end was just simply amazing! I really enjoyed the voice acting there alongside the repeat of that one song. We also got a lot of character growth out of Teruko, which is always a W in my book.

Oh, sorry! I've been rambling more about my thoughts on the episode by itself rather than explaining what it does to my theory, haha! But yeah, like I said before, I'm not gonna spill the beans on that matter just yet. All of you will find out soon enough in my next theory post... sometimes this week, for sure! (I'll try to push for monday, we'll see!)

I'll say at least one thing though, as a tiny reward for reading all of that. This crime solving theory of mine is starting to look a whole lot better as the chapter 2 goes on. :)

Thanks for reading, y'all. Also thanks for the question, @venus-is-thinking!

[solradguy]

Still one dlc char to be announced in 2023, when do you think it'll happen?

According to the timestamp on this ask, you sent this like literal hours before the new Developer Backyard dropped and answered your question haha December!

Link to the post: https://www.guiltygear.com/ggst/en/news/post-2013/

Relevant text from the DB:

The next update is coming up in December 2023. In addition to a new character, this update will introduce the second round of new special moves, this time for 2 characters. There's also a small-scale balance update in store, focused on adjustments to the new mechanics Wild Assault and Deflect Shield. This will include the aforementioned changes to input options for some characters' new moves such as Giovanna's Chave as well as fixes for issues.

In the Q&A section they teased the possibility of a future artbook that collects all the works between Xrd to now. Fingers crossed it happens!!

The other Q&A responses said that they would consider putting in a way to toggle things like Jack-O's mask and Sin's eyepatch (?!) like how you can toggle Johnny's beard or between the two Asukas, though they said they can't promise anything. They also said that they would like to hold a character palette contest OR survey some day and that they're looking into refining the input for Deflect Shield

The upcoming qualifier tournaments for Arc World Tour are: FIGHTERS SPIRIT (November 18 to 19) in Korea; Battle Coliseum (November 24 to 26) in Brazil; Ultimate Fighting Arena (November 24 to 26) in France; Frosty Faustings (January 25 to 28) in the USA.

So far they've only done big character announcements at events either in the USA or Japan so I'm not sure they'll announce who's next at any of these. There might be another big event going on that I don't know about though. Guess we'll find out soon!!

They also covered the survey results in this entry, which are always interesting. These results stretch this post a bit so I'm gonna slip them behind a readmore.

Lots of young players!! No wonder I get Dadguy'd on here so much lol

Bridget is also the current most favorite character globally, followed by Sol and then Ramlethal in 3rd:

Regional favorite character poll for just Strive's cast. These votes were limited to just one character and the DB entry suggests they may allow two votes for this part in future polls:

I've posted this one on here before when it was shown at Tokyo Game Show earlier this year, but here's the overall favorite character rankings by region. A.B.A., Elphelt, Slayer, and Dizzy are the highest:

[olderthannetfic]

re: https://www.tumblr.com/olderthannetfic/730458028258852864/it-is-always-more-morally-correct-to-buy-fan-merch

tulipmania was not a bubble. that’s a pop-econ misconception. i studied this in some depth at oxford. most of the notion of the mania came from this one guy (charles mackay) who a) wasn’t there & b) just made crap up afterwards. there was very little substantive economic impact post-price decline and it’s unclear, but unlikely, that the uninformed investors who were fueling it lost any money or houses etc. many of the accounts of that happening come from mackay, who again, made things up wholesale. see the smithsonian mag article by lorraine boissoneault for a concise explanation of the current economic thought on the matter. there’s also https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/tulipmania-garden-historians-perspective this article that is longer and quite good. additionally, prices rose again after the unskilled investors left the market and the market for unusual bulbs remains somewhat high even to this day.

the economic argument for the first actual bubble behavior that i know about is the south sea company and mississippi company bubbles which were actually economically devastating.

tangentially, there’s really fascinating history behind the rise of speculative markets in denmark and england, of which tulipmania is only somewhat relevant. i read a source while at oxford — some book, i’d have to dig for it — that made the claim that speculative markets started w wheat in the late 1500s, which i do turn over frequently in my head haha

--

[phoebosacerales]

is there some specifics transits that can indicate breaking up with someone? like mars transiting my 5th or anything like that (since my venus is scorpio)? i just broke up with my bf (well ex now lol) today and i'm trying to figure this out astrologically cause i'm curious (i'm fine btw). Thanks in advance!

If you're fine then congratulations! haha. Making these kind of decisions isn't usually easy.

Transit is not a technique that works the way most people think it works. When ancient astrologers talked about transits they were usually talking about the overlap of the solar revolution chart and the nativity. If your solar return (SR) has a planet on the sign of your natal 7th house, then that planet is transiting your 7th this year. The kind of transit that you're refering to will only be relevant if the planets involved are relevant for you this year, if at least one is the current time lord.

But there's also other techniques, like primary directions or progressions (this last one more recent and less used by traditional astrologers) that can show important changes in life. The presence of these can show bigger and more impactful life-altering events than the ones only indicated by the SR.

I have an example of this in my own life: I had my biggest break up and the passing of my maternal grandmother happen on the year when Venus was the time lord by profection (12th house profection). Besides the 12th, Venus also rules my 7th house, which has to do with partners and also the maternal grandmother. On the SR that year, Mars was on top of/transiting my natal Venus, which indicates severing, separation. It doesn't help that my Venus is in the 8th, and the fact that it's in a dual/mutable sign can indicate doubling, more than one thing being signified, and of course, there were two events in the same month indicated by the same configuration/transit. The fact that I'm ruled by Mars can mean I had agency in at least one of the events: I broke up with him. But in primary directions you could also see Venus was finally setting in the western sky. Big events, changes or transitions happen when you see planets reaching and passing an angle in primary directions, and the setting of a planet usually means endings.

I could take a quick look at your chart to see if I can easily identify something if you want. And if you're interested I'm available for full readings.

[steveharrington]

Steve is fundamentally a fan-service character. That is why he is given no depth, and that the majority of his situation is portrayed from a comedic relief angle, meme-able moments, and stuff like ''being a babysitter''. Is it enjoyable enough? I mean, sure, Steve fills that fanservice character role and people enjoy him being charming and funny, so the show portrays him that way. But he does not provide anything else other than that in the story. And just because he is given screentime does not make him an important part of the show either. He is a lovable, cool, and charming character that captured fans' hearts, and he receives screen time and fan service moments based on that. But I just do not get why people expect the writers to give Steve an actual storyline or real connection to the supernatural plot when his character was never meant to be given one, and his character is largely portrayed as a comedic relief or a fanservice funny character.

im going to challenge this because i think it's a bad writing practice to partition one character off as the designated Fan Service Character and think that absolves you, the writer, of giving them depth or realism. when we're thinking about characters...idk my personal belief is that they should feel like real people. saying "oh well that's just the comedic relief so we don't have to acknowledge that it's the fourth year in a row of him coming face to face with supernatural horrors in a way that either physically or mentally alters him" is just a cop-out and an excuse for lazy writing imo. and steve isn't some random side character who barely gets screen time either, like he isn't angela or tommy or mr. clarke, he's Heavily featured every season. he had the 2nd most lines in season two. idk i think if i, the viewer, am gonna be spending that much time watching a character, i'd like for them to have some semblance of a relevant plot or connection to the main storyline.

people expect steve to get a storyline or a connection to the supernatural plot because it's straight up bizarre for him to be in the middle of an enormous catastrophic supernatural event that always effects him personally, and yet somehow the show never acknowledges it. in season one a classmate dies in his pool and he discovers monsters exist, then fights one in close proximity. in season two another one of his classmates almost murders him. in season three he's tied up and tortured and drugged. in season four he's eaten alive by monsters. again if the duffers want their characters to feel like real people who exist within this story, at least one of those things should be important to steve's story! they should be acknowledged!

also i would argue that steve wasn't created To Be Fanservice. i won't argue that he's become a fanservice-centric character, but that wasn't like his only purpose in the story throughout the series. i think people have a recency bias when they look at steve's storyline, but he really didn't become such a heavily comedic character until season three. in season one he's a villain, like he serves to antagonize jonathan and represent this normalcy and stability in nancy's life that she rapidly moves away from as she searches for barb. and in season two, steve has a beautiful and like genuinely meaningful storyline. he starts off the season envisioning his future with nancy, he gets his heart broken, he gets roped into investigating supernatural happenings with this random kid who he could easily just ditch or dump on someone else but he stays, gives the kid advice based off his current emotional state, then continues to protect the others from the demodogs and billy and it gives him this obvious fulfillment and increased emotional maturity that allows him to finally let go of the relationship and future he was picturing. it was amazing and steve felt real and people loved it not because like "haha funny babysitter" but because it was very genuinely sweet to watch a disillusioned teenage boy form a bond with this dorky kid that benefitted both of them emotionally. it wasnt until seasons 3 & 4 that steve's potential storylines became sidelined for the sake of throwaway funny moments or like.... unrealistic healing abilities

idk i just think people connect with steve based off what we saw in seasons 1 & 2 and they're interested in his full potential if the writers would just utilize it. but because the duffers can't seem to balance an ensemble cast and because steve is easy to market he has become (game show audience voices) abandoned! by! the! narrative! but it doesn't have to be this way and it shouldn't, if stranger things wants to be recognized as a well written show with good character work

[ac-liveblogs]

Hello! I recall you comparing genshin quite often to fgo (in how badly genshin does everything in comparison lmao) so now I'm kinda curious - how does fgo balance the gacha banners with the story? I've always kinda imagined that if it were me in charge of genshin, I'd plan the banners like...a year in advance, so I could match relevant characters with relevant stories...is it something like that? (my experience w these kinda games is very limited haha)

Hey! Genshin and FGO are interesting bc they're both... m, player-friendly in very different ways? (thinking about genshin's shops where the currency comes from rolling/paid costumes vs FGO where the only things that cost money are the banners/free costumes)

Banners are an interesting question, though.

FGO is like you say - new character banners and reruns are synced up to story chapters and events where those characters are relevant. Unlike Genshin, which has a max of 4 banners at once (2 limited, 1 weapon, 1 standard), FGO has 2 permanent banners (1 standard, 1 that takes free in-game currency exclusively) and will then just have as few or as many banners as it feels are necessary for the current event.

So, while Genshin probably didn't put Scara in this year's summer event bc he'll show up in the Dragonspine event we'll probably get soon - I wouldn't be surprised if it'd been FGO, they just reran him both times, though there would probably also be new characters debuting on both or either Summer and Dragonspine alongside him (so it wouldn't be a loss if not many rolled, ha).

During events, there may be 1 or 2 limited banners with brand new characters that will last for the entire event, though the second will start a few days after the first. They'll also rerun characters that were either a) relevant to the event or b) relevant to that kind of event - e.g., during Halloween, you'll also get reruns of past Halloween banners, even if those characters don't show up in a major capacity... but those rerun banners are far shorter and might last a few days, or even just 24 hours.

During events like New Years, Valentines, Anniversaries or milestones, there are a lot of "1 day limited banner reruns" that you won't get notified about until the start of the event, or just before. You'll generally know when Servants are likely to drop if they're associated with seasonal events, or the rare event that shows up every year like GudaGuda, but beyond that..... shrug! If the character isn't relevant and isn't showing up for Anni, then... their future is mysterious and nebulous, no matter how popular they are!

(RIP to Arjuna Alter fans, he didn't get a rerun for......... a long time. a long, long time. such a good unit. so popular. no rerun for... ages...)

In this way, Genshin is far more stable and predictable than FGO - you can generally guess when a character is likely to reappear, and you've got longer to try and scrounge up currency to get them. It is less 'spontaneous' though, and I guess a bit less fun, and you get stuck with the same banners for ages without much change. So, Genshin is kinder in this way. (Genshin's pity is also far more generous, though I've oddly always had more luck in FGO even when they didn't have a pity system at all)

On the flipside, FGO doesn't have "weapons banners". FGO's 'weapons', closer to HSR's light cones, are just generically part of all banners. Additionally, FGO's character performance doesn't massively change when you get copies - to the point that most of the time it really isn't worth it at all, so you're less incentivised to roll for dupes. It's easier to get 'weapons'/craft essences for free in FGO, so... just roll the character once and you're good, I guess?

It's kind of a mixed bag, and for predatory gambling systems that want your money, both have their own unique ups and downs LMAO. I'd take FGO's writing any day, however.

[sleepingdeath-light]

please check this post before sending in any requests!!

this post will be updated to reflect the state of my requests at any given time — such as event based inbox closures, new boundaries and so on.

all relevant links/information can be found below the cut!

are my requests open?

yes!!!!

my current preferred fandom/obsession is listed in my bio, but i’m accepting requests for all of my fandoms

basic stuff / context

i only write for the fandoms found here

i do accept fandom suggestions (and list them here) but suggestions don’t guarantee that i will end up writing for them — that is dependent on me enjoying the content itself (obviously hahaha)

i do not write oc x character or character x character stuff, this is a reader insert only blog

i will not accept requests that you spam send to me (e.g. sending the same ask for the same character three or more times) — if you’re worried about me receiving your request, ask me about it instead

when it comes to fluff and angst requests, the only thing that’s off limits for me is child birth

when it comes to smut requests, i will not write anything involving: urination or scat fetish, armpit or foot fetish, fart or other gas related fetishes, vore or inflation, pregnancy and/or lactation kink, tickling kink, or anything involving kids, animals, or corpses (obviously) — but pretty much anything else is fine

this is my main writing blog but i do have side blogs for sapphic, hellaverse, black butler, and baynton boy content — though i’m most active here

who do i write for?

any / all characters from my available fandoms with one exception

that exception is that i am no longer accepting requests for hunter from toh — any posts going up are from before this boundary was established

if you’re requesting something that involves smut

state the reader’s gender and/or sex (they do not need to match but will be assumed to if you only list ‘male’ or ‘female’)

state the characters you want (and the fandom if they have an extremely common name)

state that you’re 18 or over either in your ask itself (if on anon) or somewhere visible in your profile (if not on anon) — this applies to headcanon requests as well

note : the above point about gender does not apply to headcanons as i am very easily able to keep them neutral — but you can specify a gender/sex for hc pieces if you’d like

regarding horror/slasher fandoms

for these fandoms i only write for a few small selection of characters — all of which are listed in my horror film masterlist (which you can access through the ‘my fandoms’ page — linked in the second section of this post)

regarding aus for wh

if an au was created by a minor then i will not be accepting nsfw requests for it

if the creator of an au stated that they don’t want any nsfw content being created for their au then i will not be accepting any nsfw requests for it

i will only accept nsfw requests for these aus if the following criteria is met:

the creator of that au is an adult

the creator has stated that they are okay with tagged nsfw content being created for their au

you have proof that both of these requirements are met (screenshots or links ideally — don’t tag any creators in my posts haha)

anything that deviates from the above (such as rf or lovesick) will not be open for any nsfw content requests — though, of course, i will still be accepting sfw requests for those aus so long as nothing breaks the known/stated boundaries of the og creators.

regarding indie fandoms

if a creator has expressed distinct discomfort with nsfw content being created for their creation(s) then i will only be writing sfw stuff for that fandom

if a creator is under the age of 18 then i will only be writing sfw stuff for that fandom

i can only uphold these boundaries if i am aware of them but there are cases where i haven’t been able to access/was unaware of a creator’s social media presence and stated boundaries. this doubly applies if the above information has only been stated on apps/platforms that i cannot access (bird app & clock app). please let me know if an indie creator fits either of the above criteria so that i can adjust my request boundaries accordingly.

frequently asked questions

(Q) do you write for character hcs (e.g. trans!character)? -> (A) yep! as long as you specify then i’m happy to include it

(Q) will you write for caregiver/little scenarios/hcs? -> (A) yep! as long as it doesn’t break any of my boundaries (linked further up this page) then i will accept your request

got any questions?

send them my way!

i’m always happy to clear up any confusion or misinterpretation that may spring up from my posts

as long as you’re polite, i’ll be polite lol

[birdydogs]

Introduction!!

Hello hello!! My name is Rory, I’m 21 years old, and I am a wolf therian and furry!

I typically post therian and furry content over on TikTok and YouTube, but due to the formatting of those platforms I am hardly ever able to talk about the more complicated and nuanced parts of therianthropy that I would like to. Which is why I have decided to make a tumblr!

This account will primarily be about my experiences with being a therian, and my thoughts about therianthropy in general, but I’ll probably also post other things from time to time.

About me!!

I think the most important thing to start with is the fact that I have a number of mental health conditions that affect major parts of my life.

The main reason I bring this up is the fact that I have DID, (which I tend not to mention on other platforms for my own sanity sigh) and I will probably be talking about system related things very often.

I am incredibly lucky that I have been able to have mental health treatment and intervention from a very young age, so my experiences as a DID system are probably very different than what you might have seen for others. Before it’s brought up, yes, I am professionally diagnosed with DID, but I don’t think that me being lucky and getting a diagnosis really makes me any different from those who don’t have that privilege. Anyway, on to the relevant details of my system:

There are only four alters that can front in my system, who are Ethan, Cerina, Reagan, and Rory. This account will primarily be run by Ethan, (who is the alter currently typing this) but other alters might post from time to time!

We all collectively identify as a wolf therian, but individual alters have other theriotypes too. It’s complicated to write about, but I’ll make a post about how our therianthropy works in our system eventually haha

We use both “we” and “I” interchangeably unless otherwise specified, and the name Rory is a catch all term for us! It can be used to refer to our body or our system as a whole as well as the individual alter Rory, but usually we just go by Rory collectively to make things easier.

The other relevant conditions to mention are our autism and ADHD which can affect how we interact with people and the world, so I figure I’ll make it known we have them too haha.

I am ftm transgender, and I use he/him and they/them pronouns! The label that fits me best is transmasc, but I use both gender neutral and masculine terms! I’ve been on T since 2019 and had top surgery in 2020!

I’m currently in college, and I’m planning on continuing onwards to law school after I graduate!

I love making art, especially masks and fursuits! I have an Etsy shop where I sell some of my creations called BirdyDogshop! Most of what I post on other platforms is my mask work, so if you’re interested my username is BirdyDogs pretty much everywhere haha!!

I am in a long term relationship with my boyfriend, Frank, and will probably talk about him from time to time haha, he’s also a therian and I love him very much!!!!!

Thank you for reading and I look forward to posting more!! :D