#pc: virtue and vice

[51334y]

I was pretty happy when I see that Vices & Virtues was updated. So, I decided to finish a sketch of Veronica in this AU that was forgotten in my pc lol

Thanks @dawritingdragon 😭

[poisonhemlocke]

finally did the oc color wheel challenge !!

character info under the cut :3

(potential spoilers for no room for a wallflower act 1, icewind dale: rime of the frostmaiden

orange - calliope “cal” osborne, callsign NIGHTMARE. pilots “TURN AROUND”, an SSC mourning cloak. she has a fairly abrasive personality developed over years in the Union military as part of a Farfield team, but at the end of the day, she joined the military to try and make a difference and ensure the Utopian Pillars are followed, and that remains her primary goal. perpetually pissed off about not being promoted or given important missions. she’s currently the commander of her squad.

yellow - angelica luminari, aka amitiel-52, aka virtue candor. an angel sent to earth as a magical girl to spread joy and happiness and defeat villains with the power of friendship, she has a tendency to be overly self sacrificing since she doesn’t view herself as human. she’s friendly and outgoing, and though she can be annoying at times, she’s a sweet person and gets along well with others. her powers focus on healing, defense, and mobility.

green - natalya essix, callsign URSA. former pilot of “NO REGRETS”, a lancaster frame. she’s a medic from the HUC, specifically the city of daylight. she’s gentle and kind, and can usually be trusted to remain level-headed in times of crisis. her wife and two of her three children were killed in the bombing of daylight, her son only narrowly surviving as he’d left the city the day before. she sustained heavy burns and mental trauma in the fight with BEGGAR-ONE, and retired from mech combat after that.

cyan - maxine collier V, callsign FIVE. pilots the HORUS lycan frame “GREG 3: THERE’S ANOTHER ONE”. this is my horrible gremlin woman, she’s violent and reckless and doesn’t think before she acts (or ever, really). she’s the fifth iteration of “herself”, and is horribly in debt as a result of the expensive cloning procedures. glass arm is a result of incidents with the DHIYED metavault and a trip to the firmament, which left her as an aunic Mind still trying to come to terms with this new religion.

blue - zalia moonkeeper, abjuration wizard and alchemist artificer. has 5-6 voices currently constantly talking telepathically in their head and considering that they’re doing quite well. alongside the party’s armorer artificer, their research colleague, they’ve uncovered much of the technology of an ancient duergar civilization, which they’re currently attempting to use to turn themselves into warforged and attain immortality.

purple - CAIN IDENT X452, lucy davis. tension blasphemy, doomed agenda. previously manifested a sin— specifically, a type II LORD which took the form of an angel. the scars on her face and the rest of her body are a result of the tight “halos” which made up part of the angel, and the shifting many-pupiled eyes are a Sin Mark allowing her to see through solid objects in short distance. she puts on a friendly face, and legitimately tries to be kind, but ultimately what matters most to her is the mission and killing Sins. everything else is secondary.

pink - florence liren, aka CHECKMATE. a smug egocentric hacker from the world of neon city overdrive, she considers herself a self-styled “queen of the underworld”, often wearing gaudy or ostentatious-looking clothes and indulging in various vices. she has morals, but they’re few, far between, and often easily compromised for the promise of a few credits. her body is nearly all cybernetic by this point, including a pair of auxiliary arms which she uses mainly as weapon.

red - nix. she’s a kobold warlock, and my pc in an icewind dale campaign. myself and the one other player play as two kobolds, who typically stack themselves in a trench coat when they go around. they’re both servants of an eldritch deity which speaks to them through the coat, its name is Coatthulhu. nix is not above cannibalism, and usually eats pretty much every monster or bad guy the party kills.

[igorlevchenko-blog]

A word on Gothic, the game.

I had a brief exchange with @feletida on whether tw*tter could accommodate such literary genre as "giant schizo post" on merits of Gothic as an RPG. So here it goes…

Of course no discussion of the game would be scholarly without first addressing the elephant in the room: the Big Bad of the series is not some malignant deity, nor dragons, not even orcs—it's narcotic swamp-weed. For now, take it as you will.

Ok, what then, of the game's villains?

By the word's etymology, a villain is but a low-born rustic. Not an evil-doer per se, being inherently devoid of chivalry he's corralled into systematic moral failings by his own vices (which he himself cannot quite put the lid on).

By this definition, our five main heroes (PC, Diego, Gorn, Lester, Milten) are too—villains, for each has an unbridled vice salient within him.

Lester is slothful. He prefers never to take an active role in whatever happens to and around him. He spends most of the second game sitting by the fire roasting weenies, before settling into a routine of complaining about his migraines, caused most likely by excessive smoking. Of course he presents this as being forced into the habit by evil pull of hidden. At the start of Gothic 3 he's relegated to guarding the ship—a task he spectacularly fails at by letting it be stolen by pirate-vagabonds. A spell-speaker like Lester (supposedly is) shouldn't have had problems with dispersing a low-level rabble of mooks and yet.

Milton is excessively deferential towards authority and thus often finds himself stringed along into some disaster of altogether not his doing.

Diego's vice is pride, believe it or not. He may pose himself as a man with plans and shrewd ambition, but when Diego finally comes into good fortunes—he finds no gratification and readily discards it all in favour of adventure. The wealth and prestige have never mattered much to him, I reckon—it's been a pretext all along to ply his guile. This is the essence of self-adoration—to feel obliged to give regular libations to one's virtues.

Gorn alone resolves to reign in his vice (gluttony) for the sake of others. For a time at least—specifically when they all go on a sea voyage at the end of second game. All the while the others just continue wallowing in their vices.

Indeed Milten gets to have an authority above him, Lester—to further shirk all responsibility, Diego—to exercise his skills.

As for the PC: do I even have to list everything that's wrong with this beastly character. After all, you—being the player—have the perfect recollection of yourself running around beating friendlies unconscious to steal their weapons, ore and whatnot. The second game has a whole spell-scroll infrastructure to support that kind of play, made canon by Night of The Raven expansion's stringent allocation of learning points.

[jackalsinthekitchen]

pop report #8 (today's top hits, 9/24/24)

today's top twenty – short n' salty

A whole Brat Summer has come and gone since we last left off. I tumbled belatedly down Charli’s rabbit hole in January, when I was looking for something to flatter a high, and she ended up blowing my world apart. I’d slept on her a decade ago, when she was both sugar and spice – everything nice, really – in hits which have aged varying degrees of well. Yet her 2015 union with PC Music was what put the form to her urge to soundscape – unlike the DMT-addled Todd Rundgren of fifty years ago, of whom she’s a fan, she’s nothing if not collaborative. When I first played brat, besotted as any sane person would be by the effervescent “360”, I found its music too metallic and its melodies overly astringent. Mea culpa – now no less an authority than our next president [knock, knock] has validated her cultural primacy.

So you won’t catch me complaining anymore – it couldn’t have happened to a more visionary icon. But of course, the year belongs to neither Charli, nor the victor in the battle of the quarter-century (not talking about Beyoncé v. Swift, who I think it’s safe to say overdid themselves into a draw this time out). Armed with little more than a wand, a rabbit, and a kabuki-meets-Cyndi Lauper aesthetic, the Midwest Princess finally completed her year-long rise this fall. Meanwhile, in Chappell’s shadow, the Last Straight Femme has put a bow on a fascinating saga that kicked off with “Drivers License”, while Olivia takes sour selfies abroad. And the season of the sticks is long over, with the cabal of bros who once threatened to turn 2024 into the Year of the Dude proving one-hit wonders – or if not one, at least a lot less than F-1 trillion.

But the bro atop half of Today’s Top Hit, Bruno Mars, is a different breed altogether – like his duet partner, one L. Gaga, a star so massive he’s transcended this plane, if not the material world. The languidly soulful waltz “Die with a Smile” sounds to me like an AI dream about “Beautiful Things” being less annoying, and as with everything else America can’t stop listening to (including “Beautiful Things”), someday soon I’m sure I’ll love it. But it still turns on vocals which grind into sincerity, yielding more sawdust than sparks, and presumably won’t unite a wedding dancefloor like “Uptown Funk” or “Bad Romance” ages from now. I suppose each artist thought they had to remind us that they were alive, and forgive my cynicism that the song is doing so well on branding power alone (well, and maybe those outfits).

Tate McRae is another one who feels greedier for the public than vice versa, but it’s ok – “It’s ok I’m ok” is a bit more than OK, the rapid-fire rap hook and sudden wash of synth atmospherics disrupting its relative self-repetition. It's another one that promises to grow over a slow fade; I’d say pop hits are fading slower than ever, but really, it’s always been this way. It does boast some brevity, said to be the soul of something in limited currency – its brisk two and a half minutes feel closer to 75 seconds. Lasting as long is #3, a single about lingering, Short n’ Sweet (ha)’s attention-seizing opener “Taste”. Whereas Olivia’s overtures to authenticity made her so compelling, Sabrina leans into the prefab, and it’s fab every time, fam. Its throwback feel is one of its chiefest virtues – it’s a dead ringer for the Divinvyls, and who doesn't dig the Divinyvls?

The fun of Chappell Roan is which of her big hits you can’t escape at any given moment – only “Pink Pony Club”, which is basically a standard now, is falling behind the rest of the pack. #4 on today’s TTH is “Good Luck, Babe”, its chorus such a pristine flourish of frosting it’s always good for getting through, coming out or kissing off. It’s the first in a trio of queer victories down the list, followed by Charli’s zero-melody banger “Guess”, feat. Billie E, whose subsequently-slotted “Birds of a Feather” is to “we can’t be friends” (#21) as Sour is to Short n’ Sweet. Here’s a girl who writes like she earned both her Oscars. This sapphic streak goes up in flames with the Weeknd, a painfully-straight whose strongest hits sound super gay anyway. After The Idol, the flames are all he can dance in.

#s 8-12 are five stalwart inescapables – that me espresso, H-O-T-T-O-G-O, J.J. Abrams’ nepo baby keenly cornering the “wounded submissive with an acoustic guitar” half of the Taylor Swift market (her vocals softening Olivia’s bratty diction with Billie’s volume control – “I Love You, I’m Sorry”, not as good as “Risk” but still good), Hozier cornering the Adam Levine market (it’s not my aphrodisiac, but the sky still splits open at that wailing instrumental break), errybody in the bahr gittin’ tyup-seh. Then the crisp, honeyed “Apple”, one of a handful of excellent hooks (not to mention lyrics) I missed like a dumb bitch when I was being a brat about brat. Benson Boone’s “Slow it Down” (no one asked you to, BB) sounds extra hoary directly after – though yet again, he builds up to something more worth your while than you expect from the first minute.

Depending on how you look at it, no two bros need more or less help than Post Malone and Morgan Wallen. But for their stab at the song of the summer – per Billboard, it worked – six additional bros lent a hand (though, credit where due, one of them is named Ashley). “I Had Some Help” is solid, and as with all decent-plus generic pop hits gets better or worse depending on the weather in your town or head. Still, the main takeaway is that both men would love to be Sabrina Carpenter, if not Chappell Roan. Next in line is the only member of the Tortured Poets’ Department that doesn’t sound asleep, "I Can Do it With a Broken Heart", a missile aimed directly under Joe Alwyn’s skin – the same summer the latter decided it would be a canny career move to play a rapist in Yorgos Lanthimos’ hasty surrender of his newly-acquired feminist cred.

After Tommy “Temporarily” Richman’s programmatic percolator “Million Dollar Baby” – his album will be called Coyote, though he might’ve just as easily gone with I, Robot – comes a new one for the stomp-clappers Noah Kahan pulled out of the woodwork: Myles Smith’s “Stargazing”. Anyone who’s ever wondered what Chris Martin would sound like fronting Mumford & Sons will be free to turn their attention elsewhere. Then there’s an arresting little club-designed mystery I haven’t heard before – “Move”, by two white guys (Adam Port and Stryv) and a Black vocalist (Malachiii) gently cashing in on a bourgeoning Afrobeats bubble (on this hemisphere, anyway – it’s an embarrassment of riches on the other). It’s a big hit in Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Austria – shades of ABBA, who never crossed the color line in their lives.

I’d call #20 the secret song of the summer – while many of us are feeling hot to go and so Julia, there are still plenty of shitty vibes to go around, not to mention shitty men (this writer included). Justice doesn’t get more poetic than “Please Please Please” hitting the top in a surging crop of penis-pop. While Sabrina’s triumphs are often trifles, “Please” nails an almost unprecedented level of sexual-politics profundity without a speck of strain or waste (I’d be shocked if it featured more than three instruments). Sure, Olivia’s righteous rage always hits like a tonic, but something about Carpenter’s straight-to-the-point disappointment feels a great deal more potent. Imagine if Lesley Gore, not to mention Aretha Franklin, had had “I beg you, don’t embarrass me motherfucker” at their disposal. Even then, neither would’ve delivered that last word with the same score-settling perfection. Morgan Wallen and Post Malone will always have some help. 2024’s pop queens don’t need any.

[dragon-not-a-lizard]

19 | Gemini Sun | ESFP-T | Type 7

Archetype — The Joker

Birthday — 6/12/2005

Zodiac Sign — Gemini Sun

MBTI — ESFP-T, The Entertainer

Enneagram — Type 7, The Enthusiast

Temperament — Sanguine

Hogwarts House — Slytherin Primary, Gryffindor Secondary

Moral Alignment — Chaotic Good?

Primary Vice — Impulsive

Primary Virtue — Loyal

Element — Fire

Overview:

Mother — Long Hóngméi

Father — Long Tāo

Mother’s Occupation — Stay at home wife

Father’s Occupation — Chinese National Dragon!

Family Finances — Upper Middle Class

Birth Order — Second Son

Brothers —  One Older, 5 years apart

Sisters — none

Other Close Family — 2 aunts and their husbands on his dad's side and cousins from that, 1 uncle from his mom's side and his wife and then 2 cousins from that family. also his grandparents on his dad's side

Best Friend — Huang Jùnjié

Other Friends — Yuè, Yǔxīn, Mǐn, Shuài

Enemies — none yet?

Pets — none, but has an animal guardian Crickey that looks like a maltese!

Home Life During Childhood — stressful, constantly trying to figure out being a Dragon, and parental expectations too high. Mushu didn't get to do too many fun things

Town or City Name(s) — Beijing, China

What Did His or Her Bedroom Look Like — covered in basketball posters, video game posters and all that. A gaming desk and chair and gaming pc all in one spot too.

Any Sports or Clubs — Basketball! And Esports!

Favorite Toy or Game — NBA 2K League

Schooling — went to private school for elementary, middle, and high school

Favorite Subject — P.E.

Popular or Loner — Popular

Important Experiences or Events — Getting left on top of a mountain =/

Nationality — Chinese

Culture — Both regular Chinese festival and cultural events, and also that of the Dragons

Religion and beliefs — agnostic, but does visit temples and things sometimes

Physical Appearance

Face Claim —  Zhong Chenle

Complexion — Pale

Hair Colour — Depends on the season and what he chooses to dye it. Originally black

Eye Colour — brown

Height — 5'10"

Build — thin, lanky

Tattoos — none yet

Piercings — just basic ears

Common Hairstyle — usually simple with bangs to the side

Clothing Style — sweats and a shirt are his preferred style, basketball shorts and a tee same idea. Hoodies also.

Mannerisms — drumming his fingers on his legs, tipping his chair back and putting his feet on a desk, sticking his tongue out, puffing his cheeks

Usual Expression — smirking or smiling

Health

Overall (do they get sick easily)? — no he's usually pretty healthy

Physical Ailments — he is "human-locked" as a Dragon

Neurological Conditions — none really, got some trauma he's working through

Allergies —  Shrimp

Grooming Habits — he's relatively clean, but he doesn't put a lot of effort in either

Sleeping Habits — usually prefers to stay up late and get up late

Eating Habits — loves food, eats regular meals

Exercise Habits —  he plays basketball on the regular

Emotional Stability — Somewhat stable

Body Temperature — Cool, should be warmer but he can't access his dragon

Sociability — Social

Addictions — None, unless you count addicted to esports

Drug Use — None

Alcohol Use — Socially

Your Character’s Character: 

Bad Habits — procrastinating

Good Habits — staying in shape

Best Characteristic — Outgoing

Worst Characteristic — Pretending his problems don't exist

Worst Memory — seriously, it's being left on a mountain alone

Best Memory — getting his first three pointer shot in

Proud of — his older brother

Embarrassed by — the fact that he is human-locked

Driving Style — he doesn't drive

Strong Points — Confidence

Temperament — Sanguine

Attitude — Overly confident with no grounds for it

Weakness — many, but mainly his trauma

Fears — that he'll never get out of being human-locked

Phobias — being isolated

Secrets — he's not sure he really wants to make his parents proud

Regrets — lying about his Dragon side and messing up with the family treasures

Feels Vulnerable When — anyone gets behind his confident exterior

Pet Peeves — being told he simply HAS to see or listen to something specific. Usually he'll do the exact opposite

Conflicts — His relationship with his dad, his human-locked situation

Motivation — restoring his own honor

Short Term Goals and Hopes — find the family treasure that got stolen, break out of being human-locked

Long Term Goals and Hopes — restoring his honor and being welcomed back to the family

Sexuality — Bisexual

Exercise Routine  — regular workouts and playing basketball

Day or Night Person — Both depending

Introvert or Extrovert — Extrovert

Optimist or Pessimist — Realist?

Greatest Want — to no longer be human-locked

Greatest Need — to figure out his place in life

[musubi-sama]

Shuffle Experiment

Normally I just listen to music on Spotify, despite my modest owned music library. It's just easier to tell an algo to give me music in a narrow (or wide-ish) vein and focus on the task at hand.

But my phone had an aneurysm this morning and I plugged it into my PC for an update, so iTunes is open. And it feels weird to have it open while listening on Spotify.

So here's my first 10 full-library shuffle playlist for y'all:

Disappeared Town - Radwimps (Your Name. OST)

Livin' In A World Without You - The Rasmus (Black Roses)

Something You Lost - The Airborne Toxic Event (Dope Machines)

Liquid State - Muse (The 2nd Law)

Chadley's Theme - Various Artists (FF7 Rebirth OST Disc )

Track 33 - Various Artists - (Naruto OST) yes I have a lot of unnamed tracks

Come Sail Away - [redacted] High School/Styx (2005 Field Show)

This Is How It Goes - Billy Talent (Billy Talent)

Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds - Bono & The Edge (Across the Universe OST)

The Calendar - Panic! At the Disco (Vices & Virtues)

Why don't you give it a try and see what happens?

divider by ME!

[lutoogyan]

15 Best Mechanical Keyboards for PC (2023): Gaming and Work

There are few things as polarizing as PC keyboards. There are message boards and subreddits filled to the brim with opinions dissecting every aspect and component, from the virtues and vices of different switch mechanisms to the plastic used in the key caps. There’s good reason for that. You probably spend a lot of time on your keyboard, along with a (hopefully) comfortable mouse. You might as…

[quoththegayven]

happy sts! if you could put any of your characters into any outfit, who would it be and what would they wear?

happy sts! Fantastic question. I would put all my girls in an array of iconic Janelle Monaé looks. In order, below, imagine these outfits on Laurel, Lu, Siofra, and Nevaeh!

(Bonus: Naz, and my newest character not-yet-played, Elliot!)

[quoththegayven]

Laurel: local dirty crime girl ruins everything and dips

Lu: ...gun

Siofra: half elf personally escapes all the tragedy around her yet still feels guilty as shit

Naz: circus tiefling decides it's time for her rebellious phase

explain your dnd characters backstory in the shittiest way possible

[kscriba]

Song Tag :)

RULES: List 5 songs that you will never get tired of, and tag people!  

Thank you for the tag @blackcatsims!

1. I’m Still Here (Treasure Planet / John Rzeznik) I probably put this song on every list but I really can’t ever get tired of it 2. God Help the Outcasts (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) 3. Past the Point of No Return (The Phantom of the Opera)  4. Turn off the Lights (P!ATD) 5. Dead Girl Walking (Heathers)

I’m going to tag @hallucinosims @treason-and-plot @usermoon & @lunesim

[dailyadventureprompts]

Monsters Reimagined: Celestials

BE NOT AFRAID

Angels and their kin have been a common request in my inbox for some years now, but It’s taken me some time to actually write this post in no small part because I needed to come to terms with how I wanted them to work in my own world.

The problem was finding a balance in the “all angels are good, if not nice”  angel, and the “gritty, singleminded zealotry” angel that’s become the default as generation after generation of creator has pushed back against an oppressive religious culture and wanted to see the icons of that religion dragged through the mud as a means of validation. 

As I’ve discussed with my post on fiends, I don’t like how d&d does alignments: not just as moral absolutes, but as universal constants that leave no room for debate or faith or contradiction, as belief is systematized and taxonomized, with each good and bad deed having a corresponding outsider and designated parkingspot in the great cosmic wheel.

Here’s my pitch then:  Just as demons embody mortal vices gone awry, and fey embody the natural world, celestials embody ideals, pure concepts that exist one step removed from the practical considerations of physical reality. Not only does this allow you to keep your usual “justice”, “kindness” angels on theme, but it also lets you square concepts that would seem to be contradictory without making hard and fast moral judgements about things that can be good in some cases but not in others. An angel of feasting and good cheer might disagree with an enlightened master of ascetic self discipline, especially about whether their mortal wards should really help themselves to a third round of dessert, but neither would fault the other should the decision go their way. Good is not absolute after all.

That said, there’s plenty of different types of celestials, some of whom might disagree on that non-absolutist take, but to find out about my personal taxonomy, you’re going to have to keep reading under the cut

Angels: While all celestials embody some kind of ideal, the angels are out there being the good they want to see in the multiverse. Just like devils actively work to find fault with mortals or punish them for their transgressions, angels wish to extol and foster their virtues. Including angels in your adventure will typically have them picking someone (possibly a PC, possibly a side character, maybe even a villain) and nudging them towards their better nature. Some angels may even be created when someone’s goodness outlives them, or called into being when a collection of goodness coalesces over time. Angels are not the direct subordinates of gods, as gods exist in an even further removed state of idealization, they do however have closer contact with gods, more akin to that of a higher level cleric.

Fallen angels: just as medicine can become poison depending on the dosage, virtuous behaviour can become a vice if taken to its extreme. Righteousness can become wrath, love can become obsession, selflessness can become martyrdom. Little better than demons at their worst, angels that lose the ability to compromise or see other points of view are at risk of becoming something destructive.

Archons: Embodiments of laws by which people are governed, these celestials were placed in charge of mortals during the chaotic dawn age, in an attempt to give the fledgling cultures and civilizations they cared for a scaffolding to build off off. The arcons were despotic tyrants horever, caring little for the wellbeing of their charges compared to the enforcement of the systems they personified. These draconian despots have long been banished to their own little corners of the multiverse, and adventures involving them will likely revolve around an archon trying to reobtain power, or the unearthing of cruel artifacts they used to maintain it.

Lesser Graces: What could be called “Feral Angels”, these spirits represent minor or incidental forms of benevolence removed from coherency or greater morals. The Reverence of moths towards a lamp, a child’s dream of flying free, the protective spirit of a community of feral cats. These are the celestials most likely to be encountered by players in the early stages of their adventures, stumbling upon them incidently as they explore the untouched places of the world.

Psychopomps: Though often spooky or grisly,  the shepherds of the dead play an important role in seeing the souls of mortal to their final destination, whether that be in the keeping of a god or the great resting place of the underworld. A party is most likely to encounter psychopomps after someone kicks the bucket, though minor spiritguides may linger around graveyards and tombs, looking to escort lingering souls and dismiss the undead.

Indescribable: From a distance the light of the sun warms the world and nourishes growth, but on a greater scale it can scorch a land to lifeless desert and at its maximum is it nothing but thermonuclear oblivion. Such is the case with the indescribable, celestial entities that take concepts like “purity” or “sanctified” and turn it to the absurd.  Ethanol is pure after all, but that’s because it kills any microbial life that it comes in contact with.  Indescribables tend to exist beyond the reality of the multiverse, or else carve off very specific territories within it, and adventures involving them likely involve some holier than thou idiot who’s decided to take an ethical system and drive it into an omnicidal ditch.

[our-kratos]

Certain guns conjure up images related to the times they were used. e 1894 Winchester lever-action is the classic cowboy gun of the Old West. e M1 Garand is seen as the rifle that won World War II and the M1911A1 as the sidearm of choice for soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen.Not all weapons have a positive image connected to them, though.

[quoththegayven]

Naz, also known by her stage name, Vice, is my trans lesbian tiefling metal bard. She and her bandmates can walk into people's mindscapes and change their hearts, Persona 5 style. She is the bands lead guitarist and vocalist, she grew up in a circus, and she has a crush on this sweet lil triton named Malana 😍

Tell me about your queer characters because I love and will personally adopt or marry every last one of them

[ristipistoja]

🕹, 📖, 🌼 for the ask game!

Thank you for the ask!

🕹 Video game you are currently playing

Stardew Valley on PC and Fire Emblem Heroes on Mobile.

📖 Fave book

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee.

🌼 Fave flower

Lily-of-the-valley, sunflower and any blue ones.

[pheita]

Aesthetic Tag

I was tagged by @nanaschreibt. After some weird glitches with Tumblr that made it impossible to open the original post on PC but could open it on mobile I now am ready.  ancient or modern · bitter or sweet · chocolate or vanilla · coffee or tea · create or destroy · day or night · early bird or night owl · freckles or dimples · gold or silver · greek mythology or egyptian mythology · macarons or eclairs · hot or cold · thunder or lightning · typewritten or handwritten · secret garden or secret library · spicy or mild · dark magic or light magic · virtue or vice · ocean or desert · mermaids or sirens · known or unknown · rough or smooth · moon or stars · rain or snow Ok so here we go with tags. Of course only if you like @blueinkblot @jaimistoryteller @stories-by-rie @chris-the-dragonslayer

[phonaesthemes]

a list of asks

@padawanyugi tagged me in this, but Tumblr decided to eat any notification that I got tagged, so I’m glad I saw it on my dash because I like filling these things out. Thanks for tagging me! I may have typed A Lot.

Favorites: What types of books do you enjoy? Tell about what you’ve read recently (Or maybe about a book you hated recently!)I like spec-fic and sci-fi, although less “hard” science fiction, and I also enjoy fantasy. I read a lot of YA even though I’m in my 30s just because it seems easy to find a story I want to read and I’m not usually in the mood for dense prose.

I’ve been rereading the Wheel of Time series since it’s getting an Amazon TV show; it was my first non-LOTR fantasy series and I love it to death, warts and all, although I love joking about the weak points with other people who’ve read it. I think the last other thing I read was A Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue, which was a queer YA historical fiction, and it was a lot of fun. I wish I’d had access to all these queer stories when I was an actual teenager, but better late than never.

What types of music do you like to listen to? Share five songs from your music library. I really do like a bit of everything, although I gravitate towards certain genres more often depending on the season or time of day, so I’m going to cheat and pick 5 per season. Summer for me is lots of peppy pop (pride playlists!), punk and rock and punk-adjacent stuff, just upbeat stuff in general. -Weekender, by The Royal They -Break My Heart, by Dua Lipa -Toutes les femmes savent danser, by Loud -Ruby Soho, by Rancid -Womanarchist, by Bad Cop, Bad Cop

In the fall, my inner goth kid craves darkwave, goth rock, dramatic folk, roots rock, and also anything that reminds me of Halloween. -Iuka, by the Secret Sisters -Bela Lugosi’s Dead, by Bauhaus -How’s It Gonna End, by Tom Waits -Under the Milky Way, by The Church -I Put a Spell on You, by Screamin’ Jay Hawkins I could go on about the Christmas music I like at length (Boney M’s Christmas album slaps, ngl) but I’ll just skip that and say that I listen to more classical and piano pieces in the winter. I’m terrible at remembering names, so artists only: -Ludovico Einaudi -Chopin -Debussy -Saint-Saëns -Dvořák And in spring I’m usually just depressed af and listen to whatever. -FML, by K.Flay -Weird Part of the Night, by Louis Cole -Juodaan Viinaa, by Korpiklaani -P.O.H.U.I., by Carla’s Dreams -Marryuna, by Baker Boy

Do you have a show or movie that you can just put on anytime and it’s your comfort? Definitely Star Trek. I’ve rewatched the various iterations (except TOS) so many times. Also Mean Girls and Bring It On, idk why.

Do you have a favorite dessert? Tiramisu or creme brulée! Or macarons. I don’t eat dessert really unless I’m at a restaurant.

Do you have a favorite cold drink? Sparkling water, hands down.

Do you have a favorite game? The hours I have put into the SIms in my lifetime is probably shameful, although I haven’t played in a while. Don’t Starve is another contender for hours played, but I am also really fond everything by Amanita Design

Do you have a favorite part of your self care/beauty/health routine? I haven’t been doing it much lately since I’ve been dealing with some uncertain health issues with my joints (actually have a rheumatologist appointment later today), but savasana after a long yoga workout is borderline ecstasy.

Do you have a favorite type of take-out food? Indian for sure.

What’s your favorite type of exercise/physical activity? I have a love-hate relationship with running. I don’t actually love it but I love how I feel after. I really enjoy yoga. I love playing in the water at the beach, bodyboarding and swimming.

Pick between: (you choose the context)

Cook or bake? (I love cooking A Lot)

Space or ocean? (Hard to pick, but I grew up by the ocean and it’s 100% my happy place)

Chocolate or vanilla?

City or suburb or rural? (I grew up in an isolated rural village and I miss the quiet and the slower pace of life, but I do not miss the lack of amenities and opportunities, or the smalltown gossip. I also don’t drive bc of epilepsy, so I’m fucked as far as transport in rural settings.)

Past or future?

Shower in the morning or evening?

Mac/Apple or PC/Android? (Linux in general!)

Sing or dance?  (I don’t have an amazing voice but I can carry a tune without it being painful, and I love singing along with songs.)

Get up early or sleep in? (I actually love sleeping in but with two kids, early morning is my only time to myself, so I wake up before 6 most days AGGH.)

Shoes, socks, or bare feet? (Hate socks. I’m barefoot at home all year round.)

Marker, crayon, or pencil? Pen!

Tea, coffee, or hot chocolate? (Coffee in the morning, tea later on.)

Random questions:

Have you ever had any pets? (Had dogs and a cat as a kid, and as an adult I’ve had betta fish and cats, and I have a cat currently.)

What is your academic background/job field? I did my undergrad in linguistics, and I am currently a stay-at-home dad lol. I do freelance editing and transcription on the side. I don’t think I’ll ever work in my field bc I really don’t have the energy to go to grad school.

What’s something random that you’re into (even if you aren’t good at it)? I signed up for a Cape Breton step dancing class in university and I loved it.

Are you good at putting away your clean laundry right away? It depends on the day, but generally yes. Mine and everyone else’s. When I lived alone? Absolutely not.

What’s one of your pet peeves? Someone trying to have a conversation with me when they have the radio or TV on. I can’t follow what you’re saying if someone else is speaking! I hate having that stuff on as background noise in general.

What’s something you’re pretty good at? I’m a great cook.

What’s the most recent nice thing you bought for yourself? A new conditioner ig? lol

Can you sew? I can mend a small tear or sew on a button, but it’s been years since I did more than that.

What’s a chore you hate (or a chore you enjoy)? I hate vacuuming so much. So much. Maybe if I had a better vaccuum cleaner I wouldn’t mind it, but I just feel like I’m fighting with the stupid thing, getting caught up on its own cords, caught on furniture, can’t quiiiite reach a spot... HATE IT. I like shoveling snow sometimes, though.

Tell us a fun fact about yourself. I am 20 years older than my youngest sibling, and five minutes younger than my “oldest” sibling.

Never have I ever... Gone fishing, even though I’m from a fishing community.

What extracurriculars did/do you do in school? In high school, I played trumpet in band until the band got dissolved from lack of funding. I played soccer one year, was in a play another year. We had an art club for like a semester that I was in. In university the first time round, I did step dancing and intramural hide and seek  Second time around, I was in the linguistics club to help with assignments. (We were very much encouraged to work in pairs or groups for a lot of different classes. The only thing was that you did need to list your group members on the assignment so the prof knew who you worked with. My first morphology class in particular, we had a whole homework club where a huge portion of the class got together to work through assignments and help each other understand, and the prof would quite often show up. </tangent>

Deeper questions:

How’s your quarantine/last few months been? The cabin fever was really bad before the weather warmed up. I struggle with seasonal depression every spring, and it’s gotten much worse since we moved to Edmonton because of how long the winters are. (Snow from September to May/June? Fucccck.) It’s frankly horrifying to look at what’s going on in the US, but even though we have far fewer cases here, I’m really anxious that we’ll see another wave soon. Otherwise, I think I’ve adjusted. Home-schooling, hand-sanitizing, social distancing, masks...All feels kind of normal now, which should maybe concern me.

What do you think of human nature/society/etc.? I am like the least philosophical person you will meet so I don’t think I really have many thoughts.

What’s something you are insecure about? Writing my L2 if a native speaker is gonna read it.

What do you think is the meaning of life/reason that humans exist in the universe? I don’t think there is one, and that doesn’t bother me.

Do you think you’re better (whatever that means to you) than you used to be? Definitely. My adolescence and early adulthood was rough. I was dealing with a lot of trauma, untreated bipolar disorder, and I self-harmed for a very long time. I could not imagine making it to 30, let alone being stable and happy. I actively avoided thinking about the future because it made me spiral. But I was lucky enough to get help, consistent help from a doctor I clicked with, and it made a world of difference. I think younger me would be disappointed at how mundane my life is, but I’m thrilled to be boring because boring means no life-upending mood episodes. I have a happy partnership and two delightful kids and I couldn’t ask for more.

What are your thoughts on religion? I’m not religious and my own experience being raised in the Catholic church was frankly traumatic, but I know that it’s a source of comfort and community for many others and I think that’s awesome for them.

Do you think that there are aliens out there? I think so, although I think that we may not even know what other kinds of life to look for and may not recognize it even if we find it.

What’s something that’s been on your mind recently? We’re moving cross-country in less than a month (driving, no less, nearly 5000 km) and I still have so much to do to get ready aosjdoajdoasijdoaijsd