i don't know who needs this advice (I do) but not only can you do too much of the things you do to wind down and distract yourself from how stressful real life is and make your schedule WAY worse because you spend too much time fucking around (tragic believe me)
but like maybe these things you do for fun are partially what makes you need so much downtime in the first place. Like for example my escapism has got so bad that I can't go to another room in the apartment without reaching for my headphones so i can listen to a story or a podcast while i. put my empty cup into the dishwasher, which is like a two minute task. my brain is CONSTANTLY inundated with noise and complex storytelling and parsing audio of several different people and. even if that's how your brain works. how you process the world. that is hard work for your brain and forcing it to do that from the moment you wake up to the moment you fall asleep is exhausting and no fucking wonder you can't focus on anything. (not to mention if you're an idiot, like me, and do it all in your second language, and forcing your brain to constantly have to codeswitch back to the world around you).
like idk i guess the message is maybe we should check in with ourselves more to see if we do hobbies at a healthy level, too, because it's easy to miss when it's fun
Hey I made a depression/anxiety/general mental health symptom tracker for myself and I thought I'd share it to see if it's useful to anyone else! you can add your own symptoms you want to track and customize it, it's a place to start though
it's after 9 pm on a saturday you know what that means VENT TIME (no seriously why is it always late at night on saturdays i'm so confused)
i think that what I'm experiencing psychologically rn is brain fog. thinking is tiring. thinking about thinking makes me feel stupid. I can barely read long posts because i get so tired of trying to comprehend them halfway through. i find myself reading nothing but fanfiction because it's lighthearted and accessibly written and i don't have to think too hard about it, i can just let it carry me into whatever it is it's written about.
i keep wishing that I was "smart enough" for critical analysis like i see online, and like all my friends do, but the fact of the matter is in my current state i just can't DO THAT. it's not that I'm not smart enough, it's just that thinking about ANYTHING is so exhausting, even the things that I enjoy, I can't put any extra thought into anything. i want to write fanfiction that does deep dives into character's feelings and thoughts and why they do the things they do, but I can barely make it through a sentence without losing my original intention. even some of the sentences in this post i've had trouble figuring out how to finish because i lose the thread and can't find it again.
it's fucking rough man.
i've suspected that I have long COVID for a while because this past year has been rough for me in a way i'd never experienced before i got sick. looking at a list of long COVID symptoms is like a checklist for all the weird shit that i've suddenly got going on ever since i got sick.
it's weird to be struck with this realisation just now, while watching Criminal Minds, but I think that that's genuinely what this is. I need to be kinder to myself, and remind myself that no, I'm not stupid. It's not my fault that I can't keep up with my peers right now. I'm reminded of all the posts I've seen of other people in similar situations, who described something that's almost identical to how I feel. I don't know how it never entirely clicked before.
it's reassuring in some way or another, anyhow. That like, this isn't just me being dumb. I haven't always been this way. there is hope (hopefully there's hope lmao) that at some point the brain fog will go away and I won't feel like this anymore. And I'M NOT dumb, even with the brain fog I'm not stupid, nobody is stupid for things out of their control. just having complicated feelings about it.
congratulations to haley and marisha. our girl put up a goddamn good fight for someone who just got into boxing. five full rounds and still standing strong, that's some dope monk shit. let's show some love for this force of nature of a woman, she deserves it all and more.
Wally and the colour Red have an interesting relationship in Welcome Home. This is a rambling/analysis of different things I've found that makes me believe it's an important detail moving forwards with the Welcome Home Mystery!
First! Why do I think this matters?
There's a few reasons why I think this matters! First, while all the members of the cast seem to be tied to a colour, none is as focused or as consistent as Wally and the colour red! The two primary examples I'll use to cover this is one that we've had for a while, and two that we got in this update. Those being the signatures at the bottom of the guestbook, the interactable telephone, and the name graphics on the transcript page!
Interestingly, all of the cast are directly tied to a specific colour! The signatures at the bottom of the Guestpage and the colours of the "calls" on the telephone are the same for each character. This being pink for Julie, orange for Sally, yellow for Frank, green for Poppy, turquoise for Howdy, blue for Barnaby, purple for Eddie, and red for Wally. This is consistent (and possibly something to pay attention for in the future?)
Notably however, Home is signed by Wally, while the audio file for Wally's "call" recording is also called "duet" when you open it in another tab. Audio files with "duet" is a sign that Home is present. This means that red is not strictly a Wally colour, but also the colour for Home!
(if you're curious, the other audio called "duet" is Wally's little song he sings)
This is interesting, because Wally and Home are often treated as a duo, moreso than any other characters of Welcome Home. I would also like to point out another detail, one that I think ties into this tie between Wally, Home and the colour red.
The Records
All the records from Wally's hidden message ("I will help you understand neighbor, I will find a way soon.") are red! Sure, some are glitched, but they are all red. As is this record with the strange audio (has anyone decoded this yet?). This audio is directly tied to Wally, as it's called "(DRAWING?) WITH WALLY DARLING".
However the hidden one's may not just be Wally. Though they are all name the tab "answer" when opened, I'm tempted to say that "answer" is wally prompting us to answer (or, alternatively, Wally is trying to answer us, however he perceives us).
I believe that Home is there too in the audio. If you listen to all of them in a row, turning up the audio will reveal that there is a heart beat in the background. This, I want to say, is Home and not Wally, as Wally does not seem to register them. It peaks about halfway through with Neighbor, coincidentally the audio that is both glitching and is made of a series of clicks rather than voice lines.
I have seen people say that this is "Help Me" or "Hello" in morse code. I do not know which is the agreed translation is (to me it sounds like "…. . ..-.. .. -.. ---", which translates to "HEĘIDO", which is not a word. However it most resembles "…. . .-.. .-.. ---" which translates to "HELLO")
Regardless of what Home may be saying, it shows that the hidden recordings can be put together into a timeline that sounds like one recording, which means it's most likely all recorded at the same place. Ergo, Home is in the hidden recordings as well!
Other spots where red is brought up
There are other instances of red being tied to Wally. Some are obvious, like his love of apples (red ones specifically), the Wally prints/finger paint on the bottom of the guestbook, the background of the "i <3 Wally" gif/sticker in the sticker section of the site (also shared with Home. Wally's character description is also shared by home!), Wally himself in the "so-below" page, among other things. Such as the Wally themed telephone being red, despite his more iconic blue swirled hair (or blue and yellow-trimed sweater), his clothing in multiple official artworks, the Wally cereal box, and more.
(Like something I've noticed, which is that Home is the only house that's a solid colour (red!) without any pattern breaking it up, plus the most "standout" red that Wally typically wears being tied around his neck (symbolism?). Plus the "W" of Welcome Home is red! That's fun too!
There's also some... stranger ones. Such as this hidden piece of morse code found by this person, which spells out ".. -- .-. . -..", or "IM RED" when translated to english.
And more hidden ones too, that tie into the hidden staff page (I have a post breaking that down that you can find here!! I cover everything I could find plus went through the website code, if you want to know everything about the secret staff site check it out!)
There is the red safe, which has in WHRP universe lore!! I delve into this in my other post, just know that it is something that exists both in the secret website (it is what introduces you to the hidden website!) AND it exists in the WHRP world, both written about in printed emails and as a physical object seen within The Room:tm:. You may also notice everyone is represented by their original colours, except for home, who is now white (or blank?).
There's also scrap pieces of red paper spilled on the ground in The Room:tm: (that have drawn spirals), a red clock in the style of Wally's red car, a red painting of some sort on the wall of The Room:tm: (that we never get a good look at, though it may have a drawn yellow eye in the upper center), a red apple, and most importantly of all, this:
The Red Notebook
This is no ordinary notebook. This here is the notebook that the WHRP team have "loaned" the Question Answerer, also known as the Head Curator of Question Answer! according to the printed emails. This book is very important because there are multiple signs that it was written by Wally. Inside is a sketchpad attached to the lefthand interior bookcase with little paintings and a handprint suspiciously similar to that on the bottom of the GuestBook page and doodles in the styles Wally has used (spirals, finger paint smiley face, the drawn apple, etc).
(by the way, if you're interested in what the note says the most accurate translation I've found is by Tumblr user truckfreaks
"Hello,
My name doesn't matter. I am here to catalogue something I'm not sure is fully real. But it must be. I'm holding all the evidence in my hands. Pictures. Characters. Text I can barely read. It's called "Welcome Home" and it looks like it might've been a children's book? Like I said, I can't tell.
It was sopping wet when I found it. When I first reached into one of the brightly colored envelopes, my hand was already covered in some gross, [unknown - possibly “oozing”] material. It feels like antiques are always covered in some kind of grime. I'm trying to clean up what I have and do a little more digging.
There's only one name I can make out right now... Wally. Probably important, but like I said, I'll keep looking.
XOXO"
The wrap up (don't want to make this too long!)
Regardless of what you make of this, it shows that there is even more proof of Wally, not just the character but the Wally ""haunting"" the website and the Wally within the WHRP universe, all being tied to the colour red. (Quick clarification: The Wally we see in branding, clips of the show, etc are all Wally, however he isn't current Wally. He is the Wally of the past, the original Wally, the base Wallly, whatever you want to call him. Therefore I separate him from the "now" Wally. It's unconfirmed whether the Wally that's seemingly trying to communicate with us through the website is the same as the Wally that seems to be related to all the objects being sent to Question Answerer, who is the same Wally that is constantly calling them. If so, then there is only one "now" Wally. If they are separate, then there are two, possibly one in the website itself and one focusing on Question Answerer. Please note, this is all speculation).
While it's true that red is Wally's favourite colour, I believe that it's far more than just that tying Wally and the color red together. Going forwards, anything red that isn't immediately branded as a Wally related object should be considered important, at least I think so.
As for the connection between Wally and Home, both sharing the colour Red? I think this primarily is a display of how the two characters either rely on each other or are, in the vaguest of ways, tied together by fate.
Tommy: We’re not kids anymore. There’s no Wilbur, there’s no Quackity, there’s no anyone -- there’s no any person that’s older than us. This is up to us.
Tubbo: I miss when things were simpler. It makes me sad.
86/? - Underline the Black (omegaverse) - Efnisien/Gary
Title: Underline the Black
Rating: Explicit
Pairing: Efnisien ap Wledig/Dr Gary Konowalous
Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Darkfic, Disturbing themes, Age Gap, Omegaverse, Alpha/Alpha, no Mpreg, Medical experimentation, Medical trauma, Dominance/Submission, Dystopian universe, Forced bonding, Forced relationship, Imprisonment, Nonconsensual medical procedures, PTSD, Flashbacks, Nightmares, Chronic illness, Mating cycles/Heats, Knotting, Miscommunication, Trauma recovery, Mind control, Child Abuse, Hope, Hopeful ending.
Summary: Efnisien ap Wledig is an omega born into an all-alpha family. Abandoned by his birth mother and raised by his aunt, he is subjected to a lifetime of medical experimentation and brainwashing and believes himself to be an alpha. But the experiments begin to fail, and he is abandoned yet again to an Omega Rehabilitation Facility, where the family expects he will be retrained into the ‘perfect omega’ and placed in an arranged marriage, or be eliminated if this is no longer possible.
The Facility don’t know about the experiments, and Efnisien doesn’t even know why he’s in there in the first place, since he’s an alpha…isn’t he? One thing’s for certain, he definitely doesn’t need an alpha companion, no matter what the staff at the facility seem to think.
Underline the Black - Chapter 86 - Issuing a Challenge @ AO3
In which Efnisien, still taken over with the anger and rage from the previous chapter, vents his derision on Gary with catastrophic results.
–
Thanks to all the Patreon and Ream supporters for making this story possible!
The following early access extras are also currently available on the Augus & Gwyn, and Efnisien & Gary tiers at Patreon and Ream:
Underline the Red - 05 - Caleb/Faber
Underline the Red - 06 - Caleb/Faber
Underline the Gold - 08 - Flitmouse/Anton
The Nascent Diplomat - 43 - Augus/Gwyn
Constellations - 06 - Efnisien + Gwyn (post Falling Falling Stars)
Constellations - 07 - Efnisien + Gwyn (post Falling Falling Stars)
Constellations - 08 - Efnisien + Gwyn (post Falling Falling Stars)
Underline the Blue - 14 - Nate/Janusz
Underline the Blue - 15 - Nate/Janusz
Want another way to support my writing? // I have a Patreon account! // Come check out REAM! (Patreon mirror) // Buy a Ko-Fi!
idk about anyone else but for me /personally/ assigning any of the wof dragon tribes a single equivalent human culture or accent feels kind of weird or off. Unless you’re like. Specifically from that culture and know what you’re interpreting
like sure the ‘nightwings are British because they’re voiced that way in the audiobooks’ is funny at first but I once saw a post break down the accents by tribe and assign sandwings a Nigerian accent. Which IMMEDIATELY makes the fact that they’re commonly rogues and thieves in the story not a fun cowboy thing but a vaguely racist thing suggesting that all Nigerian people scam and steal, which. Given the ‘Nigerian prince’ thing is already a stereotype, well…-
and it definitely isn’t JUST that, I’m not trying to call a single person out. But these kind of 1-1 correlations lead to results like this 9/10 times and it just feels strange. Just mix stuff together. Mash ideas from different places into one. Don’t make the dragons a 1-1 parallel to a specific human culture because then any story you tell that may connect to a stereotype of that culture will come off really, really bad
In which Badass Lady realizes how serious her situation is, and it's not gonna get better any soon. However...
tw: heat stroke, lady whump, locked in a small space, fainting, glass shards, gun (very brief mention)
***
She shook herself. Okay, fine, it was a greenhouse. So what ? She was going to be a little hot until the sunset, that was all. All she had to do – all she was able to do- was taking it easy. If she wasn’t moving too much and taking sips of water from time to time, it was going to be fine. She could take it.
She took her phone and tried to distract herself with letter games. Soon enough, she realized that the characters seemed blurred and the puzzles harder than usual, but she gritted her teeth and forced herself to keep on. Not doing anything was worse and it was impossible to sleep with the heat.
A little later, Whumper came in the garden to check on her. He saluted her with a glass full of ice cubes, finished his drink in a gulp, and left something in the grass by the door. When he was gone, she stepped closer to see what it was. He had printed for her the weather forecast for the afternoon. It was going to be 40°C – or, if you’d rather, 103°F.
Despite the scorching sun, she felt her hair raising on the back of the neck. Okay, fine: she could not take it. If it was going to be this hot outside, this wasn’t a question of stoically enduring a little heat. It was a question of how the hell she was going to survive inside, where it was likely to get much, much hotter.
She crouched and examined the door. As far as she could judge, it was made of stainless steel. She wouldn’t be able to break it.
Well then. Time to make a little property damage. Her combat boots would protect her from the shards. She stood up and kicked the transparent walls as hard as she could. The glass...cracked. She blinked.
The hell ? It would have sent a man to a hospital !
She kicked again, again, and again, and at least she was able to make a hole near the door. Her hand, wrapped in a scarf she’d been sure she would not need – thanks Mediator, again - went through the aperture and tried to grab the lock. You needed a key to open it. She stared for a moment, her heart beating too fast in her chest. For a minute, she couldn’t decide if she was overwhelmed by panic or anger.
She didn’t hesitate long.
Her feet hit the glass with a strength that would have killed a human. She was furious. She was mad at the bastard who had sent her in a death trap, but she was almost as mad at herself for willfully walking in, for not listening to Leader when he’d warned her, for mocking Mediator when he’d tried to take care of her. She’d be damned if she was going to let herself burn without a fight. Her phone was still on the floor, but she ignored it. Calling the police or 911 would have put the mission at risk. No way. So she kicked and she kicked.
When she stopped, on the verge of fainting, there was several holes in the glass panel. Which was...better than nothing. It created a draft, and the air from outside seemed almost fresh compared to the greenhouse from hell. It was still far from enough to let her out.
She took a breather, drinking small sips, rationing her water. The frame was made of aluminum extrusions, and it was even harder to break than this damn glass – what was it made of, anyway ? So even if she did shatter the whole panel, she wasn’t sure she could fit in the aperture. This was her best plan, though - mostly because it was her only one.
Her lids were very heavy, but she shook herself. If she felt asleep, she wasn’t sure she would wake up. Wrapping her hands in the scarf again, she tried to break little shards to connect the holes she had made. It was getting hotter. She heard herself pant as if it was another person near her. Her throat hurt, like someone was gently squeezing it. It was getting harder to think, too – but that didn’t matter because her work demanded little intellectual effort. She looked at the hour on her phone, realized how early it was, and cried a little. Then she wiped out her tears, scolded herself for losing water this way, and kicked the glass again.
This time she made significant progress. Apart from little shards, the panel was gone for good. She had now an opening which was forty centimeters wide and one meter long, more or less. A mirthless laugh escaped her lips. Mediator could have fit in without difficulty. Leader might have made it, as some of her teammates. Nearly everyone, expect for her. On the other hand, that meant she could easily reach out the objects from outside.
The wheelbarrow, for example.
A satisfyingly short time later, a second glass panel was gone from the world and some aluminum extrusions looked more curved. She took a deep breath, put her bag outside, and tried to pass through. She didn’t wipe the sweat off her forehead – it’d been a while since she’d stopped sweating. It was not easy to try to fit in. She winced as several shards brushed her skin, and twisting to avoid the aluminum rods made her stomach curl with pain. Once she was finished, she bent in two to fight a fit of nausea.
But she was out. Wonderfully, gloriously, she was out. Her first thought was to find the bastard to make him pay. Her second thought was she wouldn’t be able to make it. She had one or two minutes before fainting. Her bag in one hand, she limped to a tree, laid under it, and collapsed for good.
Whumper did not get out before several hours, because of the heat. Anxious to know if Second-in-command was still alive, he trotted to the greenhouse and stopped right in his tracks when he realized its state. After considering to run in the other direction as far as he could (and possibly never stop, ever), his pulse slowed down when he peeked at the unconscious woman by the tree. Judging by her expression and the spots of red on her skin, she was in pain.
“You have to admit I didn’t touch a hair on your head,” he told her. “You kinda brought this on yourself.”
After examining her for a few minutes, a smirk appeared on his face.
“You know, it’s not right to sleep outside like this, sweetheart,” he cooed. “You need to cover up.”
He entered in the house and went out with an armful of blankets. Wool blankets, fur blankets, polyester blankets – the kind of fabric that kept you warm and toasty during even the coldest of winters. He dumped them all on her, making sure that none of the layers let any draft in. She did not react, apart from a very low moan of agony and a shudder that did not free her from anything. He smiled.
“Can’t wait to watch the end of this,” he whispered.
“My thoughts exactly.”
He froze. A gun clicked behind him. He looked at the sky and groaned.
I'm thinking about moving to semi-daily posting for at least a little while here, since my focus on scu has faded a bit (but never gone dw) and I've just been very busy with irl business. so! figured I'd ask the people,
either way, I'd still wanna do at least a few doodles each week, but I'd just rather focus a bit on postin stuff I actually like than forcing something out every day !
for this week, I will likely be on break, both to get my feet back under me on some things and to honor the second global strike called for palestine this week. so let me know what sounds fun to yall, take it easy, and participate in the strike!