#you tend to not associate it as a positive experience lol

[witchothewest]

I truly don’t understand how people are just…normal about driving. Like. You are in control of a metal death machine, responsible for its movement as if it is an extension of yourself, but you just have to like know how far out from your own body it extends. You’re going 60 mph along with everyone else, they can’t be trusted to be any good at what they’re doing so you have to monitor and be aware of their movements. You’re having to pay attention to 360 degrees around you at all times via multiple mirrors while navigating other drivers, pedestrians, fucking BIKES, the road, know where you’re going and how to get there and turn at the right time and change lanes all while following a complex set of rules and not killing anyone or dying. Just…excuse me? You all just…do this? Every day ??? I feel like you’re all lying to me honestly. Like cool invention you got there but what the FUCK

[homeofhousechickens]

How do you get the chickens to be so cuddly?

I raised Beeper from a young age and Sugar is from my breeding program where I select for a friendly disposition. Best way to a chickens heart is through food though they are very intelligent and can be trained just like a cat or dog. While it is easier to socialize and handle them when they are young but that doesnt mean its impossible for an older chicken to become just as cuddly as Beeper. Some things to keep in mind if you want lap chickens

Chicks that are shipped to you, or bought from a hatchery or farm store have experienced a lot of stress and trauma before entering your home. Hatching at a hatchery and getting shipped right after you hatch is not a great start for a young chicken's brain so they are going to be more prone to being skittish. Please treat them with kindness and be gentler with them, they are fresh to this world and just had a scary experience.

You want young chickens to see you as a mother figure or a member of their flock so you should treat them like a mother hen/flock member would. Keep them warm, cuddle them, show them how to be a chicken, and give them tasty treats. You dont want to cuddle them to much though, there is nothing bad that will happen to the chicken but imprinted chicks can be pretty incessant with wanting to be around you at this age lol, dont worry though they do usually grow out of constant crying for you.

With taming older chickens its important to remember that they are social animals and they love routine. Having a set schedule where you tend to your birds is a great way to establish a solid positive association. If you also bring some high priority treats with you every time even better. You then want to sit on the ground with them and offer them more treats, you will gradually bring your handful of treats closer to your body intill the birds have to touch you. At this time the birds who are more inclined to be your friend will start to be obvious as they will be the first to greet you and will be more comfortable touching you. Its important you dont suddenly grab at bird during bonding time as that can break their trust, you want to try gently and slowly stroking them and go from there. This also works for skittish younger chicks as well if you have a reason to be more hands off.

Even birds who will never like handling can still be trained with something like a clicker, i would say that most chickens find training to be enriching and positive as long as its a treat that they like.

[k-tarotz]

i’m wondering how ni-ki views iroha from illit? thanks!🤍

this one actually feels refreshing

two of wands, ace of swords reversed, the emperor, ten of wands reversed, eight of swords reversed

okay so please know I am being as nice about this as I can be. I do not have ill intentions, and Ni-Ki’s energy is quite laid back as well, not serious or mean, I am just a straightforward person that says it as it is. so please do not misunderstand me. 🫡

so, I genuinely do not keep up with illit so I do not know how old this lady is, but he seems to view her as a child. someone childish, in need of some growth. not that he looks down on her at all, but it’s that he recognises some patterns in her behaviour that teenagers usually do? though, he might view her behaviour as younger than her age. - I would tell you, but like.. I don’t know her age. Like 2-3 years younger? -

but like, there isn’t anything malicious in his energy. it’s just like when you grow up and realise how oblivious you were to the adults around you when you were a kid, you know?

although I do think he views her in a mostly positive light, I will tell the more negative aspect of his view because I like giving honest readings even if some people might not like the reading itself!

he wants to like her, he can’t. - in a platonic manner. his higherself is just highlighting this. -

although he views her as a bright, sweet and cute kid, he also views her as two faced. not based off of nothing though!

he knows her idol personality vs her idol personality, and he seems to view it as polar opposites. so if her fans like her, they are kind of deceived without knowing much of who she actually is behind cam.

ni-ki seems like the kind of person who has strong boundaries, but is always himself, even when it comes to showing who he is at cam. even when it comes to his idol image. in his eyes, if people misunderstand the kind of person he is it’s on them, it just means they are very different from him.

he is an observant person, so he noticed how was her behaviour can change at times. it’s not that he is hung up on this or that he is being ill towards her in this, it’s just that he could have a personal bias towards people like this because of his own experience! it’s the feeling of ‘oh, that reminds me of ____’, so there is a negative feeling based on association, but he doesn’t hate or dislike her, he knows it would be ridiculous to behave like that lol. his energy seems more to be cautious. he seems like a guy who tends to overthink things and be in his head a lot, won’t lie. - ironically this is bc of engenes. -

on another note, I do believe he has over seen her pretend to be sad or ‘a victim’ towards her members just to get attention even though she was completely fine. - his words not mine, don’t shoot the messenger!!! - I think he views this behaviour as childish, immature and overall disrespectful to the other person’s time.

his mentality seems like ‘I wouldn’t do that, so if someone does that there has got to be something bad about them.’ this boy overall seems to have a lot of trust issues that sometimes hold him back from accepting people for who they are. it’s like he constantly subconsciously looks for the bad in people in order to see if it’s worth his time? weighting pros and cons, regardless if he plans to befriend them or not. this could come from his own mental health issues to be honest, so if he sees anyone posses qualities he once had that he hates there is an immediate discomfort and dislike created in him. if someone tries too hard for attention he doesn’t like it because he simply thinks its dishonest. as a kid he might have been dishonest but he reflected and grew out of that.. so when he oversees her pretending to be sad just to occupy some of her members time and attention he could just view her as kind of putting on an act? I am trying to be respectful about this but to be honest he views it as incredibly fake.

regardless, the pros out weight the cons! because even if he sees the negative in people he sees the positive as well, his view isn’t black and white. he looks at her as a sweet, bright, pretty, hardworking and kind person.

perhaps he seems to like how nice she is to her fans? there is this desire to be as considerate or thoughtful as her, to connect with fans as easily as she does. he doesn’t seem envious at all, rather motivated to take steps forward to becoming kinder or more interactive with his own fans as well!

It’s just that he wishes to see more of those positive traits if that makes sense!

this view seems to be made all based on sudden encounters in the work place, not direct interactions! They don’t seem to be close at all to be honest with you here.

that’s all! and with this being said I don’t hate this girl at all, I don’t know her. her energy seems really kind, gentle and youthful! I also do not hate ni-ki either, I have seen this boy grow up and I would never suddenly send any hate to him looking at how much people love to do that. I just gave a honest reading is all.

sometimes people are not compatible at all personality wise even if they do respect each other sincerely. and that’s okay! my words could have just made this seems heavier than it is, his view doesn’t seem to be deep rooted 🫶🏻

– Candy

[dballzposting]

It's just that well simply put Gohan didnt have any time to himself ever. There was always bullshit happening. Then Goku died and Goten was born and Gohan had to keep his mother from falling apart and his baby brother healthy and happy. And it's rewarding work. But yknow

When he wasn't tending to the baby or helping with other domestic chores, he was in his room studying. It's nice to learn about the world he fought so hard to save. It's also nice to not have to have a relationship with his body (as with fighting) so that it's easier to dissociate from all the bullshit. Academia was a lifeline out. It was also a definitive "good" thing to be doing. It was also an escape. And also a source of the stress that he's so accustomed to. And yknow. Maybe the letters started to dance on the page after a while. A life unlived will find life in other places. Maybe the historical figures were his friends. Maybe he memorized chemicals like one would memorize constellations. Maybe different mathematical functions began to represent and facilitate different experiences of emotion. You know how it is

I mean maybe not. Maybe he got out enough and was present enough to not dip into that. If his time alone was really that needed, then I imagine that he would get angry if interrupted; but I don't imagine that he snapped often when his mother called him to attention or when his brother needed something from him. I think that he finds fulfillment and peace in his family and he wants to be there with them. But I think that he also finds habits of repression or self-denial.

I'm not saying that he represses all of his anger, because he doesn't. What he does repress is infinite amounts of survival rage. What he doesn't repress - and what seems like he's not even aware of when he expresses it - is sharp annoyance. A mild example would be when he snapped at Goten for bothering him during his training, which was super funny. A more poignant example is Every Time Somebody Insults his Great Saiyaman Persona somehow. First he was interjecting into his classmates' (strangers!) conversation to correct their misnaming of the new hero, and he didn't seem to notice how rude his tone was or how surprised his classmates were. Then later he stopped two reckless drivers, and they made fun of his goofy persona, and Gohan (without resistance) just threw a petulant fit - and he did not seem to notice how he was Destroying The Road by stamping his foot.

My favorite example was when Krillin told him he looked dumb. I should probably get screenshots. Gohan's Eyebrows Twitched and Reared like Rattlesnakes. And his passive aggression was enough to constituent manslaughter. Masked behind saccharine positivity. It was a vile display. What do YOU know about Fashion, Quiverin..! (<- What we sometimes call Krillin in my house becasue he's always cringing and quivering and being fearful lol.)

OK I didn't get screenshots but I have this timestamped video from the youtube.

And it makes sense that Gohan is super defensive about The Great Saiyaman. It's the first thing that he's gotten to do/be that was up to him.

I understand that Bulma designed the original get-up, but it was still collaborative; it's not like when Chichi dresses him in what she can afford to buy or make, or when Piccolo dresses him in what he himself likes to wear. And Gohan picked the name. He picked the poses. He picked the voice. He picked the personality. He picked the role.

You know that Oscar Wilde quote that goes something like "give a man a mask and he will tell you the truth"? Yeah. There's madness behind that mask.

It's also a very significant time for him because he's for the first time having the opportunity to associate with peers in a consistent way. And he wants so bad to be "normal" and that's also why the mask is so integral and alluring. And he wants to be a normal bloke and make normal friends, but at the same time, he's out of practice without really realizing it; he hasn't come to terms with how in order to make friends, you have to put yourself out there. He thinks that he can simply make friends while hiding himself and lying about everything. And when Videl starts trying to figure out who he is and pry the mask off, it's a horrifying inconvenience. And Gohan just isn't in the habit of receiving well others' companionship, having lived isolated for so long; when Videl makes him teach her how to fly, he's nice to her, but you can tell that he just wants her to leave.

Her insistence on drilling into him is why they become friends and eventually marry, though.

He seems like an optimistic fellow, and his appreciate for life must be sincere, as his history necessitates it - if life sucked, all of that would have been for nought. But remember, for a good seven years it was just him, his mother, and the new baby. No drama or adventure to bring him out into the world. No friends his age that he could connect and evolve with. Just him up there on Mt Paozu stagnating.

There was definitely a lot of goodness and happiness and stargazing and lovely dinners and hanging out with dinosaurs. But there was also a lot of boredom and avoidance and why-is-the-baby-crying and mom-please-put-the-wooden-spoon-down and mom-please-stop-crying and can-i-have-the-time-to-study-unbothered-please and an undercurrent of feeling bogged down that really isn't apparent until you get out and get moving.

Gohan never says this outloud or thinks this definitively, but it's a natural truth, like the wood that a house is made of - he is going to do everything he can to be a good brother and to protect his baby brother. And it's a given, too, that he'll do everything it takes to keep his mother sane and happy, because everybody else shies away from her, and it's SORT OF Gohan's fault that Goku had died, and he very much wants to give back for all of the nurturing that his mother has given him.

And when you want to be a force of Good that badly, it completely turns you away from the parts of you that may be Bad, and encourages you to be afraid of certain feelings or needs.

When Gohan snaps at people out of irritability or defensiveness, it really seems like he doesn't know that he's doing it, and it comes out in the way that a hurt child may just act out. Everything else that is ugly about him just gets buried deep. And that makes him a weirdo. That's what it seems like anyway

[karlachismylife]

Halsin for the character game ask please lovie <3

A person of a fine taste here ^^

If anyone else is interested, I'll be glad to talk about someone else from COD and BG3. The game itself is here if someone wants to reblog!

So, Halsin, the bear man himself!

favorite thing about them

His unwavering connection and loyalty to the ways of nature. It's something that has always been important to me, and yes, I probably am romanticizing living as primally as possible big time since I am an absolutely city gorilla, but well, what can you do? Following the balance of nature, striving not to disrupt its ways, accepting life, death, love as parts of it - as something separate from morals, yet still staying on a good path; this is obviously something Halsin was not only born into, but nurtured in himself as a druid, and honestly, wish he taught me too.

least favorite thing about them

I do feel like Halsin sometimes tends to bee too stubborn/unwilling to consider something outside of his beliefs (Minthara would be one of the most striking examples). Yes, on one hand, he is probably able to see things more nuanced, because nature doesn't outright define good and evil, but sometimes he gets blinded by what he considers right in his own system of values. Which is not something you would expect from an elf of his age and wisdom, but hey, flaws are good for a character. Still, he is kinda stuck in his path and very much convinced it's the only way, which is always frustrating.

favorite line

I actually really like the overexaggerated way he speaks, you know, Halsin talk with all the constant references to nature and druid stuff. It's cute. The winner line is, however, "I like ducks". For someone who is constantly aware of the Oak Father, the reponsibility, the duties, the deeper connections of everything intertwined this is so simple. It might be one of the most straightforward lines he has, and it's precious.

Under all that regalia, wisdom and years of experience he's just a man who likes duck.

brOTP

Halsin x Shadowheart. The way they roast each other yet still are undeniably fond of each other without it spilling too much over the friendship boundaries (even when in polyamorous relationship/sex with them) is just heartwarming. Also the whole plot stuff, you know. They actually do have a nuanced dynamic an isn't this what we need in a brOTP?

OTP

The companions polycule :D But also Halsin x Astarion as a separate dynamic. And Halsin x Ghost because I will never shut up about it. Sure, polyamory is what's the most natural to him and it's a comforting thing for me to think about, but there's obviously the whole sexual trauma they all went through and have very different ways of coping (or not coping). I actually think if Halsin was willing, he would also benefit from watching someone much less nature-driven go through it. But mostly of course it's him with his already resolved past and blatant sex-positivity guiding some traumatized men back to having power over their own bodies. Halsin + body worship + anyone = the best ship dynamic.

nOTP

None at all. Not only do I, as I said, reject the whole concept of nOTPs, I also can't imagine Halsin finding himself in a toxic relationship, and that would be my only "no". He just won't be there, lol. So yeah, Halsin love for everyone!

random headcanon

He struggles to climb trees not only as a bear, but as a human too. He can, of course, but if he can just take advantage of his height and avoid it, he will. He's just too big and is used to completely different types of movement. Makes it hard to hunt for honey sometimes tho :(

unpopular opinion

This one's hard as always, too, because I don't know what's a popular opinion... maybe this one: he doesn't have a breeding kink. Not because he does not enjoy it (very much does), but it's just not a kink, it's what nature intended. Just a normal Thursday (nature did not intend for Thursdays to exist btw) afternoon to him, nothing special.

song i associate with them

Actually, a recent release by Faun, "Tamlin and the Fairy Queen". Sure, it's not exactly about Halsin's situation, but there certainly are parallels. And also love.

favorite picture of them

I actually really really like this moment. Despite everything, we don't often see Halsin be just... calm. Peaceful. Nothing bad about him always being caring or laid back or witty or battle-ready, but there is something special about the serenity of him soothing his anxiety about his date with his connection to nature. He is constantly taking on a pretty leading/providing role, it's easy to forget that he needs to be provided for too, like any living being.

I love Halsin very much and it's absolutely my daddy issues showing, fucking sue me (my dad is kinda hippie-adjacent, do you understand how bad it is). But also give me any shapeshifer/werewolf and they probably will be my favourite.

Jokes aside, he is a special character, thank you for asking about him <33

[elkkiel]

Same anon again, glad to see we agree! I get easily annoyed/tend to be very wary of people because of Discourse TM ive been in/seen go down and honestly i see a lot of it the st fandom that concerns me and annoys me to no end. So im glad to see we seem to be on roughly the same page here especially with how nasty (in the being an asshole to people who disagree way) people have gotten in discourse ive observed. Let people be horny as long as theres no real life sexual harassment/abuse and let people have fun with interpretations of art (as long as theyre not being weird about real life events that inspired the Perceived As Horny art) yknow? I brought in some other discourse here with this ask in particular but i have been very bitter about people lately lol

With how generally sex-positive the fandom is (like in terms of acceptance of sexuality, esp kink and paraphilia), it's a little surprising that people would actually get that up in arms over something like this.

Personally, from my own observations, I'd mostly attribute it to how booktok's kind of adopted ST + Vess as some shallow, sexy spooky anthem/daddy dom character. If booktok is already perceived as 1) low-quality lit, 2) romanticizing heteronormative abuse fantasies, and 3) kinda "cringe", I could see people being extra negative when their fave's starting to be associated with the community.

Which, I understand both sides. I would like to lick the body paint off of Vessel as much as anyone else here. But, the appreciation goes far beyond sexuality, and it's not a factor in my overall love for the band. It can be annoying to see people fawn over "baby-making metal" and our beloved, shirt-avoidant Best Boy at a horny surface-level appreciation. Especially since a lot of the tiktok fandom that might overlap with booktok are sometimes the ones that take thirsting into actual objectifying territory. The music is far deeper than its sex appeal and the community is more than just folks who scream daddy at the barricade during Atlantic lol (idk if that's happened but like you know what I mean hopefully)

So yeah, I get why people would be upset over it. If it were up to me, I wouldn't want Sleep Token to be associated with people's generalized (and sometimes legitimate) negative opinions about booktok. I love them and I wish people got to form their own views unclouded by horny digital shrieking lol. However, this is real life, and I am a mature(?) adult person who can move the fuck on with my life and let the booktok horndogs straight up jork it to whatever they want. It doesn't affect me. And again, if they're not translating their potentially misinformed, hard dom daddy Vess fantasies into harmful irl practice, then who gives a fuck.

People need to chill and realize that there's always going to be aspects of a fandom that you can't control (I'm a veteran Dream stan, miss me with that fandom policing bullshit lol trust me it doesn't work). Just like there's going to be interaction/overlap with other communities that you personally don't agree with. Have your own opinions, share concerns for legitimate worries that don't demonize the individuals themselves, and curate your own online experience to avoid things you don't vibe with.

[starlight-tea-writing]

Ask games! Loves these things.

Anyway, 4, 34, 35, and/or 64! Take your pick on how many lol

sorry that this sat for, like, two days...but thank you for the asks!

4. what is the plot bunny you've been carrying around the longest? optional bonus question: do you ever wonder why you haven't written it yet and experience deep existential dread?

I have many. many. many ideas. and not just for ATLA. but I think these are my favorites:

for ATLA

a. book 2, Iroh and Zuko are in Ba Sing Se. I say "screw you" to canon a bit and extend their time there. during that time, Zuko and Jin start actually dating, they become friends with the Jet, Smellerbee, and Longshot. with that friendship, they slowly relax into being teens and having fun (in part because they're committing Blue and Green Spirit shenanigans together). Zuko kinda forgets he was Zuko and really starts to embrace Lee. and then, Jet sees a poster about Appa and drags Lee with them, he sees the Gaang, and Zuko come crashing back to reality. they retrieve Ty Lee and Mai from the Palace (by accident, cause they think Suki is there), and then it's a trek of a dozen teens across the Earth Kingdom to take down Ozai. oh, and also, Jin is a secret (but very bad) earthbender.

I've written about half of it. maybe I'll finish and post it one day. there's also a GREAT scene where Zuko (as Lee) goes to Jin's for dinner and to meet her parents and younger sister (that I added for funsies). it's so awkward and fun and I love it so much.

b. I got permission to write a story based on @gemgirl28's idea. I have yet to write it yet, but it is outlined. that delay just makes me feel bad, because I want to do the story justice.

Spy X Family

a. like many others, I have been sucked into the Spy X Family world. it's three years ahead of where the story is now, and it starts with Donovan Desmond dying in a plane crash. and then it's just sort of how the cold war grows from there, Loid has to fake his death, Yuri evacuates Yor and Anya, it's a whole thing. a whole, very messy, very chaotic...thing. :)

I've already started writing it. I'm maybe a chapter into it.

34. how do you name characters and places?

characters: baby name lists. so many baby name lists. the targeted ads I get make my mother-in-law VERY curious and happy.

places: I tend to come up with a connecting theme for a place. so like, for the Earth Kingdom: a lot of actual real-life Chinese towns/cities are named sort-of based on their location (Bei Jing: Northern Capital). so, in Eight Years Later, the few smaller EK towns I created are named after the location they're at. however, for the Fire Nation in EYL, because I kind of view the cultural side of the Fire Nation as a pan-Asian country made up of a whole collection of cultures, each island I've "named" is just a "firebender associated" word from different Southeast Asian languages. so like, in EYL, Araw Island is "Day" in Filipino/Tagalog (don't remember exactly which one, sorry!), Moesashi Island is "Embers" in Japanese, and so on.

(fun fact: Mosu actually has MANY meanings...such as "ember" and "humble"...he's kinda the only character in EYL, at least, that I didn't find from a baby name list and instead went the language route - but it is an actual name, also, I think...I'm pretty sure I found it somewhere...it's been years at this point, apologies)

35. tell us about a character who's very different than you who you love a whole lot.

Ty Lee. I am not that bubbly and positive. I wish I could be. I know she's hiding mountains of hurt, which honestly, aren't we all? but she's able to put on a very compelling facade to get through her day, and I'm not sure if that's admirable or even more depressing. but I like to think that post-canon Ty Lee is very happy and doesn't have to fake it.

64. what is your favorite title for a fic you've read?

people can be real clever with their titles, and I wish I had that skill. I really like goofy, silly titles. little jokes and what not. I don't have any immediately in mind, I tend to forget details like that, but scrolling through my Ao3 history, I found this one and it made me chuckle:

Mission Impossible: Loid teaches Yor to cook

(^ pretty much all I read at the moment are cute little domestic one-shots, so...this is cute and silly and sweet)

thanks for the asks! in true starlight fashion, I wrote WAY too much, haha

[thebreakfastgenie]

one 🔥 for mash, one 🔥 for tww

These won't be new because I post my unpopular opinions all the time lol but

MASH:

There is a very obvious "king of repression" in MASH. It's Margaret. Margaret struggles to admitting she's feeling anything or experiencing negative effects from the war to anyone. If there is anyone Sidney is dying to put under a microscope, it's her, although I don't think he sees any of them that way; they're his friends and he likes being able to help them, they're not lab rats. Margaret has an entire conversation with Sidney wherein she's denying feeling anything at all, while expressing sublimated rage, and basically projecting, as she's trying to offer him advice. In fact, rage is one of the few emotions she ever feels comfortable expressing. One of the only people who can get past her walls is Hawkeye, and in Comrades in Arms she even falls back on rage with him.

Margaret's second conversation with Sidney is mostly comic relief and unfortunately dominated by early installment weirdness Charles ship tease, but it goes very similarly. She makes claims about other people while seemingly unaware of her own feelings and behavior, and she yells a lot.

Margaret says she's not a very open person. We see her struggle to form relationships, including with the other nurses, because she is so closed off. She's lonely, but she pushes people away. It's hard for her to admit she wants or needs anything. She hates to show any kind of vulnerability.

And yet we can see Margaret be compassionate! With the other characters in the later seasons, and with the patients throughout. She does acknowledge emotions, just not her own, because that would be too dangerous.

These are all traits you rarely get to see in a female character and I for one owe Loretta Swit my life.

In the spirit of the game, I'll get a little spicy:

I think the reason the fandom devotes so much time to the repressed BJ headcanon--which is just that, a headcanon-when Margaret is right there doing it in canon and gets very little attention is that people struggle to see female characters as complex. Emotional repression in particular tends to be associated with men; we see this all the time in society. This is not a problem specific to this fandom; it's a reflection of how we are taught to view women that manifests in every fandom. I do think Margaret is a prime example of it.

TWW:

I don't like Donna's arc in season 6. I think it loses sight of the foundation of the character, which is my criticism of a lot of seasons 5 and 6. I hate the "shallow girlboss feminism" critique, but if the shoe fits... We're supposed to believe Donna is overqualified for her position and Josh has been unfairly holding her back. This is simply not the case. There wasn't really a ladder for Donna to move up. She was very good at her job, so Josh had every professional reason to keep her.

None of the other assistants are portrayed as being treated unfairly. Mrs. Landingham, Debbie, Bonnie, Ginger, and Carol are all career assistants. That's a real job! Donna also has no formal qualifications and no relevant experience prior to the Bartlet campaign. The whole point of Donna was that this silly, slightly flaky young college dropout is actually extremely smart and capable. Donna not wanting to remain an assistant makes sense, but she wasn't wronged. The job offer she gets in season 4 is lucrative, but it's for a start-up, where formal qualifications are less important than in, say, the White House, and they're more free to emphasize her on-the-job experience. Donna getting as high a position she as she does on the Russell campaign is frankly absurd and in my opinion a product of it being a convenient way to have two main characters handle those campaign scenes.

Once Donna does get successful, she jettisons most of her personality in favor of being Competent and occasionally the only moral one (2162 Votes; Donna is the moral compass of the show but the way that was presented bugged me). And Josh was right, if a bit dramatic, when he said he was the victim. Donna quit without giving notice! That's pretty unprofessional! Donna was so full of shit when she accused him of keeping her in grunt-level servitude, when we've seen the responsibilities she's been given. And like... knowing how he liked his food was part of her job. It's uncomfortable to admit but Josh did give her a career. That doesn't mean she's beholden to him forever, but it happened. In Impact Winter, she never told Josh what the meeting she wanted to have was about or that it was important until the last minute. She also knows better than literally anyone that his meetings get rescheduled all the time because that's the White House, and him not prioritizing her meeting over various urgent situations is not personal. Maybe if the show had done a better job of showing him dismissing her and taking her for granted as an ongoing pattern I would buy it, but they didn't.

Even in the Josh/Donna resolution in season 7, Donna has to be Cool and Right even at the expense of making sense. Josh is the first one who brings up talking (and even indicated he wanted to way back in Election Day, which she ignored), but we're supposed to believe it's a sign that he's panicking about commitment when he doesn't want to do it while badly jet-lagged? It's all the tables have turned, Josh is pining for Donna, until Donna's the one setting deadlines. All in all it made the character much less enjoyable for me and unintentionally sent the message that women can't have personality and success. Iirc, CJ gets a lot less fun material once she becomes chief of staff, too.

[pokemonshelterstories]

got any tips for helping a skiddish Skiddo socialize more easily? He tends to try and hide or be on his own when interacting wi TH other Pokémon.

hmm...well, first, get him checked over at a vet. skiddo are herding pokemon, and if he's isolating himself, that can be an indication that something is wrong medically.

but, as with introducing any pokemon to new companions, make sure that you do it in a neutral environment and that you make it a positive experience! don't try to introduce him to new pokemon in his own territory, and give him lots of treats and praise for ANY good interaction he has, no matter how short. it might take some time, but eventually he'll start to associate meeting new pokemon with good things.

make sure that you're pretty selective about what pokemon he's meeting right now, too. ideally, a calm, well-socialized grass type would be the best pokemon to have him meet. wouldn't want to start him off with, like, a charizard lol

[ren-shonen]

Returning fire: time to Be Seen friendo

"There's A Lot Going On Actually And It Can Get Messy" is a favorite genre

Likes blue as a motif color (for various symbolic reasons but if I had to pick one, maybe a hint at the ever lingering sense of feeling "blue"/lonely that they just can't shake?)

Very inspired by music, but especially lyrics

Drawn to characters who are "fishes out of water" so to speak, whether they're in a different physical environment from where they grew up, or in a new social circle/status that they're not used to having (shoutout to Rhenbraen for ending up in BOTH types at once)

Also characters who struggle with the balance between maintaining their independence and leaning on others for help/support

Symbolic 👏 Locations 👏 and/or Landmarks 👏👏 (whether for in-game screenshots like FFXIV or fanfic settings for characters to meet up at)

(Much like you did I kinda cheated for some of these since we've talked about favorite themes and motifs before but I can point to your writing entries and go "Right there, Exhibit A")

(Hello! This lovely ask prompted an absolute ramble, but since I intend to reblog this to my FFXIV blog also, I must apologize in advance for not putting this under a readmore)

A Lot Going On: You're SO right. 😅 I do like the layers, and I like peeling them back.

blue: Yes, I sure do end up with a lot of OCs with blue theming, don't I? Also, I had it pointed out once that blue shows up more than once in my BNHA fics, specifically as the color of the sky in the early morning, before sunrise. I promptly went "y'know.... huh" because I associate that time of day with having been up all night and, yeah, with a certain deep loneliness or sometimes solitude (perhaps funnily, my motif color for myself is red!)

lyrics: very yes. Especially lyrics. Almost all of my BNHA fics and FFXIV writings have a song associated with them, and several of the fics have lyric titles (as is tradition XD)

fish out of water: You're on to something here for sure, because this is true of very many of my FFXIV characters!

I suspect this may stem primarily from my enjoyment of Putting Characters in Situations that they then have to deal with, and being far from home and the familiar is a great way to do that. FFXIV's setting also makes it easy (practically necessary) to do this with any character whose lore origins place them outside of Eorzea, since they'd have to have a reason to travel there. As a result, I often employ it as a plot device to "shake things up" — like the most minor version of the isekai trope, perhaps. So I'd say it's less "drawn to" and more "tend to deliberately engineer," lol!

It may amuse you to know that Rhenbraen actually was very firmly embedded in their home environment for a BIG initial chunk of their story, and trying to figure out how to maneuver things so they would leave it was a major undertaking. (They were so stuck. SO stuck.)

...arguably, "being forced out of one's home environment" in my writing is usually a spur toward growth and positive change, even if it comes with significant growing pains.

Relatedly, I do have a personal theme of "you can't go home again" that shows up for almost all of my OCs, even the ones who have literally returned to their home environments.

I'm not sure if this also shows up in my BNHA stuff. I think there, it's more general sense of the world changing around the characters, and changing the characters, too? of time continuing and bringing with it new circumstances and situations, some of which are painful? Like Izuku having to confront being touch-starved for the first time when he moved into the dorms ("Distance and Weight"), which is a not-uncommon teenage/young adult experience. Now that I think about it, that's a good example of the second type you talked about (different social circumstance).

independence/support: oooh that's a fun one to ponder. (I wonder if I have any characters who lean toward the be-supported side? Maybe Renan? Zedyr?) Definitely shows up as a prominent theme in my BNHA stuff, though, at least on the "trouble asking for help" side. *cough*Izuku*cough*

landmarks: ooh interesting one. You know, this one actually is a bit personal/about me as the writer, even if I'm not totally sure it reaches beyond Rhenbraen's symbolic attachment to the Lominsan lighthouse (have to think about that one! but it feels right....) I'll message you to tell you more about the specifics. :D

[the-kings-of-games]

What’s your thoughts on the Aki x Yusei pairing? Or rather, their interactions in the series?

Faith—Don’t Ship It

Why don’t you ship it?

I unfortunately don't find Akiza's and Yūsei's relationship that interesting I guess. 🤔 I never drove that deep into Akiza as a character and tend to use her in my writing in the background or support, so I never developed anything with her besides maybe being friends with Crow and Jack in her own way, lmao. But not Yūsei, who I also have the most difficulty writing out of the three boys.

I guess I have a hard time imagining Akiza and Yūsei doing things together, though that "date" episode provided great material. To me, Yūsei's mind is always wandering, code and engineering the bricks of the road to the future, and Akiza is always trailing after him from afar. Honestly, it's not a bad dynamic, but it's ultimately missing key components that I need to enjoy said dynamic, lmao.

Also, I had this one experience with a shipper that really rubbed me the wrong way, and the association persist.

What would have made you like it?

Nothing as far as I know. 030 I wasn't even shipping Faith before seeing Crow; I was shipping Kingcrab from the start, lmao. I love childhood friends who also antagonistuc and contrasting, so anything else would've dust in its wind. (EXCEPT for Kizuna, lol. It got better actually.) Even as Akiza's and Yūsei's friendship grows, Faith strings not a tune for me.

Despite not shipping it, do you have anything positive to say about it?

It's a cute ship, and I appreciates all the art and fics people have made for them. ^^ And if it counts, I don't mind Faith (usually in the context of Kizuna)—as I said before, I crackship if it's horny or funny enough, lmao, but I can definitely see Yūsei genuinely loving Akiza in that way. (It's just that for me, it doesn't work out because they want and expect different things from a romantic relationship. I actually wrote a fic about it, lolololololol. Bittersweet ending.

Thanks for asking, @ctaylor108!

Send me a ship and I’ll answer three questions based on if I ship it or not.

[merlions]

Hi! It’s so cool to read about your synesthesia!

Synesthesia is something that is experienced in so many different ways. It’s probably as common for a synesthete to feel like it helps them (like your reading) as it is for it to create problems (like difficulty with basic math because the colors or personalities don’t line up.) Personally, my grapheme-colors don’t have much of an negative or positive impact on my life, they’re just kinda there.

Synesthesia can also generally be sorted into “projective” and “associative” types. For example, I’m an associator with grapheme-color, so I know the colors but don’t see them, while some people actually experience seeing the colors with words and letters! My impression is that synesthetes with projective synesthesia experience more impacts from it on their lives.

I hope this doesn’t come off as over-explaining. I don’t know how much you already know about synesthesia but I always think it’s so exciting when people figure out that they have it!

(Also I loved LOTR and could not get into Dune, I think it might also just not be as good)

You're not over-explaining at all, I love learning new info, especially from someone with lots of interest in the subject!! And it's super cool to hear from someone else with the same type of synesthesia! :) The words for associative versus projective synesthesia is super helpful to know (and very validating lol). I definitely fall on the associative side.

Even when I didnt really understand I had synesthesia, I have always felt the same way - that I always feel the colors there, but otherwise it's never really had an impact on my life in any perceivable way, which was why I thought it was normal and everyone had it hahaha. I think some part of my brain sorts "difference" and "disorder" into the same pile which is probably some internalized ableism I should address. Also I think that's why I never considered it was the problem I was having with Dune. Maybe it's just such an extreme example of all the names being the same color to me that it interfered for the first time?

Also, WOW, I had never considered it would impact math?? I have always scored really high on math CONCEPTS but really really struggled and failed when doing actual calculations. I wonder if that's related too, I'll have to think more about that! (Honestly, numbers have more muted colors to me, so maybe it's just that I find it more boring to look at and don't pay attention to details lmao)

(Sadly I tend to agree that maybe Dune just isnt something I like. Even watching the newer movie, or the 1984 one, it seems like there are like a couple of REALLY powerful moments but the rest feels very...slow and arduous and flat or empty somehow, like walking on an infinite sand dune lmao. A story whose form describes its subject matter I guess hahaha)

[shxtodxroki]

Hii there!! Im soo excited to get bnha matchup! Can i have a matchup with bnha boys please?

Im an infj, my hobbies are crafting, drawing, and workout.

I guess im a calculative person, i manage my money very strictly. I can be very sociable with my friends but it tends to drain me soo much when i get alone. I like to have a solo date by myself and im not afraid to explore alone. Im self aware with my surrounding and i have tendency to judge people before i talk with them so that i can predict which is the right way to behave with them

Thank you soo much! I wish you a happy day🥰🥰

Hi hi there anonie, thak you so much for sending in a match-up request! I know you sent this ask in a while ago so I hope you still end up seeing this somehow, I had fun writing this and I hope you enjoy it too if it reaches you! :)

I’d Match You With: 

Shoto Todoroki! 

Reasoning:

Shoto’s very similar to you in a lot of ways when it comes to needing a mix between alone time and time to socialize, and the two of you work well together and complement one another’s personalities and needs pretty well overall.

Headcanons About Your Relationship:

- Shoto notices how you’re always very careful and calculative when it comes to your money, so oftentimes he will buy you things so that you don’t have to stress about it. Not because he thinks you can’t pay for yourself, he knows you’re perfectly capable of managing your money how you please, but he has the means to treat you and he likes giving you gifts or buying you meals sometimes, it just makes him happy to see you happy and not have to be so careful about your decision-making :>

- Shoto absolutely loves spending time with you, but he’s also someone who needs some time alone to unwind every once in a while, so he’s more than happy to let you have your own alone time when you need it. You can go on a little adventure on your own, and he’ll rest or read a book at home until you’re both recharged and ready to spend more time together!

- Shoto likes doing cute little crafts with you! Honestly at first he wasn’t sure about the idea and wasn’t all that interested, but it was something you cared about and something you could do together, so he decided to give it a try and ended up really enjoying it! :)

- I’m not gonna lie, though, he kinda sucked at it at first lol. He had all the parts and steps correct, he just didn’t have the artistic touch to make them look as cute as you do at first, but he gets better with time :> And he loves giving you the little crafts he makes once he’s done, he’s really proud of his efforts and wants to share them with you!

- Shoto honestly just isn’t a super artistic person in general, so he’s not much of a drawer/artist himself. But because he doesn’t know much about art, he finds it really fascinating to watch you while you work! He loves watching the ways you use and layer different colors, it’s such a fascinating process to him and he’ll happily watch you draw whenever you’re willing to let him

- And if you ever gift him any of your drawings, especially if it’s a drawing of him or something like that, he will literally cherish it forever :’) That drawing is absolutely getting framed and placed on his bedside table so he can see your wonderful work all the time, I have no doubt about this

- Shoto is totally down to work out with you! He knows he needs to stay in shape and well-trained in order to perform his duties as a hero course student well, but for a long time training had negative, painful associations for him because of his father, so working out and training with you turns the experience into a much more positive, productive one for him :)

- Shoto’s the type of boyfriend to tell you about every little accomplishment he has, he just wants to make you proud of him aaaa he’s literally the cutest :’) Any time he makes progress in one of his workouts or anything like that he’s telling you almost immediately, even if it’s completely mundane lol pls just tell him how amazing he did and that you’re proud of him <3

Song For Your Relationship:

Beautiful People by Ed Sheeran Feat. Khalid :)

[lunapwrites]

For the tarot game: 4, 14, 21, and 22!

Hello!!

4 - Have I ever gotten a deck as a gift?

I have! Two, as a matter of fact. As I mentioned in my previous ask, one (the Archaeon deck) was just sort of given to me after my friend realized I was a better fit for it than she was, but the other one - my first one - I received as a gift for my thirteenth birthday. I still have this deck, though I don't tend to use it often (it tends to be a bit of a yes-man, and just tells me what I want to hear.) However, the art style was super unique - all collages and quilting patterns. I also recall that the pages and knights were referred to as princesses and princes, which has always thrown me off a bit, but then I am realizing that none of my decks call pages the same thing, so. Here we are lmao.

14 - What's something that will make me nope out on a deck immediately?

Hmmm, this is tough, since I don't have a ton of experience with decks I don't already own. But I have come across a few where for whatever reason the imagery just makes my skin crawl. Not because they're horror decks (I love horror decks!) but because something just isn't sitting right with me. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to that. I also tend to try and stray away from exact duplicates of the Rider-Waite imagery, since I just don't connect with the symbolism there.

21 - When I'm considering getting a new deck, what do I look for? Art style, physical feel of the cards, deck theme, any particular card whose design you always check?

So, the only deck that I've purchased for myself is the Linestrider deck, so I can really only speak to my experience on that occasion. It's mostly art style - I love when cards are beautiful, and I have an easier time (in general) connecting with imagery when I enjoy looking at it lol. What drew me to the Linestrider deck, for instance, was the watercolor style. It was so much lighter and airier than my existing two decks, and as I've learned more about it, I find that the symbolism tends to be clearer, and I can differentiate between positive and negative associations better. That's an experience I'll be carrying with me into future deck acquisitions. But the next thing that I tend to look for is general theme - there's a deck that I recall seeing years and years ago that was Fairy themed, but also that the cards had different artistic styles depending on whether you were viewing them upright or reversed - Seelie and Unseelie courts. I have always loved that concept, and the clear visual cue of "here's what this represents" in a way that doesn't leave me digging for the book lol. But the Linestrider deck had a nature theme that I really felt I needed more of - lots of plants and animals. It's a very soothing deck to use.

22 - Free space

Ooooh fun haha. I suppose I can talk about how over the years I've been fascinated by the process of discovering the different "personalities" of my decks. As mentioned above, my first deck really has a tough time telling me anything I don't want to hear - it's not one I can use to read for myself, and since that's how I tend to practice... well, it's been seeing a lot of the inside of its bag. :( I may take it for a spin soon and see if we can't work on that, seeing as it's been probably about a decade lol. My Archaeon deck is rude. Not necessarily in a bad way, though... it's just very blunt, and it has ZERO qualms about telling me I'm being an idiot about something. It also tends to "throw" cards at me during shuffling, which I will set aside as additional "advice" lol. The Linestrider deck... I'm getting the sense that it's a bit more self-contained, and doesn't seem to mind as much if I get the message it's giving me right away or not. Accuracy-wise it is fairly close to the Archaeon deck, but it leaves a lot more room for interpretation, and half the time I only get the message in retrospect. I'm getting a bit better about this, though, and it's been a fantastic tool to use in terms of deepening my understanding of the cards themselves.

It's like... if all of these decks were teachers, my first deck is like a kindergarten teacher, while my other two are the two flavors of high school teachers: the straight-talking one that admits that you're probably never going to need to know wtf Avogadro's Number is past the final, and the one that challenges you to think for yourself instead of feeding you the exact answers you need. It's a nice combination.

Thank you for the ask!

[unionizedwizard]

It's funny that you mentioned rupi kaur because she was in my mind when i replied to your ask (also sorry if it's a bit nonsensical i had LITERALLY just woke up 13 seconds before and was already #hating). Also i'll be honest part of my visceral reaction stems from my personal experience where everything that was deemed safe, cozy, good, comforting, etc. was actually a living nightmare and i kept getting gaslit about it lol so i sort of grew up with an inverted sense of values where, typically, wholesome cutesy fantasies were lies and extremely nefarious in an anxiety-inducing way while more violent (if not straight-up horrific) stories felt a lot more real and honest. i know i talk about it a lot but i think the truman show is the closest equivalent i can point at in terms of. vibes?

specifically when it comes to cutesy, hollow, forcefully-positive fiction or art (bonus if theyre riddled with the therapyspeak du jour) what i resent is their association with childhood. and specifically the false and dangerous narrative that children are some kind of positive, sheltered, innocent and stupid little things who don't understand or experience violence. this one admittedly is aimed at the "duh it sucks. that's because it's for children"

but yeah that's what you said, i think it all boils down to the presumed and proclaimed "apolitical" quality of "pure entertainment", which is crazy because you can NEVER see the political and ideological biases and pressures than in "pure entertainement" and "wholesome aspirational and comforting" fiction. sidenote but i'm reading agatha christie novels these days and it's CRAZY how politically charged and conservatively ideologically inclined they are and i'll have to talk about it at some point lol but anyway

i think what really bothers me is when something is dishonest. untrue. and comforting/aspirational/cozy fiction especially tends to do so by revealing what is thought of as inherently safe, aspirational, beautiful, and free from conflict. somehow it's always socially and politically conservative with an underlying colonial motif. huh. funny how that works. surely this is nothing to worry about though. doesn't it make you feel GOOD?

edit: also i focused on the bad ones here but i mean. as far as fiction goes, "relatively low stakes drama in a domestic setting" is my favorite sort of plot. like i mean my favorite novel of all times is madame bovary (arguably she died of being assigned cutesy cottagecore at societal exportations. comrade emma). i'm not big on action or thrillers or sci-fi or anything. it's not a TASTE situation. and honestly there are great works of "cottagecore" fiction that are not ethically bankrupt or anything, like Moomins for example. i LOVE moomins. it's cute and cottagecore but it's HONEST. like it's not simply about ignoring the world! and it's no coincidence that tove jansson was very much a leftist lol

do you think your derision for twee stuff is self-contained or do you think it's heavily influenced by how prevalent and aggressively marketed that stuff is

i think it's both. and the fact that it's aggressively presented as "innocent" and wholesome and devoid of, like, political biases or effects or whatever. which is funny because i LOVE pretty things, i love softness in general too, it's not that i'm like, an edgelord who hisses at anything pink that enters his field of vision.... i think that it's the insincerity and artificiality of it that really annoys me, and the fact that (AS ANON PROVED JUST NOW) it's generally considered "too innocent" to be criticized or even thought of critically at all. and youre pressured into pretending it's like. charming or whatever and youre supposed to be as stupid than the thing itself. obviously this is coupled with the fact these things are marketed towards children and women (yikes) hence the infantilization. maybe we deserve better. is just what i'm sayingggggg

[libraincarnate]

astrology notes: 2 🌱

quick note: i'm absolutely not an astrologer. these are just a culmination of some observations, thoughts, theories, and personal experience. with that being said, i'm still learning along the way & i may come back to edit this post to make corrections. above all this is just for fun. lastly, keep in mind that i’m not reading your birth chart and i know nothing about you. these are just some possibilities that may or may not apply to you. enjoy!

🕊 gemini in the 1st house:

curious about yourself and wanting to understand yourself. you like learning about yourself and may enjoy self-improvement. wanting to know why you like/do this and that. quick to notice something new about yourself like a new interest, hobby, desire, style, physical change, habit, and personality trait.

scorpio in the 1st house:

there is no point in hiding from yourself. the pain, traumas, things of the past, your dark side, fears, all these things are brought to the surface so that you can see and deal with them. this is needed to bring about the transformation. to shed the old skin.

capricorn in the 1st house:

confronting yourself. your flaws, your bad traits, the choices you made, what areas you lack discipline, being hard on yourself, being aware of your strengths and weaknesses. it causes you to be honest with yourself. to reflect on yourself, to be and do better. 

^ having one of the 3 placements above can make someone very self aware and introspection can one of their strengths.

🕊 positive aspects between asteroid kiss (8267) and venus: being a good kisser, you love kissing, probably kiss your lover a lot, and you’ve been told you’re a good kisser.

🕊 2nd or 8th house stellium: money being a prominent factor in your life whether it be due to inheritance, marrying someone wealthy, having a job involving finance or managing money, or people giving you money just because.

🕊 capricorn in the 5th house: may initially feel like you aren’t creative but later you start to see that you actually are. someone who takes their talents seriously. might struggle with finding a balance between work & play. you can feel guilty and lazy for having too much fun, guilty when you’re not working which makes it hard to relax and enjoy your hobbies.

🕊 mars/pluto in 6th house: you’re light headed and about to throw up why are you still forcing yourself to work? you might need to pay attention/listen to your body more. learn to balance the energy you put into your work and health. if you work too hard you can get sick, and if you’re sick it’s hard to be productive which leaves you miserable. you are human, respect your limits. learn how to take a break.

🕊 aries moon men have the prettiest eyes.

🕊 having a lot of opposite aspects: can make you feel split, half & half, or like a walking paradox. you’re this but you’re also that, you are the synonym and the antonym, you’re both night and day, gray because you're both black and white. this can mean you have an interesting personality yet some confusion when it comes to understanding yourself and others understanding you.

🕊 lilith/venus in the 11th: your friends tend to have a crush on you or flirt with you. but lilith here might make your friends more hesitant to flirt or pursue you romantically. you could have a beloved/alluring/powerful presence on social media, easily attracting followers and building some kind of a presence because there is “something” about you.

🕊 taurus: when it comes to taurus & food (hear me out lol), the emphasis is usually on gluttony. this can be true but wait, there’s more!

food brings comfort (might be emotional eaters), cooking might make them feel beautiful and sensual, cooking for themselves is a form of self care and self love and cooking for others can be a love language. sharing a meal can create a bond and connection with others. their creativity may be used & seen in the recipes they create.

taurus is also associated with the mouth/throat and venus (taurus’ ruling planet) & venus is associated with pleasure so it makes sense why they like to eat.

furthermore, they could be farmers, gardeners, or be interested/knowledgeable in gastronomy, agriculture, or herbs/plants.

🕊 uranus-moon aspects: struggling with emotional stability which may lead to rebellion or acting out of order. may not be able to rely on your mom, and instead could find comfort in your friends. philanthropic deeds or making a contribution to society can be cathartic and liberating.

if you read this until the end I hope you enjoyed it & thank you so much for reading. ♥︎♥︎♥︎, those hearts are for you.