#sorry i know this is like. 5 posts worth of information

[literaphobe]

hello !! i do miss sending u asks as well so hiii how r u doing? how was ur day?? i hope it was sweet :D

CRIES SO HARD

HELLO ANON :(((( im so so happy OKAY day recap lets go!!

i had class today and me and my best friend agreed to meet up everyday theres class to take the bus together, BUT SHE DIDNT WAKE UP. and didnt tell me she didnt PLAN ON WAKING UP -> she’s been addicted to crystal stuff recently and watches crystal livestreams and stuff and last night she won a giveaway??? LMAO

its ok tho bc i had lunch w our other friend :) and went home

funny story: i had to do a participation quiz in class today on Lockdown Browser™ <- MOST EVIL THING IN EXISTENCE and like. i had problems at first so i raised my hand but then unraised it and figured it out. BUT MY TEACHER CAME BACK TO CHECK ON ME WHEN I WAS DONE. AND I WAS ON DISCORD WHEN HE WAS LIEK. So is everythinf okay?? :) and i PANICKED and clicked on FIVE DIFFERENT APPS. one of which was imovie. thankfully he didn’t catch me

I ALSO FINISHED WRITING CH5 OF MY FANFIC TODAY!! it’s currently like. 69k+ which is a very funny wip word count. i cant wait to review it and review a few more of the previous chapters ^_^ ive also been showing some snippets to like. new friends and stuff!! and my friends have been very nice to me ❤️ so thats epic

i hope u have all been happy too my anons please always feel free to tell me about ur days <3 also ive been catching up w watcher content recently. WHO ELSE LOVES TOP 5 BEATDOWN and like. mystery files!! been tryna catch up w puppet history too and damn. the LORE is so crazy

[hwallazia]

SILVER DIVE – 정우영

synopsis . in which you and your boyfriend enter an abstinence zone against your own will since he decided to get his lip pierced. the wait is worth it though.

pairing . jung wooyoung & fem!reader

genre . smut (mdni!), wholesome fluff at the end ofc, established relationship, non idol!au

taglist . @bro-atz @purplenimsicle @vampzity @iykyunho @yyaurii | apply to join my taglist ♡

word count . 3,6k

DISCLAIMER! dom! wooyoung, sub! reader, needles included for our wooyo to get his piercing done (well duh, but still goes as a warning), sex in the couch (they didn’t make it to the bedroom y’all), lots of kisses (like fr, they’re desperate for each other), desperate touches, creampie, cum eating, oral sex (f receiving), unprotected sex (we don’t sponsor that here), dirty talk, praise, pet names (love, babe, youngie, angel & more), auralism? (idk, wooyoung’s dick twitches when hearing reader’s moans), explicit aftercare (doesn’t include showering tho heh), it is still a wholesome post-sex moment. lmk if i missed anything pls!

NIC’S NOTES i know i posted two days ago but wooyoung posted that pic on ig and… yeah that’s it, i have no more excuses. you can blame jung wooyoung. aaalso, this is my last post until my winter break ends *cries* textbooks, lectures and 5-hour classes await for me !! (pls save me). it’s not proofread, i’m way too tired to do so, sorry for any mistakes you may read!

wooyoung had spoken to you about his notion of getting a piercing, more precisely a lip piercing. and all you had thought at the moment was how hot he’d look with a silver ring wrapped around his plump bottom lip. the idea was excellent and so were the results. you had accompanied him to the appointment, limiting yourself to only lending him your hand to squeeze if he needed to because you definitely didn’t want to see the needle introduced to his bottom lip. wooyoung was amused by your action. actually, you were the one who was almost crushing his hand when it was supposed to be the other way around.

after torturous moments, wooyoung patted your hip so you could turn around. and the view did not disappoint you at all. “what do you think?” he modeled playfully as he cupped his cheek with his hand and his gaze turned somewhat innocent.

“fuck, he’s so fine” were the words your not-too-naive neurons expressed. and that was the head start for your mind to start playing your favorite nasty fantasies over and over. but still, your astonished reaction was more than enough for wooyoung to understand that if you were too stunned to speak, it was because he definitely looked good.

“guess it’s fine,” he replied for you in an amused tone, yet looking at you tenderly.

“you’re fine.” you blabbered before your brain could process any coherent information. blush striking your cheekbones as a wave of bashfulness consumed you in less than ten seconds. and you’re so glad that wooyoung is madly in love with you because he laughed at your idiotic, yet endearing state.

the prominent pink ink that drowned your cheeks provided all the clarity he needed to understand that you were ashamed of your words. so he continued with his healthy teasing to enlighten your mood. “i know right?” he posed once again, this time exaggerating a pout, pulling a cute giggle out of you. the urge to kiss him right there was too strong to fight, your hands moving on their own to reach his waist and pull him closer. wooyoung’s expression faded from fun-loving to mischievous, a smirk instantly drawn on his fleshy lips.

the author of your boyfriend’s piercing passed you by as he looked for something. but his features went from unbothered to slight worry, stepping backward in an amusing way, interrupting your adorable moment. his head appeared in the blank space between the both of you. “yah, jung wooyoung. you do know that you can’t kiss her, right?”

you and wooyoung rotated your face comically, confused features hitting you. “what do you mean i can’t kiss my girlfriend?” wooyoung was the first one to complain. that sulky voice he always used to get whatever he wanted being present.

“man, you got a piercing done less than ten minutes ago.” the piercer stated the obvious. “you can’t touch the piercing while it heals. constant rubbing or friction can irritate the skin and delay recovery.” he explained. “and i bet you wouldn’t want your dear girlfriend to kiss an infected lip.”

wooyoung gasped lightly just from the thought of it, a concerned look on his face while you constrained yourself to make a disgusted reaction. “that’s what i thought. so be aware of that.” he warned one more time before making his way out of the room to the restroom, probably to wash his hands. you and your boyfriend dedicated to staring at each other sadly, but the specialist’s voice interrupted you once again. “oh i almost forgot” he turned his body to meet your distant figures slightly darkened since you were behind the clear glass wall which reflected seoul’s bright sunlight. “most piercings heal within six weeks, so..” he saw your disturbed features and knew better than to stay there longer. “good luck!” he wished the both of you before disappearing behind the door.

the week after that appointment was hell. if you thought wooyoung was whiny and a sulky baby 24/7, he proved you wrong. countless times you had been so close to kissing but instantly reminded of the piercer’s words, forcing you to take a step back. the ignited fire you both created every time now disappeared against your own will.

“okay but. only one kiss.” he had said once, pleading eyes meeting your just-showered figure. the fact that he was just a towel away from touching your perfect core was consuming him little by little. you stopped your movement after hearing his petition.

“babe, you know we can’t.” you got closer to his pouty face, caressing his cheekbone affectionately. lips only a few inches away from each other. “don’t make it harder than it already is, youngie.”

he pulled off your touch, throwing his back against the mattress as he whined childishly. “ughhh, this is unbearable! do i really have to wait five more weeks until i can kiss you again?” he complained again, his eyes dancing on the edge of a waterfall.

“don’t wanna break it to you but you were the one who decided to get a lip pierced.” your reminder struck a lighting of pain against his memory. an even louder mewl from wooyoung bounced off the walls. a sweet smile painting on your face, “we only have to endure for five more weeks. we’re stronger than that, jung wooyoung!”

your radiant cheer made his heart swell. “you’re right, love.” he got up, straightening his back and pulling you into a much-needed hug, his chin resting on your shoulder to avoid the silver ring rubbing against your skin.

after a few moments of adoration and mildness, you unlinked your arms to stare at each other, glittered hearts falling from your beaming irises. but wooyoung spoke. “can’t wait for this to heal and kiss the shit out of you.”

your face seemed amusing to him since he choked an adorable giggle that you would’ve loved to hear. “what a charmer.”

even though there was an obvious and major painful side of the whole situation, it helped you to develop more boyfriend and girlfriend activities that didn’t necessarily include kissing. but the sex drive you and wooyoung had needed to have a scientific discussion, if not saying it was high as the fucking empire state. so of course the conversation of “what should we do when it comes to sex” was dropped at the table. and you concluded that you could masturbate or use toys only if the other wasn’t near. and that resulted in either of you literally asking the other to leave the apartment for a bit just to get a short self-pleasure session. exaggerated, but it worked.

still, the void of the other being filled with silicone toys or your own hand was unendurable. so you once tried having sex, but it was.. empty, to say it in some kind of way. while you were riding his hardened cock, bouncing up and down, panting for air, utterly lost in the feeling, you placed your hand on the side of his neck for support and started leaving lingering kisses and licking it. but your shoulder accidentally brushed his bottom lip.

an unpleasant whimper left your boyfriend’s red lips, and you detected it in an instant. your movements stopped completely. “whatwhatwhat.” you blabbered as you looked down at him concerned, meeting his furrowed brows as he guided his finger up to his recently touched lip.

“nothing, angel. just a little rub on the piercing but that’s all, don’t worry.” normally, he’d kiss your concerns away, but given the clear impediment, he only dedicated himself to giving you a reassuring stare, caressing your arms fondly.

“it’s not bleeding, isn’t it?” in less than a second, you scooped his face between your palms, lifting it for the little moonlight that intruded the blinds to light up his ringed lip. but wooyoung brushed your hands off him.

“it’s not, babe. i’m okay.” he reassured once again. and even though he was still deep inside you, your unbridled horniness faded out by then.

and you waited, not too composedly, but waited for the three remaining weeks to pass by. and the day finally came, the final appointment for the piercer to check on wooyoung’s piercing and see if everything was in order. but unfortunately, you couldn’t accompany him this time due to your work schedule, demanding you to stay behind your desk at home for two more hours. “‘m sorry i can’t go, baby” you had apologized to wooyoung, but he was more than comprehensive and wrapped you in a tight hug.

“you have nothing to apologize for, angel.” he replied once he pulled back, heading to the front door, rummaging his key into his pockets. “i’ll text you later.”

you smiled and answered him before he exited the house. “i love youuu” you expressed with all your heart, and wooyoung’s soul vanished in a mist of endear. “i love you way more.” his sincere eyes reflecting his adoration to you.

a couple hours passed, you finished your very coffee-required paperwork and wooyoung was still nowhere to be seen, his two last messages being an “i love you” and two red hearts. since watching your favorite movie with a bowl of ice cream next to you seemed like a good idea to unwind, you did so, setting the mood and adjusting your figure so you could be in a comfortable position.

you don’t know when you lost consciousness and fell into the depths of sleep, swimming through the ticklish feathers of your pillow. a very familiar voice made your eyes flutter open sluggishly. after blinking once or twice, your boyfriend’s gorgeous face unblurred.

“there she is,” he whispered quietly, as if his voice was the sharpest knife and you were the finest leaf. a tender, unrushed caress lingered in the flesh of your cheek.

“hi.” you managed to mutter back, a sheepish smile appearing on your sleepy face before you adjusted your position to sit on your elbow and stare at him. “how did everything g-“

he interrupted you by the slam of his lips against yours, devouring you entirely. god, you had missed it so much, the addictive taste of his lips, now more exciting as the silver ring brushed on and on against the outer lines of your mouth. a relieved, soft moan engulfed in the heated kiss. you broke it once you ran out of breath and joined your forehead as you gasped for air. there they were, the breathtaking, toe-curling kisses of your boyfriend you had yearned for such a long time.

“guess everything went just fine” you replied to yourself, a shared laugh echoing through the room. “we did it.” you congratulated, referring to the eternal time you had suffered without the collision of your mouths together.

“hell yeah we did.” he answered, not doubting the slightest second to clash his lips against yours again. saying you were desperate was an understatement. your tongues, tired of neglection, danced with each other in a fight to determine the dominant one, and… there wasn’t a winner. too excited to surrender. the remaining sleep in your core vanishing away.

at some point, wooyoung jumped to the couch and imprisoned you between his strong arms. but you turned the tables by tossing your body against him, forcing him to sit down with you on top. wooyoung’s mischievous smirk appeared in the scene. “just woke up and wanting to fuck already?” his eager palms traveling up to your sides, seeking the removal of your oversized shirt. “mm, nasty.”

his teasing sent shivers down your spine, your back straightening naturally. “guess you have that kind of effect on me.” you confessed through breathy hums. after wooyoung spread feathery kisses all along your neck and ran his piercing up and down its sides, your hips stuttered and started rocking against his clothed dick. so you muttered. “bedroom.”

“why? when i could just take you right here.” his masterful hands vanished your cloth off your upper body, exposing your perfectly erected nipples and devourable chest and collarbone. a satisfied sigh leaving your lips as you threw your head back. “do you want that, sweetheart?” he asked in vane, already knowing what your answer would be. but still, you took the trouble to reply to him with a faint, breathy ‘yes’. “of course you want to. you’d let me fuck you even in your parents’ house. wouldn’t you, angel?” your whimpered affirmation sent him to heaven. “what a dirty girlfriend i’ve got.”

“fuck, youngie!” you moaned out loudly. the wet slam of the flesh of your ass and his hips was divine. wooyoung stared at your bouncing figure from beneath you as if you were some sort of goddess. and for him, you truly were. head thrown back, eyes shut from the overwhelming pleasure, mouth partially opened as it left a string of whimpers with wooyoung’s name in the middle. yes, he had proven his point.

you were so close to cumming, the coiled heat starting to snap as droplets of your clear liquid escaped the sides of his wet dick, your breath sharpening even more. “oh god, love. you’re squeezing me” his eyes closed for a bit, enjoying the comfortable warmth your walls provided.

“i’m gonna—fuck. woo i—“ you tried to announce your release, gripping his arms tightly as well as your walls did with his dick. his reassuring hand reached your stuttering hips and caressed them fondly.

“cum, love. show me how much you missed me.” he ordered sweetly, and that was all you needed for your orgasm to almost knock you out. it was so intense you could barely see straight. your body kept moving on its own as if that was its sole function. your exhausted core trembled above him as you rode your high, faintly touching the gates of overstimulation. three consecutive rounds had you on the floor and getting way more sensitive than necessary wasn’t a good idea. it’d be too much for your poor, ravished body to handle. a few more thrusts were needed for wooyoung to fill you with his white essence to the brim, your belly feeling swollen in consequence. you had forgotten how good it felt.

normally, wooyoung —if he was tired enough— would wash you with praises, soothing hands coming in help, and after staying still for a few moments for your uneven breathing to find balance, he’d grab the nearest blanket and pull it over you, too tired to go shower or changing the sheets —if you were in bed. instead, he spanked the flesh of your ass and earned a surprised gasp.

“sit on my face.” he demanded.

“what?”

“you heard me.” he started adjusting his figure, the completely messed-up blanket you had used for your little leisure session grazing his sides. you pulled off of him so he could comfortably position himself and once he laid his body on the cushions, he pointed his face twice with his index finger.

“a-are you sure? i wouldn’t want to hurt—“ you stammered. it’s not like you didn’t want to, you just were afraid of suffocating him underneath you. the mental image freaking you out, but he interrupted your thoughts.

“you won’t.” he encouraged you once again with a honey-dripping voice. your defeated gaze being more than enough for him to smile. “now c’mere, mama.”

the pet name made your toes curl unconsciously. with worry and self-doubt still striking your expression, you moved towards him, walking on your knees. once your calves stopped right next to his cheeks, you casted your eyes down at him, your body only succeeding in covering his mouth. “are you sure you—ngh!”

his hands reached your hips and pulled them down in less than a second, diving into your cum-covered insides. his tongue immediately moving in the most exquisite way as his silver ring grazed your folds as well. as much as you enjoyed the feeling of his skillful tongue inside you, you felt like you were far too sit, concerned about the possibly blocked airways of your boyfriend. your hips shook as they tried to elevate, but wooyoung dragged them down in an instant, his tongue reaching deeper spots. an unashamed moan from you was heard in reaction.

he pulled off your folds for a moment just to demand in the most gravel-like voice. “shut up and let me enjoy my meal.”

your walls clenched around his tongue just from hearing his voice. he continued to pleasure you with his mouth, keeping a steady pace with his licks and slurps, the nasty melody wooyoung was creating from beneath you and with your loud, whiny moans bounced off the walls. all doubts you had in the beginning were fading away with every lick wooyoung applied against your clit. with enough confidence, you started to rock your hips back and forth.

a muffled moan from him was perceived, turning into just suppressed hums. “please, youngie. please make me cum.” you mewled, desperately searching for release. overstimulation didn’t matter at this point, you just wanted to come undone on your lover’s tongue. anxious hands finding support on the armrest.

“don’t rush me.” your pulsating cunt overshadowed his command. he kept his ministrations on going, this time pulling away to tease your folds by brushing them at a fast pace with his index finger, the sudden shudder of your core pulled a shit-eating grin out of him, humming in satisfaction before speaking. “guess there’s no hurry. you’re so close.. look at those walls clenching around nothing.” he teased, choking a chuckle. it’d be too mean to laugh at you in a moment like this, and he’s not that evil. “come on, sweet girl. beg for it.” he uttered, slowing the pace of his finger which now was only grazing your lips faintly, already causing you to yearn for the absence of his tongue and pierced lip. you could only whine pitifully. his heavy hand flew to your ass to spank it harshly, your broken whimper echoed through the room. “i said beg for it. don’t make me repeat myself.”

and as if he had pressed a button, your woeful pleading began to unravel. “please, youngie i wanna cum so badly. pleeease, wanna make a mess on your tongue, babyy.” you mewled pathetically, a few pants breaking your supplications. “please, will you let me?”

and that broke a string inside wooyoung. he cursed under his breath before surrendering to your eager walls once again. “good girl.” and he dived in, submerging in a fog of lust and overflowing desire. your thighs shook when he sank your hips down once again, your parted mouth releasing pornographic sounds as your boyfriend nuzzled in your welcoming heat. the pace increased in a ridiculous amount of time. and your eager core seeking for his piercing to rub against your clit and cause you the most exquisite stimulation. another spank landed on your ass though.

“stay still and let me do my work.” he commanded, referring to the anxious movement of your hips. “i’ll give you just what you need, you greedy angel.” and with his words, you were a promise away to touch the most delightful heavens. your legs quivered, threatening to lose balance, but then, you feel his divine ring nuzzling your sensitive bud, just as you would’ve required if you weren’t too fucked out to speak. wooyoung’s name and needy, desperate prayers were recited in response.

“oh, fuck—ahh! youngie, right there—oh right the fuck there.” you melted under his touch, sinking further if that was even possible. wooyoung moaned beneath you, your moans never failing in making his cock twitch. and when his tongue swirled on your clit, you lost it. coming undone under his ministrations would always be the best experience, bright dots whitening your vision and you arched your back in the perfect crescent moon form. the scene being so breathtakingly beautiful that it seemed as though it had been lifted straight from a painting.

he rode you high as calmly as always, his lips covered in your divine liquids as he lapped your sensitive folds to clean you simultaneously, pulling away every once in a while to hum praises under his breath. a muffled “you did so good for me” twirled on your ear.

while you regained the ability to formulate rational thoughts, wooyoung helped you to straddle down his face, cradling you in his arms, still showering you with compliments, as he gave you enough time to recompose.

“baby?” he whispered, your arms, enveloped on his toned back, tightened their grip faintly, chin resting on his shoulder. a soft hum vibrated against his core as you answered him the best you could. “what did you think when you saw me with the piercing?”

a cute blush struck your cheeks. too tired to feel an extreme wave of embarrassment, let alone invent excuses, you confessed. “honestly? what we did before, but not this. definitely not this.” you shared a wholesome giggle, comforting each other with your body warmth.

“does that mean we’ll do this again?” he lifted his chin from your shoulder, forcing you to do so as well, and locked gazes with you. a small, radiant beam shining in his dark orbs, almost in a pleading way.

you chuckled one more time before raising your hand up to his messed, sweaty hair, combing it affectionately. “yes, woo. we’ll do this again.”

your words seemed to make wooyoung’s tired state fade into an excited feature of himself. even though, you’ll try it again in your next sex session —which will probably be in less than three days—. still, excitement rushed through his limbs, and couldn’t help but wrap you in a tight hug as high-pitched squeals muffled against your exposed, hickey-covered chest.

your giggle tingled against his flushed cheek, fingers still brushing the sides of his raven hair. “what am i gonna do with you?”

| masterlist

[lotus-tower]

The Swiss Cheese Model of Covid Prevention

An edited version of the swiss cheese model tailored towards the measures that you as an individual can take to minimize your risk of infection. Public health is ultimately what its name implies, public, but that doesn't mean you're powerless.

Covid prevention is not all-or-nothing. Think of it as risk reduction, rather than a binary.

Let's go through these step by step.

VACCINES

The current vaccines are meant primarily to reduce chances of severe illness, hospitalization, and death. They will reduce your chance of infection a bit--but not nearly as much as you might think. You should still get your boosters regularly, because avoiding severe illness is of course worth doing.

If you haven't gotten the updated monovalent vaccine yet, go get it. It is not a booster. Think of it as a new vaccine. It's targeted towards the XBB lineages, which are now the most common variants. Your last boosters were likely of the bivalent type, aimed at both the original Covid strain from 2020 and Omicron. The new vaccine is monovalent, meaning it targets one family in particular.

Some studies suggest that the Novavax vaccine, which is a more traditional protein-based vaccine, is more effective and safer than mRNA vaccines, and offers better protection against future variants. Of course, the data we have so far isn't 100% conclusive (the last paper I linked is a preprint). Make of these findings what you will, just something to keep in mind. The new Novavax vaccine's availability is still limited, especially outside of the US.

MASKS

Masking is one of the most effective ways to protect yourself. While it is true that masking and reducing Covid transmission protects those around you, the idea that masks can't protect the wearer is outdated information from the early days of the pandemic when medical authorities refused to acknowledge that Covid is airborne.

The key to protecting yourself is to wear a well-fitting respirator. You want to minimize any gaps where air might leak out. If your glasses get fogged up, that's a sign that air is leaking.

Headbands will always have a tighter fit than earloop masks (and therefore provide better protection). However, you can use earloop extenders to improve the fit of earloop masks. You can find these online. Your comfort in wearing a mask is important, but there are options for compromise.

The above graphic doesn't include elastomeric respirators. While some (like the Flo Mask) are expensive, they can be much more affordable than buying disposables--look for P100 respirators at your local hardware store, but make sure it fits your face well.

For more general information, see this FAQ. For mask recommendations (NA-centric, sorry!), see my list here or Mask Nerd's YouTube channel.

For situations where you need to hydrate but don't want to take your mask off, consider the SIP valve.

Not even N95s are foolproof (N95 means it filters at least 95% of particles--with the other 5% potentially reaching you). Most people will likely not have a perfect fit. There will be situations where you'll have to take your mask off. The key is risk reduction, and that's why the Swiss cheese model is crucial.

If you can't afford high-quality masks, look for a local mask bloc or other organization that gives out free masks. Project N95 has unfortunately shut down. In Canada, there's donatemask.ca.

AVOID CROWDED INDOOR SPACES

This is rather self-explanatory. Indoor transmission is much, much, much more likely than outdoor transmission. If it's possible to move an activity outdoors instead, consider doing so.

If possible, try going to places like stores or the post office during less busy hours.

Viral particles can stay in the air for a considerable amount of time even after the person who expelled them has left. Do not take off your mask just because no one is currently present, if you know that it was previously crowded.

A CO2 monitor is a decent proxy for how many viral particles may have accumulated in the air around you. The gold standard is the Aranet4, but it's expensive, so here are some more affordable alternatives.

VENTILATION AND AIR FILTERS

Ventilation is effective for the same reason that outdoors is safer than indoors. If it's warm enough, keep windows open whenever possible. If it's cold, even cracking them open occasionally is better than nothing. Try to open windows or doors on different sides of a room to maximize airflow.

HEPA air filters can significantly reduce viral transmission indoors. Make sure to find one suitable for the room size, and replace the filters regularly. You want to look for devices with HEPA-13 filters.

You can use websites like these to calculate how long it takes for a device to change all the air in a room. Remember what I said about viral particles being able to hang around even after people have left? If an air purifier provides 2 air changes per hour, that means that after 30 minutes, any potential viral particles should be gone.

If you can't afford a commercial air filter, here's a useful DIY filter you can make with relatively simple materials. The filtration capacity is great--but due to being built with duct tape, replacing filters will be a challenge.

If you have to hold meetings or meet with people at work, having a smaller filter on the desk between you will also reduce chances of infection.

As a bonus, HEPA filters will also filter out other things like dust and allergens!

REDUCE LENGTH OF EXPOSURE IF EXPOSURE IS UNAVOIDABLE

Viral load refers to the amount of virus in a person's blood. If you've been exposed to someone with Covid, how much you've been exposed matters.

You might escape infection if the viral load you've been exposed to is very small. Or, even if you get infected, there will be less virus in you overall, leading to milder illness--and crucially, a lower chance of the virus penetrating deep into your body, creating reservoirs in your organs and wreaking long-term havoc.

A low viral load is also less contagious.

This is the same reason that wearing your mask most of the time, but having to take it off for eating, is still much better than not wearing your mask at all.

RECHARGEABLE PORTABLE AIR FILTERS

You might attract some odd looks. But if you're at high risk or just want to be as protected as possible, small portable air filters can help. Try to find models small enough to take with you on public transportation, to school, or while traveling.

These devices will be far too small to clean the air in the whole room. The goal is to have it filter air in your immediate vicinity. Be sure to angle the device so that the air is blowing in your face.

Unfortunately, rechargeable devices are much rarer and harder to find than normal air filters, and many are also expensive.

The best option at the moment, apart from DIY (which is possible, but you need to know what you're doing), seems to be the SmartAir QT3. The size and shape are a bit clunky, but it fits in a backpack. Its battery life isn't long, but it can be supplemented with a power bank.

NASAL SPRAYS

There's some research that suggests that some nasal sprays may be effective in reducing risk of infection by interfering with viruses' ability to bind to your cells.

These sprays are generally affordable, easy to find, and safe. The key ingredient is carrageenan, which is extracted from seaweed. So there are no potential risks or side effects.

Be sure to follow the instructions on the packaging carefully. Here's a video on how to properly use nasal sprays if you've never used them before.

Covixyl is another type of nasal spray that uses a different key ingredient, ethyl lauroyl arginate HCI. It also aims to disrupt viruses' ability to bind to cell walls. Unfortunately, I think it's difficult to obtain outside of the US.

CONCLUSION

None of the methods listed here are foolproof on their own. But by layering them, you can drastically reduce your chances of infection.

The most important layers, by far, are masking and air quality. But you should also stay conscientious when engaging with those layers. Don't let yourself become complacent with rules of thumb, and allow yourself to assess risk and make thought out decisions when situations arise where you might have to take off your mask or enter a high-risk indoor area, such as a hospital.

Remember that the goal is risk reduction. It's impossible to live risk-free, because we live among countless other people. But you can use knowledge and tools to keep yourself as safe as possible.

[canadianno]

TCOLC AU Bishop refs!

They're done holy FUCK. The art here is kind of old, so some of the proportions are a little wrong, but I don't really mind all that much. 15 hours and 89 layers later, all 5 bishops are done. On one canvas because... I didn't wanna make new ones I'm ngl.

Each bishop has an everyday outfit and a crusade outfit! If you're drawing them at any point (now or in the future) and you have questions about the designs, don't be scared to send an ask my way, I'm always happy to clarify stuff.

(Note: I would greatly appreciate it if people didn't make suggestive jokes surrounding any of the designs, I'm not comfortable with them! Love yall <3)

Ramblings below! Edited note: tumblr likes to completely break my posts when I add a cut sometimes, which happened here, so I'm not gonna put one in hopes that it doesn't kill my formatting again. Hopefully it automatically "read more"s this post. If it doesn't I'm very sorry 🙏

🌿 Leshy: It's to be noted that my Leshy is transmasc, literally just because I think he deserves it, it's cool as fuck. I really wanted to give him the classic top-surgery scars because, I'll be honest, they're fun to draw, but I had to find a reasonable explanation for it because he's not a mammal. Anyway that's how I ended up with an entire evolutionary explanation for why he would have those. I will never be given the chance to explain it in the fic ever, so it shall just be random information I have forever. I love him he's silly.

🍄 Heket: While I am a big supporter of tomboy Heket, I also think she deserves to be cool and wear pretty frills whenever the fuck she wants. She's awesome and her shirt is supposed to look like a mushroom. It's also worth noting that the crosses on the bishops heads are specific, with Heket having two crosses with double prongs. She has them like this in-game and there's probably a cooler explanation for it but. I have my own silly headcanons bc I do what I want! Also, since I can't decide for the fucking life of me if she's a toad or a frog, I've decided she's just. Both. Both of them. Her mom was a frog her dad was a toad. Is this possible irl? No but COTL is a fantasy world I do whatever the fuck I want.

🌑 Narinder: Main thing I note for Narinder is that he has distinct facial markings, you just have to look closely. Another note is that his clothes have a repeating cloud motif because of the fog in the gateway- which, trust, it was his own idea. Lamb doesn't know why he chose it but they're not gonna argue. Narinders' main robes are made of wool, but his crusade outfit is made of cotton so it's easier to repair if damaged. His crusade outfit has the Big Pants because he's mostly gotta fight with his feet now, since most of the time his hands don't function reliably enough to hold a weapon.

🪸 Kallamar: Kallamar is funny to me because he's the only one here who's plantigrade, meaning he's got human-esque legs. Another notable design aspect is that he has a tail, when squids do Not Normally Have Those. That's because my Kallamar isn't fully a squid, and you can kinda sorta blame my mutual for that. Not really it's me who gave him the tail. Anyway, no matter how you draw him or what outfit he's in those 3 dark red jewels on the golden chain thing gotta be on him somewhere- they're sentimental to him. He usually wears them as a crown, but in the crusade outfit they're around his neck to be safer. Also, on the crusade outfit, he has stolen a set of Shamuras gloves. Brat little brother <3

🔮 Shamura: Their main outfit really closely resembles their bishop robes and that is intentional! They made the robes themselves, and it would've been close to an exact match had the Lamb banned them from using golden colored cloth. This is only partially because Lamb doesn't like them, but also because they don't want the bishops trying to start a mutiny, and walking around in bishop robes is a pretty easy way to collect weaker followers like flies. Shamuras' crusade outfit is also pretty unique compared to the others, and one of two reasons is that it's meant to resemble their old crusade outfits when they were younger. The second reason is that they look really cool. The outfit is designed for mobility, mostly, and before you say anything, the hip windows are because Shamura usually holds close range weaponry in the second set of arms and hates the way they snag on fabric when its there.

[she-posts-nerdy-stuff]

How to knit a Six of Crows blanket!

Hi my darlings, after posting quite a bit about my Grishaverse knitting projects I’ve had a few people ask if I have any kind of pattern or instructions for the Six of Crows blanket I made. I completely drew it myself and (as someone who has never designed a real pattern) figured it out as I went but I thought I’d do my best to put together a step-by-step guide of what I did for my one so you can try it if you’d like to! If you do this and share it anywhere then if you could please credit me for the design that would awesome <3

My finished blanket is approximately 117x120 cm, or 46x47 inches, and it looks like this:

Yarn I used: so sorry I can’t remember and I don’t have the information right now but if anyone wants me to I can update this when I find it; I know that it was bulky weight though

Needle size I used: 9mm

Stitches you need to know how to do: Knit and Purl

Other techniques you’ll need to know: the fair isle method for colourwork, and possibly how to back a blanket but I will explain that in more detail because I had to learn how to do it for this project

Tags: @marielaure @spike-is-not-a-dogs-name @scenemime @worth-this-and-more @wisegirl29 @atac-agent @uttermywish @feralipadkid @fairytalesofforever

Guide below the cut!!

Step 1: the first thing you need is a chart, because this is knit in fair isle. I’m sure there are proper softwares for designing fair isle charts but I uploaded a photo of the six of crows book cover onto a free drawing app called Ibis Paint X, went over it in flat colours to create a more 2D design, superimposed a grid over the top, and then went round every individual square of that grid and edited the image so that there was one colour in each square (ie, pixelated it). The fun thing about doing it like this is that you can easily change it to be whatever size you want by changing the size of your grid (each square represents one stitch). As I mentioned before, if you use the same yarn as I did and the exact same chart as I did it comes out to be around 117x120 cm or 46x47 inches; it’s pretty square and smaller than your average blanket, which is perfect for what I wanted but might not be perfect for what you want so you might want to adapt that if you’d rather a different size. This is what my chart looked like:

Step 2: casting on and knitting! This is the most fun bit, in my opinion. My grid is 103 stitches wide so and I wanted to have a border all around the edges so the first thing I did was cast on a full row in the cream yarn that I wanted to make that border from, with two more stitches

1) Cast on 105 of cream yarn. This should be the number of stitches across the x-axis of your pattern plus 2, to create a border either side. This cast on row will then create a one row border at the bottom of your work.

2) K1 in cream, knit first row of pattern, K1 in cream

3) P1 in cream, purl second row of pattern, P1 in cream

4) repeat steps 2) and 3) until the pattern is complete

5) complete an entire row in cream yarn

6) cast off - this is always so exciting!!! This is when you get the first real sense of accomplishment, in my opinion

I don’t have loads of progress photos, I’m afraid, but this is what mine looked like when I first cast off:

(The edges are curled here so you can’t see the border on the sides, but it is there, also the lighting is rubbish sorry)

Step 3: Weave in all the ends. Gonna be super honest this step is deeply boring but incredibly important; there are a lot of ends to deal with here. Sorry I don’t have a photo of the wrong side of my work but if you imagine at least one loose end for every section of colour change you can gather that it’s a lot haha

Step 4: Backing!! Now there can be different methods of backing depending on what kind of fabric you choose, I can’t actually tell you what kind of fabric I used other than that the colour was called ‘luna grey’ because the label didn’t actually say what it was so I just decided to go for it. I could only buy it in metres or half metres so I had to get 150cm and then trim the excess. Remember to cut your backing fabric larger than your knitting!! - you need lenience to sew it in. I chose a soft fabric that wasn’t very stretchy. If you get a stretchier fabric you might want to use something to band the knitting first so that you avoid pulling it out of shape.

Lay the right sides of your two pieces (fabric & knitting) together and securely pin three sides.

Once your right sides are pinned together you can go all around your three pinned edges and sew together. Sewing is not my forte so if it isn’t yours either don’t worry, what’s good about this is that your stitches won’t actually be seen once the project’s done so don’t worry too much if they aren’t super neat. I used a running stitch and caught the underside of the knitting without going all the way through so that I knew my stitches wouldn’t be visible. If you want to add extra security, you can go round this sewing section twice. I personally hand sewed this, I think you could use a machine if you wanted to but be careful that the knitting doesn’t catch.

This is an exciting bit because you can really start to see the finished project

Once you’ve sewn your first three sides what you essentially have is a giant inside out pocket, and you can turn it right side out so it looks something like this:

Sorry it’s not a great photo.

After this I trimmed off the excess fabric and just sat and stretched everything out to make sure it was sitting properly and I was happy with it. If you’re also trimming off excess fabric, remember to leave the same amount of lenience (I did about five centimetres/two inches) as you did for the original edges!!

Then fold your lenience fabric inside the pocket and pin it nice and securely. I used a YouTube video to learn an invisible stitch to close this edge and it worked really well once I’d gotten the trick of it, I was really pleased. I practiced it on the excess fabric is cut off first and I definitely recommend that, it was really helpful

And then that’s it!!!

Here is my finished project again:

I am so overjoyed with how this came out!

I hope that this guide was somewhat helpful, though I realise it’s clear that I don’t write patterns and am probably not very good at describing what I did so I’m sorry if anything was unclear. If you try this let me know, and if you share it anywhere please credit me! 🖤🖤

[local-dragon-haunt]

PSA to my fellow artists!!!

With the holidays fast approaching it appears this specific commission scam is making its rounds again.

Below is a conversation I will be posting to help you all know what to look out for:

So this account reached out to me under one of my recent posts. My first safeguard against scams like this (and just so I know the preferences of my ACTUAL clients) is to check the account that is messaging me:

FIRST RED FLAG: No posts. No description. Default background, generic, probably stolen pfp. Robot City (But you all know this by now)

Now, I was like, 99% sure this was a scam right here. (shout out to that one twitter thread I read a few months ago. It helped me clock this account immediately)

But I decided to humor them on the off chance that this person just doesn't understand Tumblr culture. (please, please do not do this. I am petty and insane)

RED FLAG #2: Notice the lack of references: asking me to draw something and then not sending any reference materials (something I explicitly state on my commissions spreadsheet).

This is a topic they will try to avoid (as you will see below), and ultimately what made them realize that I wasn't worth the effort. Always, always, always require references and style guides for any commission you get. Scammers' main goal is to spend as little energy as possible. they will not bother giving these to you.

Now onto Red Flag #3:

Notice how they immediately aim for the most expensive option (which, for my commissions, happens to be fully rendered furry content). This is a red flag because not ONCE did they mention this was going to be anything other than a portrait. This is when I knew 100% it was a scam.

RED FLAG #4: Asking for personal information. I am begging you. I am begging, never EVER, EVER give out your personal information online. ALWAYS use a pseudonym. Change the subject. Do literally anything else. just DON'T. GIVE. THAT. INFORMATION. AWAY.

AND RED FLAG #5: Offering WAY more than I am asking for my services. Remember, kids: if something is too good to be true, it probably is!

it is here that you are going to want to block and report this account. Do Not Be Me. I am begging you. I am doing this for educational purposes. However. I have one more red flag for you guys:

RED FLAG #6: Now, this very generous (/s) person is offering me $300 WHOLE DOLLARS just to draw a furry for them! That's so incredibly thoughtful!

...so why do they not care about the species, color, accessories, pose...ANYTHING about it? (It's because they don't care. They're not gonna pay you the money.)

Look, I can understand how flattering it is to be given full creative freedom on a commission, but you have to understand that this will almost never, EVER, happen to you. I'm sorry. It's the truth.

Anyways. That's all I got for you. Do me a favor, go ahead and block/report @mlaurel any any other cronies they're affiliated with. Also reblog this post if you feel so inclined. Keep your information safe. Get that bank! And Happy (safe) Holidays!

[rivetgoth]

I have definitely talked about this song before on here but I've been having a bit of a Greater Wrong of the Right moment. Oldschool Charheads know that this is one of my all-time favorite albums and has been for the better part of a decade, but I genuinely feel like Goneja is like, one of the top 10, maybe even top 5, Skuppy tracks ever, which I think (?) is a pretty esoteric opinion, since the post-Doomsday stuff doesn't tend to get nearly as much love.

Buuut it's just so good man. It's like, for lack of a better word I'd call it the thesis of the album. This might be a kinda scattered "analysis" but I think GWOTR is an album that reflects a lot of growth and maturity from Ogre (and cEv, but I'm talking lyrically right now so sorry lol)--That isn't to say that the pre-Doomsday stuff is "immature," but I think there's a kind of normal timeline of human experience and psychology present in the evolution of Ogre's lyrics and demeanor over time, with the early Skuppy stuff being much more proactive and angry, and later Skuppy stuff being much more reflective. Like, lyrics that go from "This thing sucks" to "What can be done about this thing, how do we react to it, what does this say about the world."

Anyway, I think GWOTR spends a lot of time reflecting on this change as lyrics span across a bunch of the songs about sitting there, literally sitting, and sort of acknowledging or not acknowledging the horrors of the world: "Sit and feel absolutely zero suffering / A condition worth denying," "In the place of safety I am fortunate to be alive." A lot of this is (and the album title evokes this too, and the stage show) implicitly about the state of international affairs in the US at the time, post 9/11, the Bush Administration, and the horrors taking place overseas by hand and dollar of the US militia. Reflecting on the helplessness of being within the country of origin, far away from the actual traumas taking place. To return to what I said above about that "proactive and angry" vs "reflective" statement, consider the lyrics of songs like VX Gas Attack or Second Tooth versus lyrics like Use Less or DaddyuWarbash, where we shift from talking about the war itself to talking about being a citizen of the country propagating it: "Doesn't concern me / Under a flag free / Are we all completely useless?," "We remove ourselves from the war / Looking from a distance, sanitized / Wash your hands and feel it / The dirt is down the drain."

I also don't think it's coincidence that this album and all that it represents and speaks on was the first Skinny Puppy album since both Ogre and cEvin got clean from harder drugs and got more into weed. I think this album sonically has this sort of long, winding, whirring sound I'd associate specifically with a weed high, and obviously Goneja by name is a play on ganja (though as a SoCal resident I used to try to read it as go-neigh-ha until I realized, LMAO), so it's asking you to be aware of the presence of marijuana within the song and the album as a whole. So I think Goneja kind of is a coalescence of the impact weed has on the album and the larger themes of the lyrics of the album, and serves as probably the most personal, or introspective track on the album, with this kind of dreamlike, erratic sound, simultaneously slow and mellow but with scattered, jumbled, almost-nonsense lyrics that shift into one another as the song progresses. I always felt the song was representational of getting way too high and way too stuck in your own head, and the way your thoughts start to warp, and you start thinking about all of these terrible things, and all of these dark moments in your own life, and these dark moments in history, and become wrapped up in how weird and fucked up the world is. "I wish I wouldn't live in newspapers" is one of the final statements of the song and I think THAT is kind of the thesis of the album right there. That feeling trapped by the world, the news, the information being fed to you, all of the horrors, how much bigger it is than you, how helpless and oppressive it feels. For Ogre, he'd spent, what, 20 years at this point making a career of speaking on all of those horrors? And to what end? Has anything changed for the better? Is there a point to this at all? Are we all completely useless?

[kerubimcrepin]

Exploring dofus-le-film.com and talking about movie-related events. [PART 1]

This will not go into the goldmine that is the interview Tot and Xa give about Joris. This is just a little, self-indulgent post. I hope you will enjoy it nevertheless.

The first silly action I took was extracting the site's icon and enlarging it in Aseprite, so here's your daily dose of cute official Joris pixel art. Anyway.

I love how the movie blurb literally lies about Khan being Joris's life-long idol.

CHARACTER BIOS.

Most of them include the information we already know, so I will only be pointing out things I personally find interesting.

For example - this art here depicts Joris's bald head under the hood as very round. Very useful info for us joris enjoyers. Reblog to slap his bald head, like to slap his bald head.

(Hacks up blood) Deeply caring in nature... papa poule... It is the second time, when Kerubim is called that, in his character bios, and I would like you to remember are these different explanations of this word combo:

I'm insane. I love him a lot.

Bakara is a pleasure to have in class :)

Anyway, I love how non-specific and non-alarming these character bios are. We can't scare the hoes by saying that beneath her cool exterior she wants to kill people around her and also drink 20 gallons of vodka, so "shy and stuck up" it shall be.

Again, it's hilarious how non-threatening these character bios are, considering Lilotte's whole parent thing is basically: (substitute "women" with "kids with families")

Coloring pages + Crayon Contest

A part of me wanted to be "haha, I colored all these coloring pages, for the Full Understanding of The Experience of this movie."

Then I realized that, as a person who is making a Joris painted music video, and had drawn at least 1:07 minutes worth of artwork of him and some other characters of this movie, I would rather-- [remembers that suicide jokes are bad] take cactus for a wife, than draw him for this blog too. I'm sorry.

Not much to be said about the contest, though this is epic:

This little Joris can be found at the bottom of the "win some crayons" page. It's cute.

BLOGPOSTS

This image was drawn for MIFA.

I want to unpack what is occurring here:

Goultard is holding his dragon boyfriend rather gayly on the shoulder. Interesting.

One of the candles landed in Nox's face?

Atcham, Joris, and Lilotte were holding the cake together. Lilotte is sitting on Yugo's shoulder, while Joris is standing on Kerubim's arms. It is reasonable to assume that Yugo turned to the camera, which made Lilotte turn as well, which made Atcham fall, which made Kerubim step away, and the only people carrying the cake who are still even a bit happy are Joris and Yugo.

Adamai is getting ready to catch Joris when in like 5 seconds all of them are going to be tumblring down Atcham-style.

Incredible. But this illustration is not the only gem that Annecy has brought us!

It also brought us more of Atcham being cool and awesome.

I'm insane.

There's more rare art here: these t-shirts featuring designs from a fan contest.

They were made in limited numbers. I'm including them here because we don't exactly have copies of the artwork, and I am insane about preserving art. It might be somewhere — but that somewhere is probably 2016 french facebook, so as far as I'm concerned, trying to seek these out is a lost cause.

Exclusive Merch

There were playing cards, and I am happy to report we DO have artwork for them in HD:

And also, here's a slightly higher definition little game sprite esque Joris:

This is the future crepinjurgenites want.

Kerubim VS Atcham Rigged Pet Contest

I am sad to report that Atchamheads have lost again, in this rigged contest. Imagine asking:

Would you like a fluffy guy you have watched an entire series about, or this bald guy who appears twice in the franchise?

At the very least, this gives us a canonical kitten Atcham design.

(Also, both of them were added, jsyk... Still salty though.)

Maliki Art

Maliki is a webcomic not made by Ankama, but with a long relationship and connection to Ankama due to being published by them in the past.

It's cute, really.

[wumblr]

Armed conflicts have indirect health implications beyond the direct harm from violence. Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases. The total death toll is expected to be large given the intensity of this conflict; destroyed health-care infrastructure; severe shortages of food, water, and shelter; the population's inability to flee to safe places; and the loss of funding to UNRWA, one of the very few humanitarian organisations still active in the Gaza Strip. In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37 396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza. Using the 2022 Gaza Strip population estimate of 2 375 259, this would translate to 7.9% of the total population in the Gaza Strip.

i've seen maybe a dozen posts about this but none directly linking to the lancet study, explaining their methodology, or acknowledging that they specified a range: 3-15 times the death toll published by the gaza ministry of health

the 186,000 figure is a conservative estimate (and it should be 187,000 because 5 * 37,396 is 186,980)

the range is 112,000 to 561,000

there's the 7.9% estimate, which would represent about 1,270 deaths per day since the approximate end of published data (march, unless the health ministry has issued information i don't know about)

this is compared to covid death toll in the US because i believe we're all familiar with the way 0.36% population loss translates to "just about everyone knows at least one person who died" (i knew multiple, but let's oversimplify to assume 0.36% means everybody knew exactly one, for comparative purposes)

to put gaza's numbers in the same perspective, just about everyone who has survived this far must have known maybe 22 people who died (the true statistics of how people know each other, and how likely relationships are between them, are obviously much more complicated, but 7.9% is 22 times 0.36%)

here's the upper range of the estimate (561,000, 23.6%, 4,830 deaths per day, or every survivor likely knew 65 people who died). sorry for the clumsy graph, error bars were the quickest way to represent this

for what it's worth, i think they are correct to describe the "conservative" 5x estimate as "not implausible"

for the available data, daily totals only surpassed 500/day once (oct 17th), and the available numbers put them closer to 100-200 per day over the ten months of the war. extrapolating that to today would give closer to 60,000 deaths -- but these only count direct deaths, and largely identified bodies that have been found (30% unidentified, according to the lancet)

what i think is likeliest, is of course, that the rate of death has been steaily accelerating as famine and disease take their toll (as in, the daily number of deaths increases from 100-500 to 1,000-4,000 over the past 100 days, with some of these also being previously unrecorded, unknown, undiscovered bodies during the term of known data)

so, 60,000 is about the rock-bottom minimum for direct deaths, 112,000 is the rock-bottom minimum when including estimates for indirect deaths. the plausible maximum for both direct and indirect deaths based on similar conflicts is 561,000 and the reasonable estimate is 187,000

[cowboyjen68]

hi jen, i just followed you and this is really random but ive seen some of your posts helping younger people and it really struck a cord and i need to just let the words fall out of me.

ive been having issues with my girlfriend she cheated on me but this situation is very complicated and we're both fucked up people but i know she still loves me and i really love her. but my anxiety and our lack of communication is really bad right now and im so worried she might not love me the same anymore

ontop of this im 18 and for the past id say 5ish years my mental health and family life has been getting worse, getting diagnosis is hard especially with mentally ill and just overall bad parents that somehow dont understand or believe. i know im deppresed and have been i have anxiety, sever paranoia maybe bpd and bipolar and autism and everything is just so much. now the one person i had is something thats making everything hurt more and i just don't know where to go, im trying to get help but its so slow in this country and i feel so lost and tired i barely eat now and when i do its ether rare or unhealthy and everything is so much i want to collapse.

i hope this isn't to much to randomly send anonymously but you just seem really kind and helpful. thank u for your reply if you do

HI and please accept my apologies for the delay on answering this. I am sorry you are going through so much. My kids are adopted from foster care and I had many kids in my home for up to 5 years who eventually went back home. That is to say I have a lot of experience with mental illness, the systems that treat them, trauma and kids who came from unstable home lives.

At the ripe old age of 18 you have plenty of time to find love and contentment but right now might not be the time. I understand there might be odd circumstances that caused your girlfriend to cheat on you. If you feel betrayed and lost trust that is a feeling that is next to impossible to overcome for people with no comorbidities let alone a teen trying to figure herself out and deal with navigating the broken mental health/care system.

It is actually quite normal for young love to change and get redefined into friendship even when the circumstance are the best. Her cheating on you might very well be a sign that your relationship is in flux and not what you thought it was. A romance that has run its course is not a failure, relationships do not have to last forever to be important and real and worth having had.

It might be scary to think of not being with her, of not having your "one" person that you can count on but I do believe you can get farther working on yourself if you put time and energy into you and not dividing it up between you and her.

There is a lot of precedent set for women to set aside their romance and intimacy in order to be just friends while one or both does some work on herself. Sometimes it is necessary to stay involved for emotional support or financial support, that is just the reality of our world. Living single can be very difficult.

Please consider letting go of the relationship in its current form and putting your energy of yourself. Letting go of the stress of trying to repair what you had with her will remove so much pressure from you and from her that you will feel much more ready to tackle your mental state.

I promise. You are not a failure, she is not "the bad guy" in this story. Take all the wonderful things you shared with her keep those with you when you want a reminder that it loving her was worth your time even if it didn't end like you planned.

Seek mental health help but starting small. A therapist can help you begin to talk through things and often she can help you find additional resources like a medical Dr, public subsidies for insurance or free clinics to assist you in getting medication and mental health support. Most counties have a social services office and those employees are a wealth of information.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Do you think if idia tries to meet the RSA ortho, it will result in the dreamworld's destruction?

I havent watched the newest update and just read descriptive posts so sorry if i'm misinterpreting stuff, but the dreams that malleus has created seem to operate based upon the dreamers memories, its just an altered version of events..so while he can create this information that Ortho is well and alive, Can he actually show Idia a believable teenager Ortho?because Idia doesn't have such memories, so making up RSA ortho's personality and mannerism might be were he messes up.like sure it might not be hard to create a teenager's voice and face , based on informations that we have of them fom when they were 5..but an actual personality??could this be the actual reason behind Ortho attending RSA instead of NRC in dreamworld?Like wouldnt the most ideal and dreamlike situation for Idia be going to the same school with his brother?but maybe malleus knows of the dreamworlds limitations so he had to come up with something..idk...maybe i'm just reading too much into it😭😭

[I gave my own initial reactions, thoughts, and a plot overview on book 7, part 3 in this post!]

Mmm, I do think that the dreams are made from the dreamer’s memories, but that’s only natural given that memories make up who the characters are and form the basis for their understanding of reality. I don’t think that’s the full extent of their dream worlds. There’s also a clear wish fulfillment aspect of it, and that, tied with the memories, forms kind of an “ideal” situation where the world literally exists and alters the circumstances to suit an individual’s wishes and whims. So… rather than “it’s just an altered version of events”, it’s more like the dream actively knows what the dreamer wants to see and then provides it for them.

For example, Idia’s dream is technically based on a memory of attending the NRC entrance ceremony. However, he also has a deep-seated desire to see Ortho survive and grow up, instead of perishing as a young child for a mistake he feels a lot of guilt and personal responsibility for. That would be Idia’s happiness, so the dream world centers around catering to it.

I actually don’t know at this point whether or not Malleus is actively controlling the details of every dream world. To me, it feels like he couldn’t possibly be doing that since he’s always described as lonely, hard to approach, and standoffish; when would he have had the time to get to know all of these intimate details about all of the people on Sage’s Island that he has in a magical slumber? (Like… would Idia share something so deeply traumatizing with Malleus??? The post-OB flashbacks don’t count, as we’re never fully sure who in the main cast views this information or if it’s just an internal dialogue the OB boy has with himself. Even if the other students knew, Malleus was not present when Idia woke up from his OB to be told his backstory.) And how is Malleus simultaneously monitoring and controlling all aspects of everyone’s dreams? Monitoring alone, maybe. But being the metaphorical “God” behind an entire island population’s worth of dreamers??? I don’t know if I entirely buy that, even if it’s Malleus Draconia we’re talking about.

I think that, even if there is no actual reference for what a grown up RSA-attending Ortho is like, the dream world and its residents would just shift and fill in the gaps according to the dreamer’s expectations. After all, the dream itself is constructed from Idia’s wants, his very point of view. We are not only seeing things from how Idia wants them to be, but we are also seeing this version of Ortho through Idia’s eyes. This Ortho is a creation manifested from how Idia wishes Ortho had the chance to be, based on Idia’s perception of the kind of person Ortho was and what he hoped Ortho would become.

The dream could easily extract information from Idia’s head and work with that to make a passable Ortho. In fact, it could also work from memories of robo!Ortho, since originally robo!Ortho had all the memories and experiences OG!Ortho had. Robo!Ortho started as very robotic and learned to be more human-like thanks to his advanced artificial intelligence program. He was even acknowledged as Idia’s brother and as a freshman student of Night Raven College. Robo!Ortho has been through so much growth beginning with the same memories of the original that passed—almost as though he were a real boy growing up. So knowing that, what’s to say the dream doesn’t use robo!Ortho as a basis for dream!Ortho’s character? It already seems to me that the dream is doing that, since dream!Ortho and robo!Ortho’s personalities are very similar. They’re chipper and supportive of Idia—just like Idia has always perceived Ortho to be in reality.

I was surprised to hear that dream!Ortho attends RSA instead of NRC, but thinking about it more, I’m not sure if I would attribute this to dream world limitations if we’re going with the idea that Malleus is controlling every dream. (It overcomplicates things if he has to come up with individualized reasonings to conveniently write out characters which may have no real life basis to work with, but I digress.) My thought is that Idia, the dreamer, is the one who thinks Ortho is best fit for RSA, or, alternatively, he wants Ortho to attend RSA and not NRC.

This circles back to the residual guilt that he feels about causing Ortho’s death. Maybe Idia (on a subconscious level) feels as though it’s better for Ortho to spend time away from him, who put him in danger in the first place. Maybe he thinks of his personality as a wet towel over Ortho’s sunshiney one and doesn’t want to be the so-called “bad influence”. Maybe Idia genuinely feels that Ortho would fit in with the nice, almost sparkling Royal Sword Academy kids. Maybe Idia knows the students of NRC are trouble and that he’d rather have Ortho fostered and growing up among more amicable peers. (Think about it, how many times have we seen Idia freak out over Ortho’s safety during his time at NRC?) All of these ideas basically amount to the possibility that Idia wishes Ortho to be his best self and to live his best life, even if that comes with the stipulation of not being able to be with him all the time.

Additionally, recall that Idia in the real world is socially anxious to the point where he usually refuses to go anywhere without his emotional support robot brother. In the dream world, it’s an alternate universe in which Ortho never died, and thus Idia isn’t consumed by remorse, and is less socially anxious (Idia physically attends the opening ceremony in the dream, but in reality he was only present via his tablet). This implies that, in the dream world, Idia does not have that attachment issue with Ortho and feels comfortable with knowing that Ortho can be on the other side of Sage’s Island and still be totally fine without him. This also opens up Idia to actually interact with his own peers on his own terms, without needing Ortho to encourage him—and companionship, as much as Idia shits on normies, is definitely something he craves (as we see at the end of book 6 when he’s gaming with everyone). I think that this makes sense for him!

Being that this is book 7, we should expect Idia to “wake” at some point and join the others that have “woken up” to help save the day. We already notice that Idia is pointing out little discrepancies in his dream! But what I’m really wondering is what will be the impetus that “shocks” him awake???? Because truth be told, it’s extremely difficult to walk away from something you’ve wished so much for: the return of your deceased sibling—however, it’s also fitting and a good way to round out Idia’s character growth from the last book. In consciously choosing to reject the dream, Idia will have finally accepted Ortho’s death and be able to truly “move on” 😭 I don’t know that it would be meeting dream!Ortho that does the trick though, that would be feeding into his wishes and encouraging him to indulge more. That’s hard to break away from—and even Silver, who was already awake in Sebek’s dream, sounded conflicted when he rejected dream!Lilia’s offer to stay with him forever.

This is a shot in the dark, but we don’t yet know the mechanics of how dream!characters work when the real!character shows up in the same space. Like, in Sebek’s dream, he seemed to be looking for Silver. Was there no dream!Silver his mind made for him to interact with? Or did dream!Silver vanish as soon as real!Silver dreamhopped into Sebek’s dream world… Or will two the Silvers meet randomly and recreate that Spidermen pointing at each other meme???? My point is (and this is a big stretch so bear with me here), what if robo!Ortho finds some way to enter Idia’s dream at the same time that dream!Ortho is also present??? So suddenly there’s two Orthos and Idia has to make the ultimate decision between living a pretty lie with dream!Ortho or accepting the ugly truth by going with robo!Ortho to fight Malleus or something 💀 Probably not going to happen, but it’s an interesting scenario to think about!

[dailyadventureprompts]

hi! I'm starting a new campaign with 3 people I've played with a LOT and one person I've played with twice a long time ago. I've never been a part of or run a session zero before and to my knowledge neither has anyone else in this group, but I really want to do so now. my problem is I'm struggling to come up with a justification other than "the upfront investment will be worth it trust me" that shows I respect my player's time AND their desire to roll dice and play the game.

can I combine the session zero work AND the first leg of the first adventure on one afternoon/evening? should I just call it a getting to know each other / session zero dinner party and bust out good wine and a 5 course meal? do I run the s0 as an online only thing? do I have individual meetings with the players to flesh out the setting and their characters, and then do interparty relationships and bonds, plus table rules and safeties at the table for session 1?

(sorry if this is a stupid question, I'm screaming internally lol. I've only ever done single adventures and one shots so this is uuuh scary)

So, running a session zero isn't that hard, I've already done a writeup on how to, but if you're asking for reasons why, I've got quite a few opinions on that matter:

D&D is a collaberative storytelling game, and session zero is a vitally important chance to talk to your players as a fellow creative rather than in your slightly distant role as a dm. Perhaps even more importantly, session zero is all about sharing some vitally important information:

Who the fuck are these people: An underappreciated part of a game where you spend most of your time pretending to be someone else is having atleast a base understanding of who's around the table with you. Campaigns are often made up of friends of friends and you need to cement those initial social bonds before you start putting on the funny accents and asking them to wade into battle with you.

What the fuck are we doing: Talking to your party about what type of campaign they'd like to play / your story ideas is how you plant the initial seed of player investment. Because they got to have a hand in shaping how the campaign started they're likely to be more excited about seeing those initial beats play out, which gives you time to ready your plothooks and get them on ramped to your overarching campaign plot.

When the fuck are we playing: One of the most important things is getting everyone together to talk about their availability, you as the dm can organize this, but it's way easier to have everyone in the same room.

Who the fuck am I: After your party have heard the camping pitch, they can get to talking about what they want to play: archetypes, classes, all that jazz. Treat the session zero as a sort of writers room for the serialized adventure you're about to go on, do we have any strong personalities we need to build around? Do we want to set up any dynamics?

Hope that helps friend, also be sure to check out the other posts in my DM starterpack tag

[norbezjones]

24 Days of Gift-Giving: Ten Titles

(This is December 10th’s prompt!  Posting yesterday’s & today’s later!)

Happy December, everyone!

So, @creativepromptsforwriting is doing a writing thing called “24 Days of Gift-Giving” where each day of December has a prompt, so I figured it would be fun to write something up for each prompt!  Feel free to participate too, if you’d like!  It could be a fun writing game!

Like usual, I will be doing these for the characters of my story Romance The Backrooms, a liminal space otome with 5 main love interests. 

Today’s Prompt: Ten Titles (… creative titles for your next story); Burying our memories

Characters: Uri & Manorial

Other Info: URI ANGST URI ANGST URI ANGST!  If you don’t know about Uri & Manorial, here’s the basic gist: Manorial is an entity known as a Memory Collector, who attaches to people and trades near-unlimited power in exchange for memories. 

__________

When possible, Uri tried to sacrifice insignificant memories.  What he ate for breakfast the other day.  Things he thought about when he was bored.  Stuff like that.

But sometimes, Manorial wanted more.  “Sorry, idle thoughts like that aren’t going to cut it for me, Uri,” the cat would purr with a laugh.  “If you want my help, I need something more . . . substantial.”

So, he would give memories that were more significant, trying to keep the others informed on what memory he was sacrificing.  If he was lucky, it was something one of the others in the group was there for, and they could fill him in on what had happened later.  Bring back the memory through their own experiences.

But other times, Manorial would ask for a memory only he & Uri was there for.  Something nobody else had witnessed, and therefore, nobody else could bring back for him. 

And Uri would give the memory.  What choice did he have?  Burying a memory in exchange for power—surely, it had to be worth it.

Right?

@creativepromptfills

[izicodes]

Anonymous ask came through | My story

I accidently deleted their ask, so I'll answer it here

Someone messaged anonymously me saying I was privileged to get the apprenticeship and that I shouldn't be sharing tips on my blog about Junior Developer roles since I’m “experienced” (I've only worked for 1 year and 5 months which my apprenticeship lasted for one year).

The anonymous person mentioned they have been studying for 6 months and still haven't found a tech job or the job they wanted. They mentioned that I shouldn't be making posts and share tips because I'm at a privalge position coming from attending an apprenticeship and I don't relate to what they're struggling with - to that I'm sorry it's been hard for you, I wouldn't wish that for anyone studying entirely on their own. please keep trying, don't give up.

But what the anonymous person doesn't know is how hard things were for me and my family for many years to even get me to where I am today.

I am privileged to be in the UK to be able attend school, privileged to get accepted into an apprenticeship after doing two exams for it but:

I come from a family who were classed as "very low income" by the government for many years and only recently we broke out of that.

I learnt HTML, CSS, JavaScript and Python on my own before the apprenticeship gave lessons on it and by then I already knew the topics.

The apprenticeship didn’t teach me Git or GitHub or how to set up VS Code or Visual Studio - I taught myself online.

I learnt SQL and C# from YouTube because the teacher was so bad at explaining things.

I only passed the two required exams for the apprenticeship after failing 3 times - which I posted about it on my blog.

I taught myself the tech I use today, the apprenticeship did was secure me a job and having a Lead Web Developer to shadow, though he had his own projects he was busy on.

When I realised the apprenticeship wasn’t going to teach me everything I needed to learn for my tech career, I joined and completed a free online night coding bootcamp from the government and studied for 16 weeks whilst having the apprenticeship and work to attend to.

All I do on my blog, my little tiny corner of the internet, is share my progress, tips through tutorials, write posts about a topic I learnt recently and share information I get from attending those career masterclasses that free for people to join in the UK. I want to help people, not to flaunt my success. I’ve failed lots of times and posted about them on here - exams, work projects and even my own personal projects.

I may not be a self-taught with no experience and suddenly got a great tech job that the anonymous messenger wanted me to, but I’m still going to share my experience and tips that might help people out their own their own coding journey (that’s why I end some of my posts with “I hope this helps someone out there”). If you’re looking for someone that is self-taught and got a successful tech job from no previous experience, I don't think I am that person for you to follow, there would be no point following my blog because I got the role through an apprenticeship - the job was not secure though as I had to pass or they would have fired me.

So, I apologise to the anonymous person who messaged me who looked at my blog and was upset with me sharing tips on coding and it seemed like I came from that specific background they wanted me to be. However, I won’t stop sharing posts, beacuse someone out there might appreciate them and if no one does, that’s 100% a-okay! My blog is also a record of my coding journey and I’m not going to stop! :D

All I do is to make my Dad proud. Through things didn't go well for him over the years, I hope that when he sees me, he's proud and felt like after everything, I was worth it.

My family consisted of a single dad with two daughters since late 2000s UK. Mother left because she didn’t want the responsibility of looking after me and my sister. My father gave up everything to solely look after us - that meant not getting a job. We were in the benefits system for years after years, only in 2021 did we end it completely, so basically two years ago. I didn’t have much growing up and I mean the bare minimum. The only games I had were The Sims 3 base game and games on my Nokia brick.

The benefits money he got, he tried to get me and my sister to a private school just for us to see what it was like, but it only lasted a year before he realised the money was not enough. Dad made me and my sister really study hard to get into an all-girls independent school - a school where you have to take exams to get in. I took those exams and got into the school in 2013. When dad saw the confirmation letter, he cried. All his hard work was paying off. That inspired him to try university out, doing computer science.

It was when I finished secondary school I got my first iPhone in 2018 from Dad as a “well done for completing your GCSEs” gift. However, I didn’t do good enough to do the subjects I wanted to go and do medicine, so I had to switch my course from Biology, Chemistry and Maths to English Language, Combined Science and Economics. I’m grateful for economics, made me understand the government and the world a bit more (and understand what the hell news was talking about most of the time)!

I was failing. Miserably. I was pressured from my school to retake the year, so my dad advised me to quit and join a community college instead. In there they let me to my 3 subjects to do Medicine at university. However, I was failing again, had health issues which lead to me having to quit school early. I never completed my A-Levels. I was stuck for months doing nothing when I decided to get a call centre job. Liked it but last for only 3 months. I was inspired to learn programming again but properly so I can get a job. I realised how hard for self-taught beginner programmers to get a job, and I knew I would be in the mix but my dad was already struggling at home and I needed money fast to help him.

I started looking for apprenticeships even if it doesn’t pay similarliy to a full time job, it’s something to help dad. I was still of age to apply to the ones I kept seeing so I applied to a bunch. No answer. I kept learning Python and JavaScript and applied more. Then one came back saying they wanted an interview. They didn’t tell me the first interview was going to be an exam?! Last an hour and a half and then they talked to me afterwards. Got another interview with them - exam. And the last was talking to one of the partners of the company.

When I told my Dad I got the apprenticeship, he cried again. I knew he felt like I was failing left right and centre and he was a little bit losing hope on me, but for everything he’s done for me and my sister, I couldn’t let him down. And guess what my Dad did when I told him I completed my apprenticeship last month? Yep, he cried.

And I thank the gods and the universe everyday for the opportunity I was given to have done an apprenticeship because I can help my family more as I do have people here and around the world who depend on me and want me to suceed, so I will take every chance and opportunity I can get.

Dad said "If you're entitled to it, grab it. Any opportunty, grab it. You never know when it'll come back to greet you again"

[hotchfiles]

Lari!

All it took was me seeing that post you reblogged about autistic Hotch, Reid, Garcia, and Gideon, and my brain immediately cooked up like two more chapters worth of story for my Jack and Hotch WIP!

I was meant to work on the Whiskeyverse but now I wrote like 3k to this one bahaha

Anyway, I would like to share a snippet since your reblog inspired me!

************* SPOILERS PAST SEASON 5 OF CM *************

-------

Hotch went still, his gaze dropping away from Dr. Rivera’s.

“No, his mother…” he swallowed before continuing, “She passed away recently.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that,” her lips pressed together sympathetically as she paused for a moment.

A brief silence settled over them for a few seconds as the sounds of Jack playing with the toys became more prominent. Adjusting her glasses, Dr. Rivera cleared her throat before she directed the conversation again.

“Do you know if… she had ever been evaluated herself?” she asks.

A small frown creased Hotch’s brow as he cast his mind back for anything she might have ever mentioned about the subject over the many years they had spent together.

“No, I – Well, I’m not sure,” he admitted, “But she wasn’t – she didn’t have any sort of disabilities.”

Dr. Rivera nodded, peering at him silently for a moment. A slight buzz began to hum under his skin at the scrutiny of her intelligent gaze. Her attention then turned to the chart where she marked notes on Jack’s responses.

“And how about yourself?” she asked offhandedly, her gaze trailing over the paper.

Considering his line of work, it was rare for a simple question to floor Hotch. This one, however, knocked him flat on his back.

After several seconds of silence, she glanced up toward him expectantly. His back was now ramrod straight as he stared at her unblinkingly. She set the chart down, the clipboard clacking softly against the table.

“I don’t mean to be forward,” she gave a small smile, “I’m just trying to gather all the information I can.”

Hotch blinked. Then he nodded curtly.

“Right,” Hotch finally spoke, “No, I – I don’t have anything.”

“Okay,” she said, back to business and looking at her chart once more, “And what about your parents?”

Hotch ran his hands up and down the length of his thighs, smoothing the fabric of his suit pants.

“No,” Hotch shook his head, “Nothing.”

Except raging narcissism and absurdly short tempers, but he doubted those were as strictly hereditary as autism.

STOP THE LAST SENTENCE GOOOOOOOSH

THIS IS SOOO GOOD ALREADY

[letteredlettered]

I learned that someone pretty junior to me in the company (I have more than 5 years on them but they have a masters and I only bachelors) is making +10k more than I am. Our jobs are fairly different but we have the same job title/level and I'd say the work we do is roughly equivalent. Though, with some recent retirements my job responsibilities have increased. I don't qualify for a promotion to the next level in my job family but I'm trying to figure out how to broach the conversation of an in-level promotion and who to broach it with first. I'm also a bit proactively angry because I figure I'm going to have to write, basically, a persuasive essay on the topic when this shouldn't be an issue in the first place. But that niggling voice in my head is also telling me that, since I don't have a post graduate degree, the discrepancy is justified and I should just shut up about it. Do you have any advice?

I'm sorry to hear about this. It sounds really difficult. I didn't deal directly with compensation (I mostly just recommended disciplinary action; compensation at my company was its own HR department. We're a very huge company), but I can try to answer your question to the best of my ability.

You might get told that the discrepancy is justified because of the difference in degrees. Degrees in some jobs make a huge difference in pay. However, it's still worth it to try.

I would speak with your boss first. If you don't want to make demands right off the bat, you can say, "I'm exploring this issue and speaking to several people about it, but I wanted you to know first so you don't feel as though I was trying to go around you." That gives you room to continue to talk to other people if the boss shuts you down. It also gives you a feel for how hard this is going to be. Lots of advice about asking for higher pay stresses that it's important to be confident and not back down. This might be good advice, but the folks I saw doing that made a bad impression on management because those employees did not understand the pay structure of their company or what was possible within their job classification, so it really felt to management like employees were just marching in making impossible demands, which in turn emphasized to management that the employee didn't deserve what they were asking for.

But if you frame it like a learning conversation, you give yourself wiggle room. In my company, management could request a position review for your position, or in some cases (depending on the union contract) employees could request a position review for themselves. Position reviews would help HR determine whether someone should receive higher pay. That process might be specific to my company, but lots of organizations will have something like that. You'll want to talk to HR to determine what all your options are. Instead of saying something like "I think I deserve higher pay," I'd say something like, "my job duties have changed due to staffing levels. I also learned that a colleague is being paid significantly more despite my higher experience. Is there a way for HR to review my position to determine what pay would be appropriate? I've already informed my boss that I'm pursuing this."

The other thing your company may have is something like a temporary pay increase. It's obviously not permanent, but if you've taken on extra work due to decreased staffing, and if they're hiring replacements and that work will go away once the new people are in place, sometimes you can get increased pay for taking on other jobs. The rules in my company were very strict about that and hardly anyone ever got it, but its worth it to ask about it.

I wish you luck. I'm sorry again you're not being adequately compensated.