#1. how are so few people choosing Fin?

[nethhiri]

Siren Charms: Chapter 2

Zoro x Siren!Reader

Warnings: Descriptions of blood, drinking blood, eating people

Green Snack

For two days they stayed on that stupid island. You waited and salivated. The second their ship left you were tearing after it, unseen, hidden by inky waves. Far beneath the ship, hiding in its shadow, your dark fins moved with the ocean current. Several times, sea kings mistook you for a mermaid. They usually learned their lesson with a punch to the nose. If you didn't know what a siren was, it was easy to see them as a different type of mermaid, until it was too late.

When their ship slowed at night, you waited until the deck was silent before peeking over the edge. Over a few days, you spied on them, pressing your ear to the bottom of the ship, or looking through the portholes at night. You had taken an inventory of the crew in the time that you stalked them: 3 pure humans, 3 devil fruit users, 1 human that was off somehow, though you couldn't place it, 1 machine with a slightly human scent, and 1 animal. They rotated night watch but finally your delicious little snack was recovered, choosing to sit in the crow's nest. Even you were surprised at how quickly he healed. You breathed deeply, smelling his tasty body mixed in with all the other scents. You had been a good girl, patiently waiting, feeding from the other humans. Now you were drooling just thinking about sinking your teeth in as you pushed your self on deck, letting the scales and fins dissipate until you appeared human. 

Dripping over the deck, your feet were silent, and your clothes clung to your body. The slits of your pupils flicked up to the crow's nest. You quickly scaled the ladder, pausing as you got to the top. Snoring was the only evident noise coming from the room. It had been easier with the others because they walked around on deck, all you had to do was lure them to you. The blond one came of his own free will, you only needed to use your voice to make him forget what happened. He was more than willing to let you bite him, and he was generous with compliments. He tasted a little funny though. The red-headed one and the long-nosed one tasted better. It was too bad the raven-haired lady was a devil fruit user. She was your type. 

You slithered through the hatch to the crow's nest, padding softly to where the green one was asleep. Kneeling by his head, you ran your claws through his locks. "Wake up." Gray-green eyes slowly opened, groggy from sleep. "Be still."The honeyed voice persuaded him to obey. "I saved your life. So now you owe me." Your hand cupped his throat. The beat of his heart resounded in your ears. The warm flow was beckoning to you, begging you to take it, rip his throat out. 

"I do?"

Curious. They didn't usually talk back unless you asked a question. You would have to make it quick. He probably had a resistance to you somehow. People who had strong haki and/or low interest in sex were sometimes difficult to persuade. "You do."

"Ok." His eyes were blank.

Good. "Turn your head and let me sit in your lap," the reverberating voices acted fast on the man. He sat up and looked to the side. You slid into his lap, sitting sideways with your arms around his neck. Your teeth sharpened as they hovered over his skin, the vibration of his pulse tickled your fangs. His tanned skin graciously split for you, offering up the sweet sanguine treat you had been anticipating for days. Your lips closed over the red line and drank greedily. Fuck he's exquisite. Yellow eyes rolled under your thick lashes. The rich, thick liquid ran down your throat as you groaned into his skin. Your claws dug into his hair and you squirmed in his lap, completely intoxicated with bloodlust. You didn't want it to end. Rarely, you had heard of sirens who took regular feeding partners in exchange for something, usually protection or sex or both. Or you could drain him dry and have one really good memory to look back on before you could find another snack so tasty. But what if I never find someone as good? The annoying thought caused you to growl. You realized his hands were lightly pushing at you. That made up your mind for you. It was time to go, frustrating as it was, being that you were only one-fourth of the way done with your meal. It left you craving more. 

Reluctantly you pulled away, swirling your tongue over the wound to close it. "Forget about this and go back to sleep." The man passed out almost instantly. Gently, you got off him and laid him back down on the bench. You looked around and noticed a hatch to the roof. Crawling out of that, you perched on the top of the crow's nest. There were lights in the far off distance. A city. Probably a few days out. The deck was still clear. You took a running leap, diving off the side and into the water, fins and tail forming before you disappeared under the waves. 

#Siren Charms #roronoa zoro x reader #x reader #ya girl is being PROLIFIC today #one piece

[irradiatedsnakes]

I've ran out of current vods from my favourite streamer, do you have any recommendations for fun rtvs vods to watch? I've really been meaning to check some out

oh yes absolutely!!

i don't watch every rtvs member stream, so if anybody wants to chime in with vods from other folks, please feel free! i pretty much just watch wayne, holly, and scorpy's streams, so:

from wayneradiotv:

looking through wayne's catalogue i'm running into the problem that most of my favorites (like the among us, jackbox, & 420 streams) are best enjoyed when you're already pretty familiar with the crew, so maybe save those for later if you end up enjoying rtvs' stuff. all of the proximity chat among us videos are fantastic (and i like watching the same one from multiple peoples perspectives, holly's in particular are great). RTVS congress, a stream by baaulp, is also great and worth watching once familiar with the crew

i think my best wayne (well, on wayne's channel, all of these feature multiple members of the crew) recommendation though is gonna be I.M. MEEN, which is a completely normal playthrough of a regular copy of 90's kids' edutainment game i.m. meen, which has nothing wrong with it. for some of the other "rtvs brand of weirdness" sort of streams, check out waynekenstein's lab (fun with ai generated faces) and chex quest hd (just.. watch this one)

wayne does a lot of "grand tour" streams (technically the im meen one is one of these but), where he goes through older/weirder/obscurer games. fin fin on teo the magic planet is a FANTASTIC one (fin fin needs no introduction, but in case he does, odd 90's virtual pet with a great theme song), plus the echs bachs catalogue (a bizarre collection of pretty awful games made by one dude called Echs Bachs), and club penguin rewritten (it's club penguin, bro).

if you like seeing a game played over many hours and multiple streams, i'd check out chulip, lisa: the painful, minecraft 24 hour charity stream, and moon rpg: remix. lisa and moon remain unfortunately unfinished, but the streams are still absolutely worth checking out.

from hollowtones:

most of my favorite holly vods are biiiig long streams of a playthrough of a whole game. her stuff tends to be pretty chill and i find them nice and relaxing. sometimes there's friends joining her, sometimes it's just her. of these, i really like bugsnax (adore these ones. idk how to succinctly explain bugsnaz. is bugs, is snax, are you a jokester?), hypnospace outlaw (PLEASE watch these ones especially if you havent played/watched hypnospace before), and moonglow bay (really sweet fishing game).

holly also does a number of wikipedia streams, where she (and friends) read and discuss wikipedia articles about food for upwards of 6 hours a piece. it's really good. it's really good. i like the soup one.

another favorite holly stream is GO-FISH DELUXE FOR SUPER PLAYERS, where holly and a friend play a custom game of go fish for 7 and a half hours. i love this one.

and i would be remiss to leave out, of course, the pigmas in july peppa pig stream. which is where holly, joined by her sister if i remember correctly it's been a minute since i watched, plays the peppa pig video game for nintendo switch. this one is very worth watching to the very end.

from socpens:

my #1 recommendation from scorpy's catalogue is going to be every single one of the VHS VIEWINGZ streams. scorpy obtains and plays a bunch of vhs tapes on stream with friends, it's always always always a good time. my favorite of all of them is probably this one, which among other things, includes a tape about learning to be a clown. make sure to watch to the end for a t-bone tickler! this one, featuring Escalator Safety and VOLTON THE ELECTRITY DEMON is also great. i'm having a hard time choosing just a few, they're all really good, so i'm just gonna link the eye palming one and be done with it.

for gameplay with scorpy, i really like a way out with wayne (unintentionally hilarious 2 player narrative game about escaping from jail), any of the david cage game vods but here's detroit become human, and not for broadcast (a FMV game about running a tv station- censoring stuff, monitoring broadcasts, that sort of thing. has a very interesting narrative)

and a couple other things

ok so these aren't like, the typical stream vods, while they are technically livestreamed stuff they're not quite in the same category. but they're all really fucking good.

of course, half life VR but the ai is self aware. there's full stream vods available for these, but if you haven't watched before i highly recommend watching the edited versions on wayne's main channel linked above. in case you haven't heard of hlvrai before, basic concept is that it's an in-character playthrough (wayne roleplaying as gordon freeman) of half life 1 in VR with a cast of self-aware ai NPCs (played by other members of the rtvs crew) accompanying him through the game. no prior knowledge of half life necessary. just fantastic.

next up, GAMECLAM. a yearly e3-style gaming conference about the best video games console that doesn't exist. here's the first one, there's currently 3 in total. there's also a commentary video on scorpy's vod channel. PLEASE experience the gameclam. PLEASE experience the gameclam

lastly, half life: alyx but the gnome is TOO AWARE. wayne does a gnome run challenge of HL:A with a mod that gives the gnome a biiiit more personality. (due to some references, best watched after hlvrai, but they're not part of the same series/continuity). not all the way finished at the moment- the finale's been streamed (and you can find a 3rd party upload of the finale stream on youtube (thank you youtube user sawsily for everything you do)) but the edited version of the finale should be coming out pretty soon.

#rtvs #WHUF i hope this isnt too overwhelming i know its a Lot adsxdsfxds #theres SO much stuff i havent touched on here i havent even mentioned faxmas... but this post is long enough

[sighonaraa]

Okay get ready for them:

1, 2, 20, 29, 44, 58, 64, 78 (as many or as few that you want!)

thank u my love!!!!! for this ask game!

do you know how you want the story to end when you start, or are you just stumbling through the figurative wilderness hoping to find a road?

i usually don't know how i want a story to end until i'm at the very least halfway through! i am very much a wilderness stumbler at heart. i do, however, tend to have a general vague sense of the emotional arc i want certain characters to take -- i already have that planned out for the sun is only a God if you learn to starve, and i am. very excited. for that.

2. talk about a notable time a narrative or character has looked you dead in the eyes and said “fuck your plan, here’s what we’re actually doing.”

also for the sun is only a God if you learn to starve, i originally planned it to be a fairly long one-shot that was essentially 5+1 of times jamie got cuddles from his friends. ahahaha. ahahahahahahahaha. that has........... not continued to be the case. because now there is Plot. and Big Emotions. and also approximately 60k words that have yet to be written or published.

20. what is your favorite trope to write?

FOUND FAMILY!!!!!!!!!! BANGS POTS AND PANS FOUND FAMILYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!

29. give us a spoiler for one of your stories.

under the cut because this is getting long, apologies

in the ending where you finally find your way home, there is a visit to the hospital.

44. any writing advice you want to share?

get weird with it!!!!!!! and by weird i mean don't be afraid to indulge YOUR wants and desires for a story. you are your most important and valuable reader, and the second you start to forget that, writing will become a chore instead of an adventure.

58. what is the last thing that a fic made you google when you were writing it?

"shark fin haircut". thanks, s1 jamie and your funky lil hair.

64. what is your favourite title for a fic you’ve read? 

oooooooh. there are shrimply so many!!! but there was one i read a while ago that was hella inspirational for the mom city fix-it called "ghosts that we knew will flicker from view (and we'll live a long life)" and that title absolutely BODIES me every time. man. everyone should go read it.

78. how do you choose where to end a chapter?

purely vibes alone. or else on a cliffhanger that i know will make people Angry sjkdjf

#ask #jamietarttsnorthernattitude #thank youuuu for the asks MWAH <3 #sid speaks #ask games!

[storiesofsvu]

Squad Halloween Headcanons

Y’all. I FUCKING LOVE Halloween, and for me, (because of my Disney life) it starts in mid August…last year was the first time in 9 years I wasn’t in a Disney Park to celebrate with all their amazing entertainment and delicious snacks and I was SO SAD, I was planning to go back this year but #1: I’m not an idiot about to travel rn #2: our border is still closed #3: they cancelled MNSSHP this year. Also this took so fcking long cause I got SUPER hyped up/distracted jamming out to MNSSHP JAMS.

Anyways….

***

Imma start with the team going through a haunted house cause that’s what the anon asked for originally 

The squad ends up going to some Halloween festival down at Coney Island as a way to brush off some steam and have some time together outside work

It’s definitely Rollins who suggests going through the haunted house, the kind with actual actors inside that jump out of you along with creepy/gruesome scenes and rooms along the way (I’m thinking Halloween Horror Nights type thing)

Kat’s the first to agree, grabbing Amanda’s hand while the two gleefully run towards the entrance (hopped up on sugar or alcohol you choose). They’re giggling and yelping the entire way through having the time of their lives

Carisi’s definitely the one screaming like a baby around every corner, actually terrified, which naturally Amanda is laughing at him for, making plans on how to prank him around the precinct more often

Amaro’s the one who nearly punches one of the actors out of pure fight or flight instinct

Barba thinks the entire thing is childlike and ridiculous, he’s only here because Olivia showed up at his apartment and dragged him down there herself.

Casey finds herself jumping more often than she’d thought, brushing it off with laughter

Olivia & Alex end up jumping together and don’t even realize they’re holding hands until they’re all the way out and someone else points it out which they both get super flustered about, blaming it on being scared

Fin definitely makes some comment about how this is “white people shit” and he’ll never understand why something like this is supposed to be fun.

Melinda is hands down going over every gruesome scene with a groan, complaining how inaccurate it is, wapping Carisi’s arm as he’s trembling over the gore being all “it’s not even real, calm down!”

Sonya’s the one with the flask in her pocket…duh…

Halloween in general:

Olivia wasn’t super big on the holiday originally, but once she adopts Noah it becomes more of a regular thing when he’s old enough to actually enjoy it. She always makes sure he has the cutest/best costume, and is sure to take him trick or treating with Lucy (so that if she has to leave he doesn’t have to stop getting candy). She lets him gorge on candy that night, but is sure to keep it limited over the next few weeks. They do all the cute family Halloween things, carve pumpkins, roast the seeds, watch things like It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, in the month leading up to the holiday

Rollins LOVES scary movies, and uses Sept/Oct as an excuse to bust them out, we’re talking all the Friday the 13ths, all the Halloween’s, all  4 Scream’s, Nightmare on Elm Street, the Strangers, the Purge collection, the Chucky movies, ALL of them. She drags Carisi into it despite the fact that he HATES them, especially the jump scares, laughing at how panicked he gets during the tense scenes. After having kids she softens up a little bit, obviously she can’t show a 4 year old those movies (she’ll wait til after bedtime for that). She’ll usually join Liv in trick or treating, making the night a little more enjoyable for both of them. She also is 100% guilty of eating at least half of the girls candy after they go to sleep for the night and DEFINITELY hits up the stores Nov 1st for all that sweet, sweet discounted chocolate. She definitely has a costume for Frannie, who puts up with her bullshit long enough to get a couple of pictures before tearing the thing to pieces. 

Carisi loves doing all the cute fun fall things with his family. Like, he’ll be back in Staten Island raking the leaves in his parent’s yard just so the kids can dive bomb into the pile before filling those big jack’o’lantern garbage bags for decorations. He goes costume shopping with them, or spends hours going through pattern books at the fabric store because his Ma is clearly making all the costumes herself just like she did when he was a kid. He’ll spend hours carving pumpkins, chaperoning various relatives friends groups while they trick or treat, various parties of the kids, laughing along with them while they play games. Is definitely helping his sisters make witch finger cookies, or those tables where they turn the lights off and you touch peeled grapes pretending they’re eyeballs and the like. Seriously cannot wait to have his own family/kids to experience it with, cause, duh…it’s our soft sonshine bean.

Alex doesn’t care much for the holiday, this bitch comes from wealth and class and you simply cannot tell me otherwise. She’s much more a Christmas/New Years Eve type holiday celebrator. She’s glad she lives in an apartment where there aren’t many trick or treaters or kids in general, she MIGHT leave a bowl of candy outside her door if she knows there’s kids in the building, but catch this girl probably still at the office not even realizing it’s Oct 31st. As for fall in general, she prefers it, getting to spend more time snuggled up with her s/o, using the chilling weather as an excuse, especially if PDA’s involved. “I’m only holding your hand cause it’s cold” kinda thing

Rafael is 1000% still in his office the entire night, has no reason to celebrate and finds everything oh so childish, though he probably will bring Noah a little packet of candy (and probably a tooth brush, cause, no one likes cavities). He hates the whole “pumpkin obsession” that everyone goes through, ESPECIALLY with coffee, how anyone can drink that sugary sweet shit is far beyond him. Plus it brings hoards more people into the coffee shops and makes him late for work if he doesn’t start leaving the house earlier. He appreciates the cooling weather thanks to regularly being in 3 piece suits though, cause that’s no fun in the humid heat of summer.

Casey’s not super into it, she might throw up a decoration or two on her apartment door for the spirit of things, but she’s not going out or celebrating, and definitely not dressing up. She’s a girl that belongs in summer, warm air, outdoor sports, the ability to bike ride through the city rather than deal with rain/snow. I feel things like 4th of July are her jam, outdoors, a barbecue, the warm summer air, sports, obviously softball.

Melinda: (it’s canon she’s married and has a kid so I’m going with that here). She gets WAY too into it in terms of setting up her front yard into a horror zone, like, the MOST realistic decorations, organizing skeletons/organs/brains/etc into the most realistic & disgusting scenarios. Loves to freak out trick or treater’s with it while her kids younger, when the kid is older and hosting parties, she’ll have a long trail leading to the back yard, a little haunted house type display with all the medically accurate terrifying thing before the guests get to the door. She definitely takes notes of the most disturbing deaths she’s seen all year just for this moment. There is 100% fog machines and creepy soundtracks throughout the entire thing. 

#law and order #law and order svu #law and order special victims unit #halloween #olivia benson #casey novak #alex cabot #melinda warner #sonya paxton #rafael barba #amanda rollins #sonny carisi #svu

[ironychan]

A Little Human (as a Treat)

Part 1/? - Un Volontario

Part 2/? - Un Escursione

Part 3/? - Una Complicazione

Part 4/? - Una Famiglia

Ercole tries to deal with becoming a sea monster, and is bad at it.  Flavia tries to deal with being lost, and is not much better.

The shores of the Island off Portoross had been pounded by surf and storms for countless centuries, tumbling the fallen rocks into flat, rounded stones the size of soup bowls, which the sea monsters used for building.  Signor Donzella had already picked up several pieces he thought for a good size and shape, with help from his young son Silvio, who was putting them in sacks.  Silvio was pleased to see help arrive, as it meant less work for him.

“Hi, Giordana!” he waved.  “Is Arturo coming, too?”

“He's back home helping Mom,” she replied.

Silvio was disappointed, but intrigued to meet new people.  “Who are your friends?”

“You know Ciccio,” said Giordana.

“Oh right!” Silvio nodded.  “Today's the day, huh?”

Arturo must have told him about their plan.  “Uh-huh,” said Giordana.  “And this is, uh...” she couldn't remember Ercole's name.  She'd never had occasion to use it – their only interactions had been arguments, and Ercole hadn't challenged her since he'd found out she was willing to bite.

“This is Ercole,” sighed Ciccio.

“Well, don't just float around like a lot of jellyfish,” said Donzella.  “Let's see some work get done.”

Giordana got right to it, choosing a nice broad piece of limestone and hefting it from the sea floor.  Ciccio smiled a bit as he watched her.  Giordana was much stronger than she looked.  It was one of the things that made her so cool.

Ercole, however, was not at all impressed.  “You're really just going to let him put you to work?”

“Yeah,” said Giordana.  She looked at him, puzzled.  “Why not?”

“Well, I'm certainly not,” Ercole declared, and turned to storm off.

This did not work very well.  He quickly discovered that he could not simply walk along the bottom: the water was too viscous, and the slippery algae coating the rocks provided no grip.  Ercole tried to take a step, only to find himself upside-down, half a metre above the bottom and cursing as he flailed for a handhold.

“Uh... is he okay?” asked Silvio, brushing silt off another rock.

“No,” said Ciccio.  There might have been a tiny bit of showing off involved as he flicked his tail to swim gracefully over to Ercole.  The older boy had now grabbed a handful of seagrass and was trying to use it as leverage to right himself.

“Where are you even trying to go?” Ciccio asked.

“Up the hill to dry land, obviously,” snarled Ercole.  He pointed up the steep slope towards the Island's small beach.  “If I get out of the water I change back, right?  That's how sea monsters work.”

“Maybe not,” said Ciccio.

“What do you mean, maybe not?”

“Alberto's cousin doesn't.  And I'm, uh... borrowing sea-monster-ness from her, so I don't either.  You might not.” That was only a guess, of course.  Ciccio had no idea how any of this worked.  Maybe nobody did.

Ercole had wrestled his feet back onto the bottom, and now continued trying to make progress uphill.  He did this by using all four limbs, bracing his feet against rocks and patches of seaweed or coral, and grabbing for whatever handholds presented themselves.  It worked, more or less, although it was very slow or awkward.  Ciccio and Giordana hovered just behind him, watching.  Neither offered help, and Ercole didn't ask for any.

After several minutes of struggling that could have been a few seconds' swim, Ercole reached the top and crawled onto the pebbly beach.  The others followed to see what would happen.

The answer was not very much.  Ercole rolled onto his back on the stones and shut his eyes to lie there waiting.  Giordana climbed out and stood over him with her hands on her hips.  Within seconds, the bright sunshine and warm summer breeze had dried her out enough for the Change to take hold: her scales melted away, and long, spiralling fins split into locks of curly dark hair.  Ercole looked up at her, then at his own hands which had not transformed, and made a horrible moaning sound.

“I told you,” said Ciccio.

“I can't be a sea monster!” Ercole wailed, sitting up. “I hate sea monsters!”

“Maybe it's time to think about that a little,” Giordana suggested dryly.

“I have thought about it, and the more I think about it, the more I hate them!” Ercole declared.  “They're slimy, and smelly, and ugly... per milli sardini, I must look hideous!” He grabbed his snout in dismay.

“You kind of just look like you, but fishier,” Ciccio offered. The more sea monsters he'd met, the more he'd learned what to look for in order to recognize them in their different forms.  Things like overall build, body language, and the shapes of their eyes did not change.  Ercole was still gawky and big-nosed, and neither his voice nor his attitude were different.  Anyone who interacted with him wouldn't need long to figure it out.

“What are you implying?” Ercole asked him, eyes narrowed suspiciously.  “Is this the catfish thing again?”

“Actually, with the little whiskers you do kinda...”

As Ciccio was speaking, Ercole was reaching up to scratch at his gills, but Giordana caught his hand before he could get there. “Don't scratch,” she said.  “You need to get back in the water.”

“Why?” Ercole whined.

“If your gills itch, it's because they're drying out,” she told him, leaning in to almost press her nose against his snout.  “Then they'll crack and bleed, and you won't be able to breathe, and you'll die choking on your own blood.”

Ercole stared at her, horrified.

“Come on,” said Ciccio.  He waded up the beach to grab Ercole's other hand and pull him to his feet.  “You have to keep from dying until the kids get back.”  With Giordana's help, he dragged the reluctant Ercole back into the surf.

“I'm not going to help pick up rocks!” Ercole declared.

“Suit yourself,” said Giordana.

“Just don't wander off and get eaten by a giant squid or something,” Ciccio said.

“Does that happen a lot?”  Ercole looked around nervously.

“All the time,” Giordana said darkly.

With Ercole sitting on a boulder with his arms crossed over his chest, the very picture of a sulk, Ciccio and Giordana got to work collecting building stones.  Silvio gave him a sideways look and then came closer to ask in a whisper, “what's going on?”

“Yeah, what is going on?” Giordana wanted to know.  She knew very well that Ercole was supposed to be human.

“He stuck himself on one of my spines, and apparently that turned him into a sea monster,” Ciccio said.  He honestly would have liked very much to tell Ercole to get stuffed and leave him to whatever might await him down here, but he couldn't do that because this was just as much Ciccio's fault as his.  Ciccio had known the spines might be dangerous, but he'd still let Ercole goad him into a fight. That made it his responsibility to keep him out of trouble today.

Silvio thought about that.  “So if you pricked me, would I turn into a human?”

“Let's not find out,” said Giordana.

“Yeah, good idea,” Ciccio said.

He was peeling a stubborn starfish off the bottom of a stone Signor Donzella liked the look of when Ciccio heard a motor, and looked up to see another vessel puttering up to Ercole's abandoned boat.  That, he realized, must be Guido.  If only he'd been the first to arrive.

“Signor Donzella?” he said.  “I'll be right back.  I just gotta go check in with my friend.”

Donzella nodded, and looked over at Ercole, who was shooing at a cleaner shrimp that had come to investigate him.  “Are you going to do anything?”

“No,” said Ercole.

This time, Ciccio was careful to surface a few metres away, so there would be no risk of Guido touching him.  He found his friend had hooked an oar over the side of Ercole's boat to pull it closer and was now peering into it, looking for any evidence of what had happened to its occupant.

“Guido?” asked Ciccio.

Guido turned around.  “Oh, there you are!  Um...” he pointed to the empty boat.  “Have you seen Ercole?”

“Yeah,” Ciccio replied, and again explained quickly what had happened.

Guido had a similar reaction to Silvio's.  “Can I try?”

“No!” said Ciccio, moving a little further away.  “For one thing it sounded like it hurt, and for another, I don't know how to change him back.  You gotta tell me the minute Alberto and the rest get back, okay?  Go up to the petrol station and wait, and as soon as you see them coming, come down and tell me.”

“Got it.”  Guido nodded.  “What do I tell your dad?”

Ciccio groaned.  If he told his father about all this, there was no way he'd ever be allowed to do it again... assuming he could do it again... assuming Flavia would want to do it again... assuming he ever had a reason to do it again once they'd told Giordana's mother the truth... oh, no, there was still Giordana's mother to deal with.

“Tell Papà I'm fine,” he decided.  “Tell him I helped Giordana and Arturo with their chores, and then we had lunch, and now I'm helping Signor Donzella with some work, and I'll be home for dinner like I promised.”

“Right.  What about Ercole's boat?”

That was a good question.  They couldn't just leave it bobbing there – it would float away and Ercole would blame them for losing it. “Better tow it back, I guess,” Ciccio decided.  “If anybody asks about him...” he paused, unable to think of a story.  Somebody who saw Guido bring the empty boat back from the Island was likely to assume Ercole was now stranded there, perhaps even that Guido had done it on purpose.

“I'll hide it somewhere,” Guido decided.  “Honestly... he'd probably rather people think he's dead than find out what actually happened.”

“Yeah, probably,” said Ciccio.

--

When Signor Donzella was satisfied with their collection of stones, they took the sacks and lugged them out to the old Cormorano house. The Donzella family was fixing this up so that they would have a place to live closer to the community, rather than further out and deeper down among the hot vents, where the forge was.  Ercole evidently had learned something from his attempt to climb the hill, and he didn't want to get left behind after Giordana had assured him there were giant squid around.  He still couldn't swim, though, so he grabbed the waistband of Ciccio's shorts and let him tow him.

“You're awfully heavy, you know,” said Ciccio, who had plenty enough to carry with his bag of stones.

Ercole didn't reply at first.  Then he pulled himself a little closer to say quietly in Ciccio's ear: “you must teach me to swim.”

“Oh, now you want to learn to swim?” Ciccio asked.

“What are the sea monsters going to think when they see that I can't?” Ercole hissed.  “If they find out who I am, they'll kill me!”

“No, they won't,” scoffed Ciccio.

“I dunno,” said Giordana.  “I know who you are, and I kind of want to kill you.”

“Think about it, idiota,” Ercole insisted.  “They must know I'm the one who called Signor Harris here to tell him about the sea monsters!  Somebody could have ended up in a zoo and it would have been my fault!”

“And what does that tell you?” Giordana asked.

“It tells me I am in danger the moment they find out I'm not one of them!” Ercole insisted.  “Remember when those boys were first in town?  Nobody wanted to hurt them as long as we all thought they were human.”

“Except you,” said Ciccio.  He and Guido would not have particularly cared about Alberto and Luca if it hadn't been for Ercole.

“That is beside the point,” said Ercole.  “You said I have to survive until the children come back, so you have to teach me how.”

“I'll do it,” said Silvio.  They were slowly falling behind Signor Donzella as Ercole's presence weighed them down, and Silvio had dropped back to listen to their conversation.

Ercole dismissed him with a wave of his hand.  “Pah.”

“Why not?” Silvio asked.  “I know way more about it than Ciccio does.”

“He's right,” said Ciccio.  “He's been a sea monster his entire life.  Me, it's just today.”

“And Ciccio's not even trying to blend in,” Giordana added.  “If anyone asks where he's from, we're just gonna tell them.  We could do the same for you.”  This was very much a threat.

“You wanna live, or what?” Silvio asked.

Donzella looked back over his shoulder.  “Everything okay back there?” he called.  “Junior, do you need me to carry some of yours?”

“All good, Dad!” Silvio replied, and held out a hand to Ercole. “Is it a deal?”

Ercole was suspicious.  “It's only a deal if there's something in it for you. What are you asking for, Squaletto?”

Silvio hadn't thought of that.  After a moment's consideration, he asked, “do you have a television?”

“It won't work underwater,” Ercole told him, rolling his eyes.

“I know that. How big is it?”

Ercole held his hands about half a metre apart.

“Perfect!” said Silvio.  “So I'll teach you how to pretend you're a real sea monster, and you let Arturo and me watch football at your house!  Deal?”

Ercole looked as if he were seriously considering just throwing himself into the beak of the giant squid, but he gritted his teeth and took Silvio's hand as if it were a dead fish.  Ciccio snickered to himself – Silvio had no idea what he had let himself in for.

--

While her friends tried to figure out how to get back to her, Flavia could only stand and stare, paralyzed, at the dark culvert opening where they'd vanished.  What was she going to do?  She couldn't stay here all alone, and she couldn't go back to Portorosso by herself.  She didn't know how to ride a bicycle, and even if she tried to walk, humans had no sense of direction!  For the first time in her life, Flavia was lost, and she didn't know how to fix that.  What did humans do when this happened?

“Heavens!” said Signora Pepitone, relaxing her grip at last.  “You poor thing. Have you been with them all day?”

“They're friends of mine,” Flavia insisted.  “Alberto is my cousin, and Giulia's his cousin. They wouldn't hurt anybody!”

“Oh, no, dear.”  Signora Pepitone shook her head.  “No, no, I'm afraid you've been tricked.  Did you see what they turned into?  Those nasty creatures didn't have good intentions for anybody, you mark my words.”

A rather shaken-looking zoo employee approached.  “Is everyone all right over here?” he asked.

“Yes, we're fine,” said Signora Pepitone.  “I think this young lady has had a narrow escape, actually.”  She patted Flavia on the shoulder. “You're sopping, dear.  Let me take you back to my place, and we'll see if we can't find you some dry clothes.”

Flavia didn't know how to reply.  She didn't think going with Signora Pepitone was a very good idea.  What would this woman do when she found out Flavia was actually the same kind of monster as her vanished friends?  But she couldn't stay here all by herself, either. Her wet clothes stuck to her skin unpleasantly, and she was shivering as the cold water dripped from her hair and hem.  What would a human do in this situation?

The answer was almost certainly to accept the offer of help.  So against her better instincts, Flavia said, “thank you, Signora.”

--

Signora Pepitone lived in a tiny second floor apartment just a short walk from the zoo.  She tutted over Flavia the whole way there, saying what a dreadful shock she must have had and other such things, while the people around them stared at their wet clothes and whispered things Flavia couldn't quite hear.  Once indoors, Signora Pepitone put a saucepan on to make a hot drink, and gave Flavia a dressing gown to wear while her own clothes hung to dry.  Then she picked up a telephone and called her son.

That got Flavia's attention.  She'd seen telephones before.  Nonna Sofia had one at her house on the island of Procida, and Flavia had watched her use it once or twice.  Luca had mentioned that once a week from Genova he would call the phone in Signora Marsigliese's grocery shop in Portorosso, and his parents would be waiting there to hear about what he'd been doing in school.  Maybe Flavia could use this one.

“Roberto!” said Signora Pepitone.  She wedged the phone receiver between her shoulder and chin so she could towel her hair, which was long and steel-grey under her flowered scarf.  “You won't believe what just happened!  I was feeding the pigeons like I do, and this nice young lady came to chat with me.  She had these three friends with her, but then the fountain broke and sprayed us all, and I suppose it washed off their disguises or something, because these three children turned into horrid little scaly monsters!  Yes, like lizards or fish, but people-shaped!”

There was a pause while Roberto said something.

“I have not!” said Signora Pepitone indignantly.  “How dare you ask your mother such a thing!  It was hideous.  I was sure we were goners.  Lucky for us, the beasts fled when they realized they'd been discovered.  Have you got any of Perla's extra clothes you could spare?  This young lady hasn't any spare ones and she looks about the same size.”  She covered the mouthpiece and asked Flavia, “how old are you, dear?”

“Twelve,” Flavia replied.

Signora Pepitone spoke into the telephone again.  “She's a little older than Perla but small for her age.  Oh, that's very kind.  I'll see you soon.  Mind your mouth!  You may be a parent yourself, but I'm still yours!”  She set the receiver down, and turned to pour some warm milk into a cup for Flavia.  “My son is going to bring you some of his daughter's things to borrow.  Here, this ought to warm you up.  Would you like a bit of honey in it, dear?”

“Yes, thank you,” said Flavia politely.  She'd liked the taste of the honey-flavoured gummy.  Amazing to think that it was made by bees. “Um, may I please use your telephone?” she ventured.  “I could talk to Papa Leo in Portorosso.”

“You read my mind,” said Signora Pepitone with a smile, stirring honey into the milk.  “I was just going to ask if you knew whether there was a phone where you were staying.”

“There isn't,” said Flavia.  “We're staying with the Paguro family, but they know Signor Marcovaldo, and he's right across the piazza from Signora Marsigliese, and she has a telephone.”

That was evidently a bit more complicated than Signora Pepitone had expected.  “Have you met all these people?” she asked.  “You're quite sure they are who they say they are?  I've heard stories from Portorosso about monsters in human form... I always thought they were silly campfire tales until today.”

“I'm sure,” Flavia promised.

“Maybe don't tell anyone what happened until you speak to your father,” Signora Pepitone suggested, still wary.  “And be certain it's really your father.”

Papa Leo had used the telephone to let Nonna Sofia and Papa Giorgio back home know they'd arrived safely, so Flavia knew how to go about it: she dialed zero for the operator, and asked for Signora Marsigliese's grocery in Portorosso.  The woman connected her, and she heard the sound of ringing.

“Marsigliese's,” the lady answered the phone.

Flavia did her best to stay calm and speak clearly.  “Hello, Signora, this is Flavia Scorfano.  I need to speak to Papa Leo right away.  It's important.”

“Of course, dear,” said Signora Marsigliese.  “Is everything all right?”  They hadn't arranged to call from San Giuseppe the way Luca had to call once a week from school, so it was obvious that something unexpected had happened.

“Not really,” Flavia admitted, “but I'll tell Papa Leo about it.”

“I'll have Massimo go find him at once,” Signora Marsigliese said.

There followed an awfully long wait with the phone off the hook, the only sounds those of people moving around the grocery shop and on the street outside.  Flavia knew this wasn't unreasonable: it would take a few minutes for Signora Marsigliese to run across the piazza and give the message to Signor Marcovaldo.  Then if Papa Leo wasn't there at the Pescheria, Signor Marcovaldo would have to go find him, possibly even going out to the Paguro farm if Papa Leo had gone back there.  But every second seemed to take forever, while Signora Pepitone fretted and wandered around the kitchen doing meaningless busy work, and Flavia got more and more worried.  What if something bad had happened back home, too?  What if Papa Leo couldn't help her?

She wondered what Alberto, Luca, and Giulia were doing.  Had they made it to the ocean okay, or had they gotten lost in the culverts?  How was she ever going to find them again?  What if they assumed she would wait for them at the zoo, and then when they got there, she was gone? Maybe they would be able to figure out they'd gone with Signora Pepitone, but how would they find the apartment?  Even if they did, Signora Pepitone would never let Flavia go with them when she thought they wanted to hurt her.

Finally, she heard a clunk as somebody picked up the phone, and Papa Leo said, “hello?”

Flavia hadn't meant to cry, but as soon as she heard his voice, tears welled up and overflowed down her cheeks.  “Papa Leo, it's me,” she managed.  “I got lost.”  Her fathers were never going to let her out of their sight again, she thought... even if someday they found something that made her able to transform normally, she wouldn't be allowed to set foot on shore again, ever.  She tried to say something more, but all that came out was a broken sob.

“Poor child,” Signora Pepitone said yet again.  “You've had such a shock.  Here, I'll talk to him.”  She took the phone from Flavia and gave her a handkerchief in return.  “Signor Scorfano?” she asked.  “My name is Dionisia Pepitone, and I do apologize, but after some of the things I've seen today, I really do have to be sure people are who they say they are.  Tell me, what colour are your daughter's eyes?”

Flavia herself honestly did not know what colour her eyes were in human form.  It wasn't something she'd paid attention to when she'd stared at her reflection in Giulia's mirror.  Weren't they brown?  Papa Leo must have looked, though, because Signora Pepitone seemed satisfied with his answer.  She nodded, and started telling him about how Flavia had asked to feed the pigeons with her.

“Then the water tank broke open and everybody got soaked,” she repeated, “and it washed off her three companions to show that they were all horrid little... I don't even know how to describe them!  Wet scaly monsters with claws and sharp teeth!  Don't worry, I wouldn't let them near your daughter, and they went and jumped in the river and vanished.  Good riddance!”

By now Flavia was getting her tears under control.  She sniffled and scrubbed at her eyes, then looked plaintively at Signora Pepitone, hoping to be allowed to speak again.

Papa Leo must have wanted the same thing.  The woman offered the handset to Flavia again.  “Here you are, dear,” she said.

Flavia put it to her ear.  “Papa Leo?” she asked.

“I'm here, Angelfish,” he assured her.  “I'm gonna come and get you.”

“What about Alberto and his friends?” Flavia wanted to know.

“We'll find them.  You're not in trouble, Flavia,” Papa Leo promised her. “It sounds like it was an accident, right?  Nobody could have known that would happen.  Don't worry, everything will be okay.”

Everything will be okay.  Flavia giggled in relief, even though she was still crying a little.

“You'll stay put and wait for me?” Papa Leo asked.

“Yes, I promise,” Flavia replied.  “I love you, Papa Leo.”

“I love you so much, Angelfish,” he said, “and I'm so glad you're all right.  I'll see you soon.”

“Ciao.” She waited until she heard the click of him hanging up, and only then did she give the telephone back to Signora Pepitone.  

Flavia felt a little sick from crying so much, but Signora Pepitone got her settled at the kitchen table with her cup of warm milk and honey, and that made things a bit better.  This woman really was only trying to help.  She just didn't know anything about sea monsters.  As long as she didn't find out what Flavia really was, it would be fine.

What she might think if she did find out... Flavia hoped she wouldn't have to worry about that.

A few minutes later, there was a knock at the door.  For an elated moment Flavia thought Papa Leo was here, but then she realized that wasn't possible.  Signora Pepitone answered, and let in a man in a yellow shirt, with a narrow moustache and a sharp nose and chin very much like her own.  That must have been her son, Roberto.  With him was a girl about Flavia's size, with dark brown hair in two plaits hanging in front of her shoulders.

“I'm so glad you've come,” said Signora Pepitone.  “Now can you tell that I haven't had a drop to drink?”

“I'm sorry, Mother,” Roberto said with a sigh, “but you have to admit, it sounds crazy.”

“You believe me now, though?”

“We stopped on our way to chat with Dino and Fiore,” Roberto said.  “It sounds like the whole town's talking about it.  Everyone's terrified.”

“I don't blame them a bit!  To think creatures like that can just disguise themselves and walk among us,” said Signora Pepitone.  “I might never trust my neighbours again.”

The little girl, who was carrying a paper shopping bag, squirmed past the grownups and came to smile at Flavia.  “Hi,” she said.  “I'm Perla Pepitone.”

“I'm Flavia Scorfano,” Flavia replied warily.  Other kids weren't normally excited or happy to meet her.  Not unless they...

... not unless they didn't yet know there was something wrong with her. As far as Perla knew, Flavia was just another human.

“Piacere!” said Perla.  “I brought you some dry clothes.  Nonna said you liked feeding the pigeons with her, so I thought you might like this.” She reached into the bag and pulled out a blouse with a puritan collar, which had a pigeon motif embroidered on each side.  “Nonna made it for me.”

Flavia had been reaching for the garment, but now she stopped.  If somebody's grandmother had made it, that was very special.  Flavia herself treasured each and every thing Nonna Sofia had given her.  “And you'll let me wear it?”

“Sure!” Perla said.  “You probably shouldn't wear it to school, though. The kids kept calling me Pigeon Girl and cooing at me.”  She dropped the blouse back into the bag and held it out to Flavia. “Here, try them on.”

Flavia took the bag into the little washroom and opened it for a look at the contents.  As well as the blouse, there was a pair of dark overalls, white socks, and a light blue cardigan.  None of it was new, but the clothing had been well cared-for.  Flavia got dressed and folded the robe up to give back to Signora Pepitone, then stopped to look at herself in the mirror.

Partly this was to take note of the colour of her eyes – she had remembered correctly, they were brown – but also to appreciate how nice the borrowed clothes were.  Perla Pepitone had never heard of Flavia before today, but she'd still decided to loan this total stranger a special piece of clothing because she'd heard that Flavia liked pigeons.  It made Flavia feel very welcome, very wanted, like she usually only did with her immediate family, and that idea sat very uncomfortably alongside Signora Pepitone's terror of sea monsters.

But her eyes were drawn again from the clothes and back to her face – and she shivered.  It was different for normal sea monster kids, who grew up with their human forms and knew that was a part of themselves.  Alberto had complained that humans talked as if they only saw his 'real' face when he was in the water, and didn't understand that what he looked like out of it was just as real.  When Flavia looked in the mirror, though, she just couldn't think of that human face as belonging to her. She really was pretending she was something she wasn't.

She would be so relieved when Papa Leo arrived to get her.  Today had been fun until disaster struck, and maybe she'd like to do it again someday if Ciccio were okay with that.  For now, however, she really just wanted to go home.

#pixar luca #luca 2021 #luca paguro #alberto scorfano #giulia marcovaldo #ercole visconti #fanfiction #a little human (as a treat)

[heiayen]

kites and butterflies - furina & gn!reader

summary: you and furina decided to craft and fly your own kites during the lantern rite.

tags: can be read both as romantic and platonic, depending on how you choose to read this! you&furina craft and play with kites during lantern rite <3 some kite symbolism n funnies, drabble! no dialogues written. part 1 (watching gaming's perfomance), part 3 (picking qingxins) part 4 (visiting the hulao mountain and bringing food as an offering) part 5 (trying out food stalls) part 6 (taking care of qiqi)

notes: hi. i dont know how to write. but i'm learning again. this is my second entry for @/astronetwrk new lunar year event !! atp i'm gonna turn it into a mini series of furina&name having fun during lantern rite LMAO anyways... enjoy !!

You and Furina run down the balcony’s stairs, almost forgetting to pick up your kites from the floor– a blue butterfly that was Furina’s and your scissor-tailed swallow. Luckily, you remembered at the last second, skipping stairs and grabbing the kites. 

You were really excited for this. 

Furina already tried flying the kites with you, earlier before the main event, and even made a few of them. You two found a nice place to sit, away from the busting with life city, got all the paints and materials, and got into work. 

It was… an interesting experience. You weren’t that skilled at crafting things and neither was Furina at crafting kites. A few mistakes were made, and one of you spilled paint (thanks to Furina’s hydro vision, the damage wasn’t that bad), but it was enjoyable for you both in the end.

Furina’s first kite was… to no one’s surprise, a blue, small dragon and you well knew who it was representing. She was so proud of it, smiling and showing off the kite. You clapped your hands, complimenting her hard work and as if the universe was watching you, the wind came and you ushered Furina to let the fly kite. 

She gripped the string hard, not wanting to let the kite fly away and leave her. 

(It didn’t. It wouldn’t.)

She helped you with making your own kite, and you decided for your first design to make something simple, like a ricefish. You heard they were associated with wealth and abundance, and… oh, you wouldn’t say no to some comfort in life! And the fish turned out to be cute– well, oh, maybe the fins were a little crooked, and Furina accidentally went over the line once which you promptly ignored, but it was done.

You wasted no time giving the kite to her, so that she could let it fly while the wind was still there.

You couldn’t help but smile seeing her happy, enjoying herself and chasing the wind. 

You ended up making a few kites more, with interesting designs and many colors because… despite the rocky start, the kite making was really relaxing. That was how you ended up with an army of kites. You stored it in your room in the inn you two were staying, and decided to bring only one kite each for later.

When you joined other people during the Lantern Rite, you both let your kites fly and join the other kites in the sky. You were simply mesmerized by how pretty the sky looked, illuminated by the lanterns, colored by the many, many kites and people’s wishes. Furina was standing next to you, also enjoying the atmosphere and watching her own kite freely soar. 

And it all was fine until the wind subdued, leaving the kites slowly fall down the ground. You sighed in slight disappointment, but of course, no one couldn’t control the weather.

You were about to turn to Furina (who also seemed rather disappointed at the sudden turn of events), when suddenly, a massive, crane-like kite flew into the sky, with a strong gust of wind that took the falling kites with it, letting them fly again. You both gasped at it, and walked closer to the railings, chasing your kites and admiring the big, crane-like one. A thought passed your mind– was it influenced with anemo? Whose kite it was even? Was it a kite in the first place? Well, the details didn’t matter.

The blue butterfly kite was soaring high, free.

#the dragon dances not through rain and tide #astronetwrk #・ nouveau livre ˎˊ˗ #heia's writin' #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact imagines #genshin impact x you #furina x reader #furina x you #gender neutral reader

[digihworld]

Navigating the World of Quick Loans:

In today's fast-paced world, financial needs often arise without warning. Whether it's an unexpected medical expense, a home repair, or simply making ends meet until the next paycheck, quick loans have become a lifeline for many. Quick loans, also known as payday loans or short-term loans, offer a way to bridge the gap between financial emergencies and your next payday. In this blog, we'll explore what quick loans are, how they work, and what you should consider before applying for one.

Understanding Quick Loans

Quick loans are short-term, small-dollar loans designed to provide immediate financial relief to individuals facing unexpected expenses or cash shortages. They are typically unsecured, meaning you don't need to provide collateral to secure the loan. Here's how they work:

1. Application: The application process for quick loans is straightforward and often takes place online or at a physical storefront. Lenders typically require personal information, proof of income, and a valid bank account.

2. Approval: The approval process for quick loans is quick, as the name suggests. Lenders may not conduct a deep credit check, making them accessible to people with less-than-perfect credit scores. Approval decisions are often made within a few minutes.

3. Repayment: Quick loans are usually due on your next payday. You provide the lender with a post-dated check, authorize an electronic withdrawal, or make the payment in person.

4. Fees and Interest: Quick loans come with high-interest rates and fees, often significantly higher than traditional loans. This is because they are considered high-risk for lenders.

5. Rollovers and Extensions: If you can't repay the loan on your due date, some lenders offer the option to extend or "rollover" the loan for an additional fee. However, this can lead to a cycle of debt and should be avoided if possible.

The Pros of Quick Loans

Quick loans can be a useful financial tool when used responsibly. Here are some of their advantages:

1. Accessibility: Quick loans are relatively easy to obtain, even with bad credit.

2. Speed: The application process is fast, and funds are typically disbursed quickly, often within hours.

3. Flexibility: You can use the loan for various purposes, from covering unexpected bills to dealing with emergencies.

4. No Collateral Required: You don't need to risk any assets to secure a quick loan.

5. Building or Rebuilding Credit: Timely repayment of a quick loan can help improve your credit score.

The Cons of Quick Loans

While quick loans can provide immediate relief, they also come with significant downsides:

1. High Costs: Quick loans are one of the most expensive forms of borrowing, with high-interest rates and fees.

2. Short Repayment Terms: The short-term nature of quick loans means you may need to repay the full amount, including fees, on your next payday, which can be a financial strain.

3. Debt Cycle: Rollovers and extensions can lead to a cycle of debt, making it challenging to break free from the loan.

4. Limited Borrowing Amounts: Quick loans typically offer smaller loan amounts compared to traditional personal loans.

5. Predatory Lenders: Some lenders engage in predatory practices, so it's essential to choose a reputable lender.

Before Applying for a Quick Loan

Before considering a quick loan, it's crucial to evaluate your financial situation and explore alternatives:

1. Emergency Fund: If you have an emergency fund, use it before resorting to quick loans.

2. Budgeting: Review your budget to see if there are any areas where you can cut expenses to cover the unexpected cost.

3. Borrow from Family and Friends: If possible, consider borrowing from friends or family, as they may offer more flexible terms and lower interest rates.

4. Credit Card Cash Advance: Although credit card cash advances can also be expensive, they may have lower interest rates than quick loans.

5. Explore Government Assistance: Depending on the nature of your financial need, there might be government programs or community resources available to help.

Choosing the Right Lender

If you decide that a quick loan is your best option, it's essential to choose a reputable lender. Here are some tips for finding the right one:

1. Research: Do thorough research on potential lenders. Look for online reviews, check with the Better Business Bureau, and ask for recommendations from friends or family.

2. Transparent Terms: A reputable lender will provide clear, transparent terms, including the interest rate, fees, and the repayment schedule.

3. Licensing and Regulation: Verify that the lender is licensed to operate in your state and complies with all relevant regulations.

4. Avoiding Scams: Be cautious of lenders who ask for upfront fees, request personal information over the phone, or use aggressive tactics to pressure you into taking a loan.

5. Compare Rates: Shop around and compare interest rates and fees from multiple lenders to find the best deal.

Conclusion

Quick loans can be a valuable financial resource when used responsibly and in emergencies. However, they come with high costs and risks, so it's essential to approach them with caution. Before taking out a quick loan, explore other options, budget, and create a financial plan. If a quick loan is your best solution, carefully select a reputable lender, read the terms and conditions, and have a plan in place to repay the loan on time. Ultimately, understanding the pros and cons of quick loans and making informed decisions can help you navigate the world of quick loans and protect your financial well-being.

[wisteria-lodge]

SORTING DISNEY LADIES (1988-1993)

Part 1 - Disney Ladies 1938 - 1985

I’m going in chronological order, and doing both A Squad and B Squad, because I’m interested in tracking how the ideal “disney girl” has changed in the past 85 years (right now I’m only looking at the human-shaped heroines of Disney animated theatrical releases) A more detailed break-down of the system I’m using is right here, but the basics are these: 

PRIMARY (ie MOTIVE)

BADGER ~ Loyal to the group.

SNAKE ~ Loyal to yourself and your Important People.

LION ~ Subconscious Idealist. Ideals are linked to feelings and instincts.

BIRD ~ Conscious Idealist. Ideals are linked to built systems and external facts.

SECONDARY (ie METHOD)

BADGER ~ Connect with the group. Make allies, work steadily and well. Be whatever the situation calls for. If you find a locked door, knock.

SNAKE ~ Connect with the environment. Notice things. Tell people what they want to hear. If you find a locked door, get in through the window.

BIRD ~ Collect skills, knowledge, tools, personas, useful friends. If you find a locked door, track down the key or learn to pick the lock.

LION ~ Be honest, be direct, speak your truth. Either the obstacle is going down or you are. If you find a locked door, kick it in.

JESSICA RABBIT (1988)

I’m actually slapping a spoiler warning on this, because Who Framed Roger Rabbit? really is that good. So like… if you even suspect it might be your thing, watch it. 

The joke with Jessica Rabbit is that she looks like a femme fatale vixen. She sounds like like a femme fatale vixen. Everyone expects her to act like one too. They expect her to be a lying seductress who’s cheating on her husband, and she’s just… not. Every single thing Jessica says is incredibly straightforward and true. It just doesn’t come off that way because preconceptions. Jessica is even aware of this, saying “I’m not bad, I’m just drawn that way… you don’t know how hard it is being a woman, looking the way I do.” There’s a level of nuance here, because in this universe Toons like Jessica do not seem able to choose or even affect their appearance. (Baby Herman is memorably disappointed that “I’ve got a fifty-year-old lust and a three-year-old dinky.”) Jessica wears that evening dress the entire film, even during the day and in situations where it doesn’t make a lot of sense. She has to look that way.

Interestingly, the only time we see her in different outfits are the photos in Roger’s wallet documenting their little getaways. The Doylist explanation is that it’s more expensive to animate multiple outfits, but Watsonian explanation would be something like… since Roger is one of the few characters in the film who can look at her and see all her different facets, somehow she is able to change up her look around him. 

All this supports Jessica being a very loud Lion secondary. She’s direct, straightforward, and it really bothers her that other people don’t see her that way. Also, she does solve problems by shooting people and hitting them with frying pans, so that’s… very Lion too.

And in terms of primary, she’s a Snake. She adores Roger, and would do anything, literally anything, for him. Every shady thing she does in the entire film, she only does to get him out of trouble. Jessica Rabbit, Snake Lion through and through.

ARIEL (1989)

First I want to get some of the bad faith criticism of The Little Mermaid out of the way. It’s not a story about changing yourself for a guy. Ariel is fascinated with the human world long before Eric, and sings “Part of That World” before even meeting him. Maybe he sped up her timetable, maybe. Also, ‘Ariel losing her voice’ is not some sort of ‘woman should be seen and not heard’ thing. The villain takes her voice, it’s treated as horrifying, it’s treated as a problem.

And honestly, when you lay out this set of symbols for me - losing her voice, changing her fin to legs so she can be part of the human world - I see a story about passing. Like, Hans Christian Andersen just was queer. That’s not debatable. Howard Ashman, who was a main creative force (maybe the main creative force) behind this project was gay, and this film was made in the middle of the AIDS crisis. Ariel has to change a massive thing about herself in order to exist in human society, and gives up her voice in order to do it. And what’s your ‘voice’? Your identity, your expression, your opinions. Those are unfortunately all things that do you have to sacrifice if you really want to pass as straight or cis or white or neurotypical or anything of that nature.

King Triton’s motivations also makes a lot more sense if you read Ariel as queer. He wants her to stay and marry a nice merman, because the human world is dangerous, they are cruel to fish there. That’s why it’s such a big deal when he gives her his blessing at the end and comes to her wedding. 

So with that said, how do I sort Ariel? She’s definitely not a Loyalist. She actively doesn’t want to be part of the group. She finds performing with all her similarly-named sisters unfulfilling, she likes Sebastian and Flounder fine, but is totally willing to leave them behind to pursue her dreams. She’s an Idealist who wants to “know what the people know / ask my questions and get some answers.” So… I think she’s a Bird - a Bird who only has half the picture, and that’s driving her nuts.  A Lion primary Ariel would be talking about feeling out out place, or feeling wrong… but this mermaid just wants answers. Sebastian’s very Lion-flavored sales pitch “Under the Sea” (down here you can do whatever feels good in the moment) doesn’t make a dent.

I had a little bit of trouble with her secondary, because most of the film she’s stuck in a situation that would make anyone act like an Improvisational secondary (make someone fall in love with you in three days and also you can’t talk? No wonder she’s impulsive and frazzled.) But, when things are normal, Ariel collects. She explores sunken ships for human artifacts, which she then catalogs. She observes humans from a safe distance. She makes friends with people (like Scuttle) who know about humans, it’s all very “I-know-a-guy.” He’s her human expert friend. So I think this is bird secondary, just one that’s written as immature and young. Ariel is bit binary, a bit black-and-white… but still a double bird.

BELLE (1991)

(& Beast) 

So the thing about Belle is that she’s a rebel. She’s not oblivious, she’s not a weirdo, she’s a rebel. She’s perfectly aware that the villagers find her odd, and she could perform the sweet, accommodating Badger secondary Gaston and the rest seem to be looking for. We see her do it when Gaston is threatening her, when she flatters Cogsworth into getting off her back, and when she’s derisively playacting “Madame Gaston.” She could be the queen of that town she just… doesn’t want to be.

Belle gives exactly zero shits what anybody thinks of her. She’s going to plow right through town with her nose in a book, not acknowledging anyone. It’s very Lion secondary, which perfectly matches how she acts the entire rest of the film. Maurice is missing - jump on a horse. Maurice is in trouble - jump on a horse. Actually feeling threatened by the Beast - jump on a horse. Her big “show me the Beast!” move with the townsfolk also feels very Lion. She’s not trying to convince anyone, explain herself, or leverage the group. Her instinct is to literally blast the truth into everyone’s faces, and hope it turns out all right. Belle also has multiple yelling matches with the Beast, and (since he’s a Lion secondary too) I think that’s a big part of why their relationship works. Lion secondaries like being able to safely rage at each other until they both calm down. Sure she can model Badger secondary, but at heart Belle is a charging, rule breaking, fighting Lion.

When it comes to what actually motivates her… it’s her father. Every single big action Belle takes is to get Maurice out of trouble (until the very end when she rides back to save the Beast because he’s Hers now.) When everything is going well and she’s not worried about her People, Belle is honestly extremely chill. She invents games for herself. She reads escapist literature, explores the castle, feeds the birds, throws snowballs, plays dress-up in the Beast’s wardrobes, and pulls out all the stops for an elaborate two-person ball. (Still think it’s very cute that the Beast got that nervous for what is basically a cool role-play scenario Belle set up so she had an excuse to wear the gold dress.) 

When we meet her at the beginning of the film she’s just bored. Safe, and bored. She wants an intellectual equal, she wants “adventure” and she has “dreams” but those things are vague and nonspecific. It all boils down to Belle being a Snake primary who needs something else to occupy her time when her People are safe. When her People are in trouble she’s charging after them, and when they’re not she’s just kind of vibing and having fun.

The Beast, the one with the true emotional arc in this story, has a really shattered primary. When we meet him he’s living entirely in an unhealthy animalistic Lion secondary, and doesn’t think there’s any hope or future for him at all. I want to say Burned Bird primary because the black-and-white insistence on arbitrary rules (that has his staff so worried) seems very Bird, and his original problem was that he based a worldview solely on appearances. A worldview which, yeah, kind of shattered when he became a physical beast and therefore unacceptable in his own system. He latches onto Belle’s slightly hedonistic Snake as a way to snap himself out of his Burnt Bird despair, and that works pretty well. Of course, when he thinks she’s abandoned him and this new way of viewing the world is also incorrect - he completely shuts down. (What is it with Bird Lions and shutting down during moments of existential crisis?)

JASMINE (1992)

(& Aladdin) 

Princess Jasmine is a firebrand. She wants to do her own thing, go where she wants to go, do what she wants to do, doesn’t like it when people pick out her clothes and hates it when they pick out her suitors. She gets rid of those suitors by siccing tigers on them. People in her life call her unreasonable and abrasive, Jasmine doesn’t care. She insults people and storms out of rooms a lot. Basically, she’s got a Lion secondary that she needs to consciously reaffirm, or risk losing herself to the role of “princess.” This makes her Lion a little louder and a little angrier than I think it would’ve been otherwise. 

On the other hand, Aladdin has a very loud Snake secondary that he adores. Jasmine hasn’t seen anyone problem-solve this way before, tricking and manipulating and sliding around conflict. So she’s curious (and likes Aladdin) so she starts to… play around with it a little. Model Snake secondary herself. She can’t come up with a good lie to tell the merchant, but she completely commits to Aladdin’s story that she’s insane and thinks the monkey is the Sultan. She uses Aladdin’s own tactics against him to make him admit he was the boy she met in the marketplace, and when Jafar tries to browbeat her into sexy slave girl role-play, she doesn’t give an inch… until she sees Aladdin sneaking in. That seems to make it okay for her. Now she can flirt with Jafar, because now it’s just like the monkey thing. It’s a game she’s is playing with Aladdin. It’s nice to see her relax around him, and experiment with ways of existing that aren’t her combative Lion secondary. 

I don’t think Jasmine is a Loyalist primary. She’s just so independent, and she actually does care a lot about being a ruler. She’s so excited to get dressed up and present Aladdin to her people. Pretty much the first thing we her talk about is how certain laws are “stupid” and “wrong.” And the way she just leaves it at that - the law is stupid because it feels stupid - makes me think intuitive, emotional Lion primary. If she were a Bird she would have needed to explain or justify why she thought that. Also, the thing that really makes her fall for Aladdin is the magic carpet ride. He drives up to her door, says “Tell me Princess, when did you last let your heart decide?” which is just the perfect thing to say to a Lion primary who isn’t in a position where they can follow their instincts. 

At the beginning of the film Aladdin and Jasmine bond over feeling trapped, and I think it’s because they are both Lion primaries unable to follow their moral intuition - Jasmine because she’s so cloistered, and Aladdin because he’s in survival mode, and his Lion primary is a little burned. He wants to help the kids he finds in the street, wants to defend them from the prince’s horsewhip, but that stuff just keeps landing him in trouble. He hits a point where can’t really trust himself anymore. 

So when Aladdin gets his hands on the Genie he wishes for power and wealth, because (from his perspective) power and wealth are the sort of things that make you free. He doesn’t believe he’s intrinsically good enough, so starts modeling a Glory Hound Lion persona that Jasmine is actually kind of disgusted with. Aladdin looks like a Snake primary for a second, but the film goes out of its way to contrast him with immature Snake primary Abu. Abu has no problem eating bread to keep himself alive, while Aladdin feels compelled to share it with kids he just met. 

(At which point Abu, in true Snake primary fashion, shares his bread too. Because Aladdin is his Person, so Aladdin‘s morals are his morals too.)

SALLY (1993) 

Sally is an interesting example of someone whose motive is love, but who is very much not a Loyalist. That’s kind of what her song is about: she’d like to be, she’d like to “join the crowd / in their enthusiastic cloud” (be a Badger primary.) Or “stand by [Jack]” (be a Snake primary) since he is the man-spider-skeleton she loves. But she can’t, it just “feels wrong,” and she “can’t shake this feeling that I have.” The film visually communicates this through Sally’s premonition of a burning Christmas tree. She knows something is going to go wrong, doesn’t know how or why, but that doesn’t matter. She trusts that feeling completely, and will even put it above her loyalty to Jack.

Her conflict with Dr. Finkelstein is also very Lion primary flavored - just in a subdued way. Sally wants freedom, she keeps trying to escape… not for any particular reason, just because she wants a little walk-around to feel normal again. She wants her own space, like a lot of Lion primaries in bad situations trying to heal.

At this point, there’s a pretty clear pattern emerging. The new Renaissance Disney princesses are mostly Lion secondaries, while the OG Disney princesses are Badgers. Sally, the princess of the villains, is written with this in mind. Here she is, locked up by a cruel parental figure, with a way of doing things that is a little slower, more deliberate, more based in caretaking - a little more Badger. She’s modeled after the classic old-school princesses, not kicking down the door Renaissance style. 

But, Sally’s Badger secondary is poisoned. The mad scientist who created her thinks of her as an extension of himself (as her replacement very literally is) and forces her to use her Badger in ways that make her subservient. Sally doesn’t have a choice in how or why she uses her Badger secondary at home... and that makes it difficult for her to use it in the other aspects of her life. You especially see this when it comes to Jack. She spends the film silently watching over him: making care packages, waiting outside his door, coming to every meeting he calls and standing in the back. But the moment Jack turns to look at her, she vanishes. 

It’s not because she’s shy (or not just because she’s shy...) It’s because Sally is used to having her Badger tendencies exploited. She’s Burned. That’s why a lot of the problem-solving we see her do during the film comes from her safe Bird secondary model, something which she seems to have built in order to survive Finkelstein. This is the Sally who who loves tools and gadgets, has a pantry full of potion ingredients and fog juice, and a trick spoon in her sock in case she needs to pretend to eat poison soup. 

But when Sally is alone, and comfortable with herself, her instincts run Badger. She is literally a ragdoll, doing the slow deliberate work of stitching herself back together. And just as slowly and deliberately, she learns to be comfortable taking care of Jack, on her own terms. Santa, another Badger secondary, immediately sees her as a kindred spirit 

And I like Sally showing up after the first run of Renaissance princesses, because she’s a gentle reminder that the way Snow White and Cinderella solved problems was never wrong. That maybe the situation was a little more complicated, and deserves to be looked at with a little more nuance. 

tl;dr

Jessica Rabbit ~ Snake / Lion

Ariel ~ Bird / Bird (Ursula’s spell forces her to model Lion secondary)

Belle ~ Snake / Lion (occasional Badger performance) 

Beast ~ Burnt Bird whose system falls apart when he transforms, eventually adopts Belle’s Snake as a system / Lion 

Jasmine ~ Lion / Lion (Snake model she uses to play with Aladdin) 

Aladdin ~ Lion (goes from Burnt to Glory Hound to Paragon) / Snake

Sally ~ Lion / Burnt Badger (Models Bird to survive Dr. Finkelstein)

(art credit to Cursed Concepts for the beautiful pins I have used to illustrate this post.)

#sortinghatchats #wisteria sorts #Disney #character analysis #jessica rabbit #who framed roger rabbit #ariel #princess ariel #the little mermaid #belle #the beast #beauty and the beast #jasmine #princess jasmine #aladdin #sally #jack skellington #the nighmare before christmas

[olivyh]

Twst Species headcannons

Beastmen:

-Palms and bottoms of their feet are rougher and more padded, as well as a slightly darker shade than their normal skin tone

-Legs are built similar to the hind legs of animals (with the sharp angles and little bumps)

-Start “walking” as children on all fours because it’s more comfortable due to the way their legs are built

-Many have scars under their bottom lip due to accidentally biting it bc their fangs were longer after losing their baby teeth

-Similarly, they also have small scars across various parts of their bodies due to their claws

-They can see in the dark to an extent

-Their eyes also do the glowy thing in the dark, as well as on camera

-Beastmen have very thick and coarse hair, which makes it notoriously harder to cut

-Many lion beastmen especially do not cut their hair often, as their hair symbolizes strength within their communities

-Cutting ones hair is a sign of trust in beastmen communities, considering how guarded they are with who touches their head (Patting a beastman’s head is a quick and easy way for them to get their guard down, and it takes them off high alert) as well as their ears being within constant danger near scissors.

-Beastmen do shed, a lot, like, a lot a lot

-They have been known to growl and purr like their animal counterparts, as well as hunch their backs and snarl when threatened

-Baby beastmen will bite you, as a sign of affection. They also wrestle with their caretakers from a young age to show affection as well. Grown beastmen will let the younger beastman win, regardless of species

-They also play wrestle with mates and potential mates to show their interest and affection. Not too hard, but enough to jostle the mate around. They will be absolutely smitten if the mate does it back.

-Beastmen grow up using the same sounds their animal counterparts do, as its similar to being taught a first language that the rest of your family speaks. Most aren’t taught English (Or commonspeak since England is nonexistent in Twisted Wonderland) until later in life

-Beastmen can understand similar dialects and tones of other species, and can further understand and speak a little bit of other beastmen languages

-They cannot eat certain foods that their mother species can’t. Canine beastmen cannot eat chocolate, onions, etc, feline beastmen cannot eat onions, garlic, grapes, etc etc without having issues afterwards. (This makes them a target for pranksters on NRC’s campus. Ex: The incident of Heartslabyul’s Ace Trappola switching out all the tea for coffee during the unbirthday party and Chenya unfortunately missing the cues and drinking the whole cup)

-They are very territorial to anyone besides the clan they reside with. The only people they aren’t territorial with are young children, although they are on high alert if the child’s guardian is nearby

-Beastmen will adopt a child if they see it doesn’t have a clan to stay with, regardless of species. It’s not unheard of to see a beastchild of another species or a young human in beastman clans

-I saw a hc that said that Rook is mixed beastman/human so I’m gonna roll with that for the next one: Beastmen and human mixed babies can have the same attributes as beastmen but on a tamer scale. Their vision, hearing, sense of touch and smell could be higher than a human’s but not as high as a beastmans. The ears and tail are the more dominant gene but it’s not uncommon to see a mixed beastmen/human child with more human features

-Beastmen grow larger than most humans, with the average beastmen (under the right conditions) ranging around six ft at full height. Female hyena beastmen grow taller than their male counterparts

Mer:

-They’re hypersensitive to sunlight at first and have to wear sunglasses or something shading their eyes their first few weeks on land

-They also get dehydrated very easily even in human form, so they have to carry around water bottles

-Their skin dries out quickly, so their hands and feet especially will be very dry and potentially cracking unless they moisturize often

-They have a lot of back and leg pain because they’re not used to gravity pulling them down

-Can also see in the dark very well due to living at the bottom of the ocean

-Their hair is also very thin and silky, but separated into thick chunks, almost looking like scales from a distance. Furthermore most Mer don’t like having longer hair due to the amount of effort it takes to maintain it, with currents twisting it up and the high chances of it getting stuck between rocks and coral

-Most mer have the habit of picking up whatever’s nearby and eating it raw, due to the fact that their bodies can process it. It’s not uncommon to see a mer picking a crab off the side of their house and plopping it into their mouth.

-They have no problem with eating the fish they are associated with, and they do not consider it cannibalism since they aren’t exactly the same species. (Meaning the Tweels can eat eel and Azul can eat octopus without any problems)

-Baby mer can swim around at a very young age (from just a few days old), and mature faster than most other species in the first few weeks of their lives

-Azul has horizontal, rectangular pupils

-Aside from cecaelia, most mer do have slanted pupils that change shape depending on the danger in the area.

-Mer communicate under the water using clicks and chitters similar to echolocation, and could choose to not learn commonspeak as they don’t interact with humans as much as beastmen

-They are born with teeth and can eat smaller fish from birth (or hatching, depending on the species)

-They’re not mammals, so they don’t have nips I think

-They don’t choose to wear clothing or accessories unless it’s for a formal event or a family heirloom

-Back to the birth thing I think mer eggs are very easy to lose due to the harsh climate of the ocean. Many mer settle for only having a child or two due to how hard it is to raise a child there. Jade and Floyd also hatched from the same egg, meaning they were on the smaller side as babies

-Mer babies also bite to show affection, and will wrap their tail around their guardians when they feel scared or nervous

-Cecaelia babies are well known for sticking to their guardians for the first few weeks of their lives, and are very difficult to pry off due to the strength of their tentacles (And when they do theres little marks left across their backs, stomachs, shoulders, etc from the suction cups) (I’m sorry i cant stop picturing tired momma ashengrotto walking around w little marls on her and baby azul still stuck to her like 👁👁)

-I know this is a little far fetched and is nowhere near mentioned in the game or comic but I have a feeling the tweels have a hard time seeing out of their gray eye? Like coming from the same egg they maybe took some features from the other or they had a difficult development while in there (or maybe I just know nothing abt twins)

-Incredibly territorial, especially towards members of different species.

-Most mer have skin pigmented similar to their tail color as well as thick layers of scales (if their species permits) around their throats, their sides, their arms, and around their ear fins (It throws me off how Azul and the Tweels are the only ones with different skin tones- like you’re telling me you have two teal mer and a black and white mer but the guards at the museum had just blue tails and absolutely no other signs of being a mer??? Give us green Rielle pls and thx)

-Mer grow much larger than humans and beastmen, and don’t stop growing until their twenties.

-They also have markings on their torso, tail, and face that’s similar to others in their families. Normally you can tell which mer is from which family depending on the markings said mer has

-Similar to beastmen tails and ears, mer can be read by their fins. In extreme emotion, mer’s fins will flare out or flatten against their body when they feel threatened.

-They don’t know how to drink things when they get to the surface. I think they’d struggle with the idea since you can’t drink underwater or else the liquid will go everywhere (but then how’d Azul make those potions???)

Fae:

-Also hypersensitive to sunlight, which results in many fae being nocturnal.

-Older fae have been known to go days without any sleep with little to no repercussions. Younger fae have more difficulty with this.

-They have a stronger immunity to magic, and often potions crafted by them are well known to be more potent due to this fact

-Fae speak many languages, with many smaller species talking in little chirps and bell like noises, with bigger species talking in low growls and hissing noises. Fae on opposite sides of this cannot understand each other, but each species of small fae can understand other small fae, and larger ones can understand other large ones, even if there’s a difference in language.

-All of them can practice transformation magic without the use of a spell or potion, regardless of genetic makeup. It’s not uncommon to see large dragons or other reptiles walking the streets of the Valley pf Thorns, nor is it too uncommon to see small “floods” or floating fire balls in more secluded areas of the woods

-Fae grow the largest out of all the groups, but have control over their size due to their transformation magic. They don’t stop growing until they appear the same age as thirty (but is actually a much longer time considering their lifespans)

-Because of this fae take much longer to mature from birth/hatching (I like to think 1 normal year= 80~ years) (So An 80 y/o fae would only be equal to a one year old in any other species)

-Very reserved in their relationships with other fae and especially species. I think the cultural differences between other fae is enough to create a large gap between them, and most fae understand the difference in life span between them and other species, so they actively go out of their way to avoid forming relationships with them. (I feel like this is a part of why Sebek is so abrasive towards humans. I mean, his life span has to be different even if he’s only half, so he might be using his anger to deflect his own feelings about eventually having to lose his human father and Silver, as much as they bicker. Poor guys just in denial and trying to protect himself :(()

Human:

-Humans who grew up around magic users have more resilience to magic and potions (meaning Mc/Yuuken, who grew up in a world without magic at all, is more susceptible and will be effected longer by the side affects of potions and spells, or the spells will pack more of a punch and be potentially more dangerous)(Meaning they could take a sleeping potion meant to give the user a full nights rest and be out for a week straight)

-The chances of a human’s unique magic leaning in one direction depends on the area they live in and what resources they have available (I can’t think of anyone else’s unique magic who does this but Kalim’s oasis maker is a big example. He mentioned they had difficulty getting water on the Land of the Hot Sands so maybe that could have been a factor that altered the makeup of his magic. Like a demand and supply type deal?)

-Magical human’s pupils also change shape when they’re using their magic. I like to think that whenever it’s being used their pupils are blown wide to the point where you can hardly see their actual eye color

-Either that or their eyes glow

-Magic using humans are typically stronger, but have lower endurance than non magic users. This is due to the strain that’s put on their bodies even when magic isn’t in use. There are potions they can use to lessen these effects, and many choose to naturally boost their endurance through various activities, but they have to work harder than non magic using humans

#twisted wonderland headcannons #twisted wonderland #twst #beastman #merman #fae

[letitia-wright]

yo whatup bruv , swag 💯 okay so how I ~ makea the gifs 🤌🏻

1. DOWNLOAD

t*rrent -- I go to rarbg. to & get the 720/1080 files . for a 40 min episode this is usually about 1-2gb for the 720 version which is fine tbh to use for making gifs OR I get the one that’s 2-3gb which I only get if I wanna make 500px height gifs. For a 2 hour movie it’s 5-10gb (it’s a lot of space on my computer yea, that’s why I rarely have more than a few films or series on my computer at once, I either transfer them over to my extended drive that’s got 2tb or just delete them altogether)

youtube -- I use this website for it, works a charm; https://www.y2mate.com/youtube/3mtIHg2oowM

2. SCREENSHOTTING

mplayer -- i use this one to screenshot videos with, but I can’t find a decent version of it for pc so I've found this other tutorial for pc;

mpv player -- idk I can't test this one cause I’m on apple but it looks pretty decent

3. PS INSERT

okay from there on I get the screenshots I'd just made into photoshop right here (yes it’s in dutch but it should be in the same spot) file > scripts > load files onto stack :

Add the screenshots I want, make a frame animation from it which will give me a single frame only.

which is why I click on make frames from layers on that little ~ 4 lines on the side.

then you gotta revert the frames cause they will be in the wrong order.

4. CROPPING, SIZING AND SHARPENING

sizing + cropping -- I do it all at once; on the top of the cropping thing you can change it to B x H x resolution (second from the top) & I can choose the size that I want (do note to put it into px !)

sharpening -- I got 2 options I use, doesn't really make that big a difference in my opinion;

1) action dl

go back to the 4 lines on the side; click flatten frames into layers then make sure you’re standing on the first frame in the timeline and also in your little frames thing on the right & then just run the action . Then change it to 0.05 frames per second, add a little coloring to it & voìla !

2) action dl (use the the ‘540px gifs’ one)

this action converts it into a smart object and everything so step one is to go to videotimeline, run the action & if all’s correct it will take you back to frame animation.

delete the first two frames here (they’re double)

make sure these 2 are turned on/visible on all frames, add coloring once again & ur done !

5. DIFFERENCE IN SETTINGS

sharpening -- for the 2 actions above this is the difference;

I guess the second one is better/sharper but I don’t really see it until I REALLY look soo .. first option is less of a hassle in my opinion (altho I did make that second action quiite extensive so it takes out a lot of work) but choose what u will ..

save for web -- settings

these settings are what I usually use but I’m not the biggest expert on them . the only 2 things you should Ever change are the ‘bicubic’ on the bottom right in the image size section, but I couldn’t tell you what the other options really do, I just know some people use different settings there. & the ‘pattern’ one on the top left (’patroon’ cause .. dutch) which u can set to ‘diffusion’ instead which makes this difference;

the difference is mainly visible in the background; it makes it go from blocks in pattern (LEFT) to dots in diffusion (RIGHT); again, choose whatever you will ..

6. FIN

I believe this is it .. all there is to it . idk if you got questions or if parts are unclear but just ask me then .. hope you liked seeing DR3 yo .. embarrassing

#save

[graceschasity]

Got tagged in one of those "get to know" posts by @apotheglowsis, I don't like them long so I'm just making my own post here lol

1.) Why did you choose your url?

Because way back when two years ago we didn't know Grace Chasity and I projected hardcore and made her my brand

2.) Any sideblogs?

This is a sideblog!

Main: @eclipseatdawn

Gravity Falls: @defying-gravityfalls (this is mostly inactive now)

Art: @eclipsedoesart

Cosplay: @hatchetfieldcosplays

Waul AU: @wigglypaulau-official (co-run)

3.) How long have you been on Tumblr?

8 and a half years babey!! (May 2013) But for this blog specifically my 2 year anniversary is coming up on the 19th I think

4.) Do you have a queue tag?

I only queue things on my cosplay account and even then I don't have specific tag for it

5.) Why did you start your blog?

Because I felt the hyperfixation setting itself in my bones and knew I needed a specific place for it lol

6.) Why did you choose your icon?

I Am Simply In Love With Becky Barnes

7.) Why did you choose your header?

Because pretty colors and pretty Kim Whalen (actually just changed my icon and header like yesterday lmao)

8.) What is your post with the most notes?

On this account its this one

9.) How many mutuals do you have?

On this account its 25

10.) How many people are you following?

304 blogs

11.) Have you ever made a shitpost?

There is evidence of that on this account dsvdsfvf

12.) How often do you use Tumblr a day?

Oh I check it quite a few times a day

13.) Did you ever get into a fight/argument with another tumblr user?

I got anon hate on my art blog once and I ended up blocking them

14.) How do you feel about “you need to reblog this” posts?

If I'm not feeling it I simply Don't Reblog it (also like don't guilt ppl into man)

15.) Do you like tag games?

I like getting tagged! Sometimes if it's on a sideblog I won't do it but I was feeling this one!

16.) Do you like ask games?

Ye!

17.) Which of your mutuals do you think is Tumblr famous?

I have some on my main I would consider famous and also one on my GF account. I do have mutuals here I'd consider fandom famous but not like overall

18.) Do you have a crush on a mutual?

Why don't you confess to me and find out ;) /j

Tags: (totally don't have to do this if you don't want to I know a good amount of people I follow don't do these dfvbfgb I'm just trying to tag ppl I know don't mind or would be interested in knowing more about)

@autistic-paul @takingback-thepenguin @fencecollapsed @usagichanp @charlottesweetly @sewersewersewercouch @fin-the-fisssssssh

#tag game #not starkid

[journalforme]

With one final breath, I close my eyes and let the world close into blackness around me. What I didn���t expect was nothing to happen, suddenly the pain went away and I was seemingly in the same spot as I was moments before.

I open my eyes slowly and find myself, not in room, but in an office looking type room. I slowly push myself up off the floor. I see a small desk with a seemingly middle-aged woman sitting there. She had short brown hair with grayish roots. She looked up at me and smiled,

“Hello, name and cause of death?”

I blinked at her in confusion, “Pardon me?”

She just laughed a little and said, “You’re dead honey, what’s your name and how did you die?”

What? I knew I died but the hell is happening, “Umm… My name is David Shore and I died in my house… home invasion, I think.”

“Well since you are dead you can choose one of three options,” she smiled.

“1. You can go to heaven, live out the rest of your life in paradise”

“That one. I want to do that one, why would I not?”

“Excuse me I wasn’t finished talking,”

“Right, sorry ma’am”

“Now, option 2, you can be reincarnated with omnipotence or option 3, you can go to hell.”

She didn’t stop smiling while talking, and to be honest it was quite unnerving, but it also made a sense of comfort She had clearly done this before as she seemed like she was reading a script, but from memory. I’m not the first and I certainly won’t be the last to do this, that’s comforting.

“I- umm. I don’t know what to choose”

“Well there is the option to see what other people have chosen and look at what it’s like, for the small fee of $39.99”

I looked for my wallet in my pants, feeling around but finding nothing.

“I don’t have my wallet”

“I’m only kidding dear, would you like to suggest the option though?”

“Yes! I would love to see the options”

“Alrighty then, David. Number order?”

“Yes, 1-3 please”

She smiled once more and pressed a few buttons on her keyboard. “Close your eyes and count to 10”

So I closed my eyes as she had instructed

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Open

I look around and everything seems almost cloud like, heaven, I remembered. I figure the only place to walk is forwards.

I walk for maybe 5 minutes in a straight line when I see a staircase. I laugh, “Stairway to heaven, huh.” I walk on the stairs and walk for what felt like hours finally I saw a platform, also made of clouds. “Stereotypical,” I thought to myself

I look down at my hands observe them, these are not my hands. These are a woman’s hands, I’m walking in a way I would never walk, I’m seeing through the eyes of someone else.

The woman seems to know where she is going, she moves with somewhat confidence. I blink and suddenly I am in a new place.

I’m in a field, the field is covered in flowers and grass. I am still seeing through the eyes of the woman.

I look up and see kids running around laughing and playing, the woman laughs. She had a kind and gentle laugh. The kids laugh sounds just like hers, they must be her kids.

She’s sits for awhile, just watching the kids play, she’s happy. This is her heaven, just for her.

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Open

I look around, I must be in number two. What was number two again? Reincarnate with….. omnipotence!? That’s it.

Once again I look down at my hands to see whether I’m a girl or boy. You can imagine my surprise when I see…. fins? Green fins

What. The. Hell.

I’m a turtle, in the ocean.

I’m swimming with the current, there’s a coral reef under me and there fishes of all colors around me.

Suddenly I’m not longer in the current and instead I’m looking around in darkness, complete darkness. A flashlight of sorts. I’m deep in the ocean, descending downwards at a rapid pace.

For a good twenty minutes there seems to be a bottomless ocean, until I feel floor against my feet (fins?). There’s another turtle in front of me, I reach out to touch the turtle, but there’s a wall between us.

I thought you could do anything when you were omnipotent, why couldn’t I touch this person, why?

Slowly my peripheral vision starts to fade in black.

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Open

I open my eyes, there’s fire everywhere, I reach my hand out to touch it, it’s not hot.

I look around it’s just fire for as far as the eye can see.

I look at my hands, I’m a man, not me, but a man.

I start to run in a straight line, the fire seemingly room temperature.

I run for a solid hour, only fire, nothing appears.

I run for another hour, nothing.

Another hour, just more fire.

Finally, there’s a town. A burning town, but nothing is burning, no smoke, just fire.

The black starts fading in

No no no

I want to see more, I can’t go back. I try to not close my eyes but I can’t.

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Open

I’m back in the office.

“So? What do you choose?” the office lady smiled at me.

#writing #writing prompt #short story

[opbackgrounds]

Hi there Sarc' ;) I am sorry if the question has already been asked but I thought it could be interesting to have your opinion about this. While I love most of the female characters in OP and think that most of them are well developed and can be truly good role models for girls I still feel that Oda sometimes has a sexist view on female characters (the jokes about the naked bath scenes for example or Kororo being considered ugly make me really uncomfortable). What do you think about it?

Ah, I wondered when I would get this question. 

When people talk about sexism in One Piece they typically are referring to two different things: How women are drawn, and how they’re treated within the narrative. While there’s some overlap here, there’s enough distinction that I want to address them as two separate points in two separate posts, because I guess I had Opinions, and by god there should be a limit to how much text one tumblr post can be expected to hold. Consider this an introduction.

Buckle up, kiddos. This is gonna be a long one. 

Nami Face Syndrome Isn’t the Problem...

An important thing to remember with Oda’s art and storytelling style is that almost everything is hyper exaggerated for effect. You don’t go into One Piece looking for realism. You don’t go into One Piece expecting the characters to act like normal people. Everything--from the art to the humor to the battles--is stretched and pulled to its absolute limit in hopes of garnering a particular reaction. When a character is sad they cry big bubbly tears with dribbles of snot coming from their nose. When they laugh their mouths take up half their face. 

And when a girl is hot, her tiddies are two great big watermelons stuck to the center of her chest.

What is often dubbed “Nami Face Syndrome” within the fandom is somewhat misleading. After all, why was Wanda, who is a literal dog that walks on two legs, decried as yet another Nami clone at her introduction? I would postulate it’s less to do with her face and more to do with the fact that from the neck down they are virtually identical, something that’s made more obvious because Wanda is literally wearing Nami’s clothes

What makes this frustrating for a lot of people, myself included, is that it’s not that Oda is incapable of drawing more diverse body types, but that he often chooses not to. Take for example the Kuja tribe

or the Charlotte family daughters (thanks to Arthur at Library of Ohara for the resource). It’s pretty clear Oda has the chops to make his women as weird as the men, and he often does! For important characters, even. And yes, as the Kokoro example given above sometimes the gonkness is brought attention to, but for others like Lola and Chiffon it’s...not. 

(more on mermaids later)

But Sarcasticles, one might protest, even Oda’s “ugly” characters have ginormous boobs! Where is my itty bitty titty committee representation >:(

To which I can only shrug. For Oda, boobs on a woman are like abs on men. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense, they’re gonna have ‘em

Seriously, Oda. What the fuck.

...So What Is?

I have a theory that’s impossible to prove, and that the problem isn’t so much Oda’s character design so much as the ratio of his male to female characters in general. It’s not that every female character is a Nami clone, but Oda has a template he uses for attractive female characters ages 16-25, the same way he uses Robin as a template for attractive women ages 26-35, which is how you get cases of mistaken identity like Viola for Robin or scenes during Reverie where one could be forgiven for thinking Nami’s supposed to be an identical triplet

 Oda does this for his men, too. It’s not as obvious because 1) Even men with similar facial features can have a wider variety body types due to Oda having a sliding scale of buffness he’s willing to attach to a pretty face and 2) There are more men. 

There are a lot more men.

In groups where the male to female ratio is more or less equal (Baroque Works, Big Mom’s kids) you get a wide variety of designs. But there’s only one female Supernova. There’s one female Warlord. CP9 only has one female agent. Only one of the Revolutionary Commanders is a woman. There are very few female background characters in crowd shots, especially among marines. Big Mom might be the only female Emperor, but she’s not young, In fact, when drawing her at age 28, Oda defaults to a much more generic “pretty girl” face before giving her much more striking, memorable features in her 40s

If you look at Oda’s male characters, the ones that are supposed to be hot are often given the same square jawline and the thin-bladed nose that at one point in time was reserved for Robin. Both Coby and Sabo had very distinctive noses before their glowups, while Ace must have had a laser treatment done on his eyebrows sometime between Alabasta and Marineford. 

But the biggest difference on the men has got to be muscle mass. The overgrown noodles of early One Piece are lost to the annals of time. Shanks alone must have gained 30 pounds of pure muscle from the time Luffy got his first bounty to his appearance at Marineford. 

Now, I will acknowledge that there is a difference between the increasing sexualization of female characters and the male power fantasy of giving Zoro bara tiddies post-timeskip. While I do think there are certain male characters specifically designed to be the Hot Dude, what I’m trying to emphasize here is that Oda works with templates for both men and women, and both of those templates have been exaggerated over time. Bigger boobs for women, more muscles for men. And when you’re only slotting for one girl in any given group, and that one girl has to be The Hot One then you’re going to have a lot of ladies that end up looking the same. 

My love for Otohime on this blog is well known, and I want to use her as an example of what Oda can do when he works beyond this template, because it’s really freaking good  

Otohime is neither conventionally attractive nor gonk. She’s dressed in very conservative, traditional clothing and has a narrow waist and small chest. 

There are no sharp edges on Otohime. Not her eyebrows, not her jaw, and most of the time not even her hands, emphasizing her gentle nature. You don’t see it as well in this panel, but Otohime’s head is often drawn wider than her shoulders, emphasizing her frailty. Oda gives her a longer neck to compensate, and the overall effect is a very soft, willowy figure. 

Her headpiece looks like a sunburst. The audience never sees her fins, so Oda gives her a scale patterned kimono-dress-thingy (my knowledge of Japanese clothing is, uh, not good) as a visual reminder that she’s not human. The sash that circles around her head harkens back to Japanese mythology as a symbol of divinity, similar to a halo in Western culture. And fun fact: Otohime is named after a god, just like Neptune, while her goals and ideals are pure enough to be heaven-sent. 

I’m not an artist, but this is a really damn good character design. A lot of Oda’s older female characters are. Dandan, Tsuru, O-Tsuru, Shakky, Kureha, Big Mom, and Nyon are all instantly recognizable and have strong designs, even if a few of them fall into the hourglass figure that Oda often defaults to. It’s just...there aren’t that many of them.

So the question becomes why aren’t there more women, and I think the answer is because, ultimately, One Piece is a series geared at boys. While I wish there were a few more important ladies, I can understand why there aren’t. 

Note, that doesn’t mean I think it’s right or that Oda is obligated to include more women. It’s just one of the facts of the shonen manga industry at this point in time. 

A more important question, I think, is why does every younger woman have to be attractive? And why do the attractive ladies have to wear outfits that are blatant fanservice? This is something I don’t have an answer for. Oda has said on more than one occasion that he writes One Piece with his twelve year old self in mind. It could be that it’s a calculated move to appeal to his audience, in which case it’s certainly worked because said Hot Ladies are constantly used in marketing and merchandising. It’s the Hot Ladies that top the popularity charts (although, to be fair, who’s there for competition?). In the most recent chapter a new Hot Lady was introduced, and the fandom went batshit crazy for her.

Even the fans who are very vocal about how Oda sucks at drawing women. It’s interesting how that works out sometimes.

Or maybe I’m giving Oda too much credit, and he’s just horny. Not having direct access to Oda’s mind, I don’t have an answer. If I had to guess I’d say it’s a little of Column A, a little of Column B, because that’s usually how life is. 

But in a vacuum big tiddies are just a design choice. An exaggerated aesthetic, in a series full of exaggerated aesthetics. It’s when that design choice is paired with in-story comments, actions, and decisions where things really start to get heated. But that’s a whole other ball of wax, and there should be a limit to how much one tumblr post can be expected to hold. I promise I’ll get to the meat of your question next time.

Thank you so much for your patience. I really do think it’s important to start here before diving into everything else, if only because it helps keep my thoughts organized. I hope you’ve found this helpful, and if not, I hope to do better next time. 

#long post #dear lord what a long post #Character Design #one piece #I don't know why tumblr fucked up with the formatting of my answer #but I apologize in advance #sexism #sarc talks

[pastelfeatheredmask]

fanfic writer question game! tagged by @granny-griffin

Names: Pastel, my writing pseud is FeatheredMask (and we don't talk about my old usernames)

Fandoms: BNHA is my current brainrot with a dash of KNY, but I wrote for ML and BSD when I was into those. Got a couple small fandom interests on the side. I've been roleplaying Hetalia for some years, but haven't written much for it.

Where You Post: Ao3. I used to post to FFN, but transitioned over to Ao3 some years ago for a new page in my writing journey. I got told on FFN to take my gore fic elsewhere, and, well, I did.

Most Popular Oneshot (by kudos): Hanahaki Folk Remedy - I've always wanted to write hanahaki, but I'm not a fan of pining and my love always veers queerplatonic rather than romantic. I was inspired by some people in NWA talking about non-romantic hanahaki, and I wrote this pretty fast to achieve my dream of writing hanahaki for once.

Most Popular Multichapter (by kudos): An Explosion of Gold to Fill the Cracks - oh lordy, it's my blind!Katsuki longfic! This was my first BNHA fic, and it started off as some good ol' self-indulgent torture nonsense, and moved quickly to Katsuki being a BAMF. I was so inspired after watching seasons 1+2 of BNHA that I wanted to get right to writing something. Nobody told me that Katsuki gets kidnapped in season 3 until AFTER I had written a couple chapters of this. My chronic illness was flaring when I wrote most of this, and I couldn't really do much more than sit around and write, so yeah.

Favorite Story I’ve Written: Sakura Trees Blossom Every Year - my fae fic! I really loved weaving in all the magical elements, had a lot of fun making so many characters fae, and the training camp arc was an absolute joy to come up with and write! All the scenes around Setsuna's death and bringing her body back to camp -- oh god I made myself love Setsuna!

Fic You Were Nervous To Post: cleaning a blank gravestone - reincarnated!Oboro. DID/OSDD is a kind of a touchy, controversial subject. I'm not writing it from a stereotypical view or even a research-heavy psychology standpoint. It's mostly my own experiences, a smattering of research, and a touch of magical fantasy. I always worry that it's not accurate enough or that someone will get offended by the portrayal of DID/OSDD, especially in the chapters I've been working on recently, where I've been writing with more of a horror tone. This fic has become very personal to me as I navigate my own plurality through it, and the research/planning for it is actively triggering something in my head to fight me, so all that makes me more and more nervous about the reception to each new chapter.

How Do You Choose Your Titles: I'll pick a few words or a concept from the first few chapters I've already written and start bouncing ideas around. I'll make a whole list of potential titles around one or two things I absolutely want to be part of the title, and I'll pick one from those. Sometimes I'll just slap on a song lyric without much thought and then busy my head in my hands when I realize it's stuck there.

Do You Outline? So much. So many bullet points.

Complete: Book 1: Sakura Trees Blossom Every Year, Feed, Forfeit Every Drop, Promised Future, Test Flight, Please Wake Up, and some older stuff.

In Progress: UHHHHHHHH

Coming Soon: Working on the next chapters of Holding Beautiful Things In Phantom Hands, ch2 of Swim in Starry Skies, ch11 or Wicked World, ch20 of cleaning a blank gravestone! probably gonna post ch3 of Holding Beautiful Things later

Not Started: So, for outlined and have a few hundred words written but nothing's posted, I have an izukacchako dragon rider au, izukacchako mermay, Good Parent Overhaul, Izuku-Katsuki quirk swap, vigi!Izuku with OFA!Ochaco, Midnight in HP-verse, and OFA!Oboro

Upcoming Work You’re Most Excited About: my Oboro fics tbh. Swim in Starry Skies is really scratching the itch to write my space au and fin folk, and I can't wait for the reveals in blank gravestone that are coming up. I've been foreshadowing them, but I really hope they're still good surprises! My vampire!Oboro fic, I'm also excited for, but honestly, it needs a little more outlining before I write the juicy part.

Tagging: @twelvefrogsinatrenchcoat @wishiwereabird @kittytrek @catlady5001 @starcloud-nova

#tag game #rambling #my writing

[firaknight]

So this is basically PMD x Kirby

(Here’s a key: pink is the name of the character, green is the Pokemon they chose, blue means male, pink means female, purple is the description of design changes)

So, before I explain who gets who, Adeleine sets up a few rules/guidelines for everyone.

1: The couch. Adeleine and Ribbon live in a cottage on the outskirts of town and therefore have a small house. When everyone’s there, she has a set seating system: tall people (DDD, herself, Daroach, etc) have to sit on the couch or in the general back. Short people (basically everyone else) sit in front of the couch and around the floor (she gives them pillows and floor seats of course)

2: No repeats! It’s to help her remember and also to not cause confusion or arguments. Nobody gets to have the same Pokemon as someone else (the only exception being if they plan to evolve them into a branching evolution, like Gardevoir and Gallade in the Ralts line)

3: Personalize! Everyone gets to add design changes to theirs (cut ear, different patterns, accessories, etc) to make them their own! They also assign genders to theirs and if they can’t decide, dice are rolled. Odds for male, evens for female (they can choose not to, but the vast majority were like “yeah whatever let’s just give them a gender”).

Ok onto the actual Pokemon

Adeleine: Chikorita, female, wears a scarf (part of the in-game story) and has a multicolored head leaf! Also had a small crystal hanging from her neck!

She saw the design and called them a “tiny dinosaur with a big leaf” and immediately decided on them. She loves them to death and thinks they’re the cutest Pokemon on the planet.

Ribbon: Fennekin, female, wears a scarf (part of the in-game story), has fur that is more pink than red, and wears a huge red bow! Also has a small crystal hanging from her neck!

Couldn’t choose the same Pokemon as Adeleine and thought Fennekin looked beautiful (she was even more excited when she saw the final evolution). She also has a type matchup with Adeleine and absolutely takes bullets for her to keep her from dying.

Kirby: Eevee, female, white fur is tinted pink, has blue eyes instead of brown, and wears bunch of colorful accessories like bows, bracelets/anklets, and collars!

Couldn’t decide on the gender and the dice rolled female! He doesn’t care and loves his Eevee!!! He likes how soft they look and how they have different evolution!! It’s like his copy abilities!!! He’s stuck trying to figure out what to evolve them into tho.

Dedede: Piplup, male, wears a big robe and hat, body is a slightly darker and more vibrant blue, and is a little chubbier!

He convinced Adeleine to take on a more difficult dungeon request for this (she got a big dinner at the royal table and got to stay the night in one of the royal rooms out of it though so it was worth it) and after a near 2 hour run and almost 3 game overs, she got it. Dedede only wanted it because it’s the only penguin Pokemon in the series and he wanted a big penguin like himself!!!

Meta Knight: Ralts (Gallade), male, wears a mask like his own, has more jagged blades, and wears a cape!

Only picked them because they saw Gallade and said “yeah that’s gonna be me” and didn’t wait for an answer. He likes their arm blades and the fact that they have a mega evolution (even BIGGER blades!!!!!!! A big tattered cape!!!!!! Badass looks!!!!! What’s not to like!!!!)

Bandee: Karrablast, male, wears a blue bandana, body is orange instead of blue, stomach is cream instead of orange, and has a tiny spear (this is later removed when they evolve)!!!

They saw Escavalier and got super excited!! Double spear arms!!! Armored and tough looking!!! They like how tough they look and 100% chose them for that reason only (although the Pokemon kinda grew on them over time). Not ultra tough right now but they’re getting there!

Marx: Sableye, male, gems are basically mirrors, wears a jester cap like his own, and has only 2 claws instead of 3!!

He likes how fucking creepy they look and how their mega evolution has teeth. It’s a very specific detail they will absolutely drill into why they like them so much. They also like how powerful they can be if used correctly!

Gooey: Goomy, female, body is shades of blue instead of purple, has a tongue that noticeably sticks out!!

He originally wanted Ditto but then they saw Goomy and felt a certain kind of love for them. He also couldn’t decide and the dice rolled female! He likes how the name is similar to his own and how they’re goopy like him!!! They’re also super squishy and he is too!!!!!!

Rick: Dedenne, male, tail is shorter, body is similar in color to him, has beans!!!!!!

He likes how they’re kinda hamster-esc!! They have electricity too which is hella cool. They look kinda soft to him and he was mildly upset over them not having paw beans and demanded that Dedenne be given justice by having them drawn in (Adeleine totally agrees to this). He likes to think they’re mega soft like himself!!!

Kine: Magikarp, male, slightly flatter, blue instead of orange, larger fins!!

He couldn’t choose a Pokemon and eventually just settled on Magikarp because he thought they’d be ok. Didn’t realize they evolve into such a big Pokemon until they saw what it looked like in one of the dungeons. The keep bragging about how powerful they’re gonna be when they finally evolve, but nobody is taking him seriously because he can only use 1 move as of now and hasn’t reached a point where he can evolve yet.

Coo: Hoothoot, male, body is purple instead of brown, has spiked feathers on his head, has a softer and fluffier appearance!!!!!

It’s an owl. He wanted to be an owl. He reeeeaaallly wants to evolve because Noctowl looks way cooler but he’s fine with what he’s got for now!!! He has a speed based build because he can fly very fast :)

Dark Meta Knight: Noibat, female, monochromatic colors with some red mixed in, mask with a scar, tattered wing membrane!!!

Purposefully decided on having a femal because he thinks it kicks ass a little more (also he loves his adopted daughter and decided that would be badass too). Built like a fucking assault tank but with speed. He absolutely leads the charge when he’s playing and takes every fucking hit possible if it’s aimed at his daughter. Gloats about his badass evolution and how fucking sick it looks despite having not evolved yet.

Daroach: Sneasel, male, wears a cloak and hat like his own, has yellow and longer claws!!!!

He didn’t like any of the existing rats and said “lemme get a thief pokemon” and settled on Sneasel. They have a team called the Squeak Squad and it’s comprised of his Sneasel and the squeaks own copies of the game! They play together in their free time and Daroach had Adeleine grab him a Sneasel so he could play on her copy too.

Magolor: Inkay, male, wears a blue cloak like his own, has yellow eyes!!! (The cloak doesn’t really fit until Inkay evolves)

Physically couldn’t choose and then someone showed him Inkay and he said “oh! I fucking hate them.” It was only until they showed him Malamar that he said “oh they look like they’d backstab someone. Perfect.” He likes how fucking ominous they look and how they would 100% be a supervillain given the chance. His Inkay is a good guy tho don’t worry.

Taranza: Joltik, male, has tiny fangs and little horns that grow out when they evolve, wears a cape, has little gloves on their hands!!!

He wanted Flabebe because of the flowers but was told someone already took that one and decided he’d take a spider Pokemon! Almost settled on Ariados but then saw Galvantula and got super excited. He likes their fuzzy look and thinks they are a lovely Pokemon!!

Susie: Gothita, female, eyes are gradient blue with no pupils, has pink accents on the head, more modern appearance!!

She couldn’t find any pretty ones with tech on them but liked Gothita! She thinks they look ok and Adeleine was nice enough to invite her over for PMD game day so she joined in. Her Gothita is surprisingly beastly and is a heavy hitter! However she also gets her ass kicked really fast because Gothita isn’t built for up close heavy hitting.

Zan Partizanne: Shinx, female, wears the same clothes as her, has more yellow on her!!

She really liked how Shinx looks. Tiny electric kitty puppy thing! She wanted to name it after some kind of thunder deity but wasn’t able to (she probably had a name for it tho). Speedy little powerhouse who looks adorable. Continues to tell Adeleine that she’s only doing this to repay her debt (and also for insulting her hairline) but is really just enjoying herself.

Flamberge: Fletchling, female, wears the hat and ribbon-like shawl, has spiked feathers that stick up a lot like her hair, more vibrant red!!!

She fucking loves this little bird. Like. A lot. Something about them is just so awesome to her. Maybe it’s because it evolves into a giant fire falcon but who knows! She just loves them and cherishes them with all her heart. BEGGED Adeleine to recruit them and managed to convince her (she had to offer up making her a cool sword to get it. Adeleine accepted the deal almost immediately because cool ass sword).

Francisca: Vanillite, female, wears the hat and shawl, has more vibrant blue, ice cream part is the same color as her hair!!!

You know exactly why she chose this one. Ice cream baby!!!!!!!! She thinks they’re lovely and wants a plush of them super bad (they don’t make them yet but merch happens eventually!). She jokes that they have an ice cream stash they live in.

Pitch: Pidgey, male, green in color!

He got to join in after the other animal friends told him! He’s good friends with Adeleine (all the animal friends are) and she let him pick a Pokemon! He doesn’t play as much because he has to use his little feet’s but he does his best!

Nago: Glameow, female, body is orange and the ears are brown! Eyes remain closed instead of open to reflect his design!

He wanted it to be a girl just because. He says it’s because it resembles his girlfriend a teensy bit (just in coat color really) and he loves her a lot. Little bastard cat causes trouble on adventures and purposefully runs off to look for the stairs by himself without any incentive from Adeleine.

Chuchu: Frillish, female, wears a small red ribbon and has a more vibrant pink body!!

Couldn’t choose originally but settled on Frillish because it’s the closest thing to her. Nicknamed it frilly and likes to cause problems. She’s got a pretty decent move set and knows how to kick ass with it tho so she makes up for her trouble with that.

Queen Ripple: Flabébé, female, wears glasses and has black ear frill things, wears her crown, and wears her dress!!! Flower is white!

She gets to play too!!!!! Adeleine offered to let her have a Pokemon and she plays though wireless connection! On a very rare occasion, she makes a trip out to Popstar for a week or so and gets to play during then! She has a lot of fun and adores the design for Flabébé so damn much (plus it’s fairy type and that makes her very happy)!!!

#fira knight screeches #fira makes braincells #long post #OH YEAH BABY ITS DONE!!!! #yes there’s some oddballs in here I love all equally and they all get a chance #Void gets to play too but it’s not until a lot later when they get reincarnated so Adeleine gives them more choices (they pick a legendary) #they like to play but get really confused so they typically just go on the shorter expeditions that only take a couple minutes #Hyness doesn’t play because he doesn’t have the comprehension for it #no braincells in that man #he’s supportive of it tho #anyways HI EVERYONE ITS DONE!!!!!!!!!!

[gulouguawen]

How to learn English quickly: 10 tips

English is a fun language to learn (here are 9 reasons why it rocks), and even though it’s considered an accessible and relatively easy one to learn, with 750,000 words and spelling that can throw off even the most skilled learner, learning English fast can seem impossible. But I’m here to tell you that it isn’t – as long as you have the right strategy.

Here are our top tips on how to learn English quickly:

1. Read everything you can get your hands on

Classic literature, paperbacks, newspapers, websites, emails, your social media feed, cereal boxes: if it’s in English, read it. Why? Well, this content will be full of juicy new vocabulary, as well as a fair amount you already know. This helps you improve quickly, as re-exposure to learned vocabulary gives you new examples in context, therefore reinforcing those words in your mind. On the other hand, learning new words and expressions is essential to building your vocabulary arsenal, particularly in a language like English with so many words! However, don’t just read and move on – next, you’ve got to…

2. Actively take note of new vocabulary

This tip is a classic one for good reason: it works! When learning, we often enjoy a new word of phrase so much that forgetting it seems impossible. But trust us, not everything sticks the first time. To fight this, get into the habit of carrying around a funky notebook or using a tool like Evernote. Whenever you hear or read a new word or expression, write it down in context: that is, in a sentence and with its meaning noted. This saves you time as you won’t return to that word and ask yourself: “What did that word/expression mean again?”

3. Talk with real live humans

What is a language for if not to communicate? Sure, we humans have become experts at communicating without opening our mouths – thanks Whatsapp! – but when push comes to shove, it’s true that speaking a language helps it stick in your head far better than only reading or writing it. Just think of how many times you’ve heard people say that they “understand, but can’t speak English.” A lot of would-be English speakers have turned talking into a huge insurmountable barrier that only serves to psyche them out. Don’t be like that. Seek out native speakers for an informal language exchange, enroll in a course, or take classes online.

4. Subscribe to podcasts or Youtube channels (in English)

Like humor? Politics? Blogging? Cooking? With topics covering every interest imaginable, there’s an English-speaking podcast or Youtube channel out there for you. Subscribe to a few and listen while driving or watch during the commute to school or work. At first, you might find the native accents difficult, but stick with it and you’ll soon start to understand what you hear (as well as learning lots of new vocab from a native speaker!)

5. Go abroad

If there’s a better way to learn English than being immersed in it while living and studying in an English-speaking country, we’d love to know! It’s no secret that English is the most widely-spoken language in the world, and with a long list of countries to choose between, you can select your ideal learning environment based on hemisphere, weather, or favorite city. Think Australia, New Zealand, the UK, the US, Canada, and South Africa to name a few!

6. Use your friends

Have friends who post online in English? Don’t gloss over them in your newsfeed: scan the items they share and commit to exploring one or two each day. They might be news or magazine articles, videos, talks, blog posts, songs, or anything else: if it’s in English and the topic interests you, it’s going to be helpful!

7. Ask a lot of questions

Curiosity may have killed the cat, but it also propelled the language learner to fluency! As you learn English, you’ll soon collect a mountain of questions. Don’t sit on your doubts – be curious and resolve them! If you’re enrolled in a course, ask your teacher (it’s what they’re there for, after all). But if you’re learning alone, don’t worry: find answers in blogs or language websites, ask other learners, or read through forums. You’ll be happy you did!

8. Take a lead from the stars

Mix up your learning by picking a native English-speaking actor or singer you like. Now, head online, find a bunch of interviews they’ve given – and watch them! Watch once for gist, then again, taking time to note down interesting expressions and words you hear. The slang, stories, humor, and anecdotes that come out of these interview are sure to give you plenty to work with!

9. Start with what you really need

Your English studies are likely to go far more quickly if you constantly remind yourself of your motives for learning. Are you going on a study exchange? Then, focus on vocabulary related to your studies. Have an overseas conference? Brush up on conversation starters to use with the other participants. Going on a gap year? Looks like travel and tourism vocabulary will be your guide. If you simply launch into learning English hoping to magically learn anything and everything at once, you’re likely to end up confused and burned out. Which brings us to…

10. Don’t kick yourself while you’re down

When you start to feel like you’re not making ground – which happens to all learners at some point – don’t say, “I don’t speak English,” or “I’ll never get this.” In fact, ban those phrases from your vocabulary! They only blur your understanding of the progress you’re making and convince you that your dreams of speaking English well are impossible. Instead, say “I’m learning English and making improvements everyday,” “It’s not always easy, but it’s worth it,” “I’m so much better that I was six months ago,” and other phrases to remind yourself of the big picture.

#learning english