#learning a trade

[dragon-spaghetti]

And here all the ‘trading cards’ are together!! Had an absolute blast working on these, and hopefully I’ll come back to the rest one day :,D

(Please click for better quality!!)

[aquanutart]

I was talking and I mentioned that I have my old Game Boy and original Pokemon cartridge. I said, "I think they still work."

I was told, "The internal batteries on the Game Boy cartridges have run out. They're all dead."

"Oh," I said, trying not to show how crestfallen I was. I felt like I was losing nerd cred for not knowing that, although I never kept up with that type of info anyway. I'm here for the fantasy and imaginative aspects of games, and tend not to follow the competitive or technical details.

I tried not to feel anything as I went home. If they were real animals, I reminded myself, I would have had to say goodbye long ago.

But like so many other people, Pokemon was my childhood. It was all I thought about and dreamed about, and the closest thing I could imagine to heartbreak was the knowledge that they weren't real. I spent nearly all my time writing longhand self-insert Pokemon fanfiction--far more than I spent actually playing the game. My Pokemon were with me in my imagination wherever I went. I started playing Pokemon Blue when I was 5, and the last time I had played it was probably when I was 9 or 10. I remembered I had turned it on again one more time after that, not to play it, but to look at my childhood Pokemon.

It was during high school, after a move overseas that completely upended my life, and I was struggling with the crushing blow of being taken away from everything I knew and trying to make sense of anything (least of all adolescence) in another language. All I wanted was to go back to childhood and have everything go back to how it was before.

Seeing my Pokemon, just as I'd left them, had comforted me. I had looked at their stats pages, taken photos of them with my digital camera (that I don't even know if I still have), and then turned it off without doing anything.

That was probably 9 or 10 years after the games came out. It had been a long time since then. I had long since taken the AA batteries out of my Game Boy Color and left it untouched. I didn't even have AA batteries anymore.

It had worked then. But now it had been 27 years... I thought about not trying to turn my cartridge back on. As long as I didn't turn it on, I could believe my Pokemon were still there, the way I remembered them.

On my day off, which happened to be Pokemon Day, I googled and read that some people on forums and Reddit were still able to play their original Pokemon games.

Then... it was possible. I went out to buy toothpaste. At the store, I asked where I could find AA batteries.

It was a big thing for me to be able to go to the store and buy things myself. When I moved at age 13, I felt like something went wrong with growing up. It was difficult to follow what people were saying, and people didn't always understand what I said either. I had been introverted even in English, but now I had enough negative experiences that I became afraid and stopped trying to talk to people altogether.

I threw myself into video games and reliving childhood memories. The internet was where I could communicate in my first language and understand. I lived online and didn't interact with the real world. On the internet I felt like I was understood and could find people who shared my interests the way I did, but in the real world it always felt like I could get hurt if anyone knew me.

I realize now that I could have had a better experience overseas if I'd known how to adapt and socialize, but this was not something I knew even in English, and trying to learn in another language made it ten times harder. I'm sorry now for missing out on interactions that I know I could have had, but I just didn't know how. I wouldn't know how until I learned, and it took me a long time to learn.

I grew up online, in the company of others who had trouble fitting in with the real world, even in their own language. Those experiences shaped me, and the friendships I've made and support I've received online are invaluable to me. The internet gave me a way to live, and through it I learned how to interact with others. But in many ways, for many years, it felt like my life was put on hold and I stopped growing up.

Several years ago I moved back, to not far from where I was born, and I was able to work for the first time. I began to interact with people and feel like I had a place in the real world.

After shutting myself away for so many years, every little step I made out in the world felt terrifying. But every little thing I did on my own made me feel like I was living for the first time.

Even something as little as going to the store and buying a pack of batteries.

I was directed to a shelf at the end of an aisle, and found myself looking at a rack of lithium AA batteries. Did they not sell the old kind anymore?

I walked around to the other side and was relieved to find the familiar black and brown Duracell batteries I'd known from my childhood. I felt more confident about putting in a battery that looked the same as I remembered. The smallest pack they sold was an 8-pack for $12.99. I really didn't need 8 batteries. I didn't have any other devices that used them.

I thought, what if I turn it on and it doesn't work and I'll have wasted $12.99?

I also thought we might already have batteries. I might be able to say, "Mom, do we have any batteries?" and she'd pull out two AAs from a drawer somewhere and I'd save my money.

But somehow I felt like part of what was important about this was being an adult and being able to buy my own batteries.

Yet... what if it just ended up making me sad? Was it better not to know?

I went to the checkout with just the toothpaste and stood hesitating at the edge of the checkout line.

If I didn't get the batteries now, and it turned out we didn't have any batteries, I wouldn't try it. I knew I would just put it off until even more time passed, and then... "Are you in line?" someone asked me.

"No," I said, and I turned around and went back to the shelf.

I bought the batteries.

At home, I took out my original Game Boy Color from the drawer where I left it, the one my dad had surprised me with when I was 5 years old and that I had brought overseas and back.

I put the batteries in and turned it on without a cartridge first to make sure the batteries were inserted correctly. The Game Boy logo scrolled across the screen and it made the familiar blinging Game Boy startup noise. I turned it off again, satisfied.

I took out my original Pokemon Blue cartridge, momentarily having to remember which way it went in, and slotted it in.

I turned it on, watched the whole Pokemon Blue intro out of nostalgia, and then pressed START.

My heart leaped for joy.

MY POKEMON!!!! MY POKEMON ARE ALIVE!!! 🥺🥺🥺

My original Pokemon, that were with me in 1998 when I was 5-6 years old, are still with me 27 years later. I want to cry!!! I love the old sprites, I'm SO happy to see them again 😭😭😭 the Pokemon look so little and cheerful at the same time, which I love 🥺🥺🥺 I know there are people with many more hours on their games, who have leveled all their Pokemon to 100. But these are my Pokemon who were with me through my childhood, and I spent many more hours making up stories about them than actually playing the game. I'm so happy to see them again 😭😭😭

All I want is to see my Pokemon. My other Pokemon are in boxes. Now, how do I get to the nearest PC? Where am I?

Oh... Oh. I have to confess something. When I was a kid, I was scared of the dark cave areas, and whenever I got to them, I stopped playing for a while. (I was stuck at Mt. Moon until I was like, 7.) So I never actually beat the game.

And here I am on Victory Road, with the team of Pokemon I was taking to the Elite Four, without an Escape Rope.

The only way for me to see my other Pokemon is... to finally make it through Victory Road, after 27 years?!

[eugenedebs1920]

If this doesn’t make it clear the anti DEI, immigrant hate, white Christian nationalist agenda in this administration I don’t know what would…

To even suggest the prisoners in the concentration camps of WWII were treated humanely when over 6 million were slaughtered is more than absurd.

[magnificentmicrowave]

thakns guys

[uncanny-tranny]

You! Internalize that you do not always need to "improve your art/craft" now! It's great to learn and develop your skills, but you do not need to come from a place of hating where you are now! You certainly do not need to force yourself to improve if it is coming in between you and enjoying the things you do. Improvement for improvements sake does not have to be the only goal, nor the only one that "should matter"

You are allowed to have motifs, enjoyment, ameturism, and "less skill." Kill and devour the capitalist in your head that dictates that you must always improve for everybody else's sake and your "productivity."

[xskyll]

After Rei is hospitalized, Endeavor realizes he needs someone to take care of Shouto. Also, the house needs cleaning. Fuyumi helps, but she can't drive or take Shouto to doctor's appointments or things like that. He especially wants someone who can drive to take care of him because he doesn't like the idea of people gawking at his scar on public transport and spreading gossip about what happened. So he decided to hire a nanny.

Meanwhile, Midoriya Hisashi has stopped sending money to his family. Inko wants a divorce, but he won't return to Japan, so it's a drawn-out legal process for the separation to happen, and the lawyer fees are costing money. Even once they're separated, she knows Hisashi won't pay child support. As long as he stays in America, it'll be next to impossible to hold him accountable. She needs money, so when she hears the Endeavor Agency is hiring, she applies, fully expecting not to get it. She does.

Option A: She can now afford her apartment, and she drives to work every day in time to take Shouto to school. However, Izuku has come home a few times now with burns. He lies and says there's a disgruntled salaryman on the train that singes people with his fire quirk when they don't give up their spot. Concerned, she starts driving him to school. This is easy because his school is on the way to Shouto's private school. The boys just have to ride together. For nine years, Shouto and Izuku share twenty-minutes a day together in the back of Inko's car, driving to and from school. They become hesitant friends, and by UA are both in love and both just as certain it's unrequited.

Option B: Endeavor wants a 24/7 nanny. If Inko agrees to move in, he'll allow her to bring her son with her. They'll even both get their own room, and he'll pay for their food, provided Inko does the shopping and cooking. And thus, Izuku finds himself living with Shouto when they're both six. They become hesitant friends, and by UA are both in love and both just as certain it's unrequited.

[theborzoiarebackintown]

Yet another criminal!!! Forgot I had those in a tote bag from nationals, put said tote bag on ground, Charlie discovered the loot and snagged them both 😂

[josephsaturn]

tattoo artist/flower shop owner but with a twist

[bad-traffic-smp-ideas]

life series au where the least famous life ccs are teamed up with grian so they get the hype they deserve

TRUE !!!!!!!

[shrimpyfellow]

ART TRADEEEE WITH @furiousflamingfeline !!!!!!! GAAAAA

City of clipsville if it was good

[shyravenns]

Nik being well-read and a bit of a literature snob, will almost always bring joy to my heart.

I see him as someone who disliked the traditional school system that he grew up in, and he could never find the patience for the endless tests or assignments, but he loved to learn, and he preferred to do it on his own terms.

He has his own mini library in his hanger dedicated to various books he finds during missions, and he has read them all multiple times.

He's the type to bring a book with him during a mission while also directing his people from afar while he casually turns the page. Just don't get shot while he's at the end of a chapter pls esp if it's a cliffhanger

And YES he has very strong opinions on everything he reads, and there's a good chance that he has gotten into a lively (and drunken) debate over it.

[scalpelsister]

Keira Metz | A Favor for a Friend

[bookshelf-in-progress]

What If? is the question that drives most retellings. This works best with the well-known fairy tales. Everyone knows the original story, so readers will be interested in how you twist it.

You can change

Plot: What if Cinderella didn't go to the ball?

Character: What if Snow White was evil?

Setting/Genre: What if Sleeping Beauty was set on a spaceship?

Theme: What if Beauty and the Beast was about family love instead of romance?

There's a variation of the plot What If? that asks:

What's Next?: What happens after Cinderella marries the prince?

In this case, you're writing a sequel. The fairy tale is backstory, and your story is something new.

There's also a mash-up What If? that asks:

What if these two stories were combined?: What if the prince in Cinderella was also the Beast in Beauty and the Beast?

Here, the readers are pulled through the story because they want to see how the plot and characters of these stories fit together into something new.

In all these cases, What If? is the question that motivates your readers. They want to see how your changes make for a different story.

With traditional retellings, you have to ask different questions. You want to tell a story with the same plot, characters, and setting as the original--maybe because you love the original story so much, maybe because you're retelling an obscure tale. But then what's the point of your story? What question are you going to answer in a way that can't be satisfied by reading the original tale?

The questions that work best here are:

Why?: In fairy tales, things usually happen "just because". There's very little explanation of why events happen a certain way or why characters act the way they do. Asking Why? allows your story to give an answer that explains confusing or ambiguous points in the original story.

Who?: Fairy tales don't dig very deeply into the psychology of their characters. A retelling allows you to enter into the perspective of one of the characters and explore what it would be like to live through the events of the story. What kind of person acts the way this character does? What fears and hopes motivate them? What do they think about the events of the story?

There's a variation of Who? that asks:

Who is telling the story?: This is your classic POV switch. Your story can have the same plot, setting, and characters as the original, but if you focus on the viewpoint of someone other than the traditional main character--the love interest, the villain, a side character, a confused bystander--you can wind up with a very different, sometimes almost entirely original story.

Almost every retelling needs to answer at least one Why? question. Even if it's a minor plot point, your story should offer a clarification or a rationale behind some element of the original. Asking Who? is a great way to expand upon the fairy tale and make it something more psychologically complex. First-person point-of-view is very helpful in this case, because it instantly adds something new to your telling of the story, even if you follow every beat of the original tale.

What If? retellings also need to answer Why? and Who?, but they're not the driving force in the same way that they have to be for traditional retellings. What If? allows for a twist that's the driving force behind the story, but when you're not changing anything, the depth that Why? and Who? provide is crucial to making your story feel new.

[onceandfuturehighpriestess]

Here's something none of y'all asked for

Do I think Merthur should have been canon:

Do I ship Merthur? Yes. It is my OTP, I absolutely adore them. Do I wish they got together in the show- No :)

The whole show revolved around the relationship between Merlin and Arthur- two sides of the same coin, their destinies intertwined. But their relationship was extremely messy and imbalanced.

Merlin had to keep putting his own wants and feelings aside to protect Arthur and had to hide his true self. Arthur would switch between letting Merlin treat him like an equal and calling Merlin his best friend to immediately pulling rank and not taking his friend seriously. And let's not even mention the fact that every other character earned a higher social status in the show- except for Merlin.

I feel like both characters would need to be on entirely equal footing before a relationship could begin - with Merlin not needing to hide and Arthur being consistent with his feelings and how he showed them. And we only get that equal relationship in the last episode. Did they care about each other deeply? yes, absolutely! Were any of those feelings romantic? Could have been. But BBCs Merlin is a tragedy first, so as much as I would have loved to see Merthur become cannon, I don't think it would have happened. And I think that makes their ship even more compelling.

If the show had done a magic reveal earlier and allowed them to be on equal footing for longer, then I legit think it could have worked. But mainly I just headcanon that they would finally be a couple once Arthur got out of that damn lake.

[dirtsoilmulch]

simple thing between writing fics abt them