#which unfortunately washed them out more than i'd like

[inbabylontheywept]

So: You have depression.

I'm 27 now. The last time I had a major depressive episode was when I was 16. I still have depressive episodes every now and then, but the worst tend to be a month, and most I can generally get through them in about a week. It took me a while to kind of figure out how to handle depression as a recurring thing, and so I thought I'd make a little welp-I-got-diagnosed-now-what guide.

So, first part of the guide: When I first got depressed, I thought that depression was the terrible, sad hopeless feeling that I had. It isn't. That terrible sad hopeless feeling is a symptom of prolonged depression. By the time I get to that point, I'm pretty well cooked and it takes a lot longer to bounce back. Avoiding getting to that point is a vital part of living with depression.

So what does depression feel like?

I am going to hammer this point home a lot of times while writing this: Depression is an anesthetic. It is not felt as a presence, but as an absence. The first absence, for me at least, is when life stops being fun. Every movie feels boring, I can't get more than a few pages into any book, and everything just seems... bland.

This is the best point to catch it at. I have found that consumptive patterns of entertainment do not do anything to help depression. Some people have told me that producing art at this time really helps them, but personally, I can't imagine trying. Instead, I just do tasks that I know inspire physical satisfaction. Which sounds like jerking off (I don't actually reccomend that route) but really means things like: Going for a walk in the sunshine. Working out. Cleaning the house in a fairly exhaustive way. Scrub the baseboards, wash the sink, clear the fridge, etc.

I recognize that doing those is really, really hard while depressed because depression causes physical weakness and exhaustion. The best I can do is, unfortunately, encourage vigillance. If you suspect you're getting into a funk, start on this before you get really deep into the mire. People that get into the mire can get out, but it's not self-help read-a-book type shit, it takes therapy and medication and patience and it is so much easier and cheaper and faster to just avoid letting it get that bad then crawling out once it's sunk its teeth into you.

I have found that for things that work almost by exposure alone, spending time in the sun and talking to people are borderline magical, with the caveat that talking to people about being depressed tends to make things worse instead of better. Talking about anything that cuts through the anesthetic of depression is ideal, or if it's sunk in deep enough that you're having trouble finding anything, talking to someone else about what they're passionate about. Ideally, you'd find someone passionate about a thing you know you're passionate about but are struggling to enjoy right then, and then you'd just let your mirror neurons run amok. Bonus Points

So, you're already depressed. Like, pretty fucking depressed, and you fucked up, and you let it slide. What then?

This is my I-Fucked-Up-And-Got-Big-Sad, Salvage-My-Weekend, depression routine. You'll need to make one for yourself at some point, and yours will work better for you, but this is mine and I think it'll work okay-ish for you. Until you get your own, at least.

I have to get up before 10 am. Staying in bed later than that gives the depression such a huge head start on my day that I just basically can't catch up. If I can't just brute force get myself out of bed, I will throw my blankets and sit cold on my sheets until that gives me the motivation I need. If I cannot work up the guts to throw my blankets, I will actually roll off the bed, flop gracelessly onto the floor, and then stare wistfully up until I can will myself to stand. It helps that every bedroom I've had either had freezing cold tile, or itchy coarse carpet. If you have a comfy floor, maybe buy a very scratchy rug? I cannot emphasize how important this step is. It's like, half of the whole thing.

After getting up, immediately go outside and sit in the sunshine. This provides free executive function, and getting it ASAP will make everything go much smoother.

Talk to someone while outside. If you have a roommate, they work great. Face to face conversations tend to be the best, but phone calls with loved ones are like at least 80% as effective. Calls to family members tend to be better than in face conversations with acquaintances or people you're mostly ambivalent about. Don't do chat messages. Worse than nothing.

This should have scrounged up enough free energy that you can clean something. I always start by trying to clear a part of my counter off. If that's all I got, that's all I got, and I still feel good about it. If that inspires me to do more, I'll run with it until a whole room is up to snuff. I don't do more than one room while I'm this crispy: The goal is not really to clean the house, but to work through a series of tasks that require some initial level of executive function but provide a larger amount back once completed. Life has a lot of these deals that are like, give me $10 and I'll give you $12, give me $12 and I'll give you $20, on and on, and the hard part is really just getting the $10. Some people wake up with $10. Most days, you will wake up with $10. But not when you're like this. You're gonna have to earn it. I'm sorry.

I am going to reiterate: This is what I do when I feel a funk coming on. My life and my schedule are not always this regimented. Living with depression doesn't mean never sleeping until 10, or having a weekend where you don't talk to someone, or take a break from cleaning. Living with depression just means never, ever, leaning into the depression when you feel it coming on. Even when it starts out feeling cozy. Even when you want to just snuggle into it and sleep and sleep and sleep. The first day or two will feel luxurious, and the next week will feel terrible, and the longer you wait the harder it will be to get out. You are always going to have to worry about that. Again, I'm really, truly sorry.

Bonus Bonus Points

I am not a psychologist, but I do have a theory about why depression exists. Remember how I said it's anesthetizing? I think that's what it's there for - getting rid of emotional pain when it isn't being helpful. People often get depressed after a major injury. Boredom is normally nature's way of punishing you for just curling up and doing nothing, but depression can be the emergency override on boredom. It makes sense for you to sit still and do nothing while your body is healing, so maybe nature temporarily removes all your motivation with depression and then just lets you be a limp noodle until you're healthy again. Maybe?

Back to the emotional level, though, depression might also be a way to muffle pains that would otherwise be so intense that people might not remain in control of the faculties. The pain of losing a parent is notorious for driving people so mad with pain that they ruin their lives, but depression is there to at least try and keep us sedated until the nadir has passed.

It is helpful to know what the purpose of depression is, because you will eventually get it from an "intended" cause, and reflexively fighting it then probably isn't good for you. And at the very least, knowing why this stupid thing exists makes the world feel like less of a cruel place.

There are a lot of interesting studies on the physical effects of depression - things like muscle weakness, increased pain tolerance, muscle relaxation, etc. that I won't go into, but it does so many things at once that it almost doesn't feel like a fuck up, but a feature that we just kind of lost the plot on. Not gonna deep dive on it, but it is something that probably shouldn't be confined to just a mental disorder.

[stoic--rose]

over the last two weeks or so ive played through earthbound two and a half times, and mother 1 three times. replaying both back to back repeatedly has made me realize a lot of things

1.) mother 1 is a LOT more open in what it lets you do, where it lets you go, and when. once you open up the train tracks, you're free to go do the rest of the game in pretty much any order you want. hell, you can make it all the way to R7038xx without ever getting a single melody, which i find to be pretty interesting. not only that, but you dont even need to get most of the party members. strictly speaking, the only one you truly need to get is Loid, and that's just to get rid of the rock on the train tracks. and even then, with the use of an exploit i found out about only a few days ago, you can get rid of him and go fight giygas by yourself, which is pretty funny.

2.) mother 1+2 is like, wicked impressive. nevermind the fact that they crammed earthbound onto the gba, they also packaged it with mother 1 as well, and they're both the full games. it ain't no rayman advance kinda deal either where it's a super botched port, like it's a perfectly valid way to play both games, and some people even prefer the gba version of mother 1 since it makes a couple of quality of life improvements. not to mention, they rebuilt both games from the ground up, it's not like they could emulate snes on gba. (i mean, you can emulate NES apparently, since there's that nes classic line of games for the gba, but... this is cooler.) the sound department could... definitely use some work, and the colors look pretty washed out, but there are patches to fix the colors, and if you're playing the game on a real gameboy, i think the sound is the last thing you'd be concerned about. also, apparently some people took the time to apply the earthbound script to the mother 2 half of mother 1+2, and even reprogrammed the text system to have the original fonts and make it non-monospace, which is SUPER impressive. for my second playthrough of earthbound i played it with the new fantran patch, and it's pretty damn slick.

3.) man, fuck the sword of kings. i realized very recently that i'd never fully committed to the sword of kings grind, and decided that this would finally be the time i claim my birth right as a mother fan and do it. and like, it SUCKS. i mean, to begin, yes it's annoying that it's a 1/128 chance, but it goes deeper than that. the fact that it's only dropped by an enemy that you can potentially never see again, and it's the ONLY item poo can equip as a weapon is pretty fucked up. not to mention, the other enemies that they put in the starman base just absolutely suck, i hate the nuclear power robots so much. they made the grind WAY more painful than it already would have been otherwise. at the very least, i find it to be very gracious that jeff's spy command has the secondary effect of letting you steal whatever item an enemy would have dropped mid battle, just so it doesn't get overwritten by another enemy drop, which by the way YES that can happen, and YES i had it happen to me. it sucks ass. and the worst part is, the sword of kings isn't even that good!! and neither is poo on a gameplay level! you get the guy way later than any other party member, he has all these little catches like not being able to eat american food or equip anything but the kingly items, he gets taken away from you almost immediately after you get him, he just feels really weird. starstorm is pretty cool, but you only get the omega version right before the final area, and you can only use it on the handful of encounters you get there since you can't really use it in the final boss. (i mean technically you can use it in the first phase, if you want to get a biblical reflected beatdown when it hits both pokey and giygas) idk, the guy just isn't all that useful, and it's unfortunate since i really like him on a design level.

i have more words i want to say but honestly i might save them for an entry on my website instead since im very close to the tumblr word limit rn

[fics-n-stuff]

Steve walked into the Munson trailer one day to find Eddie in the kitchen singing, lightly headbanging along to the accompanying instrumental that was playing in his head while he washed the dishes. This was not unusual. What was unusual was that Eddie was not singing in English.

Steve shut the trailer door slowly and quietly so as not to catch Eddie's attention, and slowly moved forward while listening to Eddie sing. He didn't want to interrupt yet.

A couple of minutes passed before Eddie turned and noticed Steve. He jumped, letting out a small yelp, which made Steve chuckle.

"Jesus, Harrington! How long have you been there?"

"A couple minutes."

"And you didn't think of saying anything?"

"I was trying to figure out what language you were singing in."

"Oh." Eddie grabbed a tea towel to wipe his hands on. "It was Danish."

"You speak Danish?" Steve asked in disbelief. Eddie nodded casually.

"Yeah, my mom was Danish." He shrugged. He dropped the towel and sauntered over to Steve, draping his arms over his shoulders before pressing a quick kiss to his lips. "Did I never tell you that?"

"No, you never told me that. You're Danish?"

"Yeah." Eddie laughed. "I know I don't really look it. You know, dark hair and dark eyes aren't really the expected viking features. Unfortunately I look more like my dad. But my hair was lighter when I was a kid."

"You speak Danish?" Steve's brain was still catching up with all this new information.

"En lille smule." Eddie grinned. "Min mor talte dansk tilt mig."¹

"I don't know what you said but that was really hot." Steve muttered. Eddie laughed. "So what was that song you were singing?"

"Me and my cousin in Denmark write letters to each other. He sent me a tape with some music he thought I'd like and one of the songs got stuck in my head."

"Will you teach me some Danish?"

"Selvfølgelig!"² Eddie's face lit up. "Nobody's ever cared that I was Danish before. A lot of people literally didn't even know that Denmark is a country."

"I think it's really cool. I wish my mom had taught me Italian, I only know the things my nonna always said, which is mostly swears and insults."

"Hey, that's useful stuff. That means you can shit talk people without them knowing what you said."

"Yeah but it would be nice to have a functioning knowledge of the language too." Steve shrugged.

"Det er ikke så fantastisk."³ Eddie said with a shake of his head, though his lips were quirked up in a smile. "There isn't really much point when nobody else understands."

"Except that being bilingual is hot." Steve smiled.

"Er det rigtigt?"⁴ Eddie exclaimed amusedly, grinning again. He leaned in to press another kiss to Steve's lips, longer and more tender. He pulled back and rested his forehead against Steve's, letting out a tiny contented sigh. "Jeg elsker dig."⁵

------------

I just came back from visiting family in Denmark and I had the idea of Scandinavian Eddie so here's a teensy tiny ficlet. I was gonna make him Norwegian because Norway is more known for their metal music than Denmark, but I don't speak Norwegian so I felt uncomfortable writing any Nowegian sentences. I don't really speak Danish either but I could at least kinda know what I was writing, and I kept it pretty simple so almost all of it is stuff I know anyway. 💕

Translations:

¹"A little bit." "My mum spoke Danish to me."

²"Of course!"

³"It's not that great."

⁴"Is that right?"

⁵"I love you."

[eteisvalssi]

gig report joker out at cvetličarna night 1 and 2

i spent a full week in ljubljana, completely fell in love with the city, and honestly can't wait to be back some day. here are some of my thoughts from the concerts

cvetka night 1:

- i had a general entry ticket and only entered the queue when the first batch of people got let in

- speaking of which, it was a complete fiasco. the security were letting in people from the general entry line at the same time as the early entry line and when they were in they couldn't get them out anymore and so there were lots of non-ee ticket holders in the front rows watching the soundcheck

- i was in no rush and so i checked out the merch table at first and bought the new cd and the tote bag

- i don't really know what to think about their merch for this tour. i mean it's a fun idea that they were involved with the stamping of the merch but that also means that you can't really wash some of the items and that limits the actual use of it

- i wanted to find a spot on the balcony but ended up on the floor and luckily got quite near on the right side and with no tall people directly in front of me. it definitely wasn't a perfect spot though bc there was a group of women right next to me who seemed very drunk, they were very loud and just kept pushing people while dancing. not fun.

- i'm a huge fan of jet black diamonds as well and so i of course was very excited to see them. they performed well even with the limitations of the stage setup and lots of people around me were also singing and vibing along :)

- i feel like urban could've talked a bit more in english because they were right in front of their potential international target audience. the trick to get people to follow them for a merch raffle was effective though (had to unfollow and refollow them lol)

- we've all seen so many clips from the concerts that i won't be going through most of it but there's still a few points i'd like to make

- moving nace over to the left side was a very unexpected choice and unfortunately that left the right side very empty at times. there were some moments when there was literally no one there and all four of them were just packed on the left side

- i loved what they did with stephanie. jure just looked so happy walking around the stage :)

- actually i loved all the new songs so much. i was waiting to see how they would pull them off live with the songs being more synth-heavy, but in the end there was nothing to worry about because live versions were even better than the ones on the album

- the only one that did not really work yet was the beginning of lips bc bojan was off-key at the lower parts :/ in the soundcheck the day after he already sounded better though

- after the gig we gathered together with our little joblr group, i did some jbd merch shoppin, and it took us a while to realize that the band was actually inside the venue stamping stuff

- on the first night it was all very quick. the music was loud, they were dancing and singing along on their spots (especially kris looked like he was having the time of his life dancing and stamping). i got my cd stamped and didn’t know to ask for anything more so i just left and we left the venue pretty much after that (click here for a picture of the cd)

cvetka night 2:

- i hung out in the queue for longer because i had an ee ticket for this night. i brought some ananaslonkero with me and gave three of them to my dear joblr mutuals, two to some other nice people in the queue and that left me with one extra (which will play a huge part later)

- the staff had clearly taken the constructive criticism from the day before into account and they were checking that everyone had an ee ticket this time around and it was all very organized

- there was a barricade this time and i managed to get it and i was on the right side, again

- i feel like most of ee ticket holders were non-slovenian and so they did the soundcheck in english and played lips and proti toku

- i hadn’t slept well and i guess i was kinda overstimulated from just before doors to the beginning of jbd so it feels like i completely missed the soundcheck even though i was there :( also nace was right in front of me after the soundcheck and stopped to take pictures with everyone around me and i froze completely and it felt like it looked like i ignored him on purpose and i feel so bad i’m so sorry nace

- during jbd i happened to be in a bubble where most people around me were vibing and some even singing along but i later heard that there were people on their phones during the whole gig in the front rows and like… the disrespect??

- the setlist was the exact same and i don’t want this to get too long so i don’t really have anything new to add from yesterday. would’ve loved to see some changes but the setlist already had their most popular songs so there was really nothing that could’ve been switched off

- now that people actually knew about the stamping the queue for it started forming right away. i waited in the queue for a while but then decided on getting some water instead and i just sat on the floor for a while (and also štras just walked right by me before getting stopped for some selfies)

- when they started the stamping i went back into the queue and got my notebook only stamped at first. i then returned back to my friends, got my jacket from the car and doing that accidentally smuggled in my one leftover ananaslonkero, that i then went to give to the band and got some signatures in my notebook as well (and a PELIÄ from bojan). i talked about it in more detail in this post

and so that was basically the two nights for me. it was so nice to see so many familiar faces yet again and hang out with my little joblr discord server group 🫶 oh and the concerts were great too lol

you can find the rest of my cvetka content from these links:

cvetka 1

cvetka 2

[soupandflowers]

Day 2 - Is it possible to die from embarrassment?

Another late entry, however I'd say this one went more smoothly than the other. It only took me about 3 hours to write! Anyways, I could've cut this one short, but I liked this idea too much and decided to pull through with it. So, yay me? Next few days will just be drawings though because writing is not my forte LMAO. This one features the Asian family because I wish we had the boys interacting with the others' families. Poor Hong Kong. Also prolly OOC loooooool. Also tried to write Korea as rather more super outgoing and enjoy meeting new people. He still has his clashes though. Hopefully I did a little bit of justice to him here. No beta we die like HRE. Word count is 2,548. @hongiceweek

Is it possible to die from embarrassment?

As Hong Kong urges Iceland- who has dumpling bits stuck in his hair and shirt- upstairs to his room, he can’t help but apathetically want to pack his things, hitch a ride to the nearest bus stop, take a flight to the middle of South America and formally live out the rest of his life under a brand new identity. Someone else can take over as the personification of Hong Kong, he thinks.

And that is saying something. Among the two boyfriends, Hong Kong is easily the more savvy between the two. He knows all the right moves and words to get his partner to flush and hide his face in embarrassment. Hong Kong is teasing, smooth, and witty, thus it’s not very often or easily to make Hong Kong falter to its knees. The point is the dynamic between them has always been consistent. When it comes to Iceland, Hong Kong rarely ever loses his cool.

That is up until now.

Hong Kong hurries Iceland to his room and slams the door shut behind him. Locking it and pulling a chair from his desk underneath the knob for good measure. As Hong Kong rushes to his drawer to find suitable spare clothes, Iceland stands by and tries his very best to reassure him. Hong Kong says nothing as he finds a suitable shirt and disappears into his personal bathroom, with running water that can be heard shortly afterwards. He walks back out.

“Here. There’s a warm washcloth and some spare clothing that you can use. Feel free to wash your hair and use any of the towels as well.”

“Gotcha. “, nods Iceland. “Thanks.” He disappears into the bathroom and quietly closes the door behind him.

Then, a breaking of glassware and shouting could be heard from downstairs . Of course, the loudest voices belong to Taiwan and Korea, only to be outdone by China’s, only to be outdone by Thailand’s.

Hong Kong sits on the edge of the bed and heaves a frustrated sigh. He places his fingers on the bridge of the nose.

Just what the hell even happened?

— It was another world meeting that was just supposed to be the two of them.

When the meeting called for the noon break, Hong Kong caught up to Iceland wanting to ask if they could get lunch together. As they were exiting the meeting hall, Taiwan just so happened to be in the area and being the only person to know about their relationship so far, she saw them and was teasing her brother in the distance.

Unfortunately, talking to her was South Korea, who followed Taiwan’s gaze and called out to greet the both of them. Not wanting to get Iceland involved with his family, he urges him to hurry out the door.

But one thing leads to another and Korea’s attention draws China’s and also wanting to greet his student, meets them just before they reach the door. Before Hong Kong could take off in the other direction, Taiwan, Korea, and now Japan caught up to them.

While initially wanting to greet the fellow asian, the family took interest in the Icelander as well. Having not many chances or reasons to converse casually with someone outside of Asia, they took the chance to get to know him. In which, while Iceland shyly returned the gesture, Hong Kong was starting to get peeved that Iceland was getting a little bit too involved with his family. When Hong Kong had to break the conversation that they were late for lunch, China brought this up:

“Oh! Well, we would love to get to know you more, Iceland. Why don’t you come over for dinner tonight and I’ll treat you to some authentic Chinese cuisine!”

Hong Kong’s heart drops and he tries to pull his boyfriend out of there before he could respond. However, Taiwan and Korea blocked their way and pleaded for Iceland to visit. To Hong Kong’s dismay, his boyfriend agreed. He gazes at horror at his boyfriend as the rest of the Asians cheer and pull Iceland over to plan for tonight. Fast forward to China’s summer home in Beijing. For the past hour, the rest of Hong Kong’s asian siblings have been running around to prepare for Iceland’s arrival. In excitement to share their culture, China has been working on multiple dishes and cuisines all at once, Taiwan putting down homemade decorations around the kitchen and living room, Korea booting up the karaoke machine to put out his favorite songs to sing, and poor Japan just being pulled around by the previous three as they all demand for his help. The house was chaos.

Hong Kong could only stand there and watch in disbelief. He could withstand his family’s shenanigans, hell, he would often be a part of that too. But in the case of Iceland? Really? No way in hell.

Hong Kong palms his forehead as Japan passes by. Japan, sensing his frustration, assures the boy that everything will be alright and that the rest of the family is only doing everything in their power to welcome Iceland. Surely, his own family wouldn’t make a fool of themselves in front of a guest.

When he finishes that sentence, Taiwan calls for his help, grabs him, and pulls him abruptly to the side. This causes Japan to yelp and grasp the tablecloth as he falls with the rest of the tableset going down with him. Shouting ensues.

Hong Kong can only stand in horror. Just then, the doorbell rings.

It was as if a pin dropped. Everyone starts scrambling to fix the kitchen as Hong Kong quietly slips out of the room to greet Iceland.

Calmly, he opens and slips out the front door. Iceland is standing there before him and raises a shy wave.

Hong Kong only returns with a poker face.

He grabs his shoulders.

“DO NOT COME IN.”, he grits through his teeth. Iceland starts to tremble as his boyfriend looms over before him.

The door opens behind them and they both turn to find China standing there. China’s bright smile looks as if he was about to greet Iceland, however his face drops when he processes what he is witnessing.

Unfortunately for the boys, their faces were perhaps a little bit too close to each other.

An angry yell can be heard across the neighborhood.

—

When China finally calmed down and the boys explained what was going on, they made their way to the dining area. To Hong Kong’s surprise, the table was already set with the silverware and dishes set in place. The others come up politely to welcome their guest.

Despite the evening getting off to a rough start, the dinner itself began smoothly. Iceland’s mouth was already watering as everyone took their seats and gave thanks before digging right in.

If there was anything that at least went well today, it was the pride and presentation of the variety of Asian cuisine right before them, with each dish being of origin from each asian personification. And it made for great discussion too, as Iceland asked what each meal was, the asians took turns in explaining and sampling for him to try it.

What a great way to start off the discussion! That is until- China being a little bit too prideful of his homeland’s cooking- started sampling and piling food onto Iceland’s plate more than the others. Iceland, not wanting to be rude, could not bring himself to decline and he nodded nervously at the pile of food building up in front of him. Already annoyed with China’s meddling, Hong Kong stands up and forces his sensei to sit back down, in which he begrudgingly obliged.

Sensing the awkwardness in the air, Taiwan (once again, being the only one aware of the boys' relationship), started playing wingman and began doing icebreakers with Iceland. The topic started off general at first, but gradually, the conversation shifted in trying to frame Hong Kong the best way possible, much to his embarrassment. However, it only grew worse when Taiwan brought up their childhood together and accidentally slips in a story about her brother being so afraid of the dark that he needed China to sleep with him every night. Hong Kong was about to lose it again when Korea interrupted.

Wanting to join in the conversation, Korea opted in. Thankfully with the addition of Korea, the conversation shifts topics before any more embarrassing stories about Hong Kong could be revealed. Korea begins asking about Iceland’s home country, his culture, and the other Nordics, in which the Icelander happily obliged to answer. Unfortunately though, as Korea and Iceland ease into each other’s presence, his boyfriend found great difficulty to slip his presence back into the conversation.

Taiwan takes notice of this. In another attempt to assist her brother, she intervenes in their conversation, claiming that Korea is being inconsiderate to Hong Kong for barging into the discussion, with a tone that may-or-may-not sound a bit condescending.

Then, one thing happens and leads to another and all of a sudden, fighting ensues at the dinner table. Taiwan and Korea are fiercely throwing insults and shouting over Iceland before China intervenes, yelling at the both of them that they have a guest over and they are embarrassing themselves. Of course, this family has a long history of not taking shit from China and only ignored his intervention. Fortunately, the fighting moved on from the subject of Iceland, but unfortunately, the two started arguing about each other and personal matters that a guest definitely should not hear.

Offended by his disciples’ disregards, China calls out to Japan, who has been silently and anxiously watching the whole thing, to try and stop them. Japan stands from his seat and tries to mediate the two, but Taiwan takes advantage of the situation to claim that Japan sides with her. Mouth agape at offense, Korea takes a handful of food and aims it at Taiwan, in which she dodges and it hits Japan square in the face instead.

The tables ensues into chaos. Taiwan returns Korea’s gesture and soon enough, food is flying across the room as China starts screaming in rage as he witnesses his precious hardwork go to waste. In which both respond back by pelting him with rice and noodles, which only amplifies his shouting. Japan tries to crawl away but Taiwan pulls him to stand up, hands him a bowl, and orders him to start throwing.

For Hong Kong and Iceland, they take cover underneath the table. Hong Kong’s face is red in embarrassment and when he looks over to his boyfriend, his eyes widen at the sight of Iceland’s hair and upper shirt being covered in dumpling bits. He feels like he could bury himself alive underneath that table right then and there.

Suddenly, the front door could be heard opening and closing, followed by multiple footsteps growing near.

“Hey all! Philippines gifted us some pastries from his house! Whose down to try so-”, the voice is instantly silenced as a splatter could be heard.

The boys peer from underneath the table. As it turns out, the voice belonged to Thailand’s and he took a dumpling as well to the face. Macau and Vietnam were behind him in shock as they supported his balance from being smacked in the face.

The room went silent. Thailand was the best buddy anyone could ever have.

Unfortunately, he could be the worst enemy anyone could ever have.

Thailand roars and launches forward fiercely, but Vietnam and Macau struggle to strain him back. The shouting and food fighting resumes.

Hong Kong tugs at Iceland’s shirt and without saying a word, they both quietly sneak away from the kitchen. He takes Iceland’s hand and hurries him upstairs to his room.

And that, brings back to now.

As another shattering of glass could be heard downstairs, Hong Kong bends over and rubs his face, feeling absolutely mortified. He starts thinking of ways to get a new visa when Iceland exits the bathroom, his hair damp and wearing his boyfriend’s shirt. As Iceland sits on the edge of the bed beside him, Hong Kong pretends to keep his cool.

A moment passes, before Iceland places a reassuring hand on his boyfriend’s shoulder. Hong Kong avoids his gaze.

“You know my brothers are the same as yours, right?”

Hong Kong rolls his eyes. “Do your brothers throw food around as well?”

“Pfft, no… they throw dishes.”

“Even then, I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t act like lunatics in front of a guest.”

“Maybe not", begins Iceland. He scoots closer. "But have you ever met Sweden? The guy doesn’t even do anything and you already have people throwing their wallets begging him to not mug them.”

Hong Kong tries to shrug it off, however a chuckle escapes.

Iceland grins. “Don’t get me started on Dan as well. One time, we had a diplomat over at Dan’s house and then a mouse ended up scurrying into the meeting room. The woman was freaking out so he pulled out his fucking battle axe from his display case. You know what happened next? He split it into a bloody half. I’m pretty sure she passed out right there.”

That got to Hong Kong and it sent him into a series of giggling. Iceland gently leans into him.

“And then you have Norge, who we keep telling him to stop talking to his trolls or whatever in front of others. But he keeps forgetting to do so everytime and everyone else stares at him like he is crazy.”

“And then you have Fin! You’d think he would at least be the one to know how to host a guest, but that guy is seriously weird on his own.”

Hong Kong‘s giggling turn into full-hearted laughter as Iceland’s grin grows. He leans into his partner’s side to plant a kiss on his cheek. Hong Kong smiles and returns the gesture by wrapping his arm around his boyfriend’s waist and planting a kiss on his shoulder and then placing his chin on top of it.

“Maybe I should come over to meet your family instead.”

“Yeah, well, wouldn’t you like to see how that would turn out?”

Just then, they hear Macau calling their names for them to come back downstairs. The boys turn to look at each other before getting up and making their way back down.

When they returned to the kitchen, it became a palette of wasted food staining the walls and the floor alongside with two broken plates scattered by the table. They are immediately greeted with Taiwan, Korea, China, and Japan (who didn’t even do anything), kneeled over on the ground as Vietnam rants away at a lecture frenzy. To her right, Thailand’s smile has returned, but his eyes glare down at them menacingly as he rubs his cheek with a washcloth. To Vietnam’s left, Macau stands there and is the only normal-looking person in the room. He takes notice of the boys’ arrival and greets them.

Vietnam also takes notice as well.

“ALL FOUR OF YOU, APOLOGIZE THIS INSTANT TO THESE BOYS!!”, she demands to the four. They all lift their heads in the boys' direction. Just as when they open their mouths to apologize, it dawns upon them that Iceland is wearing Hong Kong’s shirt.

An uproar fills the house.

[finkinthisfrew]

Anything (pt.1)

A Matty Healy Fanfiction

cw: nightmare, boring plot set up (I promise Matty comes in, pls bear w me)

Chapter 1

I woke up shivering. Sweating. Stomach-churning. Sitting up and shaking my head, I grabbed the book from my nightstand and started reading to distract myself before I could register what I had dreamt and let the tears that had welled up in my sleep fall. I knew the pattern well and I wasn't going to let it ruin yet another morning. Thankfully these dreams happened less often than they used to, maybe once or twice a month now, yet somehow they never seemed to upset me any less.

After a few minutes of reading, I picked up my phone- 48 minutes until my alarm was meant to go off. 

Well, I guess it could've been worse. I sighed to myself. 

Trying to ignore my exhaustion, both emotional and physical, I tore off my sheets and hopped out of bed to start my day. 

Shuffling into the bathroom in my oversized sleeping shirt and thick knit socks, I turned the tap on and plugged the sink, letting the water pool. Splashing water on my face I tried to shake off the sleep that still bogged down my mind. 

The dreams definitely didn't help much with my terrible sleep schedule, though they weren't always the cause of it. I'd always struggled with sleep, ever since I was a child. I was always an anxious kid growing up which led to countless restless nights. I'd gotten better as I'd grown older, but my recurring nightmare set me back into my old habit of staying up too late and waking up too early. Unfortunately, it's something I've grown accustomed to.

As I looked up at myself in the mirror, I saw two green eyes with dark circles under them staring back at me. My dark brown curly shag haircut was messy from the tossing and turning in my bed, the ends dripping wet from the water I'd splashed on my face. 

Suddenly I wasn't there anymore, my vision was replaced with a flashback to my dream, black eyes staring back at me. 

Gone as quickly as it appeared, I once again stared back into my own green eyes, now filled with panic. I dove back into the basin to splash more water on my face. 

I took a deep breath and turned back into my bedroom. Determined to not let my recurring nightmare dictate the rest of my day, I decided I would treat myself. Today I would put on my favourite clothes, do up my hair and makeup and take myself to my new favourite coffee shop.

I opened up the door to the beautiful handpainted wardrobe I'd just bought last week and began to sift through all the hanging fabrics. Picking out my favourite jeans and a long sleeve shirt, I closed the door to my wardrobe and stepped back to admire my new apartment.

I had just moved to London a month ago for a six-month-long residency at an art gallery. I had been shocked when I was first offered it but jumped on the opportunity immediately. A six-month trip to London with free housing and endless hours to work on my art? It was a dream come true. 

The housing that the gallery supplied me with wasn't anything extravagant, but it was definitely charming. My apartment was on the top floor of a three-story walk-up, boasting giant slanting windows that brightened the single-room apartment even on the gloomiest of London days. I had found various charming vintage pieces of furniture and art to spruce up the bland basics I'd originally been supplied with, and it had finally started to feel like a home away from home. 

As I glanced one last time into the full-length mirror, I admired my outfit. My vintage light-wash perfectly worn-in Levi's fit me like a glove, and my new beige fitted long-sleeve mock neck looked effortlessly sexy, the semi-sheer knit material showing my black bralette in a casually immodest way. After I put my thin black sunglasses over my now brown smokey eyes and slid on my black vintage cowboy boots, I popped my AirPods in as I locked my apartment door.

Singing along to the opening lyric of an upbeat playlist, I started to get excited about my little trip to the coffee shop. I had just discovered it last week, finding out that they sold what I believed to be the best cookies I'd ever had in my life. Noticing the sun peaking through spotty clouds, I quickened my step down the stairs into the tube as I decided I'd take my coffee and cookie to a park to finish my book and maybe draw up some new ideas for pieces to make. 

Twenty minutes later I found myself saying "I'll have three cookies please" to the friendly barista, trying and failing to not blush at the fact that I knew that the extra two cookies I was buying for later wouldn't even make it home. 

Excited that they hadn't run out of cookies yet, I stood at the counter, humming and letting my toes tap along to the music in my ears while I waited for my iced latte. Considering how my day had started, I was positively chipper. 

I had already begun to daydream about some new pieces I wanted to sketch out as I stepped out the door of the coffee shop. I was about to turn to walk towards the park when suddenly something slammed into me and I lost my footing, falling straight to the ground. 

Disoriented, I gasped for breath as the air had been knocked out of me. Looking around to see what had hit me, I was met with a pair of chocolate-coloured eyes. 

"Oh fuck! I am so sorry! Are you okay, darlin'?" the eyes asked me earnestly.

I opened my mouth to answer yes before I noticed the searing pain that engulfed my entire chest. 

I winced, and then, I blacked out.

[grimalkinmessor]

Do you have any headcannons about omegaverse AFO and Yoichi? Because omega Yoichi takes up way too much of my brain space to be healthy.

Not until this moment I didn't! :D

Though tbh I tend to always think of them as either being both Omegas, or Alpha Yoichi/Omega AFO—just because their dynamic in canon is already so fucking unbalanced that putting them in the traditional set feels cruel to Yoichi 😭

But I think I'd like the traditional set (Alpha AFO/Omega Yoichi) more in literally any other universe than canon. Royalty AU? Beautiful. No Quirks AU? Let's GO. Roleswap AU? HELL YEAH. Just not canon, because again, making canon Yoichi an Omega to his Alpha brother is just grinding salt in the wound :') Not fond of it, unfortunately.

I can give you some hcs for it, however! (⁠ﾉ⁠◕⁠ヮ⁠◕⁠)⁠ﾉ⁠*⁠.⁠✧

Omega Yoichi's scent is a mix of mint, white raspberries, and nickel. Alpha Takashi's scent is ozone and chemical sugar. Both of their scents are sweet and harsh in turns, but in different ways that clash when put together :3 They both love the way they smell together though, even as everyone else cringes and shies away from it because it's simply too much.

Though most people (in my version of omegaverse) present in their early/mid teens, Takashi either likely presented far later than his teens, or far earlier, due to their extenuating circumstances. Argument for earlier is that the stress on his body might've caused him to present early so he could have a better chance at protecting himself and his territory, and the argument for later is that he already has PLENTY of tools to defend himself and his territory with, so his body never hit that high trigger point of "need to protect/defend" that most Alphas experience before their first rut.

Yoichi likely presents normally, though with the distressing add-on of having nowhere to nest and nothing to nest with. Takashi would monopolize providing for them, and blankets and soft things likely wouldn't be a priority for him until AFTER Yoichi presents, so Yoichi's first heat is probably spent with Takashi holding him really tight to imitate an enclosed, safe nest while Yoichi whines and quietly panics the whole time. It's awful for both of them, but especially Yoichi—though afterwards Takashi does start bringing home blankets and pillows and things to go in their space, but refuses to let Yoichi have them until he's thoroughly washed and scented them.

Speaking of nests!! Takashi does not heed any of Yoichi's warnings about entering his uninvited, much less just barging in. Takashi gets bitten more than once doing this shit, but he refuses to stop. Yoichi took a chunk of his ear once too; can't teach this man shit smh

The first time they have sex is, again, likely Yoichi's doing. Just because there's a point after he presents where his instincts urge him to start providing for himself so he can venture out and find a mate (caveman inner omega-speak), BUT Takashi never allows Yoichi to venture out or start providing for himself. So all of those trinkets and clothes and books and food and blankets start to register as courting gifts reeeaaal quick :) Takashi goes from 'main provider' to 'potential mate' pretty rapidly, and Yoichi deals with this by pushing Takashi down in a frenzy during his next heat and sitting on his dick ✨

Depending on which route you took for AFO's presentation, that could be the moment he presents, or the first time he pops a knot. Up to you :3

Though there's also something to be said for All For One presenting as a full adult, either right after Yoichi is vaulted, right after Yoichi is rescued from said vault, or in that moment Yoichi fucking exploded right in front of him and Kudou :')

Alpha AFO definitely has a breeding kink the size of Jupiter, but male Omegas are sterile! Win for Yoichi—he dodged the biggest bullet of all! ....But that doesn't mean he doesn't also have a slightly smaller breeding kink. Slightly. Venus instead of Jupiter. Just by basis of Yoichi feeling nauseous at the actual idea of it but also being desperately horny about it in bed and in his head. Takashi's kink is definitely an IRL desire though, unfortunately.

[the-bjd-community-confess]

For anyone curious about resin printing prices, I just thought I'd share my 2 cents as a hobbiest printer.

Resin printing requires a lot of PPE (more than filament printing afaik, though that requires some too)! Protective equipment alone can run upwards of $100 dollars. I spent time hunting for good prices and my setup ended up being around $130. You need stuff like nitrile gloves to handle the resin with, masks (ideally a good particulate and VOC filter so you can sand with the same mask you use for fumes), ducting to vent the fumes out somewhere (and everything else venting involves), and so on. There's lots of little things, and they'll add up fast.

There's also other equipment you'll need besides just a printer. Resin printing requires post processing requires something to wash the print in (usually IPA) and something to cure it with (UV light). You can re-use IPA and cure in the sun, but how you choose to process the resin afterwards is still an up-front cost to consider. You'll need containers to store the IPA to save it in, and you'll need a funnel with a good filter in order to save extra resin from prints. (Up-front costs for long-term materials saving. if you skip those, you'll pay more replacing them in the long term.)

In order to have a setup that's comfortable instead of only functional, many people will want extra supplies for their battle stations, like mylar boxes (like indoor greenhouse tents) to contain fumes and hide the printer from sunlight, and silicone mats to protect surrounding surfaces from resin. And omg, you can see how this is starting to take up a lot of space...

That's not even touching the cost of resin itself! even really cheap resin is going to be over $10 a kg. and if you want more than one color, you're either going to need to buy lots of UV-proof chemical bottles to store your different custom mixed colors, or you'll need to buy more colors. (If you mix your own, you'll need dyes.) You'll need to acquire elastic to string the doll, and you'll usually want to purchase metal s-hooks. resin has many strengths as a medium (high detail, etc), but unfortunately, it is brittle, which makes it a poor candidate for tiny objects under a lot of stress. so, 3D printing the s-hook is usually not a good idea. (Unless you're paying extra for, like, some siraya tech tenacious, or something like that. but even then, I'm not sure it's the best choice.) And if you want to assemble the doll with magnets instead of snap fits, you'll need magnets too.

TL;DR Resin printing is a high-investment hobby. It might be cost effective if you're making ten dolls, but if you want one or two, it won't save you money or time. (I still think people should try making their own dolls if they're interested!! :) It doesn't have to be about money. Making your own custom dolls is a rewarding experience! But it's not a cheat code to avoid the cost of this hobby.)

~Anonymous

[krys-in-the-playhouse]

OC Brainrots #4: 'Bullying' Napoleon Hours

Haven't done a brainrot post in a while, so I thought I'd use this one to play along with Mo's (@xxsycamore/ @kissmetwicekissmedeadly 's) bullying Napoleon on his birthday prompts and see what my ikevamp girlies would do faced with the opportunity to 'bully' everyone's favorite former emperor.

For previous brainrots, check out the oc masterlist!

Thea

For Thea, I'd imagine her taking the imitating him route, more to tease him than anything. Like, maybe they're out doing shopping errands together a la that one story event where he's out getting groceries with Theo when they run into Shakespeare.

You know what, Theo can come get groceries with them too and he's a little jelly that Naps and Thea are having such a fun, silly conversation and he's feeling a little green-eyed that another man is chatting up his girl. Then, they happen across a handful of his students who asks him about this fencing technique they can't seem to get right.

Always happy to indulge his kids Naps goes to them while the other two are alone. Theo reveals about his jealous feels and Thea thinks it's cute and reminds him that she doesn't feel anything more for Naps than friendship, then proceeds to prove it by imitating him, deepening her voice, speaking in a bad French accent, and fencing with a stick she found on the ground, making Theo chuckle.

But don't think Naps will let this atrocity stand, oh no, as he sicks his students on her with tips on how to improve her form with a flourish of his cape not unlike a swooshy skirt twirl he's likely seen her do with her skirts on occasion, along with a cheeky little tease towards her in Italian (intentionally with his old Corsican accent) which makes her cringe. Theo laughs harder.

Abby

For Abby, she wouldn't be the type to intentionally bully Naps. She doesn’t wanna bully anyone, it's mean, especially someone as nice and cool as Napoleon! Would bullying even work on him? From someone like her? Surely not!

So, with that thought in mind, the best her teasing would come to is telling him something that he's been laughing at for the last five minutes isn't really that funny.

Like, she's a future person, so things in the past are going to be a little different than what she's used to in the modern day, right? Let's take laundry for example. Turn of the century France doesn't have automatic clothes washing machines and likely won't see them for a few more decades yet, unfortunately. Which means laundry day is an all-day test of strength and patience, especially when you need to wash for eleven people plus yourself. She has a personal vendetta against Arthur and his shirt fronts and collars because of the dried blood that refuses to come out and will glare at him every laundry day because of it.

On this thankfully perfectly temperate and sunny laundry day, Sebastian off doing a different chore (there's always a chore to be done in this huge mansion), but he had promised to come help her later on, so she was left on her own. And she gets to Arthur's pile of shirts that need to be cleaned and starched. And guess what she sees on the front and on the collar?

Well, she might have had thoughts of eviscerating him with a palette knife but the thought of cleaning his clothes again afterwards stayed her hand.

What she hadn't counted on was having an audience for the stages of wrath she went through as she looked at the offending white shirt. Namely one former emperor that happened to be passing by, returning from his adventures in town or something. He probably would have passed her unnoticed except he couldn't stop himself from laughing when he saw her face. First, the disbelief taking over her, moving quite rapidly to her clenching her teeth and clutching the fabric tightly in her tiny hands, to disgust, to finally letting a breath out and throwing the soiled shirt quite harder than necessary into the steel pot on the ground, splashing soapy water onto the grass. 

Napoleon laughed at the scene, loudly, making Abby jump and squeak in surprise, embarrassed that her little show had been witnessed. She wanted to go crawl into her room and hide in her shame, but laundry still needed to be done so she continued her task despite the red on her cheeks and ears making her look like a cherry tomato. Pouting, she also mumbles that she wasn't trying to be funny, making Naps smile sweetly.

He apologizes and takes off his jacket, intent on helping her to make up for laughing at her. He gives her some gentle head pats and took on the task of scrubbing Arthur's shirt for her. He then promises to threaten him for putting her through this arduous ordeal, his punishment to be to wash his own shirts if he does this again. Abby, finally, smiles a little, feeling a bit better, which makes Naps smile more, happy she wasn't angry anymore.

Thanks for coming along with me for this 'bullying' adventure with Napoleon!

[silmawensgarden]

Carrots make a strange bouquet

Maedhros x reader

Prompt: May I ask for a fluffy fic or headcanon, whichever is easier? Perhaps a young Maedhros back in Valinor attempting to court reader for the first time and he's a bit nervous about approaching due to his massive crush. Thank you in advance 🌻

Requested by @a-contemplation-upon-flowers

A/n: I attempted something fluffy and a little awkward to better portray his first-time-confessing jitters. It's a bit shorter than I'd like to deliver but I hope you like it!

Word count: 900 Warnings: none :)

Maedhros has been pacing around his room for the past two hours. He has something of great importance on his mind. This thing of great importance, would be you. For the past 50 years he has grown extremely attached to you. A fondness has grown in his heart. Like the lovely blooms in spring, these feelings are now waiting to unfurl. He just doesn't know how to breach the subject to you, let alone approach you confidently.

He huffs in annoyance, an emotion not often seen in him. He slams the paper back onto his desk and turns his back to it. It was a poem, he wrote it as a way to confess his love to you. Maglor advised him to do so. However after writing the poem, and reading it a few hundred times, it just doesn't seem to suffice anymore. Not at all actually. So he stops his pacing and changes his course towards the garden. He knows exactly who he is looking for to help him with this issue.

He races down the large staircase, nearly knocking one of his brothers off the stairs. A string of curses is hurled at him, but he doesn't hear it nor is he interested in hearing them. He has more important things to attend to.

"Ammë? How can I confess my feelings to them? I've been fond of them for quite some time now." He sits in the cabbage patch his mother cultivated. Prodding at an innocent cabbage rather absentmindedly. Nerdanel has quite the expansive garden, full of vegetables, fruits and even cutting flowers. It's close to the first harvest season, many things can be harvested already.

Nerdanel looks back at him over her shoulder and chuckles. "Maitimo, I think the best way to confess to them is to simply do it. I have seen the way they look at you, I am certain your feelings will be returned." Maedhros frowns for a moment and a light blush washes over his cheeks. Just the thought of having to approach you with this makes his stomach feel like he swallowed a beehive.

He is momentarily shaken out of his stupor when his mother asks him to collect some strawberries, and afterwards to check which carrots can be harvested. Nerdanel planted an early harvest variety, Yavanna had given her some of the newest seeds her maiar had cultivated in the previous seasons.

Maedhros trots over to the carrot patch, his nerves are getting the best of him in this moment. Despite the fair weather and the bright light of laurelin he still walks with heavy steps, as if he has lead tied to his legs. He is completely unaware of what is happening around him.

You were on your way back from the market and remembered that you had gotten an invitation from Nerdanel to come view some of her newest plants. The both of you had bonded quickly from the moment you met. You both enjoyed the arts and had a fondness for gardening. You smile and change your direction to the Fëanorian household instead. Curious to maybe see more than just the newest plants. Perhaps you'd catch a glimpse of Maedhros there too!

When you arrived you heard two familiar voices in the garden. Nerdanel's and that of Maedhros. You stop and hide behind one of the jasmine bushes. You know very well that eavesdropping is not exactly considered good manners, unfortunately your curiosity has overthrown your sense of reason in this moment.

Who are they talking about...?

You didn't catch whom they spoke of and decided that it would be better to simply make your presence known. You glanced up towards an oak tree that stood close to the road. Hearing a heavy rustle of leaves on a windless day. You were brought up properly after all, not dragged, unlike some people. These people appear to enjoy eavesdropping from oak trees.

You shake your head and walk out of your hiding spot. Walking towards Nerdanel and maedhros. Maedhros is sitting with his back towards you, he appears to be busy with the carrots. You greet Nerdanel, who seems to be surprised at your visit. Maedhros doesn't seem to hear you at all. Lost in his own thoughts, mumbling about something.

You talk with Nerdanel for a moment, attempting to figure out how that invitation came to you in the first place. Maedhros finally snaps out of his musings. "Ammë, I think I am going to visit y/n. I must tell them of my feelings before they consume me entirely!" He gets up to leave and turns around, still bent over, now nearly nose to nose with you.

His eyes widen in shock, the realization dawning on him that you heard his plan. More importantly overheard his feelings for you in such a flat way, no romance at all! His throat felt like it was being stitched closed. He could only stare at you with a wild blush on his face.

"I......don't think I've ever received a bouquet of carrots as a courting gift before....?" you say, trying to suppress a laugh from ripping out of your throat. Maedhros looks at you with pure shock and disbelief on his face. Slowly his eyes trail down to his hands, realizing that he was in fact holding a large bunch of carrots.

Indeed as if to gift them to you like flowers.....

[batsplat]

Hi, I hope you are having a good to/will have a good day!

This is kind of of a drama stirring ask, but I was reading your post on your favorite riders on the current grid and you mentioned that you became fond of all the 2019 rookies except one of them. I was just wondering if there is any specific reason for that? Not a fan or a hater of that one rider just unfortunately overly curious sometimes, feel free to ignore this ask if you do not feel comfortable answering it.

I also just wanted to mention that I love the way you described Fabio in that post as a sad Frenchie because I immediately pictured a sad French bulldog and somehow that felt completely fitting. And I also laughed so hard when I read the part about about how Joan looked like he was so scared that Marc was going to eat him.

My favorite part of the post though was when you were talking about Pecco's super up and down performance and wrote something like Ok you won. but? why? were? you? in 13th? to begin? with? I don't know if this was what you were going for but the disappointed, but not surprised scolding parent tone I got from it was immaculate. I really hope next year Pecco remembers he has a backbone because if the vibes at Ducati are not rancid what even it the point?

oh tbh there's no real story there!! idm answering but i also don't have a great answer... it's just which ones of them personally caught my eye. early 2019 was a time when i was gradually reestablishing friendly relations with my primary sport and watching motogp was just hoping for... well, not a complete changing of the guard, exactly, because i like marc a lot more than i do the dominant athletes in said other sport. but some competition, some tension. the dovi rivalry kinda felt like it had run its course at some point in 2018 when it became pretty clear dovi probably wasn't ever going to match his 2017 challenge, let alone go one step further. valentino was increasingly washed + the 2018 yamaha was so mediocre that a lot of his very respectable efforts felt like an exercise in futility - and the vinales experiment is one that i'd also given up on at some point that year. (kinda ironic given where yamaha's next champion came from but tennis fans will know what i mean when i say i always referred to vinales as having a case of 'french brain'. actually was worried fabio might have a severe case of french brain until he won the title.) i had basically zero hopes for honda!jorge panning out, like it was conceptually fun (as casey said, get out the popcorn) but also we'd literally just seen jorge take over a year to even begin to adapt to a bike that didn't seem quite as unfriendly as the honda. also, he'd been injured for much of late 2018... idk kinda felt his time was up

which is a pretty dire competitive picture. like the racing was still good, a lot better than it is now, but it was also... this isn't a marc thing, i'm just not really the type of person who can enjoy winning for winning's sake. i do need a story. it all felt a bit depressing, also interpersonally - marc/valentino continued to be the main source of tension but it also meant marc wasn't really doing anything interesting with anyone else on the grid. the dovi relationship is like... civil, but nothing more than that, so mainly it really is just marc giving the side of valentino's scalp a thorough examination once a week. not really the web of intricate interpersonal relations + conflict of the alien era, is it. or guys in the early to mid noughties actually LIKING each other and HANGING OUT and a bit more of an interesting dynamic because you feel like these blokes have actual relationships with each other. dovi/marc as a rivalry is practically designed to make me feel a bit morose and irritable... and dovi came across as a little too resigned to his fate, jorge/dovi teammates was also taken away from me, and it already felt pretty clear marc wasn't going to leave honda when his next contract expired. (not that i thought he'd sign for another FOUR YEARS, obviously that didn't go like anyone was expecting but i can't say i was particularly thrilled at that announcement.) i had a bit of hope for alex rins but also i hadn't really seen THAT much from him. zarco-caused narrative juice also felt like very much a 2017 thing. morbidelli pretty meh rookie season, iannone experiment felt over, miller experiment felt over... you get the spirit

and basically at this point i wasn't looking at the 2019 rookies primarily in terms of personality, it was literally just an evaluation of whether one of these bozos could please, please, please give marc a proper challenge. from those, pecco was obviously the immediately eye-catching one - had just put together an impressive moto2 campaign, then rocked up and had an excellent pre-season testing. i wasn't like... completely sold, because tennis-pilled brain does at a certain point make you think that unless you're already breaking lap records as a toddler, it's probably not going to pan out for you. but obviously i was theoretically interested in a valentino protege going up against marc, and pecco had built up enough positive credit in my bank that i was willing to forgive a lot in 2019. (muttering to myself 'casey crashed a lot too, casey crashed a lot too, casey crashed a lot too' every time a rookie is driving me insane.) mir had quite an eye-catching first ride on the suzuki iirc... also obviously had that moto3 title going for him. i vaguely remember injury eventually just sort of fucking him over in his rookie season? and quartararo... obviously wasn't REALLY on my radar, like I knew about the pre-moto3 resume which did actually play into my 'breaking lap records as a toddler' bias. but also obviously he was the standout that season, like he was properly exciting... and also just the little things, how frustrated he was after losing to marc or when marc was pissing about in sepang qualifying. made you hope we could get something going there. oliveira just went under the radar a bit for me,, like this wasn't entirely FAIR because given machinery differences i would defo say he had a better rookie season than pecco and had run pecco pretty close in 2018. but also i'd also been supporting pecco for the moto2 title the previous year lol, not with all THAT much investment but he was a fun kid idk. so sometimes you just get to a point where you get used to rooting against someone. generally you'll already have an opinion on blokes before they even get to motogp, right

and yeah, genuine affection for these guys developed the following years... i mean, fabio only REALLY got me in 2020 when i was watching him throw his title bid away. and mir grew on me ever more as the suzuki project went down the drain. bagnaia actually has this fantastic quality that allows me to root for him, where every time i go 'hm he's winning too much' he puts the fear of god back into me. like i had this moment during qatar this year where i was like... idk, come on. and then obviously he's taking me on such a great rollercoaster ride and by the end of the season i'd basically never been more invested. i actually have quite possibly the worst type of sports fan brain - runner-up brain. i root for people who come close to winning but can't quite make it. my history as a sports fan is littered with these second tier athletes you can be delusional about but will never actually make you happy. and what i've discovered following motogp is that apparently this even extends to liking the guys i like less when they're winning and more when they're losing. the problem with this is that it's a recipe to always being miserable, which. well. it is what it is. luckily i'm not THAT emotionally invested in motogp, like if i'm not enjoying it i can just stop watching for a while lol and i'll be free of it. it's not that serious

so that's it tbh!! i don't even particularly dislike oliveira - his luck has been abysmal with aprilia and i do feel quite sorry for him throughout all that. yamaha will do him well i reckon (might be a crazy thing to say but yamaha is my team and i have decided to sniff the #hopium, idk i think we might actually be cooking). there ARE some riders i root against, oliveira is not one of them. i feel decidedly neutral towards him. also whatever casey might think about portugal being a province of spain, it's always good to have an extra nationality on the grid. he seems like a bit of a character, like sometimes i see a quote from him that makes me raise an eyebrow and i like raising an eyebrow. but also... his profile of rider is 'guy who can do incredible things on his day but disappears for months at a time', which has just never been the type of athlete i go for. (i think this is actually the main reason, like it's an aggravating pattern of results to me personally that always makes me go 'maybe do this more often?????') i'm way more about the #grinders and the guys who worry away at getting better for years and years and still eventually come up short. anyway, glad you liked the descriptions of fabio and mir lol, apparently i really will bring up that mir clip at any excuse

on pecco, i DO stand by the gags i made in the post probably maybe,, but also i have adjusted a little in response to just how wild the discourse around him gets... like i don't see much of it anymore because i practise #contentcuration but i know it's out there!! ultimately the ways in which he's frustrating push all my buttons, and also (controversial opinion) i do think he actually cleaned up his act in some regards, just everyone's upped their level this year. it's partly the gp24 but jorge + pecco's qualifying record this year has genuinely been so impressive to me, like there's so many fp1's i half followed and went 'hm another q1 excursion for mr bagnaia do we think' before seeing he'd figured it out late in... what's it called now, practise? awful nomenclature. i also did not post this because at a certain point you just have to give up and move on, but i calculated the error rate of each title winner and runner-up this century (where 'error' is strictly defined as any crash that was not CLEARLY caused by an external factor, so racing incidents like with marquez x2 counted but not binder at jerez sprint)... and again. it's six for pecco from forty bloody races. divide that by two (even though twenty races still longer than most seasons historically) and you're already at a considerably less apocalyptic three, which you don't need to do any fancy calculations with to know isn't a historical aberration. what it comes out as is... fine. it's fine. both marc and valentino have won titles with a higher percentage rate of error (and even there you're sometimes being generous - counting casey's laguna 2008 misadventure as an error and not whatever tf marc was up to in argentina 2018 feels quite unfair, but you need clear criteria y'know)... it's just a narrative that has completely gotten away from reality and it's a bit annoying. i also think ultimately sometimes you are punished more for relatively minor missteps, like both marquez brother incidents are 60:40-ish things either way that pecco probably shouldn't have gotten himself involved in... but the punishment doesn't quite befit the crime. and jorge likewise sometimes just got a bit lucky, like marc crashing out right ahead of him in thailand and giving him the warning he needed. it's such a long season, all these things add up, and sometimes... sometimes things just shake out a certain way. pecco likely lost more than ten points cumulatively through incidents that were 100% not his fault, jorge put together an extremely impressive season on a satellite bike and is very deserving of the title. idk stuff like this is so completely pointless because you might as well be arguing with the wall, like people just enjoy a certain pecco narrative at this point and it's not going to change so. no point arguing about this any further. but that's where i stand on THAT

and yeah i feel like i was quite optimistic about next season like... halfway through the year, but tbh. i'm not feeling it at the minute. i mean i've barely thought about it, all the time i have available thinking about motogp has really just been about the old stuff. which is such a rich text that i'm never REALLY going to complain about motogp, like at the end of the day i do enjoy following it *as a sport* and it is just so extremely extremely unlikely that we ever get anything that lives up to the old stuff. did you know that one guy put a curse on another guy?? it's crazy. so yeah, whatever, it's a different landscape now. competitively i am a little worried we're in for '2018 but with worse racing', which is unfair to pecco - he's a better, more well-rounded rider than dovi ever was facing off against a different version of marc. but i kinda feel like you NEED a decent title fight in this era to sustain your interest, like i'm not tuning in for the racing am i. which was the case in 2017-19!! but unfortunately we're keeping the shitty michelin front for another year, which just means that it's going to be monumentally hard for those two to actually put on extended duel. it's not their FAULT, it's just the limitations of the current series. i do hope we're going to get *one* proper proper duel... but the problem with marc is that it also takes quite specific circumstances for that to even matter - either you need to repeatedly beat him to start fraying at his nerves (see mid-2019 pre-misano) or your name needs to be valentino rossi. otherwise he can mostly accept that the relentless pace will be what wins him the title and you have duels that feel quite disconnected from the storyline of the season, which was historically the problem with the marc/dovi duels. they're fun in the moment!! it's good racing!! but it's also a bit... you know, these duels don't necessarily all stick in the mind the same way because they don't each come with their own story. austria 2017 vs austria 2019 just aren't the same level of distinctive as brno 2003 vs brno 2005, right. i will say both proper marc/pecco duels, aragon 2021 and jerez 2024, have been distinctive and memorable and interesting - so we'll see!! you could be in for a great duel at *checks notes* mugello or assen, but that would mean pecco's probably in quite a lot of trouble that season... catalunya, jerez, qatar. those are the ones i am eyeing anyway

and the other bit of the equation is interpersonal tension, which i am also not super optimistic on. i will be a bit disappointed in both of them icl, but it does feel a bit like we're headed to... vaguely tense but also kinda muted coexistence. the problem is marc isn't going to engage with this stuff unless he absolutely has to, and pecco is so extremely committed to his stance that he wants to be a good sportsman, fair and respectful and all that shit. they're both extremely motivated to downplay any potential tension because marc's calculation is that, all other things remaining equal, he will beat pecco - and pecco just does not want the drama. unfortunately as we've already seen this year, people just cannot be normal about any tension between the two of them either, like it's just also not a media environment where guys can just say shit about each other. casey *probably* accused jorge of faking injuries severe enough they put jorge in a wheelchair back in the day, and i'm not saying that's GOOD or what we should be aiming for, but also can you imagine the equivalent outcry over something like that today?? (this is now the fifth unsolicited mention of casey in an ask response about current motogp, if anyone's counting.) and both pecco and marc are aware of that, and they also know that if they blink at each other wrong, some fans will completely lose their minds... it's just not really worth it. you always kinda hope the natural tension caused by being teammates will get something going... but yeah, idk man, sometimes you just need to be ready for disappointment. and pecco DOES need to actually challenge marc because otherwise obviously you're not getting any proper tension. literally no point in feuding if the competitive stakes aren't there, you need to be a real master of the craft to pull that sort of thing off

anyway that's all from me!! idm asks like this, i love talking about my opinions on stuff lol. we might be in for 1-2 quite disappointing seasons but hopefully the racing will get better again and the competitive picture a bit more lively. thing is i do LIKE 1v1 title fights in theory but i think then you do need a proper compelling interpersonal narrative to pull it off. otherwise the best ones are the 2006/2017 type free-for-all's. and obviously i still think pecco and marc have all the building blocks there for something fun, and individually i clearly care a lot about both of them... they're both just quite self-contained characters? they're never going to get close for obvious reasons but they also don't want to rock the boat too much. idk i feel like we might be missing a bit of an instigator in the jorge/valentino tradition, or someone who's casey-levels of tightly strung they make it easy to provoke them. which is obviously why i'm hoping pedro will eventually come through for me, though i'd prefer it if he weren't currently tied to bankruptcy enterprises. ah well, we'll see

[drchenquill]

Find Lines Tag~

Thank you @kaylinalexanderbooks , @the-golden-comet and @inseasofgreen

A line about love, A line about fear, A line about water, A line about dreams, a line about a friend, a line about an animal, and a happy line. a line about hope, a line about the past, a line about the future, a line about food.

Found them from my story "The Monterosa Mansion".

A line about love

I let the day pass and was lucky enough not to be called upstairs, which is more than I could say for Robert. He had to go upstairs for lunch. The whole time Lily stood at the door, pacing restlessly. Robert seemed to have a big place in her heart and I wondered if he was her flame. How romantic it would be if you could find love despite the hell you've been through. Valerio. My face glowed, my heart pounded, my mind raced. Why had I been thinking about him? Why did I have his beautiful eyes in front of me? Why did I still feel his embrace? Why did I long for his smile? Was it because I had been thinking about love?

A line about fear

She was overjoyed to see me. I, on the other hand, felt a strong urge to run away, which I did without thinking twice. I turned and ran. I could hear her laughter behind me. Fear made me run faster than I'd ever run before. My legs hurt and I had to be careful not to run into branches or fall over stones or bushes. Unfortunately, I also had to focus on Sandra behind me. I was so afraid of being caught by her, so afraid of being near her, so afraid of her.

A line about water

My gaze then wandered to the small lake in front of us. The water glistened under the sun. The wind had died down, so the water was calm. I heard Valerio exhale loudly and I turned to him. He seemed to be feeling the same. He looked relaxed, he seemed to be enjoying it as much as I was.

A line about dreams

She turned to me. Her look, serious, frighteningly serious. "Luigi has dreams that he wants to realize, just like Valerio, but this family makes them suffocate in fear. They are, believe it or not, very human in their fear," I didn't understand. "Why are you telling me this?" I asked. With a sigh she explained: "Because now you're going to have more to do with them. You are going to get to know Valerio. I felt it necessary to show you that although they are vampires, they are creatures like you and me. Some of them are evil, others are very traumatized. This family has never been kind to them."

A line about a friend

“Why not?” he asked. “It's not fair…,” I said. My answer confused him even more when he asked, slightly irritated, “For who?” “For Lily and Robert,” I explained. The crease on his forehead deepened as he asked, “Who's that?” I could feel myself starting to get upset. “My friends who are rotting down there in the cellar,” I explained bitterly. “But they don't get abused by Sandra every day.” he tried to change my mind, but I remained stubborn. “You're right, but they're also treated badly by your family, just like everyone else down there. I can't just decide that I deserve better.”

A line about an animal

As I nibbled on my hot dog, I suddenly heard the sound of flapping wings, and when I turned my eyes back to the water, I saw some ducks that had landed on the lake. Joy washed over me as I saw these beautiful animals. Without thinking, I put my hand on Valerio's leg and excitedly pointed to the birds with the other.

A happy line

He ran towards me. I dodged him with a loud, delighted scream. Laughing out loud, I let him chase me around his room, which was bigger than it looked. He grumbled occasionally, but the smile never left his face. His hands tried to reach for me, but I managed to dodge them. I felt alive, it was the first time that knowing a vampire was chasing me gave me childlike joy.

A line about hope

This small act sparked hope in me, hope that fed my little flame that was burning for him. The more the flame grew, the more I could hear the crackling that told me that perhaps he also felt something for me, that Valerio also had a flame with my name. But I couldn't listen to the crackling, otherwise one day I would start to believe it.

A line about the past

Thunderstorms didn't bring back good memories, at least not for me. There was lightning as my mother put me in the car. When my little soaked feet pulled up outside the orphanage, it was storming. Thunder was the one that accompanied my parents' car as they drove on as soon as they realized I had knocked. Storms made me feel alone because they were the narrator of my abandonment. They were there when rain wasn't the only thing drenching my cheeks. They were spectators when the lady at the orphanage had to chase me down the street because I was trying to reach my parents' car. I wasn't afraid of thunderstorms, they only brought sadness.

A line about the future

"We talked about the future. Our future. I know it sounds impossible, if not stupid, but Luigi is working on being able to break away from the family without anything going wrong. And then…" She took a deep breath, a small smile growing on her face as she closed her eyes.

"Then we'll move away. To the mountains, near a pond where we can wake up to the sound of rippling water."

A line about food

“If blood fills you up in every way, why do you eat normal food?” I continued to ask. He was still smiling, as if my curiosity gave him joy. “Very simple. For us, normal food is like junk food. It's not ideal for our health, but it tastes good,” he said.

~~~~

That was a long one! Anyways, tagging with no pressure @paeliae-occasionally , @thecomfywriter , @theink-stainedfolk , @happypup-kitcat24 and open tag~

Your lines are:

A line about medicine A line about revenge A line about flying A line about misunderstanding

[syrupsyche]

Chapter 1 of "Even If There Are Monsters" Director's Commentary

I wrote a Dracula AU for @/feathraly a few months ago, and for this spooky season I thought I'd do a lil behind-the-scenes look at what was going on in my head as I wrote the fic in the 2-ish months I had :D I'll be publishing a chapter or so a day until Halloween!

Feel free to read the fic here before/as you read the director's commentary :3

To start off: I knew I wanted the fic to read as close to Dracula as possible, and so I decided to stick with the epistolary format. Marius's entries were tough to write, simply because he and Jonathan are quite different tbh. Marius isn't as spontaneous as Jonathan; in the brick he's constantly paralysed at the idea of having to Make A Choice, and so instead I focused as much as I could on Marius's overwhelming desire for Cosette. I feel like he would have done ANYTHING for her, which is the one thing he has in common with Jonathan, and so hopefully that would have realistically spurred him on.

As I mentioned in the footnotes, I replaced the English Pitman shorthand with the French Duployan shorthand. It was made around the 1860s, so a little later than Pitman but still likely to have been picked up by Marius by 1890. As for changing Whitby, England to Cette, France, I mostly just searched for cities in the south of France, where Enjolras was canonically from, and specifically sea-side cities so that the Demeter would be able to wash up ashore later on. If I were a better writer and researcher, I might find somewhere more geographically similar to Whitby but um...I decided Cette would be fine 😭 apologies to any Sète residents for any incredibly inaccurate descriptions of its location.

Speaking of replacements, I had Enjolras as Lucy mostly for the lols :p. I mean sure they have their physical beauty that remains untouched even in death or wtv, but mostly I just liked whumping Enjolras. Though, a very lovely commentor did point out that both certainly had their own fire, and fought as best they could til their respective ends, so I'm glad their similarities were still present!

Prouvaire as the Van Helsing-figure was inspired by a prompt Feathraly had about him teasing Marius for being afraid of horror. Well, Marius certainly is going through The Horrors now, and Prouvaire is only spooking Cosette a little :') I think Prouvaire's canonical kookiness lends itself well to him being a vampire-expert in the story! He would have enjoyed Dracula the actual Book.

One of the main reasons why I had Grantaire be Enjolras's love interest in this fic (other than the fact Feathraly ships it :3) was because I couldn't fathom the thought of Enjolras dying without Grantaire (as per OFPD). So he was at least going to be the Quincey figure, but then I was like...well I hadn't written any proper romantic exR yet, maybe I should let them be happy in one universe (not for long but still), so I had Grantaire be the Arthur figure too! Maybe in a different Dracula AU, Enjolras would have a different Arthur figure...Courfeyrac maybe? He and Grantaire already share a lot of the suitor trio traits between them.

And speaking of sharing traits, it would have been easy to just pick a few of the Amis to feature and then substitute them in but idk....I didn't like the idea of just rewriting the entire novel with name differences. Though the general plot is still the same, I wanted it to feel like it was The Amis and Cosette having to face the horrors of Dracula, rather than just the OG plot of Dracula w/name changes, which is why there are so many "new" scenes written: to establish how most of them were already good friends, to build up the Enjolras/Grantaire relationship, and of course to infodump about vampires. Hope these changes were good!

Additionally, me not wanting to basically just repeat the entire novel unfortunately means I had to cut out a LOT of scenes and characters too. I basically squashed Jonathan's nightmares at Castle Dracula to just a few days, but hopefully it was still enough to make it terrifying for Marius 😭 I also sped up Enjolras's illness, and the Amis's fear re: Marius' silence, as well as cut out the character of Mrs Westenra. I feel bad for that, mostly bc she informs alot of Lucy's own character in the novel, but Enjolras is a whole other person who wouldn't fit into Lucy's dynamics with her mother, so I removed her completely.

Around the end of this chapter was when I knew I had to make this multi-chapt instead of a long one-shot 😔 otherwise /I/ would have lost track where everything was, and I was the author of it! And so I decided to split it where Marius makes his escape from Castle Dracula, and just before the introduction of a new narrator-figure: Combeferre! Now here's where I have to confess that my only reading of Dracula was via Dracula Daily, so I don't even know where the regular chapter splits are in the OG novel, hence my weird cuts for the rest of the fic. But hey, we got to a Shakespearean five-act structure, somehow!

And that's it for Chapter 1!! If anyone has any other stuff they wanna know, feel free to send an ask; I love talking about this fic!

Check back tomorrow for the director's commentary on Chapter 2 <3

[blackbirdffxiv]

So I got this ask in my inbox, and though I was going to answer it in my asks, I think a little, actual post-tutorial would be best. But first, a disclaimer, as I like to cover my bases:

By no means am I an artist; my process is very much a case-by-case basis, and I edit as I need to for each picture that I do end up editing. My method is far from perfect but it is one that works for me for -my character-, so you may have to experiment on your own using these tips to find a method that suits your wants.

This little guide is using ClipStudio Paint, but you can get the same/similar results with really any photo editing program you choose that has brushes (GIMP, PaintTool Sai, Photoshop, Photopea (which is free), etc)

I'm going to use a painted over face texture as an example (basically a face diffuse I just painted over with it's base skintone), versus a full-on gpose shot (this way I can get a good swatch/an approximate measure of what skintone I'm used to working on).

Big Tip: ALWAYS WORK IN LAYERS, this way you can adjust everything accordingly without going back a million steps.

Use a basic soft-spray brush for your base, and pick a color a few shades lighter than the skintone you're working on (use your color-picking tool, it is your best friend). Set your first work layer to "add (glow), and make a little splotch like this. You can either leave it as is or blur it out/adjust the layer opacity if you desire, but again, it all depends on the state of your gpose/where you're adding it. I often blur out the edges to help blend it into the skin more naturally, on a low setting as to not erase it completely.

Before & after adjusting blur/opacity:

Next, you'll want a basic shimmer brush; there are dozens of free ones out there, so look around and experiment! Just like before, you're gonna want to make another layer, but this time, set it to white (or gold/copper if your character has medium/darker skintones, as it flatters them more and doesn't wash them out where as white is more for fair skintones).

Unfortunately, I can't seem to find the source of the shimmer brush I use, but what works for me may not work for you so it would be best to look at what's available and what suits your tastes more.

Now, working in layers using the "add (glow)" effect, slowly build up the shimmer, first, adding a quick couple swipes, then build it up. Once you're satisfied, focus more on the center

TIP: If you want to make it look more natural, when building your layers, blur out the edges a small bit to hide any possible lines and creases.

And that's pretty much it! Adding shimmer effects is all about trial and error, and just simply adding shimmer where your character catches the light.

I'd post examples but a lot of my shimmer examples are on very much lewd gposes and I'm not trying to get tumblr staff mad at me.

And again, another disclaimer: this is not a one-size-fits-all-guide, I seriously cannot emphasize enough that the best thing for you to do is just EXPERIMENT, this is merely a guideline to give you a lil push in the right direction. Editing gposes is supposed to be fun, and the best way to get experience is to simply practice and learn your tools with your own hands.

I hope this helps, and have fun gposing!

[scentofpines]

At no time of the year do I feel more homicidal than on the days around New Year's Eve. I hope that anyone who sets off fireworks at any time other than midnight on New Year's Eve manages to blow their own head off with them. And then people say shit like "I'm not going to let a few cowardly animals and jumpy people spoil my fun”. If it was just midnight on New Year's Eve, hmmm, uhh, I'd still think it's a fucking primitive and stupid tradition to put pyrotechnics in the hands of drunk amateurs (a few die every year and dozens of apartments and houses burn down oh well), BUT I probably wouldn't be quite so fucking angry, ok. BUT IT'S NOT JUST MIDNIGHT, IT'S THE WHOLE FUCKING WEEK AROUND NEW YEAR'S EVE. On the day itself it's easily seven hours in which not 3 minutes go by without an explosion AND I LIVE IN THE COUNTRYSIDE. When we lived in the city it was a fucking war zone.

For years we've been spending New Year's Eve stuck in the most soundproofed room in the house (in the city apartment it was the mini bathroom where we squeezed in front of the running washing machine with the dog - for hours), listening to incredibly annoying loud music to somehow drown out the fucking explosions outside and calming panicked dogs. This year my mom finally got a proper tranquilizer for her dog who has even peed in the apartment in the past bc of his extreme panic (which he would never do otherwise) so hopefully he will be more calm this time. My dog was completely bulletproof until last year and had no problem with fireworks, then last New Year's Eve a fucking neighbor boy set off a firecracker just as we were coming around the corner (at 6pm!!! which was the latest we dared to go out) and unfortunately she has been extremely scared ever since. For the last two weeks I've been carrying pieces of carrot everywhere (she loves them) so that I can throw one down her throat every time there's a bang, but unfortunately that only helps to a limited extent. We also play the sound of fireworks through speakers to desensitize them, but the dogs can tell that it's not the real thing.

“Blabla go somewhere else then for the night”. 1. as I said, it's not just one night. 2. you can't escape that shit. There is NO place in this fucking country where you are guaranteed to escape the fireworks. Ohh yes it's forbidden in old town centers - Ok, but nobody actually sticks to it. Ohh look on the islands here it's restricted - Yes, but nobody cares. The police doesnt even do shit to offenders. The damn national park where rare animal species live, which is a nature reserve, etc. ASKS its visitors not to use fireworks - ASKS!!!! WHAT????? I hate this fucking holiday so much.

[dooxliss]

I'D LOVE TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR SPLATOONS AND SOME BNHA OCS OF YOUR PICK!! also interested in dragon ball too ngl 👀

i hate tumblr so fucking much i was writing this up for an hour and it deleted

splatoon

i have a set of octolings since splat1 that i really like!

ringo, tako, octavia, mimi, quill, pan

but pan is gonna be revamped so i’ll figure out her deal soon

ringo tako octavia and pan are from octo valley

quill is from octo canyon

mimi is from the splatlands

i also have a budding splatband called out of shoal!

the lead is an octoling who came to the surface after hearing calamari inkantation and got paris syndrome so they made a punk rock band about it

there’s also a pencil urchin who is a vocalist and a shellback crab on drums :] might add a jelly as well

i want to make idols also. someday

bnha

here’s the main gang class 2-b!

(they were 2-a before horikoshi showed 2-a in the manga 💀)

my favorites of each row: atsuko kinzoku, koharu nakamoto, miku ueno, emiri abe

atsuko kinzoku (second to last, first row)—quirk melting point! with a touch of her hands she can melt any meltable object and consequently control that molten mess :] more extreme melting points are harder for her to do and cooling herself down can be an ordeal. she went to a dance school and was well versed in ballet before suddenly pivoting to u.a. and hero work. her hero name is tungsten!

koharu nakamoto (middle, second row)—quirk tear jerker! she can force people within a certain radius to experience certain emotions! she can do negative emotions much easier than positive, and these changes often make her feel the same way. she went to the same middle school as toga. she is also very into decora kei :^) did not give her a hero name oops but she is the magical girl hero

miku ueno (last, third row)—quirk sleepy sheep! her hair is actually clouds that when used makes the target extremely drowsy. as a drawback she herself is also rather sleepy most of the time :( her first hero name is bo sleep, with a themed outfit, but after she graduates and the nature of her work changes, she becomes somna

emiri abe (second, last row)—quirk animate! emiri has charcoal like pads on their fingers, which allows her to draw. once a drawing is completed, it can come to life and then be used as a tool. effectiveness is tied to how clear a drawing is. the medium is water resistant but can be washed away. emiri’s hair is naturally blonde but is more ash colored because of how often they put their hands in their hair 💀 in public, emiri wears gloves. hero name ani!

(bonus! hideyoshi maki + kanon katou)

hideyoshi (second, top row)—quirk lucky lottery! he has bands on his arms and marks on his face that appear when good things naturally happen to him. as its stored, he can then expend them to sort of force events to happen as long as there is a chance of it happening. less likely events requires him to spend more luck. it is also automatically used to keep him out of harms way. unrelated to his quirk, he has doll like limbs :^) he’s the lucky hero—chance!

kanon (right of emiri)—quirk stereo! she gains super speed and strength depending on the qualities of the music she listens to! she is also emiri’s gf :] kanon has vitiligo as well, which is being hidden at that point in time. she fails the hero license test going against her older sister kotone and partner chiyo, who go to seiai academy, but eventually gets her shit together and becomes the wabisabi hero—shuffle 👍🏽

dragon ball

i had several saiyan ocs (maiz, kohn, aspara, pumpki, etc) when i was in hs but i havent drawn them since so here are the ones i have!

nati (from naticidae, genus of moon snail) and kitsu (from tsuki, moon) are my namekian ocs! they are bonded in the same was dende and cargo were.

unfortunately they died in the namek saga, and were later revived on earth. during that wait for the namekian dragon balls to be used again, they explored earth and decided to then explore the rest of universe 7 to see what’s out there :D

nati is a dragon clan namekian! they have a shitty keychain esque set of dragon balls that aren’t capable of much besides wishing for the return of a lost sock. they think its cute but don’t use them often because of the hassle of collecting.

kitsu is a warrior clan namekian! he died protecting nati on namek and as a result has become very guard dog-y regarding them. you know how it is. was initially reluctant about not going to namek with his brothers.

i’m still waffling about who but while hopping from planet to planet one of them gets gravely injured to the point where fusion was the only option available to them. as a result this fused namekian has extreme survivors guilt and is reluctant to return to namek. (though they may eventually do to see if porunga can unfuse them)

since we know that zeno erased like 6 universes before the universe survival saga i wanted to make a set of ocs from one of those erased universes (god of destruction, angel, supreme kai). i did not get far in that all tho 💀 only designed the angel and i don’t think they have a name. but i probably wouldve named them kesa (from sake, doubleish meaning with the negative conjugation of kesu, to erase)