#I actually find it a really interesting topic and case study

[priniya]

🤸🏼‍♂️ CONFESSION

synopsis. james gets jealous when you tell him a story about your first kiss.

notes. james potter x reader. (former) remus lupin x reader. mentions of underage alcohol consumption

“wait, y/n. you’ve never told us who were your first kiss?” dorcas frowned, earning you a frew curious glances from people present in the room, james included. “drink up and speak the truth.” sirius words were accompanied by a chuckle as he handed you the small bottle.

“we have to specify the question though.” marlene added, throwing an arm around her girlfriend’s shoulder. “first kiss as in a full makeout session, right?” the girls nodded in agreement, watching carefully as you took a sip of veritaserum. “tell us the story, ravenclaw.”

you could feel james staring at you, his curiosity intensifying each second, when you gave yourself some time to think of an answer. catching you crack a soft smile, sent him a painful jolt. things got only worse when you finally replied.

“a story?” you chuckled. “m’kay, it happened at the end of year four when you were involved in throwing a party, remember? well, remus bumped into me, spilling all his drink on my shirt and refused to let me go until i agreed on getting one of his. we went upstairs and it happened.” you shrugged as if it was nothing, but you smiled beforehand so it definitely meant something, didn’t it?

“MOONY?” sirius shouted in surprise, shifting his gaze to the mentioned boy, his mimic changing almost immediately. “wait it was you? no wonder why there were so much tension between you the next year.” his slurred words made the werewolf blush lightly, but he laughed it off quickly.

“well, there’s a story behind it too.”

“y/n, sweetheart, care to elaborate?” dorcas smiled at you sweetly, mischief flickering in her eyes, revealing her investment in the secret story behind your relations with remus.

“we were dating.” you confessed your little secret, probably too drunk to feel how your boyfriend tensed up upon hearing your words. “not long though, till late january, then we were just hooking up once in a while.”

“you were dating ravenclaw, and you didn’t tell any of us?” mckinnon looked at the blonde boy with a faked upset, shaking her head in disappointment. “i mean… to defend remus, he actually told me.” lily sent him a smile, averting her eyes to james for a millisecond only to catch him looking all unfazed.

“we wanted to keep it on the low in case it didn’t work out.” remus shrugged, taking a sip of his beer, involuntarily noticing how potter dropped his arm from your shoulder. “then she dropped me for james.”

“potter one, lupin zero?” peter chimed in, snaping the beverage from his friend’s hand, taking a turn in drinking. “geez ravenclaw, you really went for your ex’s best friend.”

“you act like you weren’t the one who decided to stop, ‘cos you wanted to make a move on sirus.” you wiggled your eyebrows, arms crossed at chest. “not that i don’t wanted to, you were just quicker.”

the conversation died down quickly after you were forced to spill all the secrets about your past relationship, someone quickly changed the topic to something more interesting that you weren’t a part of. at first, you didn’t even notice the change in james’ behavior, but then when you were falling asleep next to him, and he turned his back on you, you realized somethung was bothering him.

james avoided you almost all week, always finding excuses to bail on your suggestions to hangout or canceling them last second, having you wonder what was going on. he even skipped some of the classes you’ve had with him, while sirius was trying his hardest to convince you that nothing was wrong.

to be honest, you were stressing out, vivid images of your break-up flashed through your mind every time that your mind wasn’t occupied. so, after lots of consideration, you decided to bury yourself in studying for newts, while waiting for the boy to come and talk to you.

“merlin, prongs. what’s wrong with you and ravenclaw, have you fought or something? you’re sulking and she doesn’t even come here nowadays.” sirius rambled, taking a seat next to james on his bed, and frown when the boy doesn’t reply. “mate, i’m for real worried, so is your girlfriend. talk to me.”

“i just… can’t stop imagining her and moony together. whenever i look at her, the image of him is somewhere in the back of my mind. it bothers me so much, i can’t think straight.” he sighed. “i can’t stop thinking about the what if’s. i can see her breaking up with me to get back with remus.”

mentioned boy just walked out of the bathroom quietly, taking in the entirety of the conversation and let out a laugh, catching his friends’ attention almost immediately. “she indeed may break up with you, not for me though, but because you keep avoiding her like fire.” lupin plopped onto his bed.

“listen, you’d do the same–” james’ words were cut off.

“sirius didn’t, and he’s in the same position as you are.” he shrugged. “my point is, she wouldn’t break up with you to get back with me, because she loves you so much ever since you started hanging out, she told me she loves you after your second date, she always wakes up at four to watch your quidditch’s practice and you think she would choose me over you? buy yourself new glasses.”

“and, the reason we broke up was that we realized we were just horny teenagers that could fulfill each other’s needs, that we weren’t in love.” remus scoffed, ruffling his hair. “and you know what? i decided to stop hooking up with her, because i wanted her to finally make a move on you, merlin, prongs all she ever talked about, since your first tutoring, was you.”

when james stood up so suddenly, lupin knew he succeeded on knocking some sense into the seeker’s mind. “she’s at the library.” werewolf murmured as the seeker was on his way to leave the dorm.

you were burying yourself in tons of books, trying to get in as many informations as possible, occupying your brain with anything that wasn’t james potter. speaking of the devil, you didn’t even realize when he sat beside you with a scowl on his face.

“love,” you jumped at the sound of his words, eyebrows knitted together. “can we… talk?” james spoke, embarrassment ringing in his tone as he couldn’t bring his eyes to look into yours. he would be a fool if he expected you to fall into his arms, apologizing for nit telling him earlier — all in the most dramatic manner you could only pull out.

when you didn’t reply nor move, his shoulder sulked, eyebrows knitted together as he still waited for an answer. it took him more than five minutes to realize you weren’t going to continue the conversation, making him the one to talk. “i get that your upset, i do, you have every right to be upset with me and my behavior towards you. i was jealous, i’d never known you were together and it got to my head and i couldn’t think straight. i’m sorry, really.”

“james.” a sigh escaped from between your lips as you finally looked at him. “it was something completely different with remus, i thought i liked him, but with you — i’m certain i love you.” a smile lit up his face upoin hearing your words — it was the first time you were the one dropping the L bomb, not him.

“so… are we fine?”

“we are, if you won’t pull out something like that again.”

#james potter x reader #marauders fic #james potter fic #james potter angst #remus lupin x reader #marauders x you #marauders x y/n #marauders x reader #marauders one shot #marauders angst #marauders era #marauders fanfiction #james potter fluff #james potter x you #james potter one shot #james potter #james potter fanfiction #james & peter & remus & sirius

[catsvrsdogscatswin]

Since there’s a bit of a hiatus in Dracula Daily right now, I thought I’d take the opportunity to ramble about what I know of vampiric folklore and history in Europe because I cannot contain my infodump and it’s actually really interesting.

Painting it in very broad strokes, the earliest folkloric creature we would recognize as a vampire was acknowledged in Europe in the 1100s and earlier as a human corpse that physically rose from their grave and returned to their former home/village to drink blood. (A 12th-century English text, The Life and Miracles of St. Modwenna, mentions two examples of this type of vampire.) These vampires’ victims did not become vampires as well, but sickened and died, usually from wasting diseases. What caused the original person to become a vampire was variable, but usually involved being, just, an absolute jerk when they were alive, or an increasingly convoluted series of ways in which they attracted bad luck/evil while they lived, after they died, or as they were buried.

This is where the traditions of stuffing a stone in the potential vampire’s mouth, decapitating them and putting the head in the grave between their knees, burying them facedown, cutting off their hands or feet, burying them in a too-small grave, piling stones atop the grave, or burying them with broken legs came from. All of these are regional or historical variations on ways to quite literally prevent the presumed vampire from digging their way out of the grave and causing trouble: an “And stay down there!” maneuver that we’ll see survive into modern pop culture in the form of a stake through the heart.

This was the predominant form of vampirism up until roughly the 1700s: someone nasty in the village died, and after a while, would start reappearing to their family or loved ones at night, slowly draining their lives away as they fell to a wasting disease like tuberculosis or leprosy. Once the villagers caught on, they would exhume the body, find it suspiciously preserved and with blood trickling from its mouth, and then take steps to neutralize the vampiric threat by beheading, staking it through the heart to literally pin it in the grave, stuff a stone in its mouth, or a combination of all three. 

(You may have heard of the Venetian mass-burial plague pit an archeological team discovered: one of the skeletons had a brick shoved in her mouth. She was the only body treated in such a way, implying that she was thought to have been a vampire: hypothetically even the vampire that caused this local upswing of the plague.)

A cultural shift happened in the 18th century, however, when the Austro-Hungarian Empire gained territory in Serbia and other portions of the Balkans. Since they were neighbors with the Ottoman Empire, the Austro-Hungarians kept a heavy military presence in these new territories, and the emperor of the time (Charles VI, I believe) asked the occupying forces to collect reports on the local customs and folklore and send them back.

A number of the reports they sent back included vampire stories.

Now, this was the Age of Enlightenment: many countries were pulling away from old superstitions and following the new methods of science. Belief in vampirism was a rural thing, and widespread plague situations had faded enough that they really weren’t relevant anymore and had fallen out of a lot of people’s memory. 

But the thing was... science was still new, and this whole vampirism thing sounded just plausible enough to be extremely interesting. The Austro-Hungarians sent all sorts of scientists, doctors, and clergy members to collect and dissect and discuss these stories, and for a short spate of time vampirism was the hot new discussion topic in esoteric circles. And for then and a while after, if you wanted case studies, debates, and just about any reference material on vampires, you knew you’d find it in Austro-Hungary’s library.

Eventually the scientific community all concluded that this vampirism thing was just silly peasants not understanding the process of decay, but the arts crowd -particularly the Sturm und Drang folks in Germany- remained very interested in this exotic new creature steeped in mystery and death. Sturm und Drang translates to “storm and stress” and if I had to describe their style in modern terms, I would say (roughly, and with affection) “a love of edgy tragedies.”

There were a number of poems and works spawned from this flurry of interest, but this Austrian version of the vampire still shared a common theme: more like a revenant than anything else, coming for their loved ones first, and a lot of their horror was tied up in how blasphemous and unChristian their very existence was. Less emphasis was placed on getting rid of the vampire and more was placed on the artistic allure of vengeance from beyond the grave and the vampire’s inherent exotic mysticism and threat.

Stoker, in fact, directly references an example of this in Dracula! On May 5th, when Dracula’s telling the coach driver that he knew they were trying to get Jonathan out of there before he showed up, because he himself drove fast enough to intercept them, one of the other passengers whispers to his friend “Denn die Todten reiten schnell,” which translates roughly to “For the dead ride fast,” a quote from Burger’s Lenore.

Lenore is a poem about a young woman whose fiancé died in the Seven Years’ War (connection with Austro-Hungary). In her despair, she curses god (old-school invitation for vampirism), and the following night, her lover knocks on her door to take her on horseback to their marriage bed (vampires attack their loved ones first). He takes her on an increasingly terrifying ride through the night, prompting the above quote, which ends in a graveyard, where he is revealed to be a skeleton and Lenore dies.  

Lenore was written in 1774, and although William is not technically a vampire, the poem is an example of the old-school vampire type. The vampire is a physical reanimated corpse that does not create more of its kind, but causes the people around them to die/waste away, and attacks their loved ones before anyone else. The transition to what we finally would recognize as a modern vampire started with Carmilla and was solidified in Dracula.

Written in 1872, Carmilla is a blending of both old and modern vampiric tropes. It uses the then-expected setting of the Austrian Empire, all of the titular vampire’s victims wasted away and died rather than rising as vampires themselves, and Carmilla’s coffin was filled with blood when she was unearthed. However, she was also able to shapeshift into a cat and walk through walls -no longer just a revenant- and she could walk around during the day without harm. She also does not target the people she knew and loved in life first: Carmilla is a vampire centuries old and her current victims are chosen indiscriminately. The vampire as a folkloric creature was evolving.

And, side note, while it was used partially as a narrative device to show how evil and unnatural Carmilla was, she was also gay. Gay as fuck. People who lost their shit at 

“Then the Count turned, after looking at my face attentively, and said in a soft whisper: ‘Yes, I too can love’” 

will go absolutely mental at Laura going

“It was like the ardour of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet overpowering; and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, ‘You are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one for ever.’"

Anyway. Queerness is baked into the concept of the modern vampire from the very beginning, what of it.

With Carmilla as the springboard, though, Stoker was free to finally create Dracula, which was essentially the turning point between modern and archaic vampire depictions. He took all of the old stuff and reworked, revamped (heh), or added to it to get the foundation of the stereotypical vampire we know today.

He shifted the geographic vampire hotspot further over from Austria-Hungary, landing it in neighboring Transylvania. Dracula’s victims weaken and die and seem to be inflicted with a strange wasting disease, but can also turn into vampires themselves. Driving a stake through his heart and cutting off his head is no longer an attempt to pin him in his grave and keep him from rising, but merely to destroy him. He was dead, yes, and very unholy, but he also had powers beyond merely being a risen corpse, and his power set became the standard for future vampire media.

Hence, Dracula becomes the foundation for the modern concept of a vampire, which is why pop culture usually treats it as the beginning point of vampirism in general.

#Dracula Daily #Dracula #Carmilla #vampires

[vixensbrainrotts]

Could u write one for baji where he has sort of a black cat gf? Like they're dynamic is: "staring into someone's soul" gf and "stares too just bc his gf is staring" bf

Opia - Keisuke Baji

Content: FLUFF

Warnings: a fight (relationship, external) mentioned, not proof read

Tropes: Black cat! reader, (kind of golden retriever! Baji), established relationship

Summary: You observe everyone maybe just a bit too closely for most people's liking, but Kei really doesn't mind.

Vixens two cents: I don’t really write for Baji but I’ll take the challenge, sorry if he feels a little out of character! Thank you for requesting and let me know how this is! If you find yourself enjoying this, please please please feel free to request something cause ASKS ARE OPEN!!! yeah, alright, now enjoy some fluff!

"OPIA" - verb, emotive

" The ambiguous intensity of looking someone in the eye, which can be simultaneously invasive and vulnerable. " --

Baji knew you had a staring problem, he knew before he started dating you. Alone your dead-looking eyes was one factor in the equation, but since you had a distinctively bad case of „resting Bitch-face“, all scores were multiplied by ten. He was used for your glossy eyes to be staring dead at people, things, sometimes nothing even, just sorta dissociating out into space. At first he was a little confused, concerned even that maybe you weren’t getting enough sleep, or eating right, but upon asking you he found out that it really just was the way you were.

He thinks back to how he confessed to you: spilling some ill-rehearsed, grammatically poor lines of poetry he had smushed together over the past week after he found out you liked literature. You looked him dead in the eye the whole time, watching him fumble with his big hands and stumble over his words over and over again, because fuck the way your eyes were piercing his soul made him nervous, but your deadpan face didn’t move a bit until he finished with an embarrassing account of „Yeah so basically i was hoping you and I could maybe go out some time?“.

Then, your lips curled up into a small, sweet smile and you looked down at your desk and the letter and the little charm he presented you with. „Ok.“ was all you said, hands reaching up to the charm and securing it around your key-chain and looking back at him inquisitively. „Wanna ditch and go now?“ You actually isn’t give a damn, and he thinks that its one of the most attractive things about you.

And just like that, your first date was spent in a little cafe you suggested because „it has a great view onto the main-street“. So, over a creme-cake and a macchiatos you spent hours just people watching, which Keisuke came to find out was one of your favorite activities. When you first told him, he almost slumped together in his seat because who the fuck watches people for fun? But after you started pointing out little things to him; like the way that man was wearing two different shoes, or the way that that couple over there is passing for the third time already, he starts to see why you find it so interesting.

Soon enough after figuring out that you really didn’t mean any harm to the people you were staring at, Baji often caught himself turning to look at what caught your attention too. To his surprise, it often payed off, you had an eye for interesting, pretty, kooky things, so he made it a habit to look at whatever fell into your line of sight for too long.

This time, it was whilst the two of you were supposed to be studying at your place. Both of you were sort of failing the current Math topic, and with an upcoming test, you had decided to invite him over to yours to tackle the topic together. However, after around 45 minutes of hardcore struggling, you had lost a good bit of will and now chose to spend your time looking out of your window. Baji had noticed that the hypnotic rhythm of your pen scratching the square paper had stopped, so he turned to at you, half-expecting you to have fallen asleep.

When however he found your gaze fixed on something outside, his interest was piqued almost instantly. He found himself tracing your line of sight to see what you were seeing. Scanning the area outside your building, his eyes immediately found the hook.

There was a couple standing just outside your window, in the shelter of the bus stop that stood across the street. There was lots of articulation and hand motion going on, the man swinging his arms wildly as the woman tousled her hair and stomped her feet in retribution.

"They're arguing." Keisuke states into the comfortable silence between you two, but the words don't disrupt the atmosphere. A few moments pass in which you both watch them shout at one another, the woman now furiously pointing her finger all over the place, the man slapping a hand across his face almost comically.

"They have been for a while." you say back, head still resting on your folded arms, eyes trained on the scene.

"I wonder what it's about." Keisuke pondered, listening to the rhythmic in and out of your breathing, accompanied by the occasional crackling of a scented candle that sat on your windowsill.

A few more paces passed before you answered him. "I think its about a missed date." Kei hums in response, eyebrows furrowing as he glances to you. "How are you so sure?"

"Hmpf." You huff and shrug, the movement making your shoulders pop. "Just got a feeling about it... And look at the way she's moving her hands, pointing to something on her phone- looks like a serious thing, but not serious enough for something extreme like cheating."

He listened intently to your voice, but he didn't turn back to the scene, choosing instead to scan your body closely. The way your hair fell, the stretch of the shirt's fabric over the expanse of your back, the way your jewellery glimmered lowly.

Keisuke folded his arms akin to yours and lowered his head to rest right next to yours, finally getting a good look at your face. "That wouldn't happen to us, no?" he whispered to you.

Finally, you looked at him with those piercing eyes, and despite all the times he's looked into them, a shiver still ran down his spine and he felt his cheeks tinge with warmth. Your face was as blank as your eyes, but still you shook your head.

"Never." you whisper back to him, turning your head to lay on your arms like Baji's did. Kei felt a smile tug at his lips at how serious you sounded. "Good." he replied, voice still hushed as he came in closer to you, nuzzling both your noses together before giving you a tiny, soft peck on the corner of your lips.

When he pulled away and lay on his arms again, he saw your eyelids flutter to a content close and watched as your straight lips curled into a small, happy smile as you breathed deeply and allowed yourself to relax next to him.

Keisuke watched your breathing even out for a while longer, the gentle rise and fall of your ribcage, the occasional sleepy sigh and the sometimes rapid fluttering of your lashes as you seemingly drifted into sleep.

Kei allowed himself a bit of peace too, satisfied with how you've adapted a regular breathing pattern, and closed his eyes, intently listening to match the pace of his breath to yours. Right then and there Baji decided that perhaps people watching really is something wonderful when you're watching someone you love.

#tokyo revengers x reader #tokyo revengers #tokyo rev x reader #x reader #tokyo rev x you #tokrev #tr content #tokyo manji revengers #tr headcanons #tokyo rev #baji x reader #baji keisuke #keisuke x reader #keisuke x you #tokyo revengers fluff #fluff #tr fluff

[hydrangea-mon-amor]

「 ✦  Yandere Angel ✦ 」

Yandere Male! x fem! reader!

Trigger warning! Yandere behavior, obsessive behavior

A/N guys, I feel like I’m on drugs right now, I’ve worked on this for who knows how many hours just so I could drop it in time of New Years. It’s a long one, and I think you guys will love this one.

Summary! He is your Guardian Angel, sworn to protect you against any and all evil. You are a simple mortal girl, who ensnared the wrong angel in your circle… (no seriously girl how the hell did you do that….)

Side note — if you think there should be more trigger warnings added, let me know.

Every Angel is assigned to a human, but not every angel harbors the ability to form a genuine relationship with them. It isn’t in their clause, and, in any case, the act in itself is generally treated as something to avoid.

After all, angels are immortal, ephemeral creatures, beings of light itself. They cannot die like ordinary humans do, and they do not have the lifespan of one either…

No, they live long, immortality is something they are branded with. How could, if one could ask, would an angel live if they grew to love their charge, but had to acquiesce and give them up in the name of death?

Is it possible for life to be so unfair?

Is it possible for life to be so irrevocably cruel?

Peliel, was the name of your guardian Angel. He has been looking over you, you know? Each moment—every encounter that has mysteriously worked in your favor, it was all because of him. Truly he had your best interest in mind.

Do you remember, when it was your seventeenth birthday, your friends and you hopped in that Uber, only to be led astray but then back again? Remember how relieved you were when you had realized that you weren’t being kidnapped?

You should thank Peliel.

No, really, it’s insisted that you thank your protective guardian Angel…

On a drowsy Sunday morning, with leaves swaying to the persuasive winds, Peliel is slumped under a tree. He watches over you, you are outside a cafe, studying for a future exam. Peliel looks around for danger, he always has, he has never complained, he never will complain.

A dumb smile finds its way on his face.

‘You look so adorable…’ he thinks—he has always thought that.

His eyes perk up, where are you going?

Peliel, removes himself from the trees shade, and starts stalking towards you. No mortal can see him, he is, infact, hidden in plain sight. He watches you cross roads, than follow the same path. He follows, quite diligently too, until he comes to a stop.

The Public Library.

He smiles dumbly to himself. Of course someone as adorable and motivated as you would go to the library to study…

He moves through the door, tucking himself away into a corner so where he could watch you promptly. He has never loved being a guardian so much, he wishes death wasn’t a thing so he could forever be your Guardian Angel…

You sit in between two chairs on a desk, clasping a medical textbook in your hands. You lay it on top the surface, diligently tracing your fingers along the words, taking notes as you do. Hair cascading down your delectable visage, and Peliel watches it all, he will watch it all.

Sometimes, when you sleep in your bed, Peliel will sit at the edge of the mattress and just…stare. It isn’t weird, really it’s just him protecting what is his. He is in charge of your protection, what kind of Guardian Angel would he be if he didn’t take it upon himself catering to your protection in every circumstance?

Who would he be? No really, he might as-well be committing an act of transgression upon the Heavens.

No…the wording is wrong, in actuality, he’d be committing transgressions against you.

He sits in his corner, looking upon you like how mortals look upon their worldly desires. But, to him, you are more than just “desires.” You are his reason for living.

“Fuck.” He’s startled, it isn’t often he hears you curse…

You look upon your textbook, frustrated with the topic you’re currently studying. You look up, desperate for some notion of reprieve.

Your eyes squint.

“Can I help you? Why are you in the corner like that?”

Peliel is confused, you shouldn’t be able to see him. It isn’t natural, it isn’t possible. He is invisible to the mortal eye, he cannot be seen by ordinary folk, how can you…

“Are you referring to me?”

You should really be more gentle with him, he speaks so timidly, frightened he’s going to disappoint you…

You look over your shoulder, “I don’t see anyone huddled up in a corner like you are, so yes, as if it wasn’t obvious already, but I am looking at you. And seriously? Who would I have to look at besides you?”

Who would I have to look at besides you…

He seriously shouldn’t be getting butterflies from this, poor thing, all riled up for nothing.

“I-I’m not sure.” He attempts to smile, his face definitely dusted in red, he’s squeamish now, unbecoming. You really shouldn’t have acknowledged him.

“Don’t sit there, you’ll damage your spine.”

“How do you know?”

You hold up the textbook, “studying to become a doctor.”

He looks at you surprised.

“Really?”

As if he didn’t already know that…

“Mhmm, exam next Thursday, wish me luck won’t you?” You were being sarcastic, but he was not.

“O-of course!”

Your phone rings. “Have to go now, bye, don’t make me catch you in a position like that again. Well, that is if we ever meet again.”

He watches in awe, you leave the library, hesitant smile his way.

He feels like he’s on cloud nine, or ten, or eleven. He feels weightless, light, fluttering, untouchable.

Of course, the reason why you could see him was because of fate… you are destined for him, as he is destined for you… that’s why you could see him, that’s why he could converse with you…. Fate, you are fated to him…

He’s watching you.

Well, he always has, but something about this encounter is different… he doesn’t know, it feels more intimate, more romantic.

He sits upon a tree branch, an apple in his hands. He’s been meaning to take a bite, but he is so enamored with you that he simply just forgot… but, of course, could you blame him? You are simply so you, and he is irrevocably engrossed with you.

You are star-gazing, by yourself. Wearing a divine skirt, a tank top, and a simple, cute cardigan. You have a basket of mangoes by you, waiting a few moments to eat the next piece.

He can’t stop thinking about you, he can’t stop himself from being near you. Even if you don’t know he’s here, it still doesn’t change the fact that he’s there…

He will always be there.

Always, for you.

In the wake of the glowing moon, the dance of the twinkling constellations, Peliels whispers, sounds odd but no. He whispers to you, don’t you understand? Fate has communicated that you two are meant for eachother, bless Peliel, all he is doing is seeing it to fruition.

These whispers, these statements of fervor, are carried by the ever persistent winds.

They are carried to you.

Heaven cannot compare to the bliss you have given.

Your face is as delicate as dew drops, and your voice as placid as the clearest of waters…you are an illustration of exalted life.

He almost giggles to himself when he sees you startled, playing it off as something amiss with your hearing.

It was probably the smartest thing you’ve done thus far.

He shouldn’t intervene this much, really, it isn’t ethical. And, his higher ups would probably not be too fond of his recent behavior either. But can he help it? Really, can he?

Honestly he thinks it’s your fault.

If you weren’t so infatuating, so alluring, he wouldn’t have to do this.

If he didn’t love you like he did, he probably would’ve stepped back, but he does love you, he loves you so much that he cannot bear the sight of you being inconvenienced. No matter how minor.

So why is that you aren’t grateful? Why do you look on in terror as if he had done something so outrageous? So heinous?

“Please, someone, dial 911!” You shout, shaking as you watch the bleeding corpse of your boss.

How did he even get that way?

A part of you is at odds with one another. He was a shit boss, always targetting people who couldn’t fight back, he was rude, mean, crude, narcissistic, evil—

“I—he’s losing a lot of blood please!” You shout, cursing yourself for not having your phone on you.

Peliel watches on, not liking the feeling swirling in his stomach.

Why aren’t you showing any signs of gratitude? You hated him, Peliel knows how much you hated him. So why, why do you want people do help the coward! He’s helping you! He’s doing you a favor, how could you be so insolent and—

Wait.

You are so lucky to have a very smart Guardian Angel, did you know that?

Peliel, transforms into a mortal body, akin to how you saw him in the library, just less…divine. He transforms into the uniform of your workplace, a co-worker. He pushes pass the doors, until he reaches you the body.

“I know how to bandage deep wounds.” He said, not realizing the logistics of the situation he has put himself in.

He didn’t take note to factor in the fact that you have never seen him working with you before, or the fact that it has been a complete month since your last interaction, or the fact that this just seems so convenient…

He supposes he is lucky enough to have a human so traumatized to not question it.

“Please h-help, I don’t know how he ended up like this.” You said, voice trembling.

Cute.

Peliel thinks how he could be the cause of that trembling voice.

“Do you have a first aid kid?” He said, you nodded, still shaking. When you leave his sight to fetch the kit, Peliel looks upon the corpse like it has personally offended him.

He didn’t plan for this to happen, it wasn’t what he originally wanted. But he supposes it isn’t a complete loss, since, he does have you.

With a snap of his finger, the corpse he so assiduously butchered was bandaged up in an instant. The bleeding, to a minimum.

When you came back, you were stunned.

“How did you…I thought you—“

“I realized I had a first aid kid with me. Sorry if I bothered you.”

“No—not at all! I just…thank you for helping. I am so grateful—god—I don’t understand how this could even happen.”

Grateful.

So now you are grateful.

Peliel thinks he may have to switch tactics, but nevertheless, he is happy. He is happy he made you happy.

“Of course, it’s nothing—“

Peliel is cut off from ambulance sirens.

What a hinderance.

Alas, at the end of the day, when you have high given your police statements, you both stand outside the police station.

“Really again, I’m so grateful you showed up, if you hadn’t I don’t think he would’ve been able to—“

Peliel realizes that he may have overstepped here, but he doesn’t care. He pulls you close, hugging you. He is close enough to smell your scent.

���Really it’s nothing. You have just scene a traumatizing scene, you shouldn’t think about scenarios that haven’t passed.”

Peliel is honestly, such a lucky angel to have a mortal so blissfully naive.

You don’t think him creepy for hugging you, infact, you think the gesture was nice, comforting.

“Y/N.”

“I’m sorry?”

“My name, it’s Y/N.”

He smiles, “my name is”—he thinks for a moment—“Pete, my name is Pete.”

You look up at him, your visage twisting to remembrance.

“I know you, you were at the library.” It’s now that you two are a reasonable distance from one another. “You were crouched in that little corner—“

“And you told me you were studying to be a doctor.” He said. “That makes me wonder, shouldn’t you have been able to help him?”

You frown, your face taking a shade of shame.

“I…didn’t pass, turns out I wasn’t even familiar with half the things I doctor should be able to do.”

He rests his hand on your shoulder. “It’s okay, you’ll find your calling.”

For now, Peliel can be the doctor, your doctor.

“I uh, I didn’t know you worked here.”

Peliel purses his lips. “I didn’t know you worked here too.” Liar. “I think I should quit though, after what happened, I don’t think It’d be safe If you—I mean—I continued to work there.”

You smile dimly, “yeah, I guess that makes sense.” You take out a piece of parchment, a pen next, you scribble numbers onto the page. Peliel has no idea what you are trying to do.

It’s cute really, how bashful your getting, presenting the paper to him. “It’s my number. Call me if you need anything.”

He smiles, taking the paper in hand, “alright.”

He sees you more often now.

How lucky he is.

He gets to speak to you more as well. By the heavenly principles, he shouldn’t have such easy access to you, it isn’t in his job description, really, he should only converse with you durning pivotal moments in your life, but bless his heart, he just can’t help it!

He loves you, don’t you know that? He loves you so much it pains his heart.

You’re at a coffee shop, gaze fixed on a laptop screen and fingers tapping gently on the keyboards. For a few moments, he stands outside the window, just watching you.

He loves watching you.

A shaky breath leaves his lips, he wonders how he can merge his life into yours, how he can have you all to himself.

He wants you so bad, did you know that?

No, he needs you.

He mouths the words I love you a million times, then a million times more.

He wants to say it in person.

He watches you.

You tap the keyboards gently.

He watches you.

Your eyes are fixed in the screen.

They should be fixed on him.

He watches you.

Your lips look so soft.

How soft are they to kiss?

He watches you.

Your eyes dazzle his soul.

How will they look when he has you under his d—

He watches you.

He’s always watching you.

How lucky.

He’s infiltrated your day to day life.

One might think this is what Guardian Angels do, they walk through your life as you live it, but Peliel is not the same. He shouldn’t be with you like this.

It’s as If he’s casted a spell on you.

The flowers are more dazzling, the sky is more eccentric, you smell things more in depth now, you feel things more intimately, emotions are more raw, your vision more clear and it is all thanks to you know who.

Well, in actuality you don’t, but that doesn’t matter.

He likes seeing you happy, and yo are happy.

Right?

Well, Peliel thinks you are.

You smile more.

Laugh more.

You are just so…you!

He loves It.

He’s giggling now, thinking about what he is going to do.

What he will do just so he can talk to you.

The winds take a sharp turn, you walk alongside the sidewalk, earphones locked in place, listening to a song on your playlist. When a sharp breeze sets you off your course. Your body slams down on the other direction, hitting a wall of some sort.

No, not a wall, something soft.

Something soft and breathing and moving.

“I think you have some sort of penchant running into me.” He said, recognizing you so much more faster than you can even think to remember him.

His voice is soft, and his hand is around you protectively, so that you don’t injure yourself further.

As if he wasn’t the cause for this.

Sometimes, he thinks why you don’t react the way other mortals do. Usually, they’d scream and curse at someone they see so often and nit know personally, perhaps it is paranoia.

But you are so accepting, so naive—

“It seems I always bump into you when I need saving.” You say shyly.

He blushes.

Saving.

Need.

You need him.

He knew you loved him.

“Are you hurt? That seemed like a really hard fall you had there.”

He is so happy you had that fall. Because if not, he wouldn’t be in this situation. You in his arms.

“I’m fine, are you fine? You tumbled down with me, I’m sorry, I’m probably causing you a lot of pain.” You move to stand up, Peliel has to physically fight himself so he doesn’t pull you down. So he doesn’t come on too strong.

“Do you want to get coffee with me?” He said, blurting it out before he can form cohesive thoughts.

He doesn’t regret it though, not when you gave him such an enticing response.

“Sure, maybe we can get to know each other a bit more.”

He already knows every inch of your being.

But sure, he’ll humor you for the time being.

You get gifts now.

He delivers them to you.

How considerate.

You open the door to your front porch, a crystal, white box addressed to you. Delivered in pristine condition. On it there is an attached note.

For the loveliest rose the heavens could gaze on.

He doesn’t sign it off with his name however. But you are so curious you just simply had to know, you needed to know.

How stupid you were.

A heinous, disgusting shrill came out of your mouth. The birds changed their course and the crickets and insects that surrounded your house grew silent.

Inside the box were a pair of two eyes, another note placed inside.

For the men who dared to look at the loviest rose.

You wanted to puke, you wanted to hurl yourself into a corner and just sob.

Peliel watches.

And truth be told, he does not like the reacting you had given him.

He worked so hard to get this right, to give you a present worthy of your magnificence. And this is how you respond? By screaming as if it is something to abhor? Do you have no gratitude?

But that is okay, he has other gifts in mind.

The next week, you get another package. And this time you had no Will to open it. You didn’t want to open it. You were only outside to read the nite attached to the box.

Lovely rose, I hope you like this present better than the…one before.

You don’t open it. You can’t open it. You won’t open it.

But curiosity knows at you like cornered claws, you can’t continue your day without thinking about it.

It’s always in the back of your mind.

Lovey rose.

Lovely rose.

Lovey rose.

It chips away at you until it is finally night and you cannot go another second without knowing so like a ravaged animal you grasp the box like a depraved creature and claw at it. Until it rips open to reveal…an amethyst ring.

What?

But this makes no sense…

On the ring is another attached note.

The loveliest mineral for the loveliest rose.

Oh you’re fucked now.

Peliel curses himself.

He’s let you stray far away from him.

Your at the same coffee shop, same table, same laptop, but it isn’t the same. Because if it was the same he would be watching you like he always does, he’d be watching you while you tap your delicate fingers gently on the keyboards.

But it is not the same.

Do you want to know why?

Because a incompetent, insolent mortal boy is besides you.

His finger is on you lap, he smiles at you, his gaze fixed on you.

Who does he think he is? Doesn’t he know that position is only reserved for him? Wasn’t this the place you and him visited just last week? Wasn’t this the place you two bought coffees together and had a pleasant conversation? Wasn’t this the place you smiled at him like you knew him even before your birth? Wasn’t this the place that cemented the fact that you belonged to him?

That he belonged to you?

He watches in rage, he watches seething, fingers curling into a fist, all he wants to do is wipe that mortal boy off the face of this planet.

He doesn’t deserve you like Peliel does.

He didn’t earn you like Peliel did.

What is this?

Have you forsaken him? Was every encounter you had with him nothing? You said you needed him, you said that exact word remember?

So why is he watching this.

Why is he watching this and feeling so—so jealous!

But Peliel, your very smart Guardian Angel, always has a plan. He watches you, rage mixed with absolute devotion and adoration and devises a plan.

He smiles just thinking about.

This way, he can have you all to himself, without…hinderances.

Yes, you might be a little angry with him for the first couple of weeks. You may actually be a little scared. Confused, distraught, anxious.

But it’ll all be worth it.

Besides, he’s sure you’ll come around to living with him in the mountains, isolated from the rest if the world, just you and him, forever.

Hell just have to kidnap you there first.

—

A/N: thank you for being so patient while I worked on this. I made it extra long so you guys could savor it a bit more, and also because I believe it needed to be this long so you could understand fully Peliel infatuation with Y/N. I have ideas on how I can expand this story, but don’t get your hopes up because I’m not sure if it’ll come into fruition. I love you all so much and thank you for reading.

Happy new year!

#yandere #yandere scenarios #yandere blurbs #yandere male #yandere original character #yandere x you #yandere oc #yandere x reader #yandere angel #yandere x y/n #you x yandere #yandere oc x you

[drdemonprince]

Your blog is like a breath of fresh air. Thank you for all the wonderful thoughts and writing.

That said I actually have a question. I am pro-palestine(it feels stupid to call it that, as if it should even be a debate) and in a very left leaning friend group. But also a very white academic one. You know the type, read Marx, dream of the revolution but continue studying to end up in 9 to 5s instead of doing anything(I am guilty of it too, this isn't meant as insult just a description)

Anyways, as you can imagine they have been extremely hesitant when it comes to having any opinion on Israel or Palestine. That wouldn't be a problem in itself, I know how to start topics with them and get them thinking usually but in this case there is an additional problem. Whenever I try to broach the topic I get shutdown with "Look at all the shit that is going on here, our country is falling into fascism, I just don't have the energy to deal with this conflict. Please don't talk about it because it's triggering". And I have zero clue what to do. Forget getting them to go on protests with me, I can't even speak to them about it and feel really guilty. Its me bringing up a heavily triggering topic after all. It feels wrong to feel guilty though. I know at the end of the day it's not important if I could convince some people to give a fuck but do you have any advice? How to get over this guilt or maybe how to broach a topic with that considered?

My main problem is my fear of losing my friends because I have been ill for some time(as in physically unable to leave the house for more than a short grocery run, or my visits to the doctor, because of pain and my friends are what keep me alive) and losing their help would be not good.

My exact situation aside, do you have advice for someone to broach a topic that others describe as unpleasant/triggering without causing a huge rift in the group?

Thanks for your kind words and your question, Anon.

I think your friends suck and that you can do better than them. I think you should get out there and find yourself some Black, brown, working class anarchist and anarco-communist buds (and Marxists who show up for others in a real, observable way in their regular lives) as soon as you can.

I know that wasn't the answer you were looking for. But I have seen this kind of entirely theoretical, jaded, self-superior, passive, white well-off Marxist type a thousand times before, and I've failed to ever see them show up for other people in any kind of consistent way.

And it's not only the people systematically crushed beneath the wheel of Capital half a world away that they neglect, either. They tend to be pretty shitty friends and neighbors when it all comes down to it on the micro-level, too. Their smug over-intellectualism and dispassionate cynicism allows them to justify remaining disengaged and going along with the status quo in a way that ultimately serves capitalism very well.

There is a theoretical basis to this selfishness and disengagement, I will admit. This type of overly academic Marxist typically believes that the fall of capitalism is inevitable, that humans lack free will and only behave as befits their obvious material interests, and that there is nothing that one can do on a personal level to hasten any kind of Revolution, so there is nothing left to do but wait, and take care of oneself, and allow the future to unfold.

This is a perspective explicitly advocated for by people like the Chapo Trap House guys, and among academic white boy communist types, it is incredibly popular. I remember hearing Matt Christman saying on his vlogs that he essentially does not believe the conditions allowing capitalism to fall will happen in his lifetime, and so his only responsibility is to just take care of himself and his family and be comfortable.

Ultimately, these types wind up sounding and behaving exactly like capitalist economists who believe that everyone is rationally motivated only by increasing their personal wealth. They are disengaged from politics except insofar as they like to make snide jokes about current events for their own entertainment and enrichment, and they don't see themselves as having the capacity to exert a positive influence on the world, nor any obligation to. It's bleak shit.

At the same time, if your friends are in the circles that tend to read and listen to and promote this kind of stuff, surely they have also been exposed to popular leftist voices advocating loudly for the Palestinian cause. And yet still they have done nothing.

Hasan Piker has been vocally pro-Palestine his entire career, and his Twitch channel has been providing near constant coverage of Palestinian issues since October 7th. True Anon has had multiple episodes on the Israel Lobby, the suppression of pro-Palestinian activism and journalistic coverage, and has aired interviews with Normal Finkelstein. Palestine is the central topic of nearly every Trillbilly Worker's Party podcast for months now.

These are widely popular voices among the very types of Marxists that you say that your friends are, and many of these creators are close friends with the Chapo Trap House guys, whom your friends almost certainly are taking notes from. So it's nearly impossible to imagine that your friends have not encountered the near constant coverage of the struggle of the Palestinians that all the rest of us have. And yet still your friends do nothing. Still they do not care, and dismiss you when you share with them how despairing you feel.

Your friends have turned off an essential part of their hearts, I think. And I don't mean they lack empathy. Not having empathy is fine, I don't have it either -- but I make the conscious choice to care about the Palestinian cause and to advocate for it, because it aligns with my values. I give a fuck. My giving a fuck is conveyed through my actions, not through what I think about or how I feel.

Your friends are showing no interest in learning more about this genocide or doing anything about it. Perhaps some degree of ignorance or hesitancy could be justified early on because the Israeli apologist propaganda is so far reaching, but we're well past the point of that explaining away inaction by now. Over 100,000 people are missing and over 30,000 are known to be dead and little girls are being shot by snipers while seeking medical care while babies are left to rot in their NICU beds.

Your friends know this. Maybe not everyone in the world does, but if they're so well-read about leftist issues, your friends do. And they have chosen, for some reason, not to care. They've disconnected from the pain the Palestinian people are in, unplugged from the steady stream of upsetting information, sought comfort in a politics that says all too conveniently that nothing they do matters, and when you try to share with them how much anguish you are feeling about the mass deaths happening throughout the world, they're dismissive toward you.

Your friends suck. If acknowleding reality and confronting the horrors of a genocide is too tough and triggering for them, then a lot of horrors here at home will be too much for their fragile egos too. There are so many leftists you could be surrounding yourself with instead, I promise -- people who give back to their communities, people who are in the streets doing the tough work of feeding and housing and fighting for the release from prison of people every day, instead of using those local struggles as a shield for their inaction on a more global scale.

Fuck these people for real. This is a big glaring red flag and it will be relevant to your friendship and your life. One day many of them might see you and your problems and your human needs as too much of a distraction from their dry academic jerk-off sessions too. I've seen it a dozen times. Sorry to be so blunt. But you seem like a person who is putting their attention in all the right places and I don't want to see that compassion squandered on people who won't ever show you the same consideration. You can find people who actually walk the walk, they're everywhere.

[grison-in-space]

Hi! I've just stumbled onto the dogblr side of Tumblr and it seems fascinating. Could you recommend any fundamental reading/watching material for people who want to start learning about dog training/behaviour/cognition? It would also be cool to hear about how you, personally, got into it if you're okay sharing- it seems like a niche field and I'm curious about what the journey might look like for different people. Thanks! ^.^

Oh, sure! Bear in mind that my particular path is, um, actually much weirder than most folks': the dog training with clients is a very new (and very part time) development in my professional life. In my full time job, I'm a postdoctoral associate in neuroscience working on motivation and decision-making in the context of animal behavior. And even for that, my career path has been bizarre: I started out in population genetics, did the PhD in behavioral ecology with a side of metabolic neuroendocrinology, and have now wound up in a NIH-oriented lab focusing on topics related to sex differences, neurodivergence and addiction.

It just occured to me that the dog training thing puts me squarely on the grounds of applied animal behavior research, which means that I've done it! I've poked into all the disciplines that can be described as Animal Behaviour and collected all the achievements! I really gotta reinvest in the Animal Behavior meeting, huh. Oh, wait, no: I'm forgetting behavior genetics, which is an area of strong interest I've poked around the edges of but never myself published in.

See, animal behavior as a formal study contains at least four different disciplines of study that really only loosely interact with one another. Behavioral ecology often appears in concert within ecology and evolution, and it focuses on the study of animals within their own natural context according to their own concerns and experiences. Neuroscience is typically thinking in terms of understanding the mechanism of the human brain, and behaviorism is similarly trained on the universal mechanisms of learning and behavior. Applied animal behavior involves studying how to most effectively, safely, and ethically manage animals in human care, including both domestic animals and captive wild ones; it also covers finding out how to teach animals to do complex but useful behaviors, like training working animals. Neuroendocrinology involves studying how hormones effect changes in the brain and body: metabolic hormones, stress hormones, sex hormones, the works. Behavior genetics (and epigenetics) include studying the effects of genetic variation on behavior itself.

It's certainly not uncommon for people to jump fields once or twice, or to straddle an intersection of approaches over their careers. It's.... less usual to bounce around one's career to quite this extent, which I attribute to the fact that a) I have quite a bit of fairly obvious ADHD, b) I've never worked for anyone who hasn't had their own case bedeviling our focus, and c) I graduated directly into COVID, which meant that I had to figure out a solution on the fly when all the positions I had intended to cultivate dried up overnight.

Not that I'm bitter.

As for how I got into the dog training gig, essentially I like dog training, I really like this outfit, and I have some credit card debt I would really like to pay down. I wanted to meet and talk to more dog folks in the area and I also really missed teaching—I taught every spring and fall through my 8yr PhD, I'm good at it, and I really enjoy it. Since I've respected (almost) every instructor I've had through this outfit, and the one exception involved being listened to immediately about my concerns and increased supervision in response, and I knew that one of my instructors worked part time with them, I figured it might be a neat side gig. So far, that's been bourne out.

I also do have some longer term plans to do some behavioral genetics and neuroscience work on dogs, and I would like to incorporate some noninvasive experiments that use dogs from the general public. My facility also has a robust doggy daycare program and it'd be rad to work with them to build opportunities for everyone in a few years. I'm hoping to leverage a permanent tenure track job at my institution over it, but I might go in several directions from here. Predicting the direction of my career has been a losing proposition so far, so let's see what seems good at the time and stick around as long as I'm having fun.

As for how I got into dogs and dog behavior specifically? In addition to the ADHD, I'm autistic enough to have been diagnosed as a tween girl in the 00s, and my special interests never quite leave —they just flare up and simmer down in long periods over my life. Dogs are the first and earliest of these; my parents told me that they'd seen me gravitating towards the family Lhasa from pretty much the moment I could roll over on my belly. That seems about right. Dogs have been my gateway to huge corridors of my intellectual world, and dog training specifically have been a hobby for some time. In addition to my training gig, I'm experimenting with functional service tasks to support me as burnout and neurodivergence have limited my capacity.

Books and reading recs I'll try to get to later, mm falling asleep right now.

#dog training #career #day job #dogblr

[diagonal-queen]

Hello! So, how do you think Chuuya, Fyodor, Nikolai, and Dazai(You can add some more characters if you want!)would react if their S/O was a compulsive liar? Not exactly a bad person, but they lie almost every chance they get. Please and thank you <3

i always get the best and most interesting reqs!! now i can't say i'm an expert with this subject, but here's how i think it'd go:

When their S/O is a compulsive liar

♡ pairing: Chuuya Nakahara, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Mykola Hohol, Dazai Osamu, Ranpo Edogawa, Yosano Akiko x gn!Reader

♡ synopsis: How do these characters react when their S/O is a compulsive liar?

♡ cw: Reader is a compulsive liar (you probably already figured, but I figure it's best to put the warning just in case), they are aware of this and they feel bad about it, Fyodor (and Mykola lowkey) is toxic as hell, like he's real bad (manipulative and abusive), misunderstanding and or ignorance towards the concept of compulsive lying

note: I did a bit of extra studying before writing this just to make sure I wasn't misinformed at all. I'm fully aware that compulsive lying is not a choice and can be very harmful to both the liar and person(s) being lied to. I know that compulsive lying does not indicate that someone is inherently a bad person. I'm not aiming to demean or glorify it! I'm very sorry if I get any details wrong or handle this topic incorrectly (please let me know if I have), apologies for errors, and I hope you enjoy x

Chuuya:

Chuuya is a really genuine and honest person. As such your behaviour takes some getting used to

However he does acknowledge that you don't actually want to lie to him and that it's something you don't know how to control, and he does his best to support you with it

He tries to get Mori's help for you so that the two of you can work towards dampening any potential issues that can arise from your behaviour (it probably doesn't work because Mori, but Chuuya's doing his best)

There are times when he does get a little frustrated with your lies and when you deny him calling you out but he's working on it

Chuuya constantly reminds you that there's no need for you to lie about yourself for him to love you and that you have value regardless of how you see yourself

Knows that it's not a personal thing, but lowkey has a hard time admitting that at first because he doesn't really get it initially

Wouldn't tell other people you're a compulsive liar but he would defend you if you get in trouble for lying to somebody

I'll be honest this would really put a strain on your guys' relationship, but if you're willing to put effort into it then you could definitely make it work

Fyodor:

Fyodor can see through basically all of your lies, and because he's messed up he really might see it as kind of a game.

He understands that you don't control it but he kinda feels like each time you tell him a lie (insignificant or harmless as it may be) you're challenging him in a way.

He gets some sick entertainment out of exposing your lies and watching you double down on them

Always asks you if you're lying to him whether or not he knows you are. In his head he wants to reinforce that lying is a sin and he does that by making you feel bad about them

To be totally honest the fact that you lie to him about things doesn't actually bother him much, he's just mean and sees it as a good way to control you

He might be less of a sadist if you initially admit to him that you're a compulsive liar instead of him finding out on his own because then he knows how it is from the get go

Will utilise your compulsive lying somehow for the DOA's benefit (and also tell the other members about it :/)

Fyodor knows full well that it's most likely an indicator of trauma or a symptom for something worse, but there's no better way than to build someone into your perfect S/O like breaking them down first!

Mykola:

He knows and he honestly doesn't really care.

Mykola is just not really that concerned about it. He knows that you do love him, and to him that's all that matters

Though he knows he won't receive always honest answers he still likes asking you questions (about your day or yourself or whatever) and is just happy to hear you talk whether or not it's true

Unfortunately though he doesn't really believe anything you say unless you can provide some kind of proof

Even though he does sometimes like to poke fun at you (things like catching you in your lies so you don't have a choice but to admit the truth), he really hates when other people do the same and will actively defend you

He likes to 'study' you in a sense, and hypothesise reasons as to why you're a compulsive liar. Sometimes he can cross the line when asking you about it

Kind of an enabler, not gonna lie. He wants you to tell him the truth, but he doesn't really care what you say to other people

In fact, he might actually play along with your lies in public to maintain your image (and for amusement probably)

Dazai:

So Dazai already knew this before you got together. He can tell when you're lying, believable as you may seem to other people

He himself doesn't lie but is also very good at evading questions and secret keeping, which are habits he picked up from his time as a mafioso. He understands you in that way and feels for you because you're generally pretty misunderstood by others too

As such he's rather defensive of you. He would hate for someone to make you feel bad about your behaviour because he knows you feel bad enough about it as it is

He takes notice of certain things that you have a tendency to lie about so that he can learn more about you and help you heal

Dazai generally tries to talk about things with you and communicate with you in a way that doesn't really invite any opportunities to lie, if that makes sense

If you lie to him, he doesn't really bring it up unless he's worried that it could cause trouble for you in the future

If you lie to other Agency members about something he might approach them later and explain that it was a lie and also explain why you said it

He might to help by bringing up contradictions in your lies and asking you to explain them (not as a 'gotcha' but more as a way to understand what you're trying to do)

Ranpo:

Back when you and Ranpo first met, he used to be a little bit insensitive about it (unintentionally!)

But after learning more about compulsive lying he kind of started to feel bad for you in a way? So he started going a lot easier on you

He always, always knows when you're lying because he's able to discern the truth with no effort. So, whether or not you lie to him it doesn't make much difference. He knows it's not intended to be malicious or personal

Ranpo can get frustrated with it though, because he's lazy and can't be bothered to figure you out sometimes

When in public he does most of the talking for you because if you do lie to someone and you're found out he doesn't want you getting in trouble (this is especially the case during investigations and stuff)

He actually kind of helps you in a way to lie less because you know that he knows the truth regardless so there's not much point in lying? Of course it's still a habit but you do find yourself lying less

Eventually he does enlist Yosano's help to try and see if there's anything she can actually do to help you too

Even if it turns out that she can't or something like that, he'd still be there to help you and he'd still love you

Yosano:

She's determined to help you with this condition, but she understands that it's not something you can control

Yosano is honestly probably the best one out of everyone here who you could talk to about it because she'd actually put a ton of effort into helping you stop lying (besides Chuuya lol)

She herself can usually tell when you're lying but unlike Ranpo she can't tell what exactly the lie is, if that makes sense?

She's very nice about it and never takes your behaviour personally. Yosano is very gentle when she encourages you to be honest with her, and doesn't force you to admit things if you feel you can't

That being said she doesn't enable your behaviour, and will sometimes end a conversation with you if she knows you'll keep lying after she brings it up

It's possible that as a doctor she may receive some raised eyebrows for deciding to date someone who is a compulsive liar, but she really doesn't care. Something like that isn't gonna deter Yosano from loving you

She may suggest couple's therapy in order to help the two of you communicate better (whether or not you decide to go is up to you)

Overall she's pretty good at handling your behaviour and not making you feel bad about yourself because of it :)

got the vibrant colour tachihara mayoi yesterday ˚‧º·( 。ᗒ ᴗ ◕✿) also...do we really expect many of these characters to correctly deal with behaviour as a result of psychological issues?

#bsd #bungo stray dogs #bungou stray dogs #x reader #bsd x reader #bungo stray dogs x reader #bungou stray dogs x reader #fanfic #fanfiction #bsd fanfic #bsd fanfiction #bungo stray dogs fanfiction #bungou stray dogs fanfiction #chuuya #chuuya nakahara #bsd chuuya #chuuya x reader #bsd chuuya nakahara #fyodor #fyodor dostoyevsky #bsd fyodor dostoevsky #bsd fyodor #fyodor x reader #bsd mykola #mykola hohol #nikolai gogol #bsd mykola hohol #mykola x reader #bsd nikolai gogol #dazai

[bloomeng]

“Genshin character designs are bad.”

You really can’t navigate through the Genshin fandom without hearing this take. It’s stale at this point, but it’s…. also true. Except that’s usually not what people are actually saying. The true question up for debate: Are Genshin character designs ugly?

It irks me because there is validity to the original statement, and yet the conversation immediately moves into the territory of strictly opinion, leaving the true discussion never to be had.

So I’m having it… with myself…. in the form of a long post, because actually I find Genshin an interesting character design case study.

Before I really get into it I must address the elephant in the room; are Genshin’s character designs colorist?

Yes. Moving on.

Okay, okay, I’ll address it a little, Genshin has a problem with colorism. It’s a fiercely debated topic and honestly it’s one of the only real valid discussions I see around Genshin’s designs. That being said, I have nothing new to add to the conversation. If you don’t know why, sorry I’m not qualified to answer that, but you’re in luck because tons of qualified people have explained it across all platforms.

What I am partially equipped to talk about is character design. I’m no expert but I have taken a few formal classes on the subject, so I do have some insight to share. Character design at its core is usually quantified by how much of a character’s personality can be clearly determined from sight alone and how recognizable their silhouette is (though I’m not gonna touch on that today). Now there’s a lot of factors that go into both, but the fundamental thing that contributes to both is something known as shape language.

Shape has meaning. What that meaning is often depends on culture factors that determine your associations, but the Western simplification of shape is that circles are good-natured, rectangles/ squares are reliable, and triangles are energized. (these are my own personal words for them, there are countless ways to go about describing these associations) Shapes are then combined with each other to create more complex associations, and so on and so forth. It’s impossible to create a character without evoking some form of shape language, because art at its core is just shapes. The classic example are the round shapes seen in Mickey Mouse, though often times it’s far more subtle, like how Barbie has soft, round lines in her hair and face, but her hourglass figure is comprised of triangles to tell you she’s sexy, but the soft curves say she’s sweet not sexual— and it quickly gets very complicated. Basically character designs are rarely comprised of one shape alone, and when combined the “vibes” they evoke become complex.

So what does this have to do with Genshin? Genshin has poor shape language. The most obvious example of this are the faces. Genshin has same face syndrome, which I partially contribute to budget constraints with the models seeing as they reuse them over and over. Though it also has a lot to do with Genshin’s need for their characters to be conventionally attractive. Everyone must be beautiful and, as the current trend in anime artstyles dictates, not look a day over 12. The only thing that changes is the eye shape, but even then, it really doesn’t. There’s diversity between the male and female models, but calling it diversity seems generous, because they are practically the same. All the viewer has to go on to differentiate between faces are the expressions (and color but we’ll get there), which are also limited by the models.

The poor quality of the shape language continues into the bodies, seeing as the only thing that really changes is the height, not a lot of room for show casing contrast. (Also body diversity is just a good thing to have for the sake of having body diversity.) Visual contrast is one of the key things good shape language should deliver. It’s within this contrast that the viewer will have the opportunity to compare and thus make these associations. One character design may tell you things based on previous knowledge but it’s like an experiment without a control group.

Then we get to the character’s outfits and hairstyles. While it’s true there is a fair amount of diversity in clothing, the shape language continues to falter. Genshin characters have so much going on constantly in their designs that it seems like that should provide plenty of opportunities to showcase personality. Unfortunately what ultimately happens is that the details compete amongst themselves so much that they overshadow any sort of unified message they might have had about who this character is. Basically there’s too many different shapes. They don’t create a pattern and therefore don’t form any strong associations. You can have a good design with a lot of details but they should communicate a pattern together. A design is not good simply because it has a lot of detail. I will say there are definitely times where the clothing and hair do actually come through to tell me stuff about the character, but overall this over designing tends to be a detriment.

Genshin’s hair while in different styles usually relies on the same type of pointy strands and blunt edges.

(these characters were randomly selected to prove my point that you can quite literally pick any character in genshin and they will have at least one of these two components)

On their own pointy strands might tell us something, but considering every character has them, the pattern within a single character is rendered moot. “If everyone’s super, no one is.” Of course how they choose to wear their hair does speak to the character but its effect is limited when the structure of the hair is fundamentally the same. And then when you consider that the styling of many of these hairstyles doesn’t actually say a whole lot, it becomes obvious that Genshin is more concerned with creating hair that stands out. The problem is that details, asymmetry for example, normally tell us about the character, but considering so many hairstyles utilize asymmetry, it looses its meaning. Overall I will say I think Genshin is more of a 50/50 toss up on whether or not the hair suits the character.

I want to take a moment to point out a couple hair style designs in Genshin I think are really lovely and work very well.

And now I would like to do the same with some outfits.

(honorable mention to Bennett for being over accessorized in a way that actually tells you about his personality (goggles, a scar, bandaids, work gloves, utility belt), to Barbara for somehow mashing the concept of a nun and an idol together, to Klee for her childish whimsy and finally to Scaramoche for the sheer amount of subtle character growth motifs fit into all three of his outfits (the cultural stuff is really cool too))

Genshin I will say does a great job of creating and repeatedly using the elemental imagery as well as Khaneira’ah’s star. I also appreciate that every Archon has that ombre hair shift that glows during their burst. Makes them feel unique.

I think Genshin shines the brightest when they successfully incorporate cultural elements into their designs however, the only nation that does this with any sort of consistency is Inazuma. Inazuma’s aesthetic is so instantly recognizable. No one dresses exactly the same, but there are common through lines in the shoes, the style of the armor, and patterns in the clothes. (The design aesthetic is so strong that even after Scara got a Sumeru makeover he managed to keep elements that were clearly identifiable as Inazuman) Every other nation falls short in this department. I will give credit to the knights as there is some level of consistency in their designs, mostly in the metallic detailing; not quite a uniform but there is some commonality. Liyue does have cultural influence that definitely shows but it suffers from an overall lack of consistency in aesthetic, and doesn’t lean into its Chinese inspiration the same way Inazuma does. Mondstadt on the other hand is just vaguely European, but also half the time not even.

And then there’s Sumeru. I distinctly remember looking at the full Sumeru cast the first time and thinking that none of the them looked like they came from the same place. (It’s almost as if Sumeru is based on a bunch of separate countries that are culturally very different.) Pretty much no character has any real ties to any any real culture, but instead they just sorta grab vague elements. And at its worse just leans into orientalism (Nilou and Dori). I think personality wise the designs do a fairly stable job of saying at least something about their characters (Dehya and Kaveh). The designs do well individually but between the vague references and inconsistencies they falter. (I will say Cyno’s whole design being a reference to Yu-Gi-Oh is both hilarious, charming, and also mildly appropriative.)

On the topic of appropriation I think it’s important to note that Inazuma suffers from this too. While I absolutely love the way a lot of Japanese elements were integrated, outfits like Yae Miko’s shrine maiden garb bring forth this sexualization of cultural dress that I’m not particularly fond of. But then again you can also critique Rosaria’s sexy nun design for the same thing.

I also want to touch on something briefly because it’s important to note, but it’s a separate, much bigger conversation; Genshin, like anime, falls into a trap of catering their style to lolicon and shotacon enjoyers. It’s the reason all the characters look so young, why all the age discourse exists, why they refuse to confirm ages, and why all the children with the toddler model have some weird age work around. I don’t like it. It’s gross.

Another brief mention because it’s its own conversation; the female characters in Genshin are often over sexualized. Their clothes are skin tight, they almost always have weird random cut-outs, their skirts and dresses are designed to show off their breasts and asses, and all of their designs are high fem regardless of their personality. Give a female character baggy pants Genshin I dare you. Dori doesn’t count, she’s a toddler model in just a bra. I don’t have a problem with a female character being hot, but when that’s the only requirement…. it’s tiring. The classic female character design video game debate…. yah.

I think my overarching issue with Genshin’s clothing design is it says nothing about whose these people are. What jobs do they do? What do these accessories say about them personally? Take Yanfei. She’s a lawyer, yet nothing about her outfit speaks to that in the slightest. I remember the first time I sat down and looked at all the playable characters with a friend of mine. I didn’t play at the time and we thought it would be fun to see if I could guess their personalities. As you can imagine I did pretty poorly, and that’s because these designs just don’t suggest a whole lot.

And then we get to color.

Color is probably the most complicated part of art let alone character design. I feel as though we all have some familiarity with the concept of color coding in character design. The classic red/blue character foils. Color often suggests specific traits similar to the way shape language does, except unlike shape language color coding doesn’t always apply. You can’t just assign a character a color and call it coding, the character has to physically have that color on them in some significant manner. For example Naruto is clearly an orange coded character. He appears in the color throughout the series, but I couldn’t classify Eren Yeager as a green coded character even if it suited his personality (which it doesn’t) because it’s a uniform everyone wears. Attack on Titan does not evoke color coding the way Naruto does, so it’s not applicable.

With Genshin color is complicated. Genshin does have an established color pattern for all the elements, but not every character wears the color of their element. Now normally I would say just having a color pattern for the elements wouldn’t be enough to justify character color coding (since it would fall back into the uniform category), but in Genshin their visions connect to their personalities, so therefore the color of the elements is connected to them. For some the color coding is very obvious (Kaeya & Diluc) and for others it’s practically nonexistent (Yun Jin & Heizou). In all honestly I don’t know what to make of this other than Genshin is inconsistent in their elemental color coding but always consistent in their high saturation. Because color is complicated and a weaker area of mine it is equally likely that I’m missing something or that Genshin isn’t coding anything and it’s all pure aesthetics.

Which brings me to my final point; aesthetics. Hoyo as a company cares that you spend money. That is the number one goal at the end of the day. That’s why all their characters are conventionally attractive, why their art style is the way it is, why their shape language suffers, and why their outfits are overly detailed. It’s all about aesthetics. As a brand Genshin cares less about their story and more about how pretty their characters look, because if their characters are pretty then you’ll spend money. It’s not like Hoyo designed characters with bad shape language because they were ignorant. They knew exactly what they were doing when they sculpted every last visually pleasing strand of pointy hair.

Which brings me back to the real question that people were actually arguing over in the first place; are Genshin characters ugly?

I can’t answer that question. I mean they weren’t designed to be ugly, but if they don’t appeal to your taste, then to you they are ugly. But it’s more important to understand that “bad” and “ugly” are not the same. Genshin character designs are bad by professional standards but that doesn’t mean you can’t like them. Genshin designs can be both bad and likable, bad and pretty, bad and cute. Those are two vastly different things. It’s the same way people adore cult classic movies. They’re not good in the eyes of a critic, otherwise they wouldn’t be niche. They’re cult classics because people like them. Personal taste is just that. Personal.

But the most important question of all; do I like the Genshin Impact character designs?

I didn’t use to but I gotta say, they’ve grown on me.

#genshin #genshin impact #long post #it’s an essay #i wrote an essay #character design #tagging the characters i look at specifically #in a positive light #yoimiya #venti #ayaka #zhongli #itto #yun jin #xin yan #tighnari #sorry about any potential typos #i have no beta reader #so it’s just me and my notoriously bad reputation for not spotting mistakes

[tamelee]

Hello Tamelee! Do you have any advice to give to beginners regarding drawing? Maybe some exercices that helped you to make progress? I’ve seen that you learn to draw all on your own, and that’s really impressing (and inspiring)!! ❤️

Hi!! 🧡 thankyou so much (ノ・∀・)ノ♥︎ Ah yes of course!!! I wanted to make this earlier but I waited until I finished a few drawings to see if I could come up with more tips and find out what really helps for me.

✍️;

 I did learn to draw by myself, but I watched a lot of speed video’s for guidance ^^ I used to slow them down a lot and really tried to study what artists that I liked did, but I wouldn’t recommend this for beginners. Especially when you don’t really know the program and you won’t understand why they do what they do.

I used to copy the greyscale method even though I knew nothing about color so I heavily relied on values only which made everything look very muddy.

It’s actually only recently that I’m understanding the things that I do and I feel like my anatomy/coloring is improving slowly because of it. 

So, first, I’d highly recommend to instead of copying only as a study method, (like faces for example) to understand why things are the way they are. If you know how planes of a face work, it’s much easier to remember why a certain perspective is like that, when something feels off and how to fix it or how to lay down shadows. The ‘Asaro head’ is a favorite for many, the free version you can find HERE a video on the topic is HERE and learning how to shade is explained very well HERE. Sinix Design has a great video that goes beyond that and it may help you for different kind of faces which you can find HERE. If you're more interested in Anime faces (though the planes work the same), you can find and manipulate 3D models for free HERE or HERE that you can use as a reference. Of course you should always make it your own but they can help with perspective. In fact, you can find many different kinds of models on Sketchfab. Your character holding a cup and you aren't sure how to draw it in that angle? Find one, manipulate it, screenshot and study the perspectives ^^ (I don't recommend tracing or copying.)

Learn about environmental lighting and color temperatures instead of value's (light and dark) only!!! Trust me, the earlier you learn this, the better >*chants* color temperature, color temperature, color temp-

Anatomy is interesting. A lot of tutorials recommend you use photo's to learn it, but it confused me a lot. Pictures aren't always clear enough to see how the body parts are connected and I always thought it was a bit pointless to learn muscles, but it really isn't. I'm not sure how to explain it well, but a picture is often too complicated and you have to narrow it down to find its foundation. I personally think it's helpful to find an artist you like and look how they do anatomy if they have shared any sketches.

Not sure if that makes any sense xD but what I'm trying to say is that for me, looking at pictures alone didn't help me understand much of anything else at all and in some cases made it even more confusing. Clothing makes much more sense in drawings when they're simplified, but this also depends on style!

You can use a napkin around you finger and bend it to get a quick fold reference for a sleeve or something!

Studying the body means... well, studying the body. Naked, in underwear or swimwear. You can find many free references! But there are special anatomy reference packs that are being sold like these.

I don't really do drawing exercises because my ADD just won't allow me to. My motivation immediately drops to zero. So I can't say which ones are very helpful but always feel free to try anything you want and see what works for you! But if there's anything you should exercise always... it's your hands.

Trust me on that one. The pain for ignoring your pain is a consequence you don't want ;-; and sometimes it even leaves you unable to draw for a long time. Avoid issues with carpel tunnel or RSI as much as possible. There are many video's but you could use THIS ONE for example.

I do practice though with everything new that I create. I always try to learn something.

I think the thing that helped me a lot in the beginning was by getting the habit to save everything that I liked. An expression in a movie? I saved it. Favorite art styles? I saved them. Naruto looked particularly adorable in that panel? Saved. Sasuke's hair spikes flawlessly there? Saved it.

If you're quickly overwhelmed though (like me lol) then it's not a good idea to save a bunch of screenshots in a folder because you'll have no idea what to even look for. If you do this then try to keep things as organized as possible so you actually have some use for it and even narrow it down as much as you like. Some panels for Naruto and Sasuke for example I have saved in several folders like 'expressions', 'manga style' or 'outfit' for example. I don't want to spend too much time looking for things, because unlike some of you think, I don't have that much patience xD

INVEST IN EXTERNAL SSD('s) and BACK UP REGULARLY!! Like, everyday if you can, but at least 3x a week. Once a week at THE VERY LEAST. You'll thank yourself one day. Save your art-files so you have access to full versions always but post smaller files if you're drawing in large 300DPI (or more) files. Whatever program you use you can learn to reduce sizes, you don't need to save every layer always when you've finished a drawing, but in Photoshop for example you can 'merge layers 'duplicate all visible layers' as a copy and put it in a progress folder in case you ever need it, like so;

Some other things that helped me a lot also was to create my own short keys to flip the canvas and making the current layer I'm working on visible or not. Personally I have the flipping on 'command+§' and layer visibility on 'command+1'. If you're working with Windows you can switch command key or pick anything else you think would be easy! Flipping your canvas horizontally helps a lot to find mistakes and layer visibility.... I don't really see anyone talking about it, but when I'm rendering over a sketch and get lost in it, I often use this short-key to see if I'm not overdoing it or losing the original perspective which can easily happen!

I hope some of these are helpful, I can't really think of much more right now, but feel free to ask anyway if there is anything in particular! 🌷

#asktamelee #art tips #art resources #art talk

[cursedvibes]

Yorozu for the character thing.

Thank you for the ask! Especially the song part for her was really tricky, but interesting to think about.

favourite thing about them

I love how inventive she is. She grew up in a rural and likely poor region, she was born with a relatively weak cursed technique and she managed to claw her way up, so that even the Fujiwara wanted her in their service. All through her own ingenuity. She has an understanding of physics that's beyond her time. Also I just love her obsessive nature. You can tell that no matter if it's people or a topic she finds interesting, she'll cling to it until she has made it her own. That obsession is what got her into such a high position. Her love for battle and bloodshed is also refreshing. We don't see that that often with female characters, especially not combined with her insect armour that would be considered "ugly" and "too masculine".

least favourite thing about them

All the interesting things I listed above are only there as little mentions or titbits that are dropped here and there. We only get a glimpse of her inventiveness and the struggles she went through. Instead Gege chose to only focus on her obsession with Sukuna and make her especially pathetic through that. Like, if you're gonna drop such an interesting backstory, expand on it at least a little bit? Instead of going out of your way to make it seem like her character revolves entirely around Sukuna. She can have her obsession with him, that's fine, but Gege really did her a disservice there, despite obviously being capable of giving her more depth.

favourite line

"Even handsome men become crusty when dried out. Elegant beauty."

"I want it all to myself. Your solitude is mine and mine alone! The one who will kill you is me!"

"Toodle-loo, I'll be waiting"

brOTP

Hm, either the idea of Yorozu and Uraume very reluctantly getting along, kind of similar to Uraume and Kenjaku (she wanted to invite them to her wedding after all and likes their cooking) or Yorozu and Kenjaku. I think her research about insects and how emulate their qualities with cursed energy and her technique would be very interesting to Kenjaku. And since I hc that Kenjaku likes centipedes or arthropods in general, I'd like to see them nerd about insects.

OTP

Yorozu/Uro! I've ranted about them plenty before, but I'd just once again like to say that they are perfect for each other. Yorozu could've been such an inspiration for Takako back in the day, show her what she could be.

nOTP

Sukuna. I think they're both better off by just moving on and finding better people. Also I don't like this at all in a sexual way.

random headcanon

She has like a full mad scientist layer. Kind of an expansion on what we see in her first flashback. It's full of books and show cases of animals and makeshift terraria where she studies insects to improve her technique. I mean, she knows what an insect's nervous system looks like, she must've picked them apart very thoroughly, probably used her CT as assistance to invent microscopes and other tools that didn't exist back then. Also, the way her servant looks, I think she doesn't shy away from human experimentation either to test a new form of Construction for example.

unpopular opinion

She isn't actually sexually attracted to Sukuna. All she ever talks about is owning and controlling him. The marriage is for her to demonstrate her ownership over him and tie him to her. Even if it's merely his corpse. While I'm all for necrophillia, I don't think that's the intention here.

song i associate with them

I don't yet have a song where I think "yes, that's her!", but I chose IC3PEAK's Плак-Плак for her defying tradition and killing her husband and Red Sex (restrung version) just because I think it embodies her particular brand of insanity quite well, particularly how connected everything about her is to her body. From her being nude in the Heian era to her insect armor. Feels sort of suffocating just like her obsession and some of the strings remind me of the sounds of insect wings.

favourite picture of them

Always gonna be her studying nude by candle light

but also of course her insect armour

and her just looking cute/deranged in general

#asks #yorozu

[study-core-101]

Hii your blog is so inspiring and helpful ❤

I don't know if you already posted about this but I want advice :D

I'm studying the equivalent to High School in my country (two years only) and I'm trying to strive more. Lately I have realised that I never have free time. I spend the afternoons studying, then I have dinner with my parents, watch something on TV, go to sleep and at those hours I'm so tired that I don't have the energy to do anything else I enjoy. Meanwhile, I see my friends and others at my class going out, going to extracurriculars, getting things done faster...

I've always had the feeling that I only do the things I like during summer break.

I can't help but wonder how am I gonna do when I'm in collage (if I actually get there)!

I would like to ask you if you had any advice, or tips about managing time etc

Pd: sorry if this was too long, personal or if I made any gramatical mistakes lol

Hii, sorry it took me so long to answer! From what I heard, it sounds like so kind of burnout. I'm no expert on this topic, so I'm going to leave the links of the sources just in case! (x) (x)

One of main components it's exhaustation. Feeling tired all the time and having no energy. Not only it impacts the mental and physicial health, but the perfomance. This usually stems of being always "on", overwork culture/mentality, pressure (whether internal or external) and the dislike of the tasks. What I recommend is:

Actually rest. Do activities that make mentally rest or dont do any activity, just take some time for yourself. Listen to your favourite music, take a bath, do some breathing exercise. Relax. Here are some more mental rest activities.

Dont beat yourself for resting. A lot of times, we "rest" but it isnt actually rest, because instead of focusing on yourself you are worrying about not doing anything productive 24/7. That looks like rest, but it isnt, it is just more tiring. All the toxic productivity mentality has to go.

Schedule time to do nothing. Establish clear moments for resting.

Take breaks.

Prioritaze tasks. Yes, we all want to have everything done perfectly and complete, but sometimes that is just impossible. The best way to classify them in order is 1) urgent and important; 2) not urgent but important; 3) urgent but no important; and 4) not urgent not important.

Have a good sleep schedule.

Drink water and eat all your meals

Find a hobbie or something you are passionate or at least midly interested on. Something that fills you with joy and seek to. At the beggining it will feel like a waste of time, but once you find something, well, let's just say, try it.

Another thing is the mindset. Negative thinking is unmotivating and tiring. Switching to a more possitive mentality does wonders.There are a lot of ways to reframe negative thoughts, I'm not familiar with most of them so I cant really explain, but here is an article that explains on detail how to do it.

Even though exhaustation and mentality are key to feeling burn out, inefficiency also has an important role. There are millions of study methods, but not a single one works for every person. Maybe you use a "good" study technique, but it isnt the right one for you. I'd recommend trying new ways of studying you havent tried before, see if at least one works for you. I'm going to honest with you, I dont know a lot of methods, since i found the one that works with me I havent tried new ways, here is a list of study methods with explanations that I'm using to draft future posts. Here are the links for the posts are posted about blurting, feynman and pq4r, if any of those sound helpful.

SELF CARE!!!!! Self-care is so important. It's been a common theme in this post, but I will repeat it once more, take care of yourself.

If these are also helpful, I'll leave the links for previous posts about motivation to start, motivation in general, and a reward system for motivation. Not all the tips in those posts will work, actually, some of them may contradict with what I just said, but I posted them with a different situation in mind. Take the tips that will help you and ignore the ones you think will just make it worse.

Hope this helps and good luck!

#-jay #studyblr #study motivation #study #study aesthetic #study blog #studyspo #study-core-101 #student #study community #studyinspo #study techniques #studying #study tips #study time #self care #burn out #mental health #studying tips #studying inspo #study methods #students #student life #asks #asks open #asks and answers #ask answered

[gemsofgreece]

would love to hear from a real Greek on the subject of Katharevousa. What do you think of it? Are there some conflicting opinions between the older and younger generations on this matter? What is the general Greek opinion? is it simply viewed as an elitist ideology for purists or an inspiring dream to reinstate Ancient Greek? sincerely, a humbly curious non-Greek individual...

Hello, my friend! You bring up an interesting and very complex topic. I would say my opinion on this is less passionate, more moderate than of the average Greek and ironically this also means my opinion might seem edgy to the average Greek!

That is because a majority of Greeks loathe Katharevousa (or what they think it stands for), with older generations being more neutral whereas younger generations can express a very baffling fierce hate towards it, despite never having to study it.

The reasons for this hate are the following:

1. It is harder than Demotic and most Greeks have an allergy at whatever Greek-related presents even the slightest of additional challenge to them.

2. Its existence has been relentlessly and unfairly politicised since the early 20th century, when the historical national and then transformed into political disunity of the Greeks was channeled into many things, including painting those who were positive towards katharevousa as nationalists, fascists and extreme far rights in general.

*The second reason bleeds into the first, in some ways. Young Greeks will unironically say “why should I learn something Greek that needs a little more effort or even slightly resembles something ancient, am I a nationalist or anything?”. That is because the old Great Division of the 20s and the Civil War of the 40s were never actually fully resolved but only passed on through political tensions, and thus somewhat mollified, yet still causing significant problems in the society which are now much harder to explain and find the root cause for, so they seem to appear out of nowhere. This leads to new generations of Greeks opposed to studying properly the Greek history and Greek culture and feeling very proud of their liberal (???) choice until a conversation with a foreigner who appears to know more about them than they do embarrasses them and sometimes gives them a wake-up call. Of course, not all young Greeks are like that, but a lot are.

In any case, I am not saying I prefer Katharevousa to Demotic. I prefer Demotic for the simple reason that it is the organic evolution of the Greek language, influenced by the actual history of the Greeks rather than the history the Greeks wished they had. For this alone, it wins. What I am saying is that Katharevousa does not deserve all the fierce hate and that I would honestly not mind having it used occasionally for whatever reason, just like I wouldn’t mind using any other form of the Greek language for whatever reason. And I do not confuse various forms of the language with various political ideologies, despite others doing so. Which is very much true by the way. During the national schism, Katharevousa was accused as the symbol of royalists, nationalists and conservatives on one side whereas Demotic was accused as the symbol of communists and Venizelists from the other side. In the 20s, Greek schools would change the lingual form taught every time the power changed hands. A tragedy for the students, really.

Katharevousa was originally NOT founded on an elitist ideology but rather on a sentiment of ethnic uprising. The term for this lingual movement first appears in 1796 and thus precedes the Greek Independence from the Ottoman Empire. It was supported by many Greek scholars and influential people of the time, most of all Adamantios Korais. Katharevousa is not an attempt at reinstating Ancient Greek but an attempt of removing all the influences in the contemporary Greek language by an empire Greeks were unwilling and often rebellious subjects of. Katharevousa means exactly that, “getting purified - cleaned”, not going back. Of course, it did not only remove Turkish elements, but Latin and Slavic ones and anything else for which there was an original Greek root and was thus considered redundant. By removing the foreign loanwords from Modern Greek, you automatically bring it to a state closer to Ancient Greek without meaning that it is an actual more ancient form of the language. The Katharevousan grammar certainly tried to resist simplifications and changes taking place in Demotic Greek but it still remained an essentially Modern rather than Ancient Greek grammar. I believe the syntax was also closer to Modern. In the end, Katharevousa was like a very posh, exclusively Greek-root, old-fashioned way to speak Modern Greek.

Which is why I dislike it when the “competition” of demotic and katharevousa is often referred to as “diglossia” which means “bilingualism” or when they are even called different idioms. We are not talking about two different Greek languages here and I am quite baffled when people claim to struggle to understand katharevousa. Honestly, at this point I don’t even believe they really mean it. You see, the level of education nowadays, with all its faults, is infinitely better than what it was at the time when katharevousa was actually taught at schools. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, most kids wouldn’t even complete elementary school and then go work to some farmland so it makes total sense for them to struggle to adjust to katharevousa when they were only really communicating in basic demotic in real life. But for people nowadays claiming the same, I can’t take them seriously, I am sorry. Such things are connected. If a student of decent education by today’s standards can’t understand katharevousa, it can only mean they face really fundamental challenges in demotic as well.

Katharevousa did not intentionally marginalize lower social classes within the society itself but the unintentional challenges were inescapable due to the poor level of education I described. In the end, Katharevousa was used by the authors and poets, in the newspapers and later the TV and radio news, in written forms, such as official documents, even in personal letters. Regardless of their level of education, people tried in written form to apply as many katharevousan elements as possible, to the extent of their knowledge. In everyday speech, though, things were different. People would simply talk in the way that came most natural and effortless to them. It’s very interesting that in very old movies, if there is a narrator, you can observe that the narrator speaks in a mild more katharevousa-like form while the actors playing the roles use demotic, obviously because otherwise the ending result wouldn’t be very realistic to the people watching. However, rich Greeks and aristocrats would more often speak in katharevousa too, exactly because they could receive much better education and get the hang of it, inevitably making this a social issue without it ever intending to be one. And then of course it had also the politics of the country imposed on it secondarily, which is a very sad and unfair equation that handicaps Greek progress in all matters.

What happened with Katharevousa and Demotic is not an unprecedented occurrence in Greek at all. This is literally Greek's constant lingual history. It can be observed in Ancient Greek, as the Classical Attic you may have read was in no way identical to the everyday language Ancient Greeks spoke. Throughout all the East Roman / Byzantine Era, scholars would try desperately to retain as many archaic elements as possible, to the growing impatience of the populace. While its full achievement was always doomed to be a lost cause, let’s also acknowledge that the reason Greeks boast about how conservative Greek is for a language so old would not exist, if all those scholars throughout the centuries did not struggle to preserve older elements, and katharevousa’s case is not different. A few of its elements have actually passed to demotic, such as phrases and expressions in the dative, even though this case has been dropped in the Demotic Greek grammar otherwise.

In the seventies, after huge political changes taking place in the country which struggled to finally enjoy some peace and quiet, katharevousa was abolished along with the monarchy and the dictatorship as another sign of nationalism, conservatism, anachronism and so on. In my opinion, a lingual form on its own does not deserve to be vilified like this.

Nowadays, you will hear just about anything as an accusation to prove how evil Katharevousa was. Some say it had “mistakes” because it was an academic process of reshaping the language against its natural, organic evolution. I would consider this, had it not been for demotic also having some funny shortcomings of its own. In case you are wondering what such a shortcoming can possibly be in a language - well, as Greek keeps evolving, some things change first while others stay behind. The elements that stay behind have trouble adjusting for practical or aesthetical or other reasons. Here is one example:

Modern Greek faces a hilarious problem with the verb εκρήγνυμαι (ekríghnime - I explode). It is a verb with a distinct archaic form which is super ugly to a violating degree if you adjust it to the modern Greek conjugation of the simple past. As a result the ancient formation of the simple past is fully retained, which is not irregular but it is hard enough that it appears irregular by modern standards (εξερράγην - exerráyin - no it’s not irregular!). As a result many people might not know it and mess it up entirely by trying to apply modern formations which will earn them mocking later if it's on TV or paper (ie εκρήχτηκα - ekríhtika - can kill you instantly if it comes from the mouth of a journalist) or you are going to see it on their face real-time that they go through the five stages of grief and seven consecutive panic attacks as they try to say “it exploded” without actually saying “it exploded”! Even more hilariously, the screenshot I added shows all the conjugations by labelling them “for scholar use” and it adds another label clarifying that only the third person of singular and plural are actually regularly used (apparently needed when speaking for bombs) and the others are avoided as much as possible. In short, we try not to use the past of a simple verb such as “explode” because we have no idea how to say it because adjusting it to modern is so monstrous that you have no solution other than keeping it entirely ancient, in a phrase otherwise entirely modern! It is actually very funny.

I said all these in order to stress how people trying to find unacceptable “flaws” in katharevousa are hypocritical because if we accept that a concept such as “flaws” is possible in a language, then it does exist in organic demotic as well. On the other hand, it also depends on the speaker. Katharevousa supporters varied in their ferocity and whereas most just kept it at the "purifying modern" object, some others tried to mix it with actual Koine or Attic Greek, undoubtedly causing lingual teratogenesis.

Some last notes: katharevousa is not entirely extinct. It is used by a newspaper, it is the language used by the Churches of Greece and Cyprus and by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, as it resembles more Koine (Biblical) Greek which is their actual sacred language. Some people show it off on internet comments but you can usually (not always) guess their political ideologies which is unfortunate. Ironically though, Modern Standard Greek, which is the common language we speak right now, is according to linguists considerably influenced by the katharevousa in its mixing with demotic. So, standard Greek, even though it derives from Demotic and it is technically Demotic Greek, is closer to Katharevousa than the Demotic of the 20th century is.

Another interesting point is made by Georgios Babiniotis, the currently most prominent Greek linguist. An unlikable guy if you ask me, but I can’t help but agree with this point. Although the polytonic stress system was abolished along with katharevousa with the reasoning that it served no point in Modern Greek, Babiniotis says that this was a mistake, as the monotonic system has surprisingly caused a deterioration of the musicality and correct articulation in Modern Greek. In fact, anyone who knows can go watch kids reciting poems in school and you will realise it is true. I am not putting myself out of this. Sometimes I read something loudly and I think to myself “heck in my mind this sounds so much better, why am I reciting it so poorly?!”. Even though I actually have a perfect articulation up to this stage in my life, my reciting is bland like of most people, while it wasn’t the case at all with the people in the near past. You can hear the difference when you hear actors of the 50s and actors in movies now. Both spoke in demotic, but actors of the 50s spoke much more beautifully on so many levels, including intonation and articulation. This agrees with a post I made recently unknowingly when on my own I realised that the grave accent is actually retained in modern Greek when spoken animatedly or carefully and correctly. I was almost scared to publish that post because I am no linguist but I was excited to see that the -always otherwise unlikable- Babiniotis said this too! Few liked that post - dunno if everyone hated it or it was just a huge post published at 5 am. Or both. Aaaaaanyways, I am linking it here in case anyone has reached so far down and is interested.

To summarise, Katharevousa was the victim of the insane political infighting that is such a trademark of the Greeks. It was founded on ethnical rather than elitist reasonings. It wasn’t trying to exclude anyone even though this might have indeed happened unintentionally. It is still Modern Greek. I don’t believe it should ever eradicate Demotic, however I value its existence and I think it could have a place of application and people should be free to use (within reasonable context) or enjoy it without being vilified or immediately have their political beliefs assumed. I personally find it beautiful but I also find Demotic beautiful, just in different ways. In some occasions I prefer one and in others the other. I enjoy prose and poetry in Katharevousa, it’s bloody beautiful. But use of rich and intricate demotic is also insanely wonderful. Both are great and I genuinely feel this way. I can get behind the reasoning that if a foreign loanword doesn't sound very aesthetically pleasing in the Greek language, it shouldn't be considered weird or eccentric to prefer the Greek-root word and give up on the loanword. I have used this example before, if the loanword is "dudúka", while two Greek-root words of the exact same meaning exist ("tilevóas" and "megháphono"), then why the heck would I want to use "duduka"?! No offense to the language that it comes from, but this word... I mean, come on. It doesn't sound good at all in Greek. Same with the grammar. If someone can use more intricate and complex grammar, why should we immediately blame them for doing what they can do? Come on, guys.

#greece #greek language #languages #linguistics #langblr #language stuff #modern greek #katharevousa #demotic #greek history #greek culture #anon #ask #tw long #tw long text

[the-beaten-and-the-damned]

okay, let's talk radqueers this time. them and endos seem to overlap to some extent, and it just so happens we find both stupid and downright offensive.

trigger warning not needed, it's a radqueer post, radqueers themselves are a topic to be avoided. yet, here we are.

you see, we're a student. we go to a big and pretty high ranking university to study translation and interpreting. and it just so happens that there's a lot of students of different ethnicities, races, speaking different languages and having different cultures. and there's also a lot of disabled people too. that one red haired guy that has severe bone deformities and neurological conditions, who can't stand up from his wheelchair, but keeps going to the university because of his will to keep on learning - shout-out to you, you're amazing and inspiring.

anyway, radqueers. those beautiful (sarcasm) trans-racial, trans-abled people... genuinely, what the fuck.

knock it off. you can't just say you were meant to have cerebral paralysis and asperger's, and that you're also half japanese in your head. moreover you can't in all seriousness say that AND expect to be taken seriously, rather than as a troll or a fucking ableist/racist. trans-ableds, you don't know what it's like to be paralysed neck down, to be a limb short. or god, even a finger - your life can become so much harder if you lose just ONE finger. you're not valid, and you asking for accomodations for your imaginary disability is comical at best, and makes me want to pull the trigger at ourselves at worst.

trans-abled, stop taking away the accomodations other actually disabled people need to live, stop glamorising the disabilities you don't have. you're harming those people, and i'd personally make someone disabled if they told us they're transabled irl. /dramatic

trans-disordered, stop turning disorders you don't have into a joke. you're not advocating for actually disordered people, and no, the only thing you need psychiatric help for is the fact that you genuinely think it's okay to hoard labels that don't apply to you like pretty rocks or pokemon cards.

trans-racial, a special one to you. we've seen a bunch of trans-russians out there, and i'll use their example. so, i dare you. come to russia, tell a rando on the street you're actually supposed to be russian, but you weren't born one. that russian is your trans-ethnicity. best case scenario - you'll get laughed at. worst case scenario - you'll get beaten senseless. it's not a threat, because i personally would've just spat in your face. it's just what would've actually happened, we're telling you this fun fact because we know what kind of society we live in. show fucking respect to the culture, you insolent and ignorant fucks. one thing is being interested in it, exploring it, willing to know more. other is appropriating without knowing jack shit about it.

as an individual who sees people of different races and ethnicities everyday, who has people with actual disabilities and disorders around, we can't wrap our head around why some folks would want to be so fucking disrespectful to these categories. these white american kids, and we KNOW the majority of radqueers ARE white american kids, really need to log off and touch some grass. and a solid reality check in general.

BE FUCKING RESPECTFUL, OKAY? AT LEAST A TEENY TINY BIT RESPECTFUL.

#💀roadkill #anti radqueer #anti rq #fuck radqueers #anti radqueers

[kanmom51]

Dark topic (but not really)

We know jimin says he works 6/7 days of the week in his recent live. What do you think he’s working on?

Like do you think it’s something for when he leaves (like on the street) or are you leaning more towards what Yoongi said “do another album and a tour” and that he’s working on another EP/album with the many western producers he met last year that weren’t on face to have enough songs so maybe not tour like Yoongi but enough to do maybe 1-3 concerts in Seoul/US.

Jimin seems genuinely happy & excited. His sassy & suspicious reaction to the album question he chose to read is what’s making me lean towards album cause we know jimin isn’t good at lying/acting. (Bonus his smile to when Yoongi said to make another album and he suddenly started finding the couch interesting)

Truthfully I have no idea. So, I'm going to babble a little here, give you some of my own thoughts.

On the one hand I find it hard to believe he will be releasing another album. The timing, it's problematic. If indeed we are still waiting on an album from JK and Tae all before the end of the year, when will JM fit in his album all before enlistment, which I do think will be anytime after JK's promotions and before the start of 2024. And we definitley do not want another Face 9 day promotional period now do we?

On the other hand we kind of know he's already done some music that hasn't made it's way into Face, and Face was a mini album while the others so far have released full sized albums.

JM did say he's working most of the week, but he also told us what that work entails, his working hours, and to tell you the truth, what he described doesn't sound like him working on an album. Even when his sleep pattern isn't wacky he's telling us he starts his day pretty much at noon, and at night studying English. Yes, he's working, but not at an intensity that you would expect if it was on an album. Not at the intensity we know he was working when he was working with Pdogg on Face. And I will also say that if he was working on a second album, he wouldn't be doing it at Hybe. There, I said it. There was a reason JM worked on his album at Pdogg's. And I don't think that reason has changed since. If there was a new album nearing, most of the work wouldn't be done in the Hybe building, and that is not the case at the moment.

I'd even go as far as to say that his farewell song, that one is probably already wrapped and done - the song itself.

I suspect he's busy working on future music (perhaps writing, perhaps something that he has no issue to work on at Hybe like), filming content for when he's away, preparing for something that entails needing English. That one has me intrigued actually. Both him and JK working on their English. JK I get, his album around the corner and the company obviously wanting to push it internationally and more so in the States. But JM, why JM? If all that is left is a goodbye song and enlistment.

Anyway, like I said, I have no idea what so ever, lol.

#ask

[leolingo]

(rant about linguistics, aphasia and q!quackity’s impairments post-memory loss!!! to anyone who knows more about any of this, PLEASE add on or dm me id love to learn if anyones into neurolinguistics or anything of the sort)

ive been digging deeper into q!quackity’s condition (because I quite literally CAN’T stop thinking abou it) + taking note of his symptoms/behavior and it seems like what he’s dealing with could be called alexia (acquired inability to read) with agraphia (acquired inability to write), which are types of general aphasia, except i still need to know MORE about his production and comprehension i need to get in there!!!!!

it seems like he could be experiencing literal/verbal alexia with agraphia, which would mean he can’t recognize written letters or symbols at all and that is why he’s unable to read (this is all very tentative… all i have to go off of is my psycholinguistics class and as many academic articles as i can read). from what ive seen, q!q hasn’t actually tried to read any signs out loud, there’s no verbal attempt or production of speech which would make sense if he really can’t recognize the alphabet. BUT. what bothers me is that he can speak spanish with no issues. since spanish has a high proximity between phonology and orthography, theory says people who are able to speak it should be able to read and write the phonemes. and he can’t — or hasn’t tried. THAT makes me think he Can recognize the letters themselves

to confirm this i would really like to see him try to spell…. Or just name a letter! if its confirmed he CAN recognize individual letters, then id say what we’re looking at is more like pure alexia (without agraphia) — only a reading impairment, which would cause him to be unable to Arrange the letters in a sensical order. Its tough to check any of this w minecraft as a medium…. with a keyboard (or, in rp, on a communicator/in chat) it’s kind of impossible to know if he’s clicking at random or actually Trying to seek specific letters. but ill say that the way he sometimes dictates what he’s intending to write makes me think he DOES have the visual of each letter in his mind, and just struggles to order them or accurately transpose them

its also interesting to me how theres no sign of a speech impediment. q!q could speak fine from the very first moment we saw him. all hesitation was modal/owed to circumstance and not actually tied to his production of speech. i think that has more to do with the memory part of things! it could be that the extend of his memory alteration only goes as far as his writing and reading do. speech and comprehension come first in regular human development, and those are the faculties he has kept mostly unaltered. there could also be an argument to make about this pointing spanish as his first language (like cc!quackity) and english as his second, which would explain the dissonance between his production in one language and the other — but given that last stream he did express knowledge of english, idk if its relevant

i dont know much about the actual anatomy of things but i think it’s interesting that most aphasia cases are caused by lesions on the left temporal-parietal lobe. AND that its also possible for aphasia to be caused by head trauma like a hard hit to the head or deprival of oxygen (due to drowning? food for thought).

psa i know the situation in canon could be a lot less deep than im trying to make it. i get that. i dont expect the writers team to have researched the symptoms to this extent, but i enjoy discussing it. this is part of my major and a big area of interest for me so i find it really fun :) ill keep reading on this topic as much as i can and reblog w more of my musings if i find more relevant info. baseline qsmp team please let me in i need to study q!q under a microscope (lovingly)

#literally its ALLLLLLLLLL I think about since the return stream #WHAT THEY DO TO HIM? #kit.txt #qsmp #q!quackity #kit.meta

[onewomancitadel]

A smattering of general updates:

I played Tears of the Kingdom. I didn't really enjoy it. I understand why it was popular though; I'm just not the demographic for these types of video games anymore. I didn't find it creatively rewarding and after a time I sat there thinking 'I would rather be writing right now', and since then I have learnt that writing is made easier by doing things which are not writing, because it makes me miss it. My dad also doesn't really like it but for some reason has played hundreds of hours in it. I don't know either - I think he will take anything called Zelda at this point.

I spectated the Doctor Who David Tennant Special and watched some clips of the new season. I'm not a fan of RTD, and not a DW fan anymore (not for a long time), but it was an interesting study in how studios try to attract old and new fans.

I read a lot of books, and that lie people tell you about all books being good for you is a lie, because a cyberpunk anthology of short stories made me so angry I got heartburn. I think people who say that are saying so because they wish that they could read a lot, in which case I say, yes I think reading is a gift and we should engage with it, however, sometimes I get so physically angry from something stupid/bad I've read because bad writers exist that it gives me actual pain. I am reading Howl's Moving Castle right now and it's very joyful; I am very surprised by the liberties the animated film took! However so far I do think both experiences are worthwhile, and if you enjoyed the Ghibli film, I very much recommend checking out the original book if you want to revisit that world again. The prose is straightforward but a little whimsical, and Howl is very, very funny. I have laughed aloud a few times.

Well, you know I rewatched Dark, and it's funny that during my exile I said 'this is like if RWBY got the ending it deserves' and then, er, I found out it's not renewed yet, and that's still up in the air, which for the entirety of RWBY I have only had one true moment of doubt of such a thing, and that was a while ago.

On that topic, yes, I still ship Jaune/Cinder, believe Cinder's redemption is likely, etc., although there are some more external concerns I would wager now than before. Before I thought it very possible to do without any commercial influence, and it depends what compromises they do or don't end up making or having already made. My analysis of Jaune's arc in V9 may not hold water as much (e.g. if you lean towards the view there were rewrites to cater to growing the audience, or perhaps it's two ideas married? I'm not sure) so I'm going to think about it more, and there always has been a tension in RWBY between what is being expected/baited and what is foreshadowed/said/actually happens.

I figured out how to write again and what was blocking me, so there's that. To talk about it a bit more, since my break I have worked every single day on writing. My key takeaways are that you need a delicate balance of delusion and self-doubt to get anything done - you don't know you can do something until you actually do it - and every excuse I invented for not writing was not the reason I was not writing. I can write with a migraine beginning to set in on an uncomfortable desk where I can't even rest my elbows properly on the end of a bed with no back support without aircon in the middle of summer before I've even taken my hair out from bedtime plaits in my pyjamas. I didn't even expect to get my fic done right before midnight, actually I was like 'well lol that's not going to happen, I'll write anyway though, fuck New Year's' because I wasn't doing anything, and then I finished and looked at the time and was like ooooh. I actually completed my goal! So I'm very proud of that. Anyway writing is breathing, to me, I go crazy if I don't do it, no matter what it is, and every single piece of nonsense advice of productivity was not helpful, ever, but I did figure it out. Also admittedly I got a fire burning under me again because I found out I was actually right about Raven, in which case I took that as a sign from heaven I was on the right track. One should hope.

I am excited about Dune Part Two, yes, although I am trying to avoid Villeneuve talking about the film because I know all the marketing is basically directed at people who aren't Dune fans, and I have to see it for myself to see what it's worth. I enjoyed the first film, and Villeneuve seems excited to direct Dune Messiah, in which case I am willing to do whatever possible to make that happen. Because that's about as complete a story you're going to get in a major motion picture adaptation and it would be So Fucking Good.

#seraphina party hour