#<<< thank you for both of the templates tiny... I appreciate you

[midnighthangintree]

Ariel and Eric as songs from my Ariel x Eric playlist template - inspo

[cmiyczine]

I'm an artist that applied and I think you both have points. 1. My own feelings don't hold any weight compared to the suffering of the Palestinian people. I appreciate your compassion but many of us (not all, but a significant amount and possibly majority considering this was introduced as a Palestine charity zine right out the gate) do acknowledge that our personal internal hurt feelings don't matter when considering actions to aid Palestine, much like our own grief fatigue shouldn't be used as an excuse to quit or take a long, long break in the name of self care. It's a common principle among pro-Palestinian activists. 2. Given the aid we're intending to provide, we do want to get this out as fast as possible. HOWEVER. 3. You're right about this timeline being loose. We must have it be somewhat flexible to allow for the best possible quality in order to turn the most profits from the people who wouldn't otherwise actively choose to donate to help Palestine. Plus higher quality will mean we can raise the prices a tiny bit without it seeming out of line to those who want this for the product and not the donation.

I admire your compassion and our ethics vary when it comes to personal feelings in the wake of mass tragedy of, supposedly, strangers. But the fact that you're making this at all isn't something to be ignored. It's still a donation campaign. I think, should you attempt this kind of charity zine again, if the guilt of rejecting people is still overwhelming, have a template to fill out where the blanks you fill in make it personal, and add a unique comment about their work in there somewhere. That might be a workable balance that doesn't compromise the principles of many involved.

I say with this big a project there's no one predominant mindset, but a handful, and I'm not just going to jump ship if I get accepted since it's very much worth it. There are other charity projects that are more prompt and seemingly more experienced, but I'm not qualified for. Not to mention this is the serious version of "holy shit, two cakes". I have my personal beliefs about how this should be operated, but whatever is done is done and money will be made anyway, and it'd take longer to get the money if I started my own zine, something I have no knowledge or experience with.

Whether what you're doing is the right way to do it or not, it's still right that you're doing it at all.

And, frankly, you were explicit about the cause of the delay and it didn't appear to be anything affecting the organization and release of money, so I'll foreseeably disagree with that anon on that front; there is no clear correlation.

This project shouldn't devolve into passionate emotional arguing this early. What's important is that it's a project in the first place and since it's started it'd be an immoral waste to drop it. The only other important thing is that anyone who leaves, as they are not profiting off of this, foes so by choice and is able to by choice.

Thank you for your message. You are right about one thing : This project shouldn't devolve into passionate emotional arguing this early. Nor it should EVER.

It is is so easy for you as an outsider to say that most participants should not put their emotions above that of the suffering of Palestinians. Which I evidently completely agree about. But you were not the one going through the applications. I've read every single one, I've read their name and pronoms, saw their galleries, read about them gushing about the characters theyd want to draw, read their suggestions for the project. Each of these person, just like each palestinian, is one whole universe. And It was completely out of the question for me to just bcci everyone with a copied and pasted message of rejection.

If you think I am displaying too much empathy, You wont believe what fuelled me to sacrifice a significant amount of my time and sanity for this project in the first place. I do NOT want to be the cause of hurt for anybody. And You might have nerve of steel and brush a rejection easily, But it is an issue and a struggle for many others. I dont know the psychological profile of the people who applied. And you know wat ? I dont care. Were it any other project I would have done the same. I do not want to cause hurt to anybody. People can feel empathy for Palestine while feeling hurt about a project they were enthusiastic about too. There is no hierarchy in emotions.

I cant believe people are getting ok my case for a delay of a few days because I couldnt bring myself to be NOT be empathic toward participants, when it is litteraly that same empathy that has my heart bleeding for Palestine everyday. I am supposed to be humanitarian toward the people of palestine but not toward the people whom sent applications ? I dont know how you function but my empathy doesnt have a filter nor a hierachy. I feel for everyone, wether the hurt is small or unbearable.

If you do not approve of my methods, I beg you to please unfollow this project and move along. Make your own Palestine project. I am no one, I am irrelevant, I've only organized one zine, I just have friends whom have taken care of big projects. If someone like me can orgazine a charity project then so can you.

Come back in a few months and see the results as well. Maybe you'll realize that gettting on my case for a few days delay was nothing in the grand scheme of things.

[heavenlyholland]

relationship alphabet | tom holland

a/n: happy tsh day! in honour of our fav turning 25 today, i made a sfw relationship alphabet, using the template @dameronology made! a big thanks to @parkers-gal for proof-reading this <3 hope you all enjoy! happy birthday tom!

reblogs are appreciated! 

warnings: none

pairings: tom holland x reader | word count: 3.5k

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

a - action: what sort of things do they do to show their love?

tom and you collectively show your love through tons of affection, and i mean a lot. sharing really good, and tight hugs, endless amounts of cuddles and one thing you both love to do as a way of showing your love is watching new movies together. whether it was a cheesy rom-com, or an action movie you had been dying to watch, tom and you made it a ritual to take a weekend to watch some new movies together, simply enjoying the time together.

another way tom and you show your love, is through your love language with each other- physical touch. constantly holding hands, playing with each other’s hair, and for example, if you were to be out with a group of friends, you’d occasionally sit on tom’s lap, his arms wrapped around your waist, hugging you like there was no tomorrow. you also found comfort in playing/fiddling with each other’s fingers. if you were at a red carpet, or event for one of tom’s jobs, and it was a bit nerve-racking, to ease your nerves, tom would let you play with his fingers.

b - beginnings: how did the relationship begin? how has it changed?

alright, so tom and you were very nervous and awkward around each other at first when you met through mutual friends, how many years ago. you had met at a bar, for one of your mutual friend’s birthdays, and you both had heard plenty of each other, but when tom saw you for the first time, seeing the way your presence and smile lit up the room, he knew he had to catch you before it was too late and he missed his chance. not only because he thought you were the most gorgeous person in the room, but also because he had to leave a few days after for work, and didn’t know if he’d be able to find you if he hadn't got your attention and started talking to you. so, he had approached you after some self-encouragement, hyping himself up. he offered to buy you a drink, which you accepted because not only did you have a familiar idea of who he was, you had heard great things about him through your friends. and, funny thing is, your friends through the years had constantly told you how good of a couple he and you would make… if only they knew what the future had in store at the time.

c - comfortable: how comfortable are they with each other?

there’s no doubt that you both were a tiny bit awkward at first, considering that it was the first relationship you had both gotten into after a few years of being single. but, that awkwardness soon went away, about maybe four months into the relationship, and by now you were in the stage of your relationship where it wasn’t even a big deal if the other were to see one naked. there was also o secrecy between the two of you, which formed before you even had made it official. the two of you were naturally open about things, and you both knew you could tell each other about anything with no judgment.

d - dates: do they consider dates to be important? what kind do they prefer?

any time together you both never take for granted because of how long you sometimes have to go apart because of tom’s jobs, so yes, dates are very crucial and important to each other. tom maybe a bit more than you, because he’s always worried he isn’t enough for you because of his job and how it can get in the way, so he makes sure to make dates super special and memorable for you to make sure you knew how important you are to him

tom is a very adaptable person, considering he’s a gemini and will adjust to the setting and energy of a room, so any kind of date, in his point of view, is a date he’d prefer. as long as he’s spending quality time with you, and cherishing special moments together, nothing else matters to him. it could be a date where the two of you go out to a bar for drinks or go to a party or a date where you decide to stay in, order take out and spend endless amounts of hours on the couch binge-watching movies or tv shows. any date with you is all he needs, and the same goes for you.

e - engagement: how would they propose? who would ask the question?

tom would for sure pop the question maybe, a year and a half or two into the relationship, depending on the pace you both took the relationship, but there was no denying tom was confident in marrying you and spending the rest of his life. of course, the two of you had talked about it, marriage and how you both wanted to spend the rest of your lives, but no matter what, you both knew that the other was a part of it.

as for how tom would propose, it would definitely be somewhere because of how he likes his privacy. but if there had to be people, it would be immediate family, and/or close friends. he would for sure ask you on a vacation, or at a family get-together, but his first choice would be on a vacation with just you both.

f - fundamental: for them, what is the most fundamental part of the relationship?

there was an agreement and similarity between you both, that being that you both greatly valued trust and being open with each other- the basics of a relationship, but most importantly, being there for each other, and supporting one another no matter what, and loving unconditionally. tom knew that his job made things a bit risky, but you made sure he knew that you’d support him no matter what and that you’re with him until the end of the line. (please tell me you got that reference if you did- i love you.)

g - gratitude: how do they show their appreciation for you?

tom isn’t crazy about posting and sharing his relationship with you on social media, not only because he likes his privacy, but he also wants to minimize the possibility of hate towards you. he knows how the community can get, so that’s why he’ll only show his appreciation towards you on social media by only posting a few pictures of you on his feed, for birthdays or anniversaries. occasionally but rarely posting something on his story. and if he were to post something on his story, it’d be for a date night or an event that you went to together.

privately, there was no doubt or second thoughts about how much tom appreciated you. he’d cherish every given moment he had with you and made sure you never forgot how grateful he was for you and everything you did for him. whether it was through kisses or any other form of affection, or even worshipping you like the goddess you are in bed, you definitely knew how appreciative tom was for you.

h - home: a random, domestic headcanon

alright, let’s imagine it’s a rainy night in london.

and you had a long, exhausting day.

work was busy, and you practically were glued to your desk, never getting the chance to take a break.

on top of that, you had to pick up groceries and had to run a few other errands that you weren’t looking forward to.

so when you get through the door, placing the bags of groceries to the side, and hang your coat on the hanger to dry and slide your shoes off, you could literally fall asleep on the spot.

you put your keys on their hanger, next to tom’s and you carry the bags of groceries into the house.

you turn around the corner, walking into the kitchen, only to be surprised by the view in front of you that consisted of tom stirring the pot of pasta, candles lit, and quiet music playing through the speakers, with a glass of your favourite wine waiting on the kitchen island for you.

you could’ve practically melt on the spot at the sight in front of you.

tom didn’t hear you come in at first, but when he felt your presence enter the kitchen, he looked up from the stove, meeting your gaze and immediately smiling at you and greeting you with a cheerful, “hey, babe!”

you put the grocery bags on the counter, and quickly put the items that needed to be refrigerated, away.

you then immediately go for the glass of wine, taking a sip and sighing in content.

walking over to tom, who was now straining the pasta, you try and reach in to help finish off dinner, but tom’s quick to protest, shooing you away to go and sit at the island.

you roll your eyes, but comply, sitting on the stool at the island, sipping your wine as you watch tom finish.

once he had prepared both plates with food, you helped bring his own wine glass, along with yours and the bottle the wine came from, with you to the dining room table.

you two enjoy the delicious meal that tom had prepared for you, and you continuously thank him throughout the meal.

it was the little things like this, that made you fall even more in love with tom, how he knew you had had a rough day, and making and serving dinner for you, letting you relax, was just the thing you needed.

after dinner was finished, you playfully bantered over who was to clean the dishes and load the dishwasher, and much to tom’s dismay, you had lured him into letting you return tom’s favour of making dinner by cleaning up.

of course, he ended up helping you, even after you protested against that, but internally you were grateful because it sped up the process compared to if you were to do it alone.

once that was done, you had told tom you needed a hot shower, and that you’d be right back, but he followed you in, joining you for the shower.

a few makeout sessions later, you both stepped out of the shower with your towels wrapped around your bodies, you changed into your pajamas, climbing into bed and quickly finding yourselves in each other’s embraces.

you turn on the tv in your shared bedroom, watching a few episodes of the current show you were watching, while tom read a chapter or two of his current book that he was reading.

once you both grew tired enough, you shut off the tv, and tom closed his book, turning off his side lamp.

you adjust in your bed, getting more comfortable, you give tom a long kiss on his lips, before rolling over so he spooned you, saying goodnight and quickly falling asleep with you in his arms.

i - infinite: do they believe their love is endless, or is there something that could break it?

tom definitely believes that his love for you is endless, no doubt, and vice versa. there were no ways or obstacles in life that could possibly make his love for you go away.

j - joke: who’s the funny one?

gemini’s have a quick wit to them and have a sense of humour, so tom would for sure be able to pull a few jokes here and there. although, he would occasionally pull jokes that were so unfunny that you had to laugh. either-or, as long as he’s making you laugh, he’s happy because he sees being able to make each other laugh as a big factor in a relationship. both of you have a good sense of humour, which is probably one of tom’s favourite things about your relationship. however, tom is seemingly the more humorous one out of the two of you, because he knows how to exactly charm you and make you all flustered with his flirtatious jokes. no one is complaining though, especially not tom because he loves seeing you laugh. it’s presumably one of his favourite things about you.

k - kiss: how do they kiss? favourite type?

there were no other words to explain kissing tom, other than how every time it happened, it felt like the first time all over again. over the years together, tom had learned how to sweep you off your feet and give a kiss like no other. speaking so many unsaid words of love and admiration through the kiss, there was no denying he loved expressing his love through kisses with you.

his favourite type of kiss that you shared had to be the lazy, tired ones. he loved lazy kisses on the couch after a long day, and lazy kisses after waking up in the morning or after naps. he also loves makeout sessions… like a lot, maybe so much that it had become an unhealthy obsession.

you’d be “netflix and chilling”, more chilling rather than watching netflix (if you know what i mean) but he would for sure end up with you either straddling his waist or under him, the show or movie now completely out of the picture. he also loved kisses where you’d be sat on the counter in the morning or evening, with him standing in between your legs, hands rested on your hips while you were wearing one of his hoodies or t-shirts.

l - longing: who’s the clingy one? how are they with long-distance?

because your relationship is practically revolved around long-distance and tom is always the one away the majority of the time, he tends to be the more clingy one, but you both have your moments. you both didn’t mind long-distance, although it would be nice to not spend months apart, but you’ve managed to push through and fight for each other, no matter how tough times got.

m - marriage: do they want to get married?

100%. there’s absolutely no second-guessing around the thought of marrying each other. tom and you would want a small, traditional wedding with family and close friends, nothing too extreme because again, he and you like to keep things private, and privacy is something he values. you would most likely have the wedding at a nice, small resort at a destination you both had planned and talked about because you both love traveling together.

n - nicknames: which nicknames do they like?

tom is such a big softie and loves when you call him tommy, or other pet names like babe or baby. he also likes when you’re angry with him over something silly and you call him thomas. he thinks it’s so cute when you’re all angry and try to look tough when all he wants to do is stuff you in his pocket and cuddle you because of how adorable you get when you’re angry.

however, for you, he calls you by the nickname your family gave you during your childhood, along with lovey, my love, or darling which all make you weak at the knees.

o - over the top: are they over the top, or are they more low-key?

tom is quite willing to adapt to any situation or environment and is up for anything with you. if you wanted a night in to relax, cuddle and watch movies, he’d totally be down for it, but if you wanted to go out for drinks, he wouldn’t be opposed to the idea either.

p - picture: what’s your favourite picture of each other?

all the pictures you take together are your favourite, but your all-time favourite picture of tom dates back to when you were only a year into dating, and you and tom had been invited to one of your friend’s parties for some sort of milestone in their lives, and after a few hours of being there, getting a few drinks in you both, tom wanted to take a picture with you- wanting to post it on social media to break the news of his relationship, obviously with your consent before he posted (you hadn’t told anyone you were officially dating). you were pressed up against his side, with his arm around your waist and your hand on his chest. both of you flashing big, bright smiles, pure happiness showing on your faces, and tinted cheeks because of the few drinks you had had. the next day, tom posted the picture, choosing two pictures, one of you both smiling and then a second one with his lips on your cheek.

tom’s favourite picture of you is one where you’re with his entire family. it was at a ritual gathering, in the holland’s backyard, and you were deep in a conversation with his mom, wine glasses in both of your hands. you looked so beyond ethereal that night, but seeing you get along so well with tom’s family, made tom tear up- feeling so lucky to have someone like you in his life.

one picture that’s your favourite between the two of you, is from the far from home premiere and the paparazzi had captured a picture of the two of you on the red carpet, your hands on tom’s forearms, steadying yourself as you both look at each other, happy as ever and so in love.

q - quintessential: what is one thing they would refuse to compromise in their relationship? what’s a deal-breaker for them?

a deal-breaker for tom would be the inability to accept that he isn’t always home, and can be gone for long periods of time. he believes that if you aren’t willing to pursue the relationship, and put effort into the relationship despite the fact that he isn’t home a lot, then there’s no point in getting into a relationship.

t - tattoo: would they ever get a matching tattoo with their significant other, or for them?

yes, but it wouldn’t be anything outgoing or too extreme, but instead, it would be a meaningful and small, symbolic way of showing their love.

u - understanding: how understanding are they? or are they a little difficult?

both of you are very understanding, and it’s what makes you such a good couple because if you’re both going to be there for each other no matter what the other is going through. but, every once in a while, you’ll get in a playful argument over something stupid, and that’s when you’ll both be difficult because you’ll argue over who’s right.

v - vases: do they buy flowers?

yes, this is another big way that tom shows his love. he’ll buy them for you for anniversaries, birthdays, or even just because he was in a good mood and saw flowers that reminded him of you.

w - wandering: do they want to travel, or immediately settle down?

tom obviously travels a lot for his jobs, so he wouldn’t settle down right away. but, he’d give the relationship a few years to travel and go on vacations together with you, before settling down and finding a place to start a family with you.

x - ex: how many exes? horror stories?

you both have had a fair share amount of relationships, but no crazy exes, or abusive relationships in the past. there were a few occasions that tom would have his ex-girlfriends hit him up again, trying to get with him now that he was famous, but it was clear to everyone that he and you were happy together.

y - you: what’s their favourite thing about their partner?

you both love everything about each other, of course, but you love his curls and eyes. you could get lost in his eyes for hours, so mesmerized and enthralled with the way they gazed back at you. you also love the cuddles he gives, it’s as if he went to school to learn how to cuddle like an expert. and the last main thing you loved about him is his charm and the way he’s always able to make you blush and feel all flustered.

his favourite thing about you is your personality. you also know how to cheer him up no matter what, and it’s one of your best qualities that he loves so much.

z - zeal: how excitable are they? who’s the calm one?

again, tom is always willing to adapt to the audience and setting that he’s in. if it’s an exciting, exhilarating environment, he’ll reflect that, but he can also be calm if needed. guess being a gemini and “two-faced” has its benefits for matching the attitude of certain situations.

[sewdesune]

So in true 2020 fashion there was a bit of chaos this morning as my newest pattern was accidentally released a week early due to a computer error It wasn't fully uploaded yet, but I thought I'd better roll with it instead, so surprise Pikachu everyone! https://cholyknight.com/2020/11/06/pikachu-plush/ Thank you to everyone that was patient with the fix, and for all my kind fans who responded with supportive words after the error This tiny chubby chu has stubby arms and legs that are sewn on by hand as well as the ears. It sits well on its own thanks to a flat bottom. And just like the hoodie hack I did in September, it comes with bonus templates for a female version of the tail (with a heart shape at the end) and a shocked face from the meme! The pattern comes with both applique templates for hand or machine sewing as well as embroidery files if you have an embroidery machine. Because of all the hand sewing, numerous small darts, and the tricky curved dart in the seat, I rated this one a 4/10 Like all of my other free patterns, this one is available to everyone for all time! You're also welcome to sell items you've sewn with the pattern -- though a credit back to me is much appreciated  I hope you all like it!

[night-rhea]

Night Rhea’s Profile

“Lets have tea one day. I will bring the tea, you will bring the view.”

Thanks @hogwartsmystory for letting us use this template!

Name: Night "Nur" Rhea

Gender: Genderfluid (They/Them)

Birth Date: 11 July 1973

Species:  Human

Blood Status: Pureblood

Sexuality: Bisexual

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Nationality: British/ Turkish

Myer Briggs Personality Type: ENFJ - The Giver

-

THE MAGE

1st Wand: Red oak, dragon heartstring, flexible, 13″

2st Wand: Cypress, phoenix feather, unyielding flexibility, 14″

"Cypress wands are associated with nobility. The great medieval wandmaker, Geraint Ollivander, wrote that he was always honoured to match a cypress wand, for he knew he was meeting a witch or wizard who would die a heroic death. Fortunately, in these less blood-thirsty times, the possessors of cypress wands are rarely called upon to lay down their lives, though doubtless many of them would do so if required. Wands of cypress find their soul mates among the brave, the bold and the self-sacrificing: those who are unafraid to confront the shadows in their own and others’ natures.

-

Animagus: Black Hawk

⦁ Night’s one of the favorite thing is being in sky. No matter the weather, day or night, you can see Night in the sky or daydreaming while looking at clouds/stars. They spend little too much time as a hawk. Night’s hawk form is a regular Black Hawk with blue eyes.

-

Misc Magical Abilities: Legilimens, Occlumens

⦁ Being Legilimens in Rhea family is not something unexpected. Night's father Matthew realized his younger child is Legilimens when they were seven years old. But he never believed they can use it perfectly. Night didnt used Legilimency properly until their fifth year. İn two years, Night was able to use this ability without wand. Even though it was enough for them, Snape warned Night about not stopping training, and wanted them to learn Occlumency too. Yakup was already Occlumens and very skilled Legilimens, and with a threat of their also Legilimens uncle, Night didnt questioned at all. With their brother's help, Night mastered these two magical ability in years.

-

Boggart Form: Night had 3 different Boggart in their life

⦁ Yakup (Jacob), with dark mark on his arm and looking at Night madly.

⦁ Rowan, saying everything would be better if it was Night who died.

⦁ Theirself, covered with blood and smiling madly, with Dark Mark.

-

⦁ Amortentia: (What do they smell like?) Deep forest, rain, ocean, cold air, jasmine, black tea

-

⦁ Patronus: Hawk, Hebridean Black-Dragon (After Rowan’s death)

Dragon patronus; One of the most powerful and formidable creatures of the magical world, dragons are ambitious and dominant. With the ability to breathe fire, they quickly assert themselves, garnering both fear and respect from those around them. They are unafraid to take risks and prefer to live by their own set of rules. They are quick to lead and do not back down from a challenge. Dragons are strong in their convictions and will stand for what they believe is right. Those with a dragon for a Patronus are sure to be fierce fighters, and the Dementors better be ready for a challenge.

-

Patronus Memory: 

Playing with Cordell, Barnaby and Atlas (@vixenmcmahenhphm ) when they were child.

The first night they spend watching stars with Talbott. 

-

Mirror of Erised:

İn childhood: Night with Yakup, their mom and their grandfather, all standing together and smiling.

İn adulthood: All of Night’s friends and family being together and alive

-

Specialized/Favourite Spells:

Wingardium Leviosa

Flipendo Maxima

Colorovia

Accio

-

APPEARANCE

Their casual look:

How i draw their hair:

Faceclaim: Alexander LeRoy - Ruby Rose

0Voice Claim: English: Ruby Rose-Turkish: Şebnem Ferah

Night had a thick Turkish accent when they started Hogwarts but in years it disappeared. They never liked this accent.

Have loud voice, and have no control on it.

Always have a smile on their face, unless they are having really rough moment.

Weird/ funny faces are something you can see often 

Their hair gets more straight and darker and as they grown

-

Height: 183cm in Hogwarts-last year-, 188 cm when they are adult

Weight: Heavier than they looks

Physique: With spells and potions, they change their looks/body so often.

Eye Colour: Sky blue

Hair Colour: Navy Blue/ Blue

Skin Tone: Pale

-

Body Modifications and Scarrings:

Four piercings in ears, one in right,  three in left side

Many scars and burn marks espacially after Buried Vault

Dark Mark on left arm

Few on their neck after war

Big burn mark on their left arm (where Dark Mark was)

-

Inventory: 

Too many tiny chocolates so they can share

Yakup's and theirs old drawing notebook 

Pronoun bracelets

Their grandma's old jasmine perfume 

Quil, ink and a blue tiny notebook (written in Turkish so no one knows what they are writing)

Their own Rhea locket

Yakup's Rhea locket

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Fashion:

Loves buttoned shirts, but cant stand without rolling slevees up

Shorts and pants

Mostly hates skirts, but will wear it sometimes 

Likes black boots, especially with heels

Sweeters on shirts, when they need to look good

Hoodies, especially on rough days

Wears binder, most of time

Dress and suits on events, depends on how they are feeling

Doesnt like makeup, but okay with eyeliner

Always wears pronoun bracelets:

Grey- They/Them

Black- He/Him

White- She/Her

-

ALLEGIANCES

Hogwarts House: Slytherin

Ilvermorny House: Wampus

-

Affiliations/Organizations: 

Circle of Khanna

Order of the Phoenix

Death Eaters

-

Professions: 

Curse Breaker: After graduating, Night worked with Bill and Yakup as a Curse Breaker.

Double Agent: İn Death Eaters, actually working for Order.

Dragonologist: After war, they moved to Romania and specialized Hebridean Black's. Night worked and lived here as dragonologist for nearly ten year.

Flying instructor: When Night moved back to England, they also started to work in Hogwarts as flying instructor, Quidditch referee, and coach.

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HOGWARTS INFORMATION

Class Proficiencies:

·      Astronomy: O

·      Charms: O

·      DADA: E

·      Flying: O

·      Herbology: A

·      History of Magic: A

·      Potions: O

·      Transfiguration: E

Electives:

COMC: A

Divination: A

Muggle Studies: A

-

Quidditch: Chaser-Beater

⦁ Night started to play Quidditch in their second year as a Chaser. While they wasnt the best chaser, Night was enough to help Slytherin to win the Cup. They meet Gryfindor Chaser-Vixen during practise and whole year, they werent be able to be better chaser than her. The rivalry between her and Night made the dark haired kid realize maybe being chaser wasnt really something for them. in third year, thanks to McNully, they started to play as a beater, and find theirself being more succesfull than ever. After that, Vixen and Night's rivalry become more friendly. (Beginning of Nixen Au)

⦁ Their favorite practise partners are Charlie, Samantha (@samshogwarts ), Vixen (@vixenmcmahenhphm ) Andre, Orion and Rath.

⦁ Whenever Night was angry or stressed, and even flying didnt make them calm, they took the beaters bat and destroy some dummies. İn fourth year, Night injured some second year student. They were angry about Merula, and just wanted hurt something. So they went for dummies in Training Ground. Night wasnt looking actually where they was hitting, there was just the feeling of fullness . A sharp scream bring them to reality. İt was the first time they hurt someone out of anger, and unfortunatelly wasnt the last.

-

Favourite Professors: 

Madam Hoach: She is strong and powerfull woman and her tough behavior makes Night adore her. And one quick note, Night is really afraid of making her mad. During their school life, Night interacted with her so often thanks to their Quidditch love.

McGonnagal: Even if she is not Night's head of house, Night find her much more easier to talk than other proffesors. They feel deeply guilty about the times they had to lie to her. McGonnagal and Talbott's close relationship makes Night feel even more warm about her.

Flitwick: He is someone who Night doesnt have any problem to talk. They enjoy his classes, and little chats they share. Night often share the teas their granpa send them from Turkey, and Flitwick always appreciate.

Least Favourite Professors: 

Snape: No one need a reason to dislike him, but Night actually doesnt hate him.

-

RELATIONSHIPS

Father: Matthew Rhea

Second son of Alexander and Alycia Rhea. Known for his dicipline he got from his father, and his talent in Legilimency. İn Rhea family, the ones worth is same as their power in this magical ability. Being better than his older brother, made Matthew the golden child of family. And as you can imagine it seperated the brothers. Matthew was loyal follower of Dark Lord, a feared Death Eater. He believed wizarding world will be better with Voldemort, and never regretted for following him. Even if it cost his life.

He was never the father figure to Night. They doesnt remember him smiling to them, even for once. On Night's fifth birthday, Matthew decided to send them to Turkey, to Seline's family. For three years, Night stayed away from their home, with their grandfather and only comes back in summers when Yakup is back from Hogwarts. İn 1981 (When Night was eight years old) Matthew died in war, and Seline let Night to come back.

-

Mother: Seline Rhea

Youngest in five sibling, fourth daughter of İbrahim and Saadet Yavuz. Seline lost her mother when she was two, so she has no memory of Saadet. İbrahim never treat any of his child differently and loved them all same, but Seline never been close to him, or most of her siblings. Even when she was a child, she was quiet, and keeping her distance from everyone. Books were her best and only friends. So when Seline meet with Matthew, leaving her home and country wasnt actually hard decision to made. Seline loved Matthew with her whole heart. He wasnt trying to change her, and that was what she was asking for, for her whole life. Young woman knows, that he was interested in her being Legilimens, but she didnt care. If she was powerfull enough for him to want her as his wife, she thinks its something she should be proud of.

She fit perfectly in Rhea's. Her new house was nothing like Yavuz's warm and loud house, just like how she is also nothing like. Seline couldnt be more proud, when she and Matthew discovered Jacob is also Legilimens. She was excited for her second child too, but when she hold her newborn, she saw the look on Matthew eyes. The disapointment. He didnt like his child to have bright blue hair. At first, Seline didnt think it will be problem, its only color of hair after all. But real problem was, Night being nothing like a Rhea. They were energetic, loud child. Running in house, climbing on whatever they finds, jumping on every water pot they saw. Seline knows they were exactly like her own siblings, nieces. Night wasnt nothing like Jacob (Seline's Turkish accent turned his name into Yakup).

On the fifth birthday that Night turned five, she didnt even say anything when Matthew told her to send Night to Turkey, next to her father.

After Matthew died, Yakup was her everything. And Night was.. Just someone from her past, her own family, something she wanted to leave her behind but couldnt. Unfortunatelly, not so long after Matthew death, Yakup get expelled from Hogwarts and went missing. To find him, Seline did something she thought she wont be ever doing it. She begged Matthew's brother Jonathan for help. And her answer was only a smile. A cold smile, belongs to someone who is happy to have all the control on family now

Night's three year, when they were alone with their mother was, rough. Everyday was about Yakup, about finding him. To have Seline's attention, Night do everything they can do to act like Yakup, look like Yakup. İt was impossible for them, but in their mind it was their only goal. Being someone their mother will love.

The first time Seline looked lovingly at them, was when Night was about to get in Hogwarts Express. When they promised her to find Yakup.

-

Sibling: Jacob (Yakup) Rhea

Yakup and Night werent able to spend much time together, when they were child. Thanks to their ten year difference between their ages, they only saw each other in summers. İn their cold house, Yakup was the only one who loved Night deeply, other than their nany Goni. He was well aware of how his Pip wasnt like his other cousins, other Rhea's, and  that was enough reason for him to love them. Their smile and loud excited voice was the thing warms the house in Yakup's eyes. 

When he get expelled, he knows all of his burdens became Night's. He regretted deeply, but there was nothing he can do from a portrait. He waited for his "sister" to rescue him, waited so patiently and dreamed the day they reunited. But when Night finally came, it wasnt like how he imagined. 

They both wanted to have back the ones they remember from seven years ago. But the truth is, both were so different now, and they doesnt want to admit it. Their old beautiful relationship was gone now, and wont be same for so long. After Hogwarts, they fight a lot. Argued a lot, couldnt agree on same things. Until Night took the mission that will change their life forever.

When Night first runned away, right after they killed an auror in front of him, Yakup lived the hardest weeks in his life. He saw in their eyes himself, how he was when he first get expelled. He already knew Night changed so much, when Rowan died. And couldnt help but feel like all of it was his fault. Now his Pip was so lost inside, so lost that couldnt able to see whats wrong or right. So he searched for Night with everything he has. 

Of course he didnt know it was all part of their plan. Thankfully soon enough, Night came back to him to explain everything. That they will be a spy in Death Eaters, and needs him to be their Secret Keeper. But also they needed him to promise. Promise to see the mission more important than their life. (Will be contunied in Future AU)

After war, their relationship was better than ever, and they finally have the sibling they both missed so much.

-

Grandfather (Mother's Dad): İbrahim Yavuz

Lovely Turkish old man who looked after his five children alone, after his wife died. He loved all of his kids all same, but his kids are all different. Four daughter and one son, Seline was the youngest one, and the coldest one to İbrahim.

One day when Night and their nany Goni showed up on his door, he was more suprised than he was happy. Living with tiny energetic child  who cant understand his own language for three years was actually hard for İbrahim. But thanks to Goni who can talk to both languages, Night started to understand and talk Turkish in short time. Well enough to have an accent actually. With their cousins, aunts and uncle here, Night actually had a big and  lovely home there. Their name was hard to pronounce in Turkish, so İbrahim gave them another name. He never liked Night's names meaning, and choose the name that means entirelly opposite of 'Night'. "Nur". It means " The light of the God" and İbrahim thinks it fits his grandchildren more.

As much as Night loved the Yavuz household and Turkey, they missed their mother, brother,home. Ibrahim wasnt sure if Seline would take Night back to England, if Matthew didnt died. He was hoping Seline would come back now, with her son. But Seline refused, and instead of coming back to Turkey, she took Night back.

Night wrote letters to him so often, and in every change they visit Turkey. İbrahim was parent to them, more than their own family and they couldnt be more grateful to have him as grandfather.

-

Uncle: Jonathan Rhea

First son of Alexander and Alycia Rhea. He is only two years older than Matthew. He married with Elyssa Black, and had two child. Cora Rhea, a Legilimens and  two years older than Jacob; and Cordell Rhea in same age with Night. İn 1981, Jonathan lost his daughter and his wife.

Losing half of his own family shaked him deeply, but on the other hand, now Matthew is also gone,and it was good enough to make him forget about his pain. All the responsibilty of Rhea's is now Jonathan's. He is the only one who is head of family now. Or at least, its what he think.

Little he know Seline will be the biggest impediment to him. She wont let him to take the big house (Where Matthew and her staying with their childs, because Matthew was the head of family) She refused him, and told him Yakup will be the one who will take Matthew's place. She knows how Jonathan hate her and Yakup. He wouldnt let Seline stay in family or even England. So she fight with Jonathan with all her power. Until Yakup disappears.

After that, Seline lost her hopes, she even begged him to help her find her son.She promised to leave England if he helps. But Jonathan didnt care, he took everything he wanted after all. The house, being the important one. He was no longer the one who is forgotten in his little brothers shadow. He is the one who is in control now. He even took Night from Seline. Night lived in his house from their fourth year to seventh year.

When Night started Hogwarts, Jonathan told his son to stop them. From finding Yakup. Because he cant risk his nephew to come back, and took everything he earned.  Unfortunatelly, his fears will come true and Yakup will come back. Jonathan will hate him with all his being and this hate will be dangerous when Voldemort returns.

Jonathan will be the one, who offer Night a place in Death Eaters when Night run away from their first crime. He will say he is proud of them for choosing the right way and realizing Yakup is the traitor one, not him. And will say Matthew would be also proud of them.

During war time, Jonathan will be the biggest enemy of Night, even if he wont know about it.

-

Love Interest: 

Talight- Talbott Winger 

Night and him meet in third year thanks to Penny. Night didnt even know his name,and Talbott was staying away from the cursed vault kid to avoid trouble. It actually took them long time to be close friends. But once they became friends, they found theirselves a way to escape from other. At first, they see each other as a someone who can understand other ones feelings. Talbott learned Night isnt always as happy as they seems or they isnt just a selfish troublemaker. And Night learned Talbott isnt someone who has stone cold heart and doesnt care about others. They so often fly together in night, sit in silent in owlery, read their own books in libary,and sometimes running/flying around just for fun. Talbott learned to like some harmless chaos, and Night learned to be not afraid of silence. İn fourth year, Night realized they have deeper feelings for him, but couldnt risk to lose his friendship. They were happy enough to have him as friend. But Tulip reading their secret notebook out loud didnt help them to hide their feelings. The notebook was written in Turkish so no one could understand, but Night completely forget about how Tulip actually knows Turkish. Even if it happened out of Night's control, it didnt end like how Night feared. 

As much as they both loved each other, being in relationship is something these two doesnt know well. İn fifth year, they dealed with some tiny (!) jealousy. Night meets with Jae, and being in detention whole year help them become a close friend in short time. Being busy with Rakepick and her tasks, Night was quiet busy and Jae was the only one they can see without needing help. (Remember how Rowan said they were only comes to their friend to get help?) Our little bird didnt like to feel in this way. But this feeling wasnt just keeping "him" awake in nights. It was eating Night from inside too. They were aware of how they couldnt see Talbott so often, and actually missing  their piecefull times together. They couldnt help but notice how he got close with Badeea. Not that they thinks Talbott shouldnt have friends. Actually they were happy about how these two Ravenclaw sharing their own worlds to each other. Night just, felt unsure if they are good enough for Talbott, in a way Badeea is more than enough. Night and Badeea were so different, and Night  couldnt help but compare theirself with her. Our couple didnt actually broke up, but i can say they had some walls between their hearts now, the ones they both didnt wanted but thought other one needs it. They goes to Summer Festival, with different people. Wanna guess who?? Of course Badeea and Jae. They both watch each other laugh with someone else. But in the end of the year, when Night and others came back from Buried Vault, Talbott was the one who hold them while they were crying.

Next two year, they both supported each other. (Yes im just skipping all the things because, there is things im excited to write and draw and dont wanna spoil it here). But before graduation, Night wanted to break up. To focus on theirselves. Night knows how Talbott worked hard to be auror, and they doesnt want him to worry about them while having so many things to worry about already. Talbott didnt like the idea of course, refused at first. He blamed them, get angry, didnt talked to them for days. But then, he understood why Night saying these. To accept it, he wanted them to promise him something. That they will come back to him. No matter as what, as a lover, as a friend, as a someone who still have warmt in their heart for him.

Well, in a way, Night keep their promise. (Will be continued in Future AU)

-

Nelix- Felix Rosier 

İn Hogwarts, their relationship was mostly about Felix trying to keep Night out of trouble and fail every time. He became Dragonologist when he graduated, and Night send him maybe too many letters to ask about life in Romania. (Charlie also aprecciated his letters too, as you can imagine.) Being Dragonologist was Night's dream job, even if they doesnt think they will be doing it in future. So after graduation, just to see Charlie, dragons and Romania (definitelly not to see Felix, please) they travelled there a lot.

Seeing each other again, with other Death Eaters was not what they both hoped. Night knew Felix would be there. But for him, seeing Night there was shocking. He was disappointed, but thought about maybe Night was forced by their family, just like him. (Will be continued in Future AU)

After all the rough time they managed to survive, they both needed to heal from what they saw, what they did. And being far away from England was just what they needed.

-

Nixen AU- Vixen McMahen (@vixenmcmahenhphm )

-

Marhea AU- Atlas Marson (@vixenmcmahenhphm )

(Just leaving note here, im always open for making ship au's. If youre interested, let me know so we can have fun!)

-

Best Friends: 

Rowan Khanna

Talbott Winger

Barnaby Abernathy Lee

Ben Copper

Bill Weasley

Charlie Weasley

Andre Egwu

Jae Bo Kim

Tonks

Erika Rath

Merula Snyde

Chiara Lobosca

Tulip Karasu

Liz Tuttle

Badeea Ali

-

Enemy:

Patricia Rakepick- R

Jonathan Rhea- Death Eaters

-

Dormmates: 

Rowan Khanna, Liz Tuttle, Marina Willow (@mira-shard)

(Send me dm if you want your mc and Night be roommates! Two spots open for girls room!)

Barnaby Abernathy Lee, Cordell Rhea

(Send me dm if you want your mc and Night be roommates! Two spots open for boys room!)

-

Pets: 

Marshall: Night look after Yakup's closest friend, a black cat, after he disappears. After him, poor kitty become so quiet,and in nights cant sleep without Night in room. They promised Marshall to take Yakup back, but before he can come back Marshall passed away (İn beginning of fifth year). After him, Night didnt have any pet.

-

-

Closest MC Friends: Let me know if i can put your mc's name here!

Miscellaneous:

⦁ With Felix words, Night is “too chaotic and energetic like a Gryfindor”. You can see them running around anytime -mostly after Jae, Vixen or Tonks- or laughing with tears on their face. Not to mention they have a loud voice and you will hear when they laugh everytime. (Chiara admit it later that she was afraid of telling her secret to Night just because of this. But dont worry, they can be very secretive.) Night’s face always wears their emotions, that means you can see a lot of weird and funny expressions.

⦁ Chocolate is the key of happy Night. Whenever they have a chocolate frog, you can see a bright smile on their face. Bad Quidditch match? They will eat chocolate angrily on Pitch. Bad exam? Chocolate again with a face that shows you how their brain is burned. Snape’s favorite punishment for Night? Honeydukes Ban. Night will probably just curl up on grass in Training Grounds and wait for the day pass. Also a cup of tea could make Night very happy too. Thanks to their grandpa, they know how to make tea in every way, so they would be so happy if you join them for tea.

⦁ Because of that bright attitude of them, Night wasnt taken seriously at first. When some older Slytherins talked about Jacob in common room, everyone in room learned about how Night doesnt hold back when they are angry. İn years, they did a lot of things out of anger that they will regret later.

⦁ Night is a person who cant tell easily their negative feeling.When they got sad, they got quiet. Mostly Night just hide their sadness behind their smile and hope that it will be gone.

[ohshcfanficrandr]

Welcome everyone to the OHSHC Fanfiction Recs and Reviews!

First off, I would like to thank anyone who interacts with this blog! This has been an idea that I have been toying around with for probably two months and decided to finally pull the trigger. And I would like to explain the reasons behind the conception of this blog.

Did you know that on FF.Net there are over 22k posted fics under the OHSHC tab and AO3 is almost up to 3k fics? That is a lot of love given to such a tiny fandom! 

The more time I spend on Tumblr I have noticed that there was not a blog specifically giving fic recs and saw a gap that needed to be filled. Basically an online book club but for fanfiction! Neat, huh? 

I’m not sure about most of you but I have made and met some pretty interesting and wonderful people who are keeping this fandom alive! And I want to be a part of those people! I want to share my love and appreciation for those who are pouring into and partaking in this beloved fandom. I want to be your friend and chat about all things OHSHC! 

IRL I can bet most of us do not have people we can openly talk and gush about something we read or saw on Tumblr/FF/AO3 without feeling weird. But here on this blog I want this to be a safe space. I have sifted hours to find/save/read all types of OHSHC Fics! 

Here’s the thing...we all have preferences and have a bias towards ships/character traits/AUs/story lengths/etc. Not every story recommendation is going to be my cup of tea nor yours. I do admit that I might not have enjoyed it but that is my opinion. There are certain things that I want to see in a story as well. But there are people out there who will enjoy the rec and this is for you!

Something that I don’t do is straight-up bash a story.

Why? Cause that is rude. In the review portion of each post, I include things that I liked, favorite lines or quotes, and things that I didn’t care for. Why, again? Because I think it is important to give you a reason why I did or didn’t like something. Positives and negatives. Each story was made with some level of love for the fandom and I appreciate that people were/are bold enough to post their work online. If it is a WIP, I suggest what I would like to see come next or any constructive criticism. Above all I just want to share my opinion and have a conversation with fellow readers!

Here is the template I use for every story. 

Fic Recommendation:

Story:

Author:

Website: AO3 or FF.Net

Word Count:

Status: Complete or WIP 

Last Updated:

Rating: 

Author Summary: 

Relationship:

Applicable Tags:

Review (Contains Spoilers):

Things That I Loved:

Things I Didn’t Care For:

Favorite Lines or Quotes From Story:

Would I Read Again?

I will include links to the author’s page and the first chapter of the story. Go! And Read it! Then come back and give me your own opinion! Tell me my opinion was trash! Agree with me? Let’s be critical thinkers! 

Want me to read one of your favorites? Want to share some love with your favorite author/story and want others to know about it? Want me to rec and review something you wrote?

Send them to me!

My ask box will be open to your recommendations! All I ask is that you use this format.

Story Title:

Author:

Website Location: AO3, FF.Net, Tumblr

That way if they pile up I will be able to find your rec quickly and post! 

But I will warn you now. I am really not a fan of crossovers and will probably not do a review on a fic if I do not have a good understanding of the other story that it is crossed with. You have been warned. (Sorry Recs is a OHSHC Purist)

I am so excited to interact with everyone!

I have created accounts on both FF.Net and AO3 so you can follow along with each story I review! I will Favorite (FF.net) or Bookmark (AO3) each story as a master list for each website. Give them a follow!

[monstersdownthepath]

Spiritual Spotlight: Yhidothrus, the Ravager Worm

Chaotic Evil Hybrid Fiend* of Age, Time, and Worms

Domains: Chaos, Death, Evil, Repose Subdomains: Ancestors, Demon, Entropy, Murder

The Complete Book of the Damned, pg. 104~105

Obedience: Meditate in a closed coffin partially filled with leech-infested mud or worm-infested soil. During the obedience, you must swallow or inhale at least a dozen living leeches or worms. Benefit: Gain a +4 profane bonus on saving throws against effects that cause magical aging, slowness, or anything that damages, drains, or penalizes ability scores.

Oh man that’s a painful Obedience. Not only have you got to lug around a coffin big enough to fully enclose you, but you have to lug around a coffin packed with a dozen pounds of soil that’s filled with squirming things. I won’t even get into how to hide this ritual from prying eyes or explain yourself if you get caught because it’s basically impossible to do if you’re in a Good-aligned party. If you’re among Evil, you can at least have your allies stand guard while you go eat your breakfast in the seclusion of your coffin so that no innocent civilians see you. Also, hefting that thing around basically necessitates some sort of extradimensional space, or a luggage-strewn cart and a very good cover story if gate guards check the contents out and spot it.

Yeesh, the logistics of this are giving me a headache. A normal funeral-grade coffin is usually as weighty as the corpse it’s meant to contain, but you can likely get by with a shoddy and lightweight one you’ve made yourself. In fact, the Worm may find that charming! Especially when you fill it with dirt and start eating worms in its name. Keeping the coffin filled with life is likely going to be a hell of a project in and of itself, basically necessitating turning the thing into a terrarium; make sure to weatherproof your coffin or it’s going to rot from the inside-out before you even make it a few months into your new faith! The Worm may offer a more generous interpretation of ‘closed’ if your coffin has worm-eaten holes in it, but the more they chew through it, the more likely it is the thing will break open like cheap plywood the next time you lay down.

All that trouble however is worth it, even before getting into the Boons. The benefit from the ritual is huge, basically giving you a +4 on saves versus just about every status ailment in the game, because it says “ANYTHING” that damages, drains, or even penalizes ability scores. Not only are poisons, diseases, and most curses affected, but frightened, blinded, exhausted/fatigued, negative levels, grappled, and many more conditions inflicted as secondary effects from enemy attacks can be more easily resisted thanks to the protection the Worm offers, and this is ON TOP OF the extra resistance versus Slow effects and magical aging. So, yes, this is an A+ benefit!

So lets see what kind of Boons the great devourer of time has to offer...

Boons are acquired slowly: the first once you reach 12 hit dice, the second at 16, and the third at 20. However, the Evangelist, Exalted, and Sentinel Prestige Classes can be entered as early as level 7; doing so grants you the Boons at levels 10, 13, and 16 instead. Servants of demons may also take the Demoniac Prestige Class; you don’t get the Boons any faster than E/E/S, but you may select which Boon set you get, and you get cool demon-related powers!

*Yhidothrus is technically both a Demon Lord and a Qlippoth Lord. This has no effect on whether or not you can enter the Demoniac Prestige Class, but it’s worth noting that its true loyalties will likely lay with the True Rulers of the Abyss. I’m mentioning this because it’s another cute little detail a DM can play with and a character can consider. 

------

EVANGELIST

-----

Boon 1: Consumption of the Worm. Gain Corrosive Touch 3/day, Acid Arrow 2/day, or Vampiric Touch 1/day.

Nice! Except for Corrosive Touch, I mean. It’s a melee touch spell that deals only 5d4 damage and, while that may be helpful when you need to break an object, but unless you’re an Evangelist-Fighter/Barbarian, there’s probably someone in your party better at breaking things. Both Acid Arrow and Vampiric Touch are better, with VT granting you some much-needed vitality when trapped in an enemy’s melee radius, and Acid Arrow’s low damage somewhat mitigated by the fact that it’s ongoing and stacks with itself.

Three damage spells with very obvious uses. Makes them easy to cover and move on, at least! I’d personally stick with Acid Arrow unless you Evangelized yourself from a more melee-oriented class.

Boon 2: Nightmare Below. You gain a burrow speed of 30ft that can be used to tunnel through sand, mud, soil, or other soft substances. You have +10 to Stealth checks while burrowing. Once per hour as a standard action, you can burst from the ground with a terrifying roar; all creatures within 30ft of your emergence that were unaware of your presence must make a Will save (DC 10 + 1/2 your HD + your Cha mod) or be stunned for 1 round and shaken for 2d4 rounds after. The burrow speed is an Extraordinary, but the emergence ability is a Supernatural mind-affecting fear effect.

I appreciate that there’s no indication as to how your character burrows, so I assume you move just like a worm does, slinking through the ground like an accordion. However, note that the burrowing IS an Extraordinary ability, not a Supernatural one, so there’s some sort of physical action going on that you presumably need at least one limb for. Perhaps you’re just eating the dirt?

Anyway, a semi-permanent burrow speed--and a decently speedy 30ft one, at that--rates pretty high on ‘things that are spooky for players to have’ because of the nonsense players can think up. Grappling someone and dragging them underground and leaving them there is just one of the many shenanigans you can pull. Being more than 5ft underground makes you immune to a great many attacks and spells, making it a solid defensive option too! However, as strong as this ability could be, it’s held back by something that’s extremely important:

You can’t see anything while underground.

Creatures that can burrow normally navigate by Tremorsense or the power to see through earth, but unless you’re a really weird race or have specific and rare magic items/effects on you, you’re as blind to your enemies as they are to you. That puts a huge damper on an otherwise incredibly powerful ability, because it forces you to rely on an above-ground ‘spotter’ to help you find your way around... Unless, of course, you pop your head out like a meerkat every so often to check on your surroundings, but that also runs the risk of ruining your terrifying arrival.

The terrifying arrival is a pretty good initiator, if we’re being honest. Sneaking around and seeing where your foes are clustered before burrowing over to that spot is a decent way to have a bunch of them trip over their own feet trying to get away from you... Or, rather, not getting away at all due to the supernatural stun. Stunning even one or two enemies out of a group of 6~10 during the surprise round means two less enemies get to roll initiative before being cut down. You have to give up your standard action to do it, but it’s a decent Save-or-Suck if your allies are waiting in the wings, ready to pounce when you explode from the ground like the world’s filthiest jack-in-the-box.

Boon 3: The Very Worm That Gnaws. When you perform your Obedience upon attaining this Boon, you are devoured utterly by the worms, your consciousness transferring into the swarm. You gain the Worm That Walks Template. Creatures that become shaken by your Nightmare Below emergence are also sickened for 1 minute.

Alright, alright alright alright ALRIGHT ALRIGHT ALRIGHT

This represents one of the very, very few ways for a player character to obtain a Template this powerful without jumping through some pretty hefty hoops. I mean, yes, you have to serve the Ravager Worm for years and years without being put down permanently, and you also have to meditate in a wormy coffin for more or less the entire time... But by god does it ever pay off.

Worm That Walks is one of the stronger Templates one could ever hope to obtain. Not quite on the level of the Vampire or the Lich, but certainly in the upper tiers, and with fewer obnoxious weaknesses! You become immune to physical single-target spells and effects, as well as spells/effects which target a specific number of creatures, such as Disintegrate and Magic Missile due to your wormy constitution, though you remain vulnerable to mind-affecting effects or effects which attack your senses. However, a great number of powerful effects such as Slow, Finger of Death, Harm, and most forms of Smite simply do not work against your innumerable tiny bodies, which can die off in droves without harming your overall consciousness. In fact, the worms comprising your form breed with such alarming swiftness that you gain Fast Healing equal to your CR (which is typically roughly equal to your level, but you gain an automatic +2 from the Template) and they reflexively dodge out of the way of incoming attacks so fluidly that they grant you DR 15/--.

Yes, you read that right. Fast Healing 18 (at least) and an insurmountable DR 15. If you were the party caster before becoming an Evangelist, you are no longer squishy in the gamer sense of the word. And if you were the party tank? You’re basically indestructible now, aside from your unfortunate weakness to area-of-effect attacks (from which you take half-again as much damage). The DM should be wary of people wanting to worship the Ravager Worm, if only because of how hair-pullingly resilient a WTW can be if played right. You even overcome the WTW’s biggest weakness, in that once they drop below 0 HP they become permanently staggered and lose access to all of their defensive abilities (including Fast Healing and DR), because Nightmare Below allows you to dig down to safety until you can recover.

I really don’t want to stretch this little article any more than I should, despite the fact that a character becoming a Worm That Walks is a huge can of worms that deserves a lot of explanation, but here: Take a look at the Template’s page again for yourself. Just take a look at all the stuff you get! I will close with a note for DMs though: if you find yourself needing to keep an unruly PC in check, note that their life becomes inextricably linked to the Ravager Worm’s will now. As written, you do not lose the template if you fail your Obedience (which, by the by, is much easier to perform now that you are the worms)... But failing too often for too long could cause Yhidothrus to simply cease providing you with divine energy, unbinding your mind from the worms and killing you instantly before pulling you into its Abyssal palace.

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EXALTED

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Boon 1: Blessing of the Worm. Gain Ray of Enfeeblement 3/day, Gentle Repose 2/day, or Slow 1/day.

In case you forgot that Yhidothrus was related to time, here’s a good reminder! Gentle Repose is a bit of an odd duck since the Worm holds dominion over the negative aspects of time’s passage, such as the wearing down of one’s body and mind as the ages move on. Stopping time from devouring the dead, then, is strange for the Worm to grant.

And I wouldn’t take Gentle Repose or Ray of Enfeeblement, either, since Slow is available and can completely turn an encounter on its head with a single casting. That’s all you get, but that’s all you really need. This one was easy to do, too, letting us move on to the meatier Boons here...

Boon 2: Curse of Brittle Bones. 1/day, you can cast Heightened Bestow Curse at 7th level as a spell-like ability. This curse is unique, advancing the victim to venerable age and imposing a -6 penalty to Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution without granting them bonuses to their mental ability scores. These penalties do not stack with age-related penalties already present.

The save DC against this ability is 17+Cha mod, a high enough save that whoever you swat with it will likely struggle to surmount it. However, this is a touch attack negated by a successful save with an effect that does not instantly end combat on its own, which you all know by now is something I do not like seeing. Age penalties can’t reduce a victim’s stats below 1, and while this is a curse effect and not listed as an aging effect, it’s commonly accepted that Constructs, Undead, Outsiders, and Dragons simply do not age as mortals might and thus this curse would have no effect on them.

However, NONE of those creature types are inherently immune to aging effects unless it is specifically mentioned in their individual sheets. They can still experience the ravages of time, they just have to be magically forced to do so. especially in the case of Dragons (which normally get more powerful as they age) and Outsiders (which remain in physical stasis until something forces them out).

In case that’s not a convincing enough argument, the language of the ability is also important; the curse advances the target to venerable age, but it’s a separate sentence entirely that says “this curse imposes a–6 penalty to the target’s Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution scores,” which requires emphasis as it clarifies that it is the curse itself which brittles the victim’s bones, rather than their new head of gray hairs.

... anyway, all that being said, I still don’t really like it. Probably the most important part is the fact that -6 Dex means -3 AC and -3 to Reflex saves, while the penalty to Con means the victim loses 3 HP per HD they have. It combos well with stat-damaging poisons or spells, but on its own it’s pretty underwhelming.

Boon 3: Call of the Worm. 1/day, you may place your hand to the ground and whisper a prayer to the Ravager Worm. This acts as Summon Monster IX as a spell-like ability, except it always calls an avatar of Yhidothrus (an Advanced Fiendish Purple Worm) to your aid. 

THIS, however, is anything but underwhelming. Aside from SM9s painful casting time of one full round (which can be mitigated by using it just before combat, or to initiate), being able to call a CR 14 encounter to your side even once a day is pretty big for a Boon. Sadly not as meaty as some final summons, as a Purple Worm is little more than an enormous tube into which enemies are shoveled (as you can read here), but the Advanced and Fiendish Templates at least give it a few new toys to play with in the form of a +2 to all the numbers it hits enemies with and a +2 to its AC. Fiendish also grants it 10 Resistance to both Cold and Fire, DR 10/Good, Spell Resistance 16, and a further +1 to attack and damage rolls versus Good targets.

If you need enemy mooks to back off, an enormous Purple Worm will either send them scattering or swallow them all down one by one. There’s also the potential to use it as an enormous battering ram, slamming its cow-sized head through walls and doorways because, lets be honest, a 35 in Strength means that only mithral and adamantine really stand a chance of keeping a Purple Worm out of whatever location you’ve decided it very much deserves to be in.

Given the casting range of SM9, ‘location’ can also mean ‘directly next to the enemy’s backline.’ Just note a few important things: While this is a spell-like, it has built-in somatic and verbal components in that you must put one hand on the ground and you must be able to speak a prayer to Yhidothrus. No having the monstrous aspect of your lord come to your rescue while you’re bound and gagged! Secondly, since it’s specifically a summoning, it can be dispelled or banished with relative ease. It also only lingers for 1 round/level, unlike a Called creature would, so you likely only get to summon the beast for one big battle.

Still, though, how many priests can summon a reasonably powerful facsimile of their own god to their aid? I think the fact it looks like Yhidothrus is a nice touch, though it’s a bit of a flavor snarl since no one has ever seen the back end of the Ravager Worm, while a Purple Worm very obviously has a backside (that’s where the stinger is).

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SENTINEL

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Boon 1: Hasten the End. Gain Expeditious Retreat 3/day, Silence 2/day, or Sands of Time 1/day.

I’ve spoken of Sands of Time before, so I won’t reiterate much here other than I wouldn’t take it when Silence is an option. Expeditious Retreat also pales in comparison to the tactical applications of Silence, since you can slap the dampening field on yourself or an ally to assist with sneaky sneak missions... Or, you know, slapping it on your hulking martial self and then charging at the enemy caster to tie them up for the rest of combat. The number of spells that can solve that situation which can also be used in Silence can be counted on one hand with fingers left over, and it quickly spells death for the poor fool you slither towards.

Silence ends encounters, is what I’m saying, and can sometimes do so without even offering a saving throw. Faced with that kind of utility, why take something as paltry as +30 to your walking speed, or waste your valuable action making a touch attack that may end up doing nothing?

Boon 2: Specter of Time. As a swift action after confirming a critical hit with a weapon against a living foe, you may instead deal normal damage and force the target to make a Fortitude saving throw (DC 10 + 1/2 your HD + Cha mod). Failing the save causes the victim to painfully advance into the next age category, taking all the penalties to their physical ability scores but gaining no benefits from their advancing age. This is a curse effect which lasts for 24 hours, and the creature returns to their normal age if they die. A venerable creature (this does not include creatures who have become venerable through a means beyond natural age, or this ability, such as through Sands of Time) that fails a saving throw against this ability is immediately slain and can only be raised with Reincarnate, Wish, Miracle, or True Resurrection.

And here’s even more reason to not take Sands of Time, it doesn’t even work with this ability!

Not to say that this ability is particularly good, mind. You need to confirm two or even three critical hits to kill most creatures, and confirming two or three critical hits will typically kill the creature through damage anyway. I do appreciate that there’s no per-day limit on this ability, letting you just use it whenever you have the swift action to do so and potentially swatting some stats off an enemy at the cost of damage... provided you can make it past their Fortitude. Yeah, complete negation by a save really makes Big Damage more attractive in most cases, except for the times when you can’t kill a creature through damage alone (such as if you have nothing to overcome a creatures Regeneration). This ability does get better if you have a crit build, obviously, but again--once you have a crit build in place, why would you want to do less damage?

That being said, critting an enemy that’s already venerable and forcing them to save or die is satisfying. The ancient warlord facing you in single combat, the elderly wizard who stepped a little too far forward, the old Rogue ready to teach you a new trick (play dead)... Just swatting the life out of them with a confirmed crit is tasty, especially since them being venerable means a -6 to Constitution, and thus a -3 to Fortitude saves in the first place.

Boon 3: End Time. "You can call upon the Ravager Worm to temporarily consume time itself in an area surrounding you. You can cast Time Stop once per day as a spell-like ability. When you use this ability, those in the area of effect are subjected to a powerful vision—that the world they are in becomes wrapped in the endless coils of the Ravager Worm. The affected creatures never glimpse Yhidothrus’s head, and know only for the brief instant of eternity they spend in your Time Stop area that the world around them is fully wrapped in the coils of something more foul than they even imagined.“

I quoted this directly from the book/website rather than simplifying it for a few reasons, mainly because it’s difficult to simplify this down. Why? Because Time Stop is not an area of effect spell. It affects you and ONLY you, speeding you up to the point that everything else appears to have stopped moving. Other creatures are not affected and do not even realize what you’ve done because, for them, basically no time passed at all.

This ability is worded as though it reverses how Time Stop works, instead trapping everyone around you in stopped time for a subjective few seconds while you slither off to do your evil deeds, subjecting them to the knowledge that the Ravager Worm exists and has circled the whole of Golarion a thousand times over. In fact, looking into it, NO version of Time Stop works like this ability’s wording suggests it does; D&D 3.5 and 5th Edition and Pathfinder 1st Edition all note that Time Stop affects only you. 

The ability says “consume time itself in the area surrounding you,” which would seem to indicate that time only stops for a small section of the land containing you, but gives absolutely no details about how big this area is. For the sake of saving myself further headaches and further article space uselessly hammering against this concept, we’ll say that time only stops for an area that is 300ft around you. That way, everyone in that area (including your allies!) knows something is truly, deeply, and terrifyingly wrong. If people in the area weren’t alerted to your presence before, they will be now, provided they don’t immediately flee because--honestly--suddenly having your field of vision dominated by endless greasy coils of a pitch black worm and being forced to Know that their world is caged by this horror? Terrifying enough to make the weaker-willed quit on the spot. There’s no mechanics attached to this vision, but I like to think of it as the mother of all intimidation tactics.

Let me put it this way:

You can force your enemies to come to terms with the fact that Pathfinder is a cosmic horror story.

And that’s beautiful! Did you think your petty squabbles actually mattered in the face of the machinations at play beyond this pathetic world? No. And I’m here to tell you that, personally. I’ve appeared in your throne room to do so!

And that’s all you, the martial Sentinel, can really do with Time Stop, because without any easily-deployed traps, scrolls, or magic items or whatnot, you can’t actually make use of the rounds of freedom like a caster could. If you were a martial caster before entering Sentinel, good on you! You’ve got some extra rounds to get your buffs going! But for Barbarians, Fighters, and other Hit Things Hard classes, you don’t really get as much out of this as you may believe. Except, again, scaring the absolute everything out of everyone in the area not expecting their vision to suddenly be overwhelmed by nightmares.

Just... warn your allies ahead of time. Or don’t! It’s funnier that way!

You can read more about it here.

[thewitchwithoutvoice-blog]

Aoi Shibunuri

"If I told you about her, the princess without voice, what would I say?”

Hello everyone! First of all, thank you for taking the time to read this, I appreciate it very much. Now, allow me to introduce you to Aoi, she’s my little bean and I am looking for RP contacts and an RP FC as well. I hope this gives you all a bit of an idea of what she is like. I recently moved from Mateus here to Balmung, I did have Aoi ver. 1, but since I moved over, I wanted to start fresh. Thanks again! ^^

NAME: Aoi Shibunuri 

AGE: Twenty-Six

RACE: Au Ra (Raen)

GENDER: Female

SEXUALITY: Demisexual

DISABILITY(s)?: Yes, she is mute from birth. 

MARITAL STATUS: Single

SERVER: Balmung

physical appearance ––––

HAIR: Light brown. Slight wave to her hair. She had shorter hair but it has grown quite long since. It has reached a bit past her hips currently. Half up, half down french braid sometimes or just simply half up, half down with a long braid running down her back. 

EYES: Black, depending on lighting, they can look endless and pitch dark.

SKIN TYPE: Medium Tan(Amber) with very soft skin and bright scales. She has flecks of moles here and there throughout her body. She enjoys bathing in oils so she has a healthy glow to her skin. 

HEIGHT: Four feet Eight inches

BUILD: She has a small amount of tone to her body, a bit thin with wider hips and a full top, an hourglass figure to be precise. 

DISTINGUISHING MARKS: From head to toe, her scales are pearlescent. Her horns and tail aren’t entirely, they have flecks of luster and shine here and there. 

COMMON ACCESSORIES: Flowers, she enjoys having flowers in her hair and always seems to have fresh ones. She usually has her nails painted with rings adorning her hands. She always has one special ring she does no take off for any reason other than in her home, she was told it was her mother’s. Anklets, the prettier the chiming bells, the more skip to her step. Occasionally, she’ll wear a necklace, but not too often. She carries a satchel with medical supplies, herbs, potions, inkwells, gauze, quills and her journals. She also carries a one-handed wand on her person at all times in case of emergencies.

personal –––-

PROFESSION: Wandering healer/conjurer currently. It has been about a year and a half since she retired from the Adders as a combat medic. If she isn’t wandering, she always takes the time to visit home...Gridania. The Central Shroud is one of her favorite places to be, she’ll often mediate there, gather herbs and supplies, or enjoy being around the greenery. 

HOBBIES: Reading, her head is always in a book. Her home is filled with books, stacks here and there in messy piles. She enjoys taking care of plants, much of her home is filled with them so often she will be watering them and possibly getting more (even though she knows she shouldn’t). Aoi enjoys dancing, she can get lost in it, but it is something she does when she is alone. Aoi plays the harp as well, she learned at a young age and finds it soothing when she feels stressed or anxious. 

LANGUAGES: Common and Sign Language

RESIDENCE: Her home is a small apartment that she occasionally visits in between her wandering, she is not one for having large homes, she enjoys having a smaller space. It is filled with plants and books, in a corner, she keeps her large harp so that she can entertain guests. 

FEARS: Drowning. She never learned how to swim because she was so caught up in her studies while growing up, and whenever she was prompted to, she brushed it aside. She has other tiny little fears such as neglecting her duty of traveling around and healing and caring for others. She is not a big fan of insects such as spiders, anything creepy crawly makes her uncomfortable. Heights make her extremely uncomfortable as she can be clumsy, that and she feels dizzy being in high up places. She doesn’t like the feeling. 

relationships –––-

SPOUSE: N/A

CHILDREN: N/A

PARENTS: Both mother and father are deceased. She was raised by her aunt from a very young age of about a year old. 

SIBLINGS: She has no brothers or sisters, she grew up as an only child. 

OTHER RELATIVES: The only living relative that she is aware of, is her aunt.

PETS: She has none, but she won’t easily admit that she kind of thinks her plants as pets. 

traits –––-

extroverted / introverted / in between

disorganized / organized / in between

close minded / open-minded / in between

calm / anxious / in between (depends on situation)

disagreeable / agreeable / in between

cautious / reckless / in between (depends on situation)

patient / impatient / in between

outspoken / reserved / in between

leader / follower / in between

empathetic / unemphatic / in between

optimistic / pessimistic / in between

traditional / modern / in between

hard-working / lazy / in between

cultured / un-cultured / in between

loyal / disloyal / in between

faithful / unfaithful / in between

additional information –––-

SMOKING HABIT: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess.

DRUGS: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess.

ALCOHOL: never / sometimes / frequently / to excess

possible hooks –––-

- If your character is an Adder or was associated with them, she was a combat medic for them before she retired! She will most likely approach you if mentioned, badger you if you are taking care of yourself and properly getting rest in between missions or shifts. 

- If your character is mute or selectively mute and knows sign language (or just knows sign language in general), she will automatically approach with clear excitement in her eyes and a big smile! Her main form of communication is through writing, she does not meet many who know sign language so when she does actually meet those that do, it is a shock to her, a happy one!

- She is a wandering medic, so she is always aiding those that are in need of assistance, be it healing, child birth, or a serious injury, she will approach, very worried but ready to get to work immediately. 

- These are just some thoughts I’m throwing out there, situations that I think my character would respond to, to give an idea (it’s super early and I haven’t slept..so they are not the brightest ideas). I am open-minded, if you are interested, don’t even hesitate to throw some of your ideas out there too, I would love to hear what you have to say as well! Working together to come up with an awesome hook or plot is the best part! ^^

what I’m looking for ––––

- Honestly, any kind of contacts! Be it friendships, job offers, rivalries, etc! I mentioned above that I was also looking for an RP FC so, if any of you are in need of a healer (additionally an alchemist, gotta level that up for RP purposes, same for botany), shoot me a message and give me some information about your FC and what you’re all about! 

- I mentioned that I’m an open-minded person, so if you got ideas, shoot them my way, I love seeing what people can cook up, and it helps give me an idea of what I can too depending on the person(s) that approach me (character-wise, like personalities, backstories, what sort of plot you’re informing me about and how Aoi would fit into it).

✓ Will do temporary incapacitation, temporary imprisonment, walk-ups

✓ I don’t mind doing RP that is a bit dark, I like being pushed in different directions and it’s fun to explore. Things revolving voidsent (very little knowledge of it though, if you have the patience to give me some lore tips and pointers, I don’t mind one bit), drugs/violence/alcohol/language, I don’t mind at all, as long as it comes naturally with roleplay.

- As for longterm RP, I am not too sure about it, one way to find out is talking to me about it and giving me an idea of what you had in mind (especially if they involve long-term incapacitation, long-term imprisonment, or long-term disfiguration). 

- I don’t mind lore bending at all, not one bit, as long as it isn’t anything too crazy or displaced. It is fun to be creative! So as long as it works and flows nicely with everything. 

✗ I will not do ERP or anything involving rape. I don’t at all mind having my characters naturally building a romantic relationship (comes along with roleplay, fan of slowburn sort of stuff), but ERP is not my cup of tea so I’m putting this out there now, don’t ask me later, my mind won’t suddenly change. 

oocly, I am –––

I am a fairly chill roleplayer, I enjoy in-game roleplay but I don’t mind at all if you would like to use Discord as well. It’s very convenient! I enjoy all sorts of RP as I mentioned above, if you would like fast-paced, I will do my best to keep up and adapt, I am more of a paragraph roleplayer and enjoy putting in a lot of details into my posts, but like I said, I can adapt, I’ve been roleplaying for about 11 years, I’ve been all over the place.

Don’t worry about responding to me asap or roleplaying with me constantly, like I said, I’m a laid-back person, plan with me, gush about characters and stuff, take your time. There is no rush, after all, we’re all here to relax and have fun! So if anything is troubling you, don’t hesitate to approach me about it!

I am on CST, and am usually on most of the time, my sleep schedule is all over the place so I’ll be on during the day, afternoon, night...like I said...jumpy sleep schedule. >w< 

you can contact me via ––

Tumblr Messages!

Discord: Aoi Shibunuri#4857

In Game: Aoi Shibunuri

PS: Totally didn’t nab this from my friend, @ijazrahalffxiv, *sweats*, I don’t really know where he got this template from so the mysterious template shall continue it’s journey onwards!! Thank you for your time :D

[ghopera]

until i get a theme made, here are some rules below the readme that i’ll be using!! u can go ahead and like this if u read my rules tho, i’d rlly appreciate it !! <3

INTRO.

hello !!! this is a highly selective & independent rp blog for webber-based phantom from the phantom of the opera ! i do not own or associate myself with leroux or webber’s works, nor am i associated with ramin karimloo or the royal albert hall or any of that sorta stuff. i’m just some gay on the internet roleplaying as erik. don’t follow me if you’re homophobic, transphobic, racist, radfem, or any of that crunchy stuff. i also tend to swear a LOT ooc so if you’re uncomfortable with that just hmu and i’ll tag it!! i’m a native english speaker (american) and have skills in intermediate latin spanish, and i am currently learning icelandic on the side.

i will add to my rules as i see fit, as i reserve the right to do so, since this is my blog.

BASICS.

if you don’t know what it means for me to be highly selective and independent, it means that (a) i only interact with mutuals on this blog (mutual being a person that i follow and that person follows me in return) and even then, i’m pretty selective with who i interact with for my own sake of being comfortable and (b) independent meaning that i am not associated with any roleplay groups and i’m pretty much on my own. please don’t feel offended if i don’t follow you back! most of the time, it’s because i want to keep a clean dashboard, but other times it may be because i don’t think our muses will mesh well, i can’t get behind your writing style, i don’t know jack-squat about your muse/fandom/media, etc. plus, i have a huge bias for irl fc characters; i doubt i’ll be interacting with cartoon/anime characters on this blog. don’t bring up the animated poto movie please for the love of god

other roleplay basics inserted here, i.e. no godmodding, anon hate, etc. pretty self explanatory stuff. if you don’t know what godmodding means, it refers to forcing actions onto your roleplay partner’s muse without prior consent ooc, for example, shooting a character with a gun without giving the muse the ability to react and/or not asking the mun if it’s okay. i’m very picky about powerplay, the unrealistic domination of another character’s abilities, and overstepping the bounds of realism of the particular universe in which a thread takes place, and in my case, late 1800′s france. if you have any doubts, please ask me!

GRAPHICS. 

100% of the graphics i use on this blog are made by me using screencaps of the 25th anniversary rendition of POTO, stock images, and vectors made by myself. i make my own psds and do not use templates. please, for the love of god, don’t steal my graphics. i will personally hunt you down and do unspeakable cannibalistic things to your body. all jokes aside, i really don’t appreciate my stuff being stolen from me, considering it has happened before. 

PORTRAYAL.

this blog is based 99.99% on andrew lloyd webber’s interpretation of the phantom through the musical, specifically the 25th anniversary edition featuring ramin karimloo as erik/the phantom, and a tiny little bit of influence of leroux’s original novel. i haven’t completely read the novel and i have neglected reading kay’s phantom. i will only portray erik through webber’s canon as it’s the interpretation i’m most familiar with and most comfortable writing. in this case, the persian is not a canon character in this interpretation, and i apologize.

i also must mention that on this blog, love never dies is not canon. absolutely not. i despise the characterization and a large majority of the development of this shitty excuse for a sequel. it’s basically fanfiction with a high budget.

as many roleplay blogs go, a lot of my portrayal of erik will be based upon my own headcanon. the faceclaim i will use for erik is ramin karimloo.

TRIGGERS. 

a LOT of triggering content will be on this blog. mentions of abuse will be made, and themes of murder, manipulation, and overall shitty illegal behavior will be present here. a ton of depressive and mental illness-esque themes will be present as well.i will tag them as “// [trigger]” without the brackets and the quotation marks. for my own triggers, i would appreciate if you would tag: flying insects & heavy emotional, physical, and sexual abuse (especially from that of a romantic partner). thank you !!

SHIPPING. 

i’m very selective with shipping with erik. though erik/christine is my main otp with erik, i will not auto-ship with every christine that i want to interact with or vice-versa. even if i do ship with any christines on this blog, i would still appreciate ooc or a shitton of ic development because erik isn’t a pleasant person and is incredibly damaged and inexperienced. he has done some incredibly horrible things and by extension, could be considered a shitty person by some. because of this, like i said, i would appreciate a lot of development. plus, erik is already pretty hard to love, so there’s that. 

another note: i don’t ship raoul/erik. it just doesn’t work in my opinion and the romantic chemistry isn’t there at all. my erik has a preference for women and i highly doubt i’ll be shipping him with anyone other than women. i’m sorry if you’re disappointed with this!

smut nsfw will not take place on this blog. though erik and i are both legally of age, i don’t feel comfortable with publicly rping this on tumblr. i would prefer if anything like this takes place on discord, which i will openly provide to selective mutuals!

MUN.

hi!! i’m mads and i go by any pronouns (she/he/they)! i’m pretty chill and laid back and tbh pretty easily emotional;; a lot of my activity will be spotty on this blog because of either (a) school (b) muse (c) my fluctuation of my chronic depression and GAD (d) commissions, or (e) any irl event that prevents me from coming online. rping is a hobby of mine and not a very large priority. please forgive me!!! 

but anyways i’m a very excitable and emotional person and i’m hype to meet other people through this blog!! my other active blogs are eplabita and tentaart if you would like to find me anywhere else! i also will provide my personal tumblr and my discord to mutuals who ask nicely! <3 pls be gentle with me im fragile and anxious

[solarbird]

The Armourer and the Living Weapon, Chapter 7: they are beautiful, but they are new

This chapter is worksafe, with the possible exception of some moderately strong language. [AO3 link]

Lena Oxton bolted upright in her bed, leapt vertically, and jinked across the room. Where am I?! She grabbed at her chest, missing the weight of her accelerator, pawing at herself, terrified until she slowly realised that she wasn't slipping out of time - she'd teleported, without even thinking.

Looking over next to a closed door, she saw her accelerator - or a smaller, thinner version - resting on a charging station not unlike her own. What the bleedin' hell...? How'd I do that? Is this a Slipstream world?

Looking down, she realised she was in front of a window, dozens of stories above the ground, and standing on a dresser. She stomped at the piece of furniture - quite solid, quite real. Looking back at the bed from which she'd leapt, she realised, suddenly, Widowmaker?! as the assassin sat up, blinking, looking over to Lena, confused, then remembering, looking around, afraid... and then, less so, as she saw the Kiss, unloaded, but quite intact, by the nightstand next to their bed. She grabbed her, reassured herself with her presence, and placed her back down, nearby.

"Looks like we've got first class accommodations," Lena said, quietly. "And they were kind enough to keep your counterpart close. Thanks, invisible room monitor." She walked quickly over to Widowmaker, leaning her head against her lover's, whispering, "Do you remember anything after my apartment? I don't." "No," the defector replied, just as quietly. "But clearly, time has passed. Your eyes are..." she looked closely, to be sure, "...copper. They are beautiful, but they are new."

Lena paled as the room's door opened, and Oilliphéist came rushing in. "You're awake! Finally!" She wrapped herself around her lover, who found it took everything in her to push her back away. "You lied to me!" Widowmaker shouted.

"No! Yes! A little!" replied Oilliphéist, standing off, giving her counterpart her space. "It was horrible, and I hated it - I didn't want to, but I had to get you home! But that's the only thing I lied about, and Moira's agreed I'll never have to do it again."

"What's she done to us?" demanded Tracer.

"Nothing! Well, nothing much. Why, do you think I should?" interjected Dr. O'Deorain, as she stepped into the room, following Emily by some seconds.

"You call this nothing?!" Lena pointed at her eyes and snarled at the infamous doctor, a spike of instant loathing for her running across her body.

The doctor laughed. "Nothing psychological. Yes, I... fixed a few things for you, while you were here. I was, after all, an Overwatch medical officer, and you are a member of Overwatch, and I am, still, a doctor. You'll like it, once you know. Here, see?"

She reached over, and turned off Lena's chronal accelerator. Lena shrieked, and failed to teleport, but did back quite quickly into the wall behind her, which remained as substantial as ever.

"I thought you might appreciate a little insurance against incidents like the one in Numbani last year."

Lena reached around her, touching the wall, the bed, the wardrobe - all still entirely solid. "...how?"

"The anchor core was separable, and easily powered. It's part of you, now."

"...you implanted it?" She didn't trust it, or any part of it. Get it out, get it out, get it out...

"It runs off your own glucose - a far better solution, I think you'll agree, than before. You'll need to eat more, but not too unreasonably more, and you'll still need the vest for teleporting and time jumps. But you no longer need to be wearing it for that, and you'll get more jumps per charge."

"Yeh - I'll believe that when Winston verifies it, and not before. How'd you make room... inside me?" She shuddered at the thought.

"Easily enough done. Your lungs are slightly smaller, but vastly more efficient; you've come out ahead, I assure you. But let's skip the Q-and-A, shall we?"

She held up a hand, and started counting on long, long fingernails. "Thanks to all the head trauma you've suffered, your retinas were going to disintegrate well before you turned 40. Now, they won't." A second finger. "While I was in there, I got rid of your blind spots. Also," a third finger, "you'll see better in both darkness and extreme light." A fourth; "And, I have this wonderful new technique for improving nerve conductivity, so I threw that in as a bonus. You're even quicker, now, and more dextrous." She flipped her hands open, palms up, and took a little bow. "You're welcome."

Lena just stared at the doctor, the fear in her mind rising as the list grew. "Bleedin'... anything else?"

"Welcome to Oasis?"

The Overwatch agent glared in silence, trying not to shake.

Through all of this, Widowmaker had been inventorying her mind. She didn't feel reconstrained, but she knew from previous conditioning that she never did - she always felt like herself. She looked over to Oilliphéist, who still looked so beautiful, so perfect, and to Tracer, who still looked so perfectly annoying, so perfectly foolish, and yet, so perfectly... wonderful. If nothing else, she has let me keep this, she thought.

"And me, docteur?"

Dr. O'Deorain gave her an exasperated look. "My niece would barely let me touch you. You can't ghost, like she can, which is a bit of a shame. But she did at least allow me the nerve conductivity - you're now her equal in speed, though neither of you can keep up with your diminutive... friend... here."

I'll never trust my quickness again, thought Tracer, enraged. Fuck. Fuck you, doc. Fuck you.

Emily walked back over to Widowmaker, and knelt beside her on the floor, by the bed. "I'm really sorry she made me lie to you. But she swore she wouldn't touch you, not the real you, not your mind, not ever again, and I've stayed awake the whole time, making sure." She reached up, offering her hand. "Forgive me?"

Widowmaker hesitated, then took Oilliphéist's hand, and nodded, once. "Oh, god, I've missed you," the newer creation repeated. "It's so good that you're home." And Widowmaker smiled, relaxing, resting her head against Emily's and running her hands through her beloved's hair. "It's... so lovely to be with you again," she whispered. I wish we could do an associations check, she thought, but that is not a tool we should reveal here...

"How long we been out, luv?" Lena asked Emily, kindly, a little touched at the scene, despite herself.

"A little over a week," the once ginger replied, sleepily. "I've been watching over you both, worrying, night and day. I really need a nap."

"Why don't you take one, dear," said the doctor. "I owe our guests an explanation, and I do have a proposal to make."

Emily crawled into bed next to Widowmaker and held her, so tightly, and this time, Widowmaker didn't push her away, and didn't even want to. She smells so nice, she thought, sliding aside and off the bed as Emily curled up to sleep. And she feels so wonderful. But then... she always did.

"I imagine you're both hungry. Lunch?"

"No," said Tracer, as her stomach growled. "Well... maybe."

-----

"So you're sayin' that part's true? Akande really wants to start another Omnic War?"

They were both back in their "guest room," Oilliphéist still asleep, the two of them at a small round table with four chairs, surrounded by windows overlooking the city. Tracer had turned her accelerator back on at first opportunity, not taking any chances.

Widowmaker nodded. "He has - or, at least, a few weeks ago, had - every intent of doing exactly that. All my most recent orders had involved helping him consolidate his power - I made a particularly lovely shot to kill a rather... more pedestrian... member of council, interested only in money, and not politics. A common criminal, risen far above his level, but at least he died beautifully."

"Killing Mondatta was part of the war effort, wasn't he." It wasn't a question, and Widowmaker did not treat it as one.

"Yes, absolutely."

Lena snarled, but considered the repercussions. "Seems t'me this kind of infighting must really weaken Talon. It happen often?"

The assassin smirked, wryly. "How do you think Akande went to jail?"

The door to the guest room opened again, and Moira appeared, with afternoon tea. Lena glared at the minister, who smiled in return. "Checking on my information? Good - that's only the proper thing to do. Tea?"

"No. Well... what kind?"

"A nice tippy assam, I find it good in hot weather. I'll go ahead and be mother, it seems only fitting," said the doctor, as she sat down and began pouring cups for the table. "And yes," she tilted her head just a little to Lena, "we'll share the same pot. We can even swap cups if you'd like."

"I insist," said Lena, after the cups had been poured.

Moira waved at the tea set, and smiled a tiny smile. "At your pleasure."

"You did it," Widowmaker said to Moira, as Lena swapped cups around. "She's... wondrous."

Dr. O'Deorain smiled the least-ungenuine smile Tracer had yet seen her manage. "She is. I always backed her petitions for enhancement. I have no idea why the rest of the board was so hesitant." She added just a hint of sugar to her tea, and took a careful sip.

"What else did you do to her?" demanded the senior assassin.

"Other than the obvious?" she laughed. "Very little. There were reasons she was the template, after all." She looked over to her niece, still asleep in bed. "She is more mission-focused, now. If it makes you feel better about what happened, I'm certain that's the only reason she was able to lie to you about the meeting. She even fought me on it. Honestly, I was surprised."

"She wasn't always floatin' about in a little cloud of euphoria, was she?" Lena asked. "Doesn't seem your type, love."

"No. That is also new," replied the Frenchwoman.

"And not my doing. I gave her everything she wanted, everything she'd ever dreamed, and it all actually worked just like she'd always hoped. What did you expect, depression?" Tracer glared, but Widowmaker laughed, just a little. "But... as you have demonstrated, the mind has a way of rebalancing itself to a kind of neutrality over time, and I've enabled her to avoid that fate, if she chooses. You can hardly blame me for wanting to see my niece be happy, can you?"

"Mate, I could blame you for saving an orphan from a runaway lorry."

The doctor laughed. "I can't blame you for that, right now. But I do hope that over time you'll forgive me this little incident. I couldn't exactly ring you up for a teleconference, could I? Not with what you know."

The minister put her tea back down, and leaned forward. "Look, I'll be direct. Akande is a danger to the entire world, and needs to be stopped. I do not have the political power within Talon to do it, which means it is time for a short, vicious, but small war, to prevent a long, disastrous, and genocidal war. I intended to go into it with myself and my two most brilliant creations, but I would prefer to go into it with you on my side, as well, and with Overwatch specifically deciding to keep its distance. If we lose - no loss for you and yours, it's all on us, and no "heroes" are implicated. But if we win... everyone wins."

"I don't believe you, mate," glared the teleporter, putting sugar and milk into her tea. "Somethin' else is goin' on."

"Something else is always going on," the doctor agreed, picking up her teacup. "Akande is shorting my budget within Talon, and it is affecting my work. Nothing matters more than that - nothing - and I will not stand for it. Renewed Omnic incursions would absolutely target this city, and, therefore, my facilities and experiments, and I will not have that, either. The chaos would set my research back years." She sipped her tea. "There. Is that selfish enough for you? I do not pretend to be otherwise."

"What's this 'small war' involve?" She almost growled the question. Bloody hell, you irritate me, she thought. No wonder Ziegler doesn't like you.

"Widowmaker will be familiar with kind of actions needed - distance assassinations, close-up killings, some theft, some intelligence gathering for blackmail, all the nasty covert games Overwatch pretends to hate, but did so very much of the first time around." She placed her cup back in its saucer, and added a little more tea. "This time, Overwatch wouldn't have to be involved, not directly. But you... you'd make a lovely addition to our little task force, and with your personal involvement with my two favourites, you can see why I had to ask."

"I'm not agreein' to anything," Lena said. "Not here, not like this." She sipped from her teacup, and looked down at it. Huh. A bit light for my tastes, but... not bad.

"You're free to leave, you do realise that?" asked the minister.

"Am I? Really?"

"Yes."

"Then where're my pistols?"

"Did you check the dresser?"

"...you serious?"

"Absolutely," the doctor said, adding just a little more tea to her cup.

As Lena arose to check the dresser - where her guns and wrist braces had been neatly put away in the top drawer - Emily stirred, muttering, "...pistols?" She sat up, blinking. "Pistols? Oh! Yes! Pistols! Lena, I have presents for you!"

"...wot?" replied the teleporter. "You..."

"Your old pistols are terrible! " She smiled, and shook her head ruefully. "Awful balance, erratic kick - how did you ever hit anything? " The armourer yawned, broadly, and stretched.

"Emily, you should get some more sleep. You've been up for days."

"I know, but..."

"You can give her your presents in the morning, dear. That's an order."

Emily muttered, and rolled back over, wrapping her arms around her pillow. "Fine..." she said, and closed her eyes.

Lena had snapped on her wrist holsters, and popped her pistols free, spinning them in her hands. Loaded, she thought, more than a little surprised. She pointed them straight at Moira's face. "So I can leave whenever I want, then?"

"Yes. But I wouldn't recommend shooting me first. Assassination of a government minister is frowned upon, here in Oasis."

Tracer flipped back her pistols. "Leave... alone, abandoning Wids here to be monkeywrenched? Not hardly, mate."

"You too," she said, turning to the former Talon assassin, waving her right hand airily. "At any time."

"And Emily?" asked the assassin.

"She should stay, at least a few more days - I'm not sure you remember this, Widowmaker, but the first months after your upgrades, you required extensive adjustments and maintenance, so that..."

"I remember," said the senior assassin, abruptly. "It was... extraordinarily painful."

"I learned a great deal from creating you," said the doctor. "It will not be so, for her. And less will be required." She sighed. "I'd've done it already, except she refused to sleep."

"Then," Widowmaker said, "we will have to wait, until that is finished. And I will watch you, every single moment, while you work on her, and if you do anything - anything - to her mind..."

"Bullets?" offered the doctor. "I know she's empty," she said, gesturing to Widowmaker's rifle. "Here." She reached into her jacket and pulled out a standard set of sniper rounds. "Just stay out of my way, while I work. You know how much I hate interference."

Widowmaker nodded, and took the rounds, inspected them, validating them as real, and loaded the Kiss. "Lena?"

"I don't like it, but - I'm not leaving without you, and I'm not gonna ask you to abandon her."

The assassin reached out, squeezing the teleporter's hand tightly. "Thank you."

"I take it, then," said the Irish doctor, "we're all in agreement?"

Lena nodded briefly, and the Widowmaker echoed her, a moment later, more slowly.

"We are agreed."

[deathbytitanium]

Tattoo (A Nessian Fanfic)

“You should get a tattoo,” Cassian whispered. He was tracing random patterns on my bare skin, that was still sweaty from our lovemaking.

I smiled up at my fiance, rolling my eyes a little, “I’d never know what to get, Cass. What if I regret it later?” I started tracing the tattoo he had on his chest. He had exquisite taste in tattoos. His chest piece was so arresting the first time I saw it I just stood there, staring like an idiot. I can still remember the cocky smile he gave me when he realized what I was doing.

“I won’t let you get anything I think you might regret.” he smiled and kissed me sweetly, “It doesn’t have to be huge or anything, I know you’ve been wanting one.”

I nuzzled deeper into his chest, “And how do you know this?” I knew he probably just knew everything about me at this point.

He laughs a little, “I have Pintrest exclusively to know what you’re up to. You have been liking and pinning a bunch of tattoos.”

I laughed at how silly he was for keeping tabs on me even in the little things.

“Come on, Nesta. I’ll take you to my artist, you can see his designs, get a tiny one somewhere only I can see.” he started nibbling my neck, I suspected because he was lobbying for round two.

“And if I want to get a huge one where everyone can see?” I asked defiantly, raising my eyebrows at him.

“Mmm,” he spoke against my neck, “Less hot, but you can do what you want sweetheart, I’ll still love you.”

“What do you think I should get?” I ask, torturing him a little bit.

He nibbled my collarbone, “Mmmmmmm… my name, right under your awesome breast.”

“That’s super cheesy Cass.” I rolled my eyes at him as he intensified his assault.

“Super hot to me.” he disagreed as he continued kissing and nipping at my neck, reading me for round two.

—————-

I flipped through Cassian’s artist’s portfolio. On our way here he told me that he trusted the guy and that he had tattooed him and his two brothers Az and Rhys. He had a very impressive selection and they were all beautiful. It made me a little grumpy because how was I supposed to pick one if they were all so amazing.

“Why are you frowning, sweetheart?” Cassian asked, his voice filled with teasing as always.

“I can’t choose!” I grumbled.

“I told you, my name under the absolute present from the gods that is your breast,” he said reaching for me in an obvious attempt to cup my breast.

I smiled, swatting his hand away from me, “Stop with the PDA, Cass.”

He pouted exaggeratedly, “But I like being publicly affectionate with you.” He leaned over and kissed my cheek.

In that moment I knew exactly why I had agreed to marry this man. He was so big and strong, but he loved me as fiercely as I loved him, he showed me what it was like to be loved by someone that would do anything with me. I knew with all my heart that if I ever needed to cross a magical wall into something unknown and slay a dragon he would fly me there and stay right by my side. We were so alike, he and I, we were both flames, burning bright and fierce.

And I knew exactly what tattoo to get.

I smiled at Cassian as I got up, taking the portfolio with me. I went to the artist and asked if he could draw me something cool with my idea. He smiled, asking me about the size and the placement. I quickly told him what I wanted and he went back to draw it down for me.

I was wearing a sly smile of my own when I went back to Cassian. I took his hand as I sat down.

“So,” he asked, smiling at me, too, “what did you choose?”

“Nope. I’m not telling you.” he pouted again, and I laughed at the utter ridiculousness that was a 6’5” twenty-five year old that was built like a linebacker pouting at me. I felt pity on him, giving him a peck on the cheek, “Will it hurt?” I knew the answer was yes but I wanted his take on it.

He gave me a peck on the lips, “It hurts, but nothing you wouldn’t be able to manage. You’re like this kick ass warrior chick that rolls her eyes and gives mean answers to lesser men.”

“You’re really sappy, Cass.” I say rolling my eyes at him. I loved it, though. That he thought I was this really awesome person that I couldn’t even see in myself.

“Yeah, well, I love you. And I get to love the most amazing girl on the face of the planet.”

“I love you, too.” I said with a smile.

“And I’m amazing and your every dream made reality in the best body that has ever graced the face of the planet?” he wiggled his eyebrows at me suggestively.

“Mmm.” The artist appeared at the entrance to the back and waved for me to go with him. I got up and turned to Cass before going. Then I got a wicked idea and leaned to whisper in his ear, “I bet once the tattoo is done I’m going to be so horny from being away from you…” Then I just left him there looking so surprised it was funny.

————

“So,” the artist said a few minutes in, “is that your boyfriend out there?”

I smiled, “Actually, I’ve agreed to marry him, so he’s my fiance.”

The artist laughed a bit, “Why’d you agree to marry him?”

“Ah, well. He’s really hot,” I laughed delicately, terrified that I might cause a mistake, “Other than that, he’s, gosh, he’s,” I sigh, “I never believed in anything that had to do with love and soulmates or any of those things. Hell, I still don’t on a logical level, but then there’s Cassian. It took me way too long to give in to my feelings for him and when I did, he was it. I loved him five seconds after I kissed him and I knew that if there was such a thing as a soulmate he was mine.” I felt a stab of pain where the artist was tattooing, “So when he asked me to marry him it was pretty much redundant, I was already planning to spend the rest of my life with him.”

“Wow,” the artist said, “that’s intense.”

I smiled, “It is.” then I thought about everything I said, “Just don’t tell Cass any of this, if he knew how sappy I was I’d never hear the end of it.”

He laughed at me, “So, how is the relationship between you guys? Do you guys get along well?”

I snorted, “We get along great. We have all these little fights because both of us have the hardest heads. I love every second of it. Again, never to be disclosed to Cassian.”

“Deal.” he laughed, “Well, we’re done.” I felt him wipe the newly finished tattoo. “Do you want to see it or want me to call him over to see it with you?”

“Yeah, that way we can both see it at the same time.” I smiled. I had a tattoo now and I hoped it was as good as the picture he had drawn as a template.

Cassian walks in and his eyes linger on my exposed back, “Hey, sweetheart, gonna show me that brand new tat of yours?”

“Mhmm. I haven’t seen it done yet, but the drawing was really cool.” I got up with my shirt still held up. “It does fit what you were saying last night,” I said, smiling at the look of mischievous appreciation that he gave me.

I turned to the mirror right next to us and looked at it. My smile widened at what I saw. I bit my lip to keep from shrieking like a stupid little girl. It looked exactly like I wanted it! It was a pair of wings, dragon not angel, and they looked like they were on fire. Not only that but the wings were made in the same style as Cassian’s swirly chest piece.

“It’s perfect!” was all I could manage to say while looking at the hand size tattoo she had just gotten.

“It looks amazing, sweetheart.” Cassian said, kissing me on the cheek, “Now, pull that shirt down, he’s seen enough of you,” he tuts in mock disapproval.

The artist laughs, “Just let me patch it up for her and I won’t see any more until the next time she wants a tattoo.”

Cassian gave him a side glance, “That is acceptable.” He held my hand while the artist wrapped me up. Once the artist was done, we shook hands, I thanked the artist again and again until Cass led me out.

“So, what does it mean?” Cassian asked as we walked back home, “Wings on fire?”

I sighed, grabbing onto his arm, “It’s us.”

“Yeah?” he gave me a sweet smile. We walked a little more and he laughed, “Like, am I the wings or the fire?”

I scrunched my nose, “I don’t know. Maybe we’re both both, you know? But if I had to choose… You’re the wings, I’m the fire.”

He nodded, laughing a little, “I agree, you’re definitely my fire.”

“Yeah,” I smiled warmly at him, “You’re my wings, for sure.”

He kissed me, “So, that thing you said before?” I smiled at him, biting my lip, “Are you?”

I lifted an eyebrow at him, “I’d get me home quickly if I were you.”

He nodded, picking up the pace so that we got home in half the time we took to get to the tattoo parlor. When we got to our apartment building he looked down at me, up the stairs, back at me. Then he picked me up threw me over his shoulder and ran up the stairs.

[akenny430fandm-blog]

PHASE 8 BLOG ENTRY

I just want to start off by saying how much I enjoyed this course! Going into it, I had never taken an art class in college, so I was nervous as to how I would enjoy the class and perform on activities. The long class time was also intimidating. 

However, I am happy to say that the opposite is true; this turned out to be one of my favorite courses at F&M! We learned a lot of useful tools for creating and expressing ourselves, and this course helped me develop an appreciation for artists and what they do every day. Even if I never use the learned material again in my life (but I probably will!), I will forever have a deeper, richer understanding of arts and have practical tools to help me create whatever I want, and that is worth a lot even to a non-artist!

Influential Artists

I must say that throughout the semester I did not use many of the artists as inspiration for my work. Given that I was new to the creative process and learning how to properly express myself, I was afraid by viewing too much of their work, I would subconsciously be copying what they did, and my work would not be as original and unique to me. 

However, there were several artists whose work left me dumbfounded in amazement. Two come to mind: Nicole Hone (https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2018/09/hydrophytes-by-nicole-hone/) and  Xuanhe Zhao (along with other engineers at MIT) (https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2018/06/mit-engineers-design-responsive-3d-printed-structures-remotely-controlled-by-magnets/).

Hone created hydrophytes, 4D futuristic plants (4D in the sense that the plants are interactive, they were printed on a 3D printer). Here are some examples:

You have to admit, the pieces are beautiful. 

It may be difficult to classify Zhao as an artist since the work he and his colleagues at MIT do is much more applied science, but they still use the tools that we used in class. They use 3D printers to print tiny, magnetic robots that can be controlled remotely. Here is an example:

The reason both of these artists had an impact on me was because of the practical applications of their work. The uses of microbots that can be controlled are endless, and Hone’s hydrophytes were suggested to be futuristic plants that can adapt to their environment (although I also like her work because it is so visually appealing). Throughout this course, I have learned to appreciate the desired self-representation that some artists seek when creating, but given my interests, I am much more impressed by objects that not only look good but also have practical, life-changing applications. 

More About My Final Piece

For reference, the next two photos are 

1. My box without any type of photo editing or lighting (i.e. how you would look at it with the naked eye).

2. One of my final images (the other is too large to put on Tumblr for some reason).

As we can see, the lighting with the image drastically changes the look of the piece, and it looks significantly better as an image. This is mainly because I was able to attain the mysterious, abstract alien world effect that I was going for in the image thanks to lighting and photoshop, whereas this was impossible to do with just viewing the box on its own. In other words, I was able to force the viewer to see my project the way that I wanted it to be seen. 

When turned into an image, one may say that some of the depth and detail of the contents of the box are lost, since you are no longer able to move around in real time and examine them from different angles. However, I would argue that the depth is actually more prominent as an image. Again, this is due to the ability to manipulate the presentation with photoshop and lighting. 

On its own, the box looks like nothing more than a conglomerate of random objects haphazardly assorted together, something like a messy closet in a dressing room. This obviously is not the result that I wanted, so I had to be careful with the placement of light, the positioning of the camera, and how I edited the resulting photo to turn this jumbled mess into a truly abstract universe. 

Because I was not sure how my final image would turn out, I did not have any set goals in mind during the creative process, and as a result, I am happy with the final image. If we are being honest here, I am actually surprised at how nice my final image turned out. Especially toward the end, I was unsure of what I wanted to go for and I was struggling to see how all of our collective work could be put together in a reasonable way, so to see it come together to my liking was awesome!

Favorite Use of Technology

One of my favorite parts about this course is that we had a huge emphasis on using some advanced tools to create objects. I found many of them to be extremely useful, and can absolutely see myself using them for my own leisure, but my favorite was, by far, the 3D printer. I was always impressed by the potential applications of 3D printing, many of which we discussed during this course, so being able to use it on my own was quite the experience. Compared to how it can be used in real life (e.g. printing organs for replacement), the printers at F&M seemed a little tame, but I was still very impressed by the process. 

If there was one tool that I would like to try again, I would have to choose the 3D printer. Because of the many limitations of the printers, many of my prints were not satisfactory for me, so going back to use the machine knowing of these pitfalls will help me create items that can be printed without trouble. In general, this course seemed to serve as an introduction to these tools, and more advanced knowledge can be learned over time with practice, but 3D printing had the most limitations, and as a result, many of my prints were not what I wanted them to be. 

I know for a fact I will be using the 3D printer again, but I can also see myself using many of the other tools as well. For example, in math, one difficulty that many students have is not being able to visualize what they are learning, and without a strong geometric intuition, learning the subject matter will be especially difficult. In TinkerCad there are several templates for objects such as shapes and planes, and that could be printed to physically show someone what they are learning. But that one example only begins to explain the potential post-class uses, and I will probably be using it simply to print things that I want to for fun. 

I also greatly enjoyed the laser cutter, photoshop, and illustrator. However, I honestly cannot see myself using photoshop; we touched on some small aspect of it, but to become adept enough to truly harness the potential, a significant amount of time is required to learn all of the techniques, and I do not think that is a worthwhile investment for what I would ever need/want to do (at least for now, but maybe one day that will change). Illustrator and the laser cutter would also be used just for fun, like making a cool name tag or something like that.  

Intentions for this Course

I have mentioned this several times in class, but I was dreading taking an art course at F&M. I had never taken an art class before and the subject was really uninteresting to me. I expected whatever course I took to be a hassle and for me to struggle through it, being miserable the entire time. 

Thankfully, that bleak prediction could not have been more wrong; I seriously loved this class! It was a friendly environment conducive to learning, and being able to see how we can use modern tools really enticed me. I was expecting to go through the motions of the course and get out with a decent grade, never to use the material again. But now that I am finished, I am equipped with knowledge that I will always find useful for the rest of my life, even though I am not going into art at all! 

So in short, this course greatly exceeded my expectations and really opened my eyes that pushing yourself out of your comfort zone can be a great experience!

Tone and Hierarchy of Final Piece

As I mentioned before, I was really unsure of the direction I was going in when creating my box, so the decision to create an alternative world was essentially a spontaneous one. I just tried re-arranging my pieces differently and figured “oh, this might look cool,” and when the idea of a space-like universe popped in my head, I planned the rest of the phases accordingly. I used photoshop to create images that I knew (at least for me) would help lend to this mysterious effect and went back through several of the phases to create more objects that I wanted to present in this world (e.g. printed more stars on the laser cutter).  

Again, I need to stress that many of the best aspects of my image came from a brief moment of inspiration, as opposed to a carefully constructed plan of attack. Another example of this is the mirror; I was really not sure if putting it in would work well, but it turned out to be the fan favorite for many people in the class. That design came about from me just randomly deciding to cut squiggly shapes out of paper and paste it over the mirror. Experimenting with the lighting was also key, and I think the horizon light that streaks across the background really helps tie the image together. That also was not planned at all.

So it is hard for me to comment on things like “ how it made viewers feel” or “ use of color and light” because I did not know while I was making the box. I was just constantly experimenting, and when I saw the final result I was like “that’s what I’m going to use!” As a final piece, it looks like a mysterious, gloomy world, but that was not the plan going into the final phase.

[lowmaticnews]

A Front Porch Makeover At The Duplex!

It feels like a while since you’ve seen the front of the duplex (I blame winter) but that’s going to change today. And let me tell you… THINGS HAVE TURNED A CORNER!

There’s no landscaping yet, the grass is patchy, and Sean the Contractor’s gigantic sign is still there…

… but boy oh boy is she lookin’ fynnnnnnnneee when we compare her to where we started:

All of the not original details came down – like the weird plastic wagon wheels and strange abacus trim that was added in the 70s, the plastic too-small shutters, the broken vinyl porch railing, all those satellite dishes, and the duct tape along the roofline. And we maintained or added back as much original charm as we could – like the metal porch roof, larger operable shutters, square porch columns, corbels along the roofline, wide brick steps, and those diamond windows that give me cartoon heart eyes.

We’ve already shared a lot of the big exterior decisions that we made as we went, like choosing our siding, roofing, and picking the color for the shutters, so today we’re gonna cover all of our front porch updates.

UGH BUT FIRST LET’S ADRESS THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM… or should I say the mouse on the porch?! Those tiny postage stamp doormats are so ridiculous I can’t even explain how I thought they were regular sized and then they turned out to be doormats for ants.

So yes, we’re getting bigger ones (they would DEFINITELY make Marlo cringe – Atlanta Housewives… Anyone? Bueller?). So let’s all try to look past those tiny little rectangles and appreciate some of the other stuff that’s giving me life. We have mailboxes! And house numbers! And lanterns to illuminate said house numbers! And composite decking (no rot! YAY!). We even have potted plants and teak benches! SOMEBODY HELP ME CALM DOWN.

We don’t have great before photos of just the front door area itself, but you can sort of see it (including the mismatched storm doors that we got rid of immediately) in the photo below.

But as artsy as John thought he was being with the “SOLD” sign in the foreground of that picture, it doesn’t really demonstrate how deteriorated the old porch had become.

The entire front porch was also so rotten when it came to the actual support beams and structure of it, that we had to tear it off of the house and rebuild it from scratch, being careful to maintain the original transom windows above the door.

Let’s just say that it feels like we have taken a very significant leap forward in the last year and a half.

After we ditched the mismatched storm doors we decided to embrace the original front doors (figuratively speaking, I didn’t actually hug them, but we LOVE them and wanted to save them). You actually have to get approval from the town’s historic review board to change the style of your doors, so we’re really glad we liked them from the get-go. At one point we considered painting them the same mint color as the shutters, but realized that color got a lot of “stage time” thanks to having so many front windows (and therefore, double the amount of shutters)… so we both thought it would be nice to introduce another tone or color on the doors.

Our next (and longest-standing) idea was to make them some sort of wood tone – just clear sealed or covered with a light stain. You know we LOVE AN ORIGINAL WOOD DOOR (we stripped & waxed all the interior doors at the pink house, and I can’t even tell you how happy we are with them). So we had our contractor strip and sand our duplex front doors to get them as raw looking as possible. Lead paint = we hired them to do it safely in their shop, and they stripped and sanded them as far back as they could without compromising their integrity (they’re thinner than standard doors that are made today, and they had a few cracks and repaired portions they didn’t want to make worse).

But even after we spent $400 to get the doors professionally stripped back as far as they could take them, we just couldn’t get them where they needed to be. From the street (and in the from-a-distance-photos we shared) they looked pretty cool, but up close you could see a lot of stubborn paint in the cracks and recesses that we just couldn’t remove – even after another pass at sanding.

And as you walked closer you could see other general jankiness – like a large crack and some glue bubbles that would be hard to disguise with sealer or stain alone.

We knew that we could still get a wood look using a dark gel stain,like we did over on the pink house. It’s got thicker coverage than a typical stain – almost like a paint – and that certainly would’ve helped hide some of the issues.

But once we installed the porch lights, mailboxes, house numbers and door handles, we both kept thinking…. what about a rich charcoal-y paint color? One that ties into that gorgeous metal roof above the porch? It just felt like a nice balance to the cheerful green shutters – sort of grounding and adding some nice contrast. It was also slightly comforting to notice that all of our other neighbors who have original doors have painted them too (they’re all 100+ years old so I think that’s the plight of being so worn down and in need of various repairs over the years – raw wood isn’t nearly as forgiving).

We’ve loved Sherwin-Williams Urbane Bronze ever since we used it our garage doors at home. It’s a really rich and layered color and we’ve always loved how it walks the line between a true black and a warm dark bronze-y brown tone – just like the tin roof we chose for the duplex!

Long story long, even though it was our lifelong (ok, yearlong) dream to leave these doors a light wood tone, we’ve mourned the loss of that idea and are IN LOVE with the final result. We both stepped back and thought: THE PAINT DID THESE DOORS A TON OF FAVORS!

Not only does it hide the cracks and glue bubbles along with all of those tricky paint remnants, it also looks great with the dark porch accents we added, like the operable shutters, the oversized porch lights, our wall mounted mailboxes, and our new house numbers. And the nice thing is that we were able to bring that wood tone in with other things, but more on that in a second.

As for installing the address numbers, they’re just simple off-the-shelf house numbers from Home Depot that can be mounted flush (like we did) or floating. They come with a template on the back of the package, so we trimmed the templates a bit so we could space them the way we wanted, and taped them to the siding exactly as we hoped they’d look in the end – being sure to triple check that they all had equal spacing, were all level, and were centered.

At one point we had planned to just get some subtle number decals to stick on the mailbox, but then we learned it was actually code that they were at least 4″ tall and “visible from the street” for emergency personnel. And by “learned,” I mean that we almost failed our final inspection because we hadn’t installed any yet, so we rushed to get them up and passed by the skin of our teeth (I would like to have a word with the inventor of that gross expression, btw).

Since we lost some of the warm wood tones in the doors, I brought them in with a few other things, like the basket-looking planters (they’re really ceramic) from Home Depot (can’t find the link online), and the big teak benches on the far ends of the porch. And once we get bigger doormats (maybe a single long one that runs under both doors and up to each planter would be cool?) that’ll add more of that warmer tone to the mix.

Of course I have to shout out our go-to faux outdoor trees. They inject some much needed zero-maintenance greenery to the front porch. We’ve got the same type on the beach house front porch and the taller versions at home in Richmond. They’re awesome, so yes, we are now the proud owners of six of these babies. Please note that I didn’t floof these before the photos (yes, that’s a technical term), so their shape in the picture below bugs me to no end. They’ll be looking 100 when I get my new mats, landscape the front, and share the updated pics though – mark my words.

If you’re subscribed to our newsletter, you got a peek inside with the doors open last week. We painted the stair risers on each side the same color as the interior doors on that side (Sherwin Williams White Truffle on the left, and Sherwin Williams Oyster Bay on the right). I also really love that we didn’t do mint on the front doors because it’s a fun reveal to swing open the dark bronze doors and be greeted with a different happy & beachy color inside each one.

This is the before photo, which I now realize is funny because it’s almost like we switched sides – the greenish risers are now on the right, and the red/pink ones are on the left (we chose the colors for each side based on lighting and where they read the best – the pink tone read a little more gray and less pink on the right, so that’s how it ended up on the left).

So that wraps up the whole duplex porch update… but if you could kindly cross every last appendage that the groundhog was right in his call for an early spring, we’d really appreciate it. Because you know I can’t wait to get the front of the duplex landscaped and mulched and add a path to the back and plant grass and ALL THE THINGS! WITH ALL THE EXCLAMATION POINTS!!

We need to get this thing whipped into shape so we can get it all photographed and listed for rent thing spring (rentals will start this summer and it should hit Airbnb this April or so! AHHHHHH!). Oh yeah and we have to finish the inside. And the backyard. Details, details.

P.S. To see how we have fixed up this house over the past 1.5 years, there’s a whole category dedicated to duplex progress.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post A Front Porch Makeover At The Duplex! appeared first on Young House Love.

A Front Porch Makeover At The Duplex! published first on https://landscapingmates.blogspot.com

[vincentbnaughton]

A Front Porch Makeover At The Duplex!

It feels like a while since you’ve seen the front of the duplex (I blame winter) but that’s going to change today. And let me tell you… THINGS HAVE TURNED A CORNER!

There’s no landscaping yet, the grass is patchy, and Sean the Contractor’s gigantic sign is still there…

… but boy oh boy is she lookin’ fynnnnnnnneee when we compare her to where we started:

All of the not original details came down – like the weird plastic wagon wheels and strange abacus trim that was added in the 70s, the plastic too-small shutters, the broken vinyl porch railing, all those satellite dishes, and the duct tape along the roofline. And we maintained or added back as much original charm as we could – like the metal porch roof, larger operable shutters, square porch columns, corbels along the roofline, wide brick steps, and those diamond windows that give me cartoon heart eyes.

We’ve already shared a lot of the big exterior decisions that we made as we went, like choosing our siding, roofing, and picking the color for the shutters, so today we’re gonna cover all of our front porch updates.

UGH BUT FIRST LET’S ADRESS THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM… or should I say the mouse on the porch?! Those tiny postage stamp doormats are so ridiculous I can’t even explain how I thought they were regular sized and then they turned out to be doormats for ants.

So yes, we’re getting bigger ones (they would DEFINITELY make Marlo cringe – Atlanta Housewives… Anyone? Bueller?). So let’s all try to look past those tiny little rectangles and appreciate some of the other stuff that’s giving me life. We have mailboxes! And house numbers! And lanterns to illuminate said house numbers! And composite decking (no rot! YAY!). We even have potted plants and teak benches! SOMEBODY HELP ME CALM DOWN.

We don’t have great before photos of just the front door area itself, but you can sort of see it (including the mismatched storm doors that we got rid of immediately) in the photo below.

But as artsy as John thought he was being with the “SOLD” sign in the foreground of that picture, it doesn’t really demonstrate how deteriorated the old porch had become.

The entire front porch was also so rotten when it came to the actual support beams and structure of it, that we had to tear it off of the house and rebuild it from scratch, being careful to maintain the original transom windows above the door.

Let’s just say that it feels like we have taken a very significant leap forward in the last year and a half.

After we ditched the mismatched storm doors we decided to embrace the original front doors (figuratively speaking, I didn’t actually hug them, but we LOVE them and wanted to save them). You actually have to get approval from the town’s historic review board to change the style of your doors, so we’re really glad we liked them from the get-go. At one point we considered painting them the same mint color as the shutters, but realized that color got a lot of “stage time” thanks to having so many front windows (and therefore, double the amount of shutters)… so we both thought it would be nice to introduce another tone or color on the doors.

Our next (and longest-standing) idea was to make them some sort of wood tone – just clear sealed or covered with a light stain. You know we LOVE AN ORIGINAL WOOD DOOR (we stripped & waxed all the interior doors at the pink house, and I can’t even tell you how happy we are with them). So we had our contractor strip and sand our duplex front doors to get them as raw looking as possible. Lead paint = we hired them to do it safely in their shop, and they stripped and sanded them as far back as they could without compromising their integrity (they’re thinner than standard doors that are made today, and they had a few cracks and repaired portions they didn’t want to make worse).

But even after we spent $400 to get the doors professionally stripped back as far as they could take them, we just couldn’t get them where they needed to be. From the street (and in the from-a-distance-photos we shared) they looked pretty cool, but up close you could see a lot of stubborn paint in the cracks and recesses that we just couldn’t remove – even after another pass at sanding.

And as you walked closer you could see other general jankiness – like a large crack and some glue bubbles that would be hard to disguise with sealer or stain alone.

We knew that we could still get a wood look using a dark gel stain,like we did over on the pink house. It’s got thicker coverage than a typical stain – almost like a paint – and that certainly would’ve helped hide some of the issues.

But once we installed the porch lights, mailboxes, house numbers and door handles, we both kept thinking…. what about a rich charcoal-y paint color? One that ties into that gorgeous metal roof above the porch? It just felt like a nice balance to the cheerful green shutters – sort of grounding and adding some nice contrast. It was also slightly comforting to notice that all of our other neighbors who have original doors have painted them too (they’re all 100+ years old so I think that’s the plight of being so worn down and in need of various repairs over the years – raw wood isn’t nearly as forgiving).

We’ve loved Sherwin-Williams Urbane Bronze ever since we used it our garage doors at home. It’s a really rich and layered color and we’ve always loved how it walks the line between a true black and a warm dark bronze-y brown tone – just like the tin roof we chose for the duplex!

Long story long, even though it was our lifelong (ok, yearlong) dream to leave these doors a light wood tone, we’ve mourned the loss of that idea and are IN LOVE with the final result. We both stepped back and thought: THE PAINT DID THESE DOORS A TON OF FAVORS!

Not only does it hide the cracks and glue bubbles along with all of those tricky paint remnants, it also looks great with the dark porch accents we added, like the operable shutters, the oversized porch lights, our wall mounted mailboxes, and our new house numbers. And the nice thing is that we were able to bring that wood tone in with other things, but more on that in a second.

As for installing the address numbers, they’re just simple off-the-shelf house numbers from Home Depot that can be mounted flush (like we did) or floating. They come with a template on the back of the package, so we trimmed the templates a bit so we could space them the way we wanted, and taped them to the siding exactly as we hoped they’d look in the end – being sure to triple check that they all had equal spacing, were all level, and were centered.

At one point we had planned to just get some subtle number decals to stick on the mailbox, but then we learned it was actually code that they were at least 4″ tall and “visible from the street” for emergency personnel. And by “learned,” I mean that we almost failed our final inspection because we hadn’t installed any yet, so we rushed to get them up and passed by the skin of our teeth (I would like to have a word with the inventor of that gross expression, btw).

Since we lost some of the warm wood tones in the doors, I brought them in with a few other things, like the basket-looking planters (they’re really ceramic) from Home Depot (can’t find the link online), and the big teak benches on the far ends of the porch. And once we get bigger doormats (maybe a single long one that runs under both doors and up to each planter would be cool?) that’ll add more of that warmer tone to the mix.

Of course I have to shout out our go-to faux outdoor trees. They inject some much needed zero-maintenance greenery to the front porch. We’ve got the same type on the beach house front porch and the taller versions at home in Richmond. They’re awesome, so yes, we are now the proud owners of six of these babies. Please note that I didn’t floof these before the photos (yes, that’s a technical term), so their shape in the picture below bugs me to no end. They’ll be looking 100 when I get my new mats, landscape the front, and share the updated pics though – mark my words.

If you’re subscribed to our newsletter, you got a peek inside with the doors open last week. We painted the stair risers on each side the same color as the interior doors on that side (Sherwin Williams White Truffle on the left, and Sherwin Williams Oyster Bay on the right). I also really love that we didn’t do mint on the front doors because it’s a fun reveal to swing open the dark bronze doors and be greeted with a different happy & beachy color inside each one.

This is the before photo, which I now realize is funny because it’s almost like we switched sides – the greenish risers are now on the right, and the red/pink ones are on the left (we chose the colors for each side based on lighting and where they read the best – the pink tone read a little more gray and less pink on the right, so that’s how it ended up on the left).

So that wraps up the whole duplex porch update… but if you could kindly cross every last appendage that the groundhog was right in his call for an early spring, we’d really appreciate it. Because you know I can’t wait to get the front of the duplex landscaped and mulched and add a path to the back and plant grass and ALL THE THINGS! WITH ALL THE EXCLAMATION POINTS!!

We need to get this thing whipped into shape so we can get it all photographed and listed for rent thing spring (rentals will start this summer and it should hit Airbnb this April or so! AHHHHHH!). Oh yeah and we have to finish the inside. And the backyard. Details, details.

P.S. To see how we have fixed up this house over the past 1.5 years, there’s a whole category dedicated to duplex progress.

*This post contains affiliate links*

The post A Front Porch Makeover At The Duplex! appeared first on Young House Love.

[ncmagroup]

  by Brian Trautschold

Well before the age of coronavirus — it seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it? — we were seeing a steady, rapid increase in sales teams who were transitioning to remote work.

And for good reason: It can benefit everyone. Employees, especially millennials, appreciate the flexibility to work from anywhere, and sales orgs open themselves up to a much larger pool of talent when they’re not limited to hiring locally.

But sales teams face unique challenges when they go remote — even when they’ve had plenty of time to plan for the transition. It’s always a challenge, for example, to put the right tools in place and hire people who can handle a certain level of independence.

So when your sales team unexpectedly and hastily goes remote… well, that’s even harder.

One of the biggest challenges sales managers face? Keeping tabs on their teams from afar. Especially if you’re a manager who wasn’t prepared for the remote shift, it can feel like you’re suddenly wearing blinders. How do I know what my reps are doing all day? How do I know if they’re staying on track?

The good news is the same basic sales coaching principles and best practices still apply, and they’ll still help you maintain a system of accountability. They just may require a few tweaks.

Here are 5 tactics every sales manager should implement to keep your reps accountable, aligned, and on a path to success — even when you’re not sharing a sales floor.

Set daily activity targets

Add a little (more) structure

Reinvent your 1:1s

Shore up your tech stack

Leverage your team

1. Set Daily Activity Targets

Many sales teams set daily activity targets to keep reps on track. It’s a great way to ensure your people hit their longer-term objective targets and ultimately achieve results.

Remote sales managers may want to take daily activity targets one step further. Why? At 8 a.m., 5 p.m. feels like it’s a long way off. Your reps may overestimate what they can get done if they don’t pace themselves as they would in the office.

To help, consider setting multiple activity targets throughout the day. One Ambition customer runs a “10×10” program for their remote reps: Every morning, reps need to make 10 calls by 10 a.m. Managers get a private alert in email or Slack when reps haven’t hit their target, so they can jump in if they need to help a rep get back on track.

2. Add a Little (More) Structure

Every sales manager has a unique coaching style. It may range from total independence — essentially setting your reps free — to complete micromanagement. Of course, the most effective sales managers tend to have a style that falls somewhere in the middle.

If you’ve found your sweet spot, that’s great. You don’t need to overhaul your approach or methodology. In fact, that could do more harm than good since your team is already trying to adapt to the substantial and stressful changes COVID-19 has introduced.

But do consider adding more structure to your existing coaching program.

What does that mean, specifically? For starters, weekly 1:1s just isn’t enough if you want your team to stay connected, aligned, and motivated. A few ideas:

“Brown bag” lunches

You don’t have to be in the office to share a meal together. Set up regular (and casual) “Lunch and Learns” with your whole team — webcam required. Pick a topic to cover or skill to hone. Or better yet, crowdsource ideas from your reps.

Peer-to-peer coaching

Peer learning often happens organically in an office setting, but working from home can feel like working in a silo. Jump in and help newer, less experienced reps connect with more experienced reps by designating time for peer coaching opportunities on a weekly or biweekly basis.

Then, step back. The magic of peer coaching happens when your manager isn’t looking over your shoulder!

Cross-departmental meetings

Make an effort to stay abreast of what’s happening in tangential departments, like Marketing, Sales Enablement, and Product.

Sure, you may hear updates during all-hands meetings or via Slack, but since you’re no longer absorbing important details through osmosis at the office, consider setting up a time for your team to interface with a representative from another department.

Keep in mind, no one likes pointless, fluffy meetings. Adding in extra, structured opportunities to coach and connect is smart when your team is distributed. Just make sure that every calendar invite has a clear objective and agenda.

3. Reinvent Your 1:1s

Your 1:1 “template” should be a living, breathing thing. No, you don’t need to change up your questions every week, but these meetings should evolve as your team grows and changes.

That said, when your team is going through a major transition, it’s a prime time to rethink your 1:1 format. A few things to keep in mind:

Strike the right tone

Be empathetic. We’re all dealing with an unprecedented crisis, and it’s adding stress to everyone’s lives, on both a professional and personal level. Of course, your 1:1s should be much more than a temperature check — but start there.

Ask how your reps are doing. Show you care about their physical and mental wellbeing during this trying time. Right now, there’s no such thing as “business as usual.”

Troubleshoot WFH challenges

Working from home can be a whole different ball game, especially if your reps have roommates hanging around, or if they are parents trying to wrangle tiny interns, thanks to closed schools and daycares. Help your people troubleshoot issues that are blocking their productivity, and think through ways you can provide flexibility while still helping them stay on track.

Let your reps lead

Remember: coaching sessions are not mini-performance reviews. In fact, your reps should be leading the sessions. This approach is even more critical for remote reps since you don’t get the chance for regular, casual interaction.

As always, guide the conversation with a solid mix of thoughtful, open-ended questions. Ask questions that encourage your reps to make observations about their performance and draw conclusions based on those observations, then apply them to new and different circumstances.

4. Shore Up Your Tech Stack

Fortunately, most of the tools we’re now using to stay connected aren’t new. Zoom, Slack. We were already using them.

Of course, staying connected is one thing. Staying accountable and motivated is another. These are the tools you need to ensure performance doesn’t take a nosedive.

Sales coaching software

With fewer opportunities to interface with your reps, you need to make the most of the time you have together. Our mantra: automate what you can.

Find ways to take administrative work off your plate, like scheduling coaching sessions, recording notes and coaching conversations, creating and tracking action plans, etc.

Send your reps their 1:1 questions ahead of time (bonus if you can automate that, too), and make sure you get their responses before your session starts so you can spend time on a meaningful conversation.

Sales gamification software

Sales contests are a tried-and-true tactic to add a layer of accountability while also getting your reps fired up to sell. Bonus: healthy competition (and maybe some friendly trash-talking) can provide a welcome distraction from everything that’s happening in the world right now.

The key to remote competitions is visibility. Make sure you’ve got a sales gamification tool that integrates with email and Slack, so everyone can celebrate wins together. And make sure leaderboards screens are accessible through URLs.

5. Leverage Your Team

Of course, you want your reps to feel accountable to you: you’re their manager and you’re helping to steer the ship.

At the end of the day, though, it takes every person on your team to achieve results and hit The Number. Sales should be a team sport — so find ways to encourage collaboration and nurture relationships, even when your people are apart. You’ll add a layer of “peer accountability,” and it’s also just a great culture play. Consider:

Weekly shout-outs

During your regular team meetings, set aside time for reps to shout out their teammates for something they did that was particularly smart or well-executed. If you don’t already do this, you’ll find that reps look forward to earning recognition from their team.

Remember, this requires overcommunication throughout the week and performance visibility, which leads us to our next point.

Increased visibility

As a manager, you hopefully have easy access to performance data and insights for your reps. But do your reps have that same easy access?

Make it easy to see the team and individual progress against goals — even better if it’s automatically visualized in charts or graphs, so you and your reps aren’t having to run Salesforce reports or shuffle through spreadsheets.

Team competitions

As noted above, sales competitions are a great way to ignite the competitive spirit. Make sure you’re not limiting yourself to only individual competitions. Run team competitions — especially ones where you’re pairing up newbies with seasoned pros — so that teammates can collaborate together and hold each other accountable. Or try some of these team-building activities.

Bottom Line

Whether you’ve always been remote or it’s a recent, potentially short-term shift, you can optimize a distributed team without overhauling every process and workflow. In other words: Don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater.

But do think through ways you can adapt your management style to a new situation. Adding in extra layers of accountability, when done thoughtfully and with your team front of mind, you’ll be able to keep your remote team on track, even in uncertain conditions.

  Go to our website:   www.ncmalliance.com

5 Ways To Create Accountability for Remote Sales Teams by Brian Trautschold Well before the age of coronavirus — it seems like a lifetime ago, doesn’t it?