#how can something under 50 seconds have SUCH an impact

[tuiyla]

this scene lasts 47 seconds but its legacy is eternal

#this video is just saved as 'iconic' #on my desktop #glee #quinntana #santana lopez #quinn fabray #the unholy trinity #how can something under 50 seconds have SUCH an impact #it plays on a loop in my mind #thousands of minds i'm sure

[fullhalalalchemist]

URGENT: Congress about to pass a mass censorship and surveillance bill under the guise of "protecting children"

May 13 2023

The Senate has been in a "do something!" mode regarding children's online safety. They're using this as an excuse to push for widespread internet censorship and surveillance. The EARN IT Act, has a slimmer chance of passing with widespread opposition and some senators saying they won't vote for it. TLDR;The real threat is actually KOSA (s.1409), the Kid's Online Safety Act, which will mass censor and surveill the entire internet by giving all 50 state attorney generals the power to remove content that is "harmful" for kids, and force you to upload your govt ID online to access the internet. I'll explain how it works below the action items but it's absolutely urgent that anyone who likes having a free and open internet fights back. It's all hands on deck, because this has so much public support it's insane:

HOW TO FIGHT KOSA

CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES & THE COMMERCE COMMITTEE

This is a link to the Senate Commerce Committee phone numbers and a call script to read off of. [phone] connects you to the congressional hotline

Opposition is getting drowned, and these upcoming weeks will be heavy for lobbying and they're using young people to do it. We NEED to show these senators that young people are actually opposed to this and don't want it.

2. Sign these petitions

Open Letter Against KOSA

Petition 1

Petition 2

Petition 3

Petition 4

Resistbot: Text PHJDYH to 50409

3. Spread the word.

The opposition is getting absolutely drowned online. Dove has nearly 100k signatures to push for KOSA. Influencers on tiktok are pushing for this without ever having read the bill. Fucking Lizzo is sponsoring it. If you have twitter, reddit, tiktok, are in any community, SPREAD THE WORD, PLEASE.

Here is a linktree with all the above petitions for easy shargin: Link to linktree

HOW KOSA WORKS

First, KOSA pressures platforms to install filters that would wipe the net of anything deemed “inappropriate” for minors. This means instructing platforms to censor. We saw how these filters impacted websites firsthand with tumblr in 2018, with not only blocking all adult content but also sfw queer content such as suicide hotlines, art archives, wiping out entire blogs because they had queer fandom related posts, etc. Places that already use content filters have restricted important information about suicide prevention and LGBTQ+ support groups. KOSA would spread this kind of censorship to every corner of the internet. And who gets to decide what is and isn't harmful for minors? Oh don't worry, just every single state attorney general and the FTC, which is appointed by the president. You know, the same attorney generals that just banned gender-affirming healthcare under the guise that it "ruins mental health" of minors. This is why the Heritage Foundation was one of the first to sponsor the bill because they can use it to censor trans content, and Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee is it's co-author.

Second, KOSA would ramp up the online surveillance of all internet users by forcing websites to use age verification and parental monitoring tools. Yup, that's right. Now every single person who wants to access the internet has to upload their govt ID online to third party apps that get hacked all the time. You queer in a red state? You undocumented? You an activist? Have fun getting all your online activity and metadata attached to your govt ID.  

Over 90+ human and LGBT rights groups agree that KOSA is dangerous and updates to the 2023 version won’t and can’t address the big problems with the bill. This bill has MASSIVE bipartisan support, and the authors Blumenthal and Blackburn (yes, that Blumenthal that's pushing the EARN IT Act, and who also sponsored the RESTRICT Act and SOPA/PIPA if you remember) are using the tragedy of mothers who lost their kids to online harassment and young adults who've been traumatized online to lobby for it, and got Dove the company to use a bunch of influencers to push for this under the guise it prevents eating disorders...I wish I was lying. There are already 30 co-sponsors.

It is all hands on deck. I'm dead serious when I say if this bill is passed it is the beginning if not end of the open and free internet.

#earn it act #kosa #kids online safety bill #kids online safety act #earn it bill

[house-of-angst]

Y'all mind if I talk about Present Mic's quirk for a second? Great.

So, my partner and I have been having Erasermic brainrot lately, and while we were binging content with them, I became interested in Hizashi's voice quirk. I began searching stuff about how sound/volume works, and linking it to his canon stuff.

I'll just say, the info I found makes him a pretty scary guy. It's a shame he's so underused in both canon and fanon.

Frequency

First of all, I want to talk about something everyone knows about him: his quirk is potent enough to shatter glass. Now, when it comes to decibels, it's always important to consider the time and distance a certain note is held for, since these can impact the "hit" a certain sound wave can have when influenced by effects such as the air or vibrations.

(Please keep this in mind for the reminder of this post)

When it comes to glass, however, it breaks almost instantly under the pressure of his voice. Our most constant example of this is the man's poor lenses, but there is a scene I'd like to talk about the most, it being he one where he completely shatters Shigaraki's tank.

One might argue that the glass was already weakened from Mirko's kicks, but that's honestly part of something that makes this so impressive to me; Mirko's legs are strong enough to straight-up rip a high-end Nomu's head clean off, yet this tank was tough enough to withstand two attacks from her - including her ultimate move - before starting to leak; and the fact she was heavily injured doesn't fly here, as we very clearly could see she wasn't holding back one bit.

Now, let's get technical.

According to Google, a normal tone of voice would be around 50 decibels, while the required to shatter glass would be a minimum of 105. For comparison, that's roughly the same volume as a jackhammer. Now, you might be thinking, "Oh, that's not so bad! Some singers can do that!" and you'd be right, but there's also some other things to consider. Allow me to explain.

Some singers can reach a pitch that can make glass vibrate enough for it to break, but I've personally only heard of this happening if the person has their mouth close to a smaller, empty cup, and even then the volume would be distributed around. Hizashi, on the other hand, was standing several feet away from this reinforced tank and was able to shatter it immediately, using the directional speaker around his neck to aim the volume. This would naturally require for him to hit even higher decibels, specially when you take into consideration that one's frequency must match the glass' for it to vibrate, which drastically increases when it's dampened. (Read next topic for more info on this)

And then there's his glasses which, like I've stated before, are the most common thing he breaks with his voice. Obviously, this is not directed and it's not a total shatter, but there is something to be observed; say, did you know the necessary volume for lenses to crack, when not being directly aimed at, would be that of a nearby shot from a highcaliber gun? That's roughly 140-170 decibels.

Harm factor

Boy, oh boy! I'm betting most of you were looking for this part when you clicked the read more, right? Look no further, I've got you covered, you just better remember what I mentioned before about distance and duration.

Hizashi's parents were unfortunate enough to have a mutant child that was born with his quirk already active, and I'm willing to bet a newborn doesn't have the slightest bit of control over a power as destructive as a sonic-powered voice, which immediately resulted in everyone in the room bleeding from the ears.

Sound-related ear bleeding is most commonly associated with a ruptured eardrum, which can happen at around 150 decibels and is about the same as a jet engine taking off. While a baby most likely unleashed his maximum voice power on the first breath, I believe something like that would, thankfully, only develop fully after puberty, just like with non-powered people like us, since his quirk is a drastic intensification of a common function and not a new ability altogether.

With that being said... The Finals Exam.

In this, Hizashi was standing very far and, even with the directional speakers, there were many obstacles in the way that kept him from landing direct soundwaves on the students. Regardless, Jirou's ears bled in less than 30 minutes being exposed to this.

This could have happened due to the fact that she has a hearing quirk, which would make hers much more sensitive, but let's study this, shall we? We don't have the exacts of what happened there, but the students are visibly uncomfortable upon the first soundwave, which would suggest it was at about 120 decibels upon impact (with 85 already being enough to cause damage to your ears) and being emitted even higher by him, considering distance muffles volume. Still, I think all that would be nothing compared to the scream he let out after those bugs started crawling on him, with how unfiltered that was.

With Jirou, it comes to no surprise this volume at this distance and time almost rendered her deaf, and realistically would take several months of healing time. How much do you want to bet Hizashi got a solid scolding from Shouta? I mean, it was supposed to be a challenge, but homeboy came this close to breaking her quirk.

Another thing I want to point out is that his voice is powerful enough to actually fucking launch people, and this only happens due to an event called acoustic trauma, basically meaning Hizashi can surpass supersonic levels. Although, it's important to note that this effect is caused mostly due to pressure and not so much as sound, so while it's not freakishly loud (about the same as thunder), it can still cause hearing and psychological damage.

! WARNING !

The following part contains graphic mentions of injury, and death. Do not proceed if these are sensitive topics for you.

Now, we look at the disturbing side of Hizashi's quirk. Buckle in, because it's a wild ride.

Remember what I commented earlier, about him having to hit even higher frequencies to be able to shatter Shigaraki's tank? First of all, as the doctor was sent flying, this qualifies as supersonic, but that's not all. To shatter such a protected tank, with liquid inside increasing the density, he'd have to hit over 200 decibels; which is considered extremely dangerous and most definitely fatal, as the threshold of pain is of 115-140 - this can cause damage such as crushed ear bones, ruptured lungs, or embolism. For comparison, this would come close to standing right next to a Saturn V Moon Rocket during launch, and is no longer considered a "sound" due to the vacuum.

With that being said, the man came very close to dying by Hizashi's hands (voice?) twice. Not only was he so close during the lens incident, literally being inches away from his face and in risk of getting his eardrums ruptured already, but if Mic had decided to raise his voice even more during his rage, it'd be possible for the frequency to make the doctor's inner organs malfunction, or straight-up burst from the pressure.

But that's not the worst part.

After establishing that the lethal amount of over 200 decibels would be necessary to shatter the tank given the circumstances, if he exceeded 240 and the doctor happened to be in the way of this, it would be enough to cause his head to explode upon impact. That old man better be grateful that he was standing a feet few away, and that the supersonic blast blew him away a bit more, or it'd be an immediate game over.

With all this being said, how devastating would it be for this guy to scream his rage out?

(Please keep in mind that many of the extreme cases in this are actually impossible to happen in a real-life scenario and are purely speculation!)

#erasermic #(mentioned) #bnha #mha #boku no hero academia #my hero academia #present mic #yamada hizashi #rambles

[in-omni-scientia]

COMPOSURE [Medium: Success] — Hey. Pssst. VOLITION — ... COMPOSURE — ...You've been staring at the wall above your little desk completely motionless for what can't be more than about two minutes straight now. I think Authority is getting weirded out.

You turn your head to where Authority has, also, been standing and staring at you completely motionless for two minutes. He tilts his head back and to the side a small amount.

COMPOSURE — Almost... inquisitively, I think.

"Just gathering myself. I'm okay." Involuntarily, your body tacks on a (rather awkward) thumbs up. He huffs and turns away.

COMPOSURE — Give him five seconds maximum, and he'll turn back again. I don't think he wants to let you out of his sight right now.

Shifting your gaze back to the notepad in front of you, you run your eyes over the list of allocated duties once more.

ENCYCLOPEDIA (FACTS)

Claims to be: "what I should be"

Currently useless.

Allocated job: Prevent Authority from speaking.

Allocated job: Stay quiet.

THE OTHER ONE PERCEPTION

Claims to be: "joy"

Currently useless.

Allocated job: Perceiving.

VOL ME

Claims to be:

Be dumb and stupid forever, haha. With love, Authority.

?

Allocated job: Do what we are supposed to.

COMPOSURE

Claims to be: Social cues, knowing how to act, culprit of the Suggestion Anonymo

Allocated job: Making us *appear* normal to the others.

Allocated job: Just generally keeping our shit together?

AUTHORITY

Do *not* allow to speak under ANY circumstances.

Allocated job: Movement.

VOLITION — Good. A rather rough draft, though I'm sure we can continue to allocate roles as we find them necessary. ENCYCLOPEDIA — A rather poor effort for categorization by your standards. PERCEPTION — Come *on*, why do I have to be Perception just because I do the seeing? I'd be far better suited for Ele... VOLITION — You both have *new* jobs now, stay quiet unless you can contribute something of use.

Flipping your notepad to a new page, you start to write:

WHAT CAUSED THIS?

ENCYCLOPEDIA — A good place to start. Theoretically, all reactions are reversible... VOLITION — What can you recall about our affliction? Anything at all.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Trivial: Success] — Obviously, this happened after the Whale communicated with us. We were experiencing its effects prior to that interaction, but to a minimal degree; the pain inflicted upon its response to us prior to this beginning is not negligible. Causation can be assumed here. COMPOSURE [Easy: Success] — I have to point out -- well, look at Authority.

You cast a side glance in his direction. Even with your blurry vision, you can see him pacing back and forth, occasionally throwing a glower your way.

COMPOSURE — He’s fine, even after communing with the Whale. A little bothered by all this, obviously, but that’s natural. VOLITION — Yes -- it’s unusual. Charmer is fine as well.

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Easy: Success] — There’s a logical explanation for it. We just have to find one.

[Encyclopedia - Challenging 12] Do we know why you could have been impacted so adversely compared to your colleagues? (WHITE CHECK)

HIGH - 72% +1: Know about the Whale. +1: Savoir Faire’s fragmentation. -1: No Logic subskill. +1: Authority is here.

Rolling...

⚂⚄

CHECK SUCCESS (Challenging: 12 vs. Your Total: 14)

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Challenging: Success] — If *they* have not been impacted by a pale anomaly to the same degree as you have, you can only assume it has to do something with mental fortitude, or something similar. VOLITION — …Are you saying the Psyche skills know Volta do Mar? ENCYCLOPEDIA — No. Well – you could always ask, but I don’t know if you would get a good response. What I’m saying is, it may have something to do with your level. VOLITION — Go on…

ENCYCLOPEDIA — Recall the average pulses per minute for each attribute as studied by the Turtle -- [110 for Intellect, 150 for Psyche, 70 for Physique, and 50 for Motorics]. This lines up fairly well with the base levels for them, 4-5-2-1 (though some individual skills *have* been levelled beyond this via Thoughts). ⠀⠀Remember, too, the Turtle’s studies into the neurons. They made sketches of them – but some neurons had a strange pale sheath on them that was slowing their communication. (The fact they selected a Motorics neuron for that diagram is significant, too, as it evokes Savoir Faire’s current state).

ENCYCLOPEDIA — We know that it is unnatural for neurons to have that sheath on them. What I am trying to say is, I believe that perhaps the Pale Whale has given us pale exposure, and the skill’s levels afford certain Skills protection from being affected by the pale exposure.

ENCYCLOPEDIA — The effects of pale exposure for us seem to follow a pattern: high-levelled Skills, such as Authority, Suggestion and Empathy, receive no visible afflictions. Medium-level Skills such as yourself, Drama, Composure, Rhetoric, Pain Threshold and Interfacing have their abilities to communicate affected, and low-level skills experience partial fragmentation. ⠀⠀I am unsure of *how* this fragmentation exactly occurs, considering our and Savoir Faire’s presentations are very different. Though I believe we have the resources to figure this out.

VOLITION — Hmmm… ⠀⠀This theory may have some flaws in it. I will begin with smaller flaws. First of all, cop radio was affected with a similar presentation to Skills from medium levels. How do you explain this? ENCYCLOPEDIA [Easy: Success] — Esprit De Corps was the first to contact the Whale, of course; perhaps their initial contact overcame the natural protection their level afforded them.

VOLITION — *How* were we affected by the pale? The closest origin point is in Martinaise, and we have not been there for some time. ENCYCLOPEDIA [Heroic: Failure] — Admittedly, I have no rebuttal for that. Perhaps the theory that Harry has one in his own head is correct. Perhaps the Whale has the power to reach beyond the bounds of where pale ordinarily can.

VOLITION — Savoir Faire’s affliction was caused *prior* to the Whale’s first contact. ENCYCLOPEDIA [Medium: Success] — Remember, the incident occurred after you had explained the Pale, when they claimed to ‘backflip into Rodionov’s trench’. While that is completely ludicrous to believe they could actually pull that off six thousand kilometres from the nearest point of even porch collapse, I do believe the Pale has something to do with their presentation. ⠀⠀Furthermore, the Whale claimed in its contact with you that ‘Mother Nature’ is disgusted by us, that ‘the verdict’ had already been made. Perhaps it has had its eye on us for some time now, and Savoir Faire’s affliction is another case of pale exposure, simply occurring before we were aware of the Whale’s presence. VOLITION — So it wasn’t me… PERCEPTION — It wasn’t you.

VOLITION — Okay. And finally… ⠀⠀We have six points. Not that far off from the Psyche skills. This fragmentation is *not* a low-level presentation, unlike what you said. PERCEPTION [Easy: Success] — Actually… I’m so sorry. VOLITION [Formidable: Failure] — ? PERCEPTION — You are at two points currently. VOLITION — What? Why?

ENCYCLOPEDIA — Minus-two from No Wedding Bells Chime in this Church Anymore. Minus-one from Brilliant Bibliolater’s Blues. Minus-one due to the lost morale. (Normally that last one wouldn’t be an issue, but I think the fact you’ve been proclaimed Volition is doing that…) ⠀⠀They’re distributed among us, but they add up to minus-four overall for Encyclopedia, the construct.

VOLITION — You’re kidding me. ⠀⠀*Thinking about the concept of marriage* caused this? Made me more prone to it? ⠀⠀And I’m even more prone now because Authority yelled at me?? PERCEPTION — I’m sorry. IN MEMORIAM — Until pale do our atoms part. VOLITION — We… we have to forget those thoughts *now*. Do we have the points? ENCYCLOPEDIA — No. VOLITION — *Shit*. We need to—to ask someone what to do. Who do we talk to about this? Can Volition do something?

PERCEPTION [Medium: Success] — Are you sure you want to do this?

VOLITION — Of course I am!! I’m going to be *completely torn apart* if this goes on! PERCEPTION — If you forget those thoughts, you will never be able to think about them again.

VOLITION — Yes, well… ⠀⠀… ⠀⠀Never? PERCEPTION — Never ever. VOLITION — Well, I can’t get married or have favourite facts if I’m dead. PERCEPTION — Don’t you want to take the chance? VOLITION — Empathy wouldn’t want me to. I’d leave them all alone.

IN MEMORIAM [Godly: Success] —

⠀⠀‘Tis better to have loved and lost Than to never have loved at all.

PERCEPTION — Yes, exactly -- it will hurt them far, far more knowing you saved yourself but doomed yourself to never wanting more, than to know you risked yourself to finally put a name to what you are. You *talked* about that.

VOLITION — …Uhm. ‘Exactly’ to what? PERCEPTION — Uh. I don’t remember…? ⠀⠀But seriously, please. Just take the chance. It’s irrational, it’s irresponsible, it’s impossible. ⠀⠀But… give it a try.

VOLITION — ...Sigh. ⠀⠀You… *people* are terrible. Fine, I’ll leave them for now. But the *moment* any funny business happens, we’re dragging Authority with us over to Volition’s zone and demanding they give us the points to get rid of them.

AUTHORITY [Challenging: Failure] — You want me to do something?!?! VOLITION — Not *you*. I don’t call you Authority by choice, it’s simply because it is convenient at the moment. AUTHORITY [Legendary: Failure]— (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)

VOLITION — So… what do we do now? ENCYCLOPEDIA — Actually, can I try to figure out what exactly is causing fragmentation to occur? It’s a rather big step up from language difficulties. This could be important to figure out. COMPOSURE — You should tell Authority what you have worked out. Just to let him know this hasn’t been a waste of time. PERCEPTION — If you want to regain a level, you need to heal that morale you lost; I would recommend finding Empathy. It’s been a little while since you last saw them. AUTHORITY — Definitely *do not* do that; not in your current state. They’re already far too stressed. ENCYCLOPEDIA — Finally, something reasonable from that one.

VOLITION — Hmmm…

[Encyclopedia - Legendary 14] Do we know how this fragmentation could be occurring? (WHITE CHECK)

About going to talk to Empathy…

“Authority, I think I’ve worked out what is happening with all of us.” (Finish thought.)

[Encyclopedia - Legendary 14] Do we know how this fragmentation could be occurring?

LOW - 28% +1: Know about the neurons. +1: Know about Savoir Faire. -1: Holes in your theory.

Rolling...

⚃⚄

CHECK SUCCESS (Legendary 14 vs. Your Total: 14)

ENCYCLOPEDIA [Legendary: Success] — It has to be the pale sheath that’s doing it. ⠀⠀The sheaths are slowing the action potential of the neurons they are attached to. Theoretically, if the neurons that make up *you* could not communicate fast enough to keep you together... VOLITION — …they’d start dissociating from one another. ENCYCLOPEDIA — Yes, like the turtle proposed. And each one may begin to function as separate entities. Perhaps it would get to the point where they disconnect entirely. VOLITION — Lord. Is-- is it reversible? ENCYCLOPEDIA — I don’t know.

You gaze down at your notepad unseeingly, half-filled with a near-unintelligible frantic scrawl that has barely kept up with the pace of your thoughts.

AUTHORITY — Unintelligible?! I’ve been doing my best! PERCEPTION — OG, we can find out. Heal that lost morale, get that one point back; see what it does for you. VOLITION — But… that’s not going to do anything. Losing it hasn’t actually done anything in regards to how this… condition is presenting itself. AUTHORITY — Wrong again, worm. Look up. COMPOSURE — I think you meant bookworm? AUTHORITY — Irrelevant. Look up.

You do – and gaze directly into a near-identical copy of your own face, with the notable exception of two pinprick lights flashing at you from the abyssal shadows.

AUTHORITY — Boo.

With a yelp, your stool clatters to the ground – but as soon as you’ve jumped up, it’s gone.

#contains: txt #author/s: me #skillsposting #long post #ooc: jesus fucking christ i had to cut out so much to get this down to 1k words. i wrote 3.3k while i was out bruh #there was a whooole part where they did all the allocating but I decided to cut that out so that this wasn't too long #because i didn't expect to actually pass the infodump 3 check... like look at that roll. sob #I think I still have it? idr whether I saved it or not. if I do then maybe I'll post it another time...

[lookwhatyoudidithasanxiety]

//Sooo I wanted to give an update.

First off: I'm working on the next chapter! I'm also working out the chapter after this one, I just don't know when it'll be written. (Picture for proof - it's only 50 words shy of 2500!)

Second: I wanted to sincerely apologize for my spotty presence on here. Especially since I said I'd be on this last weekend and wasn't. I'll leave an explanation under the read more below, but just know that life has been...something. I'm not complaining and I'm not looking for sympathy, but I feel like you all deserved an explanation.

My goal is to finish up the chapter and get it posted as soon as I can. I don't know when that'll be with everything that's happening, but I wanted people to know that I'm not abandoning this blog or the story. I just can't give any good timelines right now with everything going on in my life.

I'll leave my detailed explanation below, but don't feel obligated to read it. Thank you for your patience and I'm sorry again. TW for mention of bugs/pests.//

So a few things have happened in my life. I don't know if I shared it here before (I think I may have briefly mentioned it late last year), but my relationship with my parents is complicated and rocky. As such, sometimes I'll be doing great living my own life, other times they'll feel the need to call me every day and text me all the time. Now that my mother has more health issues, it's gotten worse. But that issue is somewhat managed now.

Secondly, the most glaring thing that's been making it difficult. I go out to see people in their homes for work. Well, one person I went to lied about not having any sorts of pests or bugs and I didn't find out until after I'd been there. That was three weeks ago. I thought that I didn't have anything and that I'd taken care of any potential bugs (I've been frantically checking everything and cleaning and spraying for the last three weeks. No joke.) Spoiler: I did not. I now have a bug infestation in my home that's been causing a lot of issues with my mental health. I won't get into how it's impacting my mental health, but let's just say I don't sleep well at all at night. Pest control just called me today to tell me they won't be able to treat until Monday. So I'm stuck in a home with bugs until I can go to someone else's home Saturday and quarantine in one of her spare rooms with my animals until after they treat next week. I'm also working from home because I can't go to work until after they treat, so I'm stuck in my home quarantining...with bugs. Also can't see my counselor in-person until they've treated, so (":

And then I somehow dropped my phone in the toilet last weekend, so I didn't have a good phone to try and answer asks on until yesterday.

Does all this sound far-fetched? Yes. But it's true. When it rains it pours, I guess ^^' I swear I'm trying to post on here and get things written, but things keep happening. And like I said, my mental health hasn't been great. It isn't awful like it was last year! But I'm really anxious and not sleeping well. I want to get the story updated and written as soon as possible, but I won't promise when that'll be because I don't want to break any more promises.

If you've read this part, thank you for listening. Like I said, things will be ok and they're getting worked out, it's just taking time.

#mun speaks #em speaks #ooc #update #kind of #i need a separate tag for story vs other updates #tw bugs

[toshidou]

give us those personal hcs 🫶🏻

gaz hcs:

he's the type to leave notes. lots of notes. whether he's home for a while, or just about to set off for another gruelling deployment, he'll always make sure you have plenty of little pieces of paper scattered around your shared home for you to randomly find.

his hiding spots range from the bottom of the laundry basket, to under his pillow, you even found one taped to the back of the toilet seat once. each one says something short yet sweet; a simple "i love you" or, "you look so cute when you're concentrating" with a doodle of your face next to it.

he loves to bake. whether it's sweet stuff or delicious savoury breads, he loves nothing more than to watch your face light up at the mere scent of whatever he's got in the oven that day. your favourite thing he's made was a duck cake for his niece's birthday, a bright yellow masterpiece that had this adorable 6 year old screaming in delight the second it was placed in front of her.

gaz is a family man at heart, and though he never brings any photos of them with him on deployments, he'll always make sure to call his parents on a secure line at any chance he gets. after all, he knows his family worry about him, the least he can do is reassure them he's still alive and breathing, ready to come home and let his mum fawn over "their little hero".

this means he also wants to be a dad. so fucking much. he's amazing with kids, all bright eyes and giddy smiles as he crouches down and asks them what game they're playing today. each of the kids in his family adore their uncle kyle, and every time you watch him swoop them through the air whilst making the worst plane noise you've ever heard, you can't wait to watch him cherish the children you'll have in the future.

he's a sucker for disney movies. his favourite is either the fox and the hound, or mulan. don't make him pick, because he can't. you've also watched him cry at several other disney movies. but you're technically not allowed to tell anyone about that, even if you think it's hopelessly endearing.

he loves 40s/50s/60s love songs. something about how pure and sweet they are have always had such an impact on the way he's envisioned his future relationships. that means he's nothing but an absolute gentleman; always running out in front to open doors for you, bringing you home flowers at every opportunity. and if he's away on an assignment for months? he schedules a florist to deliver you a personally arranged bouquet every month, each accompanied with a note, of course.

as a kid, he always wanted a really niche hobby that he thought would impress his friends. so that's how he finds himself as a grown adult, being able to flawlessly tap dance. it's not a fact many people know about him, the number reduced to close family and the odd very close friend, in fact if it were up to him he'd take that secret to the grave with him. but it was only a matter of time until his mum ushered you to the couch and put on a home video of him being the solo at a tap dance recital, and you haven't let him live it down since.

#anon.exe #i love him so much #and this is only really scratching the surface of all my personal thoughts about him #i'm truly obsessed LMFAO #kyle gaz garrick #gaz garrick #gaz mw2 #kyle garrick #gaz headcanons #gaz imagine #cod mw22 #☁︎⋅writing

[eureka-its-zico]

i’m so sorry for your loss. grief can be a weird/scary thing to navigate. last year, i found this comment on reddit that explains grief and how it feels. it’s a little long, but it’s helped me a lot with my dad’s passing. i figured maybe it can help you too ♥️

———

As for grief, you'll find it comes in waves. When the ship is first wrecked, you're drowning, with wreckage all around you. Everything floating around you reminds you of the beauty and the magnificence of the ship that was, and is no more. And all you can do is float. You find some piece of the wreckage and you hang on for a while. Maybe it's some physical thing. Maybe it's a happy memory or a photograph. Maybe it's a person who is also floating. For a while, all you can do is float. Stay alive.

In the beginning, the waves are 100 feet tall and crash over you without mercy. They come 10 seconds apart and don't even give you time to catch your breath. All you can do is hang on and float. After a while, maybe weeks, maybe months, you'll find the waves are still 100 feet tall, but they come further apart. When they come, they still crash all over you and wipe you out. But in between, you can breathe, you can function. You never know what's going to trigger the grief. It might be a song, a picture, a street intersection, the smell of a cup of coffee. It can be just about anything...and the wave comes crashing. But in between waves, there is life.

Somewhere down the line, and it's different for everybody, you find that the waves are only 80 feet tall. Or 50 feet tall. And while they still come, they come further apart. You can see them coming. An anniversary, a birthday, or Christmas, or landing at O'Hare. You can see it coming, for the most part, and prepare yourself. And when it washes over you, you know that somehow you will, again, come out the other side. Soaking wet, sputtering, still hanging on to some tiny piece of the wreckage, but you'll come out.

Take it from an old guy. The waves never stop coming, and somehow you don't really want them to. But you learn that you'll survive them. And other waves will come. And you'll survive them too. If you're lucky, you'll have lots of scars from lots of loves. And lots of shipwrecks.

———

From the bottom of my heart: thank you for this.

I’ve read this over and over what feels like a hundred times. Each time I’ve read it, it seemed I understood it in a new way. I have days where it feels like the waves aren’t suffocating. Where the shipwreck of my loss doesn’t feel like it’s relentlessly pulling me under, while others days it’s completely drowning me.

It’s so weird. I expect to wake up and just start talking to her. Getting on instagram, Tumblr, TikTok, or even just opening our texts reminds me with painful clarity it won’t happen.

I started playing Baldur’s Gate 3 for her last year. She kept telling me Astarion is not only a sassy vampire who I would love, but he had one of the most painful angsty backstories ever. She honestly wasn’t wrong. I finally was able to finish it for her. Even if I literally cried at random moments and had to get up and take a break. I wish I could discuss him with her. Tell her a whole lot of things and have her talk me into writing for him (aka something for her). Although I can’t tell her what impact his storyline had on me, I decided to still write it out and send it to her. To let her know - if she already doesn’t.

Thank you, again, for taking the time to send me this. I absolutely appreciate you sending something that conveys in the most tragically beautiful way what it means to miss someone always 🖤

P.s. I am so incredibly sorry to read about your loss🖤

#aestheticalling #answered #this has meant a lot to me #I hope you are well

[purple-plum-petals]

—⊱ Safe in Your Arms ⊰ || Xiao x Reader

╭─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╮       Character(s): Xiao (Genshin Impact)       Reader Type: Human, Not Traveler (Gender-Neutral Pronouns)       Warning(s): Reader Experiencing Symptoms Similar to Insomnia, Vivid Nightmare Scene in Beginning (Reader is being Chased by an Unknown Creature with Multiple Eyes in the Dark), Brief Mention of Vomit/Vomiting, Brief Mention of Eating Dirt/Rocks/Grass/Bugs in Nightmare Scene       Genre: Drabble, Angst, Fluff (Hurt/Comfort), Romantic (Pre-established Relationship)       Word Count: ~1,400 words       Prompt: “I just don't want to be alone tonight.” [Prompt List]       Author’s Note: Xiao my beloved. 🥰 I had a lot of fun with this prompt! I don’t care how many fanfictions there are about Xiao helping the Reader sleep after a nightmare, I will never get tired of that trope for as long as I live; it’s the hurt/comfort for me. I really hope Xiao comes home this time around in 2.7 – I wasn’t around for his first banner and then I lost the 50/50 in his rerun to a c1 Qiqi. My love please come home.… 😭

→ If you enjoyed my work, please reblog it if you can! Exposure on Tumblr is based on reblogging content rather than liking it, so your support would be much appreciated!  ♡ ╰─━━━━━━━━━━━━─╯

⋆﹥━━━━━━━━━━━━��━━﹤⋆

           It had been a while since you had a nightmare and, with complete certainty, you could say that you didn’t miss them for a single second. Night after night of sleeplessness, of tossing and turning in your bed as sweat coated every inch of your body and made your pajamas cling to your uncomfortably warm skin like glue. Your eyes were bloodshot, the moon seeming to mock you from outside your window as it illuminated your bedroom in a cool blue hue. The night breeze blew through your room causing you to close your eyes for a moment as you enjoyed the chill it created on your clammy skin. You kept your eyes closed, trying to control your breathing so you could calm down and hopefully get some sleep before the morning came. Thankfully, sleep did welcome you back with open arms. However, unthankfully, your dream picked back up right where you had left off.

           You were running from… something. You couldn’t see what it was giving chase in the murky abyss behind you, but you knew it was there. You tried screaming for help, for someone, but nothing came out; you were drowning in the air around you. Suddenly, a hand wrapped itself around your ankle and pulled your leg out from under you, causing you to hit the ground with no time to brace yourself for impact. Dirt and grass filled your mouth the moment your face collided with the ground. You tried to spit it out but, no matter how many times you nearly threw up at the taste, your mouth stayed full of pebbles, plants, and bugs. You turned around and came face-to-face with the creature so hellbent on capturing you. Multiple eyes stared back at you from the darkness and ice shot through your veins as it began trying to drag you with it to wherever it wanted to take you. Even though the air was suffocating and your mouth filled with dirt, you finally managed to, with all the energy you could muster, yell out his name – Xiao.

           A voice calling to you and a cool hand shaking your shoulder caused you to wake up with a start, sitting up faster than lighting as you gasped for breath; just like your dream, you found yourself finding it hard to breathe despite the air that surrounded you. You felt a weight on your shoulder and turned to see what was touching you… only for your eyes to lock with a pair of sharp, golden orbs. You knew those eyes and – simply just seeing them at that moment – made everything feel alright; you felt safe in ways you hadn’t all night.

           “A-Ah… Xiao. Umm, m-may I ask why you’re here? Is something the matter?” You questioned, tilting your head to the side as you felt a bead of sweat roll down your brow. Ugh, you probably looked like a hot mess and it certainly wasn’t the type of hot you would want to look like in front of your beloved adeptus. Though, you didn’t have the energy to feel embarrassed when the adrenaline was still pumping through your veins and your arms were continuously shaking with the lingering fear from your dream still embedded in your mind.

           Xiao simply stared at you blankly for a moment before bluntly saying, “You called my name.”

           “O-Oh?” You asked in return, brows furrowed in confusion. You don’t remember calling his name, though? You were asleep and – wait, you did call his name! Xiao was the only thing you were able to choke out in your dream between having a face full of imaginary dirt and a shadowy monster trying to drag you into the abyss while you suffocated on air and… Alright, enough thinking about that! You didn’t need to spiral again. Taking your hand and running it through your damp locks in an attempt to soothe your anxieties, you said sheepishly with a not-very-convincing smile, “Oh! I… I guess I did. I-I apologize, I must have called it while I was sleeping. Nothing is wrong, so you can leave if you’re busy.”

           “Something is wrong – your pulse is higher than it should be, and you haven’t stopped shaking since you awoke…” Xiao said, his hand running down your arm from your shoulder to your wrist as he held it in his grasp oh-so delicately. He sat there for a moment, your hand in his as he caressed your palm with his thumb before his brows furrowed as he said, “your temperature is dangerously high as well.”

           “It was just a nightmare, is all – just my stupid human brain making things up to make sure I don’t get enough sleep to function properly. It happens all the time, so it’s no big deal.” You told him flippantly, waving your free hand (the one that he currently wasn’t holding) in the air as a way to make the whole situation seem insignificant. To him, it probably was; he was an adeptus, a protector of Liyue, and here he was having to comfort some human after they had a nightmare. You’d need to apologize to him later for wasting his time over something so insignificant.

           “It is a big deal,” Xiao said, gently taking both of your hands in his own. Your eyes met with his for a moment before his gaze darted around to look at anything besides your face. Xiao wasn’t the best at showing or giving affection, but he was getting better at it as your relationship continued to grow and evolve. Still, no matter how much time passed, the cute pink tint that always painted his face whenever he held you would never not be endearing. He continued to speak, voice soft and trembling ever so slightly, “I… I don’t know very much about you mortals, b-but I know that you need to sleep to stay healthy. Is there anything I could get for you that will help?”

           You thought for a moment before saying, a small smirk painted across your lips, “Sadly, I can’t think of anything off the top of my head but, well, if you’re offering…”

           “Yes?” Xiao asked, looking at you expectantly with one eyebrow raised.

           “…Could you stay with me?” You asked him, your gaze moving from his face to where your hands were still interlocked. You continued, voice shaky similarly to how his was just moments ago, “I-I just don't want to be alone tonight, hehe. Stupid, right? I’m a grown adult and I can’t even deal with a single nightmare on my own.”

           Xiao suddenly cut in, voice sterner than it had been all night, “You’re not stupid,” he paused for a moment, face turning that oh-so-lovely shade of red you adored on him, his golden stare boring its way into your heart as he continued, “a-and I don’t mind staying with you until you return to sleep... I have promised to protect you no matter what, and I will never break my promise to you.”

           “Thank you, Xiao; I’ll definitely make you some almond tofu tomorrow as a way to show my appreciation to the wonderful adeptus who stayed by my side.” You told him with a smile, scooting over in bed to make room for him. Xiao didn’t sleep very often and, whenever he did, he always managed to do it so awkwardly which, in a way, was understandable for an immortal being who didn’t need rest to function properly. No, you weren’t jealous over that fact (…okay, maybe you were).

           You gently led him by his hand under your awaiting covers, making sure he was nice and snug before wrapping your arms around his waist and snuggling into his chest with a content smile on your face. Xiao always seemed to run a bit colder than most and, at the moment, it was exactly what you needed. His toned body mixed with his cool temperature made it feel like you were lying on a very comfortable rock, but you weren’t going to say that out loud; no need to embarrass yourself any further tonight. With a content sigh, you whispered so only the two of you and the wind could hear, “…Goodnight, my darling Xiao.”

           You felt Xiao run his fingers through your locks, holding one of your hands in his as he muttered so quietly that even you could barely hear it over the calming breeze blowing through your window, “…Goodnight, my love.”

#🌸 . Plum Writes #genshin x reader #genshin impact x reader #genshin impact #genshin impact imagines #genshin impact drabbles #xiao #xiao genshin impact #xiao x reader #alatus #genshin fluff #genshin angst #genshin hurt/comfort #hurt/comfort #xiao fluff #xiao angst #xiao drabble

[solipseismic]

i hope you know that every day i wish i could read your book and really enjoyed reading the nanowrimo tidbits you sent, you should infodump about it 👀

CROW ... this is so so sweet i am kissing u gently on the mouth . also this is great timing bc i am just about to compile a vigilante's guide to knowing when to die into a goog file that i can send to my friend (part of our bargain in me convincing him to do nanowrimo w me this year)

snippet from book 2 for u:

The Rift gave a sudden convulsive shudder. Skysteel felt it all the way to her ankles as it threw her out—and away. She was freefalling before she even knew it, pinwheeling through the air like a shitty paper airplane. Sky-ground-sky-ground-BUILDING passed in a dizzy blur right up until she smacked into a billboard with a comedic sound. She would have laughed, except her lungs seemed to have gone on impromptu strike at the time of impact. It really was a hard-knock life, huh? Black spots swarmed her field of vision. An Avian shrieked at the sight of her and dove, the razor talons of its feet extended fully and bladed wings gleaming in the bright sun. Poltergeist and Eidolon were both yelling something over comms but she couldn’t parse anything—all she could see was the golden light of the Avians surrounding her, all she could feel was the agonizing feeling of the Rift splitting open wider far above her. The golden light of the Avians turned blinding. Skysteel’s secondary eyelids dropped down for a split second. But— That was no fucking Avian. A man shining like a blue sun reached down and gently plucked an Avian off Skysteel’s prone body laying in the ruin of the billboard. One moment his hand closed around its shoulder and the next—it was a still-glowing pile of fine, off-white ash on the ground. “That was stupid,” he said. Skysteel took the hand he offered and heaved herself up out of the pieces of billboard she’d fallen to the ground with. “That’s what I want on my headstone,” she told him, wincing and touching a hand to her ribs.

anyways i rarely talk abt a vigilante's guide (which some of u who have been following for a long time may know under the previous title of "demon city" and / or "demon eyes" and so all the stuff i've posted abt it r under those tags) bc it's like That One Big project for me. like u know how brandon sanderson has the stormlight archive that kind of is the hub / culmination of all his works across the brandonsandersonverse (official term is brandon sanderson's "cosmere")? for me that's vigilante's guide. also it's exceedingly self-indulgent is the other reason.

it's gone through like 50 different iterations bc it's existed in my brain for nearly as long as i can remember (i think over a decade at this point) and the Ira Neda i talk about (my supreme blorbo, if you will) is the protagonist! i have ambitions for it spanning five books with the second (formerly "demon eyes") titled a vigilante's guide to destroying the world but right now books 1 and 2 are existing in the same doc (DEMON MEGADRAFT) because i'm trying to see what gets shaken out of it while i play with a non-linear timeline between the two

as a result, there are a lot of ideas that are getting spun into it (and even more ideas that i've had trial runs of before editing or cutting them entirely) but it's got the run of the mill superhero genre setup: we have a recognizable earth set in the near-ish future / a time that's somewhat similar to our own, we have a bunch of vigilantes running around fighting ordinary crime and supervillains (tho these are mainly just called "terrorists" in-world bc, well.), and different people have different powers from different things (but mostly it's because they're alien / part alien lol)

book one (knowing when to die) follows ira neda's arrival in anehaven, a (fictional) city in new york, where she is trying to unravel the circumstances that led to her twin brother's death several years ago. she promises herself, her family, her friends, and a lot of strangers that she isn't in that vigilante business anymore, if she ever really was: she's retired now. she just wants to live a quiet life (lie) and she doesn't intend to instigate anything (lie) and she is never picking up the mantle again (lie). but anehaven, like ira neda herself, has secrets of its own. the city is alive--and it hungers. people have been disappearing from the streets without a trace for over a year now, more and more with each month that passes. she makes some friends (criminal empress and her two partners in crime as well as ... actual partners), she makes some enemies (her fellow vigilantes) there are three questions now that have no answers: what happens to these people? why does the sidewalk have teeth? and who the FUCK is this other guy calling himself a vigilante?

book two is a little more abstract on account of I Still Haven't Figured out Subplots for it, but it's your stock alien invasion with ensemble cast: here we introduce cori sanchez, the (also) (formerly) retired HUSH, a mirek'ar necromancer; alec iakabos, SOLSTICE, and noah harper, EQUINOX, whom you can think of as "gosh, i really was VERY inspired by wildstorm comics when i was fifteen, huh," if you're familiar with apollo and midnighter from them; along with some familiar faces from the first book--alan and blue wilson (POLTERGEIST and EIDOLON, respectively) and ira neda. names capitalized to make it easier for me to keep track of them lol.

#THANK U FOR COMING TO MY BLORBOTALK .... #croidhe #demon city #demon eyes

[the-autumn-apple-artworks]

I'm gonna rant for a moment cuz I'm not feeling hip atm I just had a discussion with my friends and I feel like shit. Putting it under the cut

I hate having discussions with my friends about series. It's probably the only way to make me feel uncomfortable in a friend group. /vneg

My irl friends like series I don't personally like (She-Ra, Hazbin Hotel, Steven Universe etc) and we started the discussion because we were laughing about the second season of Velma Show because it's so fucking shitty that is funny. And I know they were joking in a lighthearted way, but I felt genuinely invalidated by their words. Them saying how I don't have taste, how I am too critical about things and I should just "live and let live" and "start enjoying things a little". But like, OBJECTIVELY it's fucking impossible for me to enjoy something that is written SO POORLY. It makes the experience so uncomfortable and just not impactful as they said it is. I LOVE world building, I LOVE character development. And it just makes me so mad how in media that is just... so easily done so poorly like DELIBERATELY so. It's like people are just starting the idea without actually discussing about what that idea will become in the long run. Just thinking about the present and ending up doing everything all in once 50% because of corporations being shitty and stupidly strict, the other 50% because of the creators actually not taking seriously how world and character development is important to a story! But nooo no one cares everything is justified because "X series is so popular and loved by the mass and if you disagree you're an awful stupid shit awful person to be around that doesn't enjoy life and it's just a hater whth no reason"

Maybe I am too critical? Am I really that mean? I feel fucking awful now I'm just. So uncomfortable in my own fucking friend group.

Like, I hate these discussions so much because it literally turns into "You HATE this thing?? For valid reasons that come from actual objective criticism??? YOUR OPINION IS SO BORING HOW COULD YOU HATE THIS THING YOU CAN TELL ME EVERYTHING YOU WANT BUT I DON'T CARE IT'S MADE SO GOOD CAN'T YOU SEE HOW GOOD IT IS???? SEE?? SEE???"

It literally fucking becomes a war no matter what because it's you alone against the mass of fans that love the series internationally

I DON'T MEAN THAT WHOEVER LIKES THESE SERIES IS A SHITTY PERSON AND SHOULD DIE, I'm just saying that all I wish for is to be able to have a normal conversation without being stepped onto for putting out genuine criticism on the table. The fact that I'm GENUINELY SCARED to state my opinion on something is NOT NORMAL! Like seriously! I'm genuinely fucking scared to talk or even be around people talking about these series or topics because talking to fans about their favorite series is impossible!

Yes! You're right! [insert series here] has done some good things! It's pretty visually, has pretty music, maybe it has been the first series to bring some specific themes in TV! But that doesn't change my opinion nor motivations as to why I don't like it! Stop telling me that I cannot hate [insert series here] because your experience has been different or because the majority agrees with you. That's not how it should fucking work.

#// mike speaks #vent

[tsuchinokoroyale]

you mentioned you've been working on a webcomic, can you tell us what it's about? or is it still hush hush under wraps in development NDA ?

Haha, it’s nothing so secretive. I won’t go into it too much bc as much as I love oversharing, I feel like sharing too much of a story impacts how much I want to work at making it cuz it already feels like it’s out there. Luckily the premise is super generic so I don’t mind sharing that 🥳

My 100% unabashed self insert protagonist (( we have the same birthday I’m not subtle about it )) is living a boring, monotonous, and lonely life. This all changes when he ends up on a bus with a charming greek statue of a man and they both get pulled into a beautiful dream world together. It’s a double edged sword, however, because as lovely as the dreams may be, they can’t wake up unless they fulfill the wish that exists at the core of the dream.

It’s an episodic puzzle box mystery/dramedy as the two of them get pulled into various situations. Contrary to the sound of the premise and the self insert OC it’s not actually a story about personal wish fulfillment, but about learning the cost of fulfilling other peoples wishes above your own. I have like 50% of the story written, but translating it to comic format AND THEN actually drawing it is such a slow process 😮‍💨

It’s also my first serious foray into art and it DEFINITELY shows but I’m aiming for completion over perfection. Its very much about me learning to meet myself where I am as well as me engaging with myself creatively as well as me giving myself something to do to distract myself from The Horrors™ of unemployment.

I think I want to finish the first 4 chapters before I post ANYTHING since that’s when the story really starts to start (( king of pacing what can I say 🤭 )) and given the fact that I’ve been working on this comic every waking second for the past 3 weeks and have finished… a third of the first chapter, it’ll be a few months til anyone sees anything, especially if I land a job between now and then 😮‍💨

Until then you can have my favorite panel that I’ve drawn so far, a text message notification from our MC’s town’s Bus Schedule App:

#asked and answered babey! #I’ll probably set up a second account for posting it but again that’s a problem for FAR into the future

[expirisims]

I thought I’d share a little bit of my personal process for how I randomize sims to get my base populations. This has become my absolute favorite way to begin a new save and I actually have several going that I don’t post, I may eventually get some of those uploaded as well, we’ll see :) 

My grand plan is to save a copy of the first born from each of my families in each save and use them to begin a save that has a little of each of my favorite simmies in it, but who knows, that’s a waaaays down the road if I actually do it. 

Here are the spreadsheets I use to keep track of rolls, I just use a generic number wheel online, nothing fancy.

I don’t really mess with the sliders, that takes absolutely forever. I have also figured out that the eye presets (the first 8 on the main page) are the most realistic (aside from purple bc that’s super rare in real life). And some of the body hair options are extreme (due to werewolves) and not everyone will have freckles or beauty marks. So I spin 50/50 first on those and an asterisk is used to denote those without body hair, facial hair, or beauty marks/freckles of any kind. As for the eyes I use the asterisk as a placeholder to role 1-8 for eye color, those without the asterisk will have a chance of the original 1-8, but the pallet is expanded to the full preset available under the color swatches/wheel.

You can see here I have filled in the placeholders.

Spinning for the females in this particular population sims 1 and 2 have the same skin. To demonstrate the difference between them even with the same skin I used the same base sim to apply the rest of the randomized genetics.

EA base sim

Sim 1

Sim 2

In this case they happened to have similar hair color, I was hoping one would be blond or something. To give you a better idea of how different randomized sims from the same base can be, Sharon Cortes and Brianna Pollack share a base sim, and Corinna Jones, Ida Lawton and Joanna McCabe share a base sim as well! This also gives you the idea of how much a cc skin can impact the tone ramp of a base sims tone.

Here is male sim 1 from this particular population! As far as actual skin tone, I usually leave the base sim with their original tone ramp and it just depends on how the skin they land with changes the actual tone of their skin. In cases where I’m not seeing enough diversity I will intervene and change some of the skin tones. I also prefer not to play with unnatural colors for skins so if a sim rolls that they default to my default skin (Kurasoberina’s Primer).

For body type where it is not really possible to count on the slider, I imagine the bar as ranging from 1-100 and divide it into fourths. So if I roll 25 or lower I eyeball on that where they would land and so on. As I said I don’t really adjust any other sliders for features I roll. When it comes to crazy hairstyles and clothing, my sims are stuck like that through a full rotation. As with Redwood Harbor my second pass through their household they have “earned” a makeover so to say. 

#Sims 3 #ts3 #how i populate worlds #randomizer sims #sharon cortes #brianna pollak #corinna grubbs #joanna mccabe #ida lawton

[nicklloydnow]

“The article was published on the Kremlin's main propaganda website, RIA Novosti. It was written by Sergey Karaganov, a "Doctor of Sciences in History" and a political scientist. The article’s full title is "There is no choice: Russia will have to launch a nuclear strike on Europe".

And this is not his first such material. Less than two weeks ago, Karaganov published a similar article, the essence of which boils down to the same thing – Russia "must launch a pre-emptive nuclear strike on Europe." It was published in Profile, a private magazine.”

“As the video illustrates, it doesn’t matter much who starts the war: when one side launches nuclear missiles, the other side detects them and fires back before impact. Ballistic missiles from U.S. submarines west of Norway start striking Russia after about 10 minutes, and Russian ones from north of Canada start hitting the U.S. a few minutes later. The very first strikes fry electronics and power grids by creating an electro-magnetic pulse of tens of thousands of volts per meter. The next strikes target command-and-control centers and nuclear launch facilities. Land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles take about half an hour to fly from launch to target.

(…)

Unfortunately, peer-reviewed research suggests that explosions, the electromagnetic pulse, and the radioactivity aren’t the worst part: a nuclear winter is caused by the black carbon smoke from the nuclear firestorms. The Hiroshima atomic bomb caused such a firestorm, but today’s hydrogen bombs are much more powerful. A large city like Moscow, with almost 50 times more people than Hiroshima, can create much more smoke, and a firestorm that sends plumes of black smoke up into the stratosphere, far above any rain clouds that would otherwise wash out the smoke. This black smoke gets heated by sunlight, lofting it like a hot air balloon for up to a decade. High-altitude jet streams are so fast that it takes only a few days for the smoke to spread across much of the northern hemisphere.

This makes Earth freezing cold even during the summer, with farmland in Kansas cooling by about 20 degrees centigrade (about 40 degrees Fahrenheit), and other regions cooling almost twice as much. A recent scientific paper estimates that over 5 billion people could starve to death, including around 99% of those in the US, Europe, Russia, and China – because most black carbon smoke stays in the Northern hemisphere where it’s produced, and because temperature drops harm agriculture more at high latitudes.

(…)

We obviously don’t know how many people will survive a nuclear war. But if it’s even remotely as bad as this study predicts, it has no winners, merely losers. It’s easy to feel powerless, but the good news is that there is something you can do to help: please help share this video! The fact that nuclear war is likely to start via gradual escalation, perhaps combined by accident or miscalculation, means that the more people know about nuclear war, the more likely we are to avoid having one.”

“Article 92 of Russia's constitution lays down that if the head of state is 'incapable of fulfilling his duties' his temporary successor is the prime minister. That would be Mikhail Mishustin, a competent, low-key 57-year-old bureaucrat who is hardly a household name even in Russia.

But real power after a palace coup would lie elsewhere, probably with a Kremlin insider. Nikolai Patrushev, the national security adviser, is one candidate. His well-connected, fast-rising son Dmitry, currently agriculture minister, is another. Any such new leader would make Putin the scapegoat for the disastrous Ukraine war, and try to end it as quickly as possible.

A neat solution, but not a durable one.Many in Russia fear that what lies ahead is a 'Time of Troubles' (Smutnoye vremya), in which feuding clans battle for wealth and power. The phrase originally referred to the lawless period after 1598, when the tsarist throne changed hands six times in 15 years.

(…)

According to Igor Girkin, a military veteran with a wide following among nationalist Russians, last weekend's chaotic and violent events show that another 'Time of Troubles' has already started.

(…)

The state-controlled energy giant Gazprom has two militias: Potok (stream) and Fakel (torch). The defence minister Sergei Shoigu has Patriot, which hires experienced soldiers on hefty salaries of £5,000 a month or more — a fortune by Russian standards.

These legions serve many purposes. Apart from spearheading Russia's efforts in Ukraine, the Wagner Group — in particular — spreads Kremlin influence across Africa and was largely responsible for saving the brutal Assad regime in Syria. Yet the existence of these 'military contractors' is a sign of how deeply Russia has decayed. It would be inconceivable for British companies such as the energy giant BP, or the catering contractor Sodexo, to have private armies, let alone for Ben Wallace, the Secretary of State for Defence, to have his own personal fighting force.

(…)

The Kremlin is belatedly trying to rein in these legions. But the lesson of the past few days is that central power is weak. Just like the boyars [barons] who clashed in the first Time of Troubles, the big players in modern Russia know that they need their own private militias, and the bigger the better.

As these rivalries boil over, long-buried ethnic grievances could resurface too. Regional chiefs, who have long chafed at Moscow's intrusive rule, could all too easily try to assert their independence. The Muslim peoples of central Russia — Tatars, Bashkirs and others — could exploit the crisis to regain the freedom they briefly tasted more than 100 years ago.

(…)

In Britain we may have largely disconnected our oil and gas supplies from Russia, but that is no cause for complacency if the giant country spirals downwards into disorder. Perhaps the most alarming prospect is 'loose nukes': the thought of Russia's stockpile of thousands of nuclear warheads falling into the hands of terrorists.

(…)

Decision-makers in Beijing have long looked hungrily over their shared border at Russia's natural wealth: hydrocarbons, minerals, timber, water and crops. It would be ironic if Putin's attempt to rebuild the old Russian empire ended in his country becoming part of the new Chinese one. Yet these are not the worst outcomes. A post-Putin junta or strongman could turn the country into a nuclear-armed rogue state like North Korea or Iran, bristling with weapons and determined to make trouble. Given our repeated failures to contain Putin's ambitions, we will struggle to deal with a regime truly bent on nuclear confrontation.

(…)

One thing in all this is certain — change will catch us flat-footed. Over the past 30 years I have watched in dismay and anger as our governments have eviscerated Britain's expertise in understanding Russia. Spies, diplomats and analysts with lifetime experience in Kremlinology, their skills honed by the high stakes of the Cold War, were cast on to the scrap heap.

(…)

Whether we like it or not, the Putin era — with the illusions it fostered in Russia and abroad — is coming to an end. Be prepared.”

#karaganov #sergey karaganov #tegmark #max tegmark #nuclear war #nuclear weapons #wwiii #russia ukraine war #putin #edward lucas #Igor Girkin #times of troubles #Smutnoye vremya #gazprom

[lightdash]

Now that it’s been a few days, huge spoiler warning under the cut because boy do I have some thoughts about Issue #50.

So ever since the dawn of idw’s run, I’ve had really... conflicting thoughts on how Ian decides to portray Sonic. He’s been writing hedgehog content for a long time now, and I appreciate what the guy does — but self admittedly, he’s rarely picked up and played a Sonic game, and has the most basic knowledge of the earlier titles. All of his current experience comes from three things: 

His time on the Archie comics.

SEGA’s asks and thoughts on what he creates.

Time spent on the cusp of fandom over the years.

... Which like, none of these are inherently bad, but I don’t think they’ve led him down the best path for writing Sonic as a character.

The most recent issue felt like a nail on the head for me, a kind of a-hah moment as to why I struggle to enjoy this portrayal of Sonic so much: he’s trying too hard.

A major selling point of Sonic’s character, for me, has always been his subtlety. Strip him down to the bare essentials and he should still be mostly the same, because what you see is what you get. But it’s in that simplicity that you also get to see what makes him shine — he’s all about slight expressions, doing rather than saying, living in the moment, ect ect.

But in the comics, I feel as if he loses a lot of this charm, and it’s replaced by a weird... arrogance? He’s almost ‘preachy’ at times, constantly telling those around him (not just enemies, but friends too) what the “right” thing to do is. Huge emphasis on second chances all the time, even when valid points are brought to his doorstep. Personal accountability is also a giant struggle, where it feels like he would rather blame those around him for choices he makes than admit he was wrong and... learn from it.

The fight with Surge highlights this issue really well, and it’s this one exchange in specific that does it for me:

This... isn’t Sonic to me. This feels so out of character.

He’s being so needlessly patronizing and righteous here, especially to someone he can visibly see is having a rough go. Fight her, sure — she’s threatening his friends and well.... everything, so he should raise fists. But look down on her, quite literally, with god rays shining down on him, to tell her how morally good he is? Explaining his apparent ideals to her, rather than just... living by them. Since when has Sonic ever needed to do that? (desperately ignoring the meta era, i am looking the other way)

Can you imagine if he did this to Shadow, how weird and different the tone of their interactions would’ve been? Chaos? Erazor Djinn?

Even with a closer example of Merlina: a fight where Sonic does ask what her motive is, he still listens for most of it. He’s observant and hears her out, and when he finally does talk, it’s because he has something meaningful to add. And when it’s questioned why he’s fighting? “I just gotta do what I gotta do, that’s all.”

But here, he’s not only giving a pseudo speech, but he’s practically saying he’ll be kind enough to grant her a second chance, because he’s the good guy. It feels so out of place, especially after he says that he likes to keep it simple? I just can’t see Sonic being the type of character to talk this much in the heat of the moment either... he’s always been the type to show his beliefs through action, not standing on a podium. He lives by example; again, subtlety that we’re missing.

In the name of giving Sonic ‘depth’ that he was apparently missing, I think that Ian has just made him feel... mean. I don’t think that Sonic was ever necessarily missing depth, either; a simple character doesn’t equate a bad one. This shares the same energy of the crowd that begs to see Sonic cry in the games, or any media, when he’s just not that type of character; he’s never needed to show extreme emotion to make an impact.

Also — “the doctors, too?” “Even them.”

This kills me because once again, in the games, Sonic doesn’t try and make peace with Eggman. They may ‘work together’ a few times against a common enemy, sure, but never for a second has Sonic ever stopped and been like hmm, maybe he’s just misunderstood! He understands that Eggman is the bad guy, cut and dry. 

“You and I have our own styles that we won’t change.”

It’s the whole core of their dynamic. But instead, Ian paints a picture in idw where Eggman isn’t... actually evil; it’s just hidden good deep inside that he needs to “come around” to, according to Sonic? Which feels oddly naïve for him. 

Sonic in these comics really does just try and force his so-called principals onto those around him, and it’s awkward to read. Another great example is his fight with Shadow in the earlier issues — a character who is deeply traumatized and has valid concerns about Eggman, concerns that Sonic should respect.

... But what does he do instead? Why, he manipulates Shadow into feeling bad for not trusting Mr.Tinker: “after all, if he can’t be forgiven, can you?” Like... in that moment, he doesn’t care that Shadow is trying to express his worries. Or that he’s very clearly sensitive about his past, and bringing it up so flippantly like that to prove a point is such a dick move. 

None of this is to say that I don’t want Sonic to have character flaws, because I do. I don’t mind the occasional temper, or even arrogance, and mistakes are natural! But I want to see him take accountability and actually learn. I want him to not stand around and tell everyone about his ideals, but live by them. 

This version of Sonic that would rather ignore the warnings of his friends and put more trust into his enemies, all in the name of ‘second chances’ or whatever else just... doesn’t do it for me. I hope that maybe in future issues, Ian can put a different spin on it, because as it stands now... 😓

I want to end this little thing on a positive note though: I really enjoyed how Eggman was handled in this issue. Like a lot. Love seeing him fucking punch Starling into the ground. And the exchange between Kit and Tails? That was really good, too! The art is lovely. I appreciate the time and love they put into idw, and my hedgehog thoughts are no baring on that. 

#◜✰ ◞ ‣ 𝐎𝐎𝐂. — let's show them the real super power of procrastinating! ❜ #idw spoilers - tread carefully! #this is obviously me talking primarily about sonic because... of course but there's some other things too #( please take all of this with a grain of salt ) #this is also REALLY long and kind of rambly so i'm sorry for that. fair warning *

[squirrelno2]

Me at myself in the mirror at 3:50 in the afternoon one day: the thing about the sequel trilogy of star wars is that Finn was in the perfect position to be a foil to Kylo Ren and a hopeful spin on the character of Anakin Skywalker and the fact that nobody even noticed these parallels is a testament to the power of racism and the fact that bigotry actually makes you a worse writer

No but. Anakin’s out here with his introduction in the prequels as a slave, and it’s poorly done but implied that the pain and fear of that part of his life impacts how he interacts with… basically everything ever, and ultimately makes him susceptible to palpatine’s grooming; your mileage may vary on the ratio of canon to fanon in this interpretation but I think we can all agree being a slave from birth is gonna fuck a kid up and there’s a reason why George lucas chose this particular backstory for him.

So you’ve got Kylo Ren, eschewing a family that cares for him (please don’t talk to me about whatever the fuck was going on in those last jedi flashbacks first of all that’s bad writing babe and second, we’re talking solely about the expectations and possibilities established in force awakens because there’s not enough narrative or character consistency in the sequel trilogy to take. Anything as a whole there) in order to chase after this version of his grandfather that isn’t even the version he died as. Like! Whether you think Anakin/Vader achieved redemption or simply did one good thing at the end of his life, we all know that act of sacrifice on Luke’s behalf is. The definition of Star Wars. Vader choosing to do good in his last moments was what the original trilogy built towards and what the prequel trilogy always knew, and it’s this fucked up spectre over everything Kylo Ren says or does in Force Awakens because he’s out here pleading with the ghost of a man who is not real, he’s chasing Vader instead of Anakin Skywalker and ignoring the choices his own grandpa made in the name of… honouring him somehow???

And then there’s Finn. Finn who’s been raised since who knows when but definitely childhood given he has no name to remember to be a weapon for the First Order. Somehow I doubt they pay their stormtroopers, somehow I expect their education is more indoctrination than anything, somehow I doubt Finn was ever instilled with a sense that he as a person mattered – Finn’s a slave when we meet him. Unequivocally. And this man who’s known nothing else his entire life turns around and says “actually I think I will do good things or at least stop doing bad ones” and runs the fuck away, freeing himself. (and also Poe. Something something the act of saving others in turn saves you, this is my eternal soapbox but that’s not my point right now)

Finn is afraid, and very nearly runs away from the fight like “I’m safe so it doesn’t matter what happens to others” – when satisfied that Rey is safe (and under the impression that Poe is dead) he feels no strong compulsion to protect an ambiguous “rest of the galaxy” which honestly is exactly the vibes Anakin Skywalker has for pretty much all his life. Anakin would be a hero because the people he cared about wanted him to be. He fought for Padme and Obi-Wan and frigging Palpatine (and Ahsoka, I say, skipping outside the movies for a hot second because I love her) first and foremost, and the Jedi and the Republic because those were the causes his loved ones cared about. Finn has the opportunity to get away, to protect himself for the first time in his life, and he doesn’t have to worry about the few people he cares about so he very nearly goes for it.

Then the thing is, Finn, unlike Anakin, doesn’t let that fear rule him? He turns around and goes back for Rey, follows Poe, stays with the Resistance. He gets to be terrified but he also says that terror isn’t his only motivating factor, and that his self-interest matters less to him than the galaxy – a choice Anakin struggled to make until literally the end of his life.

In conclusion, if the sequel trilogy had stuck to its guns and been about the tragedy of history as a cycle and the way we cling to idealised pasts and torture ourselves over might-have-beens (and also how that inaction and obsession with history allows the rise of fascism bc we spend so much time patting ourselves on the back for defeating ‘the bad guy’ we ignore what gave the bad guy power) – if it had been a well written story Finn should have been a hopeful twist to the story of Darth Vader, a man who faced the same struggles as Anakin but made better, kinder choices, which would bring it nicely full circle considering George Lucas was like. Very into star wars as being about Vader

But nope we had to have whatever that poorly written racist tug-of-war was instead. I don’t know about you but I need better fandoms

#star wars #star wars sequel trilogy #finn #anakin skywalker #i'd tag this with kyle ron but i don't know how annoying the stans still are #it's been a hot second since i wandered into this corner of the sw fandom

[rage-against-the-dying-of-light]

hi there big fan. id say first time writer but i think this is my second ask ive sent you actually. i was meaning to ask how you wind up participating in so many zines! it seems like every time i catch one taking applications it's something i'm just not a fit for, and the ones that i WOULD fit right in with always manage to pass me by. is it just a matter of knowing people? tracking certain tags? luck? genuinely asking because i'd love to take part in something like that and i always see you in so many! ok thats my ask. thanks for writing sooo good i love to read it. sparkle on

Hey Musashi, thanks for the ask, nice to see you in my ask box again.

Anyways, getting into zines! Well, for Ace Attorney getting my start was luck, I didn't even know what a zine was until a new friend told me and some others in our private server that they were in an AA zine and pre-orders had just opened, and so I rushed to support them. I won't ramble your ear off with the whole damn story, but eventually I found the @ aafancalendar which reblogs pretty much every AA event that could be going on. Not every fandom has it's own dedicated calender, but that one is fantastic!

In terms of getting into zines? Most zines have a blind submission process, so I am pleased to say I got into them via skill. But in terms of knowing ppl? That usually helps for running a zine.

Running a zine is a lot of work, but mods also get to be in their own zine, it's kind of a mod privileges thing. So that can be a place where knowing ppl helps, bc if you've shown you're a great mod, they might ask for your help on future projects. But there are still lots of opportunities to get into modding (many zines invite intern mods to learn the ropes!), and you can always just be head mod yourself too, (that's another story for another time). I’m also just autistic af and cold called ppl in the fandom who I admired and wanted to work with and who had worked on other zines. Your mileage may vary, but there’s no harm in asking, just make sure you’re fine taking no for an answer.

That's about how I got into half the zines I'm in, is I'm helping run them. But part of it is just persistence and not counting yourself out before you even apply. I want to get traditionally published too, so been trying the magazine scene, so I already had 1 years worth of magazine rejections under my belt, but even still, it does still hurt to get rejected even from zines, but you have to be persistent. I think I'm at a 50/50 acception to rejection rate when it comes to getting into zines. Sometimes, even if you're skilled, your prose style or whatever just doesn't vibe with the zine mods and that's not a reflection of your skill.

The short of it: put your best works forward and apply to everything you’re interested in.

I'll also leave you with some more resources. So in terms of finding zines from other fandoms, the best resource I've found is @ ZineTown on Twitter. (I know we might not like Twitter, but they're incredibly professional, active and a huge community, extremely worth following.) I'd also suggest joining their Discord channel, bc it is not only great to find zines to contribute to, a ton of mods there also post looking for mods to help out and you can choose to get pinged for specific fandoms, or specific mod roles.

Also if you're into Genshin Impact at all, just from casual observation, they have a bonker yonkers amount of zines, so good time to be a Genshin zine fan.

Sorry this was so rambly, but I hope it helped!

tl;dr: Follow aafancalendar and ZineTown, apply for literally everything. Make sure to have a private friends server to build you back up after rejections (they will happen, sometimes zines have to reject even highly skilled ppl just for numbers reasons). Crying is allowed and encouraged, make sure to have snacks for either celebration or comfort after rejection.

#asks #zines #kind of rambling lol sorry