#-> also I understand that lots of box sets use the same base and often end up with an empty back

[ghosttrolls]

I got this at a mall today, it was still shrink wrapped when I bought it so as far as I could tell it was mint. But I opened it and I think there's a disc missing, i think maybe it's Disc 2 of season 2, part 1 (that's a mouthful, but that is how they chose to label these...). I looked online and I'm supposed to have 10 DVDs in here but I've counted over and over and there's only nine. Here's pictures of the DVDs in the set:

I think the spread where Danny on a green background is opposite Vlad is supposed to have another dvd in between. Am I understanding this right? I can't play these to verify until later, I just wanted to see what the box art looked like on the inside...

#ghostly posts #mannn I bought this at a mall that sells used media. do they even make these anymore to be able to complete the series??? #the mall was literally in a different state I paid SALES TAX to not get the full set abskdndbdh #danny phantom #-> also I understand that lots of box sets use the same base and often end up with an empty back #so like that empty slot is not what makes me think I'm missing one #what made me confused is how there's like #disc 1 season 2 part 1. and then disc 1 season 2 part 2. and then disc 2 season 2 part 2. #I was like 'wouldn't part 1 of season 2 be equally as long as part 2?' #and I have seen multiple sources say that there's ten discs after looking it up.

[dirtybg3confessions]

FAQs

Help! I can't see the confessions! What is your policy on Dead Dove: Do Not Eat?

Blog Moderation FAQs

How do I submit a confession?

You can send your naughty, naughty confessions anonymously through the ask box. (Make sure you hit the toggle!) You can also submit posts, though those aren't technically anonymous. But rest assured, anything you submit stays between us and Loviatar, darling- they'll be edited and posted in the same manner as the others.

When will my confession be posted?

Right now, the inbox is staying steady at 2,000+ open asks (that's 167 days of posts!) at a time. Generally, this means that confessions are edited and added to the queue around 4-6 months after they're submitted, and then posted generally within a week after that. Tumblr probably did not eat your ask, though we understand the concern as tumblr hungers for asks the same way Gale hungers for your boots.

How often do you post?

The queue is set to post 12 posts a day over 24 hours. This means that there's roughly one post every 2 hours. This is a change from the prior settings.

In what order are confessions posted?

Generally, confessions will be posted in roughly the same order they're received. Order will be adjusted within a "batch" to make sure we're generally not double or triple posting the same character in a row.

Sometimes an ask may take a little longer based on the complexity. How many characters are in this confession? Do we need to hunt down unnamed goblin #3 who is a secret appearance in the goblin camp if and only if you're wearing a purple hat? These confessions will be posted- but may take a little bit longer.

Do you double post confessions?

No. Every confession is unique. Though, fandoms tend to go through "phases" where a lot of people have similar ideas about the same character for a burst of time, which can lead to similar confessions. Additionally, people tend to write with a "voice" so when the same anon is writing for a different character (or the same one), it may read similar to an earlier confession.

How do you tag your posts?

Generally, everything receives bg3 and dirty confessions tags. From there, we tag the characters involved. Recently, we have begun tagging more extreme kinks beyond the standard smut someone scrolling on "Dirty Baldur's Gate 3 Confessions" can reasonably expect to see.

If there's something specific you see that you would like us to tag, a simple "Hey, can you please tag x thing?" in the ask box goes a long way. Detect thoughts was not on our spell list.

Do you post every confession you receive?

We are the wardens, not the judge. We post 99.9% of confessions we receive. Your kinks won't get you shamed here- but being rude to other confessors will. It's all in good fun and some lighthearted teasing is one thing, but don't be mean (without consent, anyway).

Ultimately, your mods reserve the right to decide whether or not to post a confession.

Can I be a mod?

DBG3 is not currently looking for mods, but an announcement will be made when/if that changes!

Hopefully this has answered most of your burning questions. Now...

Turn and face the wall, darling.

#not confessions #faq

[imsobadatnicknames2]

top 5 ttrpgs for beginners

Sorry that this one took me a bit longer to answer than all the other Top 5 asks :p i wanted to explain a bit of my reasoning behind it and this gave me q chance to ramble a bit about something that bothers me lol

So, first of all I want to talk about what TO ME makes something a good beginner RPG.

Ramble:

I've talked a bit in the past about how I have sort of a bone to pick with the way so many people, when asked for recs for beginner TTRPGs, immediately decide to recommend extremely rules-light/minimalist/one-page RPGs (Hacks of Lasers&Feelings in particular seem to be somewhat popular on this front), when IMO these types of RPGs are at their best when played by an experienced group (or at the very least with least one very experienced player/GM who can provide some guidance to the others). I think a lot of ppl seem to have the impression that simpler mechanics inherently make a game more beginner-friendly, and that thus the most beginner-friendly games are inherently gonna be the ones with the simplest mechanics. And while this is true to an extent (a 700-page RPG with tons of complicated mechanics to remember is obviously gonna be inaccessible to beginners), when you consider that mechanics exist to DELEGATE decisions about the fiction away from the players and the GM so that they don't have to manually arbitrate them every time, there is point where less mechanics are gonna make harder for new players because it means there's more thing they're gonna have to find a way to arbitrate on and decide by themselves, and that's a skill that takes time to develop. An experienced group can probably get a ton of mileage out of a system that essentially ammounts to "the GM describes the world. The players describe what their characters do, and the GM describes how the world reacrs. When the outcome of a player action is uncertain, then [simple resolution mechanic]" but a beginner group is gonna be a little lost. Especially if the game, like many of these types of games, includes practically nothing in terms of GM tools. So I think recommending beginner RPGs solely on the base of how simple they are is well-intentioned but misguided.

(Ramble over)

So, some of what, to me, makes something a good beginner RPG is

Rules provide enough support that the group won't have to constantly be figuring out how to adjudicate stuff on the fly, but they're simple and flexible enough that they're easy to remember and learning them doesn't feel like a daunting task like it does with a certain game (*cough cough* D&D)

Relatively short and uni timidating. Maybe between like 20 and 100 pages. Players should be able to read through the rules and mechanics in one sitting.

Plenty of examples of play, often a good example of play is what makes a game's rules really *click* for a new player.

Relatively quick and painless to start running for the first time. Character creation should be quick and snappy, and if possible a short pre-written adventure (hopefully with some room to be expanded into something larger) should be included within the same book and ready to run out of the box. Even if your group doesn't like using prewritten adventures, having a *good* prewritten adventure can be a huge help in understanding how to write/design them.

Solid set of GM tools and resources (if it's a game with a GM, of course)

Optionally, plenty of compatible material to either use or take inspo from.

So, I think my recs would for beginner games would be...

Mausritter

If any of you have EVER heard me talk about RPGs you knew Mausritter was gonna be here TBH. I've repeatedly talked about it being one of my favorite RPGs and also that I consider it pretty much an ideal introduction to the hobby. I think the woodland critter theme is extremely charming and attractive for people of any age, while the slightly darker elements that rear their head from time to time keep it from feeling too childish.

The mechanics are simple and flexible but still provide enough structure that even a new GM will rarely if ever be at a loss about how to resolve a particular action. They're familiar to anyone who's played a dungeon game while still being extremely streamlined. 3 stats with the main action resolution being roll-under tests, no classes, characters are defined mostly by their inventory, all attacks auto hit and initiative is extremely streamlined, which keeps combat quick and dynamic, etc. And the mechanics are pretty short and esy to digest too, the players' section of the rulebook only takes 18 pages, including stuff like inventory tables and examples of play, and the website features a handy one.page rules summary (which also comes with the box set)

It's super easy to get running: character creation takes a couple minutes at most, and it features both a simple adventure and hexcrawl that can be used right out of the box with plenty of interesting directions to expand for further adventures.

Now, Mausritter takes most of its mechanics from Into The Odd, so a lot of its virtues come to it, but I think the few changes it made DO make mausritter most beginner-friendly, such as its inventory system which makes inventory management into a genuine challenge without having it devolve into a slog of tedious book-keeping, and the incorporation of a streamlined version of GloG's magic system, which manages to still be simple and easy without being as loose and freeform as the magic system from a lot of OSR games of similar complexity (which can be initially daunting to new players)

But what REALLY makes mausritter shine IMO is the extremely solid set of GM tools. In just a few pages mausritter manages to provide simple rules, procedures, generators and advice for running faction play, making an engaging hexcrawl, making adventure sites, and generating stuff like treasure hoards, NPCs, an adventure seeds and overal just a ton of useful stuff that takes a huge load off of the shoulders of any beginner GM.

Cairn

Lets say you're into Mausritter mechanically but your players aren't into the whole woodland creature theme and want to play something more traditional. Cairn is also built on Into The Odd's system, and takes inspiration from some of the same sources, so it's very similar mechanically. It does feature some significant differences regarding magic, character advancement, and how injury and healing work, but overall it's still mostly the same system under the hood, so a lot of what I said makes Mausritter a great introduction to the hobby mechanically still applies here (quick and flavorful character creation, dynamic and streamlined but dangerous combat, etc). It's also a classless system that features msotly inventory-defined characters, but aside from the option to randomly roll your gear, the game also offers the option of picking a gear package in case you wanna emulate a particular fantasy archetype.

Now, Cairn is a much more barebones document, and doesn't even feature examples of play or an explicit GM section with resources for running the game, which breaks with the things I said I look for in a beginner RPG. However, in this case I'm willing to forgive this because, first, Cairn's website features a plethora of first party and third party stuff that isn't featured in the book itself, including examples of play, GM procedures and tools, modular rules, and a wealh of conversions of creature stat blocks and adventures from D&D and other fantasy adventure ttrpgs.

And Second, something different that specifically distinguishes Cairn as a good example of a beginner RPG is how it explicitly outlines its philosophical and design principles, and the principles of play for both the GM and the players before it even shows you any rules, which is something that I think more games and ESPECIALLY begginer games should do. IMO the whole book is worth it just for that little section.

Troika!

Troika is a game built on the Fighting Fantasy system (which originally was less of a TTRPG system and more of an engine for a series of choose-your-own-adventure books) with a really interesting pseudo-victorian space opera weird gonzo setting which is a load of fun. It has very simple 2d6 mechanics, with characters having three stats (Stamina, Skill, and Luck), and being mostly defined by their inventory and the special skills from their background. Character creation is quick and snappy. The game gives you 36 weird and extremely creative character backgrounds, but creating a custom background is as easy as coming up with a concept and the names of a couple special skills that support that concept. It also has a very unique initiative system which might be a little divisive but which I DO find fun an interesting.

While it lacks many of the GM tools I praised Mausritter for, it makes up a little bit for it with an initial adventure that does a wonderful job at naturally introducing the weirdness of the setting, and which at the end presents a ton of opportunities to segway into a variety of urban adventures.

Now, a lot of beginners come into RPGs specifically looking for a D&D-type fantasy game (which is a problem because D&D is a pretty bad option for a beginner RPG) so for those types of players I would recommend

The Black Hack

The Black Hack is probably my favorite game for doing D&D-style fantasy roleplaying. It's a game that at its core uses the original 1974 white box edition of D&D for inspiration, but modernizes, reimagines, and streamlines every aspect of it to be one of the most simple yet elegant D&D-like experiences out there. For example, TBH uses the six stat array that all D&D players know and love, and with the same 3-18 point range, but does away with the attribute score / attribute modifier dichotomy, instead building its entire system around the attribute scores, with all rolls in the game being roll-under tests for a relevant attribute (including initiative, attack/defense rolls, and saving throws). It also innovated some extremely elegant mechanics that went on to be very influential for other games, such as its Usage Die mechanic as a way to streamline keeping track of consumable resources. Basically, it's like if D&D actually played the way it looks in cartoons and stuff: character creation doesn't take 3 hours, every combat encounter doesn't take five hours, and you can place some emphasis on resource management without the game making you want to tear your hair out with boring bookkeeping.

And one of the coolest things about it is the way it handles compatibility. Despite taking loose at best mechanical inspiration from D&D and playing very differently from it, TBH is intentionally designed to be compatible with a wealth of old-school D&D material. While it very clearly stands as its own distinct game, it's designed in such a way that you can prety much grab any creature stat block or adventure module written for any pre-3e version of D&D and use it in The Black Hack with little to no effort in conversion required.

The first edition of the game is a pretty barebones 20-page booklet that just describes the basic game mechanics, since it was assumed you'd probably be using D&D creature stat blocks and adventures with it anyway, but the second edition was significantly expanded with a bestiary, expanded GM procedures and advice, and tool for creating anything you could want: Hexcrawls, towns, dungeons, quests, treasure hoards, NPCs, dungeon rooms, traps, secrets doors, etc. plus a short premade adventure and even a few premade unkeyed dungeon maps that you can take and key yourself if you're in a pinch for a map, which as you all know, I think GM tools are an important part of a beginner game.

The game only includes the 4 basic classes from old-school D&D (fighter, thief, cleric, magic user) but the community has made several supplements adding back more modern classes.

Now, if you're that type of player that wants a D&D-like experience and you want an alternative that's still beginner-friendly but doesn't deviate as much from D&D's design, I would suggest:

either Basic Fantasy, or Old-School Essentials (or any good retroclone of Basic D&D tbh)

BF and OSE differ a bit from each other but at their core they're both attempts to repackage a relatively faithful but slightly modernized version of the 1981 Basic/Expert D&D set, retaining mostly the same mechanics while ditching a few of the aspects that might seem counterintuitive to a modern audience (such as descending AC, which I personally don't mind but I udnerstand why a lot of people find it confusing). I'm recommending these bc I think if you're gonna play any actual D&D product, the B/X set represents D&D at its most beginner-friendly (character creation is at its quickest and simplest, combat flows faster and remain itneresting due to doing side initiative rather than individual initative, the mechanics forsurprise, stealth, and dungeon exploration actions such as looking for traps are streamlined to simple D6 rolls) while still being recognizably D&D and these retroclones put in a bit of an extra effort to make them even more accessible to modern audiences.

Now, just like The Black Hack, these retroclones are limited in their race/class choice to the classic old-school D&D human/halfling/elf/dwarf and fighter/cleric/thief/magic user, but in the case of Basic Fantasy, the community has made several race and class supplements, some of which are showcased on the official website, and in the case of OSE, the OSE: Advanced addon reintroduces many of the modern classes and races that were originally introduced in the Advanced D&D line.

Have in mind that this list is pretty limited by my own tastes and experiences. I'm very aware that the very specific type of game I tend to play and like and experiences inroducing some of my friends to the hobby completely color the scope of what I can recommend as a good beginner RPG, and that that scope is significantly limited. I also like more narrative storygame type stuff, and I don't doubt that some of them would also make a fantastic introduction to the hobby (some PbTA stuff like Ironsworn, Dungeon World and Monster of the Week comes to mind) but my experience with them is not significant enough for me to feel confident in telling which of them are good beginner RPGs.

Also note that there are several games that I consider to be more MECHANICALLY beginner-friendly than the ones I listed here, but that I avoided mentioning specifically because they offer extremely little to no support in terms of GM tools, which I think is an important and often overlooked aspect of beginner-friendliness for any game that includes a GM! But they still might be worth checking out. These include games like DURF, FLEE, OZR, A Dungeon Game, Bastards, Dungeon Reavers, Knave 1e, and Tunnel Goons.

#ttrpg

[yourmaidsp]

Hello, I’m inlove with your art style and how you draw sceneries!! I really wanna try learning how to draw backgrounds more often, do you have any tips about drawing background? Thank you!

Complete guide to Background painting:

So um thank u for asking me Caleb- chan (˃ ⌑ ˂ഃ )! Im glad u trust me on this! But I'm not actually that confident about myself on this, and as a chaotic anarchist, I'll just dump everything I know about this topic to u...

There's so much to talk about background painting, so this is going to be very long, pls bear w me here n forgive me for the broken english_(:зゝ∠)_

It's better to demonstrate with an illustration, so I'll be using this colorkey for that upcoming animated project as an example(two versions for different methods).. along with some other old pics of mine and this sketch I loosly built.

(Also just like I've mentioned in the color tutorial, this would be the only time I explain the theories n tricks, bc it takes too much time to make these.(；′⌒`) I hope ppl r okay w this?)

Purpose and rules

Well for me personally, I'd like my paintings to be rich in storytelling and emotion, rather than a pure decorative picture. So I'm providing two basic methods here, one about realistic background, another about surreal background.

We'll talk about these two in later chapters, but first, preparation.

Preparation

Like I mentioned in last tutorial, gather information before u start any project.

Some irl images —— for real life physics, I'm studying mostly reflections here.

Refs from the original material —— Ofc

Illustrations —— once you studied the irl physics, check out how other ppl deal with the same situation for inspiration, but pls don't just copy them.

Movies —— I think they're just neat (for a nice overall tone, and that helps making your work more)

You could start by painting characters on existing photos, it's a nice exercise.

Realistic

Realistic background requires the understanding of a lot of things, for me personally, proportion is the most important, bc it's the easiest mistake your viewer could spot.

If u check any tutorials on this they'll say u need to use vanishing points to create invisible grids and , I loosly made these to show u how they work

most of the time u use vanishing points to set up the whole scene, two would be enough most of the time.

( Well, or three points, if u want to do something more dramatic, fancy. Or 5 points if u want to do something even more dramatic. )

( For a more lens based logic, 3 or 5 points work best for a mock up 15-35 focal length shot.)

Do a grid using these points. and build environment following the grid.

Put your character in this environment, and their vanishing point will match the one with this environment.

Determine the lighting for your environment, one lightsource first.

Then do the shadow for your character.

(If you don't want a very detailed background this would be enough? Normally I don't do sharp and clear perspective for a more chaotic and hand crafted aesthetic.)

But again, sometimes u just need it to be extremely accurate.

So I made a model for my animation scene, it's widely used by concept artists, so if u're interested, try it out:

u don't have to make a complete set, just boxes would also help.

Surreal

No need to think about actual background this time, just do whatever u want that makes it look good in 2d composition.

u could check out my tutorial on composition on this.

For topics and ideas to put in these experimental surreal paintings, u could try thinking in a "meta" way?

Like this one, I compositioned it from the understating of texture and material : glass.

all the strokes r square-ish, making everything looks breakable.

and the composition is also square-ish, u see sharp edges for the silhouette

Um... it's something I can't explain to the fullest, but u'll get it one day...

Demonstration

And now, the demonstration: I've painted this twice, this one using Blender as the assisting tool:

My logic here is using a mild color scheme over an existing environment, using strokes following the structure.

I made mock up lightings in my model, so the lighting is easier.

the rest is just putting Butters in this set.

And this one just traditional method + eyeballing: (what I've been using recently)

Since I'm not painting over model, eyeballing the set or use the vanishing point+ grid method from earlier... then set the main tone for it (this time it's blue)

I went for a very saturated blue compairing to the other one.

Then paint the light out, for a main light source. I used yellow for a contrasting effect.

The rest is basically the same, but since it doesn't have a model under it I don't need the strokes to tenderize the solidness of an existing model...

Anyways...

I'd suggest u use whatever method that is more comfortable to you, bc I might not be that good at doing it most effectively_(:зゝ∠)_ and I'm sure you're going to find your own unique way!)

Recording of these two paintings is here, hope they're helpful to u:

Exercise and Summarize

So um, after each painting u might want to summarize. One thing I would do is to remove saturation and check if the grayscale looks good-

check what colors u used the most-

check what angle (or shots or framing) u like better-

check what lighting suits your atmosphere-

these are good for u to develop a style-

There are some tutorials on the internet on more of this topic, I'm sure ur able to find them, they'll do a better job for me I think~

And I'm sorry this came out so late! a lot of things have happened...

Hope u have a good time creating art, and have a nice day Caleb-!

-Maid

#doodle #maid's requests #art theory #art tips #sp fanart

[fuzzydreamin]

7 13 24

Starting strong I see. Thank you for the asks❤️

7. What character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because of how the fandom acts about them?

Deacon. Sometimes I find a person with really good takes, most of the time people have reduced him to being the butt of the joke who just gets sad sometimes.

I do wanna add something I've said in a previous post though: Tumblr is the place for characters to be turned into a joke with little seriousness added onto those posts intentionally. It's not that deep, and I'm not that upset about it. I don't hate Deacon at all, I like all of the companions in 4. It's just tiring when you see the same thing about the same character all the time.

I also feel like Deacon's comedic relief box within fandom has done him a huge disservice in general, as a lot of serious works tend to not include him unless he is a pivotal role within their story. I can only guess it might be because the writer believes they can't do him right, or that it would ruin the mood to have him be funny in the scenario. But... he doesn't have to be funny all the time. He isn't. You can write him being serious, or angry, or just regular levels of chill. He doesn't need to just be either an over the top jokester or sad.

13. Worst blorboficiation

I don't go there, but Mr Crispy from NV. I like villains, and if someone likes him as a villain that's fine, but the narritive itself doesn't treat him as one so you get a bunch of weird fans who don't either and think he's cool or doing the right thing.

I mean, I guess I have a problem in general when there's a rather religious character and their religion is used as a plot point to say "look how good this person is, look at the good things they are doing because they have a belief system" and those beliefs are never held up in any other light or called into question in any way.

Hell, I don't even like James in 3 because he's so religious, and he was one of the most popular characters for years (really just because of his VA). Other reasons too, but he lost points immediately for his whole life's work being based upon a bible verse.

I'm fine with religion being in things, but not when it's just "being religious makes this character a good person" and no further discussion.

24. Topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

Honestly I think most discourse online gets pretty rancid, and most of the time it's really not justified.

People are often incapable of holding civil discussion and debates online, sometimes simply due to a lack of understanding another person's tone in a text setting, but from what I've seen it's hugely from one or all parties involved already having a preconceived idea of the tone and where their 'opposition' is coming from already. And they aren't willing to lead on the idea of simple ignorance and a lack of understanding, or even that they themselves may be wrong and that that is okay too.

A discussion should be entered with the idea that one or more people can come away from it having learnt something new, or at least reached a civil and mutual understanding to plainly disagree. But everything is perceived as an attack to people online, and that only ever leads to dark and dissapointing places.

So, sorry, but this one gets a shrug from me. I can't really point to one specific thing. Just... fandom behaviour in general.

#thank you! these were some spicy ones right off the bat😂 #fuzzy.post

[abiiors]

hi! i’m the one who sent the (or one of) the anon about Brad. it’s essentially just what the other person in your ask box said about making fun of the fan base (mainly the female part.) he made a few reddit post to which everyone in the comments made fun of Brad for doing, along with the mods who deleted the post and told him to stop trying to drum up unnecessary controversy. i’m happy i now know more people are tired of his blatant misogyny towards the female fan base. i didn’t mean to cause any worry or upset towards Matty, i don’t know how much he contributes to Brad’s post. i just have been finding it strange that all Brad does is find videos of swifties/75 fans to make fun of them (Taylor herself too.) and that’s essentially his entire schtick/job. a lot of people in the reddit thread summed up my thoughts better than this could’ve. i don’t use twitter so i don’t know what people are saying there. either way i don’t think any of this is Matty’s fault, i think Brad kind of sucks and it just so happens Matty works with him here and there.

this might be a stupid place to say this, but tumblr is a lot kinder then reddit/twitter. does anybody else not like this whole thing with brad troemel? i don’t know why matty likes him/employs him. he set up a “the 1975 fan union” on instagram and posted about it on 3 or 4 reddits. majority of his post are so directly making fun of the female fan base. i understand the making fun of chronically online people who are deranged but this is just annoying. also him bringing up / posting about taylor swift (also strange if her and matty actually did date, to post about this man you work for ex-girlfriend.) sooo often. also he just says the most obvious things that anybody who has had a phone for longer than 3 days would know. he just post annoying infographics that has been all regurgitated stuff matty has been saying since like 2017 (start of abiior era.) i love matty and stuff but this era of infographics, what’s real/what’s fake, joking about what’s happening in the middle east/how there’s nothing he can do about it, and brad troemel era is so annoying. his cynicism in the start of the bfiafl era was very interesting and thought-provoking. now it’s just reusing the same boomer logic over and over. again this isn’t hate towards any fans or matty himself, just an observation from a huge fan.

combining both your asks into one, i hope you don't mind <3

i've seen a lot of opinions about this flying around, and i want to point out that we don't know for sure who's behind it but at the same time it does reek of brad and just also... a lot of misogyny in general.

i don't mind matty making fun of us in a haha light hearted way like sure some people do really take it too far and end up being the butt of the joke but someone else coming out the woodworks and making fun of people who literally only want to support their fav artists and enjoy their art and music feels like a slap in the face.

i don't want to jump to conclusions and say that matty knew or he's encouraging it or whatever because obv we don't know any of the behind th scenes but if it is really brad then i find it hard to believe that matty/the band won't know.

you, and a lot of other people have said that satvb got old really fast and to some it also feels like a shadow of atvb which i don't want to comment on because 1) i have never seen any of the shows live and 2) i feel like it's still an evolving thing and i don't want to have a fixed opinion of it until we have the full picture, i.e. the end of the tour. that's not to say tht your opinion isn't valid, i completely see where you're coming from.

based on what i know about brad from others, yeah i'm not a huge fan either but at the same time i'm not at all familiar with his art outside of his connection to the band.

anyway if it is actually him -- loser behaviour. i hope he has explosive diarrhea while proposing to the love of his life.

that's all, my apologies for the plethora of typos, i'm too hungover to correct them rn

#asks #chatty asks #the 1975 #matty healy

[rtbdltd]

4 Steps to Get Ready for Your Kitchen Renovation

There are two actions that come to mind as being the most important in getting ready for a construction project: avoid denial and prepare. Everything you need to do falls under one of these two categories. But how, specifically, can you prepare for the first day of construction? Here are the basic steps.

1. Make a list of items you need to have onsite when construction begins

Have you ordered the sink and tap? Do you have your appliance delivery scheduled?

The reason for this is that, once work starts, life gets a little more chaotic – OK, a lot more chaotic. Things such as ordering a sink will slip through your fingers, and you’ll find yourself scrambling when the contractor asks for something.

2. Establish expectations with your contractor

This isn’t just about telling the contractor whatyouexpect, this is also about the contractor and other professionals letting you know what are realistic expectations. This will make for a happier client and a more pleasant process overall.

As the homeowner, you actually do have some control over the schedule. Taking too long to finalise decisions can cause significant delays.

Don’t forget to be nice to the neighbours and tell the contractor to do the same. Let the neighbours know you’re starting a construction project and that there will be crews around. Tell them to please let you know if they have issues. Noise, debris and blocking the street with deliveries are often issues that come up with neighbours.

Set up a recurring weekly construction meeting to touch base with your contractors and other pros. You may not need it every week, but at least it’s on the schedule in case you do.

Here are some things to consider and discuss with your contractor.

-How long the construction will last.

-Whatyou can do to guard against delays. Often, this means having all the products onsite and not designing in the field and making changes.

-Dust control. How will the construction be sectioned off from the rest of the house?

-Debris removal. Are you getting a skip, or will debris be stored in the garage and removed in phases?

-Areas the crew can use. What will be the staging area for tools, cutting wood and tiles? What bathroom facilities will be available?

-Clean-up expectations. Some contractors clean up at the end of each day and others don’t. Communicate what you want, but also understand that certain requests may mean more expense.

-When you will have to be out of the house for the refinishing of floors, and for how long. What products will be used? Do they meet your expectations of low-VOC emissions?

-Hours that are OK for the crew to work. Can they work Saturdays? Arrange for things such as keys and alarm codes.

3. Empty out your cabinets

So now you’ve taken care of business, it’s time to get your hands dirty. Rather than dreading this, try to look at it as an opportunity to do some serious spring cleaning. Instead of throwing everything into boxes and deferring the editing process to the end, get it done now to make moving back in that much more fun. However, if you have too much on your plate to deal with this now, it can always be done later.

Put all the items you won’t need for a few months into boxes – or even better, big plastic bins with lids to protect the contents from dirt and dust. Separate out what you’ll want to use in your temporary kitchen: knives, coffee mugs, food you’ll eat and even a few wine glasses. Who says you have to drink out of plastic cups the whole time?

4. Set up a temporary kitchen

The more organised and prepared you are in this area, the happier you’ll be. A half-hearted attempt at a temporary kitchen isn’t recommended. Even if you don’t have children and plan to eat out every night, you’ll want a place to make a cup of coffee or a snack.

I think two tables are ideal, and if you have the room, two tables plus the kitchen table for seating. If you don’t have an old table, pick up a few folding ones – 60cm or 75cm deep by whatever length you can fit. If you’re using a table from the house, get a plastic-coated tablecloth to protect it.

Think about setting up your temporary kitchen the way you would a real kitchen, in stations.

Set up a station for cooking and prep. Include a combination microwave if possible or a microwave, a toaster, and even a hot plate if that’s something you’ll use. Also have out a big cutting board for making sandwiches and cutting fruit.

Have the contractor set up your old fridge in the temporary kitchen area.

Store food #large, clear plastic bins with lids under the table.

Set out an area for paper plates, napkins and utensils. Think of your temporary kitchen like a campsite or an outdoor picnic or party spot. The nicer and more organised it is, the happier and calmer you’ll feel during construction.

Written ByRebekah Zaveloff

#architecture #home decor #buildings #home #london #skyline #interesting #interiors #home & lifestyle #make money from home #kitchen #renovation #architettura #interior design

[barkgallery]

My dog won't listen but I would love photos of them- Bark Gallery Pet Photography

People often come up during my mini sessions and doubt how their dog will do for a quick photo. I hear things like my dog won’t sit like that. My dog isn’t well trained and won’t listen. No one ever gets good photos of them. I always smile and say if you don’t mind give me 5 minutes and give me a chance. The dog somehow listens to me and I get a photograph.

I typically offer fun sessions around holidays where I photograph several hundred dogs in a day. This is when people typically have the most doubts about getting a photograph of their dog. They haven’t seen my photography and most likely have gone to a big box store and the results are entirely different from someone who is new to pet photography or isn’t their profession.

Dogs for me are all emotionally and mentally different. It’s the joy of each session for me. Typically dogs also act differently in new situations, new people, and new locations. During my photography session I am always trying to observe the dog and see what personality they are showing. I approach each dog differently based on their personality meaning whether they are timid or playful. This is my secret to get the dogs attention and capture great images that last a lifetime.

The absolute best dogs for me are curious, active, friendly dogs. Obedience only helps me with off leash action photos in the “wild”. When I have a dog that is paying lots of attention to me the session flows smoothly. Dogs don’t always have to sit for their portrait. The dog above I felt looked better standing in the final image. The image had the leash removed in the final image you see. He eventually calmed down and understood the reward based session and we could safely remove the leash without Photoshop.

Teaching a dog obedience is something that can take quite a bit of time. This is typically not my goal of a photo session. However it doesn’t take the dog long to change their behavior towards me and start to understand how to get a reward. Occasionally I don’t try to change the dogs behaviors at all during the session. This is something I base on my experience and past results. One example of letting “dogs be dogs” was a recent photography client and her two dogs. The one dog wanted to chew on sticks and wasn’t interested in “posing for my camera”. The dog was on special medication and it made her extremely hungry and she would chew on random things. This session was outdoors and there was probably no less than 500 twigs around. This is something that I am not going to be able to change, so I simply grabbed the best twig and used it as a “lure” and she quickly enjoyed the classic game of fetch with the twigs and the session was successful.

One of the factors of my photography that can cause a few hiccups is the thoughts, anxieties, and worries of the PERSON. Dogs are great at knowing something is changing in their owners or in strangers they meet. Some dogs simply pass this off and go on about their days;however, more often than not the dog is nervous as well. This makes things a tad more complicated for me. What I often do is calm the person and explain that I will get images of their family member. The dog realizes things are getting better and calms down so that they can pose like a pro.

My favorite call before a session is that their dog is the “worst dog ever”. My dog won’t sit, listen and I don’t think you can get photos of them. THIS IS THE CALL THAT I ABSOLUTELY LOVE TO GET. I will ask why they believe that, if others have tried and failed, and when they want to set this up. I have not met a single dog that I couldn’t get one image that was up to my standards. The conversation on the phone is typically the same, I explain to them that we may need to change expectations. I will also explain my guidelines for the session. This is often asking a few questions about why the dog wouldn’t do well with photos. I often can figure out the trepidations towards the session and address them before we even meet.

One of the things that I love about dogs is how random they can be at times. The best way I can explain this is “zoomies.” This sometimes happens after giving a dog a bath in which they run around the area to release the tensions or something. Would love to know what exactly is going on in their head at that moment. What I have found in years of meeting dogs in almost every imaginable situation is that they typically have a baseline for behavior. So I see where they are on the “spectrum” and I use their strengths to capture images. If a dog is in front of my lens and he doesn’t like treats, but he is absolutely in love with a ball, I will always use the highest valued reward last.

Do you like listening to me ramble about pet photography? Let me know in the comments or send an email that you are enjoying my content. If your dog is “hard to get photos of” give me a call.

#dog photographer #dog tips #professional pet photographer

[gendercensus]

On fae/faer pronouns and cultural appropriation

HOW IT STARTED

I had a handful, a very small handful but more than two, responses in the Gender Census feedback box telling me that fae/faer pronouns are appropriative. The reasons didn’t always agree, and the culture that was being appropriated wasn’t always the same, but here’s a selection of quotes:

“Fae pronouns are cultural appropriation and are harmful to use“ - UK, age 11-15

“I’m not a person who practices pagan holidays but, my understanding is that pronouns like fae/faeself are harmful because the fae are real to pagans and is like using Jesus/jesuself as pronouns“ - UK, age 11-15

“I know you've probably heard this a million times, so has everyone on the internet, but the ''mere existence''of the fae pronoun feels really uncomfortable for some of us. I'm personally not against neopronouns like xe/xim, er/em and the like, I am a pagan but apart from the, imo most important, reasoning of that pronoun being immensely disrespectful, I worry as an nb about people who banalize the usage of pronouns ''for fun'', and I'm quoting what some people have told me.“ - Spain, 16-20

“I don't agree with fae/deity pronouns just from a pagan perspective it's very disrespectful to the cultures they come from. Like Fae are a legit thing in many cultures and they hate with a fiery passion mortal humans calling themselves Fae to the point of harming/cursing the people who do it“ - USA, age 16-20

“only celtic people can use far/ faers otherwise it’s cultural appropriation, many celts have said this and told me this“ - USA, age 16-20

So that’s:

❓ Someone who doesn’t say whether they’re pagan or Celtic.

❌ Someone who definitely isn’t pagan.

✅ Someone who is pagan.

❓ Someone who doesn’t say whether they’re pagan or Celtic.

❓ Someone who doesn’t say whether they’re pagan or Celtic.

So, just to disclose some bias up-front, I am English so I’m not Celtic, but I do live in Wales so I am surrounded by Celts. The bit of Wales that I live in is so beautiful in such a way that when my French friend came to visit me she described it as féerique - like an enchanting, magical land, literally “fairylike” or thereabouts. Coincidentally I have also considered myself mostly pagan for over half of my life, and I can’t definitively claim whether or not the Fae are “part of paganism” because paganism is so diverse and pick’n’mix that it just doesn’t work that way.

To me the idea that fae/faer pronouns would be offensive or culturally appropriative sounds absurd. But also, I am powered by curiosity, and have been wrong enough times in my life that I wanted to approach this in a neutral way with an open mind. Perhaps what I find out can be helpful to some people.

So since we only have information from one person who is definitely directly affected by any cultural appropriation that may be happening, the first thing I wanted to do was get some information from ideally a large number of people who are in the cultures being appropriated, and see what they think.

~

WHAT I DID

First of all I put some polls up on Twitter and Mastodon. [Edit: Note that this post has been updated with results from closed polls.]

I specified that I wanted to hear from nonbinary Celts and pagans, just so that the voters would be familiar with fae/faer pronouns. I asked the questions in a neutral way, i.e. “How do you feel about...” with “good/neutral/bad” answer options, instead of something more leading like “Is this a load of rubbish?” or “are you super offended?” with “yes/no” options. I provided a “see results” option, so that the poll results wouldn’t be skewed as much by random people clicking any old answer to see the results. And I invited voters to express their opinions in replies.

Question #1: Nonbinary people of Celtic descent (Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, the Isle of Man, and Brittany), how do you feel about non-Celtic people using the neopronoun set fae/faer? [ It's good / No strong feelings/other / It's bad ]

Question #2: Nonbinary pagans, how do you feel about non-pagans using the neopronoun set fae/faer? [ It's good / No strong feelings/other / It's bad ]

The Twitter polls got over 1,100 responses each, and the Mastodon polls got over 140 responses each. With a little bit of spreadsheetery I removed the “N/A” responses to reverse engineer the number of people voting for each option, combined those numbers, and recalculated percentages.

Obviously this approach is not in the least scientific, but thankfully the results were unambiguous enough and the samples were big enough that I feel comfortable drawing conclusions.

Celts on fae/faer pronouns being used by non-Celts (561 voters):

It's good - 42.5%

No strong feelings/other - 44.0%

It's bad - 13.5%

Pagans on fae/faer pronouns being used by non-pagans (468 voters):

It's good - 47.2%

No strong feelings/other - 39.5%

It's bad - 13.3%

Here’s how that looks as a graph:

The limitations of polls on these platforms means that we have no way to distinguish between people who have more complicated views (”other”) and people who have “no strong feelings”, so we can’t really draw conclusions there. If we stick to just the pure positive and pure negative:

Celts were over three times as likely to feel positive about non-Celts using fae/faer pronouns than they were to feel negative.

Pagans were over three and a half times as likely to feel positive about non-pagans using fae/faer pronouns than they were to feel negative.

So Celts and pagans are way more likely to feel actively good about someone’s fae/faer pronouns, even when that person is not a Celt/pagan. That’s some strong evidence against the idea that fae/faer pronouns are appropriative, right there.

~

CORRECTIONS

To be clear, I haven’t done any research about the roots of fae/faer or the origins of the Fae and related beings, but my goal here was to get a sense of what Celts and pagans think and feel, rather than what an historian or anthropologist would say.

On the anti side, here were the replies that suggested fae/faer either is or might be inappropriate:

“I only worry that not everyone understands the origin of the word outside of modernized ideas of fairies.“ - pagan

“As a vaguely spiritual Whatever (Ireland), I think a mortal using "fae" as a pronoun/to refer to themselves is asking for a malicious and inventive fairy curse (on them, their families and possibly anyone in their vicinity, going by the traditions). I have not heard of this term before, so this is an immediate reaction from no background bar my cultural knowledge of sidhe/fae/term as culturally appropriate. My general approach is people can identify themselves as they want.“ - Celtic

So we’ve got a pagan who’s wary that people who use fae/faer (and people in general) might not have a fully fleshed out idea of the Fae. And we’ve got a Celt who doesn’t mind people using fae/faer personally, but based on what they know of the Fae they wouldn’t be surprised if the Fae got mad about it. No outright opposition, but a little concern.

There were not a lot of replies on the pro side, but not because people weren’t into it, judging by the votes. There were a lot of “it’s more complicated than that” replies, many of which repeated others, so quotes won’t really work. Here’s a summary of the Celtic bits:

“Fae” is not a Celtic word, and Celts don’t use it. It is French, or Anglo-French.

“Fae” can refer to any number of stories/legends from a wide variety of cultures in Europe, not one cohesive concept.

There are many legends about fairy-like beings in Celtic mythologies, and there are many, many different names for them.

The Celts are not a monolith, they’re a broad selection of cultures with various languages and various mythologies.

And the pagan bits:

Paganism is not closed or exclusive in any way. It might actually be more open than anything else, as “pagan” is a sort of umbrella term for non-mainstream religions in some contexts. A closed culture would be a prerequisite for something to be considered “appropriated” from paganism.

From my own experience, pagans may or may not believe in the Fae, and within that group believers may or may not consider the Fae to be sacred and/or worthy of great respect. (I’ve certainly never met a pagan who worshipped the Fae, though I don’t doubt that some do.)

And then we get into the accusations. 🍿

“this issue wasn’t started by Celtic groups or by people who know much about Celtic fae. It was started primarily by anti-neopronoun exclusionist pagans on TikTok.“

“[I’m] literally Scottish [...] and it’s not appropriative in the least and honestly to suggest as such is massively invalidating towards actual acts of cultural appropriation and is therefore racist. Feel like if this was actually brought up it was either by some people who seriously got their wires crossed or people who are just concern trolling and trying to make fun of both neo-pronouns and of the concept of cultural appropriation and stir the pot in the process.“

“It wouldn't be the first time bigots falsly claim “it's appropriative from X marginalized group" to harass people they don't like, like they did with aspec people when they claimed "aspec" was stolen from autistic language (which was false, as many autistics said)“

“It's been a discussion in pagan circles recently ... People were very quick to use the discussion as an excuse to shit on nonbinary people.“

“I think it would be apropos to note that the word "faerie/fairy" has been a synonym for various queer identities for decades, too. The Radical Faeries are a good example.“ (So if anyone has the right to [re]claim it...)

A little healthy skepticism is often wise in online LGBTQ+ “discourse”, and some of these people are making some very strong claims, for which I’d love to see some evidence/sources/context. Some of it certainly sounds plausible.

~

HOW DID IT START?

I had a look on Twitter and the earliest claim I can find that fae/faer pronouns are cultural appropriation is from 18th February 2020, almost exactly one year ago today. Again, tweets are not the best medium for this, there was very little in the way of nuance or context. If anyone can find an older claim from Twitter or Tumblr or anywhere else online, please do send it my way.

I have no idea how to navigate TikTok because I’m a nonbinosaur. (I’m 34.) I did find some videos of teens and young adults apparently earnestly asserting that they were Celtic or pagan and the use of fae/faer pronouns was offensive, but the videos were very brief and provided nothing in the way of nuance or context. For example:

This one from October 2020 with 29k ❤️s, by someone who I assume is USian based on the word “mom”?

This one from December 2020, that says “I am pagan and i find it rather disrespectful. It’s like using god/godr or jesus/jesusr.” That’s probably what inspired the feedback box comment above that refers to hypothetical jesus/jesusr pronouns.

If anyone is able to find a particularly old or influential TikTok video about fae/faer pronouns being appropriative I’d really appreciate it, especially if it’s from a different age group or from not-the-USA, to give us a feel for how universal this is.

For context, fae pronouns were mentioned in the very first Gender Census back in May 2013, though you’ll have to take my word for it as the individual responses are not currently public. The word “fae” was mentioned in the pronoun question’s “other” textbox, and no other forms in the set were entered so we have no way of knowing for sure what that person’s full pronoun set actually is. This means the set may have been around for longer. The Nonbinary Wiki says that the pronoun set was created in October 2013, as “fae/vaer”, later than the first entry in the Gender Census, so I’ll be editing that wiki page later! If anyone has any examples of fae/faer pronouns in use before 2013 I would also be very interested to see that.

~

IN SUMMARY

Obviously I can’t speak for everyone, as the Twitter polls are not super scientific and they only surveyed a selection of Celts and pagans within a few degrees of separation of the Gender Census Twitter and Mastodon accounts, but I can certainly report on what I found.

For a more conclusive result, we’d need to take into account various demographics such as age, culture, location, religion, race/heritage, etc.

As far as I can tell based on fairly small samples of over 400 people per group, a minority of about 13% of Celtic and/or pagan people felt that use of fae/faer pronouns is appropriative.

A much higher number of people per group felt positive about people who are not Celts or pagans using fae/faer pronouns. The predominant view was:

It can’t be cultural appropriation from Celtic cultures because fairy-like beings are not unique to Celtic cultures and Celtic cultures don’t call them Fae.

It can’t be cultural appropriation from pagan cultures because paganism is not “closed” or exclusive in any way, it’s too broad and open.

~

If your experience of your gender(s) or lack thereof isn’t described or encompassed by the gender binary of “male OR female”, please do click here to take the Gender Census 2021 - it’s international and it closes no earlier than 10th March 2021!

#fae/faer #pronouns #neopronouns #cultural appropriation

[studyguidepro]

Why are Tenses Important in English Language? Know the Reason

You should always keep in mind that English is a chronological language. English speakers simply always need to know when some action or event took place. Chronology, or events and dates set in order of their happening, is expressed by English speakers through verb tenses. Each tense indicates the connection between two or more time periods or the exact time an activity occurred, which underlines the importance of English grammar tenses. They can be used to create different meanings from the same verbs and help to anchor the listener understand the meaning behind your story. Thus, English has a lot of verb tenses with some expressing a connection between two time periods whereas others indicate the exact timing of an activity. Further, the depth of the English tenses should never be underestimated. We can, indeed, express very different things when simply changing the tense; or even use tenses as rhetorical devices to stress whether we strongly believe a project "is going to succeed" or simply express that we "will see" if a project "will succeed".

Some languages do not put as much emphasis on tenses and the chronological order of events and actions. Instead, they stress (hierarchical) relationships between the people involved in the events and actions that are being described by the speaker/narrator. Japanese is one example for a language that puts much more emphasis on relationships. Thus, English learners whose first language is Japanese need to pay extra attention to the tenses in English and should work with visualization aids to move English tenses from the rather abstract realm of textbooks to a much more tangible and understandable medium. For example, why not take a wooden box and imagine that the past tenses need to placed within that box to symbolize how they describe events and actions that started and were completed in the past. This method works for tactile and visual learners alike.

If you’re still wondering why verb tenses are important, then let’s walk through the different types of tenses and how they can be used to effectively communicate with other people. After all, the goal of this post is to understand the important verb tenses that will help you in businesses and daily life.

Where does the word ‘tense’ come from?

Understanding where words come from will help you remember why they’re important. You can quickly recall the value of a verb tense by memorizing that it comes from the Latin word tempus, meaning time. With the English verb tense lists below, you’ll be able to quickly understand how to communicate about different events in time.

Four Main Types of Verb Tenses

Past Tense

Present Tense

Future Tense

Perfect Tense

Four Forms of Verb Tenses

Simple Progressive/Continuous

More About the Different Types of Verb Tenses

The four main types of verb tenses and two forms can be used in a variety of combinations to create unique meanings. With so many options, it can be hard to determine what type of verb tense to use at the appropriate time. Below, you’ll find definitions of the different verb tenses and examples to help you understand how these could be used in your daily life.

Simple Form Verb Tenses

You can think of simple verb tenses as the building block of all other forms. In English grammar, simple form verb tenses do not have an auxiliary verb in affirmative sentences, which you’ll find in other forms. Below, you’ll find examples of simple present, past, and future phrases that you can use in conversation.

Simple Present Tense – Definition & Examples

The present tense can be used in two ways: to express a recurring action and to represent a common belief. Below, you’ll find an example of how the present tense is used in each of these instances.

Example 1: The tallest buildings are on 42nd and E Street.

Example 2: On warm days, the students run home from the park.

Example 3: Plants process carbon dioxide through photosynthesis.

Simple Past Tense – Definition & Examples

If you’re talking with a friend or a coworker and you want to explain that you started and finished an activity in the past, then you’d want to use a simple past tense verb. Regular past tense verbs end with -ed, but you’ll also find irregular past tense verbs where the spelling of the root word changes.

Example 1: We jumped off the diving board and into the pool.

Example 2: We drove through the night to make it home after the party.

Simple Future Tense - Definition & Examples

In its simple form, the future tense signifies something that is going to happen in the future. You can identify or use the simple future tense by using will or shall (note: The latter is far less common than will). Aside from will and shall, you can also express the simple future tense with am, is, are + base verb + ing, going to, and the simple present.

Example 1: My team will finish the report on Friday.

Example 2: We’re going to the mall on Saturday to find new clothes before the concert.

Example 3: The race starts early in the morning before the sun rises.

Perfect Verb Tenses

Not all events are clearly situated within a time frame, which is to say that some events happen at an indefinite time. Do you remember the specific time you drank coffee today? Probably not, because it stretched out over an indefinite period of time in the past. Perfect verb forms also apply to past and future tenses, where an event took place before another or will be completed in the future before another action.

Present Perfect Tense - Definition & Example

Communicating events with indiscrete times can be tricky in English. The present perfect tense is supposed to make this easier. If you want to explain an event that happened at an indefinite time in the past or that began in the past and continues into the present, then I’ve put together a few examples below. These will help you understand the basic rule of the present perfect.

Example 1: My friends have seen the movie so many times, they lost count.

Example 2: People have gathered together to celebrate each other’s birthdays for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.

Past Perfect Tense - Definition & Example

If you’re talking about multiple events that happened in the past, then the past perfect tense will be useful for you. This verb tense allows you to discuss or write about an event that took place in the past, but before another past action.

Example 1: All the cars had parked alongside the road to watch the meteor shower.

Future Perfect Tense - Definition & Example

Just like you can discuss the relationship between two events in the past, you can also do so for those occurring in the future. The future perfect tense describes an event that will occur before another in the future. You can identify future perfect tense verbs because they’ll use the phrase, will have with a past participle.

Example 3: When I finally visit Japan, I will have traveled to every country.

Progressive Verb Tenses

If you want to signify something that is ongoing or discuss two events that overlapped in time, then the progressive verb tense is the best option to use. Both in writing and conversation, progressive forms help to show the duration of an event rather than just stating that it occurs, occurred, or will occur.

Present Progressive Tense - Definition & Examples

Often times, it’s useful to explain that an occurrence is happening at the same time of your explanation or writing. In English, the verb tense you would use to show that an action is happening at the same time of the explanation is called the present progressive form. Typically, speakers and writers use a verb ending in -ing alongside am, is, or are to create a present progressive form.

Example 1: The students are studying for their exams for the next few weeks.

Example 2: The children are eating their breakfast before our hike today.

Example 3: I am finding a way to go to the festival this year!

Past Progressive Tense - Definition & Example

Aside from using a progressive verb tense to show that an event is occurring at the time of the statement, they’re also used when talking about events that happened in the past. A past progressive tense can be used to show an action that was happening at the same time as another in the past. These past tense progressive verbs are typically used with was or were and also end in -ing.

Example 1: Our friends were eating breakfast at our house when we got the news our family just landed in Chicago for a surprise visit.

Example 2: I was sitting in the lobby when the clock struck midnight.

Future Progressive Tense - Definition & Example

Like the other forms, the future progressive tense also uses verbs that end in -ing along with will be/shall be, and am/is/are + going to be. This tense is most commonly used in conversation and when writing to describe a future event that will be ongoing.

Example 1: My friends will be spending some time with us next Saturday.

Example 2: I am going to be waiting for you in the lobby of the hotel.

Perfect Progressive Forms

Aside from showing an event at a certain period of time or the relationship between two past or future events, there is one more option you have when discussing the time between events. A perfect progressive form allows you to explain an event that happened in the past, is occurring in the present, and may occur in the future. In other words, you can use this when trying to explain a project you started last week but you won’t finish until the next.

Present Perfect Progressive Tense - Definition & Examples

When making project updates, or trying to explain when you’re going on vacation, you might need to use the present perfect progressive tense. This verb tense describes an event or action that started in the past, continues in the present, and may continue into the future. This form is created by using has or have been and a verb ending in -ing.

Example 1: For the past two weeks, the team members have been debating who will be the next team campaign leader.

Past Perfect Progressive Tense - Definition & Examples

If you’d like to communicate with depth, then you can use the past perfect progressive tense. Trust me, it sounds more complicated than it is in practice. Put simply, this verb tense gives you the ability to talk about a past action that was ongoing and completed before another past action occurred.

Example 1: We had been baking for the holidays when we heard our friends knock at the door.

Future Perfect Progressive Tense - Definition & Examples

Especially when talking business, the future perfect progressive tense is helpful for communicating with others. If you need to explain the expectations one or two quarters out, then you can do so by communicating or writing with this verb tense. The future perfect progressive tense describes an event in the future that is ongoing, but occurs before an arbitrarily specified time. You can create this form by using will have been and a verb ending in -ing.

Examples: By the end of the century, we will have been using the internet for over forty years.

There you go — now that you know the different types and forms of verb tenses you can start to practice communicating about time with people. Challenge yourself with one of these verb tenses a week to try to improve your fluency. At the end of the week, write down the different phrases you used and keep an ongoing journal to commit them to memory.

#grammar #english #vocabulary #learnenglish #ielts #englishgrammar #englishteacher #toefl #englishvocabulary #english language #englishlearning #englishtips #idioms #learningenglish #esl #language #learning #studyenglish #englishclass #education #speakenglish #englishcourse #speaking #writing #teacher

[thatsthetriick]

Y/n looking at Jojos as competitions/rivals (hcs)

Summary: You consider the Jojos a rival, and competition when it gets to grades and all, they never did anything to you but you’re just generally annoyed at them because you think they’re better than you and you’re annoyed that they are better than you, you’re not jealous just annoyed that they exceeded you. (basically enemies to lover for short) Inspiration: Based on real life thoughts with a person honestly lmaO I really think they are a compeition(they don’t know) but in the end it’s just a friendly thing. Disclaimers: Underage smoking (Just because this action is being done here it doesn’t mean you should do it too, for both my adult and teen audiences i rlly don’t recommend this and just because I used it in this fic doesn’t mean you should do it as well) , and  mentions of violence, or implied violence, drugs are also mentioned( i repeat i do not encourage these behaviours in real life) Header: Orange Other writings: Masterlist/Taglist Requests/questions: Ask/Request Box

Jojos as your Rivals

Jonathan Joestar

  ✧ God. To you he was really annoying, teachers praised him and he was a top student in the rankings and a teacher’s pet, you’d never see him complain, cry, or anything at all.

  ✧ Of course he was the class president and a student council so it annoyed you more since he was kind of like a mary sue in your eyes, the fact that he got good grades and doesn’t seem to have a hard time in the things he does really annoy you.

 ✧ You were in the top 3 top students except you’re in 3rd place and you could never beat Jonathan, moreover he’s also an athlete and you were bothered that girls were practically drooling to him. But despite this you’ll never do anything to seek revenge, you won’t embarrass him or frame him because you still have morals.

 ✧ Though you were just grumpy and passive agressive to him sometimes whenever the teacher asks him to help you, you really didn’t like receiving help from him because for you, you think that’s a sign of weakness.

 ✧ Of course you get parterned up with him a big project that was considered as your examination and you hated it. You treated it more of a individual work, but after knowing him a bit from that project you kinda like how he acted, polite, kind and patient.

  ✧ Everytime he sees you struggle and you decline for help he’ll just go behind you or besides you and either guide your hands to fix it or he’ll fix it himself and he’ll just smile afterwards, it was really cute and you’ll mentally slap yourself for liking him, were you forgetting he was rival?

 ✧ He’ll slowly consider you as a friend and he would really really feel guilty for assuming that you were a rude person base on you act towards him but he eventually thinks that you’re a kind person in the inside but a bit stubborn and he finds that cute.

 ✧ If it’s a love story you and him will secretly date and its not obvious to the world that you two are dating, you were never touchy with him in public, you two still acted the same honestly, a bit stubborness coming from you and stubborness from Jonathan because he’s really willing to help you with everything, eitherway you two only have playful fights and a few REAl arguments here an there but you two eventually make up again a few days later.

 ✧ If it’s a platonic relationship you two would be the bestest of friends and you two would have playful arguments and some people would literally ship you two because of your friendship.

 Joseph Joestar

 ✧ This guy was intelligent but lazy and yet he still gets 1st place in the class as a top student with A+ grades, and you found it also annoying that he was naturally talented and effortlessly got them, you sometimes wonder if he cheats.

 ✧ And because you think he cheats you go out of your way to site his essays and public works to see if he uses references or anything, but no this guy is just naturally talented and you felt like he didn’t deserve especially with his laid off attitude.

 ✧ Now you don’t show your passive aggressive side to him because you know better not to make him think that you’re literally angry at him, for you he’s just a competition and another boss level to defeat, it’s not personal just a fun thing you do so you don’t take out your anger out on him.

 ✧ He is also an athlete, of course the Joestar bloodline and legacy literally revolves around the sports they take, so it was no surprise, you on the other hand is also an athlete and you would most likely take the competition seriously whenever there’s a boys vs girls basketball game, you were the MVP let’s just say, sports was like your whole life.

 ✧ Of course there’s an annual event that the high school hosts where as every student will be competing against each other, the remaining 4 players will be the ones set out to compete to another sports festival in a different school. They will choose 4 players per sport.

 ✧ Of course you chose to marathon since you were honestly swift and that was more on your main sport, running. And it was Joseph’s as well and you two had to compete with each other among other students, he’ll say something cocky to you that is enough to motivate you to defeat him.

 ✧ Eventually you and Joseph were one of the 4 people chosen to compete in another school, and though it took awhile for you two to agree on things you two won the tournament with teamwork and ever since then your friend consists of constant and non stop teasing and playful banters.

 ✧ “What do you mean? I clearly made our team win!” he’d say and you’d just roll your eyes at his cockiness. Though you’d retort with something cocky as well.

Jotaro Kujo

 ✧ You honestly don’t know why this guy was even a top student he often gets into fights and the teachers just shrug it off,  you find it annoying he gets to answer everything before you and finish quizzes before you and you get so pissed and can’t understand why is he quick and he doesn’t seem like a type to review.

 ✧ He’s pissed at every fangirl he has and he is pissed at you sometimes as well because you try avoiding him, yeah he’s aware of your competitiveness and he doesn’t really care that much.

 ✧ But you do so you basically you’re like legit pissed at him and you think that he also doesn’t deserve his intelligence since he’s just wasting it away by smoking cigarettes at the back of the school and fighting people it was honestly annoying and you wish you had his intelligence at the same time.

 ✧ Unlike the others maybe in this one you’re being constantly pressured by high grades so you started smoking as well to relieve your stress, you’d somberly sulk at the back of the school as well smoking your problems away it made you feel calm for some reason.   ✧ He sees you there and mumbles a “Tch” while he adjusts his cap and walk near you and light up his cigarette and doesn’t say a word, he doesn’t honestly care what you were doing, anyone was allowed to do anything they want to do so he left you there.  ✧ Honestly he started getting concerned of you when you were often doing it, even he knew that too much is too much. “ That’s enough” he’ll say and take your cigarette pack away, “Touche” you’ll just roll your eyes and walk away. He’d always stop you from smoking, you were getting addicted honestly and it’s not helping since every minute you were getting stressed out.  ✧ When you’re not listening to him he’ll agressively tell you to “cut it off bitch.” or something along those lines, and you didn’t really know he was a person who hid his feelings so you snapped and scolded him that you were a mess because of him  and took out all of your anger and left honestly.  ✧ He couldn’t care less what you said about him and tried to accompany you at the back of the school or in the rooftops everytime it’s break or the end of classes, he didn’t speak that much but he was a good listener and constantly listened to your problems, eventually this is a routine and you treasured every second of it.  ✧ It became a thing that you two basically  sit on the rooftop talking to each other, from then on he’d accompany you outside of school as well and you two would hangout and it would be nice quiet moments when he’s around, he’s also a very protective friendship. Josuke Higashikata  ✧ This guy really doesn’t care about his grades and yet he gets high score it was also annoying that teachers adore him, and that every girl adores him as well. Unfortunately you two were partners for a spelling Bee. Only professors were allowed to choose who participates, and though Josuke might not be accurate with his english pronounciations and spellings he still had high grades and it annoyed you that he got to participate his weak subjects just because he has high grades.  ✧ Honestly he’d hate it as well and would just play games all day long instead of studying or anything, and during the spelling bee he didn’t help at all and you were pissed at him. Even though you were softly and passive agressively scolding him he didn’t get mad back and just said a “Okay okay! I’m sorry.” he’ll apologize and try to study but he’ll get distracted.  ✧ Teachers still continued to praise him and gave no praise to you at all even though you carried your partner to the finish line, that’s why you hated Josuke, he was loved by everyone and you never understood why, was it his personality? Smarts? What was it?   ✧ From that then you’ll break into his house with no permission and catch him playing video games. You’ll scold him to study the words and act like a strict teacher towards him, he dozed off a lot and was laid back and distracted, yet he was still able to answer some of them.  ✧ This is why you didn’t like him he was too laid back and didn’t seem to take things seriously, because of this you suggested a break and he went back t o playing his video games and getting frustrated, and even though you were tight while teaching him he was kind enough to still offer you to play with him. You were going to decline but you still accepted it.  ✧ This is where you saw his true personality, he talked about a lot of things and you two ended up having fun as you two play, you didn’t mind this moment and you’d want it to treasure it forever honestly. You brought up your personality as well to him, you started showing your true colors and he really liked the fact that you weren’t an overbearing person at all.  ✧ ever since then you two manage to win the competitions and manage to play at the same time. You two became the bestest friends which was unexpected since you considered him as a rival, though you’re still annoyed because everytime you ask him to teach you he’ll teach really badly and you wouldn’t understand anything from him. Giorno Giovanna   ✧ This guy was a quiet yet smart type, he often sits at the back of the class dazing off the window and yet still able to answer questions of the teacher even when not paying attention.   ✧ Though you compete with him you know not to mess with him honestly, though a lot of really negative rumours constantly spread about him. Like his family problem and things like that so you pity him at some times.  ✧ Girls adore him, something about the Joestars getting fangirls annoys you a lot. They baby him, and even though sometimes he gets annoyed and straightforwadly tells them to go away sometimes he’d entertain them and be kind. Teachers always saw him as a role model student it makes you barf.  ✧He’ll also probably hangout with his school gang, nobody knows what this gang does honestly, the teachers just leave him be just because they want to just leave him be and they’re too naive; thinking that it’s just a normal innocent gang where it’s a group of kids hanging out.  ✧ You caught up his ‘gang’ beating up someone and since you were a witness he saw you as a immediate threat(or so you though) and this quiet kid did a whole 180 with his personality and looked at you menacingly.  ✧ You don’t know how to approach him that you won’t tell anyone you’ve witnessed and always ran away everytime he approaches you or everytime his gang approaches you. Now your rivalary and competiting against grades is now ruined because this guy could always beat you anyday when it gets to physical fights, or so you thought.  ✧ You always ate lunch at the rooftop so he kind of took this opportunity to calmly sit besides you and talk to you about what you saw, he just wanted to give you context so that you wouldn’t get the wrong idea. Apparently that guy was an adult selling drugs to a bunch of graduating elementary kids.  ✧ You were relieved he wasn’t gonna beat you up and put you in the sewers, you took this time to also talk to him to actually see he was a nice guy, a gentle man and that you thought he was a cocky student because you always assumed him like that, not only that but you assumed him being a playboy as well since he gets so much attention.  ✧ You confess all of this to him and he let’s out a quick chuckle and you just laugh as you confess all of your thoughts and competitiveness against him, he was a good listenered actually, and didn’t take it really personally, he knew deep inside that you were a good person even though before you used to give him a scary glare when you two didn’t talk yet.  ✧ From that day on you start catching up to him in the hallways and talk and all his fangirls would practically hate you and give you glares as you two are having a good time.  ✧ He’ll make sure you’re out of his school gang businesses and arguments with other gangs, he may not say or sometimes express it but he always cares for you and tries to be supportive in littliest ways such as listening and remembering to every detail you tell him.  ✧ you’d still playfully compete with him and if he wins you’re okay with it unlike before

Thanks for reading! Reqs are open! My only requirements is no nsfw and probbably not part 5 yet since im not there hihi.(P.s I do canon x oc :) ) Sorry for not uploading for awhile

#jojo x reader #jjba x reader #jojo fanfic #jojo scenario #jojo scenarios #scenarios #jjba scenarios #Jotaro headcanons #jotaro kujo #jotaro x reader #giorno x reader #giorno headcanons #josuke x reader #josuke headcanons #josuke higashikata #jjba part 4 #jjba part 5 #jjba part 3 #jjba part 2 #jjba part 1 #jjba phantom blood #jjba diamond is unbreakable #stardust crusaders #golden wind #Battle tendency #joseph joestar x reader #reader insert #x reader #reader #jonatha joestar x reader

[starr-fall-knight-rise]

Humans are Weird, “A Preoccupation with Death.”

Hope you enjoy :)

Analysis By Dr. Krill MD

Humanity’s preoccupation with death has always fascinated me: I say fascinated because to say that it disturbs me would be rather unscientific, and I have been attempting to reign in my anger… I have had some… complaints over the last year about the unprofessionalism of my previous papers. The GA community does not appreciate, and I quote, “Excessive swearing, and screaming” in virtual reports, so today I will attempt to be calm and relaxed as I explain to you, common human traditions based around death.

Now you must understand, from my perspective these practices are quite bizarre. Vrull have no rituals associated with death. The Vrull are disposed of and their bodies are incinerated. The ash is then disposed with by mixing into the soil to produce needed plants on the planet surface. There are no other options, and no other arrangements are made.

However, I am told that funeral rights with humans are, often, more to do with what the living need than what the deceased do. However, there are some funeral rights believed to be required in certain human cultures, so that rule does not always hold completely true.

I will begin from the moment of death.

Unlike the Vrull humans do not know their exact time of death. Granted this is not because the Vrull have a set clocking system in their bodies which sets the time in which we die, but because our society sets forth a time of our usefulness. No one knows how long a Vrull can feasibly live because no one has tried it before. I myself might plan on finding out, as I have no intention of returning for my scheduled termination, which is already a year overdue.

Humans, like most other species die in several different ways, accidents, sickness, or the sudden failure of the body due to old age, the final one generally happening peacefully and in their sleep.

However this is where humans tend to diverge from their inhuman counterparts, in that they are very social creatures, the death of a human is usually witnessed by multiple family members and friends, in the case of sickness, and is mourned many weeks after because the death of someone in your social circle changes that circle forever. Social bonds are cut and entire social lives are upended. Humans bond so heavily with each other that the loss of one of their own can lead to mental and emotional trauma extreme enough to require medication and hospitalization.

Humans plan their deaths months to years in advance. In certain instances, their jobs force them to plan their death in advance in case something were to happen. Decisions need to be made about who owns their property, where it goes, what happens to their dwellings, and how the surviving members of their family will be supported. Sometimes they plan this due to terminal illness which they knew will lead to their deaths, otherwise they might just do it out of precaution.

There are many different ways of disposing of a corpse. First of all, you must determine if any of the human parts are recyclable: this being the very morbid idea of taking someone else’s organs and giving them to another person. Now with the advancement of this technology, organ transplants from donors is not as common as it once was seeing as they can now 3D print organs. However, this method is not time effective and is very costly, in some cases leaving the harvesting of deceased human organs to be the only viable option.

Yes, they take organs from dead people… the doctor and surgeon in me admires that thought process, but the thinking breathing creature inside of me recoils heavily at the idea.

Assuming that no one requires your organs, or if you have especially requested for your organ not to be used  than there are other questions that need to be addressed. There are humans who have jobs especially in the business of taking care of dead bodies. They are generally moved in special containers and placed in refrigerated units to slow decomposition while the relatives determine what they want to do with the body.

In certain cases, where the death is suspicious, as related to murder, there are, in fact, humans who specilize in determining the cause and time of death based on the decomposition rate of a body and the stiffness of the flesh itself. This is a semi-common practice across the galaxy, and I myself have performed one or two autopsies since my professional career began though they are far more common for humans.

I find that the most humane method of human enterrement, and the one that makes most sense to me as a Vrull is the idea of cremation. The body is taken and placed in a furnace that is then heated enough to turn the body to ash leaving only bone fragments and the occasional mineral deposit. The ash may then be given to the family members or disposed of accordingly. Some humans find it comforting to keep the remains in some sort of container.... A fact which I find morbid but, we have proven in abundance that I find much of what humanity does, rather morbid.

It is only going to get worse.

The other method of disposal, popular through human history, however made someone obscure in recent centuries due to the proliferation of human burial sites…. The common north american and European Burial and funeral rights went as follows. After death, and freezing in the morgue, a special human with the job of mortician is called in to prepared the body for burial…. This is where it gets very morbid.

The body is drained of all of its fluids and then pumped full of preservatives to slow down the process of decomposition. The faces are then painted with makeup to give the corpse the appearance of sleep rather than death. The body is dressed in fine clothing and placed inside a coffin or casket: these in themselves can cost thousands of dollars as the family members decide what materials the box should be made out of and lined with, precious metals, woods like oak or steel, and the inside lined in velvet satin or silk. The body is placed inside with the person dressed in a finely tailored suit before a hearse: a special vehicle designed to carry caskets is brought to the place of mourning, generally a curch or a funeral home.

Many times the body is then put through a “viewing”.... It sounds just as bad as I make it seem, when the humans come in…. In large groups…. To stare at their dead relative. Just…. Stare at their rotting corpse before it is hauled away and lowered into an six foot hole in the earth. A decorative rock is then place on top of that inscribed with the deceased’s name so that everyone knows where to find their moldering corpse….

….

….

I am told this provides a lot of closure for family members, though I have yet to understand why staring at a painted corpse would be helpful.’

Unfortunately, with humans, this isn't the most gruesome method they have of corpse disposal, nor the most involved 

You may also chose to donate your body to science…

They might hand your bod over to a medical school, where aspiring doctors will, in groups, dissect your corpse slowly over an intervening few weeks or months. It is… gruesome, but a necessary part of the learning process. Your skeleton might even be recycled for use as a tool to demonstrate the skeletal structure to those very same students.

Perhaps your body will end up in a museum, where they will encase your nervous system in plaster and place it on a wall for school children and visiting day travelers to view.

Perhaps you might donate your body to…. A body farm. A palace where scientists will toss your corpse out into different elements to observe the rate and change of decomposition based on different dump sites. They will examine the decomposition, the moisture loss, and the bugs which take to eating your body. This research will then be used to determine the cause o death for other corpses disposed of by murderers or in similar fashion.

It is gruesome, but I suppose…. It is useful for scientific efforts.

These aren't the only methods of body disposal.

Bodies have been tied to the top of large towers

Thrown into the woods to be eaten by animals

Dumped into pits.

And in a couple of cases, launched into the vacuum of space.

Different rituals require family members to spend more or less time with the body, to wrap it in special cloth, or to anoint it with certain oils. 

The Egyptians were widely known for their complex and involved enterrement rituals commonly known as mummification.

The body was first embalmed

The brain was removed

The organs removed and placed in specialized canopic jars 

The body was then dried

Then wrapped which continued to help in the drying process 

Then the body was finally entered, and due to the sandy heat of the desert, the body was often preserved to a great and surprising degree. Egyptians believed that those things you had in life would come with you after death, and so egyptian rulers were entered with great riches and inside grand palaces 

Then of course there is the last ritual which I learned about just recently.

Certain tribal societies will….. Eat…. their dead….

They will eat them….

As in the entire village will get together and consume the corpse in a feast, believing that without this they cannot enter the afterlife.

…..

…

…

…

…

I am going to draft a proposal to the GASC that screaming and profanities should be considered scientifically appropriate when in regards to humans

#humans are insane #HUMANS ARE WERID #humans are space orcs #humans are space australians #humans are space oddities #earth is a deathworld #Earth is space Ausralia

[shihalyfie]

The difference between Digimon "movie" formats (or: why you need to stop treating them like the same thing)

I think this happens a lot understandably due to the term "OVA" not being as well-understood outside Japan, and the fact that anyone outside Japan didn't get to personally witness the release circumstances behind each Digimon "movie", but it's actually very important to understand that not all Digimon "movies" fall under the same distribution format or production process. This is important to understand because if you want to analyze anything about their intended format or story production, it's extremely inadvisable to act like they're all the same thing, or that things not meant to be part of the same series should be lumped together.

Here are the formats used as of this writing for Digimon "movies":

Theatrical movie: A movie in which the primary source of revenue is intended to be the box office. Usually has the largest budget and longest production time out of any of these formats. Currently, as of this writing, our examples are: all of the tie-in movies to the TV series (Digimon Adventure, Our War Game!, both parts of Hurricane Touchdown, Diablomon Strikes Back, The Adventurers' Battle, Runaway Digimon Express, Revival of the Ancient Digimon, Ultimate Power! Activate Burst Mode), which were all screened alongside other anime tie-in movies, and Kizuna, which is standalone. Note that, regardless of its place in timeline, Kizuna is currently classified as a standalone theatrical movie, and is not considered as the same series as tri. by any official listing; in fact, there are places that will often list it as a theatrical movie based on Adventure (i.e. next to the original first movie and Our War Game!). In short, these are all movies that were intended as individual self-contained stories in some sense, and also intended to be seen on the big screen in theaters throughout Japan.

OVA (original video animation): An anime product of some kind that is primarily intended to be sold and released through home video, such as Blu-ray or video on demand (iTunes and Amazon streaming, etc.). They generally have higher budget than a TV series, but not as much as a theatrical movie. As far as movies go, tri. is our only known example of this in the franchise as of this writing. Although said movies screened in Japanese theaters to some degree, and while the box office figures did matter to some degree, these were all limited screenings used to help promote the Blu-rays and streaming versions, which were released on the exact same day the screenings started. Basically, they're not meant to be seen at the theater per se. It was also announced as a full six-part "series" from day one, so every part was made with the understanding it would be an incomplete part of a full narrative. Incidentally, also in this "OVA" category: the memorial shorts released as part of the Kizuna-based crowdfunding, because they were also made for home video first and foremost. The release format is the most vital part here, not the length; the TV series tie-in movies are not OVAs, and should not be called that.

TV movie: A movie that, as the name suggests, is meant to be seen on TV. As of this writing, the only known franchise example is X-Evolution (which was allegedly meant to be a theatrical movie, but unfortunately ran into production snags and ended up on TV instead).

As for the upcoming 02-based movie, while details of its release format are currently unknown, it should be noted that, on top of there being absolutely nothing from Toei ever calling it a "sequel" to Kizuna or anything of the like, it has its own website distinct from Kizuna or tri.'s. Therefore, it's probably reasonable to expect that, even though it seems to take place in roughly the same time period as Kizuna and may cross into similar subject matter, it's likely meant to still be its own standalone product and narrative, and therefore calling it part of the same "series" as Kizuna may actually be misleading. (For a good frame of comparison: Adventure and 02 share a lot of things in common and take place in the same universe, and sometimes cover similar territory, but are very much different series with distinct narratives.)

Therefore, when you set your expectations, and when you analyze the narrative based on its production background, please keep this all in mind!

#digimon

[thosewickedlovelies]

An Ode To Marcus Moreno’s Arms

Pairing: Marcus Moreno x GN!Reader

Rating: Mature

Summary: You’re a training specialist in swordsmanship at Heroics Headquarters, so you see a lot of Marcus Moreno.

Tags: Reader has a vivid (sexual) imagination, but there’s only a few brief sections.

Word Count: 2,272

A/N: This started out as an ode to his arms, but his arms are connected to the rest of him, so. Alternative title: In Appreciation of Marcus Moreno

My assumption/headcanon of his powers are telekinesis, plus general exceptional physical prowess and weapons skills? Idk, we weren’t given much, but those feel like solid abilities for someone implied to be the super among super heroes. Idk what this is but I regret nothing.

More content/worldbuilding set in this universe 💗

--

Marcus Moreno’s arms were capable of many things.

You knew this because you saw them on an almost-daily basis. You were one of the training specialists at Heroics Headquarters, one of a large, ever-expanding staff of instructors who were experts in their respective fields of combat or weapons. Your job, essentially, was to be a superhero minus the powers- and use your abilities to keep the Heroics in top form.

Your expertise was swordsmanship, which meant you spent more time with Marcus than any of the other heroes. All of the physical trainers and specialists sparred with the Heroics in mock villain showdowns, but you also helped them hone specific skills. You were here because your skillset and abilities matched Marcus’s.

So you’ve had plenty of opportunity to behold his arms at work.

One would think that they’d be most enticing mid-action, but it was a cosmically ironic fact that there was never really a wrong moment to ogle. How that man could make merely unsheathing his swords so erotic was beyond you.

But by now you’d seen it from every angle. You were as familiar with Marcus’s technique as you were with your own, and knew well the cycle of muscle contractions which rippled up his whole body. It started with his legs: setting his stance, primed and poised on the balls of his feet. Then every muscle in his torso, his clinging t-shirts sliding over taut flesh as they rode up with the lifting of his arms- his arms. Biceps suddenly incredibly present and visibly straining past barely-existent sleeves, tendons flexing rigid and obvious, a tangle of pathways you wanted to map with your tongue.

This show was best when he had started his day with tactical theory sessions, because then his expressive face got involved. Oh yes, it wasn’t enough for him just to be built the way he was, his face had to go and be attractive as well.

Tedious strategy debates with Miracle Guy during these sessions never failed to get under his skin- you could always tell how much steam Marcus had to let off based on the clench of his jaw. Or the way he’d drag his bottom lip over his teeth, nostrils flaring in an almost-snarl. When that happened you knew he gripped the hilts of his swords a little tighter, because you’d see the ridges in his wrist dip and pull like piano strings perpendicular to the line of his gloves. The blades would sing little sharper on those days, his arms freeing them in a jerk rather than their usual smooth, deliberate slide.

It was amazing you ever made it beyond unsheathing your weapons.

But oh, were you glad you did, because watching Marcus Moreno fight was truly a treat. The control he had over his body was remarkable; even when his limbs flung and stretched, they were to ready to contract again at a second’s notice. “Fight” was really too limited of a term for it- Marcus manipulated his body in an incredible harmony of mind and muscle, using his weapons- including his telekinesis- as extensions of himself.

You wondered sometimes how fine his control over his telekinesis was- if he could use it on himself. If he did use it somehow to give his blows that devastating extra speed and strength.

It was easy to understand, after witnessing him, why battle is often described as a dance.

On particularly ruthless training days, his tan skin would gleam with sweat. It would bead and trickle along the pulsing veins in his arms, drawing your attention even more, and salacious scenes would flash behind your eyelids: those same glistening forearms visible in your peripherals as they box you against a wall, that same intent glitter in his dark eyes as they come closer and closer, breathless, his chest heaving into yours-

You never let on to any of this though. You were a master of the blade, and had trained too thoroughly to let the appearance of an opponent get to you. Besides that fact, you would never do anything to risk your place with the Heroics. Although you were an authority figure, they were still superheroes, and thus unlike anyone else you’d worked with- it made for a challenging, stimulating dynamic in which you were constantly both instructor and student.

Even outside of the training arena, Marcus’s arms were a sight.

Holding data pads or writing utensils as he led the Heroics in discussions of group tactics, deftly manipulating characters onscreen or scribbling things on a whiteboard. Sometimes he would go to these sessions straight from physical training, and the cooling sweat on his skin would raise goosebumps all along the smooth flesh.

You observed how gently his arms could move in yet other circumstances.

Training specialists often joined in when the Heroics were given new gadgets to play with. And although these days tended to be slower, they still made you sweat. Watching the caution with which Marcus handled the gear at first, the slow care he reserved for things with which he was still becoming familiar. The precision and that control he always kept- even when his frustration slipped out in the form of snarky remarks, he was always conscious of his movements. As he gained confidence, the surety would return to his motions, his shoulders squaring in quiet triumph- his broad, broad shoulders, which you had imagined far too many times propping up your thighs while his hands and mouth were otherwise engaged between them.

You wondered if Marcus would treat your body like something new he had to master. If his hands would probe and caress with the same thoroughness. If the same wicked delight would steal over his features as he learned how best to coax you toward his desired goals; if his fascinated smirk would change after the thousandth time he had taken you apart.

It didn’t help that these sessions highlighted that he was a kind, competent teacher. His teammates exasperated him sometimes, but Marcus was the first to step in when one of them was struggling. A light touch to rearrange their stance, an encouraging word or smile. If you hadn’t personally felt the power thrumming under his skin, you would have never guessed that such a soft man was capable of his immense abilities.

Occasionally you had to remind yourself not to get all dopey-eyed when he was instructing the kids. If you thought he was patient with the adult Heroics, it was nothing compared to how he interacted with their younger counterparts. Equally firm and joking in turn, he taught them every trick he knew while desperately hoping they would never have to use the knowledge.

Some days were easier for him than others- the times they practiced with weapons could have unexpectedly diverting consequences. Marcus let Guppy hold his katanas, once- she was fully capable with her shark strength, but the vision of the diminutive girl brandishing swords that were taller than she was, her face aglow with a ferocious grin, had all the others in fits.

You swore he was suppressing laughter himself as he carefully took them away from her. His hands, already distracting enough, looked comically vast compared to hers as he delicately maneuvered them to pluck the swords from her grasp. Something about the sight of his thick fingers, resettling themselves around the hilts with reflexive ease, made your mouth dry.

His fingers squeezed other things, too, and it made flames leap low in your belly every time.

Lime wedges, on the rare occasions he indulged in drinks stronger than wine at the Headquarters bar. His friends’s shoulders, in affection and farewell, after relaxing with them at said bar following hard days. You longed to be one of those who Marcus slung an arm around in jest, a laugh shaking his shoulders and sparkling in his eyes. Would his skin be as warm as it was while swinging a weapon? What would his body feel like softened in mirth, instead of vibrating with focus?

You didn’t blame him for his more formal attitude during work hours. His days were busy, and you rarely saw him off the training mats. You had shared a few evenings with him on nights when the bar was quieter, though. He was perfectly friendly, treating you just like anyone else he was getting to know.

Tonight was one of those quieter nights, but you didn’t do more than cast a quick glance at the small group sitting in the corner before slumping to the bar. You were worn out today, and just wanted something strong and solitary before going home.

You sighed into the numbing wash of your drink, your eyes drifting shut. Nobody would bother you this evening; it wasn’t that kind of atmosphere.

Except- the barstool next to yours scraped against the floor.

You inhaled deeply, preparing to politely rip into whatever idiot was assuming you needed company- only to have the words struck off your lips by the apprehensive brown eyes of Marcus Moreno.

“Hey,” he said, clearing his throat. “I’m sorry to bother you. You can tell me to march right back to my table if you like, but uh, I just wanted to see if you were all right. After today.”

You could see that he genuinely meant it- he was perched only partially on the barstool, ready to take off again if you said the word. But his gaze was curious, concerned.

You brow furrowed. “After today?” you echoed, too caught off-guard to think of anything else. What could he mean? Nothing special had happened today. He’d disarmed you, sure, but it wasn’t the first time that had occurred in the eight months you’d been working with him.

Marcus shifted uncertainly. “You just seemed...tired. Reflexes slower than usual,” he noted wryly. “And, well. We have matching bags.” He pointed to his face, where dark shadows were visible beneath his eyes. He offered a self-deprecating, tentative smile, conscious that he was treading in new territory.

It takes you a minute to process. In all the time you’ve spent observing his fighting techniques to perfection, you’d never considered that he could have been using those same opportunities to observe you. It provokes a funny feeling in your chest, twisting your breath up in your lungs like tangled ribbon.

“Oh,” you murmur, surprised but unoffended by his mention of the bags under your eyes. “Well...I am tired today, I guess.” You took a sip of your drink, gauging his interest, hesitating before continuing. “My sister broke her hip, so she just moved in with me for while she heals. It’s been...a stressful transition,” you admitted.

He angles himself toward you, attention fully committed and eyes widening in sympathy. “Oh gosh, that’s terrible. Do you need some time off? I can clear it with the boss for you, work with Santino for however long you need.” He seemed to straighten up, as if ready to spring away and take care of it the moment you answered.

“No, please,” you chuckled in appreciation of his earnestness. “I might need a few shorter days, but neither of us need me fussing over her 24/7.” Both you and your sister were strongly independent. It meant that you had often been at odds when you were younger, but you were all each other had now, and had made efforts to improve your relationship.

Marcus nodded in understanding, settling again. He seemed at a loss for if he should leave or say something else, so you made the choice for him.

“Tired of getting your ass kicked in my lessons, Moreno? You know Santino doesn’t work you as hard.” Your fellow swordsmanship instructor was slightly younger, a newer hire who was still a little bit in awe of the Heroics.

You didn’t usually speak so flippantly to him, but his eyebrows arced high at the challenge, a smile tugging on his lips. “Sounds like somebody needs a reminder of who kicked whose ass today, ma’am.” Rolling right along with your apparent newfound playfulness.

You pinpointed, suddenly, what was different about him tonight, why this interaction felt different compared to your others. There’d always been an air of deference about him before, as if even outside of the arena he considered you a superior. But tonight he was just treating you like a peer, a regular person. Maybe it had taken your excessively dragging day for him to come to terms with the fact that you were a regular person, but the ice finally felt like it had broken between you and you just...talked, after that. For longer than both of you probably intended.

“Shoot, I have to go get Missy,” Marcus realized, catching sight of his watch. “But you- you’ll be here again? I mean, I see you here a lot.” He stumbled over his words.

Did he? It was true that you were often at the bar at the same time, but for him to acknowledge that meant that he actually noticed you. Remembered your presence.

“Yeah, I’m here pretty regularly,” you confirmed, cautiously hopeful.

“Good. I mean, I’ll see you, then- next time.” His voice rasped low, but there was a nervousness in his expression. He twisted his jacket between his large hands.

He wanted to see you again. “Yes.” You smiled at him, surprise and pleasure shining through. “I’ll see you next time,” you said with conviction.

His eyes crinkled in answer, and your breath caught. Your ordered yourself not to watch him leave the room.

You drove home with a quiet grin on your face.

#we can be heroes #wcbh #wcbh fic #marcus moreno x reader #marcus moreno x you #pedro pascal #pedro pascal characters #NOBODY LOOK AT ME

[eintsein]

hi hi! could you please share your study techniques and advice for economics majors? I survived lower division just fine but upper division courses :( .

Hii! First of all, I want to apologize for answering this quite late - I wanted to give you an answer that's thorough enough and helpful. Read on below for tips!

Disclaimer: these tips are from my own experience and the experience of my peers, most of whom are in US institutions. However, I do think these tips should apply to many economics major programs.

Strengthen your mathematics foundations

Upper-division economics courses are math at their core. Here's an example of the objectives of an intermediate microeconomics course (source)

understanding the concepts of Pareto and sum-of-surplus efficiency, being able to determine whether a preference relation is complete, transitive, monotonic, and convex, and being able to determine whether a production function exhibits increasing, decreasing, or constant returns to scale.

Preference relations are concepts from discrete math. Increasing, decreasing, and constant returns are concepts from calculus.

Many upper-division courses also require knowledge of probability and statistics (game theory courses especially). Research-based classes often recommend having taken econometrics. Theoretical classes like decision theory are, as the name suggests, theoretically rigorous, so being comfortable with proofs is necessary, and knowing math theory is a great help.

A lot of people (myself included) struggle with higher division economics courses because they were not mathematically prepared. While you can definitely learn as you go, it will make your life a whole lot easier having the preparation or at least the comfort to work with the required mathematical concepts and use certain mathematical skills.

An example from personal experience: I had taken econometrics (a theoretical version) the spring of my sophomore year without much knowledge of multivariable calculus and having taken calculus II over a year before taking this class, and honestly I felt I had to work so much harder than my peers who were math majors or minors.

So yeah, you should definitely brush up on your math skills if you find yourself struggling. This could mean doing extra practice, looking for tutoring, or even taking a course.

Strengthen your economics foundations

Upper-division economics courses really build on lower-division courses. As far as I know, the purpose of upper-division courses is to teach us to synthesize what we learned from lower-division courses, i.e. to use the tools and techniques we've learned, and apply them to new economic settings.

For example, last fall I took a course on public finance (also known as welfare economics) and one of the topics we studied was regulating pollution. Two of the regulation methods we focused on were 1) cap & trade, i.e. giving pollution permits that can be traded, and 2) emission fees, i.e. setting a fee if emission is above a certain amount. The graphs below illustrate the two methods for two cases: inelastic marginal social benefit of pollution reduction, and elastic MSB of pollution reduction. Marginal cost and marginal social benefit curves are usually taught in lower-division courses, as are concepts of elasticity and demand-supply models.

Another example from the same class: evaluating Pareto efficiency of the allocation of public goods involves being comfortable with indifference curves, utility functions, and production possibility curves, as shown below. (Even if you don't understand what's going on, the general shapes should look familiar.)

Use the course's learning objectives to guide you

My probability and statistics professor taught me that the first step in studying any subject is to look at the learning objectives. These are the things you are expected to get out of the course and so they are the things you will be expected to know on an exam, do in a project/assignment, etc., not just information but also skills and techniques.

Study and practice drawing graphs

Graphs can hold a lot of information given that you know how to interpret them. In many cases, I found that if I understand the graph, then I understand the concept. Studying graphs saves a lot of study time, too, since the material's been summarized really neatly, and chances are you'll need to know the graph, too.

For many of my economics classes, I create a study guide comprising only graphs. These aren't just the graphs that are explicitly taught in class, though. I try to include as many cases, including special cases, because it teaches me to be able to think through the concepts being used in the graphs, instead of just being like, okay this is what it looks like.

For example, when studying Edgeworth-Bowley boxes, I drew them with different types of indifference curves, and then for each of them, I drew their utility possibility frontiers. Or when studying anything involving demand-supply curves (e.g. different types of taxation), I draw a graph for each combination of demand and supply elasticities (e.g. inelastic demand with inelastic supply; inelastic demand with elastic supply; etc.).

Of course, I don't always get it right. If there's something I'm unsure about or don't understand, I go to office hours for help.

Learn from assignments and practice a lot

Your assignments point out the types of questions you'll be expected to analyze and work through and thus can guide your studying, whether it's mathematical problem sets or a series of essays.

In classes with problem sets, doing them seriously helps SO much. They train your mental muscles to be able to solve or analyze the problems you're expected to be able to solve and analyze after taking the course. Your professor created these problem sets to achieve the learning objectives. If you're having trouble with any part of the problem set, you probably don't understand a key concept, skill, or technique the course expects you to, and that's totally fine; just don't forget to work on it and ask for help.

In addition, problem sets also serve as great revision tools to help you actively recall and synthesize the material you've studied.

Go to office hours for conceptual help

I've mentioned a couple times to reach out for help if you need it and I cannot stress this enough. In most cases, professors and TAs (teaching assistants) are more than willing to help you succeed. I would suggest going to each instructor/staff member if there are multiple and seeing which one is the most helpful, i.e. the person who can fill in your knowledge gaps the easiest, who understands your misunderstandings. Sometimes it's the professor, other times the TA is a better fit. Sometimes the TA gives better help for problem sets but the professor gives better help for conceptual problems. Use the resources available to you!

I hope this helps, and please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any other questions :)

#answered #economics #study tips #university #studyblr #uniblr #studyspo #study hard #studying #tips

[pastpatientlywaitingforimagines]

Starlight | Spencer Reid x Reader Platonic

WC: 1410

A/N: This is for @wesleeporstudy who requested a Found Family!Hotch x Reader fic! I intended for this to be a drabble but I was having too much fun and got a little carried away... enjoy!

GALAXY MASTERLIST (not needed to understand the plot but there’s similar content here if you liked this fic!)

“Are you sure you can’t come with me?” Spencer didn’t have to clarify his question for you to know he felt better about speaking at conferences when you were there. You were standing toe to toe in front of your car at the airport parking lot, dropping him off for his flight. Everything about his body language showed hesitation, including the way he was clutching his go bag.

You felt bad, truly. You wanted to go with him, but you had an obligation in Virginia that you couldn’t reschedule. “I have some things I have to take care of here. You know I’d only miss one of your lectures for something extra important.”

The corners of Spencer’s lips turned down at your answer, though you both knew you were right, “and you still won’t tell me what it is?”

“If I did, you wouldn’t go to your conference. Don’t worry about it though. You’re going to knock the socks off of those criminology professors,” you reached up to brush a piece of lint off of his jacket lapel, “you should go before you miss your flight.”

“Actually, based on the number of departing flights today and the amount of foot traffic in the airport, it takes approximately 45 minutes to get through security at this time of day, and another ten to find the assigned gate. I could stand out here with you for another thirty minutes before I’m late enough to miss my flight.”

“Spencer,” you chided, “go get on your plane, I’ll be here when you get back. Do you want me to pick you up?”

Spencer nodded eagerly, “could you?”

“Of course. Now go!” You put your hands on his shoulders and turned him to face the entrance of the airport. You watched him walk through the sliding doors, then got back into your car. Spencer would be ok on his own, you reminded yourself as you drove to the nearest grocery store. You had to pick up a few more things before continuing on to your final destination, including a birthday cake and some sports themed napkins.

Hotch seemed relieved to see you when he opened his apartment door.

“Here, let me help you with that,” he offered, reaching out to take some of the many items you had managed to balance in your arms.

“Thanks, where’s the birthday boy?” you asked, following him inside. Before Hotch could answer, your legs were attacked in a hug from Jack.

“Hi (y/n),” he chirped, looking up at you with a toothy grin.

“Are you ready…” you asked him slowly, then quickly changed your tone, “for the best birthday party ever!?”

“YES!” Jack screamed, matching your excitement level.

“Oh phew,” you dramatized, wiping imaginary sweat off of your forehead, “can you help me and your dad put up some decorations? They should be in that blue bag over there.” Jack scrambled over to the bag, pulling out the various decor items you had purchased. He helped Hotch put up streamers and banners while you put out tablecloths and bowls of snacks. You also set up a gift table, putting the wrapped box you brought in the center.

Just as you finished setting up, the first of Jack’s friends started to arrive. You left talking to the kids’ parents up to Hotch, instead entertaining the herd of second graders with a game of Twister. After Twister you facilitated a game of freeze dance, then took a break for pizza, cake, and presents. You then produced a box of small Nerf guns, told an elaborate story about how you stole a priceless gem, and tasked the group of tiny FBI agents to hunt you down after giving you a thirty second head start.

“You’re very good at this,” Hotch tried to look nonchalant leaning against the counter as to not give away your hiding spot next to him. You adjusted your makeshift helmet, a colander that you had found in a cabinet, before answering in a whisper.

“My cousin has a whole crew of small children. I used to stay with them during school breaks,” you paused to peek over the countertop, quickly locating the kids strategizing in Jack’s room, “I’ve run my fair share of birthday parties, and done twice as much babysitting.”

“Well, thank you for taking time out of your weekend to help out here.”

“Anytime, Hotch, really. I’ve seen how stressed out you’ve been lately. Our job isn’t easy and I can’t even imagine how much harder it is while also being a single parent.” You had offered to help out with Jack’s birthday party after catching Hotch still in his office at 2 a.m. trying to plan it a few weeks ago. It was the least you could do after Hotch denied your request to take some of his paperwork instead. You glanced over the counter again, a foam bullet whizzing by your ear. “My position’s been compromised, gotta go!”

You dramatically rolled into the kitchen, firing back some more bullets before getting hit by the entire firing squad of eight year old assailants. Out of the corner of your eye you noticed Hotch laughing at your exaggerated performance. It made you happy seeing him smile, it wasn’t something you saw from your Unit Chief often.

“Ahhhhhhh you got me!! I still have one trick up my sleeve though… a partner! Super villain Hotchner, take the gem and my gun!” you slid the “gem” and your Nerf gun across the linoleum floor towards Hotch’s feet before pretending to die. Hotch picked up the items and ran towards his office, the kids chasing after him. You took the opportunity to eat a slice of pizza and drink some soda, effectively refueling yourself for the rest of the party.

You helped Hotch clean up after all of the kids went home. Jack attached himself to your legs once again right before you were about to leave.

“What do we say to (y/n) for helping out with your party?” Hotch asked his son.

“Thank you,” Jack recited, tightening his grip on you.

“You’re very welcome, my friend,” you ruffled his hair, “will you help out with my birthday party this year?” Jack’s eyes lit up and he immediately started spurting different party themes that you could have, which included trains, superheroes, and cowboys.

“Those are all very good ideas, we have a few months so we can think on it, ok?”

“Thanks again for your help, this wouldn’t have been successful without you,” Hotch handed you a tupperware of leftover cake.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, you’re the coolest Dad ever. Like I said though, anytime. Jack is like the little brother I never had, I would do anything for this kid.” You meant it, too. Jack was just as much a part of your found family as anyone else on the team.

“See you Monday, (y/n).”

“See you Monday, boss,” you repeated, finally heading out the door and to your car.

On Monday morning you found yourself back in the airport parking lot, sitting on the hood of your car eating the last of the leftover cake. When Spencer exited the building and spotted you, his pace quickened.

“How was your conference?” you asked, sliding off of your car and getting inside once he reached your vehicle.

“It went really well, there was a fantastic talk on the link between victimization and offending that you would have liked- wait, is that cake?” Spencer stopped mid-ramble when he noticed the dish in your hands.

“It sure is,” you turned to put the container in the backseat.

“Where did you get cake?”

“Jack’s birthday party,” you shrugged, starting the drive towards work.

“Jack’s birthday isn’t until next week though.”

“Brian Trevino’s birthday party is next weekend even though his birthday isn’t for another two weeks,” you explained. Spencer’s eyes narrowed as he thought about what you had just said.

“Who is Brian Trevino?” He finally asked.

“A kid in Jack’s class, that’s why Jack had to have his birthday party this weekend, because they would have invited the same kids.”

“I didn’t realize you were so invested in the drama of the second grade.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Spencer Reid.”

“Actually, I know most things about you.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

“Like the fact that you’ve had blue frosting on your face for the last five minutes.”

Galaxy Taglist: @kermitsaysgayrights @niallthedancingharry @shadyladyperfection @thatsonezesty13 @lexshead @ceeellewrites @howdycharlie @girlycakepops @fantastic-fans @canimarrypizzaornah @daisyflower138 @dyingrexx @taylormobley @bazzleslynn @tj-drinks-tea @willa-wonky @eddiesbifocals @itsafreakingtouque @tee-mbrown @reniescarlett

#aaron hotchner x reader #spencer reid x reader #aaron hotchner #spencer reid #criminal minds #criminal minds fanfiction #platonic imagine