#probably won’t these folk have bigger problems

[tothesolarium]

Staying focused is so hard. I wanna polish up the story to help me figure out the way into the next few chapters but then I get like- a third or a chapter edited and wanna go back to drawing fhdhdh

[skyeoak]

Tmagp 30 thoughts

Vocal performances all slayed. 10/10

I think there’s a lot of good and bad in the finale! But overall, it feels underbaked. (Or overplotted/overplanned?)

I’ll save my finalized thoughts on the hilltop center to see if it’s developed in further seasons, because uh, hmm. Jonny said in the live drop that carousels of horrors were his favorite to write, but they sure are not realllyyyy my favorite to listen to. They’re kind of thematic scattershot. And yeah, one of my critiques about TMA is that I don’t love how we only rarely see how the fears combine and interact. Having multiple creepy things in a curiosity cabinet -com shopping center doesn’t really solve that problem for me.

The idea of a character turning a blind eye to an obviously creepy job is still interesting, especially in how it parallels the staff of the OIAR. But that’s kinda the start and end of my interest in the custodian? It feels like this story could have been shrunk to 1/3 length and had a better effect. I just feel like this should have been a midseason statement, and the finale could have focused on having some sort of action or tension. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting the finale to have a statement at all, to be structurally in line with early TMA. Maybe a full statement/story from Celia, giving the non-TMA audience some idea of why she thinks there’s nothing to go back to in her universe. Hell. Maybe she could just. Tell Sam, uncompelled. I would have loved to see her try to convince him to jump. Convince him that her new life matters more than his (perceived) failure of one. Instead… this is another episode where I feel like the double meaning titles weigh down what the statement could be. And it’s the season finale.

I wondered early on if the finale for this season would feel more like setup for future seasons, and yep. Yep it did. It just felt like there was this inherent tension between the stakes of the story, which are already at interdimensional travel, and the level of danger it feels like everyone is in. Not to mention how Celia just drops a list of alchemical balance things out of the blue. Magnus Protocol is in a tricky situation: they need to set up a new conflict and new characters, and at the same time, Magpod has already done mega-apocalypse hellscapes and so TMagP might feel the need to go bigger. (Imo I don’t think sequels always need to raise the stakes but I understand that’s industry standard). It’s also tackling alchemy, a notoriously complex subject that’s probably hard to explain to an audience in any way that feels natural. You can’t just throw murder worm lady and screaming main character in the finale and call it a day. There’s a lot going on, less time, and I don’t know if the characterization this season was consistent (/consistently good) enough to hold the full weight of it all.

OKAY, WHELMED THOUGHTS OVER, now for the good! Surprise surprise, it’s all the little character payoffs!

Gwen and Lena’s confrontation was EVERYTHING. Gwen is kicking anthills, and Lena is so content to let her stand in them while the ants crawl up her legs. I won’t lie though, I’m not sure if this plotline will be interesting to me. I think it depends on how fast the OIAR staff can get Gwen to actually be on their side.

Sam deciding to protect Celia by pushing the archivist into the void is SENSATIONAL CHARACTER PAYOFF. (This is my interpretation of the scene, audio was super unclear once again, and there was a line change from transcript to podcast that made this super ambiguous in the actual canon audio.) My poor guy has ZERO self esteem, and still wants to be a hero. He probably realized that if what Celia just told him was true, an archivist could actually kill her on the spot. My guess is that (tma spoilers) this balanced the rift not because Celia replaced her own missing soul (plenty of folks got sent through hilltop road in that same incident) but because an archivist+a person were pulled through to replace Jon and Martin. Truly excited to see where they end up, and if this archivist gets developed more as a character next season. Also the implications of interdimensional balance on what happened at the end of TMA are… interesting.

Oh Alice. Everything in this intricately balanced house of checking up on people and soothing them and deflecting tension with jokes is about to come crashing down. I’m so sorry this is happening to you.

And yes, this is a super lukewarm episode review but I do wanna say I liked this season a lot, and TMAGP is still a cut above a LOT of horror I have read/listened to this year. I’m hoping seasons 2 and 3 will either steer further into a direct TMA sequel, angle OR steer clear and become their own thing. TMAGP is stuck uncomfortably in the middle right now. Just be the good parts of her. But completely new.

[sordidmusings]

Just a life update and opening!

Brought up because of an ask wondering if I still do stuff here so I figured I'd put out some of whats goin on if anyone is interested! Also throwing it into the void of the internet feels less guilt inducing than forcing it on specific people especially after how overwhelmed folks tend to be cuz I'm bad at metering it out and not just being like 'light jokes about struggle that don't scratch the surface or say anything meaningful' and 'here is all the dark lore' 💀 It's also been a struggle because there really does sometimes feel like theres a whole ass language barrier within your own language when you're AuDHD.

I do still do headcanons and write and draw and yada yada there’s just been quite a bit happening and I’m doing poorly at keeping up with life maintenance let alone things I enjoy 🥴 with writing especially in my hobbies I find myself discouraged in what feels like poor quality of my writing and seeing that reflected back to me because I am Weak 💀 general overview of some of the bigger problems below the cut if you’re interested but I won’t bother y’all with the whole picture! Will be more a summary/overview/alluding to things over getting into gory details. Basically a lot will be covered but I won’t force anything below the broad strokes on y'all.

The end is an ask for people to please reach out if they are struggling so please take that seriously. I offer a space with me but please find wherever in this world you are at least somewhat comfortable and have someone be there with you while you process 🤍 I will have a header above that little piece just incase you'd like to skip to only reading that which is completely fine!

CW for mental health talks, allusions to family issues, references to rape and abuse, death by suicide, and suicidal ideation.

What's Up, Doc?

Between hospitalizations (old and new issues and unfortunate near misses 🤡), my couple jobs (the days my body ain’t tryin to give up and even some days it still is means back to the grindstone. Thank you capitalistic overlords 💀), money stresses (medical debt plus just like y'all know shit ain’t the best for most everyone rn), the spring struggle (nightmares + flashbacks get worse from seasonal + anniversaries of men not caring for consent amongst other things lmaoooo), the mental health slew (diagnosed with AuDHD and most of the big hitters besides a personality disorder), and a few other life happenings and old traumas I’m doing a terrible job at everything 🤡 most of it ain’t new so I know all the proper things to do to help for everything from years of therapy and managing the symptoms and all that but dotting my i’s and crossing my t’s hasn’t been offering any relief for a long while so I’m floundering and quite exhausted.

The health issues making everything difficult and painful ain’t helping but I’m also not being the best at taking care of some of them because Why Bother 💀 Many are issues I’ve had for years that ebb and flow in severity and I’m just tired of feeling them and having to manage them. I’m sure any of you with chronic issues understand the feeling well. Those with years and years of major depressive disorder probably also understand the frustration and exhaustion and guilt with knowing you should enjoy something, you WANT to enjoy it, but your body just can’t produce the reaction it should.

I tend to isolate because I’m managing it poorly enough that the topic tends to crop up with the closer few if they ask and that goes Badly cuz, even if they think they won’t, people get uncomfy with the topics which just makes me feel Worse from guilt and sometimes frustration from it being passed over for their comfort or lack of understanding. I am lucky enough to have more recently found one person who Gets It and a beloved soul from lovely old Jersey came back into my life so the bigger problem in that situation is me allowing myself to consistently receive support from them 🤡 One’s so sweet always telling me I can call any time and the other is of the same vein and my dumbass brain keeps being like “but that would bother them” or the usual “you deserve to get worse not get help” 🤡🤡🤡. Clown ass behavior.

Also some bad coping mechanisms make my typing and communication sloppy as hell and I’m quite ashamed of that so best hide that away while it’s going on 💀 due to insistence that it’s Fine I have forgone that instinct to what feels like very Poor Result 🥴 ah the eternal struggle between needing to be Seen to fight the sense of isolation and worthlessness but also being petrified of being perceived while imperfect. Not having any of the connections really be in person doesn’t help too much with feelings isolation because I don't really have anyone around me besides parents that have literally said "why are you making us deal with this" about the intentional near death miss 💀💀💀 my immediate world feels very much like it wants me gone in explicit and subtle ways but c'est la vie. Beggars can’t be choosers so at this point I’m likely just being ungrateful 🤡

One thing making it harder to keep trying is my folks’ years of insistence that I don’t understand my own experience and I’m just dramatic and make things up. It’s an echo of many painful experiences including a whole group intentionally playing games with my sense of reality to enable their friend’s abuse (they got unconsensual nudes from him out of it so that’s worth the price of treating someone like that right?). Such is life.

One of the new things I’m uncertain how to approach handling properly is the grief and such shifting back to the forefront from the first anniversary of my childhood brother figure being taken from us by his bipolar depression. I have known people taken by suicide before but not this close to home. My childhood wasn’t the happiest but he and his family were a bright place in it. His little sister was my best friend in the whole world through my childhood and their family treated me more like family than my own. He was the best mix of a good and bad influence in an older brother figure I could’ve wished for. He fought long and hard but exhaustion hits us all, sometimes even with proper help. What eternally pains me is knowing how helpless and scared he must have felt and even worse how absolutely alone he felt. That was his last feeling in this life. I can only hope that more than anything, whatever happens next is giving him relief, peace, and rest.

Talk on reaching out below!

On that note, if any of you experience suicidality too, my messages (or ask if you’re more comfy on anon) are always open. This is an issue that’s been in my life in many forms since I was 12, so I will not shy away from you or your thoughts. Even if shared with something uncomfortable or "ugly", I find the discomfort of sitting with someone’s pain negligible in comparison to being the one in pain so why not prioritize that person in their need? It’s also negligible under the importance of truly holding space to process those hurts and stresses instead of just simple little niceties.

I am not the best at being active but if I see any of these messages especially we will truly talk. I know how insanely isolating and disappointing it can feel when someone offers support to be nice and then shoves to the next topic or barely responds because it makes them uncomfortable. It is a bitter pill we must often swallow to forgive those who think they will help for making things worse because they have bit off more than they can chew. It is also a bitter feeling that that reaffirms to us that by our very nature, we are too much to handle and are too much to deal with for sharing our internal space and circumstance. But at the same time, all of us are simply human so who am I to malign someone for making mistakes or being imperfect? So long as someone truly wants to try, there is all the reason in the world to give them grace.

Qualifications kind of???

The one good thing that has come from a lot of the experiences that I’ve gone through is that it has forced perspective on me and forced me to learn skills in holding space, validating, and connecting to others in immense pain. No one is perfect in this skill (even therapists struggle - the number who have said they don’t know where to start untangling the traumas or who have cried at it and in turn needed comfort 💀 a strange experience I know my darling at least gets too lol) but I have found in both giving and receiving that honesty and openness is W A Y more important than being perfect.

This is something I’ve watched more people struggle with than not as life circumstances has not made it so that they must learn the skill at the same time that there are resources to learn it, so I may make more posts with advice for it than the bit I go through here. I’m not a licensed therapist so this isn’t going to be a clinical breakdown of how to be someone’s therapist but I would consider my experience as a confidant, consistent reading up on psychological and related sociological research, and experience going through various forms of therapy worthy of giving solid advice. Unfortunately, co-morbidities and resistant brain chemistry really make using the skills on myself Difficult 💀 but as brief examples of experience for validity speaking on this, I’ve been to a lot of group therapy where licensed therapists literally coach you on this, guided a safe space/group for SA survivors in college, coached friends who couldn’t afford therapy through suicidality or abusive situations, and coached survivors through feelings and decisions when deciding whether or not to charge or going through the process of charging their abuser. All of which is much easier to be effective to people you know irl but the support online can be nothing to snub your nose at either. None of this is to say I'm perfect or exceptional - neither is true - just that I’ve had circumstances and experiences that afford me a bit of extra knowledge in this.

In the vast majority of cases, someone who is struggling and coming to you for help wants you to be there - your thoughts, your feelings, your perspective. They don’t want someone sitting uncomfortably and saying the occasional “sorry” they want engagement because more than anything they don’t want to be alone. In a basic example, if you find yourself freezing when someone comes to you with something you don’t know how to handle, instead of saying nothing or only short cliches due to fear of making a mistake, be honest about that. “I’m not sure what to say right now to be honest because that’s so much to deal with. I can’t imagine having to live with that all the time. Is there anything in it frustrating you the most or that you’re having the most difficulty tackling?”. This is active listening and engagement. You are being honest with where you are at so they aren’t guessing what you’re thinking, you are showing that you see how overwhelming the situation is, especially for the person who has to live with it. If you can’t handle a conversation where these issues exist, how do you think it feels to live with them day in and day out, sometimes for years or the majority of a life?

Asking questions is SUPER important too. Trust the other person to only share what they are comfortable with and don’t assume all questions are bad. Asking questions is one of the truest and simplest ways to show you care because why would you want to know more if you don’t give a shit? Asking questions is also very helpful and one of the reasons talking to others about your issues is important - it gives the person struggling something to react to and give perspective. It helps them process the issue in ways they won’t be able to do by themselves. This may make the process sound slightly manufactured but I promise it’s not, especially as it becomes second nature to know what thing to use when. Communication is a skill so advice around it will inherently make it sound more clinical than the actual process is.

People are also not a monolith so while this type of being there works for the vast majority some people may not like it. That is also where communication comes in - check in with the person on if this is helping and what isn't helpful. Make sure to adjust when you make a mistake.

Conclusion

I’m happy to hold space for other issues as well. I’m no replacement for a therapist but I’ve been a helpful supplement to many people I knew struggling throughout the years so I’m at least okay at that! Since I’m doing pretty bad functionally right now the help won’t be as consistent as I wish but I will give whatever is in my power just like these things deserve. I hope to get better soon so that I can properly offer a stronger foundation of support outward again 🤍

[ri-notafan]

TLDR; Small things can be symptoms of a bigger problem, but hope isn’t lost because education is there for everyone.

“I can’t be homophobic: I have a gay [insert relative here].”

Don’t use people like that.

We know this kind of fallacy is wrong and can be seen no matter what the topic is.

Knowing someone is gay doesn’t inherently change your beliefs or actions.

Even if you are the gay person, internalised homophobia is still a thing.

There are many gay people that have had homophobic parents what have kicked them out, disowned them, and more when they were kids; parents are supposedly folks who would love you unconditionally but that’s not true. Would you say they aren’t homophobic? They’re related to a gay person same as you though.

(There’s probably more for this part, feel free to add)

“🫢 I’ve said this before! Does that make me a bad person?”

No, not necessarily? At least not on its own in my opinion.

But even if it did, you can be educated!

Self reflection and confrontation of your own personal biases is a good starting point to unlearn some of that, and honestly educating yourself about other people and applying that information to your actions moving forward is another. There are great resources out there full of strategies and research over these topics.

It’s an ongoing, continual practice that will only be good for you and the people around you in the long run.

“😬 I’ve come to realise I’ve been an a**hole. What do I do??”

Nothing wrong with a sincere apology and a plan to be better in the future (that you actually stick to).

Sometimes it’s not feasible to apologise for a number of factors (like being a general buttwipe rather than one with a specific target) and sometimes people won’t accept your apology. People don’t have to accept your apology, but that doesn’t mean it’s worthless to do so if you’re actually going to work on yourself.

Some people might not believe that you will change and that’s fine. That bridge might be burned beyond repair. It might also not be, but it’s certainly not traversable for you now. Words won’t fix it. Anyway, the point isn’t to get people to like you, the point is self improvement after introspection.

Aside from that? It goes back to the second part in unlearning behaviours and thought processes. Keep on listening, learning, and adapting yourself in this ever-diversifying world.

[m39]

Doom WADs’ Roulette Bonus Round: Nuts 3

As a reminder from my Earth WAD retrospective, this review was made from playing this map with No Monsters enabled. While it is possible to finish this map normally, it wasn’t tested with monsters from what I’ve read on the Doomology site, and... come on people! It’s one of the Nuts installments! These maps are basically shitposts at this point.

B10: Nuts 3

Main author(s): B.P.R.D

Release date: June 28th, 2003 (database upload)

Version played: ???

Required port compatibility: ZDoom (the most compatible at the time of release)

Levels: 1 (MAP01 replacement)

So yeah, we are skipping straight into the third installment of this trilogy of Joke maps; because the first one got a spot in the Top 100 Most Memorable Maps, and the second one wasn’t even tacked on by MtPain27. So now we are stuck with Nuts 3 - Triple the Nut, Double the Mongoose.

So here is the backstory of this trilogy for people who don’t know: Nuts started out as a test map to see if B.P.R.D can upload Equinox into the database without any problems. It was a success... at the cost of making B.P.R.D famous only for this map and not really Equinox.

So in June 2003, B.P.R.D uploaded another version of this map called Nuts 2 - 2nd and/or 1st Anniversary Gold Plated Plutonic Aloy Coated Eight volume Nuclear Donkey Edit, which is basically an actual shitpost of a map, rather than just an upload test. And not even June passed and he released Nuts 3, an actual sequel to the first map.

The plot is no less insane than any other map’s plot written by B.P.R.D: You buy a black balloon for your Nanna’s birthday (I guess you tie it to her grave since you are probably playing as Doomguy). Then the balloon starts getting bigger until it pops, and you end up god knows where (the text file says it’s some kind of meteorite with an ancient temple on the west). Now try getting out there.

With all of that out of the way, why won’t we finally take a look at the last installment and see how it all ended.

There is no denying, folks; this map is fucking blyatiful. For a shitpost map, B.P.R.D took his time to make it look incredible. Then again, it’s B.P.R.D. All of his maps/WADs that I covered looked amazing.

The same can be said about the music. I don’t even need to say anything else just check the track out yourself:

Nuts 3 is rather easy to understand. You must reach the top of the Star Temple to use the star beam to come back to your reality.

There is some stuff worth finding out. For instance, you can find a sign leading to the Equinox facility, implying that this map and the Equinox WAD might share the same universe.

Also, in the northern part of the map, you can find a star-shaped teleporter that will take you to the Secret Place (Rest your weary FPS) full of goodies.

Look, folks, if you actually want to play this map with monsters enabled, be prepared for an absolute nightmare. A sea of demons at the very beginning, sprayed later with Arch-viles resurrecting the corpses and screwing you over, topped with a tower where you end up surrounded by Cyberdemons. Not to even mention five Cyberdemon rocketeers spraying you with rockets as you climb the temple.

The reskin of the BFG doesn’t help you either. Say hello to another case of Nuts 3 shitposting. Now looking like some kind of portable, orbital strike caller, while functioning the same way as BFG, it doesn’t show any particles. Not from shooting. Not from hitting the enemy. Nothing at all.

There is one bug I’ve encountered while playing Nuts 3. On a certain high level of the temple, if you take a look at the rocket platforms, the invisible platforms that simulate these things flying will go apeshit and show you a floor texture rocket platforms have.

Also, from what I’ve heard and seen, some of the demons get stuck within each other and can’t move.

The best way I can describe Nuts 3 is a high-quality shitpost. B.P.R.D could just stop on Nuts 2 and go on with his life and yet he decided to make this map too; in just two weeks.

If you are interested in watching some madmen managing to finish this map, even killing every possible demon on the map, here’s a video of Decino doing it, and also the part on MtPain27’s first Sawed-Off WADs fun pack where he talks about the map... with some pretty pretentious descriptions how the music feels like (starts at 14:13):

There is one last bonus map to check out before finally kickstarting the 2005 roster. Tune in next time, folks, as we will come back to Hellcore to take a look at its MAP32.

Bye!

[travelingtheusa]

MICHIGAN

2024 Aug 24 (Sat) – We drove around a lot today – 175 miles – checking out venues and campgrounds.  There was a visit to the Allegan County Fairgrounds.  Folks were in the middle of setting up for a big antiques market tomorrow.  We met with the Executive Director, gathered information, and toured the grounds.  It looks possible.  The campground only has electric and water with a dump station.  The price is right - $35 a night. Unfortunately, their refund policy is one-half paid a month or two out and no refunds.  Period.  That’s a tough policy.  Especially with a group where folks have to drop out for either RV problems or health issues.

      We drove into Grand Rapids and stopped at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. There was no one there to speak with but the clerk at the register gave me a business card for the event coordinator.  The museum is huge and we think the group will enjoy the tour.

       We drove to Coopersville to check out a train ride.  No one was around to ask for details.  Right down the street were two places of interest: The Farm Museum and the Historical Museum.  If we can get something going with a train ride, we would come in early, explore these two places, break for lunch, then go on the train.  I have to try to reach someone by email.

      One of our stops included South Haven where there is a Maritime Museum.  It looked like a very interesting place.  There was an old sloop out in the harbor loaded with visitors and another boat that was also giving rides.  The town looks like a cute little place to explore.  We are doing a much bigger and more interesting maritime museum in UPI so I’m not sure we would include this in the itinerary.  Probably tell people about it so they can go on their own if they want.

2024 Aug 23 (Fri) – We left the Great Lakes Naval Station campground at 8:30 a.m.  It was a very long drive to Zeeland (in the Holland Township).  We took a quick ride up here to check out this campground and area for next year’s caravan.  We only have electric and water hookup and they charged 99.45 for 2 nights!  Things have gotten so damned expensive out here.  The campground is spread among trees with another section sitting out in the open (that’s where we are).  The roads are dirt.  Campsites are grass.  There is a large pool.  The bathrooms look ultra modern and super clean.  The laundry room has 3 washers and 3 dryers; all new and clean.

      After set up, we went out for a late lunch at Farmhouse Restaurant.  I ordered a chicken bake and got a bowl with mashed potatoes, corn, chicken and crispy onion rings crushed on top.  It was an interesting and tasty meal. 

      After lunch, we drove into Holland to look at the Holland Princess boat where we plan to take the group on a dinner cruise.  It was 5:15 p.m. and folks were starting to line up for their cruise.  Guess they load at 5:30 and sail at 6 p.m.  There was no one to talk to about a group tour but I have been corresponding by email already.  We walked down the pier and back.  There were some big piles of goose poop along the pier.  Disgusting.

      We drove around the town, looking at various possibilities for the group.  The wooden shoe factory is small and won’t take more than an hour. 

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

It’s been a fun week at work. I’ve been fixing bugs here and there. For some reason I enjoy this type of work. I spent a decent amount of time looking at memory graphs for object retentions problems and fixed a couple of good ones this week. That always feels great!

As for Stream for Mac, I started off the week in a bit of a funk but thanks to some amazing Mac devs I was put back on the right path. Stream for Mac development is moving forward once again. Fingers crossed I can keep up the momentum. 🤞🏼

Nikita Prokopov A.K.A. Tonsky

So all this time I was living under impression that, for example, if the average web page size is 3 MB, then JavaScript bundle should be around 1 MB. Surely content should still take the majority, no?

Some of the examples Nikita gives seem ridiculous. It makes me wonder if backend processing that spits out pure HTML will ever become a thing again?

Harry Cheadle • Eater, Seattle

But Tony Delivers doesn’t need to be anything bigger than it already is, which is one guy on a bike showing up to deliver food, probably smiling, probably asking how you’re doing, a bolt of disarming kindness in a city that even before we all got addicted to screens was known for being standoffish. That seems worth $5.

Tony has become a Seattle hero! I can’t believe he’s able to survive on $5 deliveries but bravo for making your own little niche!

Nish Tahir

I’ve been learning more about common attacks that appear in my Nginx logs to learn more about what happens beyond the log entries.

Nish is geekin’ out again. I wish I had his brain. The things I could accomplish! 🧠

Gunnar Anzinger

Also, do not worry at this time about acquiring the resources to build the house itself. Your first priority is to develop detailed plans and specifications. Once I approve these plans, however, I would expect the house to be under roof within 48 hours.

This piece is ridiculous in all the best ways. The paragraph I chose to feature really hit home. Yes, yes, take your time. We need it in two days. 🤣

Claire Elise Thompson • grist

If you like the idea of a perpetual three-day weekend, you might be one of a growing cadre that supports the concept of degrowth: a school of thought aimed at shrinking economies and moving away from GDP growth as a metric of success, while instead emphasizing universal basic services and social well-being.

With the rise of AI companies believe they can replace us with software for many types of work.

I think that’s cool! Let’s replace workers and figure out a way to allow folks to do whatever they want and still receive a paycheck. Like, perhaps, Universal Basic Income, Single Payer health care, and free university for everyone! Of course the rich people won’t like that idea.

Trust me when I say I could find plenty of things to work on.

Michael Szczepanik

It’s time for the NATIVE mobile development to end.

I don’t agree. I’ve been working on a project that involves React Native and I see the value in it, but that doesn’t mean native development should go away. Your mileage may vary. For me it’s native or bust for my personal projects.

Mike Elgan • Computerworld

More to the point: Most companies cannot show actual monetary benefits from RTO mandates. But most employees can show actual and significant monetary costs from RTO mandates.

This is an interesting take on the cost to employees to return to work. I’ve never thought about it in those terms. For me it’s always been about the flexibility working remotely gives me. I save between 40-60 minutes a day by not commuting, I can have afternoon coffee with my wife, and if I need to work late it’s so much easier to stomach because I’m already home.

If WillowTree asked us all to return to the office full time, I would. I just prefer working from home.

Jacob Phillips • Evening Standard

The Kremlin has said it will use its “entire strategic arsenal” and fire nuclear missiles at London, Washington, Berlin and Kyiv if it is made to give up the areas of Ukraine it has invaded.

We need to get our act together and get more aid to Ukraine. The GOP loves their orange American Dictator who, in turn, loves Putin so they’re keeping aid from Ukraine. What happened to all those Patriotic Republicans with their flags and love of all things military? They’re too cowardly to stand up to Trump. It’s really shameful.

Chris Evangelista • /Film

Stephen King Hates The Only Movie He Ever Directed

I liked Maximum Overdrive for what it was. It’s a popcorn movie. Get your popcorn, soda, find your seat, and sit back to watch the mayhem unfold. It delivered and I had no idea Stephen King directed it.

[rbl-m1a2tanker]

Droppin some thoughts (is long)

So, I've got some thoughts I want to send out.  Things that have been percolating in the back of my mind for a long while.  Some folks may not agree with them, which is fine, you're allowed to think differently from me of course.  But if it bothers you to the point of anger or being offended, you've got bigger problems and should really look deep within yourself.  Or don't.  I mean, I'm not your dad, can't make you do anything.  :P

But as I was saying.  

Change is inevitable, for good or bad.  Society has been changing since time immemorial.  It's just part of human nature that things will change and adapt and co-opt as new information or awareness becomes part of our social fabric.  There are people who will dig in their heels or stomp their feet and scream and fight against it, sometimes even violently.  There are people who will grind their teeth and grouse that we're not going far enough.  And then there's everyone else that's between that.  It's a bell curve.  Most of us probably reside in that middle area for most subjects, and may lean further in one direction or the other on specific things.  

Those specific things are pretty hot button items, exacerbated and built up far more as forms of dog whistles, misdirection, bad faith arguing, whataboutism, fear mongering and outright hate.  Things like:

Gun Control Abortion Trans-gender people Gay people Ableism 'wokeism'

Some of you may already be getting your hackles up just at the mentions.  :P And some of you may be ready to cry out that I'm some liberal pinko communist twinkle-toe hippie (or some variation of that) on what I'm going to say about those subjects above, but let's get this out of the way first: I do not identify as Liberal or Conservative.  Maybe Progressive, but I don't know as much about that particular leaning as I probably should, so I won't swear to that one. What I am is very much anti-authoritarian assholes, regardless of which direction they lean, such as Republican or Democrat in the US.  I'm also pragmatic and a historian.  I'll come back to that last bit in a moment.  Let me just break into each of those subjects above with quick snippets of my thoughts.

Wokeism: first off, what the hell stupid shit is that?  'You're too WOKE!'  Soooo...you want to be 'asleep' and basically be a 'sheep' who follows blindly?  That sounds amazingly dumb.  And kinda dangerous.  Here's the thing: we have a greater awareness of things than we did before, and we're more plugged in to what's going on in the world than we did before.   This is a GOOD thing.  To be a good citizen and member of society, you need to be aware of not just what's going on locally, but also nationally, cause the national shenanigans that take place can and will affect you locally too.  So people claiming things like the US military is too 'woke' is...god, so facepalm worthy.  The military is a reflection of our society, and in more pragmatic terms, they what to make sure that they have an effective fighting force, which  means you need to draw from as large a pool of recruits as you can.  The US military though is incredibly resistent to change (looking at you, Marines).  So calling them 'woke' is stupid.  The term in general is stupid.  And frankly, some of the things that people who are anti-woke are going on about are things that should actually be considered courteous.  

That leads to the subjects of trans-gender and gay people.  More people are comfortable coming out and owning what they feel they are.  I personally don't feel that way, and I straight up don't understand it, but I also don't have a problem with it.  You know why?  Because ITS NOT ABOUT ME.  Let them do their own thing.  They want to date someone of the same sex, knock yourself out.  You feel your brain is wired in a way that makes you uncomfortable in your skin and so changing yourself physically is the only way to correct it?  Well, I don't get it and personally feel it's kinda odd or weird, but I'm also coming from a position of being comfortable in my skin and my sexuality, so I cannot truly internalize what it's like to think or feel that way.  

But I can be courteous.  I can accept that this is a thing you did or are doing.  Its not my thing, but then, it's not about me.  It's about them.  So, I'm at least aware of it and if I misstep and use a wrong pronoun or make a joke that doesn't come across right, then I just need to be corrected and I will do my best to adjust myself.  It's courteous, it's polite, and it's respectful.  Because, again, it's not about me.  I'm going to screw up.  I've been on this planet 43 years now, so I've got a lot of engrained behaviors in place.  It's going to happen, usually when I'm not thinking about it.  I acknowledge this, but I also accept that I can adjust myself too.  It's just gunna take time and practice.  I can do that.  Cause there's nothing wrong with being courteous.  I don't have to understand it to be able to take it in stride and adjust course.  Maybe I won't even like it, but...it really doesn't matter if I like it or not.  In the end, it's a non-issue, or at least should be treated as such.  

On the subject of Ableism, I don't really understand that very well, which is something I will try to dig into further to come to grips with it, but my initial thought is that our position should be the same as above: be respectful and courteous.  Don't mistreat someone just because you don't agree with or like what they are.  Seems like common sense to me, but common sense is just not as common as one would think (and probably varies greatly depending on your area and what everyone there thinks is common sense).  

Now, on Abortion and Gun Control, here's where my historian background comes into play a bit.  

Did you know that the NRA used to help craft gun control legislation?  Yea, that organization that lobbies soooo very hard to stop any attempts at gun control ever since the time of Charlton Heston and Columbine, used to be totally in favor of it and helped to make it happen (until gun companies had their own people get leadership positions and wrenched the organization away from a focus of responsible gun ownership and more into a shield for the gun industry).  And Abortion?  That also wasn't a problem decades ago.  But now both have been made into massive issues by interests that like to either protect their profit margins, or to stir the pot and clamp down on peoples autonomy.  

My thoughts: we do need to have an actual conversation and do deeper research when it comes to gun control.  Because I feel that there should be some in place, and the Supreme Court has even confirmed that at times.  Hell, I wrote a paper on it in college making that point.  But we have to have that conversation, come to some concensus about certain aspects of firearms, instead of just screaming "NO! MY SECOND AMENDMENT!" (slightly exaggerating the reaction).  And abortion is something that is a very deeply personal situation that should really only involve the principles involved (aka the potential parents) and that the option shouldn't be restricted or taken away, cause most of the opposition to it is religious based (and they really don't seem to care what happens to the child and parent after the child is born..hmm, interesting).  If you take that option away, they're just going to find a way to do it anyway.  And it'll probably be a lot more dangerous.  

Am I equating those two subjects as being similar?  No.  Am I hypocrtical in saying we should be more restrictive with guns but less so on abortion?  "If they're just going to get an abortion anyway, then if you restrict guns they'll just get it anyway and make themselves criminals!"  That's a bad faith argument right there.  They're two very different subjects that require their own specificly crafted solutiona, and conflating the two and claiming I'm being hypocritical is a bullshit argument to make.  And conviently ignores my points as a way to be dismissive of them and not actually try to work on solutions to the benefit of society.

Am I going to provide sources for these things?  Honestly, not in depth.  But here's one quick example for the gun control and abortion bits: "The NRA assisted Roosevelt in drafting the 1934 National Firearms Act and the 1938 Gun Control Act, the first federal gun control laws" - time.com

On abortion, from wikipedia (not a primary source, but does have a decent bibliography to good sources that go more in depth if you want): "Abortion has existed in North America since the European colonization of the Americas,[21] was a fairly common practice, and was not always illegal or controversial.[22][23] " [21] = article Abortion in early America [22] = book When Abortion Was a Crime: Women, Medicine and the Law in the United States, 1867-1973 [23] = article The complex early history of abortion in the United States - National Geographic

To sum up: people should be allowed to live their lives without being hassled or restricted based on things like religious beliefs (which you can have, but YOUR religious belief does not and should not dictate what goes on in my life or anyone elses).  

Also, evangenlicals, shut up about being 'oppressed.' You're not being oppressed, get over yourselves and stop playing at being a victim.  I don't see any of you being arrested and shoved in any camps, or followed and hassled by cops just because you go to church.  

Just treat people respectfully, courteously, and politely.  You don't have to agree with their decision, but it doesn't matter if you agree or not.  It's not YOUR life, it's theirs.  But if you attempt to force your beliefs on others, you're in the wrong.  Period.  And frankly, if you don't want to be around them...don't?  It's not that difficult to just...not be around them?  They probably don't want to be around you either.  And if they're an asshole, then definitely don't be around them.  Otherwise, just don't worry about it.  

Last note: I have pretty much written all this off the cuff and have not shown it to others to get their thoughts in advance, or dug around for sources beyond the quick ones I dropped up above.  This is the 'raw and unedited' version. :P Take it or leave it.  

No TL/DR version.  I'm lazy at this point and don't wanna try to sum it up.  

[inbarfink]

OOC Discourse is always a complicated topic, cause on one hand it IS reductive to go like... there ARE instances where the fans have a better grasp on a character than the actual canon writers do. Especially when you consider bigger creative projects with multiple writers, and especially especially the long-running ones where the original creators are basically uninvolved and everything ‘canon’ that’s being made right now is basically copyrighter-holders-approved-fanfiction. And even in the smaller-scale projects, sometimes the creator writes in something kinda OOC for the sake of pacing or plot or a stupid joke, or maybe they’re just not very good at it and they fucked up. There are cases where fan complaints about canon-material being ‘OOC’ is valid and should be considered.

But on the other hand, there are far too many fans who throw in the “OOC” claim when, like, canon just happens to contradict their favorite not-actually-textually-supported-headcanon, or contradict a version of the character that has kinda mutated through a fandom-wide game of Telephone. Or just like, refusing to engage with the idea that the character might contain more than the surface-level we were initially introduced to, or that people might react Differently in Different Situations, or that Character Development is a thing. And I feel like the folks who are complaining that the Deltarune “The Newest Girl Girl” blogpost is “OOC” for Kris, Susie and Noelle are really a case of the second thing?

Like, first things first, trying to authoritatively label anything Kris does as “OOC” is, in my humble opinion, aboslutely friggin’ clownshoes right now. Kris is the most enigmatic character in Deltarune’s main cast. Because we’re controlling them, we can only can only infer what they are like from the glimpses of their true personality and behavior slipping in through the cracks and from stories told to us by their friends and family. There’s a lot of cool interpetation and analysis work done by the Fandom about Kris’ personality from the little info we have and a lot of it is well-reasoned and well-argued-for but... 

When we get one of the first canon scenes descriptions featuring a (probably?) not posessed Kris, and their behavior in some way happens contradict your Kris Interpetation? I think the correct reaction is less “this so OOC” as much as “hmmm, maybe I need to reconsider some things in my personal interpetation of the characrter?” We’re still in the early stages of the process of assembling the puzzle pieces of Kris’ personality, this is not really the time where we can throw away pieces cause we think they won’t fit?

And Noelle, she felt very consistent with her character so far to me? We already know that freezing up during scary situations is a problem for her - her inability to actually stand up against jerks was, like, her whole character arc in the second chapter. Mostly the focus was about how folks kept overriding her desires and forcing her to do things, but there’s also an undercurrent to how it’s stopping her from meaningfully defending her friends. Espacially when you consider her dynamic with Berdly and his dynamic with Susie and Kris... Honestly, if she behaved better through that whole encounter that could have somewhat diminished the importance of her Big Moment in the climax of Chapter 2. 

And as for Susie.... Yeah, right now we all love and appreciate Susie as the most Wholesome Delta Warrior and the bestest friend of them all - but you remember what happened in Chapter 1, right? She did start out as a bully. She slammed Kris against a locker, threathened to eat their face, constantly insulted them and then spent a good chunk of the Chapter just beating up everyone and everything in the Dark World. These actions stand in contrast to the sweeter side that she shows later on in the game, but it doesn’t negate them or negate the idea that she might’ve done more stuff like that before.

I think you can argue that what Susie did in the blogpost is worse than what she did in Chapter 1, just in the sense that “your mother WILL abandon you and will be happier without you!” is crueler in a much more personal way than “I will eat your face”. But not really in the sense of “Susie would have NEVER said something like this!” as much as “what would prompt Susie to say something like that?” Was she going through a praticularly rough time after moving into Hometown, causing her to take out her own frustrations and insecurities on Kris much more than later on? Was this a spesifically Bad Day? Did... whatever Kris told her in reply really shook her emotionally that much? Did she end up regretting her words and deeds on some level and started mellowing out even before Chapter 1 start? There are a lot of interesting possibilities!

I guess that’s what frustrates me the most about a knee-jerk “OOC Writing” reaction for every time a character catches the fandom off-guard. A sort of refusal to really engage with the text and it’s implication for the characters before you just chuck the text in the grabage. I think this is very much supposed to be a ‘how far they’ve come’ sort of thingie, contrasting the characters as they existed in this blog pre-character development with the better-adujsted post-Dark World Adventure versions we experienced in the game. We’re supposed to to feel some sort of emotional vertigo from how Noelle, Susie and Kris interact here to how they interact by the end of Chapter 2 - but that’s not because of Bad Writing, just cause these kids are changing and growing!

[naalbinder]

phoebe bridgers // elliott smith parallels

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4BEfu6YZ7XbdHFZBXthIpN?si=6bf8fc460eba4d33

E - Riot Coming - “Sat down in jail with this friend of mine/Who'd never close both his eyes/But one was shut all the time/To cover the thing he was scared of”

E - Stupidity Tries “To sail across the sea of trash”

E - Going nowhere - “The old records are sitting on the floor/The ones I can’t put on anymore”

E - Clementine - “Anything to pass the time/And keep that song out of your mind”

P - Smoke Signals - “One of your eyes is always half-shut/Something happened when you were a kid” - “burning trash out on the beach” - “You said that song'll creep you out until you're dead”

E - Miss Misery - (music videos on the same street)

E - Easy way out - “While I watch you making mistakes/I wish you luck I really do” “I heard you found another audience to bore”

E - Looking Over My Shoulder - “Another sick rock ‘n’ roller acting like a dick”

E - Placeholder - “I'm the person you'll never need/The biggest loser on sixteenth street” - “Just like my favourite song/Some pretty words that didn't last that long”

P - Motion Sickness - “I'll be glad that I made it out/And sorry that it all went down like it did” “You said when you met me, you were bored” - “Hey, why do you sing with an English accent?/I guess it's too late to change it now”

E - Some Song - “Help me kill my time cause I'll never be fine”

P - Funeral - “Jesus Christ i'm so blue all the time/And that's just how i feel/Always have and i always will ”

E - Bled White - “Happy and sad come in quick succession/I’m never going to become what you became”

P - Demi Moore - “I got a good feeling/It doesn't happen very often”

E - St Ides Heaven - “With an open container from 7/11”

E - A Fond Farewell - “A fond farewell to a friend”

P - Scott Street - “With an open heart, open container” - “Anyway, don’t be a stranger / don’t be a stranger”

E - Last Call - “And I think I’m all done, you can switch me off safely/While i’m lying here for sleep to overtake me”

E - Roman Candle - “I’m a roman candle/My head is full of flames ”

P - Killer - “But when I’m sick and tired/And when my mind is barely there/When a machine keeps me alive/And I’m losing all my hair/I hope you kiss my rotten head/And pull the plug” - “Tame the fire in you”

E - Georgia Georgia

P - Georgia - “Georgia, Georgia, I love your son”

E - Twilight - “That you are already somebody’s baby”

E - See you later - “Made out of a night train”

E - King’s Crossing - “Instruments shine on a silver tray”

P - Chelsea - “You are somebody’s baby” - “For a chemical imbalance/You sure know how to ride a train” - “With a needle on a tray”

E - Christian Brothers - “No bad dream fucker's gonna boss me around/Christian brothers gonna take him down”

P - Would you rather - “Quarantined in a bad dream/He's half the man and you're twice as tall”

E - Son of Sam - “Son of Sam, son of a doctors love a nurses touch/Acting under orders from above”

P - You Missed My Heart - “A feeling of relief came over my soul/I couldn't take it any longer, and I lost control”

E - Bye - (instrumental)

E - New Monkey (Instrumental)

P - DVD Menu - (instrumental)

E - Coming up roses - “And you're coming up roses everywhere you go/Red roses follow”

E - Rose Parade - “Said, Won't you follow me down to the Rose Parade?”

P - Garden Song “They're gluing roses on a flatbed/You should see it, I mean thousands”

E - Condor Ave - “I don’t know what to do with your clothes or your letters”

E - Baby Britain - “Fights problems with bigger problems/Sees the ocean fall and rise/Counts the waves that somehow didn’t hit her/Water pouring from her eyes/Alcoholic and very bitter”

E - Say Yes - “I'm in love with the world/Through the eyes of a girl/Who's still around the morning after”

E - Seen How Things Are Hard - “You just didn't care/You were off getting drunk instead”

E - The Biggest Lie - "Oh, I just told the biggest lie/ I just told the biggest lie/The biggest lie"

P - Kyoto - “And you wrote me a letter/But I don't have to read it” - “I wanted to see the world/Then I flew over the ocean/And I changed my mind” - “I wanted to see the world/Through your eyes until it happened/Then I changed my mind” - “I'm gonna kill you/If you don't beat me to it” - "Guess I lied/I'm a liar/Who lies/'Cause I'm a liar"

E - Memory Lane - “Your little house on memory lane ”

E - Angel in the Snow - “Angel in the snow/all crushed out on the way you are”

E - Last Call - “And I wanted her to tell me that she would never wake me”

E - New Monkey - “For the millions of fans ignoring the bands”

E - Waltz #2 - “I'm never gonna know you now/But I'm gonna love you anyhow”

E - Amity - “I'm a neon sign and I stay open all the time”

P - Punisher - “The house where you lived with Snow White” - “But never not sweet to the trust funds and punishers” - “What if I told you/I feel like I know you?/But we never met” - “The drugstores are open all night/The only real reason I moved to the east side”

E - Some Song - “Yeah it's halloween tonight and every night”

E - Pitseleh - “I got a joke I've been dying to tell you/A silent kid is looking down the barrel/To make the noise that I kept so quiet”

P - Halloween - “Baby, it's Halloween” - “I hate living by the hospital/The sirens go all night/I used to joke that if they woke you up/Somebody better be dying”

E - Shooting Star - “So bad, so far/You made me sad/Shooting star/You're distant and cold/And a sight to behold/Everybody just sighs”

E - Satellite - “When they call it a lover's moon, the satellite/'Cause it acts just like lovers do, the satellite/A burned-out world you know/Staying up all night/The satellite”

E - Everything Reminds Me of Her - “Why are you staring into outer space, crying?/Just because you came across it and lost it”

P - Chinese Satellite - “Took a tour to see the stars/But they weren't out tonight/So I wished hard on a Chinese satellite” - “Sometimes, when I can't sleep/It's just a matter of time before I'm hearing things” b- “Instead, I look at the sky and I feel nothing/You know I hate to be alone/I want to be wrong”

E - Coast to Coast - “Still you're keeping me around/'Til I finally drag us both down (Gonna drag us both down)”

E - Little one - “The moonlight tonight/Seems to belong to me” - “One more/Little one, I love you”

E - Coming up Roses - “The moon is a sickle cell/It'll kill you in time” “While the moon does its division/You're buried below”

E - Everything Means Nothing to Me - “At attention, looking backward in a pool of water/Wishes with a blue songbird on his shoulder/Who keeps singing over everything”

E - Pretty Mary K (Other Version) - “oh Mary K, I can see your face/down there in the waves, painted and erased/but I know it's just a reflection of the moon”

P - Moon song - (52) “You asked to walk me home/But I had to carry you” - (53) “And if I could give you the moon/I would give you the moon” - (54) “You are sick and you're married/And you might be dying” - (55/56) “And you pushed me in/And now my feet can't touch the bottom of you” “But you're holding me like water in your hands/When you saw the dead little bird”

E - New Disaster - “Everybody is the same in this long no-win game/Where every new blood/Gets time to become resigned” - “Until everyone knows that your smile is just a ghost/The ghost of your smile was seen on a body in the park”

P - Savior Complex - “Baby, you're a vampire/You want blood and I promised” - “All the bad dreams that you hide/Show me yours, I'll show you mine”

E - Oh well, Ok - “If you get a feeling next time you see me/Do me a favor and let me know/Cause it's hard to tell, it's hard to say 'oh well, Ok'”

E - Last Call - “You're a tongueless talker/You don't care what you say”

E - Angel in the Snow - “Only a cold still life/ that fell down here to lay beside you”

P - ICU - (58) “But I feel something when I see you now/I feel something when I see you” - (59) “I hate your mom/I hate it when she opens her mouth/It's amazing to me/How much you can say/When you don't know what you're talking about” - “laying down on the lawn” “if you’re a work of art/I’m standing too close/I can see the brush strokes”

E - Happiness / The Gondola Man - “What I used to be/Will pass away and then you'll see/That all I want now/Is happiness for you and me”

E - Whatever (Folk Song in C) - “Whatever you're doing now would probably suit me fine/If you're all done, like you said you'd be/What are you doing hanging out with me?”

E - Big Ballad of Nothing - “You can do what you want to whenever you want to/You can do what you want to there's no one to stop you”

P - Graceland too - “Said she knows she lived through it to get to this moment” - “Whatever she wants (Whatever you want)”

E - Bottle up and Explode “Bottle up and go/I can make it outside”

E - A Distorted Reality is Now a Necessity to be Free - “God knows why my country don't give a fuck” - “Shine on me baby, because it's raining in my heart”

E - Alphabet Town - “Alphabet City is haunted”

P - I Know The End - “There's no place like my room” - “To some America First rap country song” “Driving out into the sun/Let the ultraviolet cover me up”- “I'll find a new place to be from/A haunted house with a picket fence”

[idontblushsrry]

SFW Alphabet|| Megumi Fushiguro

A/N: Uhhhh I’m back on my bullshit >:) it’s missing Fushiguro hours folks.

Word Count: 2050

A: Affection (How affectionate are they? How do they show affection?)

(If you want some more in depth affection headcanons click here)

Fushiguro is someone who isn’t big on pda but makes up for it in private. In public, he’ll hold your hand but in private he’s laying i your lap while you massage his scalp. Basically, he’s a big softie that just represses his urge to cuddle until he’s alone with you.

B: Best Friend (What would they be like as a best friend? How would the friendship start?)

Best friend Megumi is literally the president of the Y/N defense squad. If anyone has a problem with you, they have a problem with him. Of course, you have to rein him in sometimes and remind him you can fight your own battles, but just know he’s lookin out for you.

C: Cuddles (Do they like to cuddle? How would they cuddle?)

Fushiguro loves to cuddle, but he will repress the urge to do so for as long as possible. Because of that, he doesn’t let you go, preferring to cling to you throughout the night. His cuddles are always deceptively loose too. His arms give you just enough wiggle room but the second you try to get up, it’s like fighting two pythons.

D: Domestic (Do they want to settle down? How are they at cooking and cleaning?)

I don’t think he ever really planned on settling down, Megumi figured that he’d die long before he ever got the chance to settle down. Everyday is pretty much a new experience in terms of domesticity for him, he doesn’t have plans for the future, but as long as you’re with him, he’ll be happy.

E: Ending (If they had to break up with their partner, how would they do it?)

If he ever had to break up with someone, he’d probably ask for help on how to do so. The first person he’d ask (regrettably) would be Gojo who’d tell Megumi to just ghost the person. After asking around some more, he figured Kugisaki’s approach of getting it over with as bluntly as possible (although less mean) was the best option.

F: Fiance(e) (How would they feel about commitment? How quick would they want to get married?)

Megumi isn’t really the type for wedding ceremonies. He’s all about commitment (even though working up to marriage for him is longer than most) but he’s not a fan of being the center of attention, so a wedding ceremony/reception wouldn’t be his thing. If you wanted a ceremony, he’d be willing to compromise somewhat but otherwise, he’s perfectly fine with just going to the courthouse.

G: Gentle (How gentle are they, both physically and emotionally?)

He’s kind of rough around the edges. In private, he can be the sweetest, most tender soul, but in public he’ll put 7 yards of distance between you both if you try to hug him. Basically, he’s very shy, so anything that’ll draw too much attention is a no go (he isn’t opposed to linking pinkies though).

H: Hugs( Do they like hugs? How often do they do it? What are their hugs like?

At first Megumi really only hugged you when he was missing you, sad, or tired. Over time though, he got better at becoming more open with his affection and he’ll hug you whenever he feels the urge to. Despite that though, his hugs still have an undercurrent of desperation in them. He holds on just as tight each time like he’s afraid you’ll disappear.

I: I love you (How fast do they say the L-word)

He’s operating on a very strict ‘If you don’t say it, I won’t’ policy and as such this man will not say a single thing to you unless prompted. He knows deep down that he loves you and that you set off butterflies in his stomach every time you smile, but he never really thought to verbalize that until you say ‘I love you’ first.

J: Jealousy (How jealous do they get? What do they do when they’re jealous)

Megumi doesn’t get jealous, he’s fought side by side with you and he knows you’re more than capable of fending off any unwanted suitors. Megumi put a lot of trust into you by already being in a relationship so to him, it makes no sense to be jealous over you. That all being said, he’s not above the occasional side eye if someone’s getting a little too buddy buddy.

K: Kisses (What are their kisses like? Where do they like to kiss you? Where do they like to be kissed?)

On a normal day, his kisses are so natural, he’s so slow and the pressure is just enough to have you thinking you’ve got all the time in the world. In near death/ post-near death circumstances, he’s a little more feral. When he kisses you like that, it feels like it’s the end of the world and he’s trying to make the most of it.

L: Little ones (How are they around children)

Fushiguro isn’t good with kids that aren’t old enough to communicate. Older kids are fine with him, but guessing what a baby needs based on how loud it’s crying? Hard pass for him and he doesn’t even feel bad about it. The last time he had to watch a baby, he tried to leave one of his shikigami to watch it; long  story short, he had to explain to a cackling Gojo why his demon dogs wouldn’t let him leave to go to the bathroom.

M: Morning (How are mornings spent with them?)

Mornings with Fushiguro are pretty rare. Most of the time you guys don’t really get to sleep in or even spend mornings together since most of the time there’s missions or trainings you’ll have to go to. When you do get the rare morning off, Fushiguro makes the most of it. He sleeps in and doesn’t wake up before 10 no matter what you try. When he does finally wake up, he loves cooking breakfast with you, he’s not the best cook, but he treasures the experience over anything.

N: Night (How are nights spent with them?)

Nights with Megumi are also rare as most curses come out at night and that’s kinda your guys’ job. If all goes well though, you’ll both come back a little earlier and just go straight to sleep. If it’s a late night where the curse took more out of either of you than expected, yall usually stay up and talk and snack until one of you falls asleep or the sun comes up.

O: Open (When would they start revealing things about themselves? Do they say everything at once or wait a while to reveal things slowly?)

It takes him an extremely long time to open up to you about his past. Not because he doesn’t trust you, but because he’s embarrassed and doesn’t want you to think less of him for it (especially during his problem child era). To be honest, you probably find out about certain things from other people. Once he’s cornered confronted, he’ll be completely (albeit a bit grudgingly) honest about it.

P: Patience (How easily angered are they?)

His anger is kind of weird, whereas before, he was a lot quicker to explode, bluntly telling off or even fighting whoever pissed him off, he’s changed. He tries his best to repress his emotions and as such, he comes off as patient, never expressing his true feelings/desires until pushed to the brink. 

Q: Quizzes (How much would they remember about you?  Do they remember every little detail you mention in passing, or do they kind of forget everything?)

He’s the king of remembering details you mention in passing. His love language is partially acts of service so for him, remembering details about you helps him later. Oh remember that one time you needed a pen/pencil but didn’t have one? Never again, this man has a section of his shadows dedicated solely to pencils because of you. Oh what’s that, you like this random song? Guess what just got added to the playlist he made for you. Basically, while he may not look like it, he’s actually a simp and so if he can make your life easier/ make you happy, it’s worth it.

R: Remember (What is their favorite moment in your relationship?)

So Megumi is someone who doesn’t play video games but is really good at them for no reason. One day, you’re playing a game of smash bros. and he’s just kicking your ass, like it was sad. Needless to say, after his 4th win, he “accidently” pressed the wrong button and let you win. He thinks you don’t know he did this but when you won, you kissed him and completely flustered him, to the point that he couldn’t play for a solid 5 minutes. 

S: Security (How protective are they? How would they like to be protected?)

Despite knowing and trusting that you can defend yourself, he’s still super protective of you. You’re one of the few people that he cares about in the world and he’d give everything to see you safe and protected. As for how he’d like to be protected, knock some sense into him every once in a while. He has a habit of self sacrificing so if you want to protect him, remind him that you want to keep him alive as much as he wants to keep you alive.

T: Try (How much effort would they put into dates, anniversaries, gifts, everyday tasks?)

On the outside, his dates are very simple. They usually consist of you and him either staying in or just hanging out at stores and the like. Every once in a while, he’ll try to take you somewhere special, like a cove he found or a festival. For most people, these may be simple dates, but Fushiguro puts so much effort into so may aspects of your dates that honestly, anything bigger would lose the personal touch your dates have.

U: Ugly (What are some bad habits of theirs? (I’m gonna add arguments here because they aren’t on the prompt list I found))

One of his worst habits is his self-sacrificing tendencies. Even during a baseball game, he can’t help but sacrifice himself (especially if it means his friends/ you get to get the glory). With time though, he grows out of this and realizes it’s not selfish to want the best for yourself.

V: Vanity (How concerned are they with their looks?)

He’s giving “I woke up like this” and it’s... it’s something. One might think the style is intentional since obviously, the look could only be achieved with gel, and to an extent, it is intentional. He might use gel to spike it a little more but the man legit rolls out of bed and chooses to leave his hair up like that.

W: Whole (Would they feel incomplete without you?)

No, as much as he loves you, Fushiguro is an introvert. He needs time to just be by himself and unwind every once in a while, so he’s got no complaints if you leave him to his own devices or have to be gone for a long time.

X: (E)xes (Any previous relationship experience. How does that factor into your current relationship?)

Megumi has negative zero relationship experience. He’s never found someone that was worth the risk/ worth opening up to, hell, he just barely got friends when he entered high school. Because of this, every part of your relationship is like navigating uncharted waters.

Y: Yuck (What are some things they wouldn’t like, either in general or in a partner)

He’s less someone to dislike a specific thing/ personality trait, and more someone who doesn’t like different people for different reasons, ex. Todo and Mai. If he had to pick a single trait, it’d probably have to be hypocriticism.

Z: Zzz (What is a sleep habit of theirs?)

He is someone who will fall asleep spread eagle one night and the next be huddled into a tiny little section of the bed. Mercy on you if you try to cuddle because now you’re wrapped up into his unconscious acrobatic routine.

[luci-in-trenchcoats]

By My Side (Part 5)

Summary: The reader has finally hired a replacement manager and after a dinner with her family, she and Jensen confront some underlying feelings...

Masterlist

Pairing: Bodyguard!Jensen x reader

Square: Free Space

Word Count: 3,200ish

Warnings: mature (language, smut (m/f))

A/N: Enjoy!

A/N #2: Written for @spnkinkbingo​

_________

You stretched as you woke the next morning, getting ready for the day of entertaining your family. You bumped into Jensen in the kitchen, a pair of jeans and a simple black henley on him. You smiled but he frowned and you instantly made a face.

“Y/N, don’t turn off your phone ever. It’s a rule, remember?” he said before returning to slurping up his cereal.

“Oh. Sorry. I forgot,” you said.

“Please try not to do it again,” he said. He finished with his bowl and you took the cereal from nearby, pouring yourself some. “Are you deciding on a new manager today?”

“Yeah. I was thinking of that David guy?”

“The british one?”

“No, that was the Mark one. He was scottish I think. I’m not positive,” you said.

“Is David the one that had that intern? The little guy?” he asked.

“Alex? No, he was his just his driver. It doesn’t matter. I was thinking of David. What do you think?”

“Why does it matter what I think?”

“You did full background checks on all of these guys,” you said. “Who do you trust?”

“Honestly?” he asked. “I like Jake.”

“The young one?”

“He lacks the experience of the others but I don’t see him screwing you over. He was a navy cadet in college. Had to drop out due to a knee injury. Him I trust. Not that I don’t the others but I got a good feeling from the kid.”

“I’ll take that into consideration,” you said. He stood and you grabbed the milk, Jensen wiping off his mouth. “Have fun with your sister.”

“She’s got a work thing at the moment but hopefully she wraps up soon and I can take her out for some fun for a bit. I’ll see you tonight,” he said.

“Later, Jay,” you said, getting a wave from him as he walked out. You poured the milk into your bowl and took out your phone, dialing and hearing a ring tone a few times.

“Hello?” the other end answered.

“Hi, Jake? This is Y/N Y/L/N. I was wondering if you were still interested in the manager position? If you are, you are in for a fun first day with that restaurant photo.”

“Mmm. Smells great in here,” hummed Jensen when he walked into the kitchen that evening. Your mom smiled and immediately rushed over, Jensen tensing up as she gave him a hug.

“Mom. Don’t bug Jensen,” you said.

“It’s alright,” he said, noticing your brothers were nowhere to be found. “Nice to meet you, Mrs. Y/L/N.”

“Oh his arms are even bigger than you said! He’s handsome too,” she said. You rolled your eyes as you worked over the pot at the stove, Chuck turning around beside you and chuckling. “Jensen, this is my husband, Chuck.”

“Nice to meet you sir,” said Jensen, holding out a hand.

“You know everything about us already, don’t you,” he said as he shook it.

“Pretty much,” said Jensen. “Y/N’s safety is important and knowing about her family is part of that.”

“Well we certainly feel a lot better with her hiring someone. We’ve never been fans of her living alone,” he said.

“Y/N is quite capable. I’m just here to stop those situations from ever happening,” said Jensen.

“You will be joining us to eat, won’t you? Y/N and Chuck are making us dinner,” said your mom.

“That’s very kind of you mam but-”

“I insist,” she said.

“Just let it go Jensen,” you said. “This’ll be done soon if you want to tell the guys.”

Your parents headed outside, Jensen taking up Chuck’s spot beside you and stirring the cooked vegetables in the pan.

“None of them have any idea about the fake kidnapping or anything else, do they.”

“Nope. Nothing besides what happened last night. Michael and Nick know about the manager thing but that’s it. I’d prefer to keep it that way,” you said. The timer went off and Jensen got it, pushing some of the food around with a wooden spoon.

“They won’t hear anything from me,” he said. “Smells delicious.”

“Thanks. How’d it go with your sister?” 

“Good. I need to discuss something with you later after your family is gone for the night.”

“Everything alright?” you asked. 

“We’ll talk about it later,” he said, the back door opening. “Let’s dig in while it’s hot.”

“Jensen,” you said, finding him out by the pool that night, his feet soaking in the water. “My folks and the wonder twins are gone for the night.”

“Wonder twins,” he chuckled. “They act differently when your parents are around.”

“You picked up on that huh.”

“It’s pretty obvious,” he said. You sat beside him and stuck your feet in, Jensen leaning back on his palms. 

“What’s going on big guy?”

“Are you asking as my boss or my friend?”

“Friend,” you said, bumping his shoulder. “What’s up?”

“My sister wasn’t too happy to see big brother on the news nearly getting shot at. She asked me to consider a different line of work,” he said.

“Oh,” you said.

“Yeah. I’m not quitting, just so you know. A random guy running from the cops doesn’t scare me. Only reason I was on the news was cause of you,” he said.

“There’s a but in there somewhere though.”

“No, not really,” he said. “Just wanted to talk to you about it.”

“So there’s no problem.”

“I like when there’s no problems,” he chuckled. “My job is a lot easier when it’s simple like that.”

“You still have your gun on you.”

“Precaution,” he said. He sat up and took it out from behind his back. “You ever shoot one?”

“Pretend but real no, I haven’t. Can I hold it?” you asked. He set it in your hands, watching you look it over for a moment.

“You’ve had gun training,” he said.

“First season went through a lot of that stuff on the show. We get refreshers,” you said. “Colt?”

“Yes it is,” he said. “You use a glock on your show I believe.” 

Your head popped up and he laughed.

“Yes, even I do occasionally watch TV. Nice gun safety. You never leave your finger on the trigger.”

“Not supposed to, even with a fake gun they taught us,” you said. You lifted it up and held it out, finding it to be heavier than the one you were used to. “I like the grip.”

“You’d probably like a smaller Colt, fit your hands better,” he said. You handed it back to him and he tucked it away. “You see where the safety was on it?”

“Yeah?” you said. He reached behind himself and took your hand, guiding it to the back holster. 

“If I can’t use this, grips on the right side. Take it out, flick off the safety, point and squeeze. It’s that simple.”

“I sincerely hope I never have to put that into practice,” you said as he dropped your hand. Your finger brushed against his back, Jensen frozen solid before you pulled away.

“Any day I don’t have to touch it is a good one,” he said, your hand settling back in your lap. “That...tickled was all.”

“Green beans and tickling. You got some funny forms of kryptonite, Ackles,” you said. 

“Beats actual kryptonite,” he said. “Been awhile since I’ve been tickled.”

“I bet you like it. Being able to feel vulnerable and safe with someone.”

“Doesn’t everyone?”

Your feet kicked in the water, a smile growing on your face. He bumped your shoulder and your turned your head. He looked different, a softness about him. 

“Are you happy?” you asked. 

“What?”

“Are you happy? I...I don’t want you to feel like you have to choose this job over other things in life, like a relationship. You can have both, Jensen.”

“I’m lost.”

“I’m just saying...you can have a girlfriend and be my bodyguard. You don’t have to pick one or the other.”

“Girls get jealous,” he said. “In my experience. The hours are crap. The inconsistent schedule. I’m too…”

“Too what?”

“Last girlfriend I had...I can’t believe I’m telling you this.” He rubbed the back of his neck and you lightly nudged his foot in the water. “She thought I was too broken for a normal relationship.”

“What?”

“I should have kept my mouth shut,” he mumbled. He started to stand but you grabbed his arm, Jensen sighing and turning to you. “What? I think she might have had a point.”

“I think that was horrible of her to say and I’m sorry she never saw the real you cause him? He is so not broken.”

“You have this perfect image of me. Strong and capable. Dominant. Alpha. In charge, gives no fucks. That’s the bodyguard. That’s not me.”

“I know. I know Jensen likes being tickled,” you said. He rolled his eyes but you caught his chin, Jensen swallowing. “I know he likes the touch of soft fleece and expensive navy boxer briefs. I know he likes classic rock and sleeping in and likes two cream, one sugar in his coffee. I know he talks to his parents every Thursday night for at least an hour. I know he’s quiet around people he doesn’t know and I know he opens up when he’s well and truly comfortable with someone. I know he’s kind and I know he has nightmares sometimes. I know he can play the piano and guitar and he sings in the shower when he’s happy and he checks on me at night and puts my blankets back on me and doesn’t say a word about it, even when I thought he hated me.”

“You pay attention to me,” he said quietly. “Even though you don’t like me around.”

“I don’t like the bodyguard. He’s okay sometimes but a bit much all the time. But Jensen...him I like. I like him alot.”

“You don’t know what I’ve done. What’s been done to me.”

“You’re not broken, Jensen. I’m never going to believe that so don’t even try.”

He put a hand on the back of your neck, pulling you in close, so close you could feel his breath  on your face. 

“You’re supposed to tell me I’m screwed up. We’re not supposed to be friends. Don’t you understand that?” he said. Your nose pressed against his, green eyes locked on yours.

“I don’t think I’ll ever understand that,” you said. “What do you want?”

“I can’t have what I want,” he breathed out.

“You might be wrong about that. Actually, I’m positive you are,” you said, his hand sliding up a few inches into your hair. “Stop being scared and just tell me what you want.”

He leaned in the last inch between you, gentle lips connecting with yours. He didn’t move for a few seconds, eyes opening when he inched away just slightly. You stared at him and you saw him get the message, another kiss landing on your lips, his free hand sliding around your back. Your arms went over his shoulders, Jensen leaving kitten kisses on you before connecting roughly, giving your whole body a squeeze.

“Bedroom,” you breathed out. He moved back long enough to take his feet out of the water. He hoisted you up and carried you inside, your arms and legs wrapped around him as you returned to kissing him. There was a light scratch from the stubble on his jaw and you tugged on his bottom lip, Jensen pausing as he tried to shut the door behind him with one hand. 

You took the opportunity to tease him, kissing under his jaw while he got the back door shut and locked, his hand slapping the alarm system and the little ping saying it was armed. He arched his neck back and spun around, pushing you up against the wall. You squeezed him tighter, getting gentle bites along your collar bone.

He tore the two of you away and rushed you upstairs, stepping up onto your bed and walking forward on his knees until he could lower you down to your back. His eyes looked darker but playful as he moved up and leaned over you.

“Condom?” he asked.

“I’m on medication,” you said. “You clean?”

“Yeah,” he said.

“Same.”

“Good cause I really don’t think I can wait any longer to do this,” he said. He tore off his shirt and you immediately shot your hands up to his chest, running your fingers down it. 

“You’re so damn hot,” you said. He rolled off the bed and dropped his pants, giving you time to get your shirt off. By the time your head wasn’t covered, you had a perfect view of his ass, creamy and perky. Your bra went off quickly, Jensen turning around and making you pause.

“What?” he asked, glancing down at himself and then you.

“Lucky me,” you said. He smirked and you kicked off your shorts and underwear, Jensen crawling back on the bed and hovering over you. You kissed him and he planted his forearm by your head, his other hand trailing down to your breast. He kneaded the flesh gently, swiping a thumb over the bud and getting a tiny gasp out of you. He teased the same nipple with light touches and twists before working the other one over.

By the time his hand made its way between your folds you were soaking wet already.

“How do you want it?” he murmured against your lips, circling your clit lightly with his thumb.

“Want what?” you asked, arching your hips up into his touch.

“Slow. Fast. What do you like?” he asked, kissing your jaw as your breath hitched. 

“Show me how you’ve imagined this going,” you said. He smiled and you felt the head of his cock brush you folds. He teased the head against your clit a few times before you reached down and were guiding him into your hole.

He was a smidge thicker than you were expecting and his length was perfect, solid, long but not too much. He surprised you by wrapping his arms around you pulling you to sit up on his lap, your legs hanging around his waist. He thrust his hips up and you bit your bottom lip, landing back down on him. He moved again and hit your g-spot, your jaw dropping.

“That’s the spot,” he murmured, kissing you as he started a slow and steady rhythm. You hung on for the ride, his hands on your thighs, thick cock pumping into you over and over and over again. You’d been able to play on your own and hit that spot but never with a guy, never had that low pressure simmering in your core.

God it was going to fucking destroy you when it hit.

You couldn’t wait.

You smiled as your nerves tingled, Jensen kissing you all over, his grip strong but everything else soft and gentle. His hair started to dampen with sweat and and you felt a layer cover your body, the steady pace getting you both closer. 

He was nipping at your shoulder when you rolled your hips, Jensen grunting lowly and burying his face in your neck. That was a sound you could definitely do with more of and you did the motion again, Jensen pushing you onto his cock this time. You both moaned, Jensen’s slow pace picking up just a hair.

You were rolling your hips when his tip pounded inside of you and the low pressure started to explode inside you. You gasped and weren’t even sure what the hell kind of sound you’d made, suddenly aware of hot wetness filling you up. Jensen tensed up and slowly started to stop moving, your breath finally coming back to you as he stilled. He dropped his forehead on your shoulder and panted, your hands running up and down his back, playing with his hair some.

You giggled, Jensen letting out one himself and you swore your heart couldn’t have melted any faster. You picked your head up as he did, giving him a long kiss. He rested his forehead on your own, a smile dancing across his face.

“That was the best sex of my fucking life,” you said. He smiled hard and lowered you back down to the bed, holding up a finger. He pulled out and took a few shaky steps before going into your bathroom. He returned with a washcloth, wiping you clean. He tossed it back in the bathroom before he bent down to his pants. You frowned, Jensen looking back as he unclipped his holster from his belt. He walked it over to the unused nightstand and set it on top before he slid next to you. You pushed the covers back and slid under the sheet together, Jensen rolling you close to him and up against his chest.

“I don’t hookup,” he said.

“Okay,” you said. You shut your eyes and burrowed in a bit closer, Jensen pulling you to use his chest as a pillow. “I really liked that. It was fun.”

“We should do it again sometime,” he said. He turned his head and you smiled, Jensen moving a stray piece of hair away from your cheek. 

“I would be much safer if you slept close by, wouldn’t I?” you asked coyly, Jensen already seeing through it.

“Oh yes, much safer.”

“Maybe you should sleep in here from now on...for safety.”

“In the name of safety, for sure,” he said, kissing your temple. “Real talk for a second. If this is just a hookup for you can you let me now over-”

You put a hand over his mouth and stared at him, slowly moving it away and giving him a kiss.

“I like you, Jensen. I really like you.”

He smiled and took your hand, laying it over his chest so you were holding him.

“Goodnight,” you said, kissing his shoulder.

“Night, Y/N,” he said, lightly dancing his fingers over your hip. “Sleep good.”

_______

A/N: Read Part 6 here!

[slightlyrebelliouswriter23]

hey so i'm hoping to get some writing advice about creative burnout? like i seem to write in fits and spurts. some months i can churn out a oneshot or chapter everyday and some months i can do one (1) creative thing only. so i'm wondering how to prevent creative burnout and how to just create more smoothly <3 thank you!

Creative Burnout & How To Ward Against It

First, I’d like to preface this all by saying you’re definitely not alone. You probably already know this, but sometimes it’s nice to be reminded.

I know from personal experience that creative burnout can leave you feeling hopeless, detached from yourself—the kind of identity crisis no one needs in 2020. 

So buckle in, folks. It’s a dosy.

I. The Symptoms

Not to be the local WebMD page here, but signs of burnout can include:

Procrastination (more than usual)

Dreading writing and feeling stuck or overly perfectionistic when you try

Physical tiredness and/or irritability

Feeling like everything is monotonous

It’s more than just writer’s block. It’s a physical and emotional exhaustion response to something that goes deeper than a simple lack of inspiration. In my experience, and from a bit of research, I’ve found that what your brain is really looking for is dopamine.

Dopamine is essentially your brain’s chemical reward system for doing something interesting or exciting to you. As someone who is diagnosed with ADHD, I have chronically low levels of dopamine, so this is a constant struggle for me—but it is absolutely made worse by creative burnout.

II. The Problem

Studies have shown that the more we do A Thing the less that thing will give us dopamine (unless a component of the activity changes regularly). This is because eventually our brains desensitise to the stimuli provided by the activity, and subsequently, we become disengaged.

But it’s not necessarily The Thing (i.e. writing) that becomes boring. Actually, more than a few factors could be at play here, and the first step to finding a solution is to identify the problem.

1. ENVIRONMENT LACKS EXCITEMENT/CHANGE—

Sometimes, the monotony of everyday life can feed creative burnout. This becomes especially applicable in quarantine when you’re not leaving your house.

What we don’t realise is that even something as small as the variables of driving to and from work, or interacting with passing coworkers, gives us dopamine. So if you have the same routine every day that does not involve any added variables, your brain will begin staunching that dopamine supply.

2. EITHER TOO EASY OR TOO CHALLENGING—

In 1975, Hungarian-American psychologist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, coined the term “flow”, which refers to a heightened state of creativity and concentration on an activity. Csikszentmihalyi posited that if your skill level is equal to the level of challenge in any given activity, you will experience this state of flow.

The chart below is taken from Csikszentmihalyi’s own study on the subject of flow and motivation. It examines “your skill level” on the x axis in relation to the “challenge level” on the y axis.

Essentially:

Too much challenge + not enough skill = anxiety, worry (which might lead to procrastination and perfectionism)

Too much skill + not enough challenge = boredom, apathy (which might lead to monotony, irritability, and other depression-like symptoms)

Skill level = Challenge level = Flow

3. NOT ENOUGH “ACTIVE” STIMULATION—

When it comes to dopamine seeking, there is a distinct difference between active and passive stimulation in the brain.

Active stimulation is any form of activity that you have to actively engage in. For instance; exercising, doing a crossword puzzle, or reading a book. These kinds of activities not only give you dopamine, they also facilitate critical thinking and problem solving thought processes, which act as catalysts for creativity.

Passive stimulation, on the other hand, comes in the form of television, social media, and YouTube. It’s anything you can consume without having to actively engage. Passive stimulation will indeed give your brain dopamine, however, it won’t activate your creativity.

The problem also lies in the speed at which you receive the dopamine from passive activities. Passive stimulation is so easy to access that the more you consume, the harder it becomes to pick up active stimulation. Your brain expects a hit of dopamine just by picking up a phone or turning on the TV—it becomes addicted to the quick fix of a Netflix binge.

III. The Solutions

Based on the problems mentioned above, I am going to list a few solutions. Keeping in mind that not every solution will work for everyone, these can act as both preventative measures and remedies for someone who is currently burned out.

1. CHANGE UP YOUR ENVIRONMENT/ROUTINE—

Aim to do at least one thing per day that will add “variables” to the monotony. This can be as simple as going on a long walk, dressing up in that bold outfit you always wanted to wear to the office but never did, or sitting at a different workspace in your home.

Anything you can do that’s simple, but might provide an extra variable to your day to spice things up. Note: this shouldn’t be the same thing every day.

2. CHALLENGE YOURSELF MORE—

If you find yourself bored by your work, try challenging yourself more. This could mean setting goals for yourself that go a bit beyond what you’ve been doing. 

For example, if you’ve been writing 500 words per day, see if you can beat your own word count every day for the next week. If you’ve been writing mainly fluff pieces, switch it up and do an angst piece. See if you can write a book in a month, or start a blog where you don’t write fiction at all!

Anything you can do to add a little kick to your workload. Note: Beware of challenging yourself too much! This can lead straight back into burnout.

3. CHALLENGE YOURSELF LESS—

If you’re on the flip side of that coin, and find that you are anxious, procrastinating, and perfectionistic when it comes to writing, fret not. Just because you’re experiencing any of these things, doesn’t mean you’re incapable of doing the job with your skillset.

It just means your perception of the job needs to be shifted.

Procrastination, at its heart, is a fear of failure, which results in actively avoiding the negative emotions associated with the task that causes this fear. Perfectionism is a type of procrastination that is a combination of a fear of failure and a fear of success (or, more accurately, other’s critiques of your success) all at once.

Neither have anything to do with your actual skillset, but they have everything to do with your perception of your skillset. Obviously, this is a harder thing to fix, as it has to do with deeply ingrained levels of self-esteem.

What I can offer you is a tactic to trick your mind into thinking you’re capable.

If you have a task, big or small, and you are feeling overwhelmed by it (like you might go curl up in bed and scroll Tumblr), immediately break that task up into smaller tasks. Keep breaking up the smaller tasks until you have the smallest possible part of the bigger task without doing nothing.

Then do that smallest possible thing.

If your goal is to write a 2000 word one shot, a small part of that task is writing half of it. An even smaller part of that task is breaking the one shot up into “scenes” and writing one scene. For instance:

Jude wakes up to a sore throat, a runny nose, and a fever.

She tries to go to work, but Cardan, being the mother hen that he is, threatens to never make her another grilled cheese sandwich (her favourite food) ever again if she doesn’t stay home.

Jude agrees begrudgingly, and Cardan sits her down in front of the TV with a bottle of Gatorade. He leaves to go get medicine from the store.

When Cardan comes back, Jude is worse than before. He makes her soup and saltine crackers and spoon feeds her.

She complains the whole time and, in her feverish state, threatens to never buy him another bottle of wine (his favourite food) ever again if he doesn’t let her feed herself.

Each bullet point represents one “scene” of about 200-400 words each. Obviously, there will be more details that you work out as you write. But with these five smaller scenes, your goal is no longer writing the 2000 word one shot. Your goal is writing the first of the five scenes.

If you complete the smallest possible task, you can stop, and you’ll still feel like you’ve accomplished something because you can cross off that task from your list. But chances are, by the time you cross off one task, you may have inspiration enough to keep going.

4. ENGAGE IN ACTIVE STIMULATION—

Since active stimulation has been proven to turn on the creative “tap”, try incorporating more of these activities into your daily routine:

Exercise: As the resident couch potato, I hate to say that exercising is good for creativity, but it is. Even if it’s just going on a short walk, so long as you’re moving.

Reading: Sometimes you have plenty of ideas, but no words to fit those ideas. Fill your well of words by carving out an hour or two each day for reading a good book.

The Creative Process: In the writing world, the creative process is a process of about 20-30 minutes that the writer partakes in every day before they start writing. This process should be creative, but also have nothing to do with writing. You can try colouring in a colouring book, painting, organising a page in your bullet journal. Anything that is creative but does not make you think about everything you have to do that day. Think of it as creative meditation.

Listen to music: Having APD, I personally can’t listen to music while I write. However, studies have shown that if you listen to at least ten songs per day, it will significantly benefit your dopamine levels and overall mood. If you’re like me and prefer to work in silence, maybe stick on a couple songs during your creative process. If you can manage music and writing together, get out those headphones!

5. KEEP A REGULAR SCHEDULE—

I know this is the most cliche point in the book, but it’s valid. This doesn’t mean do the same thing at the same time every day over and over, because ultimately we’re looking to avoid monotony. 

But having pillars of structure to bolster the excitement can definitely work to keep you from slipping into burnout. Going to sleep, waking up, and having your meals at relatively the same time every day are good examples of this. 

Feel free to change up the things you do between breakfast and lunch, but make sure you have those pillars of consistency so your brain knows that a break is on the horizon and doesn’t get tired.

6. PACE YOURSELF—

This is particularly difficult for those of us who are coming out of a creative burnout, but I urge you to pay special attention to this one. If we are suddenly hit by inspiration and the writing is flowing and flowing and flowing, eventually we will hit the point of highest dopamine capacity for writing.

Not putting a check on the flood of inspiration coming out of a creative burnout, I’d argue, is actually a guarantee that many of us will experience burnout all over again. It becomes this vicious cycle in which we are trapped.

While it feels great to write non-stop and receive immediate validation for that work, try to limit yourself to how much you’re writing and how immediately you post your writing (if you plan on posting it).

Whenever I finish a one shot or a chapter of something, I like to allow at least one day for editing before I post. This timeframe is important, because it acts as a buffer of rest between writing marathons. 

You can take however long you need for the editing process, but definitely make sure you have a set amount of time in place. Otherwise, your brain might not have enough time to come down from what is essentially a writing high, and you will always need to reach greater heights in order to achieve that same level of dopamine.

~~~~

Overall, the most important things to take away from all of this are: 

Change up your environment

Keep your brain actively stimulated 

Have pillars of structure between which you can run about chaotically to your heart’s content

PACE YOURSELF!

Hope this helped. Happy writing!

-Em 🖤🗡

Writing Tip Masterlist

Fic Masterlist

Celebrate 2K with me!

[glimmerglanger]

in the woods, somewhere

So, I’ve been spit-balling an obikin idea over on Discord (so if this sounds very, very familiar to anyone, that’s why). I’ve just been thinking a lot about a knights-n-magic fantasy au that would feature crown prince Anakin and trapped fae/elf Obi-Wan, political intrigue, fae contracts, and so on.

The general idea is that King Qui-Gon rules the land of...hm, let’s go with Coruscant He had two older sons, but no one really talks about what happened to them. They’re just… no longer around. He won’t talk about them, and certainly no one else will break the silence.

The family is just him and his youngest - and sole remaining - son, Anakin, for as long as Anakin can remember. There are servants and guards, of course. And there's... Obi-Wan. 

Obi-Wan isn't a servant or a guard or a royal. Qui-Gon says he's a guest, every time Anakin asks, and he just rolls with that explanation. He doesn't look strictly human. Sometimes, in the right light, the shadows fall very strangely on his face, and there’s something wrong about the shape of his ears. No other person has eyes the same color as his. 

But Anakin grows up used to him and doesn't think very much about his oddness. Certainly he doesn’t notice at first how deeply sad Obi-Wan seems, hanging out in the palace gardens and staring yearningly at the horizon, and always wearing these strange, thin, iron bracelets. Qui-Gon does tell Anakin he's never to take the bracelets off.

The one time Anakin brings them up, he gets in a lot of trouble, and doesn’t understand why. It’s one of the few times he recalls his father being legitimately angry with him. 

At nine years old (thereabouts), Anakin starts telling people, including Obi-Wan, that he’s going to marry Obi-Wan someday. It made sense to him. Obi-Wan is preternaturally lovely and kind to him and seems very sad and surely he'll be happier if Anakin marries him. Obi-Wan treats the childish promise very seriously, due to the way Anakin made it, taking the bundle of wild flowers and rowan leaves that Anakin offers him with severity that makes Anakin feel good.

A tutor immediately tells him he can’t do such a foolish thing, and Anakin replies that he'll be king someday and can do as he wishes, then. The tutor gives a scowl and goes to tell Qui-Gon.

...and things go very unhappily for a bit. Anakin is told never to say such foolish things again and forbidden from even seeing Obi-Wan for a time. When he does catch glimpses of Obi-Wan he seems unwell and sadder than usual, and Anakin thinks its his fault, so he stops bringing it up, eventually all but forgetting he ever even went through such phase, though, of course, his interest in Obi-Wan’s strange and unchanging beauty changed as he grew into a man.

He has a pretty alright childhood, as these things go, aside from these few bumps. Things go badly wrong, though, at some point. There's an attack on the neighboring country of Naboo. Qui-Gon heads off to help, they've got treaties, after all. Anakin's chomping at the bit to do some fighting, too, so he goes along.

Qui-Gon doesn't make it back.

Anakin comes home - Naboo successfully defended - as King. He's lowkey - highkey - freaking out about it. Mourning his father. Trying to weather all these sudden changes. It's a comfort to find a single piece of normalcy when he gets back and Obi-Wan is the same as he ever was, the same as he's been since Anakin was old enough to remember, he never changes.

Anakin feels like none of his advisors are taking him seriously. They still treat him like a child. He's maybe projecting how worried he is about screwing things up onto them. Palpatine is around, giving him bad advice as grand vizier.

But Obi-Wan listens to him. Obi-Wan has always listened to him. Even when it was Anakin showing him bugs or a bird’s nest or whatever! And he's got a lot of experience. And no real position in court, so Anakin can talk to him about his worries and stress without worrying about it being used against him later.

And he's so pretty.

Court intrigue ensues. There are odd happenings, here and there. Things that have recurred occasionally through Anakin's childhood. Incursions from strange things from the great forest to the north.

Obi-Wan always has cryptic things to say about these incursions. Some of the older people in court give him sharp looks when they happen. A few murmur curses under their breath or make signs to ward off evil when Obi-Wan passes.

But no one is willing to tell Anakin what Obi-Wan’s deal is, even after he's King. They tell him that it doesn't matter, or lie and say they don't know. They just insist that Anakin MUST keep the iron bands in place.

....Anakin doesn't particularly like being ordered to do things

Still, maybe he would have, if Obi-Wan ever asked him to outright remove the bands. But he doesn't. Just gets wistful and sad when Anakin asks about them. And after someone tells Anakin what to do again, he snaps and decides they're coming off.

Anakin takes them off and drops them onto the floor, one after the other, and Obi-Wan...just stands there for a moment, breathing unsteadily, arms outstretched, trembling a little, staring at his freed skin -- burned black beneath the iron. Anakin stares at the damage and wonders how it could have come about.

He's a little distracted from asking about it, because there is a sudden.... odd silence stealing through the palace. Like the world is holding its breath. He looks around, trying to figure out what's going on, and there's a sensation of movement, a brush of touch across his mouth, and when he looks back, Obi-Wan is just gone.

And people are screaming something about the forest, panic in their voices.

By the time Anakin reaches the battlement, he can see that the trees are...moving? Shifting? As though many things are moving under them.

Someone demands to know where Obi-Wan is, grabs Anakin when he doesn't answer right away, asks if he took the damn bands off. Anakin shrugs, because he doesn't understand what's happening, and there is despairing cursing. Someone tells him he doesn't know what he's done. 

He finally gets a council pulled together. And someone finally, haltingly, explains that Obi-Wan has been in the castle since Qui-Gon was much younger. Only recently King, stepping into his father’s position, a man with two sons and a growing kingdom.

There'd been...problems. With the folk of the forest. What folk, Anakin wants to know, because he's never heard of any folk living in the trees. They're empty. Barren.

No, one of his advisors tells him, they've just been waiting. Held back. Because Qui-Gon managed to find a way to protect them all, to keep them safe. The folk of the forest left them be while they held Obi-Wan. Left them alone for decades.

Anakin has to process that his oldest companion was, apparently, either a hostage or a prisoner or....something, while his advisors bemoan the fact that Anakin freed Obi-Wan and doomed them all, no doubt.

Anakin doesn't understand why they were fighting in the first place. They tell him stories about the folk of the forest being murderous and soulless, thieves of children, vicious, bloodthirsty.

He points out that Obi-Wan didn't really seem like any of those things and they claim it was the iron, the touch of it tamed him. There are a few men who remember when Qui-Gon dragged Obi-Wan back from the woods.

He was a wild thing, they say, all tangled hair and gnashing teeth, biting and scratching as they held him down, arms and legs pinned to cold stone, and closed the bands around his wrists. Civilizing him.

Anakin has nothing but their word to go on, though he's confused as to why the folk of the forest would leave them alone just over one person. No one gives him a straight answer about that. They're like who knows why they do anything? We have other things to worry about! Like the fact that they're probably going to attack us!

There are some very concerning sounds coming from the forest. Storm clouds building on the horizon and whispers stealing in through the wind.

Anakin decides he's going to go find out what's going on, over many, many protests. He does, eventually, agree to take a small army with him. His most trusted knights and warriors.

And they ride into the woods, which seem....unwelcoming in a way that Anakin has never known them to be. He sees moving things, always out of the corners of his eyes, hears noises, feels the branches scraping along his helm and his shoulders.

They're very deep in the woods when someone notices that the trail behind them is gone.

They try to find their way back, to no avail. Try to find water and have no luck. Someone climbs a tree to get a look and the forest seems....much much bigger than it should be. There's no sign of a border.

Anakin listens to the news with the hair rising on the back of his neck, turns around at the cool prickling of it, and barely gets his sword up in time to block a blow.

He doesn't recognize the warriors closing around them. They almost blend into the trees, all in greens and browns and creams, fast and silent, a blade an inch away from one of his knight's throats when someone - a familiar voice - orders it to stop.

And Anakin almost doesn't recognize Obi-Wan when he turns to look.

He's shed the robes and linens he wore in the city, revealing his skin and the whorls painted - maybe tattooed, Anakin can't tell - across it. The tips of his ears look different, his eyes look brighter. His teeth, do, perhaps, look sharper.

There are still bands of black around his wrists.

And he wants to know what, exactly, Anakin is doing in the woods.

Anakin says he just wants to know what's going on, why Obi-Wan left. Why he was....really there in the first place.

And Obi-Wan considers him. He's known Anakin for so long, known him since he was a giggling child who loved petting the castle's cats, a youth frustrated when he didn't learn things as quickly as he wanted, a new and unsure king.

Obi-Wan tilts his head to the side and tells him he won't like the story.

Anakin rolls his eyes, ignoring the very real threat in the air all around them, and reminds Obi-Wan that he's always liked Obi-Wan's stories.

Obi-Wan stares a moment longer - he doesn't seem to blink anymore - and finally agrees to talk to Anakin. Alone. The rest of them are to throw down their weapons. Anakin agrees over the protests of his knights and warriors, who are vehemently opposed to him going over with one of the fair folk.

Anakin really hates being told what to do. He throws down his sword and follows Obi-Wan down a path through the trees, aware that people are watching them from the edges of the path, from the branches of the trees.

Obi-Wan eventually climbs up onto a tree stump to look at him, and asks what he's been told about why Obi-Wan was in the city. Anakin lays it out, far too impatient to think about lying, and Obi-Wan snorts out a laugh.  

And tells a very different story, built on the same general bones. There was conflict between their people. Many years of it, as Anakin's predecessors slowly moved into the area. The disagreements worsened when one of Qui-Gon's sons fell in with a practitioner in the dark arts, and engaged in open aggression against them.

Things boiled over. Both sides took losses. The son died, on a battlefield, dark magics failing him.

And perhaps it would have ended there, but it didn't. Qui-Gon grew furious about the death of his son. The battles grew more serious. Anakin's people had not expected the force of the fair folk. They wanted to end things.

Qui-Gon ended them by dragging Obi-Wan off a battlefield. Stealing him away. Not content merely to grant him an honorable death. Binding him with iron. Keeping him from home and hearth for decades.

And when Anakin still can't understand why they'd care so much about Obi-Wan, he shrugs and says that perhaps Qui-Gon wanted a prince for a prince.

Anakin asks what Obi-Wan is going to do now, then, and Obi-Wan says that will depend on their conversation. At which point he stiffens and demands to know if this was all a ploy, then, to distract him, before pointing out the smoke on the horizon.

It turns out that the kingdom has started trying to burn the woods, attacking without Anakin’s orders.Anakin tries to convince Obi-Wan that he wasn't involved in the sudden attack. But even if Obi-Wan believes him, the rest of Obi-Wan's people are not going to be as trusting....

In fact, they don’t believe him at all. He’s King, and a King answers for the actions of their people. The guards with Obi-Wan get very intense about potentially executing Anakin, and Obi-Wan asks if they are truly suggesting causing any harm to his betrothed? 

If they are, he says, he’ll be forced to take steps to...resolve the issue.

Anakin thinks he's bluffing, at first. So do the other fae folk in the area. But a small ritual reveals that there is a betrothal pledge in place, a contract between them. Obi-Wan’s folk subside, grips easing off of weapons, leaving Anakin unharmed.

And, later, when they're alone and people are reluctantly offering Anakin the treatment he should get as Obi-Wan's betrothed, he asks how Obi-Wan did that, why he did that. 

Obi-Wan smiles at him, eyes sparkling, and tells Anakin that he did it, does he not remember? The offer of flowers and the leaves from a certain tree? Obi-Wan only accepted them. Anakin made the offer.

Anakin, shocked and trying to process this all, blurts something about how it can't be true, they haven't even so much as kissed. And gets an amused look for his trouble, before Obi-Wan puts a hand on Anakin's cheek, rocks up onto his toes, and kisses him, shifting back a moment later while Anakin is just staring at him, heart racing.

Obi-Wan says they have not the time to discuss it, at the moment, but he would not be opposed to a wedding on the winter solstice. Anakin can only ask why, still dazed, and Obi-Wan winks at him, tells him it is, after all, the longest night of the year.

Anakin sets that thought aside. There is a lot of other stuff happening. He needs to process the fact that the fair folk exist, that Obi-Wan is one of them, that he was kept a captive by Qui-Gon, that his own people are staging an attack without his permission….

He sends scouts to find out what is happening and eventually finds out that Palaptine has taken steps to convince everyone that Anakin is ensorcelled. 

So they've got to fight, and it probably takes some time, there's lots of worries about betrayal. Discussions of what it felt like for Obi-Wan to live so long among humans. Discussions of what he actually is like. Anakin already had...feelings, and they’re getting increasingly more complicated by the day. 

Anakin eventually asks about the iron bands and what the hell they did. Obi-Wan explains that they...cut him off. Made him feel as though he'd lost a sense or a limb. And hurt, always. Left him feeling like ants were crawling under his skin, like his bones were afire inside, for decades.

Anakin brushes his thumb across one of the dark lines that will - apparently - not go away. Asks how Obi-Wan didn't go mad, in such a situation. Obi-Wan says maybe he did - certainly, some of his people say he's gone mad, standing up for Anakin, trusting him - and Anakin shakes his head. Dares to curl his shoulders down while drawing Obi-Wan's wrist up, pressing the softest of kisses to the inside of his wrist, over the mark, with an apology on his lips for the sins of his father.

The first time they’ve kissed since Obi-Wan spoke of their betrothal.

Obi-Wan makes no protests, when Anakin trails kisses down his forearm. His breath hitches, instead. And perhaps Anakin would have continued, certainly he wanted to, were they not interrupted by more news of the fighting.

They are drawn apart. The fighting wages on. Eventually they find out Palpatine was the one who gave Qui-Gon the idea to bind Obi-Wan in such a way, had his own plans, and is trying to seize power. There are some battles. Obi-Wan makes it clear that he never wants to be contained by iron again. But does something incredibly reckless, anyway, probably to save Anakin, and ends up captured.

Everything comes to a head in a final brawl, probably in Anakin's castle, where he corners Palpatine, who orders Obi-Wan dragged in and he's... limp but not unconscious, unable even to pass out, because Palpatine put him in a shirt and pants of iron chainmail.

His eyes are huge and full of agony, his cheeks streaked with tears, but his jaw is clenched shut, holding in any screams that try to escape, as he refuses to give Palpatine the satisfaction.  

Anakin snaps and manages to win the fight. He pulls the iron off, whispering words of comfort as he does. Obi-Wan is alive but fading quickly, passing out in Anakin’s arms. His people take him back, hoping they can treat him, and Anakin is left to pick up the pieces of everything broken while he was away, not even knowing if Obi-Wan survived.

Weeks pass.

They turn into months.

There are no further attacks from the fair folk. The harvest comes in. Anakin looks to the side, often, expecting to see Obi-Wan there, as ever he has been, and he is missing. He feels as though he is in mourning, and receives, eventually, an offer of marriage from the ruler of Naboo…

He sets it aside, though all his advisors tell him he should accept it, though he was very fond of Queen Amidala. He promises to consider it after the turning of the year, haunting the halls of his own palace as the days get shorter and colder.

It is nearly the darkest part of the year, when word comes of a delegation arriving from the forest. Anakin rushes out to meet them, finds them riding the strange, horned horses they favor. Finds Obi-Wan, sliding from his mount, looking wan and tired but alive and warm when Anakin grabs him and pulls him close, asking what he is doing, why he’s come

And Obi-Wan says that he could not very well miss his own wedding, could he?

[cblgblog]

Sorry I’m advance but one of my other favorite accounts just reblogged a Tony scene and people are talking about Civil War and how it made them Stan Tony, and how when they watch that movie they hate team cap👀 Then someone was all about how he was sleep deprived and how much pressure he was under and couldn’t understand how people didn’t like Tony because. Someone literally said that when someone says they don’t like Tony in Civil War they say “did you watch the same movie as me.” I’m baffled. Oddly enough someone else said, “he just wants to help everyone.” Sorry for the rant but I think people forget about what the accords are and what it would mean for people. Side note, I hope you’re having a great day/night 😀

No sorry needed!

I feel you man, I do. Honestly, I’ve unfollowed people based on similar posts when I was in especially Done moods, so.

Look on the one hand, the movie would’ve been a narrative failure if everyone was in favor of one side or the other, right? The whole point of the damn thing—besides giving the Mouse overlords more money—was to spark discussion, debate. Which, yeah, we’ll call that the tame description for what actually happened. But just, the thing was meant to split the fanbase so in that regard…winning? Thanks, I guess?

Film is also very obviously subjective, different strokes for different folks, so yeah, ten people can watch a movie and none of them are gonna see the exact same film. Let’s try to remember that this is, in theory anyway, a good thing. I just read a professional film review yesterday where I had the same reaction. What film were you watching, dude? Incidentally his reviewing partner said the same thing.

So honestly, no, they weren’t watching the same film as you or I or anyone else, because everyone brings their own biases and experiences and knowledge and interests into a thing, and that’s always going to flavor how it’s viewed. Again, let’s try to remember that this is good. In theory. Heavy on the theory.

That out of the way? Let’s get into Tony specifically so his uber stans can find this and scream at me on anon as though I just shot RDJ with a nuke.

Oh yeah, he was stressed. Oh, he was sleep deprived. Yeah, I’ve heard that. And that it’s Pepper’s fault, if she hadn’t left the poor baby, if she was there to rein him in, he’d be fine dammit, leave the baby alone!

Here’s the thing. You know who gets a pass on their shit behavior when they’re upset or tired? Actual babies. Actual babies and toddlers, and children, up to a point. Because they actually cannot always help themselves. Their bodies and brains are different, they have not learned better.

When you’re a 50-year-old man who’s supposedly the world’s bestest superhero, who wants, wants to be in charge of protecting the whole world? You need a little more self-control than that. The sleep deprived excuse works if you snap at someone before you’ve had your coffee, not for this. Roseanne Barr didn’t get to blame Ambien for her racism, Tony doesn’t get to handwave CW away because oops, I was tired.

Really? You’re a superhero, dude. Most of your teammates are tired too, that’s part of the gig. If you crash and burn this badly without your afternoon nap, fucking hang up the armor and go back to your billionaire playboy lifestyle.

Speaking of that, sure, right. It’s Pepper’s fault because she left him. Put aside the argument on whether that was justified or not (cough, it was and she should’ve stayed away even though they are adorable together). It’s not Pepper’s job to keep Tony sane. It’s not any partner’s job to do that for anyone. If she wants out, she has a right to that, without Tony going off the rails and blaming it on her. Seriously, he says part of the reason he backed the Accords was to “split the difference” with Pepper.

Dude. You were an asshole and you lost your girl. You destroyed all your suits, turned an emotional and mental corner in IM 3…and then relapsed 4 minutes later I guess because Whedon. Either way, Tony admits himself that he does not want to stop. So instead of doing that, or finding another partner who can accept that, you back an unjust international law that pits you against your team, your supposed friends? Go to therapy, have a pint of ice cream, cry into your pillow, send her more of those strawberries you sent her in IM 2 that she’s allergic to. You don’t go trying to change international law in ways that could ultimately affect millions of people because your girl left you.

Honestly—and thank God they didn’t do this but—the only way the Pepper excuse works in excusing his behavior in any way is if she’d died. Or been severely injured like Happy in IM 3. Still wouldn’t be okay, but, like Quill messing up their chance to stop Thanos because Gamora died, it would’ve been more understandable. Understandable, not excusable, and the way the MCU treats their women as manpain fodder, we’re probably legit lucky we didn’t get this.

As for him wanting to help everyone. He does in fact want that, I think. The problem is that his need to feel like he’s doing that is stronger than his rational mind, or his want to actually help in a constructive way.

Tony is too smart. He’s dumb as hell in many instances, mostly involving people and relationships, but he’s also too smart, and he’s been told for too long that he’s smart, and he’s bought into it. Ultron. Suit of armor around the world, protects the world, no more alien threats. It’s a simple concept on paper that fails in execution. So there are people with dangerous powers. Okay, we’ll make a set of laws to keep them from being dangerous, problem solved. But again, it isn’t.

Tony is not used to problems he cannot solve. He’s a genius, right? He can fix anything. He should be able to fix anything. That’s how he feels. But not everything is zeros and ones and circuits, things that can be fixed mechanically like his armors can. The people he wants to protect are not built that way. But he needs to feel like he’s doing something, because he’s terrified of what happens to the world if he doesn’t. So he creates these simple solutions to complex problems. The suit of armor, the Accords. They sound good in theory, but the problems they’re trying to solve are bigger than they are. And Tony, way back in IM 1, he sat back for years, clueless that his weapons were being used for bad things. He says it to Cap in CW. When he found out what his weapons were being used for, he went in and stopped it. Whether or not he should’ve known that already is a separate issue here. The point here is that when he found out, too late or not, he went in and did something about it.

Tony needs to do something about it. Again, go back to Cap in AoU, Tony’s nightmare sequence. Steve asks Tony why he didn’t save them. Tony’s ultimate nightmare is that he sits back and does nothing, and his inaction causes everyone to die. Which is where you get Ultron. Something he came up with because of what he saw in space in Avengers 1, then doubled down on in AoU. It’s where you get the Accords. Oops, he caused someone to die, he killed Charles Spencer. Must do something about that right now so it doesn’t happen again, and he won’t have to feel this guilt. He should be collaborating with others to come up with solutions (no Bruce in AoU doesn’t count because Bruce was dumb there), or at the very least, taking more time to think through the repercussions of the things he puts out there. But he doesn’t, because he’s got his savior complex that tells him that he alone can and must fix this, and because he’s too dumb to realize how not-smart he is in certain areas.

“We need to be put in check. Whatever form that takes, I’m game.”

Isn’t that what he says in CW, or something very close to it? Whatever form that takes. That’s the issue, right there, whatever form that takes. Realistically, yes, there should be laws regarding people with powers, the same way there are special laws pertaining to people who carry guns, or people who are licensed to fly planes. You have a thing/can do a thing that not everyone else does, so there are regulations pertaining to that thing. Laws change with the times, they always have. Some new technology comes up, eventually there will be laws that regulate it. As there should be, honestly. The issue with the Accords, Steve’s issue with the Accords, was not the basic idea. He says as much. He says that it could work, but there would have to be safeguards. Safeguards that are not in the Accords that Tony wants him to sign.

It's not a matter of oh, fuck the law, there should be no law governing these people, they’re above it. The problem is that the law as it’s presented here is unjust. There’s what, a month between Lagos and Ross coming by to tell them about the Accords? A month is not enough time to properly analyze such a big issue, Especially when you’re reacting out of fear, which is what happened with Lagos. People died because of an Enhanced person, an Avenger, in this case. Lawmakers don’t want that to happen again, they especially don’t want the political shit storm that comes with it. Damn, we look like we were asleep at the switch here, not having anything to throw at this problem earlier. Quick, let’s throw together this thing so no one can say we’re not addressing the problem.

Patriot Act of 2001, anyone? 9/11 happened, the public were rightfully terrified, the US said oh man, these are unprecedented circumstances, we’ve never had this before. Don’t worry though, we’re on this, we’re protecting you. The reality being that that bill simply gave the government too much power, most of it being used against people who were not actually threats, and it’s debatable, to say the very least, whether or not that law helped more than it hurt.

No law is perfect. No law ever will be. It’s not possible. We still have to strive for perfection though, have to aim there so that the laws we get are as close to fair as possible. Tony’s a big deal. If not for his “whatever form that takes” attitude, he might’ve been able to use his influence to pressure lawmakers into coming up with a fairer bill. Hey, I’m me, the public loves me, I will endorse this bill publicly and work on getting the rest of the team to sign, but you need to change this and this and this first, or no deal. Instead, he took the easy way out, the quickest, easiest way for him to feel like he’s atoned for his sins without actually doing anything. Whatever form that takes.

Tony’s not wrong because he backs the creation of a law that addresses these things. He’s wrong because he says himself that he does not care what that law does, specifically, so long as it exists. He’s wrong because he violates said law upteen times during the movie, while preaching to team Cap about what assholes they are for not backing it. He’s wrong because he cares more about feeling as though he’s tackled a problem than he does about taking the time to make sure that the thing he’s proposing is actually a good idea. He’s wrong because of what he does with Bucky, though that’s honestly a separate issue, for the purposes of this discussion.

Anyway, that was longer than I ever wanted it to be. Damn. Next time you see a comment about CW being the reason people stan Tony, just remember there are other people out there who stopped stanning Tony because of that movie. Everyone’s entitled to see a piece of media however they see it, and although the Tony stans are often the loudest, there are plenty of like-minded people out there who share your take on events. Block who you need to, unfollow who you need to, blacklist what you need to, and don’t let them get you down.

Hang in there, and have an awesome day :)

[mostly-mundane-atla]

Hello! I have a question related to traditional tatoos. I know that it's a closed practice, and therefore non-native artists shouldn't use them in their drawings, but does this work for writing as well? I do not mean to describe them in great detail because I am a white person and it's def not my place to do that, but would mentioning Sokka and Katara having them be disrespectful? Thank you, I hope you have a lovely day!

Okay, let's talk about why good intentions with depicting tattoos can go wrong.

I personally don't mind the depiction of the tattoos themselves. A lot of my loved ones aren't comfortable with getting them because it can affect how they're perceived by others (employers, friends, potential romantic partners, etc.), and seeing the tattoos in fan art could normalize and destigmatize the practice to a degree. A big problem is that people often don't do any sort of research. They go to google image search and type "inuit face tattoos" and do screenshot redraws where Katara, who said herself she's not ready for marriage, has tattoos that suggest she's already married.

Another thing is that, well, yeah, there is some blatant racism and cultural appropriation involved in this insistant fascination with the tattoos.

"But mostly-mundane!" you folks might be saying as you read this, "You just said it could be helpful!! How can it be racist if it's helpful?"

To which I'd reply that we're allowed to have complex feelings on complex topics. It's not a simple and straight forward "this is bad because it's bad and I want you to feel bad for it" thing. In any case, I know it's not the intention and I don't mean to suggest that it is, so stewing in guilt and telling everyone how awful you are for thinking traditional tattoos are neat won't do anyone any good. Just pay attention so you guys know how to start doing better, okay?

The fact is the series itself is not representative of circumpolar peoples at all and the fandom is very reluctant to admit that. We have our own take on clothes made of fabric rather than skins and none of that was taken into account. It seems no one feels like drawing Sokka or Katara in something baggy that doesn't wrap around the body and tie at the waist, not when it's supposed to be warmer weather. I guess that would upset the aesthetic consistancy? We also have our own traditional jewelry and hair styles (the "hair loopies" aren't universal because the Inuit are a diverse people and also not the only ones who live in the North American tundra) that are also rarely, if ever, depicted in fan art. I guess Hakoda and Bato would be unrecognizable if either of them wore their hair shaved on the top but longer at the front, back, and sides or had a labret. So it seems the response to this "they should be more eskimo but not too eskimo to recognize them" mindset or otherwise lack of effort in research or willingness to work research into one's art/writing is to just slap tattoos on it and call it a day.

And there's the line between appreciation and appropriation. Appreciation is not taking the thing you find most cool and denying it the proper context or just ignoring everything else but that super cool thing.

I try to make it a habit to not proclaim what people should or shouldn't write and draw because I'm not about that. If you wanna write about a character having tupit or tavluģun, I really don't mind. My culture is dying and I'm probably gonna have to settle for a similar enough dialect because there aren't that many people that can teach me my ancestral language. If you like our traditions, I like them too and would like to see more of them! I'd just ask you to examine who you're doing it for. Yue with brown hair and eyes doesn't look any more like my family or the people I see in old photos and footage. I don't see any of my heritage in that and it doesn't connect with me. If all you're adding to Sokka and Katara are tattoos, it won't really mean anything to me as an Inupiaq. There's no cultural context there.

I'm sorry. I'm sure you wanted a simple yes or no with maybe a paragraph's worth of explanation, but this is a much bigger question than that.