#there’s also an infodump channel but that. could just. go into general ??

[lanternlightss]

,,, okay if i Did make a mutuals discord server, would any of you like to join it ??

you can like or reply to this if yeah :]

[solroskajan]

walks over. hello i'm going to infodump a bit BUT that manticore au post makes my braincells kick into full gear (and i adore your design for v in it so much, omfg) SO!

hooded pitohuis! via wikipedia:

"A medium-sized songbird with reddish-brown and black plumage, this species is one of the few known poisonous birds, containing a range of batrachotoxin compounds in its skin, feathers and other tissues."

batrachotoxin itself can be found in poison dart frogs, so you Know it's Bad™️ and it also has no antidote! it irreversibly opens sodium channels in nerve cells and stops them from closing, which paralyzes and leads to death. morbid stuff but very fascinating!

as for the venom in the quills? oh my god that is GENIUS. feather quills have hollow shafts, meaning there's also the potential to have them filled with toxin in case a feather breaks—that way if anyone breaks one in a fight they are getting a nasty (and incredibly painful) surprise, lol

i hope this unprompted ramble is alright-slash-permitted, i just woke up and am fueled by bird nerd knowledge to share some things that could be silly >:)

and as a bonus/goodbye i'd love to offer owl defensive posture

because they just look very silly to me

hope you have a great day/night/whatever :D i am always present if you need bird advice or info!!!

Hello!! Thank you for liking my silly design haha! I really gotta draw more for this AU sometime, I have some ideas for it and it's fun to draw. I got the idea for the quills because I wanted the dissasemblers to be able to stab people with their wings, you know, since the feathers are actual knives in canon. Besides, they're manticore inspired so it fits!

I don’t mind this message at all, in fact I really love birds myself and I remember reading about this poisonous one before! Birds are awesome, there's always a cool one out there you've never heard of before. My username actully have my favorite bird (and animal in general) In it, solroskajan means the sunflower jackdaw in swedish!

[dervampireprince]

ASMR | Elisabeth das Musical - Der Tod x Listener SFW Death Becomes Entranced And Seduces A Lonely Prince

[M4M/GF4M] [Prince! Listener] [Seduction] [Manipulation] [Kissing - no character death, lore here is Death's kisses can kill if it's 'your time' but if it's not they don't but they're still cold and cause temporary frostbite-like symptoms] [TW implies the listener is depressed and has been experiencing suicidal ideation, Death at points advises the listener to kiss him which would kill them, please skip this audio if you think these issues could affect or trigger you and if you are affected by these issues please seek help and contact hotlines in your country. This audio is fictional, Death's attempts to be a voice of suicidal ideation should not be taken seriously nor applied to real life.] 

I've been wanting to make this audio for so long. While I've left it ambiguous enough to be enjoyed as an original audio, this character is actually from my favourite musical 'Elisabeth das Musical'. It's a German-language dark queer historical romance where Death (Der Tod) is drawn to those who think about him, in particular it follows the life of Elisabeth, Empress of Austria, and her son Rudolf. The musical does deal with serious mental health topics and some historical events from that time including the rise of fascism so please know that going in, but if you think you can handle such topics then I couldn't recommend the musical enough. 

The original 1992 Vienna production is on Youtube with English subtitles, that is my favourite production and means a lot to me as Uwe Kroger as Death is just... perfection to me, very much gender envy and has been a big influence on me and helped me with accepting myself and my gender expression, and his characterisation of Death as this genderfluid, pansexual otherworldly being is just beautiful. And if you enjoy then I'd also recommend the 2005 Vienna production which is also on Youtube with English subtitles mostly for the few extra added song and Serkan Kaya's performance as Lucheni.

For those of you in my Patreon Discord server, I streamed this musical last Sunday in there for you guys and it finally felt like the perfect time to bring this audio to life. And if Kronprinz is still around, I know you were requesting a Der Tod audio for a long time and I hope you're happy with this one. The listener in this audio series takes the place of Rudolf, but you don't need to know anything about the musical to understand these audios. I chose to present them more like my original royalty series audios as Elisabeth das Musical is not very well known outside of mainland Europe and Japan, so I hoped by framing it this way with a photograph of myself cosplaying Death from a couple years ago would entice more people who aren't familiar with the musical. 

I love this musical so much, European musicals in general are my biggest interest and if you go searching for them it wont be long until you find my sfw account @emptymasks posting too much about them. If you're interested in learning more I have some masterlists and info posts pinned on my emptymasks Tumblr, but also as part of my subathon rewards I am doing a stream on my Twitch explaining about infodumping about European musicals and I've been working on some video essays for years that I hope to get finished this year that will be up on my emptymasks Youtube channel. I also run @europeanmusicals . If any mutuals or followers from my main or side blogs finds this... well hello there, I find myself nervous to drop this in the euro musical tags, as if people are going to find this format of fanwork weird but well... I had fun, I hope you guys are nice about this (nice doesn't mean you have to like it, but please don't be mean about it if you just don't enjoy asmr or audio content).

Something something if I had a nickel for every time Prince voiced a personification of Death from different fandoms I'd have three nickels.

.

Old public spicy audios on sound gasm (link in pinned post). 2 Exclusive spicy audios on Patreon every month. I also stream on Twitch every week @ dervampireprince . [minors + ageless blogs dni. this blog is for 18+ only.] [do not repost/reupload/edit any of my content]

[lordjackalope]

You should talk about Flint Dogwood and the Mages

Mostly the "and the mages" part lol

Alright buckle up bois, it's time. Tama no idea what details you already have so fuck it, full infodump time. @ashekeepmountain @royalspook @meadow-brook I finally did it lmaoooo

Welcome to world of the Arkane Akademy, a land of magic, wizards, and more classism than you could shake a stick at. You already know the characters so no introductions necessary.

The main thing to know about this land is that the power of the magic you wield says a lot for the power you get to have in your own life. There's a distinct caste system where the 5 great houses have the most powerful magic and, thus, control the world. Here lives:

Anchronus - the house that controls time and more metaphysical types of concepts. Time, fate, gravity, divination. They hold a significant amount of power and rule the world on the face of things.

Cerabell - The house of mental magic. Seduction, mind control, telepathy, telekinesis. They're the diplomats of the world, traveling to other countries to try to sway opinions but also working at home to protect the minds of those around them.

Eiderdown - Eiderdown is the house of summoning. They can summon anything from animals, water, fire, etc. The most important thing they do though is summon the demons that make the world work. Through contracts that typically offer freedom to wreak havoc once the contract ends, Eiderdown captures and channels the power of demons to run all of the technology of the world. A spell can do anything the mind can dream, but it takes the energy of a demon to keep a spell contained in the infrastructure of the world. Anchronus may run the world on the surface but Eiderdown holds all the power.

Escutcheon - This is the house of the physical. Healing, necromancy (lol forgot to mention that during the campaign I think), physical strength and transformation. They're the enforces but also the healers. It's a fun little dichotomy.

Oculara - This is the house of illusions and energy. Visual tricks, shields, stealth, invisibility. When a member of Oculara is around you can't trust any of your senses. They can convince you the desert around you is an oasis and the dirt you're shoveling into your mouth is as cool and refreshing as any sip of water has been on a hot summer day.

In this world where the families have magic and magic is power, nepotism runs rampant. The direct lineage of The Houses is closely traced and those who have their blood running through their veins find themselves in government position, cushy jobs. Families do tend to intermingle, just enough to keep the incest out. More middle class workers, average joes with slightly above average jobs, can generally trace their lineage back to the houses at some point in their past.

These middle of the line workers and the direct members of The Houses get the distinct honor of going to the Magical Academies associated with their own house. There they are taught the usual, math, science, politics. In addition however they learn the specifics of their house's magic. There is never a case of a child going to more than one school. If they stem from two families, their affinity is found and they go to that school.

All of this is not to say that us common folk don't have magic. It's there. But it's a trickle compared to the river those from The Houses possess. Some workers are taught specific spells for the grunt jobs they do but for the most part us commoners, us mages, use our magic for small conveniences. Drying off after a shower. Small light-shows to entertain a child. Magic is not formally taught to mages so ability is varied and intermittent, everything is self-taught or passed down. At best we get a wand-safety lecture in middle school akin to a sex-ed class.

All of this creates for interesting dynamics. The two worlds don't intermix and when they do the mages are always the ones in a position of subservience. We just don't have the power to fight back. Or.... at least, we didn't.

A tournament of the houses (magical houses always have tournaments, it's basically law) went spectacularly and dazzlingly awry. A group of young adults showed up to represent an academy that had previously done it's best to avoid telling the world it existed. These mages included the following:

Flint Dogwood (he/yip), a werewolf boi with limited vision who just wants to live in nature with yips family. Yip's loyal to a fault and the only person you'll ever meet who can run an interrogation through a game of fetch. Yips familiar is a seeing eye jackdaw that lets yip actually know wtf is going on around yipself.

Rute I'm From the Circus (he/they), a raccoon circus performer with brightly colored fur who has no parents but that's ok, they're from the circus. One of his top talents it's pranking those around them. Their familiar is a unicorn bear that's definitely not a bearcub wearing a fake unicorn horn.

Rowan I-forgot-the-last-name (they/them), an artist who sees visions of death all day every day and whose eyes occasionally bleed but dw it's not a big deal. They work at a coffee store owned by their two gay dads. Their familiar is a bearded dragon that can canonically dress itself in little outfits.

Hemlock I'm-not-sure-she-has-a-last-name (she/they), just an uptight girl who wants the people around her to like her but doesn't know how to make friends. Her natural solution to the problem was to trade her arm for a demon to be her bff. dw, it's not a big deal. Her familiar is a horned viper that lives in her sleeve and truly is overshined by the demon living as her arm.

The Arkane Akademy, the first ever school of it's kind. Teaching all 5 disciplines to mages. For the common people of the world it was... well... magical. Not only did these mages exist, having been trained as a team, one person from each discipline, they won. And the Houses were fucking pissed about it.

Since the event, very few people have seen those mages again. They appear to be in hiding for very good reason. Nobody knows how they did what they did. But there are whispers, mutterings. A fewer clever people who watched the broadcast and noticed. Those mages who won the tournament weren't casting magic the traditional way. There was no latin. No mutterings of memorized incantations and languages half-learned. No, these mages cast their magic with different focuses: tarot cards, art, writing, plain old English even. And their magic was powerful enough to rival that of the representatives from other houses. If those mages could do it, basically children they were, than why can't we, the common people figure it out as well. And, well, if we have the same power as those above us do... Maybe it would be time to switch up the world order a bit.

[versegm]

Generally speaking I don't think fandom has necessarily gotten worse over the past few years (it's a mixed bag but overall I feel like it's kinda the same? Maybe things were much different pre-lj, but as someone who's only really fandomed in the tumblr era people have always being kinda shit at commenting and dumb drama have always arisen for no reason)

However I feel like it's gotten much harder to find a good discord for creators. Back in 2017-2019 (when I was at my most active in fandoms) anytime I joined a fandom server there was a channel for aus, another for headcanons, another for shipping, so you could throw in whatever idea you had and have fun spitballing with others. Even if you weren't much of a writer you could still show up like "ok so how would a college au work" and have fun imagining what blorbo from your show could major in.

Meanwhile nowadays the few times I tried to join fandom discords and managed to get my hands on one that isn't basically dead, there's just... none of that. Or if there is no one responds- it's expected of people to just infodump and then leave without any interaction or creativity together. (It was also stupidly hard to find these discords in the first place, but that's not relevant rn.)

And I mean, if that's how folks nowadays have fun, that's cool. But personally that counts as a downgrade, because if I go out of my way to go on a group instant chat messaging device it's because I want interactivity. I want to exchange ideas and hype the ideas of others and get hyped in return. If I just wanted to create stuff in my own space, I'd just throw whatever I write on ao3 without a word, and I in fact do exactly that. Idk. It's just kinda sad to me.

[panlight]

Hello I'm back again with another ask. One of the things that infuriates me most is that throughout the Twilight series we don't get to see Bella really hanging around with the Cullens. I want some bonding moments and just some fun interactions! So I guess we have to make up for it with fan works and headcanons.

How do you think watching movies/TV shows go with the Cullens? Does everyone have a favorite or genres they'd like the most?

Yeah it's part of the reason I never totally bought that she actually loved/knew them as individuals rather than just as "Edward's family" that she gets to be a part of. We just don't see any one-on-one or bonding moments with the supporting characters. They all get like one (1) chance to infodump their backstory and than that's it. Bella has no follow-ups, no curiosity. For example, when I read Esme's discussion with Bella at the baseball game I had a million questions! Esme had a baby?! Who was the father?! What happened to him?!? We find out that information in the guide eventually, but BELLA didn't seem anywhere NEAR as curious about it as I was. I understand it might have been too much for her to ask Esme about it right then, but she could have asked Edward, or followed up later, or at least wondered about it. She didn't. It was all just "oh Esme is motherly toward Edward and approves me, cool." I, as the reader, seemed more interested in getting to know this woman than Bella the character did.

They are so rich I'm sure they all have personal devices they could watch anything they want on, but most people also headcanon like a big TV in the living/family room where they all hang out sometimes and watch movies together or argue over the remote. I think Esme loves home & garden channel stuff but I could also see her into soap operas. All the kids are too to varying levels because of days they have to stay home from school because of the sun, they get sucked into whatever storyline is going on at the time. I think Jasper likes historical documentaries and gritty historical dramas but I don't think he's all that interested in his own era, he lived it, he's probably looking to other time periods for that sort of infotainment. Might be interested in war movies in general. Emmett likes FUN! movies, popcorn movies, action and adventure movies, comedies, etc. He's just here for a Good Time. He and Carlisle also always watch the latest vampire films/TV, Emmett because he thinks it's hilarious how humans get things wrong and Carlisle is curious how the human concept of vampires keeps evolving. I think he probably avoids medical dramas because he finds them unrealistic but generally goes along with what everyone else wants. Alice can foresee if she will like a movie or not before she watches it. Rosalie wants to watch whatever Edward refuses to watch and vice versa.

Bella would be like "oh we can watch whatever you like," and then all the Cullens (except Rose) would fall all over themselves to assure her that SHE is the guest and SHE can choose but she'd bite her lip and be anxious until Alice would just announce like "she chooses Pride and Prejudice!" or something and then Bella blushes prettily and Edward's eyes darken as he rhapsodizes about how beautiful yet forbidden the flush of blood in her cheeks is, then he hates himself for thinking of her blood at all, then for whatever reason they just go hang out in Edward's room leaving the rest of the family to watch the movie even though it was a whole Movie Night with Bella event and they sit there in silence for a bit surrounded by like 5 bowls of popcorn they can't eat and 8 types of soda they can't drink that Alice procured ~for Bella~ until Rosalie says "WHY do they keep coming over here for 'family time' and then just go make goo-goo eyes at each other in Edward's room?" and Esme or Carlisle diplomatically says something about young couples and Bella's shyness while Rosalie rolls her eyes.

[glynder]

seeing mutual talk about infodumping reminded me I want to infodump, so here's a "brief" summary of my Dark Knight headcanons for Parthos

spoilers for the DRK quests and (lightly) Endwalker

Right off the bat, I want to say I had this headcanon before Endwalker, and all EW did was solidify it for me.

Dark Knight magic is fuelled by emotions, aka dynamis (thanks canon for giving me an official word to use). It's primarily used by those with a heightened sense of justice/morality because those people tend to be more in tune with the fluctuations of their emotions (purposefully or not) and tend to be more emotionally driven people.

Different spells are cast by different emotions. Most, if not all, DRK spells are fuelled by some kind of passion or desire. The Blackest Night is my favorite because imo it manifests from a desire to protect. Spells like Unmend and Unleash come from fury or general aggressiveness, Edge/Flood of Darkness come more from a righteous sense of purpose, and skills like Abyssal Drain or other HP/MP restoring skills are a self-determined will to sustain yourself.

Living Shadow is the best skill in the game because Fray is pretty much just an embodiment of the WoL's inner voice, and there is nothing cooler than having a physical embodiment of your emotions show up beside you to fight with you. Don't even get me started on Living Dead.

Tying all this to Parthos who is not the WoL in his main verse, he tripped down the rabbit hole of DRK magic by accident. It's something that just kinda manifests for highly emotional people sporadically, although things like job stones or an actual teacher can make it more accessible to learn. DRK magic's source isn't common knowledge even amongst dark knights, it's just one of those things that happens and you roll with it.

Because Parthos was never properly taught what his magic is, he can't really... channel it willingly. It happens during moments of intense emotion, it's highly volatile, and it drains him of energy severely upon use. It's a goal of mine to someday get him an RP DRK friend who can teach him about it, but my headcanons feel niche so it'll probably never happen.

Also, not every DRK needs to use a giant-ass sword! Parthos uses a lance, Fray (the real one) is canonically a "conjurer" iirc but he's a purely spellcasting dark knight in my heart; other weapons are perfectly suitable since being a dark knight is more about principle and spellcasting than it is Big Sword Go Slash.

Parthos can use Unleash, Unmend, TBN, probably Edge of Darkness, and Cover because fuck you Cover fits DRK better than canon FFXIV paladins. He could probably use Living Dead as well but hopefully he never gets in a situation where he needs to use it ♥

Anyways, all of that to say I like dark knight. thanks for coming to my TED talk, there's more I could say but I won't because this post is Long.

[dr-astormylasthurrah]

How detailed were your outlines when writing ASLH?

It really depended, they got more detailed as I wrote on. I'm not sure if this quite answers your question, but here's my process! Generally, I'd break things into broad levels of detail:

The outline I wrote for the whole story focused on a few specific story beats, like the ch3 case, the mastermind reveal, and certain deaths. I had a clear vision for specific moments and a general idea of what arcs I wanted certain characters to go through, but the clearest scenes were all at the beginning of the story. As I wrote, I'd often think of more specific scenes or plot lines that I wanted to resolve, and I made sure to write them down somewhere (mostly in a planning Discord I had with some friends, I found the different channels really helpful for organizing information). I don't think I actually wrote a full outline for the story at any point, I think I just infodumped everything once in a server and then copy/pasted that to make my outline LOL

Once I actually got to the casing chapter in question, the bullet point outline that I wrote went into more depth about specific storylines I wanted to hit. Well, to be honest, I didn't do one of these for ch1-3, because I didn't have a writing process then, there were a lot fewer storylines to keep track of, and I didn't fully know how I wanted my characters to develop at that point. After ch4, having a bulleted outline became necessary. There's obviously the culmination of the killer and victim's storylines, but I also had to keep track of things like the overarching mastermind plot/storyline or specific character beats that I wanted to integrate. I didn't do this back then, but nowadays I'll also attach things like playlists or images to my outlines to get a general sense of what I want the case to "feel" like.

From the broad strokes of my casing chapter, I'd decide how I wanted to pace the chapter (like, how many daily life chapters felt appropriate), and I'd also have a general sense of the scenes I wanted - whether it was something as specific as "conversation between these two characters when they're doing this specific thing that touches on xyz topics" to "I think we're gonna need a scene with this guy's character arc I don't have any big plot things planned for them". A rule of thumb I like to follow is that each story chapter should have at most one high-tension moment that advances either the mastermind/worldbuilding plot, the killer/victim plot, or a central character dynamic in a major way. If I put more than one high-tension moment in a chapter, I ran the risk of cheapening either moment since there was no feeling of normalcy/status quo to contrast the reveal with. (Sometimes, like the first half of 5-1, there were plot-advancing scenes that didn't necessarily have an overemotional aspect to them. In this case, I'd consider the last scene of 5-1 to be the high-tension moment.) I'd divide these types of scenes among the daily life for pacing, or make a note of which things I wanted to be revealed in deadly life (occasionally with notes on how I wanted to do it). I wouldn't necessarily plan Every scene of every story chapter at this point, but I had a feel for what had to go where and what the general tone of each story chapter should be.

From there, once I got to the story chapter, I made a bullet point outline with the specific scenes I wanted in the chapter. In addition to the story beats that I came up with in the casing chapter outline, I also slotted in some filler events using underutilized characters to make the high-tension moment seem worthwhile, or to come down from that moment. I used these to either dump random characters to flesh out spontaneous dynamics which could be expanded upon as subplots later down the line (in ch1-3) or address subplots that hadn't been brought up in some time (in ch4-6). A beautiful byproduct of this process is that I got to delete the outline as I went along, which was extremely satisfying.

So basically, they got more detailed as I got to the points where each story element was relevant. I hope that's helpful!

[vitaminseetarot]

Hii! Thank you for the game. My emojis:✨🫶.

Hey ✨🫶! Thanks for playing! Your cards are Bubble Turquoise (teal) along with the Queen of Coins. Your current aura is jubilant, generous, and a bit giddy. I think a lot more people than you know look up to you for wisdom, maybe because of how you present it and not just what you present. Like you have a unique and interesting way of speaking with others, like telling a funny story as a way of remembering important facts. Have you thought about going into teaching or coaching? Your energy is one of opportunity. Joining some sort of class or workshop would be a great direction for this energy. You would have the chance to expand on what you know while also demonstrating your skills. If teaching isn't an interest, I'm still sensing that you are surrounded by some sort of business opportunity. For example, you could learn to channel your knowledge and skills into a different department at work, or a school project is giving you the chance to show off your interests and talents. Not everyone will understand how or why you are passionate over what you like, but there will also be those who totally get it and will find your expertise to be enjoyable and educating for them. Don't lose your spark because of what a few others might have to say about infodumping, if you don't have a positive outlet for you to express yourself, you will find it soon.

[circusislife]

Hi! I saw in your pinned post you were open to sharing tips about adhd, and I've been struggling with it so much recently I swear. Could you share any tips in general, or specifically for starting tasks? no pressure ofc you don't have to answer if you are uncomfortable with me asking ^-^, just let me know and I'll disappear into the windy wind

(warning: infodumping has been unlocked, prepare yourself :) )

ok, first of all, living with adhd is different for every person. mine your and everyone else's experience is unique and that means not everything that helps me will help you and vice-versa. you might want to tweak my advice to fit you better. that said, onto the infodumping! :D

let's see, I'll start with study tips!

you know that moment when focusing is a struggle and you feel like your head might explode but you keep studying? that's not a sign that you are stupid or dumb. it's a sign that your brain has reached its limit. your metabolism is struggling to produce enough dopamine to keep working, you need a break. depending on how exhausted you are you might need anything between 5 minutes and 20. don't remember where, but I once read that the average neurotypical should alternate 40min of focus to 20 of break, so there's that.

also, for that break, either do something completely unrelated to the task and that you really enjoy, or physical activity. that's because the first one helps you produce the used up dopamine because it's something you enjoy, the second one works because it speeds up your metabolism, all your metabolism, including the production of neurotransmitters. (doesn't need to be that much physically taxing, just enough to get your blood pumping. going up and down the stairs five times, doing a set of pushups, jumping in place a bit, anything goes)

also, don't fight the jitters. they are your body's way of unobtrusively speed up your metabolism and help you focus. the best way to deal with them is channel them in a socially acceptable way (bounce your leg, but keep the tip of your foot on the ground so it doesn't make sound, braid and unbraid some strings, twirl a pencil, stretch, play with your hair, play with a necklace...)

using timers to deal with time issues is useful, too. best if used in tandem with a schedule. (those are freakishly hard to make and harder to uphold tho, it's best to keep them simple, like "I'll start on homework 20 min after lunch", without specifying when lunch is, and leave some free time to make up for delay. also, if you really need to do something, tell someone else. I don't really like this, but the perceived obligation will twist anxiety into boosting your productivity. the body-double works more or less the same way, peer pressure nagging you into action)

other tip. if you have problem starting on homework, start from what's easiest or what you enjoy the most. finishing something soon or doing something with success will give you a confidence and dopamine boost that might be just enough to struggle a little less with the rest.

to memorize something, try to associate it with something else, build yourself some "memory anchors" as I call them. can be anything. "near the name of that historical figure resembles that of a Pokemon" remember the Pokemon, remember the name. "the date of this battle looks like a funny word/ has numbers in a particular sequence" remember the word, or the made up sequence, remember the date.

also, highlighters draw attention. make sure to switch up the color to avoid a memory soup, but used the right way they can help form the anchors.

I'm not much one for summaries (my brain is going to cut off a part of the text any way, might as well feed it the text that has something to be cut off), but they, alongside side notes, are a good way to trigger your memory once you've studied.

if you need to remember a date/appointment, either tell a few people and ask them to remind you or write it down everywhere , multiple times, and set up alarms.

create habits. for example, choose a few spots to leave your phone, and leave it there and only there, no matter what. if the place of the house keys is in a backpack pocket, don't put them down anywhere for even a second. keep them in your hand until you can put them back. if you have to take some pills at a certain time and some other just during the day, try to take them all at once so you don't mix up which one you took. you might struggle at first, but give it a few weeks and it will be worth it. if you can ask for help from a family member to remind you in the beginning.

if possible, separate your work environment from your relax environment. the brain works by association. if you associate sitting at the desk with work and laying on the bed with free time, in time simply switching place will help you slide in the right mindset.

using music as background noise is tricky. sometimes I prefer absolute silence, others the music will cover distractions and the change of tune snap me back to reality after getting lost in thoughts. it variates. only notice, if you like to sing, avoid anything with lyrics. you don't need the temptation ;). video-games' background music is one of the best options, because you're already used to its presence and not paying attention to it.

always have snacks and water in range. it makes it harder to forget to eat/drink if it's in sight.

find your limits and respect them. if my brain stops working properly after 6pm or tot hours of intense effort, pushing it much farther will do more harm than good. toeing the line little by little is fine, but all at once is just asking for headaches.

give into your hyperfixations any time you can afford it. actually managing to do something and learning new stuff is not only useful, but will also give you a boost of dopamine!!! :D

also, I find that having something always running in the back of my head actually helps! I mean, my mind is going to wander and get lost no matter what, but if I at least have an idea of where it's trying to go snapping myself back to reality is much easier. furthermore, if my brain keeps going back to "that one character that is in a situation" or "that curious and inconvenient scenario the protagonist is tuck into" or again a strange riddle that won't leave my thoughts, there's less space for intrusive thoughts of anxiety and paranoia to form and I have some control on where random thoughts are going to go.

no matter the workload, find a way to set aside some time every day or one day a week that is 100% obligations free. you need the time to unwind, rest and regenerate. choosing always the same time is best, because, you know, routine, but having that free time is just as important as getting stuff done. "there's a test the day after my day off? ok, I'll study, I'll rest the day after. but if anything tries to bother me then, heads will roll and I won't be held accountable for my actions.". this kind of thing.

this is all that comes to mind right now, so I'll end it here. this stuff is a mix of hard earned experience and advice I picked up here and there from adhd psychologists and neuropsychiatrists, hyperfixation fueled research and comparing notes with my sister (my main reference for "not me adhd"). and, by the way, talking to other people with adhd relieves stress like you wouldn't imagine, so, if you can, try to find someone else with adhd to just, talk. joy is having a conversation, interrupting it to look at a cool frog together and pick right back up like nothing happened. (I love my sis :)<3)

hope it was helpful and that you can take something useful for yourself from this!<3 rant

[dennisboobs]

15 questions for 15 mutuals

I was tagged by @emodennis and @sewerkingcharlie <3

Are you named after anyone?

I named myself <3 but originally I was the bandom equivalent of someone naming their kid Sasuke. Except I was named after a member of Motley Crue.

Do you have kids?

Nope, and I don't want any lol. I parented my sibling and that's enough.

Do you use sarcasm a lot?

I Don't Know What Sarcasm Is And At This Point I'm Too Afraid To Ask.

First thing you notice about people?

I don't, I avoid eye contact at all times and if I'm lucky I avoid any and all contact in general.

But probably voice. I listen in on people.

What's your eye color?

Blue

Scary movies or happy endings?

I don't like horror movies and I have a weird sensitivity to seeing people hurt, definitely happy endings, I'm annoyingly an optimist and I love me some feel-good shit. But if it's done well it doesn't need to be a happy ending, just a satisfying one.

Special talents?

Catalogue of Dennis scenes in my brain. You can ask me anything about him and I'm able to give you the episode it comes from (huge boon for wiki purposes but also for editing and stuff too lol) based on like. nothing.

I also went to art school for several years (throughout high school & then a year of college before i realized i hated it) and can draw (not that anyone would know because I never fucking do that <33)

What are your hobbies?

Channelling Dennis' essence like a spirit medium but like. not a scam. He is in my brain and I'm simply his scribe.

I think any of my hobbies are probably known by now on here; wiki editing, drawing, writing, playing video games, editing videos; I have a YouTube channel that I abandoned because I hate it, actually, fuck YouTube-- and archival work. Also sewing, occasionally. And more shit I'm probably forgetting.

Have any pets?

Oui, a dog, Arwen, and a cat, Frisk. I've had plenty of small animals as well, and desperately want pet rats again.

What sports do you play/have you played?

I am a frail little bitch.

How tall are you?

5'4"

Favorite subject in school?

I always liked my tech classes, always a fun day when I got to solder, but even more fun when I could infodump to the class about technology. I did a wholeass photoshoot for my NES opened up and gutted for a presentation in that class and I had truly never been so engaged in a school project before that lmao.

Dream job?

Probably working in JP-ENG game localization. I applied to Sega of America just before covid hit and pretty soon after that everyone I knew there had dipped lmao. I actually really genuinely enjoy working retail (lllloved working at EB Games/Gamestop, and I've worked at three different pet stores and I would literally work at one for the rest of my life and be completely content with it, one of the most rewarding and enjoyable jobs ever tbh), but I mean. You can't really compete with the $$$ that comes with being a welder. If I had the patience I would probably go back to school for translation work, or something psychology-adjacent, I would really love to be an advocate for better education re: autism. I've worked with Fandom for their diversity shit before and am just generally super passionate about helping people get the facts straight about what ASD actually is outside of the stereotypes. But I do that anyway, so I guess it doesn't need to be an actual job lol.

I think by this point everyone's been tagged by other shared mutuals, but if any of y'all want to do it and got passed over, feel free to take this as your sign to do it <3

[aroace-poly-show]

oc infodump pt 3

its dorian time!!! the last two came in pairs bc they were developed together but dorian goes solo!!

dorian's kind/species is generally known for being really good at fighting. lots of them go and become bounty hunters, mercenaries, etc. his family was an especially prominent name in their town. parents had been really good at what they did, and everyone could see the future potential of their kids. dorian however, never had any interest in it. he really liked taking care of his siblings whenever they got hurt. he preferred to not be violent and was just generally alot more peaceful (do not mistake this for him being weak. he could and would rock people's shit if needed. but 90% of people would not because no one had any beef with him. peaceful lil guy.) eventually he decided to be a medic/healer instead. he was a bit nervous telling his family, but they were actually really understanding with him!! unlike the others, he's on really good terms with his family and visits them often :D

he travels around offering his help to anyone who needs it. if he really needs some money, he'll ask for some, but a lot of the time people will offer him food and shelter in return for helping them!! people have been very kind to him on his travels, so he's able to get by comfortably. he can also always restock on anything he needs whenever he goes back to visit his family.

what i think is funny is that i originally meant to have dorian be maybe the one exception among my ocs, that being he'd be the only one i wouldn’t traumatize with some kind of horrible event. BUT i thought about him too much.. and my hand slipped... so he is not without his issues. he may cope a lot better than *some folks* (*looking at vesper and rumi specfically*) but he is not without his monthly emotional breakdowns.

so since dorian is a healer, he does his best to help as many people as he can. unfortunately that comes with the eventual realization that, he can't save anyone. the first time he had someone actually die on him, he was devastated beyond belief. he had never actually taken a moment to acknowledge the fact he couldn’t save everyone, so it hit him REALLY fucking hard. he went home shortly after it and his family literally would not let him go until they were completely sure he was doing okay. (he doesn’t visit that town anymore either, he really wants to, but every time he thinks about going back he gets too anxious to go through with it.) he’s grown more used to it now, and understands that sometimes there isn’t much he can do, but it always will still really hurt every time it happens. its motivated him to do as best he can to help anyone he meets. as much as it hurts every single time, he tries his best to channel that hurt into determination. sometimes though, the past guilt will start to eat away at him. he has his moments where he breaks, but he tries his best to move on. he also gets lonely a lot on his travels. he does meet a lot of people, and has made lots of friends in different towns, but whenever he has to go and camp out by himself, he starts to get lonely. he’s really extroverted and loves talking with others and meeting new people, so whenever he has to go a while without seeing many people its hard on him. he’s never really had any kind of traveling companion. most people he’s friends with have their own lives in a certain town already. weiss and jex were an exception, but they didn’t want to get him involved in their situation, so they go their seperate ways. (they still agree to visit in a specific town at a certain time of year though :D) he used to get really homesick whenever he’d be by himself. he compensates by bringing along things to distract him, and visiting familiar places alot.

as i mentioned, since he prefers to not murder, he brings around an umbrellas that doubles as a fighting staff. he looks fairly unthreatening but he’s really good with his staff and knows how to get an opponent on the ground quickly. its usually very successful because of how unexpected the attack always is. in the handle hes also got a lil knife for any kind of task that requires one!!

notes:

he loves bringing his friends gifts!!! any cool thing he finds is almost guaranteed to be sent back home or to any of his friends houses!! weiss and jex are an exception since they travel a lot, instead he saves whatever he finds that he knows they’ll like and when the time for a reunion comes he brings a bag full of his gifts!!

has a cool little mask. not for any real reason aside from aesthetics (i like drawing it too) the cloak thingy is also only really for aesthetics. i like drawing cloaks.

his favorite food is anything with fruits in them! he loves them, especially any kind of berries. sucks though since his outfit is mainly white, and the berries tend to stain his clothes. totally worth it though.

i mentioned he's vesper’s new bf. i’ll probably go more into detail on their relationship in another post, but he loves vesper dearly. i think about them all the time. i love them jskdfygafi

hes my favorite to draw. idk something about drawing him is really fun. (might be my favorite child. sorry other ocs.)

———

vesper and rumi are up next!! along with unma :D might take a little longer since im gonna be a lil busy lol (also they have..like alot since theyre my mcs)

[wolfisblank]

Random fanon worldbuilding stuff from my Pokémon story. This post is very very long and just me infodumping. Feel free to ignore this.

Before I start, any Pokémon lore I get "wrong" in this is probably another change I didn't specify or something I didn't care for.

I haven't named it yet, but the region is based off the Caucasus. This is mostly because I have good friends who live in that region and gladly give me worldbuilding ideas and share cultural stuff with me. It's also based off an inside joke. I'm not restricting myself to a set regional dex, and the joke is that every animal ever lives in Caucasia. Like seriously. They have so many different animals.

In terms of timeline, it takes place after X and Y, but before or around Sun and Moon. There are no Rotom dexes or Rotom phones yet (though standard touch-screen phones do exist). The canon timeline of Pokémon and the precise years between these games is mostly disregarded, and it is used as an outline for technology and events more than an outline for exact passage of time. If a character were to say, "Ten years ago, Team Plasma attacked Opelucid City," or something like that, it does not necessarily mean I believe Gen VII takes place 10+ years after Gen V.

The age at which kids typically set out to challenge the gyms has been raised from like 10-12 to the older 14. The way I use the universe is in a much more mature context (I'd rate the story to be pg-13/T, with some moments pushing towards a more mature rating, ignoring any restrictions related to swearing) so I'd be less comfortable having a bunch of preteens running around. The main three characters themselves are between 17 and 19 during the time of their journey. In general, 10 is when you can get a trainer's license, 14 is the age at which it is usually considered (some kids go out at a lower age but it's not common), 18 is considered getting a bit old to have not already done it yet, and by age 20 most people will assume you're not going to do it. Not to say there aren't any people 20+ doing it, but it's not common. The gym challenge is considered a sort of coming-of-age type of adventure. It's not necessarily expected that you'll go on it, but it's considered typical to do it yourself, or travel with someone who is. It's a journey where you travel the region, find your team, and discover what kind of trainer you are. Many people find their calling during this as well. Gyms are broadcast live on TV, which is implied in some games, and explicit in others (it's a cultural thing Sword and Shield). This includes the gym itself, and battles with the gym leader. There are probably channels 1-13, with 1 being the first gym and 13 being the champion. They may turn the cameras off or cut to people discussing recent battles or whatever when the gym is not active or open.

Gym leaders are very active in their local community. They're the people who deal with pokémon outbreaks, villain teams, or any other local threats. But they also do things like assist residents and oversee projects in their town. The general way I write gym leaders is inspired by mostly Black and White, where the gym leaders have a clear presence in their community. If there is an issue that needs more assistance, sometimes other gym leaders are called out to assist their fellow leaders. Community is encouraged between them, and one could consider the gym leaders, elite four, and champion to be close coworkers or friends. Larger issues, like any major villain team activity or dangerous legendary activity, are managed by the elite four or champion, with the guidance of the local gym leader.

It is expected for a professor, gym leader, or elite four member to be succeeded by a relative, such as their child or sibling. This is somewhat based off the fact that both Marnie and Sonia replace their relatives in Sword and Shield. The children of champions especially have it quite rough, with the eyes of the whole region on them during their gym challenge.

Some of the ingame canon pokédex entries are considered to be rumors, urban legends, or otherwise exaggerated information. This is also based somewhat off an inside joke with my friends, that the pokédex is written by a bunch of 10 year olds who hear rumors and write them down, or make up shit about pokémon based on whether or not they like or dislike them. It's also based on stuff in the dex that is either illogical or downright impossible (Gardevoir making black holes, Lanturn producing a horrendously blinding amount of light, etc.). The quality and accuracy of the entries varies from professor to professor, and the regional dexes contain separate information about the same pokémon because of this. Some professors may be very picky and stringent about which entries they accept, while others are considered quite lax and will accept most things their researchers submit.

The way legendary pokémon are viewed varies heavily. For the sake of my own enjoyment (and due to their appearances in other regions in the games), many of the legendaries from other regions reside in this region. Some people treat them more like gods/deities, while on the far end of the spectrum, some treat them like pests or nuisances. The level of respect and deification varies based on the legendary itself, the region or area in the region, and individual belief. Someone from Johto might be a devout follower of Ho-oh as if it were a god, whereas someone from Hoenn might view Ho-oh as a funny wish bird. The only pokémon that are almost always treated like gods are the Sinnoh pokémon (Palkia, Dialga, Arceus, and, to a lesser extent, Giratina).

I mentioned this in another post, but early evolution is a thing that can happen in this universe, but it is generally unethical. Like powerfeeding a snake, it would cut down their lifespan. There are ways to do it to minimize or negate the downsides, but it is difficult, and most trainers would rather train their pokémon at an ethical pace. A common tell for a pokémon that has been forced to evolve early is that they may retain markings/colors from their previous evolutions. This isn't a surefire way to tell, as markings are very variable, but it is sometimes reason to be suspicious. This was inspired by the fact that there are some trainers in the games who have fully evolved pokémon below their evolution level (like Ghetsis' Hydreigon).

Scars are considered to be a common feature in this universe. Though some people may still ask invasive questions, or act surprised when someone has a large scar or an "excessive" amount of them. Generally speaking, most people have at least one major scar from the beasts living in their backyard. It just makes sense considering they're surrounded by monsters capable of bending nature and controlling the elements.

That is all... for now... If you read this far wtf are you doing here lmao. I guess if you were interested enough to read this far you can ask questions if you want?

[grungeeuvu]

Hi hello <3

Thank you for making our day <3

Take this as a free pass to info dump ab anything you'd like :3 (not exactly in the post, but follow the sport not the word of the law <3333)

Glad you liked my ask!! :D

Im gonna go ahead and info dump about some ocs, so forgive me mutuals haha, I'll crop it dw

Anyways, below is the wip story of my ocs Isaac, Christopher and Robin. It's a looooooooooooooong document haha

WARNINGS AHEAD FOR S*ICIDE IDEATION THAT WON'T BE FULLY CENSORED i cant remember if that's a trigger for you, anx, so I'm warning you (and anyone else) here

tbh, anx, you may remember them a little from that server we're both on - i used to talk about them a lot in my channel before i kinda died and became inactive haha but THEY'RE BACK AND I LOVE THEM!!!!

This is going to be a liiiittle incoherent, simply because I'll be copypasting things over but I'm not very good at typing infodumps so please accept this haha

SO

we've got three brothers :)) Robin (13) and his older twin brothers, Isaac (16m, older twin) and Christopher (16m, younger twin)

Some photos/art for ref :)) Ftr, Christopher is also a massive redhead, like his twin, but for reasons I am about to explain, he dyes his hair brown at the beginning. Here's a colour of his two hair colours, in case that helps!! it's just a digital version of the headshot above but it looks very nice imo sooooo....

The brothers are orphaned - when the twins were barely two and Robin still a baby, they appeared on the steps of a foster care group home in the middle of the night. Despite police investigation into their heritage lasting for years, to the point where they tested the children's DNA, no blood relations could be found, alive or dead. At first, the brothers were raised in the group home due to the investigations taking place but, once the investigation is over, they still stay a little longer bc the workers are worried about separating them so soon, especially due to how attached the twins are to each other and Robin.

Sadly, this is the fatal flaw. Things begin to go very wrong in their relationship from this point on.

Isaac has very good memory and is able to recall absurdly specific events from ages ago: one of these memories is the memory of their parents waking them up late at night, a long journey, and then being left at the foster home. No one else remembers this and he ended up having every aspect of it questioned and drilled by investigators to the point he could recite it in his sleep. The fact no one else can remember this makes him feel isolated in his grief and then angry: why should he have to bear the burden of these final moments? why did he have to remember being abandoned? His mind is torn between old, comfortable memories of parents long ago, their betrayal and then the intimidating interrogation from police officers, and this only makes him furious. None of his brothers will know what he remembers, no matter how hard they try, it is a burden only he can carry alone. This feeling of isolation makes him grow angry and bitter. He starts distancing himself from not just his brothers but people in general about the age of six. Any foster home he gets put into, he's standoffish and avoidant at best, or aggressive and runs away at worst. Before he's even turned nine, they decide it's best to keep him in the foster care home until he 'levels out'. He's stayed in the group home since he was about eight and a half.

Christopher was doing alright until Isaac began to distance himself and cut him out. Almost immediately after their relationship suffered, Christopher's mental state took a huge blow. He'd stop talking entirely to people and would try hide away from mealtimes so he wouldn't have to see anyone. Out of concern for his mental health, he was kept in the group home, in his own room, while Isaac was being put in foster homes. The carers tried to keep Robin with him as best as possible so they'd bond but a flip had turned in Christopher's head. At age 9, he tried to run away in the middle of the night and get onto a road. Thankfully, someone saw him and called the police, sending him back. After that he was put through a lot of therapy sessions that he didn't really interact with, meaning he was now distanced from his brothers further. No one ever told Robin about the therapy or mental health issues. When Isaac returns permanately to the group home, the twins are made to share a room. Their relationship is permanently estranged. Through all this, Christopher ends up developing a lot of depression and anxiety, making him retreat further into a bubble until all most people can perceive is apathy.

Meanwhile, we have Robin. Too young to remember their parents and without Isaac's sharp memory, he only really recalls the group home. His earliest memories are of the twins loving and caring for him, but the next thing he knows is that neither talk to him. Like Isaac, he develops abandonment and rage issues, but they manifest differently. Isaac's rage and hatred is in the form of vitriol and cruel words - he's perfected the sneer+silent treatment -, whereas Robin comes out in shouting and trying to fight. He's younger and more emotional and, since no one really tells him shit, he's simply just really confused. For similar reasons to the twins, he isn't allowed to leave the group home either, and gets a room to himself (very small repurposed office) at the age of ten.

SO NOW WE'VE ESTABLISHD THAT THEYRE ESTRANGED, TIME FOR BEGINNING DYNAMICS!

ROBIN + ISAAC: They do not get along. Isaac, due to remembering being left, blames a lot of it on Robin, for an array of reasons (Robin caused financial issues, Robin was too much to look after, etc. He has no evidence for any of these claims but just wants something to blame it on). He thinks Robin is childish and stupid, so wastes little time on him. Robin views Isaac with a sense of hurt + fury: since Isaac was the eldest, he used to look up to him when they were growing up until he finally figured out Isaac was relentlessly cruel to him for no reason. He felt betrayed by this and bitterness turned to loathing. He argues with Isaac over nothing to try and prove a point, but this only increases Isaac's belief that he's stupid and immature.

ROBIN + CHRISTOPHER: There is a void where their relationship should be. They never spoke much as children, esp after Christopher began to go through confidential therapy. Robin's pissed about how all of Christopher's popular friends would bully him and Christopher, even when there, did nothing but watch. Meanwhile, Christopher doesn't know what to do with Robin - he's old enough now to want to reconnect but feels he's destroyed his own bridges long ago and can't figure out what to do about it. He has no idea what Robin likes/dislikes and deems it best to ignore these problems instead of addressing them, so they can remain in this bubble where Robin is 'happier' without his input. When Isaac and Robin fight, Christopher either leaves the room or just half-watches while on his phone: he's too scared of confrontation to stop the fight and feels none of them like him enough to care: he's partially convinced that they don't view him as their brother.

ISAAC + CHRISTOPHER: Used to be very close, due to being twins, but quickly fell apart when their mental issues played up and Isaac has to leave. When he returned, they'd both changed so much that they both saw the other as 'not who he used to be' and either despised it (Isaac) or wallowed in self-imposed grief over it (Chirstopher). As they got older, Isaac cut himself off from his peers, staying inside to play video games, and Christopher became popular, falling into crowds of people for some kind of social connection he was never brave enough to properly make. Although they share a room at the orphanage, they rarely talk to each other aside when it's necessary. They don't hate each other but they treat each other more as acquaintances than identical twins. However, after witnessing Christopher's suicide attempt at the age of 10 (nothing happened ftr, Isaac walked in on Christopher standing on a chair with a noose. they stared at each other then both silently packed everything away, never speaking a word of it again), Isaac is convinced it's his fault Christopher wants to die and believes he carries blame for it (this isn't true). While on the surface they seem fine, both are scared of addressing their issues or bringing up the trauma of their pasts, leaving their relationship half-solved and emotionally soulless.

Above is an ANCIENT robin and isaac comic from all the way back in 2022 - first comic i ever drew, fun fact :)) it's shit but I'm still fond of it!! planning to remake it one day :D

This isn't plot related, it's just a song analysis i did for Christopher back in 2022 which i still think about regularly :))

Be Nice To Me The Front Bottoms - annotated by Book One Christopher

I got boulders on my shoulders Collarbones begin to crack -Christopher slowly breaking under the pressure of being in a new world There is very little left of me And it's never coming back -This relates to how much he twisted himself to fit into the mould the popular people wanted, despite how much it killed him There are certain things you ask of me And there are certain things I lack In the beginning, we were winning But now I'm just making up facts -Him to Isaac: they used to be so close but not anymore and he has no idea what to do about it, except for pretending it's fine

What's it matter anymore? If you believe the lies I tell -Christopher feels like he doesn't need to seek help for his mental health if everyone believes he's fine and he digs himself a deeper hole There's no meaning to the words But we still sing these songs well If we all left it alone I'm sure it'd work itself out fine -Christopher's avoidance problem with his twin, his attitude of "if we don't address the distance and differences, they don't exist" We keep playing with the numbers We are running out of time We are running, we are running

But you're a killer And I'm your best friend -Christopher knowing how Isaac's so cruel, especially to Robin, and letting him get away with it Think it's unfair, your situation -Him scared to shout at Isaac bc he knows where he's coming from and what he remembers You say I'm changing Sorry, I didn't know I had to stay the same -Christopher dealing with Isaac's brutality with apology and sidestepping the problems Could we talk about this later? Your voice is driving me, driving me insane -Him just wanting to run away from it all and never have to bother with the stress Isaac puts on him when he lashes out

Well, I try to write you poems, but the words, they don't make sense -Christopher to Robin, struggling to express his sentiment and love My hand tries to grip the pencil, but the fingers are too tense -He tries to apologise to Robin but feels like he physically can't And I try to show emotion, but my eyes won't seem to wet -Him struggling to show even an ounce of emotion to Robin, despite caring about him a lot And I'd love to tell you stories, but I can't remember how they went -He wants to be there for him but, every time he tries, he messes up or fails one way or another, or just thinks he hasn't done it right You're a flashlight in a dark room for the loneliest blackout You were all we had left after it all was filtered out -Christopher views Robin so highly, despite the groggy and miserable world the three live in. He believes Robin is his and Isaac's greatest gift, even though he knows he's ruined it Turn you on in a dark room right before we both pass out Turn you on when I need you, but the batteries ran out -How he feels like he ignored Robin and, now even if he needs him, if he tried to talk to him he feels like Robin wouldn't respond or even care to look at him

They ran out and you're a werewolf and I'm a full moon -He knows Robin's angry and that his apparent apathy doesn't help, only firing his brother up more And all your very worst enemies will be gone soon -He knows Robin views him as an enemy and this is Christopher thinking over the suicide he wants so badly to commit I think you're changing Don't worry, you don't gotta stay the same -His desperateness to seem supportive to Robin, even if Robin's being self-destructive with his rage Could we talk about this later? Your voice is driving me, driving me insane -Robin's hostility and cruel words slowly making Christopher crumble and break down

ANYWAYS!!! i wont add anymore haha i feel bad for how long this is :')) TYSM FOR THE ASK!! IT MADE MY DAY!!

Maybe one day i'll put the plot down but for now, you just get the set up haha

[happylandfill23]

23, 20,1 and 8 for the music asks!!!

thank you for the ask julian!! /gen

23. what's a song that makes you feel like a hot badass?

"cat people (putting out fire)" by david bowie!!

20. SHOW ME A PICTURE OF ONE OF YOUR FAVORITE ARTISTS. RIGHT NOW. I NEED TO SEE THEM.

instead of being painfully predictable and putting a photo of damon albarn, here's kurt cobain with a cat :]

1. what is your favorite song. right now. tell me.

oh man. it's hard to pick but one i've been really enjoying lately is "all i think about now" by the pixies

8. tell me about your favorite band. go on infodump for me.

oh boy get ready for me to infodump about gorillaz

i just love everything about them tbh, i loveee the music and the art and everything. i think my favourite album is probably demon days, not just by them but in general and when i found a copy of it on vinyl i literally cried in the middle of the store lmao you would think i'd actually seen damon and jamie there in the flesh i could not calm down. but it's in my possession now and i love it. only problem is it doesn't have the fade between dirty harry and feel good inc and it skips a bit during dare but it's perfect otherwise and every time i hear the fade between don't get lost in heaven and demon days i cry even though i've heard that fade several times before on my cd of the album it just. hits different on vinyl idk. i think phase two also has my favourite art style of all the phases?? idk though i loveeee the plastic beach artstyle and they all look so cool in their outfits (i even have that plastic beach era poster that i'm pretty sure everyone has lmaoo) and i love cyborg noodle!! i wish what happened to her was more clear and not changed like a million times, i also would've thought it would be cool to see her and noodle become friends. THEY COULD'VE BEENN SISYERS :( but no :(( also plastic beach always makes me sad i really really wish damon and jamie had gotten to do everything they'd wanted to with that album and it makes me so sad thinking about all the lost music and stuff. especially crashing down cuz that snippet from the russel ident was so beautiful :( also why did they delete all the plastic beach teasers from their official youtube channel??? like all the close-ups of the gorgeous model they built pretty much just for the album cover with the little snippets of music we never got (i'm quite fond of the one known as mr. light, which based on what we hear in the snippet i think it was reworked into damon albarn's daft wader, which is a gorgeous song from a gorgeous album) and the little character idents too. my favourite one is probably the cyborg noodle one, i love the creepy music and how we get to see what all the wires and stuff look like, it's just super cool. the russel one makes me really sad though :( man russel has been through so much. he deserves better man

ok this turned out even longer then i thought it would lmao i'm adding a cut before this rambling session 😭😭

thank u again for the asks btw!! /gen

[primeideal]

Channeling around the world (WoT bookverse)

One of the things we’re coming to see in Wheel of Time is that there are lots of different kinds of people who can channel, whether it be Aes Sedai in the White Tower, or village wisdoms who “listen to the wind.” The world is very large, beyond the cultures that we’ve seen, and different people have different traditions related to it. This is deliberate, and Robert Jordan did a lot of great worldbuilding here. It’s also deliberate that it’s slowly revealed over many books rather than infodumped all at once!

@autrelivre wanted an overview of how different societies view or talk about channelling, and...it’s pretty much impossible to do that without spoilers. However, I will try (key word, try) to do so on a non-character-based level. So there aren’t going to be any character names dropped, but there will be mention of different societies (both those we’ve heard of and those we haven’t) and how they relate to the One Power, and things to be on the lookout for. (It’s possible/likely that not all of these will show up in the show.)

autrelivre/others, if you want even more details beyond this “here are some cultures!” stuff, we have them, but it gets spoilery; you’re not necessarily “supposed” to know everything right away.

General overview: the One Power is the main magic system in the books. When women use it, it’s called saidar; when men use it, it’s saidin. For the last 3,000 years, ever since the last Dragon broke the world, men who use saidin will inevitably go insane and die. :( so there aren’t any organizations of men who can learn and teach. From here on in, I’m going to talk about women, unless I say otherwise.

A small percentage of people have the potential to learn to channel, but it will go un-tapped unless they have a teacher/make an effort to learn. An even smaller percentage have an innate “spark” and will start channeling whether they like it or not. Of these women, if they’re not taught, many will die because of overuse/power dangers. A few become “wilders,” who have some level of self-taught control, but it also comes with limitations called “blocks.” (Maybe they only know how to touch the power if there’s a cute man in the room. Or if they’re really, really angry.) These can be overcome, but it takes a lot of effort.

As we’ve seen, the main setting so far is the west half of a large continent that doesn’t have a canon name. Lots of fans just call it “the Westlands” because it’s to the west of the rest of the continent *shrug* The Westlands have a lot of different countries and cultures, but many of these nations don’t have a lot of power outside one or two large cities.

The Aes Sedai are the most important magical (and probably non-magical) organization in the Westlands. They’re centered at the White Tower and are an organized school of magic. They do a lot of searching/recruiting for girls who can learn to channel, to help them so they don’t kill themselves by accident, and also to bolster their own numbers. However, they’ve existed for thousands of years, and while they’re very trusted in some parts of the Westlands, they’re hated and feared in others. (To some extent, you should think of the medieval Catholic church as an inspiration. There are creative, brilliant, devout priests; there can also be corrupt cardinals and secretive papal politics.) Some monarchs have their own Aes Sedai advisors. Some monarchs want nothing to do with them.

Aes Sedai go through two stages of apprenticeship, “novices” followed by “Accepted,” before they can become full Aes Sedai. Some women will flunk out along the way because they’re not particularly strong/talented in the Power, and/or they can’t cut the rigid, hierarchical system of Tower life.

Nynaeve was a Wisdom in her hometown of Emond’s Field. A Wisdom is a sort of female authority figure, parallel to the male mayor, who’s often an healing expert and/or settles disputes among women. Nynaeve also “listens to the wind” and predicts the weather, and realizes that Egwene could likely follow in her footsteps. Of course, we the fans know they’re actually channelers.

The tricky thing here is that the characters don’t know this! “Wisdom” is a generic term (other villages across the land might call them “Wise Women” or some other honorific), and many Wisdoms are not channelers. People take it for granted that some Wisdoms are unusually good healers or unusually good at predicting the weather, but many are not. Maybe some claim that they can “listen to the wind” and sense when a storm is coming like their grandmother did years before, but are actually just guessing. So while many Wisdoms/Wise Women/<insert local name here> are self-taught channelers, a lot more are not, and they don’t form an organized network.

(Seriously, even more spoilery spoilers follow!)

One exception is the Kin, a group of elderly channelers based in the city of Ebou Dar (in the southwest Westlands). Some of the Kin are flunkouts from the White Tower, while others are local healers/wise women who have been brought into the loop. The White Tower is sort of aware of them, mostly because they will send young/disobedient Tower runaways back. However, the Tower doesn’t have a good sense of how many Kinswomen there are or how old they are. (Channelers who don’t die learning tend to outlive non-channelers, on average, but the reasons why aren’t well-understood.) The Kin arrange themselves/are deferential based on age.

The Aes Sedai, Kin, and individual wilders are basically it as far as the Westlands go. However, there are other cultures outside this region.

The Sea Folk are a sea-faring culture based off the southern coast of the Westlands and islands. They have a complicated culture of promotions and demotions as people rise through the captaincy-type ranks. There are a few Aes Sedai from among the Sea Folk. However, the Aes Sedai don’t know that the Sea Folk actually have a much more sophisticated knowledge of navigation/shipfaring/weather control via channeling. The role of a ship’s “Windfinder” or navigator is almost always a channeler.

Sea Folk men who realize they can channel are condemned to walking the plank.

The Aiel are a culture of desert nomads to the east of the mountains. They live in clans but don’t have a lot of established cities. They are also brutal warriors and could kill you for a glass of water. (Think the Fremen in Dune, if you’re familiar with that--if not, that’s fine.)

Each clan has several female “Wise Ones” who together provide leadership and train the next generation. Many, but not all, Wise Ones can channel, but they also have non-channelers who are just strong leaders in their own right, and prestige/status isn’t necessarily correlated with channeling.

Some Aiel Wise Ones are experienced with “Dreamwalking”--deliberately interacting with others in the “world of dreams,” also known as tel’aran’rhiod. This ability is correlated with channeling, but there are a few dreamwalkers who can’t channel. Dreamwalking is not well known in the Westlands, although there are Aes Sedai who are familiar with the world of dreams (they tend to use magical devices or ter’angreal to access it rather than going directly).

Aiel men who realize they can channel go off on suicide missions into the evil lands to try to destroy evil.

Shara is the land on the far side of the Aiel deserts. It goes by many names and is not well known to outsiders. The channelers are known as “Ayyad” and live in isolated villages, and have tattoos to identify themselves. They are actually the power behind the throne (the “monarchs” are really figureheads); few to no people outside Shara understand how this system works.

The Amayar are a small group found on the islands where the Sea Folk occasionally make landfall. They take the Tuatha’an pacifist “what will be, will be” logic even farther, to the point of fatalism. There are a few Amayar channelers who are very proficient with dream channeling; they use this to create dream-worlds for men who can channel so that they can die peacefully and don’t go crazy. (This never comes up in the books but was mentioned somewhere in Jordan’s notes and gets blogged about. I just think it’s neat.)

The Seanchan are the society on another continent across the ocean. They are ruled by an imperial family and have an institutionalized slavery system. Women who can channel are known as damane, or the “leashed ones,” and wear mind-control collars that are linked to bracelets worn by sul’dam or controllers. Damane are dehumanized and treated like pets; they are not able to channel (or do much of anything) without the sul’dam. Almost everyone just accepts this as a totally normal and reasonable state of affairs.

There are also a couple other extremely rare stand-alone magic abilities that are not related to channeling/the One Power. These are so rare that even Aes Sedai might not know much about how they work, and therefore are curious about them, but normal/non-magical people also have no idea how they work, and may assume “it’s some One Power nonsense.” Which can be pretty annoying/scary for the people with those powers. No spoilers, but we’ve seen one already, and will probably see another in the next couple episodes.

So yeah. Again, the books don’t throw all this at you at once, but trickle it out in different parts. But there are a lot of different cultural relationships to the One Power, and that worldbuilding is a big part of what makes the series neat!