#and I am looking forward to getting into more of the various class stuff and the plot and suchlike

[wrongbodies]

The Worst Science Convention I Ever Went To

The main expo space of the convention center was abuzz with activity. Everywhere around me nerds and geeks of all sorts milled about, looking at the various experiments and research presentations. The main sessions were separated into different viewing rooms, but the floor of the main space was littered with all sorts of wackier research.

I stuck out like a sore thumb, I imagined. Well, me and my teammates. A couple of us guys on the lacrosse team had taken the same class expecting an easy grade. Turns out Intro to the Scientific Method was a bit more involved than we had thought. We had to go on field trips like this, or we'd get a shit grade. So here I was with my friends, Luke and Rocky.

"Seth!" Luke called out to me. I turned to see him standing in front of a strange machine, his short hair sticking up from static electricity. I approached amused.

"This is a van de graaff generator. It generates a direct current, and when the energy reaches your strands of hair, they repel each other. It appears to 'float.'" The dorky old man said. He was giddy with excitement. I was less amused now that he explained it, if I am being honest.

"Cool... uh, let's go check something else out Luke." I said. Rocky approached, gesturing to something away from the static machine.

"I don't get how people like this stuff." I said. "It's neat, I guess... but I'd rather be outside. It's so nice out, finally."

"I know. At least we have practice later. 'Sides, we need the extra credit from this. It's worth it." Rocky explained.

"True, ugh." I lamented. "Where are we going, anyways?"

"I saw something pretty crazy down this way. The guy is still setting up, but I'm actually wondering if it will work." Rocky said, a little mysteriously.

Luke, and Rocky, and I approached the small stage that the experiment was set up on. A small crowd of onlookers were already collecting. I noticed that there was a large group of dweeby high schoolers on the other side of the stage, all of them starry eyed at the machine set up on the stage. One of them kept glancing at me, though. A beanpole kid with messy red hair, bad acne, and watery blue eyes. A nerd, I could not help by wrinkle my nose at.

I and my lacrosse friends pressed in closer. When they pushed past some old women, I was able to read the plaque finally.

"Dr. Lark's Mind-Drift Experiment"

Seth had no idea what that meant, but Rocky seemed excited about it. He kept babbling about what a high it would be to try it. They were interrupted after a few more minutes by a broad-shouldered man stepping to the front of the stage.

"Greetings, convention goers and fellow scientists!" The man called. He sounded more like a carnival barker than a scientist. "I have a fantastic experiment to showcase today. I assure you it is possible to merge two minds, to wade into the memories and feelings of another!"

The crowd murmured in incredulity. Rocky was bumping Luke and I on the back. This was apparently what he was excited to try out.

"Now, I would like to give some trial runs. Could I have some volunteers?" Dr. Lark asked. Rocky grabbed Luke's arm and lifted, throwing his other arm up. Dr. Lark seemed amused at the exuberance, so he beckoned the two boys up.

The doctor got to work preparing the device. It actually looked quite similar to the van de graaff generator, from before. A single silver orb stood in the middle of the stage, atop a similar silver stand. It was so sleek and shiny, it looked more like some piece of scifi decoration that an actual experiment.

Sure enough, though, when the doctor finished turning the power source on, the sphere hummed faintly. The two lacrosse boys were commanded forward, and then instructed to place one hand each on the sphere. As soon as Luke and Rocky did so, they immediately seemed to slump into a stupor. Their heads drooped forward, eyes rolling back up in their head. They made no noise, except every once in a while a big breath. The doctor let them stay that way for about 2 minutes, before he shut the power off.

My friends came to, almost immediately. As they looked around, they looked at their hands, and then at each other. Grinning, they turned to the doctor and expressed their surprise.

"What did you experience, boys? Tell the crowd!" Dr. Lark asked.

"It felt like I WAS my friend, Rocky." Luke said. "I could hear his thoughts, and his memories... it was like I was in them, but I knew it wasn't me those things happened to."

"Same! I could feel his emotions, man. I didn't realize he had such a crush on my sister... Eww, wtf!" Rocky laughed. He was a little disgusted.

The crowd seemed a bit more convinced. Others were asking to have another demonstration. Dr. Lark sent my friends off the stage.

"I'll try it!" I yelled out. I was not about to let my friends have all the fun.

"Very well, then, step up here." Dr. Lark waved me up.

"Now, who would we have to drift minds with this strapping young man?" Dr. Lark asked of the crowd.

"Me! Oh me! Please!" A nasally voice cried out. I looked around and felt my heart sink when I realized it was that geeky boy from before, the ginger-haired boy.

"Excellent! Get up here and let's drift your minds together." Dr. Lark said.

I wasn't happy about sharing my mind with this loser, but I put myself in this situation, so I'd suck it up. I wasn't looking forward to swimming through memories about star trek or whatever.

When the hum returned to the sphere, after Dr. Lark turned the power back on, he instructed us to place one hand onto the sphere. I did so, along with geek boy. As soon as we both did, it felt like I was falling. Time ceased to matter, I was dropping into a void. I couldn't feel my body as a thousand other sensations took front stage of my mind.

What was striking immediately was how unfamiliar these feelings were. There was raw excitement like a bright sun, shining into me, through me... it defied my understanding. Suddenly memories of beating video game bosses, solving math problems, winning a quiz show, getting badges from a troop leader... everything felt like it happened to me. I was Randy. Randy? That's his name. My name. Our name.

Then I realized I could feel him. He was all around me, as I was all around him. It was like oil in water, we played across the surfaces of one another. We couldn't talk to one another, per se, but we could interpret each others feelings. I could tell he was a little wounded from my disgust with him. I felt guilty, but still couldn't help my dissatisfaction from seeping out.

We stayed like this for so long, I was wondering how it could possibly be less than a minute or so, but I knew that is what happened with my friends. So when we started to emerge from the shared mind, I was startled to hear screams and what sounded like a huge commotion all around.

I didn't even have time to take stock of my situation or look at Randy before I was knocked to the ground. It was jolting, but at least it spurred me to take notice. A fire was raging behind the stage. Dr. Lark was nowhere to be seen, the sphere had toppled over, seemingly what knocked us out of the drift.

Smoke was rolling over the top of the crowd, and everyone was dashing about in a panic. I looked for my friends, but they were gone. Randy was gone too, it seemed. I decided 'gone' was the right idea, and scrambled back to my feet and started pushing through panicked people to get to an exit I had seen before.

After several times nearly tripping over some nerd or crying geek, I was able to slip out a fire exit. Once I was outside and following a crowd to a safe distance, I reached for my phone to call Luke and Rocky. Except, when I reached down instead of the tight joggers I was certain I put on this morning, I found myself reaching into the pocket of a cheap pair of jeans. Strange... and what was weirder was the phone I pulled out was an Android, not my cracked Iphone...

Looking at the phone I was then alerted to something else. The fingers curled around the phone weren't mine. These fingers were spindly, with little freckles dotting them. The chewed nails definitely were not mine either. I opened the phone somehow, and found the camera app. I was starting to get even more freaked out than the fire had made me. Sure enough, the camera did not refute my suspicion.

Looking back in the camera was Randy. His face was my face now! Actually, it seemed I had his whole body now. I looked down the front of my torso. I could feel through the hoodie a narrow chest, with absolutely no definition except where bones peeked through.

"Randy! Thank goodness you are safe!" A stern looking woman called out. I spun, realizing that she was talking to me. "Let's go! We are doing a head count on the bus."

"But I'm not-" I started to argue back when I was bumped by someone stumbling through the crowd. The woman steadied me and then tugged, leading me to the yellow school bus. I was mortified, but everything felt like it was happening too fast.

How was I going to get out of this?

To be continued

[thevalicemultiverse]

@offwithhxrhead seems to be plotting a BG3-based AU for us to play in, so I figured I'd give you The Context as to why she would be plotting that. XD Meet Tav!Smiler and their particular brand of ridiculousness!

Another Game To Add To The List

So -- you guys all know that I like video games. I mean, I post on a pretty regular basis about the antics my Sims in my latest Sims 4 save file are getting up to. And you all know that I love to put my favorite characters in my favorite video games if I'm able to -- or even if I'm not. My current Sim family is my Valicer OT3; my Fallout 4 protagonist is Victor Van Dort (or as close as I can get with FO4's character creator and artstyle), and my Vampire: The Masquerade -- Bloodlines Malkavian Fledgling is Alice Liddell (I may not be able to actually reflect that with her appearance in the game, but I can sure as hell write about her adventures doing all the quests!) I have a vested interest in this sort of thing.

So -- when my friend @gaydragonwizards got me into Baldur's Gate 3, leading me to purchase the game for my birthday using the Steam gift cards my parents had gotten me, I immediately thought, "Okay, so -- Alice has VTMB, and Victor has FO4...but a certain newbie roller coaster OC does not have a game yet. And this one DOES allow you to do a custom character..." Which led to me deciding that Smiler was going to be my "Tav" in BG3! I haven't gotten very far in the game yet (I had to do an early restart to add in a mod patch that the creator was VERY SURE shouldn't be put in an existing playthrough because it fucks with XP and leveling a bit, and then recent hotfixes possibly breaking quest items made me too nervous to play for a bit), but I have gotten my Smiler set up, made it past the Nautiloid segment, and have started exploring the wilderness around the ravaged beach! Here's some shots of Smiler in the game:

Smiler's look from the character creation/level up screen! They're a half-elf with Body #2 and Head #5 because that was the combo that actually looked the most like my Smiler Sim -- have a comparison shot:

It's not a PERFECT match, but nothing was going to be -- it's pretty close, though! The hairstyle is of particular note because that is in fact one of the very first mods I picked up for this game: Alt Lae’zel Hair For Tav! None of the in-game hairstyles had the right sort of "bangs" that my Sim!Smiler sports, so I was REALLY happy to spot this on Nexus Mods to give my Tav!Smiler the right look, at least from the front. :) (And, hilariously, the mod was in fact uploaded ON MY BIRTHDAY, so I'm counting it as an inadvertent birthday present.)

Smiler's arrival on the Ravaged Beach, having just woken up from their little fall out of the Nautiloid! As you can probably guess by the outfit, I started them out as a Bard. That was the class that seemed to make the most sense for them, both from a "the roller coaster in Alton Towers is often associated with upbeat music and dancing, especially after the original Festival of Thrills and The Smiler Takeover, and bards DO get access to a good number of mind control spells" and from a "my personal take on Smiler is that they are super charismatic and want to make as many people happy as possible, and the Bard's high Charisma start combined with the Entertainer background suits that perfectly." XD However, they're not JUST a Bard these days -- thanks to the further power of mods, upon their first level-up, they became a Bard/Artificer! :D I picked that class because it has a whole sub-class dedicated to Alchemy, and one of my headcanons for my Smiler is that chemistry/alchemy (depending on the universe) is their thing. Plus it just looks like a super-cool class and mod. (And yes, I do have 5e Spells and Unlock Level Curve to enhance things further, with the appropriate patches (including ULC's patch to smooth out the weird XP valley while leveling up -- learning about THAT was what prompted me to restart so I could install it). Oh, and the exclamation mark is from Camp Event Notifications -- it's telling me that Smiler should Long Rest soon to get one of the special camp events.)

Smiler hanging out in the Wilderness camp! I came here for the first time after picking up Shadowheart, Astarion, and Gale, and was amazed at just how PRETTY the camp is. I mean, look at that waterfall over by the ruin that houses the Magic Mirror! :D Seriously, this game is gorgeous -- I've spent a decent amount of time just wandering around with the camera, admiring the scenery. XD Anyway, as you can see, Smiler picked up some new clothes -- the main outfit is some basic leather armor, dyed with the dye available in the Traveler's chest (I first dyed their starting jerkin, but hated the resultant color scheme -- I'm not wild about the red arms on this set, but at least the yellow pants and black chestpiece feel right!), while the cape and their new lute are from the Digital Deluxe content -- the "Cape Of The Red Prince" and the "Lute of the Merryweather Bard." (Hey, I got this for my birthday, I wasn't not going to get the Digital Deluxe content!) I had them give the lute a little try in-camp -- the upbeat Bard song DEFINITELY suits them. XD

And finally, Smiler with their current companions, ready to head to the nearby chapel on the beach -- Shadowheart (in some new, slightly better Sturdy Armor), Gale (in his robe and wizard hat), and Astarion (sporting more DD content, the "Bicorne of the Sea Beast" and the "Needle of the Outlaw Rogue" (the dagger on his hip)). They are indeed a motley group. XD Hopefully Smiler's 17 Charisma will allow them to talk their way out of most binds!

Now, you may be thinking at this point, "Well, this is going to spark another AU, isn't it?" And you would be -- partially correct. Allow me to explain by excerpting part of my and Squid's conversation while they were recommending mods to me and I was telling them about my plans to do Tav!Smiler:

Squid: ((though -- there is one thing that has popped into my head. with playing Smiler, obviously you can't have any of your Valicer stuff going on in BG3 by default. and do you really want to give yourself ANOTHER AU by playing as them again :P )) Me: ((Oh, that's not really a worry -- the Valicer in the Dark crew already fucking claimed the game as a potential AU ))

YUP. Much like how my brain insisted that the Alice in my Fallout of Darkness stuff be a variant of my Malkavian!Alice from Londerland Bloodlines, thanks to me getting into BG3 at the same time as my obsession with Valicer In The Dark ramped up, the AU in my head is now the VITD trio going through the game. And while it's only a partially-formed pile of shitposts as of yet, that idea PROBABLY deserves its own post...

[reneesghostinthelivingroom]

Sooo… I have an idea. Poly!plastics x reader where reader has a concussion caused by some cheerleader things but she is like “I’m okay” and then her girlfriends notice something is wrong with her. (Regina will be really mad at her for hiding her injury). Thank you so much, I love your writing!

Totally Fine ||

|| Poly!plastics x fem!reader

(i myself am poly!)

|| Warnings: Regina being Regina, reader getting concussed, swearing, Regina arguing with reader, brief mention of throwing up, reader in hospital

|| Summary: reader's part of the cheer team, her girls go and support her only to watch reader fall from the pyramid much to their concern. Reader insists she's fine, turns out she's very much not and her girlfriends know it. They take reader to the hospital, with some scolding from Regina.

Requests open!

Started: April 27th

Finished: May 2nd

~~~

When finale bell rang, you started packing your stuff to leave the classroom. Filling your bag with the various books and papers you had from your English course. Once everything was together you headed out of the classroom; going to your locker to put your bag away and grab your cheer clothes. You had after school cheer practice today and you were looking forward to it.

As you walked to the locker room, you took out your phone and texted the group chat you had with your girlfriends.

You: are all of you still coming to watch? 💕

Gretchen was the fastest to respond, she usually was. She'd never leave you on delivered for more than two minutes unless she was genuinely busy with something; even in class she still made time to text you.

Gretchen: ofc!! omg dw we'll be there 🥰

Karen: be wear?

Gretchen: y/n/n cheer practice, kare 😭

Karen: oh yeah! oow 💕💕💕💕

Regina: oow????

Gretchen: on our way 💀

You laughed a little at their conversation, finding it amusing how Gretchen could always translate for Karen. Sometimes you could understand what she meant, other times you would have absolutely no idea what she means.

You send them a quick text back before shutting your phone off.

You: ilyyy all 🫶🫶

Once you arrived in the locker room you got changed and chatted with some of your cheer friends as you guys walked to the field together; laughing and mostly chatting about various rumours.

Ashley, the head cheerleader, got everyone organized and the Captain went over today's routine. Just some simple stuff, practicing the cheer for Friday's football game. It would be the first of the season and you were excited. It wasn't your first year doing cheer, so you knew what to expect. Usually routine, same old chants, ending with the finale pyramid.

You guys spent about twenty minutes going over your routine, by this point your girls were in the field stands watching and cheering you on. Honestly Gretchen and Karen would kill it on the cheer team. Maybe you'd try and convince them to sign up for next year.

"Alright, ladies! Pyramid up!" The Captain shouts, looking directly at you since you were her flyer (the person at the top).

Everyone got into position, you got to the top of the pyramid and struck your pose.

"Hold it!" The Captain says, watching all of you and checking your stances.

You guys were able to hold the pyramid for a good few seconds, until disaster happened. One of the girls who were under you helping keep you up began to tremble. She was new, she wasn't used to this. You braced yourself for what you knew was coming.

There was a longer pause than you had expected, you ended up letting your guard up because of it. Maybe you were fine. Wrong.

The moment you thought that she dropped you and you fell with no time to brace yourself.

Hitting the ground with a thud, the Captain rushed over to you and knelt beside you.

You felt like the wind had been knocked out of you, you were dizzy. Nauseous. Everything was spinning as you groaned and tried moving onto your side. Pain shot through your body.

"Woah, woah. Easy kid." The captain puts a hand to your shoulder and frowns, watching you with an intense concerned gaze.

You stopped trying to move as your girlfriends rushed to your side.

"Oh my GOD! Are you okay? Are you hurt? How many fingers am I holding up?" Gretchen rambled out, feeling an overwhelming amount of concern as she held up two fingers.

You saw three and stared at her in confusion, trying to keep up with everything she was saying. By now the cheer team had gotten out of the pyramid and were standing a good distance, watching everything play out.

"Three...?" You mumbled, your speech slurred which confused Regina. You sounded like you were drunk but she knew better than to think that, she looked over at the Captain who seemed to be thinking the same thing as her.

Concussion.

Gretchen's eyes widened when you said three instead of two and she looked at Regina," Regina, what do we do?"

"Nothing. I'm fine." You assure her, trying to stand again and push through it.

"You are absolutely not." Regina sighed, narrowing her eyes at you as you tried to push it off like it was nothing. She knew you well enough to know it wasn't nothing.

"Oh yeah? Would someone who wasn't fine be able to do this?" You decided to show off a bit to prove your point. Doing a backhand spring, the only reason you landed right now was because of muscle memory. You nearly threw up as your head spun.

Regina groaned loudly and placed her hands on her hips while Karen clapped and smiled at you. Gretchen looked at you with pure worry.

"Fine! Wanna act like a tough girl? Act like a tough girl, see how tough you feel afterwards." Regina rolled her eyes and dragged the other two back to the bleachers, Gretchen really didn't want to leave your side but let Regina drag her.

Your Captain looked at you with worry," You sure this is a good idea, kid?"

"I'll be fine." You assure her.

Cue yourself eating absolute shit in three... two...

Ten more minutes pass, you do your best to keep up with the routines in your state. You were doing totally fine, until you started seeing spots and your vision went black.

~~~

When your eyes began to slowly open, you felt yourself blinded by hospital lights. Squinting you glanced around you, not moving from where you laid.

You could see Karen and Gretchen sitting beside you, Karen holding your hand and rambling about something to you.

She knew you had been unconscious when she started talking, she just wanted to talk to you in case you could hear her so you didn't feel alone.

You looked around a little more, spotting Regina pacing in front of your hospital bed. Her eyes met yours and you could see her expression shift from concern to anger.

"You're such a fucking idiot!" She shouts, startling you, Gretchen, and Karen.

"Regina!" Gretchen gets up, walking to the blonde in hopes of calming her down. Regina just puts her hand in front of her to stop her.

"I told you you weren't going to be fine! Why didn't you just fucking listen to me?"

You frowned and looked away from her, you had tried to hide how hurt you actually had been because you didn't want them to worry. You didn't want to burden them with you. Turns out, that just made things a whole lot worse.

Gretchen glanced at you and mirrored your frown, she felt bad for you. She hated that Regina was yelling at you for this, couldn't she have at least waited until you were out of the hospital? This was the last thing you needed.

Karen kept her hand holding yours, giving your knuckles soft rubs with her thumb as she tried her best to comfort you in silence. She knew better than to talk over Regina.

Regina narrowed her eyes at you when you looked away, she grabbed your chin and made you look at her again. She pulls you a little closer to her face.

"Never fucking pull this 'I'm fine' bullshit again. You hear me?"

You nodded slowly and she let go of you. As she did, you let out of breath.

"I'm going to talk to the doctor about when you're allowed out of here." With that, Regina walks out the door. Slamming it shut behind her. Making all three of you flinch from the sudden noise.

You shared a look with Gretchen as she returned to where she had been sitting before next to you and Karen. She rests a hand on your leg.

"How do you feel?" Her voice was so much softer than Regina's had been, you appreciated that about Gretchen.

"Like my head was run over by a bus." You mumbled, you had a killer headache. Regina's yelling did nothing to improve it.

"Do you want anything? Water? A snack?" Gretchen asked, frowning when heard your response. Her instinct was to take care of you and that's just what she was going to do.

You slowly nod your head, trying to ignore how that simple movement made your headache worse." Please."

Gretchen gives your leg a soft squeeze then gets up, going out of the room to find a vending machine. She trusted that more than the cafeteria food.

Karen stays with you, keeping her hand in yours as she talks to you about anything and everything. Hoping it distracts you from whatever pain you're going through. You don't have the heart to tell her it's making your headache worse.

"I'm not ready for this math test, like what even is it about? Do I need to know what an adjective is? Because I don't know what an adjective is.." Karen rambles on, you raise an eyebrow at her wondering what the hell adjectives had to do with math.

You just listen to Karen's ramble, occasionally nodding your head and adding in your little bit to the conversation.

~~~

You spent the following couple of weeks recovering, your girls taking care of you. Though mostly Gretchen & Karen. Regina was still pissed at you and wanted to make damn sure you knew that. So, Gretchen and Karen came up with a plan.

They had told Regina they were both busy one night and that they'd need her to keep an eye on you. Make sure you weren't doing anything to make your injury worse than it was. Regina argued, but they pleaded because they didn't want you to be left alone. Regina rolled her eyes and very reluctantly agreed.

She stayed over at your house that night, you spent most of the time in bed. Every now and then Regina would walk into your room.

During one of her last check ins, she noticed that you were asleep. She walked over and rested her hand on yours, watching you with an uncharacteristically soft gaze.

"I know I've been rough on you, but you were a fucking idiot." She was barely talking above a whisper, not wanting to risk you hearing her.

"I still love you. But seriously you're a fucking idiot." Leave it to Regina to not let you forget how much of an idiot you were, even while you were asleep.

[guppyfish77]

Another year Another summary of Art! An Entire Year of Submas lets gooooooooooo!!!! This year I feel like I really pushed myself when it comes to illustrations and I feel like I've learned a lot! But at the same time I feel a little tired, next year I think I wanna relax and experiment a bit more, I gotta learn to loosen up! Might get more art out if I do :p

I also feel the Submas grip ever so lightly relaxing (unless they decide to do Unova remakes haha XD), so I might introduce some of my numerous ocs in 2024! I'll probably start with the conductor oc ;]

Thank you for all your support! (you are all very nice! ToT), I still have a good amount of submas stuff planned in the works so look forward to that (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧

If you are interested, I also have some commentary and behind the scenes for some of my submas illustrations! I wanna talk about it and now seems like a good time to do so now that the year is over! (Beware! its going to be long!)

All titles are linked to the original post

Lunch Break

hoho! This one is the sort of AU thing in which the only thing that changes is that I give Emmet a Victini friend (not a part of his team, I dubbed them the "victory duo" because Emmet likes winning and Victini is the Victory Pokemon), I planned out a few wordless comics regarding the idea, they were all very lighthearted slice of life kind of stuff, usually Victini causing some mischief and the brothers having to deal with it

and here's the thumbnails for this piece! I played around with various angles but decided to keep it simple and choose a straight on angle. It was originally a snack break and Emmet sharing a granola bar with Victini, but as I was planning it, submas unexpectedly showed up in the Pokemon Anime where they were serving ekiben, after learning about it it quickly turned into a lunch break! (how fun when new information lines up with an art piece you are working on hoho! ^ ^) After studying what foods Ekiben usually have in them (there was quite a variety!) I took what I learned and try to make the food look like the gear station logo :D

In the background there are children drawings because in the battle subway one of the trainer classes you can face off against are preschoolers, and I thought at least one of them would share their drawings with the subway bosses (and of course why wouldn't they hang it up?), there is also a trophy in which you can get in the players room if you beat the subway bosses on the super trains (one day, battling competitively is not my forte), I did my best to make Emmet's office feel lived in by adding a little bit of clutter (like adding a note) but overall very organized

(hey hey that joltik mug looks familiar in the corner there, its the same one Rei is holding in the christmas drawing)

Bonus Emmet and Victini Drawings

aw come on dude, not on the trains!

ah this one, it gave me quite a bit of frustration! This piece I used to challenge myself on perspective, and challenge me it did! The version you see now is I believe the 6th iteration of this drawing! The reason for restarting so many times is because I originally wanted it to be in 3 point perspective, but I couldn't get it to look right so its now in 2 point... Haha Some valuable lessons learned there!

This illustration was inspired by the history of New York Subway Trains and Graffiti! I read about it when I got to visit the New York Transit Museum and found it super interesting!! Then I went I gotta do something with this! Since Unova is based in New York after all!

I got so many subway surfer comments, they don’t know I forgot subway surfers existed while making this and that I am a huge nerd lmao

I had a lot of fun designing the graffiti on the train (yes it says among us) stylizing the fictional letters was so fun! I studied some graffiti to see how they do it, I could've pushed the graffiti style more but then it would be illegible! I also mixed in elements of Grafaiai graffiti, and trainer that is running away is the artist trainer class in SCVL because they are graffiti artists! And the train that got graffitied is the Wifi Train, due to BW (and the DS) servers being shut down, I doubt that train gets used much anymore, which makes it a perfect target!

Derailed!

hohoho! This was a fun one! I'm not sure how many of you guys read my tags, but in there I did state that this piece was based off the fact that model trains are powered by electrifying the rail it runs on (very low watts mind you) and the fact that Joltik eats electricity, but thats not the only inspiration, it was also inspired by those videos of cats laying on the layout and derailing the train!

Theres quite a variety of thumbnails for this idea (including a comic!), and the idea was there in 2022, but this year I decided to fully commit to it! I started rendering the top right one and almost finished it, but it felt really boring to me, so I switched it up and made some thumbnails in a new perspective and viola! thats what ended up being finished!

The train that is being derailed are Sanriku Railway Type 36s, based off a model train I have in my collection! (While sharing this fact on the original post Haiku Bot detected it as a Haiku?! and this art went out of my target audience, that certainly was a day (⊙□⊙;))

Also I straight up put a picture of Thomas the Tank Engine in the background, I'm not sure if people noticed cuz its quite blurry, the fact that nobody said anything means I probably would’ve gotten away with it before sharing this fact, so hehe :3c

Unexplained Melancholy

eyy! this one! It started out wholly different

It was originally me dropping Warden Ingo in various natural landscapes around Hisui as I didn't feel like drawing anymore linear perspective (ah, but heres the thing, all environments require a little bit of perspective lol), and it was just going to be Warden Ingo hanging out in a lush forest, specifically by the train rock that was shown in his concept art! but after sitting on it, I realized I could do something more with it! by making it a snowy environment I could make callbacks to Emmet's coat being white! hence the "SNOWY!!!" being scribbled there, that was added like weeks afterwards, Then I realized I could push it even more by making the whole environment about Emmet's colors! So the new thumbnail is in color because thats whats its about!

The moon smile thing was stumbled on by complete accident, while working on it it felt empty there and I added Emmet's smile to fill the space before going "moon!!!"

The piece is also a sort of a parallel to last years piece “I am Emmet, I wish for Ingo and I to be a two-car train once more” composition wise, sort of, I tried to at least 👍

Black Tower and Whitetree Hollow

Ah! I was quite proud of this one! Black City and White Forest are some of my favorite places in Unova mainly because the parallels are so very cool!

As the thumbnails suggest it was all going to be in complete black and white, as I was working on it though I could not help but add some values in there so yup! I quite like both compositions but the perspective won me out, plus that one focuses more on the characters than the other one (as much as I love backgrounds, it really is supposed to be about Emmet and Ingo U_U)

Being places of duality and having a battle challenge in there, it really fit them!

Emmet drops the hottest single of all time 🔥🔥🔥

Not really much to say about this one since it was very much done on a whim, but

its not the first time I drew Emmet with his hat backwards, I did this little doodle around the same time I did the train graffiti piece, been wanting to do something with this silly idea, and when I heard that audio, I went :o

Following Some Rumors of a Time Machine

the finale! I decided to choose Area Zero because its a very cool place! I am inspired by cool places! and I decided to give it my all for this one!

The thumbnail I made was more for jotting down the idea, and the landscape was going to be more eyelevel? Later I decided to make it so you were looking down into the crater and you get to see the fog blocking the crystal caverns, to show that Emmet was going deeper into Area Zero and the Deepest part is his destination (the time machine, not the underdepths, I didn't know about that yet haha!) I was always going to make Emmet encounter a Slither Wing, with it being based off Volcarona, a gen 5 pokemon :]

Anyways, That's all I have to say! I hope you found it interesting! (and enjoyed my varying quality in sketches and thumbnails XD) Thanks for listening! see you in 2024! ✌

[good-beanswrites]

hii!! can we get some platonic fuuta amane interactions please? thabks !!!

Ahh yes, thank you so much for the request! I love them so much ;--; They've been making my brain go brrrr lately with T3 possibilities, though I decided to stay away from the drama for now. Here something sweet after T1 verdicts but before the attacks -- they're just hanging out :3

Yuno smiled down at Amane, finding her hunched over a table of craft supplies with Fuuta. The guilty verdict had hit them hard, so it was good to see them in better spirits. She tried to peer over her shoulder to see what they were working on. “Aw, what are you two up to?”

Amane returned her smile. “Fuuta is teaching me to misbehave.”

His face twitched in horror. “Oi, you can’t just go around saying that!” He looked frantically at Yuno. “We’re just folding paper planes.”

Amane lifted her chin. “You said in middle school, you made them to throw in class.”

“I said my friends made them to throw in class. And it’s not like I’m telling you to throw them. I was just making them because there’s nothing better to do in this damned place. You were the one that said it looked fun and sat down to annoy me!”

Fuuta huffed at the accusation as Yuno walked away, laughing. He returned to the design he was folding. He hadn’t been giving an explicit step-by-step for each, but Amane was keeping up just fine. They each had a small pile of various plane designs they were adding to. 

Running a finger along a new crease, he gave Amane a sideways look. “Though, you could stand to misbehave a little bit.”

“I did.” She reached forward to mimic the fold on her own plane. “That is why I’m here.”

“Eh? I don’t mean you should commit crimes!” He scowled. “I’m talking about normal kid stuff, nothing against the law. Like staying out too late, driving your teacher crazy, funny vandalism–”

“--Vandalism is against the law.”

“Oh come on, it’s harmless! Don’t even try to argue that a little graffiti is comparable to what got you here.” He rolled his eyes. “So? What about that other stuff?”

She shook her head. With neither disappointment nor pride, she said, “I never left my home at night. And my teachers were far too strict.” 

“Aw, it’s the strict ones that are the most fun to prank!” He pointed to Amane, adopting the most persuasive voice he could manage. “You gotta do some of these things, or you’ll turn out with a stick up your ass. Like Kotoko, or Mikoto. Or a weirdo like Kazui and Mahiru. Shidou’s more or less normal, and he’s the type of guy to break some rules now and then.”

“And you?” She raised her eyebrows at him, feigning innocence. “I take it you turned out perfectly because you misbehaved as a child?”

“Hey, I never said I was a shining role model or anything. But I mean it. If you stay like this, you’ll grow up to be a boring loser, another cog in the wheel.”

“It is an honor to be a part of something bigger than yourself, to find belonging, and purpose.”

“Tch, don’t be such a pain!”

“I wasn’t.”

“You know that’s not what I was talking about!”

“What were you talking about, then?” She gave him the same expression as before, and wondered if could hide her genuine confusion. 

“Don’t play dumb. I know working in a group is a good thing, but you don’t want to kill yourself for leaders that don’t give a shit about you. That’s a major issue in this country, you know? In government, and corporations, and all that. That’s not belonging, that’s just exploitation.”

Amane stayed silent.

Oblivious to the emotions flashing across her lowered eyes, he nudged her in annoyance. “And the best way to break from that is to loosen up a bit. So have a little fun now and then, jeez!”

She picked her creation off the table. She turned it over in her hands. It had come out perfectly sharp and clean. “I’m having fun now.”

Fuuta, preparing to argue with whatever she said, blinked. “O-oh.” 

“At school, my favorite activities included choir practice and the arts. It has been difficult to sing here without accompaniment, so I am grateful to have the opportunity for crafts.” She looked at him earnestly. “Despite your past of disobedience,” she smirked, “I always enjoy your company.”

His expression twisted up, but he couldn’t hide the reddening of his ears. “What do I care if a brat like you likes my company?”

She smiled. “I’m not a brat. As established, I am very well-behaved.”

“That’s even worse!”

“Tell me about this plane, Fuuta.”

After sufficiently rolling his eyes and sighing, he agreed. He started explaining what made these planes different from the last: how they compared on speed, accuracy, and length of flight. It didn’t really matter if they were just going to toss them around here or the panopticon later, he thought it would be helpful to teach her anyway. Maybe if she ever was inclined, she’d remember which ones were best for pinpointing a teacher’s back, or a warden’s…

[edosianorchids901]

Where You Go, I Go

@flashfictionfridayofficial prompt - "a fool's quest"

On some level, Crowley was always waiting for Aziraphale to contact him. It might be months, years, or even decades between their encounters, but that didn’t matter. While he went about his job and exploring Earth and trying new forms of alcohol, he still waited.

The instant he got the message this time, he happily dropped his boring assignment to inspire gambling and rushed off to meet Aziraphale at a little tavern on the outskirts of Florence. It was a decent tavern, with good wine, but not nearly as high class as Aziraphale’s usual choice of establishment. That alone made Crowley curious.

He got even more curious when he spotted Aziraphale. The angel seemed to be in disguise. Still his usual colors, mostly beige of various shades and a bit of blue. But it wasn’t nearly as fancy as his usual outfits.

“What’s this about?” Crowley asked as he approached. “You look like you’ve gotten a role in a play as a… a… wealthy farmer?”

“Shh! No one can know that I’m not a farmer.” Aziraphale looked around, and Crowley shook his head. “I’m undercover.”

It was all Crowley could do not to laugh as he sat down. He put on his best serious expression and sniffed the wine. It was an expensive vintage, at least for this part of town. “Really?”

“Mhm. Quite successfully so far, although I’m afraid I did have to use a few teensy-weensy little miracles to convince people that I wasn’t a French spy.”

“Shoulda just tried speaking French at them,” Crowley said in his most serious tone. “That definitely woulda convinced them.”

Aziraphale pouted at him. “Crowley, you’re very rude.”

“Yup.” After a gulp of the wine, Crowley lifted an eyebrow. “So. I’m guessing you’re not here on one of your language learning kicks.” Aziraphale cycled through those every few centuries, although he had a fondness for various versions of French. He was terrible at it, and at every language he tried to learn the hard way. “What’re you up to?”

“Well. Do you remember that book I talked about?”

Crowley stared at him. Aziraphale didn’t seem to understand why he was staring. “No. Can’t say I remember one specific book out of the sea of them.”

“Oh. I suppose there is that.” Widening his eyes theatrically, Aziraphale learned forward. “Everyone said it was a fool’s quest, but I’ve found it.”

“It?”

Aziraphale went off on an extended ramble that ranged from Rome to Constantinople to Baghdad, and finally to Florence. Crowley listened, trying not to be impatient. He always enjoyed being with Aziraphale, even if it involved listening to an incredibly boring story about a book being copied about a million times.

But when Aziraphale detoured onto talking about book binding, Crowley finally intervened. “Angel. What does this have to do with you pretending to be a farmer?”

“Oh! I suppose I should explain.” Aziraphale chuckled, glanced around surreptitiously again, and spread his hands wide. “I’ve tracked down what, as far as I can tell, is the last copy of the book. I remember reading a few of the stories when they were being written, and they were wonderful. But I thought they’d all been destroyed at one point or another.”

“Uh-huh.” Crowley still wasn’t getting it. Then it clicked. “Ohh, hang on. Does the book happen to be in the private collection of some guy or other who own farms?”

Aziraphale beamed at him. “Yes! Isn’t it clever?”

Crowley never thought Aziraphale was foolish for his quests to find books that seemed to have all been destroyed. Copies of stuff turned up all the time. This, though? This was foolish.

“I can think of about a billion ways it could go wrong,” he said, unimpressed.

“Goodness, yes. I can too.” The bright smile on Aziraphale’s face never failed, which was incredibly suspicious. “But I know a way we can avoid that!”

“What?” Crowley barely got the word out before it clicked. “Wait, no. Nonono, I am not joining you on your bloody quest to pretend to be a farmer so you can steal a book from someone. That’s ridiculous, Aziraphale, even for you.”

“I wouldn’t be stealing the book! You would.” Aziraphale pouted at him, eyes big and pleading. “And you wouldn’t be pretending to be a farmer, obviously. You’d have to a member of the household staff or something.”

“No.”

The pout intensified. “Please?”

And there it was. Just as Crowley was always waiting for Aziraphale, he was always waiting for that, too. A chance to help. To be needed.

He sighed, resigned, and Aziraphale clapped his hands with delight. “Oh, good. I knew you’d agree. It’ll be awfully fun.”

Crowley highly doubted that it would be particularly fun. Heists were a lot less fun to do than they were to hear about in stories, since actually doing it involved the possibility of being stabbed or something. But it did involve spending a lot of time with Aziraphale, and that made it worthwhile.

[rebeccathenaturalist]

Happy 2024, y'all! It's a sunny day here on the SW Washington coast, and I'm off to a slow, sleepy start after managing to stay up until midnight in spite of myself. I hope you all are having a good start to the shiny new year.

I thought this would a good moment to reflect on the accomplishments of 2023, and look forward to what 2024 might hold.

Last year was, well, a lot of good stuff! Here are a few highlights:

--In addition to keeping my regular roster of online and in-person classes for various community colleges and libraries, I added a few new teaching venues. By far my favorite was the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology, where I had a marvelous time teaching my two-day Nature Identification for the Everyday Naturalist class amid an incredible coastal forest (they're bringing me back this year, too!). I also got to teach in my hometown in Missouri, with a mushroom foraging class at Rolla Public Library and a lichen walk at the Ozark Rivers Audubon Nature Center, both of whom I hope to work with again in the future. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention the series of classes I taught for Wildcraft Studio School in Portland--I'm looking forward to my next round of classes with them for 2024!

--I launched my guided nature tours business, offering ecologically-focused walks and hikes throughout the Pacific Northwest. This was very much a year of "throw things at the wall and see what sticks." Both scheduled hikes and private bookings were successful, though sometimes people thought I only did one or the other, so it was a bit of a challenge getting the word out that nope--I offer both! I'm hoping to expand the scheduled hikes to more locations, since I primarily offered them in the Long Beach, WA area, and I'm hoping to get some private bookings in places I haven't had a chance to explore yet. I do have to say I had a lot of fun taking people out onto some of my favorite trails, as well as some new places, exploring all the amazing flora, fauna, and fungi we met along the way. Here's to more excuses to get outside in 2024!

--With the help of my amazing agent, Jane Dystel of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC, I landed a contract with Ten Speed Press (a division of Penguin Random House) for my book The Everyday Naturalist: How to Identify Animals, Plants, and Fungi Wherever You Go. This is an opportunity well beyond anything I had imagined, and I am super excited for the book to be released in Summer 2025. I've already gotten some excellent editorial feedback to help me make this book the best it can be, and I'm looking forward to this continued journey as I kick off the new year with a big writing session.

--I kept up on my quarterly chapbook schedule, producing four new chapbooks in 2023. It's a lot of work, but people really seem to enjoy them, and I relish the opportunity to dive deeper into topics than I can do in a single article. Speaking of articles, I didn't quite keep up with writing one weekly on my website, but I did alright. And I also kept up a good roster of articles in my Rainy Rambles column for the Coast Weekend paper.

And that's really what I'd love to see in 2024:

--More opportunities to teach and reach new audiences who are interested in learning more about nature identification, foraging, and other natural history topics. Since I do a lot of online teaching, I have plenty of options outside of my local area. And as I make my twice-a-year peregrinations to Missouri, I'm planning to do some teaching along the way.

--More tours, please! 2023 was a really great start, and I had such a great time that I just want to increase the number of days I'm out on the trails with folks. I need to do more promotion, especially outside the Columbia-Pacific region, and really work on getting the word out. Some of that will be online, but there will also be some time spent out in the world, too. It can be a very time-consuming thing, but here's to those efforts paying off.

--I already need to have the manuscript for The Everyday Naturalist turned in this April (I'm going to aim for getting it done early, but we'll see.) A lot of the process beyond that will be out of my hands, other than edits and feedback. Still, this will be another thing that I want to make more people aware of, so you can expect me to keep chatting about book stuff all year. And, of course, I'll keep those article sand chapbooks coming for those of you who can't wait for 2025 to read my work.

--I have some other projects behind the scenes that I'm planning--keep your eyes peeled here for updates! (Or you can join my monthly email newsletter here.)

Wishing you all an excellent 2024!

[studioincomplete]

Devlog 4- Post RGS and Art Stuff!

Welcome back to another Studio Inc.omplete devlog! I’m Ivy, lead writer and de facto head of marketing for Night of the Delivering Dead. This past weekend we went to the Rensselaer Games Showcase, an event held by RPI’s Game Dev Club to show off student games. We had an updated demo with fog of war up for playtesting, and we were able to get a ton of really useful feedback. We had a few bugs that we’ll need to work out, but we’ll get that posted for you to play as soon as it's in a slightly more playable state. While we were there, we were also looking for art feedback. We’re still trying to iron out a few decisions, primarily whether we keep using the pixel shader or not and what art style we go with for the card art. You can find that survey here, any feedback you have for us is welcome!

After this we won’t have another major event until March when we’ll be going to PAX East and (maybe) GDC, so we’ll be shifting into hard production mode over the next few months. We may be a bit quieter on devlogs while we’re heavily working on stuff. But, with all that being said, I’ll turn it over to artists to share what they've been working on!

Hey all, it’s Ghost, the lead 2D artist, coming at you with an update on the progress we’ve been making on our visual style. Over the past few weeks I’ve been spending a lot of my time focusing on how we can make every aspect of the game mesh well visually. It’s easy enough to design individual elements and call it a day, but it’s a separate beast trying to connect those elements.

To that end I dedicated time to making a style sheet! For our team, it was important to figure out the color palette we wanted the game to mostly follow, as well as decide on line weight, shading, all the various things that I should keep in mind when I work. This was a huge help in solidifying the foundation for our visual identity, and it’s a reference I’ll use up until the very end. If something seems to be deviating from the style we’ve set, the first thing we should ask is if there’s a good reason for it to do so. If not, then we can correct it and that way nothing feels clashing to look at!

The other thing I’ve begun to work on is our cards that you’ll use to control your various undead summons! You’ve amassed quite the repertoire of spells during your time in college, but it’s hard recalling them from memory, so it’s a good thing you’ve written them all down in your notebook! It also means being reminded of all your doodles, messages, and scribbles you made while bored in class.. Unfortunately it seems that we’ve misplaced the pages these sketches are supposed to go on, but we can still show them off for now. Hopefully we’ll be able to find them in the future.

Hey! This is Ari, the 3D Artist for the game :) So far I have been working on some rough models to populate our map, and also working on a blockout for our character. All of these models have been made in Blender, and we’re using a shader in Unity to give them their pixel look.

The vibes for the map so far are spooky suburbia, so I have created some standard houses and other buildings that are most like things you would see in a normal town (along with a giant pumpkin tile, which is VERY realistic). Going forward I am going to be working more on the character models, reworking the current models we have, adding more types of houses/buildings, and creating smaller details like trees and other vegetation. That’s all we have for now, stay tuned for more!

[chellyfishing]

happy september in a few minutes after a long dry spell i read four books in three days so i’m gonna talk about them

the first one was i’m glad my mom died by jennette mccurdy, which i’ve been on the waitlist for for literal months. out of the people who intend to read this book i am probably the last to do it so you’ve heard it all before. it is in fact an amazing and important work. it is compulsively readable but, paradoxically, a difficult read. trigger warnings for basically everything, especially disordered eating because she goes into a lot of detail about that, but if you can handle it you should read it. i hope that this will reshape how we look at child stars, ideally with more protections in place for them. i know they have mandated school time but why not like mandated therapy time?? wild to me honestly.

i picked up a door in the dark by scott reintgen on a whim and despite having arguably the highest body count i think it might have been the lightest read lmao. it’s about a young woman from a working class family who attends a very prestigious magic school as sort of a scholarship student. the society is very stratified by class, with the wealthy wielding immense power and privilege while indulging in ridiculous excess at the expense of the lower classes. (hard to picture, i know, but it is fantasy.) the review i read that made me decide it was worth picking up was a three star whose only complaint aside from a slow beginning was that the main character was unlikable, and i thought, ah well i’ve dealt with most of my internalized misogyny so i should be good. and the story, as it turns out, deals heavily with themes of the destructive nature of vengeance, so it makes sense that she’s not “likable,” because we’re not supposed to think she’s making good life choices. she fucks up pretty badly in fact, and it’s clear from her narration that she’s driven by her own ambitions and agenda above all. i don’t know if i would use the word “likable” for her, no, but she is a character with believable motivations who behaves in ways that are consistent with them. anyway it was a good read, especially for it just being one i saw and went “sure, why not.”

today i was very very tired and didn’t have a chance to try to get stuck into anything till much later than normal so i thought i’d make a reasonable target of something short and read they were here before us by eric larocca. you’ve lost a lot of blood was the last book i read last year and i really liked it so i’ve been looking forward to reading more of his stuff. this one is a novella “in pieces,” aka kind of more like a collection of thematically connected very short stories that you’re left to draw your own meaning and conclusions from. it’s at times rather violent with some disturbing imagery (including some that involves various animals and in one case a small child). i kind of don’t know how else to explain this book without giving you a synopsis of each of its “pieces.” it’s very short so if you like larocca or are intrigued by anything about it you might as well read it. larocca is just a really good writer, like the actual craft itself is very solid. i’ve been trying to get in the habit of highlighting passages in books that hit or that i just like but i didn’t bother highlighting anything in this because i just wanted to highlight the whole thing.

anyway i ended up reading a second very short book later on so, so much for picking a short novella on purpose. after they came by tom kavanagh is a book about paranoid schizophrenia (which i believe the author also has). it doesn’t outright state that in the synopsis but you may gather that fact from it anyway, and if you don’t it’s stated pretty early on that our main character is dealing with this. she somewhat accidentally goes off her meds and as a result spirals pretty badly into some really terrifying places. umm this book was kind of hard to read in places, especially because there’s a bit that takes place in an inpatient facility. reading about a mental health relapse, even one related to an illness i don’t have, can be difficult in general, honestly. but, you can tell that this story meant a lot to the author and i really wanted to hear him tell it. plus there is a lovely sweet dog who never did anything wrong in her life. also, aside from the above, trigger warning for animal death (NOT the dog—i could have not clarified and left the implication hanging as a joke but i won’t do that to you).

all four of these were really good and if any of them sounds like you might enjoy i recommend it.

[rjalker]

Author you either have to establish that in this future the whole entire continent of Africa has united into one country or else you just look like you think all of Africa was all one country in the 50s.

(Edit nvm that's what the very next paragraph said)

Most of the class are looking forward to becoming Influences themselves, we have not been taught how to do this yet but everyone figures that comes next. It seems to me though that whatever you call it it comes down to pushing people around when they are not looking, and this is something I do not approve of more than halfway.

There is just one person in the class besides me does not seem to feel certain all is for the best. This is the dark fellow I noticed on Opening day, six foot six built like a pencil. His name is Likofo Komom’baraze and he is a genuine African; they are rare at Russett because Africans look down on Applied studies, preferring everything Pure. Most of them study Mathematics and Literature and so on at their own universities or the Sorbonne or somewhere, seems he is the first ever to take Cultural Engineering and not so sure he likes it.

There is a bond between us and we become friendly in a kind of way, I find he is not so unhappy as he looks but Africans are proverbially melancholy according to B.

I say to Komo one time that I am worried about the exams, he looks astonished and says But, Lizzie, you are so clever! turns out he thinks this because the things I say in class debates do not some out of any book he knows of, but it is encouraging just the same.

I need the encouragement.

Seventh week of term the Director of Studies is M’Clare.

Maybe it makes not so much difference, but that week I do everything wrong. To start with I manage to put in twice the legitimate time reading for several days, I get through seven books and addle myself thoroughly. In Debates I cannot so much as open my mouth, I am thinking about that Essay all the time, I sit up nights writing it and then tear the stuff up. In the end I guess I just join up bits that I remember out of books and pass that in.

B thinks my behavior odd, but she has caught on now I do not regard M’Clare as the most wonderful thing that ever happened.

* * *

The last debate of the week comes after essays have been handed in, I try to pay attention but I am too tired. I notice Komo is trying to say something and stuttering quite a bit, but I do not take in what it is about.

Next day I run into Komo after breakfast and he says Lizzie why were you so silent all the week?

What we studied this time was various pieces of Terrie history where someone deliberately set out to shape things according to his own ideas, I begin to see why Komo is somewhat peeved with me.

Komo says, “Everybody concentrated on the practicability of the modus operandi employed, without considering the ethical aspects of the matter. I think it is at least debatable whether any individual has the right to try and determine the course of evolution of a society, most of the members of which are ignorant of his intentions. I hoped that the discussion would clear my mind, but nobody mentioned this side of it except me.”

[umichenginabroad]

Week 1: Settling into Dublin

Hello, hello! It’s Declan McGrath once again to update you all on what has been going on since my abroad program at UCD started! A lot has happened since my last post and I am so excited to share it with you all.

All of the program members arrived at UCD this past Sunday. There were no official program events scheduled for that day other than check-in, so soon after getting my room all set up and meeting my dormmates I met up with a friend of a friend, Kristina, in my same program and began wandering around campus to figure out where everything was. We slowly just kept meeting more and more people in our program and the impromptu tour group of the blind leading the blind kept getting larger. Everyone in the program I have met so far have been so nice! They are all from Big 10 schools which has been nice to have a kind of touchstone to start getting to know each other. After a bit the group figured out where everything was we all split up to go find stuff for our dorms. As there was a kitchen in my dorm I went with Kristina to a supermarket to buy some food and cleaning supplies. Kristina and I bought some eggs and sponges and decided to make the most amazing trade deal by splitting them equally between us. The deal is commemorated in the photo below

The next morning was orientation. All the program members gathered into a lecture hall as we learned what the next seven weeks were going to look like for us. The program consists of a Physics 2 lecture and lab course as well as a History of Ireland Course and every now and then we will be taking group field trips to historical sites and museums around Ireland. I have been looking forward to these courses for a long time as they are both classes that meet requirements for my major and also cover topics that I find really interesting! After orientation we all went to the dining hall (called the Pi Restaurant) for some lunch and it was really good! All of the food we have had in the dining hall here has been absolutely amazing, especially the deserts with dinner. After dinner, the group of friends I had made decided to take a trip into Dublin city together to do some shopping at a mall. Funnily enough, we ended up in an American thrift store section of the mall that was playing country music and had some pretty funny things to find all the way in Ireland like this American flag jean jacket I nearly bought. We ended the night by playing a couple rounds of various card games and then getting ready for some history bright and early in the morning. 

The history class was pretty interesting and after lunch we took a class field trip to the EPIC (Every Person is Connected) Museum. The museum was based around Irish immigration and emigration which was the same topic as the day’s history lecture and it was fascinating to see a lot of the things we had just learned about in lecture in a museum. Later that night, UCD held an event where they taught us all how to play the Irish game “hurling”. The game is kind of a mix between lacrosse and baseball and is really fun! We learned how to carry the ball (called a sliotar) on and also took turns seeing who could hit it the farthest. I was not really great at the game but had an absolute blast learning how to play! Afterwards a couple of us stayed behind on the field to play some soccer and cards.

Wednesday was our first day of physics. I knew that the program was an accelerated course but oh boy was I not prepared for how fast we would actually be going. We covered an entire in the span of a 2 hour lecture and I definitely need to look over my hastily scribbled notes before we have any exams. To recuperate from the breakneck physics crash course my group took another trip into Dublin. This time we decided to do a bit of sightseeing. We first visited the Portal from Dublin to New York. It was awesome being able to see all the way back into America and take some pictures! After the Portal we visited the Dublin Spire, a massive, metal tower in the center of Dublin. The tower was really really tall and cool to see up close as we were able to literally walk up and touch it. We wandered around the Temple Bar area and saw Dublin Castle for a little bit before heading back to campus to get the cheapest pint in Dublin at the Student Bar.

We showed up to the bar halfway through trivia night and somehow didn’t place last and celebrated with some drinks. I got my first ever pint of Guinness and was immediately yelled at by my friends for drinking from it wrong. Apparently, you have to take big gulps of it, not little sips like I did. I had an awesome time trying it for the first time with a bunch of my friends but I don’t think I’ll be getting any more pints any time soon.

Thursday was fairly relaxing. We covered another chapter in physics at light speed and did a lab on circuits and then had the rest of the night ourselves. We were all fairly exhausted after hurling on Tuesday and walking a couple hours in Dublin, so we decided to have a bit more of a relaxed day. We spent some time learning a new card game called Cactus that one of my friends' middle school friends came up with called Cactus which was pretty fun. After that, one of my friends, Allie (she’s from Ohio State but we forgive her for that, we all make mistakes sometimes), and I  went back to my dorm to see if we could get a whole group trip together. I am honestly hopeless when it comes to organizing any sort of event so Allie did most of the work while I made us some ramen (pretty even exchange if you ask me). We toyed with the idea of maybe visiting France but couldn’t get it together and instead settled on a trip to the Cliffs of Moher! As I write this blog post right now we are actually on the bus to see the cliffs! 

Friday, Allie and I proposed the Cliffs of Moher trip to the group and four other friends wanted to join! Friday was another laid back day as we had to be up early the next morning for a class field trip to a place called Glendalough.

Glendalough was absolutely beautiful! Nestled in a giant, lush, green forest between some mountains was a small “Monastic City” set up by Saint Kevin. This “city” (which is more just a monastery and abbey with a graveyard) was set up by religious followers of Saint Kevin who wanted to join in on his life of living alone in the middle of the forest away from city life… by coming in large groups… and building a city near him. After exploring the ruins a little bit my group and I began hiking through the woods. Words fail to describe how beautiful this place is (hopefully the pictures won’t!).

We followed some trails through the verdant forest until we reached a lake. The Lower Lake was a small lake that had some stunning views of the surrounding mountains and forest. We continued onward until we reached the Upper Lake. This area was much more popular than the Lower Lake and was filled with dozens of tourists and locals taking in the warm weather. We took off our shoes and cuffed our pants as high as they could go and stepped into the water. It. Was. Freezing.

The water in the Upper Lake came all the way down from the tops of the mountains and was unbelievably cold. I tried to stay in the water with everyone as long as possible but was only able to stand in the water for a couple of minutes before retreating to shore to recover for a little bit and trying again. We found some really good skipping stones and spent a lot of time at Upper Lake trying to get the most skips possible. Unfortunately we had to eventually head back to the buses and go back to campus. After getting back to campus we all decided to head to a restaurant called The Goat and get some dinner and watch the start of a soccer (or I guess I should say “football” here) between two teams that none of us had ever heard of before. The food was absolutely amazing, I highly recommend stopping by if any of you get the chance! We went back to the dorms to cram as much sleep in as possible before the next morning when we would be waking up at 4 AM to catch a tour bus to the Cliffs of Moher.

Speaking of which! I did not cram as much sleep in last night as I wanted to so I think now is a good time to leave off. Wish me luck as I try to sleep on this bus next to a crying baby and I will update you all on how the Cliffs were in the next post. See you next time!

[adamgant]

How to recover from mom burnout

How to recover from mom burnout https://ift.tt/fKjw0AP Talking about mom burnout on the blog today. Hi friends! I hope you’re having a wonderful morning so far. I’m meeting with a friend for coffee and then working on a few things for Fit Team. If you haven’t joined us yet, you can sign up now and take advantage of the flash sale!! For today’s post, I wanted to talk a bit about mom burnout. While I’m in a positive space with motherhood, there have absolutely been times when I’ve felt overwhelmed and burned out. I wanted to dedicate this post to discussing mommy burnout, and share some of the things I’ve learned. Of course, I always love hearing your thoughts and perspectives, too. I also recognize that as a mom, I’m fortunate and privileged in many aspects of life and am grateful for all of them. There will always be those who have it better or worse than yourself; the best you can do is have gratitude for the blessings in your life, and compassion for those who are having a difficult time. What is mom burnout exactly? I think of it as a state of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion that most moms are likely to experience at one point in their lives. I’ve learned over time that various factors can contribute to mom burnout. It can happen when you have maxed out your capacity to care for others, and it can also come from the invisible emotional and mental load mothers need to carry. Peer pressure, unrealistic expectations, and social media can also contribute to feelings of burnout, and I think it’s SO important for moms to fill their own cups first. Mom burnout should not be taken lightly. If not addressed appropriately, mom burnout can lead to even more serious health issues. If you feel like you are suffering, please reach out and get the help you deserve. Please keep in mind that I’m NOT a professional on this matter, just a mom who can relate to other moms experiencing burnout, sharing my story and things I’ve learned. You can absolutely love your kids like crazy and still experience mom burnout. It doesn’t mean you’re not a good mom; you just need a little extra TLC. How to recover from mom burnout Taking breaks and taking time to recharge This can be so hard to do, especially if you have a tiny newborn. Use any opportunity you have to take a break and recharge, even if it’s for a short nap, a hot shower, or 10 minutes to blankly stare at the wall. Talk it out When you feel overwhelmed, whether you’re dealing with parenting exhaustion or life stuff, it can be so helpful to talk it out. It can be with a trusted friend, partner, family members, or a professional. The good news is that, often just speaking your frustrations can feel like a load has been lifted. Also, when you say things out loud, it’s easier to develop an action plan or objectively see the situation without so many emotions attached to it. Prioritizing self care This can be a tricky one, especially when you’re so devoted to caring for others, but I’m a big believer that you can’t pour from an empty cup. Making self-care a regular part of your routine is a great way to alleviate stress. Keep in mind, it doesn’t have to be *all the things*; it could be one thing that you look forward to each week or each day. Some self-care ideas include attending your favorite weekly yoga class, a phone call with a friend, a hike or walk outside, reading a book, or soaking in a bubble bath. Focus on the bare essentials When you feel burned out, try to delete the unnecessary tasks from your routine. This might be something like having an impeccably clean house and crossing off all of the items on your to-do list. Keeping other humans alive, happy, and fed is a huge task, and, along with taking care of yourself, should be enough to give you a sense of accomplishment. You should feel proud of yourself without feeling like you need to do more.

[vellichor-of-the-solivagant]

How to Plant Snapdragons | 9

Task Force 141, Keegan, & Konig x Female Criminal!Reader

Previous Chapter / Masterlist / Discord

CONTENT WARNING: Strong Violence NOTE: WAZZUP BITCHES, IM BACK I am very sorry for not updating for 4-5(?) months. I didn't mean to go on a hiatus without any announcements. Things had been quite busy for me lately and I focused on some things (FUCK COLLEGE BUT I PASSED ALL MY CLASSES ANYWAY), and also the reason why I suddenly "went dark" is because of the fucking MW3 Campaign. Yeah, shit destroyed me. WORD COUNT: 2.7k

You had been to Mexico once. You went to good places it held, but you also walked on the mud it hid in the dark. After all, there could never be a perfect country. Even if someone said that their glorious purpose was for the better good of their nation—most of the time, they were merely heroes in their own stories and villains in the others’. Well, Mexico had good food. You could give them that, at least. But this place, Las Almas, would it have good stuff as well?

You shook off your vest and Ghost’s jacket as the pilot alerted you of the time of the touchdown and slipped into your jacket, fitted to your frame. As much as you wanted to keep wearing the lieutenant’s clothes, you couldn’t risk getting harmed because of loose clothing and failing this stupid mission.

You turned to Ghost as you folded his jacket neatly. “Can I keep this?” you asked and smiled.

He stared at you for a good second, pools of honey you couldn’t read before he looked away. “Suit yourself.”

Your grin widened, and you stashed the jacket into your bag. You hummed as you put on your vest, tightening it to your liking. You patted your pockets, checking each of them, until you felt Ghost’s mask in one, fingers lingering on the soft fabric, and sighed. You put your hands down on your lap and leaned against the cold steel, waiting for the upcoming descent, which didn’t take long.

The plane opened up, and a busy facility greeted your sight. Vehicles drove in and out of the area, and soldiers went back and forth from one place to another. But even when they were bustling, you could feel their gazes land on you—suspicious and judging, whispering among themselves, voices drowned out by the loud exhausts of the transports.

It was something you wished you could get used to. At the same time, you didn’t want to, when eyes held more than they seemed.

You followed Soap and Ghost down the plane, walking towards a couple of men who stepped forward. One of them had his hands clasped behind him, while the other simply stood by his side. Both were, well, good-looking and buffed (which was normal for military men), but eh, not really your type.

They would make pretty models though.

Also, good human shields, if ever.

Johnny, being the everlasting sunshine he was, greeted them first, extending a hand to the man named Alejandro, and engaged in a conversation with him as though they had been long good friends. Then, the sergeants forced the poor lieutenant to join in, who sounded ready to strangle the scot.

Then, your eyes found the gaze of the man next to the Mexican captain on the monitor on your ankle. A frown spread on his face and worsened the moment he saw the smirk that crept up your lips, his eyes darting between you and the half of the 141.

The look of a man confused never failed to be an entertainment. And what was more the obvious expression that said, what the fuck is a criminal doing here? Or something in Spanish.

“And who is she?” Alejandro questioned, finally turning his eyes on you—or rather, down to your ankle, as if the monitor would be the one to answer him.

“She’s sent by General Shepherd,” Ghost immediately replied, batting an eye at you. “She may be a criminal, but she proved excellent in various ways that could be useful to us.”

Alejandro, albeit hesitantly, nodded and extended a hand to you. “Nice to meet you, miss.”

You took his hand, giving it a quick shake. “I’m at your service, sir. And worry not about me going against orders, I pretty much like my head attached to my neck.”

He put a forced smile on his face, one you’d seen way too many times on people. “We’ll see about that.” He motioned at the man beside him. “This is Sergeant Major Rodolfo Parra, my second-in-command.”

The said man, Rodolfo, extended his hand first to Soap, who the fellow Sergeant enthusiastically shook. Then, he batted an eye at Ghost, seemingly hesitant to approach him, but still decided to. Ghost, however, merely stared at his hand, and Rodolfo backed away, clearing his throat.

Soap stepped forward. “Ah, the Lt’s not much of a talker.”

Rodolfo nodded. “I understand.” He turned your way and reached out his hand, which you lightly shook, quickly withdrawing right after. He moved back to Alejandro’s side, who nodded his head towards a direction.

“Follow me, we’ll talk along the way.” Alejandro turned and began to walk, passing by and nodding at soldiers who saluted at him. By the end of the way—or seemingly at both an entrance and exit, several jeeps were parked, and a few soldiers stood by the vehicles. With a wave of hand from Alejandro, the men slipped inside the vehicles, and Rodolfo was the first to get in the first jeep on the line.

“I’d like to sit beside the window—” you attempted to request, but Ghost was quick to shut you off.

“No,” he said as Soap rounded the car, stepping in by the other side.

“But—”

“No.”

“C’mon, lassie, don’t you want to sit between us?” Soap questioned, a smile played on his lips.

You slipped inside with a grumble, inching close to the sergeant, before elbowing him. He grunted, but you knew it wouldn’t do much damage to him with all his muscles. At the same time, doors shut as both Alejandro and Simon got inside.

“Tengo miedo de los fantasmas,” Rodolfo mumbled, slightly turning his head to face his colonel.

(I’m afraid of ghosts.)

Your eyes whipped forward, brows slightly raising at his words, which you perfectly understood. You glanced at Ghost, but he merely stared ahead. At the back of your mind, you wanted to snitch on the new guy just so some drama could happen between them, but at the same time, drama could lead to suspicion between these men.

This was why knowing some languages if you travel abroad was great. But it should be fine to keep quiet for now. What the sergeant said wasn’t suspicious, but if they did anything that could bring harm to Ghost and Soap, then . . . 

On the other hand, Alejandro chuckled at the comment of his sergeant and looked back at the three of you. “You know Spanish?”

The Lieutenant remained silent, and you did the same, turning your head to the side to look out of the window, whilst Soap shook his head, and answered, “No.”

Alejandro drew a smirk on his face and turned his attention back ahead. “Oh, you will.”

Rodolfo started the car and drove out of the base.

“See,” you pointed at the window, begrudgingly looking at Simon, who stared indifferently at you. “This is why I want to be next to the window.”

The car passed by two-story buildings, seemingly houses or apartments, painted in pastel colors. People were walking and talking on the street, some vendors and their stands offering their goods, and some other vehicles were parked on the way. It wasn’t much, not even beautiful, but still you’d like to see everything you could see.

“Have you taken a liking to Las Almas?” Alejandro questioned, glancing back at you.

You put your hand down and turned your head on his way. “To be frank, it’s not a liking, sir, rather, it’s curiosity. I’m not from here or anything similar to this place, so I’d like to see how things work here.”

His head inclined a bit to the side, appearing to be thinking of his words. “You’ll be . . . disappointed.”

You smiled. “I’ll be the one to judge that.” Just as you finished your sentence, a truck with men riding on the back, guns in hand passed by. You couldn’t help but whistle at their ridiculous sight, and put your hand on top of Soap’s before he could grab his gun.

He frowned at you. “What are ya—”

“Calm down, sir,” you cut him off, pulling your hand away. “Seeing as no one on the street is reacting about it, pretty sure that’s normal here.”

“You’re right,” Alejandro spoke in a serious voice, once again looking back at you. “Guns are in the jurisdiction of the police.”

“Looks like Las Almas has a huge problem,” you commented and crossed your arms. “Much more than what I’ve heard.”

Alejandro shifted his eyes to you. “You seem to know something about Las Almas.”

With his words, Soap and Ghost also settled their eyes on you, as if they were ready to do everything to get answers out of your mouth. “I’ve been to Mexico, and during my stay, I heard of things about Las Almas. Not exactly the good ones as you probably expected, but I didn’t know things around here would be this bad.”

“When did you come to Mexico?”

“Over a couple of years ago, sir.”

“I see.” He turned back ahead. “Well, things weren’t that bad back then.”

“I suppose those who tried to uphold the laws and resist corruption met their end as the time passed?”

“You’re right.”

You hummed. “Well, without powerful backing to protect them, I doubt they’ll last much in a society like this.”

“And ya also seemed to know things about politics and stuff,” Soap claimed, slightly shifting on his seat.

You met his blue eyes with a grin. “I had met quite a few politicians in my life. Assassinated an Austrian before, and the one who hired me snitched on me. That’s why I ended up on Shepherd’s shackles.”

His eyes narrowed with suspicion. “How much of that is true?”

You laughed loudly, although you already knew what would be his reaction. “Take a guess,” you told him challengingly.

“The last sentence,” Ghost joined in, his voice monotone.

You snorted. “Except that.” Then, you gasped, throwing yourself to the window at Soap’s side, making him curse out something you couldn’t fucking understand in whatever Scottish was that. “Look, look, Lt!” You motioned your hand on Ghost to look at the ridiculous sight of someone in a skull balaclava giving balloons to kids.

“What the hell?” Soap’s bright eyes also followed the scene.

You whipped around and smiled at Ghost, who simply stared at you. “If you ever want to quit the military, you can retire with me and live together.”

“How about living in Las Almas since Ghost might fit well in here?” Rodolfo suggested in a soft voice. Alejandro hit him on the side, whispering something, and from the corner of your eyes, you saw Ghost slowly turning to look at him through the rear mirror.

You tilted your head. “But Las Almas has a serious problem when it comes to crimes, so I don’t think it is very much suitable to live in unless you want to be a crime lord or still in the military. And I’m the type of person who likes traveling around. If I were to settle for sometime somewhere else, it would be where I would have already spent some time on, like London, Berlin, or California and—”

“It’s just a joke, please. Don’t take it too seriously,” Rodolfo mumbled, sounding like he wanted to bury himself on the ground at the moment and never appear again.

On the way to the destination, Alejandro had talked more about the way of Las Almas, and finally, what you and the 141 came here for, El Sin Nombre, the leader of the Mexican Cartel who was protecting Hassan. Quite a reputation that person had as Alejandro said they had eyes and ears everywhere.

Having eyes and ears everywhere was also something the one who raised you did. Even if your father was in prison at the moment, you knew he was still pulling strings. A mastermind out of everyone’s league, until he decided to invest in you. Guess the apple didn’t fall far from the tree, now that you were technically imprisoned as well.

You pulled out your balaclava and huffed, putting it on swiftly. You jumped out of the jeep right after Simon and you heard Alejandro spit out his commands in a low, serious voice. You rounded up with the soldiers before a gate and under the Colonel’s command, the group barged in. You frowned as you had seen no man in sight, seemingly the civilians had run away—or were mostly likely driven out by the Cartel.

Alejandro waved his hand to follow him up another gate, which this time, Ghost opened, and gunshots echoed in the air.

“Showtime,” you said under your breath, aiming your assault rifle and blasting a hole through a man’s head, vibrant red painting the dull walls around. You rounded a corner, cautiously looking out for an enemy. You spotted a couple of them, but before you could take them down, they had already fallen on the ground. Your head whipped at Soap and Ghost’s direction. “Showoffs,” you grumbled.

“Said the one who wanted to take two men down at the same time,” Soap remarked, giving you a look, and you heard Ghost huff.

You clicked your tongue and swiftly entered a house, but quickly moved back out as you saw not a soul in sight. Your frown worsened at the unusual lack of men to hold the group back. In these cases, either it would be a trap or they had escaped already.

You glanced over your shoulders. 141, some of Alejandro’s men and the Colonel himself were on sight. The walls obscured your view of the place, there were so many corners where men could be hiding themselves or something else, and such things as Cartels wouldn’t hesitate to destroy a run-down hide-out like this for their good.

Soap shot a man from the roof and Alejandro positioned himself in front of a door, motioning at us. “Secure the house, and we go for Hassan.”

Several voices echoed from inside the place, cursing and hushing one another.

“Take the door,” Alejandro commanded. Soap stepped forward, but you grabbed him, making him look at you.

Before he could utter a word, you kicked the door open, slid on the floor towards a corner, and struck a man awaiting in the hallway. You got up immediately, raised a hand so they wouldn’t follow you, and picked up a baby’s bottle on the ground, throwing it to a room through a slightly opened door. Shots were fired blindly right after and you countered it with a couple of bullets, and it stopped. You pushed the blasted door open and found a man lying on the floor, and the baby’s bottle rolling towards your foot.

“Room clear,” you announced, staring down at the bottle for a second, before moving to the next room. They followed you in and you braced yourself for another onslaught, but this time, Soap was the one who barged in, quickly shooting down the men inside without batting an eye.

“Room clear,” he said and put his hand on your shoulder, giving it a squeeze.

You looked up at him and raised a brow that he wouldn’t see.

Ghost sauntered in the room. “No sign of Hassan.”

Alejandro sighed. “They already moved him.”

You turned your attention to him. “They move fast, hm?”

He looked at you, letting Ghost and Soap rummage the desk across the room instead. “They do. Much more than I expected.”

“So they already know that we’re coming here,” you remarked.

“Highly possible. The Cartel has eyes everywhere.”

You narrowed your eyes and echoed, “Everywhere?”

He nodded to affirm it. “Everywhere.”

“You mean even among your men?”

He paused, staring at you for a good second. “No, I trust my men.”

“A weed is a weed, sir, no matter how good it looks in your garden,” you said in a monotonous voice, picking up a pencil from the ground. “Sooner or later, they’ll bring harm to your plants. And even the plants you put in your garden can bring harm to you if you don’t know what they are.”

Ghost and Soap shot an eye on you, before exchanging looks with each other.

He eyed you cautiously and his serious voice lowered. “What are you implying?”

You remained silent and so did he, until Rodolfo’s voice echoed in your headsets. “The army is rolling in!”

Next Chapter / Archive of Our Own / Discord

Taglist: @yyiikes, @the-faceless-bride @sarahedwards16, @kenma-izhu, @kkaaaagt, @cassiecasluciluce, @unicorngirly1, @thriving-n-jiving, @squidalapobre, @tallicaside

[darkladylumiya]

Get To Know 10 People Better

Last Song: Cool Schmool by Bratmobile, which I'm listening to as I write this. I've been a fan of riot grrrl music for a while now, but I had to play Gone Home for a class recently and it features a selection of licensed riot grrrl songs including this one, so it's been rattling around my head for a bit since then.

Favorite Color: Purple. When I was much younger it used to be red, and then for a bit it was blue so I could be more like my brother, but now it's purple for sure. Follow-up would have to be black since it's one of the few colors that looks good on me (also I like goth stuff). Funnily enough I am actually red-green colorblind so I don't see red or purple the same as other people which is fun. That also means I get sent colorblindness tests every once in a while by friends as a way of teasing me. Oh yeah also one of the miniatures armies I build and paint have purple and gold as their primary colors, which does add a lot to my enjoyment of them.

Last Book: That would have to be "The Cathars and the Albigensian Crusade: A Sourcebook" edited by Catherine Leglu, Rebecca Rist and Claire Taylor. Research material for the paper I have to write as part of my final this semester. I've not had much time to do reading for myself recently, since basically every class I have and will continue to have will entail a good amount of reading. This is just the most so far because I'm making myself read all of this stuff (I have another nine physical books, three digital ones and a bunch of academic articles that I get to go through because I hate myself or something I guess). It is interesting though and I do like doing the research, it's just also a lot.

Last Movie: You know what? I had to think for a while as to what movie I had last watched, and I think it is in fact High School Musical (I'm 23 I promise please believe me). This time it was the fault of both my wife and her mother-in-law, who I guess decided to entrap me into their plot of watching various children's shows and movies from the 2000s. Idk it was fine, I wouldn't have chosen to watch it of my own volition but it wasn't bad and it was occasionally kinda fun. But yeah. That was something.

Last TV Show: Spectacular Spider-Man at my wife's prompting. We both remember it from our childhood but it also came out in 2008 so it's been a while since we've seen it. Kinda forgot just how much action Peter sees in that show (and how much he fumbles it) for what is an obviously incredibly dorky person. Huh wait maybe that reminds me of someone-

Last thing googled: "Misericorde: Nun Left Alive". A visual novel I'm a big fan of had a post on bluesky (which I'm not on so I saw it reposted on tumblr) where they talk about making a first person shooter as the sequel and conclusion to the series. I of course knew it was a joke, but I did for a moment think there was an actual download link so I guess I did fall for it.

Thing you’re looking forward to: GenCon with my wife and friends. That's gonna be in August though so I still have a while to wait. It was super fun last time though and I'm incredibly excited to do it again!

Current Obsession: I guess that'd have to be Crusader Kings III, specifically the Lord of the Rings mod for it since I spent all of last night playing that instead of responding to this or doing anything actually responsible. What can I say, it was fun.

Random people I won't feel awful tagging (I already know like half these people but still):

@holographic-fur @valashka @jaded-of-mara @darthmaulscatgirl @thejazzywaffles @skitterstepspellslinger @i-eat-worlds

Tagged by @fuscorooni

Get To Know 10 People Better

Last Song: The Hills by Rachel Chinouriri, it's so good, I'm listening to it rn:D

Favorite Color: Red, because I found I just use it a lot and I like how it looks

Last Book: if we're talking comic books it's Magneto: Dark Seduction and if we're talking novels it's. hm. I finished it weeks ago but I still think it's Interview With the Vampire, I don't read books much rn

Last Movie: Mickey 17!!! saw it in theaters, it was awesome

Last TV Show: I don't keep track of when I do things and it's been a while since I've sat down to watch smth so there are three possibilities either Very Important People on Dropout or Make Some Noise on Dropout OR The Gifted which I watched the first episode of ...two weeks ago?

Last thing googled: "when was scarlet witch retconned not to be magneto's daughter'" because I was reading Magneto: Dark Seduction and trying to figure out how long were lorna, pietro and wanda siblings for (I found out lorna was confirmed as magneto's daughter a few years after dark seduction). the retcon happened in 2014 btw so they were all canonically siblings for about 10 years.

Thing you’re looking forward to: the end of june. not because of pride but because of school, I have so many finals and tests that determine a big part of my high school grade in the next 3 months (with the exception of Passover because I have school off then) and I just want to be done with itttt

Current Obsession: I think it's pretty obvious (X-Men<3<3<3) but like. other than that I've been making quizzes on sporcle. idk why it's just fun

No pressure tags:

@thegeekylady52 (my sister who i know well but whatever) @kwxnnxn @jewishpadmenaberrie @slutshartsstuff @the-unmotivaterrrrrrrrrrr @darkladylumiya @implalazz @howdidthisevenhappenanyway @the-real-mcccoy not 10 but idkk

[bentosandbox]

Emperor’s Cypher Challenge TL (kinda)

Browser minigame for CN server (requires login)

In this land where little words are exchanged, one may inadvertently reveal their secrets to the world. Of course, the great Emperor would not make such a simple mistake. CYPHER, a common form of freestyle relay rapping, will now evolve into one of the most popular conversational style that Penguin Logistics employees are forced to use!

Now, serving as a source of inspiration, the Rap God has personally made this game while drunk with infinite enthusiasm, an educational(kinda) game -- EMPEROR’S CYPHER CHALLENGE, now open for limited beta testing!

As a leader of Rhodes Island, Doctor, you know much of the various beings of this land, but will it be enough to cope with your growing business needs and contingencies? Why not try this test and accept the CYPHER Challenge from the emperor!

But please don’t take this too seriously, after all, it is just a game.

--Penguin Logistics is sincerely looking forward to your challenge.

It’s basically kind of like Charades where you guess a character with 1-5 hints After clearing it once, you get access to Hardcore which is extended to all operators but the funny hints are only in the normal mode so I translated some of them (hard mode basically gives you race, faction, place of birth, class, subclass for hints)

The hints usually look like the left but if you get a certain bigshot the UI changes to the right

LGD trio hints -- This is the first time I’ve seen FanCheung and ChaSiu in official media I thought they were just fan nicknames?????? (slang for stupid and useless respectively that they more or less exclusively use for each other I am not joking) I tried asking on Weibo but to no avail either lol)

Lin Yuxia Hints

-Dossoles Ultimate Warrior Champion -Manipulates sand -Member of LUNG wRATh -President of the Lungmen Young Entrepreneurs Association -Person who stepped on a Senior Superintendent of Lungmen -"I'll tell Mom."

I didn’t TL the others because they were mostly stuff you could find from their profiles but there’s also Amiya, Feater, Shaw, Emperor, Wei, Fumizuki, Lee, Waai Fu, Rat King, Sora, Croissant, Texas, Exusiai, Lappland, Bagpipe, Kalt’sit (one of her clues is "W: You old hag!! N-n-n-n-next time, I swear I'm giving you a slow and painful d——”)

[myheelsdontmatchmysweatpants]

A/N: I would like to preface this by letting everyone know that I am in no way knowledgeable about actual science things. That being said I am amazed that in a random draw I actually managed to get a prompt that had to do with flowers lol. This is my contribution to the BakuHarem Collab! Please take a second to check out the other contributions here!

Warning: bad science, no protection, swearing, overs!mulation, accidental exhibti0som, intoxicated smut? idk sex pollen is a drug i guess.....

W/C: 3.5k

“Bakugou, dude. We should not-”

“Shut up Kirishima!” Bakugou walks through the sterile hallways checking every corner for signs of other people. “That bitch took my top spot with some bullshit flowers?!” He finally gets to the lab that was granted to you for your research. After winning first place, stealing first place in the UA university science expo. He walks into the observing lobby, looking through the large window to make sure you weren’t working in the lab after hours.

“Just keep quiet and listen for any one coming this way.” He walks over to the security door and holds his key card up to it, the light on the scanner turns green and he hears the dead bolt slide open.

Kirishima is lingering behind him, hovering in the doorway. He turns to Bakugou to talk him out of this again but his friend has already entered the lab. “Ahh geez.” He didn’t even wear any safety gear.

As the door clicks shut behind him, Bakugou stops to examine the lab. Several different species of flowers in full bloom behind temperature controlled enclosures. Some of them are recognizable; lavender, chamomile, and jasmine. “I thought it would smell like the perfume department, this fuckin place smells like heaven.” Guess it wasn’t a new shampoo she was using then.

He walks through the aisles turning his head this way and that, trying to find something, anything that he can fuck up without it being overtly obvious. He gets to the back corner of the lab and sees a piece of familiar equipment. “Perfect.”

*****

“He said WHAT?!”

Your roommate flinches at your reaction to her news. “He told Professor Aizawa that your ‘Viagra flowers’ are a joke to the science department and they should ‘wither and die’.”

You’re fuming. That fuck tard Bakugou, mister my shit don’t stink is ridiculing my research? “All that man knows is how to blow shit up! Just cause I beat him in the expo this year, he thinks my research is a joke?!” You stand up from the couch, pacing in front of it and you can’t decide whether to scream or cry. “Why did I ever like that twat?”

Cause he has wide shoulders, big hands and scarlet eyes that -

“Oh for the love of god shut up.” Screw your inner thoughts.

Ochako watches you pace, worrying in her eyes when yours line with silver and your neck flushes bright red. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have told you that.”

You stop moving and look at her, guilt flooding through you as she slumps forward. “Don’t apologize, I was talkin to myself babe.” She nods her head weakly and you stand up straight “I’m gonna go.” You walk to the door grabbing your coat and key card.

“W-where are you going?” Ochako follows you to the door and grabs your wrist gently. You turn to her and smile, she was always so sweet but you knew that if shit went down she would be right beside you, kicking ass.

“I need to blow off some steam, so I’m gonna go check on my ‘Viagra flowers’.” She huffs a laugh and let's go.

“Alright, don’t stay too late.”

You nod, put on your shoes and leave the dorm. It’s a bit of a walk to the building the lab is in and hopefully the cool breeze will calm your mind.

*****

As you walk into the building you are grateful that your professor is more of a night owl than most students. Considering how many naps he takes during lectures it is no wonder he can’t sleep at night. You contemplate going to his office to say hi but think better of it.

Don’t wanna end up venting about Bakugou to my professor of all people.

You walk down the hallway and notice the door to your lab is cracked. Not unusual, a lot of students from your class have been coming and going to see the different species of flowers and plants you are growing. Assuming someone didn’t shut the door behind them you take your phone out of your pocket to check the time. Out of the corner of your vision a quick flash of red and you walk right into Kirishima, Bakugou’s friend and one of your classmates.

“Hey! How- how's it goin?”

You take a step back, rubbing your nose from face planting into his giant chest. Does this guy eat boulders for breakfast? “Hey Kiri! Just gonna do some late night tests! You checkin out my garden?”

“Yeah! Flowers are pretty.” He laughs, it’s high pitched and obviously forced.

You take in his nervous appearance, the fact that he is still standing in front of the door and your mood sours.

“Where is he?”

Kirishima looks like he is gonna try and stall but one look at the fury in your eyes and his head hangs down. “He’s in the lab,” you rush past him and punch in the code to open the door. “I tried to talk him out of it!”

The door clicks shut and the spiky blonde huffs in annoyance somewhere in the back of the lab.

“I told you shitty hair, if you’re gonna keep a look out you have to stand outside.”

You clear your throat and his head shoots up. You walk over to him, taking note of all of the plants and equipment, taking note of anything that looks different. As you get closer to him you notice that he smells particularly good tonight.

Keep it in your pants idiot

“Really Bakugou?” You stop a few steps away from him, noticing the various disassembled parts on the counter top behind him. “What were you gonna do, break my extraction equipment and make it look like a malfunction? Are you a B-Movie villain?”

He stands up and you are reminded of how small you feel next to him, wide shoulders, arms barely fitting the t-shirt he was wearing, strong chest that tapers to a toned waist. He laughs and you look at his face. What I wouldn’t give to just lick from your navel to your neck.

“A B-Movie villain huh? That’s rich coming from the fanfiction cliché scientist.” He crosses his arms, your eyes quickly dart to the sight of his biceps flexing with the movement then back at him.

“Fanfiction cliché? What the actual fuck are you talking about?” You take another step towards him, softly inhaling his scent. Why does he smell so good?

He laughs at you again, the sound caresses your skin and you realize your feeling very, very hot. You drag your fingers through your hair, your eyes zeroing in on a bead of sweat running down the side of his face. When you lick your lips and shift to take another step closer a small part of your brain connects the dots. “What. Did. You. Do?”

Bakugou looks at you, noticing your flushed cheeks and eyes that show you aren’t quite your normal smart and sexy self. Reaching behind himself you hear the unmistakable sound of clinking glass, he grabs a beaker, an open beaker. “Just grabbed this from your equipment, I know how long it takes to extract this stuff. Would suck if it were to suddenly go missing.”

“You idiot! Do you know how potent it is in that form?!” You reach for it but he pulls the beaker out of your reach. “Why do you think I keep it enclosed? You have to close it up now!”

“Why should I?”

Honestly how stupid can this guy get?!

“Put it back in the enclosure first and I’ll explain it to you!” Your breathing is getting heavy, the closer you get to Bakugou the hotter your body feels. You lunge for him again and trip, he hurries to put the beaker on the table behind him and catch you. Put off balance from the position you both crash to the floor with him underneath you. Sighing in frustration you lift yourself up only to bump your head on the table, knocking over the beaker and spilling the extract over you both.

“Shit!” You scramble off of him and run to the door, pressing the exposure button and effectively locking it. You turn to Bakugou and back up trying your best to keep your distance. “Stay on that side of the room, if we’re far enough apart the effects won’t be as bad.”

“What are the effects?” The question is spoken so calmly that you almost convince yourself he didn’t speak at all.

“What are the fucking side effects!?” His shirt is soaked, sticking to his tanned skin. The outline of his chiseled body makes your mouth go dry. You look back at his face, his mouth twisted in frustration at your silence but no less attractive. The sharp angle of his jawline, pink lips slightly chapped, aristocratic nose, scarlet eyes that-

“Take a picture, it'll last longer.” Shaking your head to clear some of the fog in your brain, you focus on him again.

“It’s an aphrodisiac so obviously it enhances sexual desire.”

“Yeah-yeah, sex pollen I get it. But what else?” he rings out the bottom of his shirt, lifting it slightly and you avert your eyes.

“It is not sex pollen, I don’t even use the pollen of the plant.” the last part coming out in a mumble. “The aphrodisiac only works on people who are consenting adults that are attracted to each other.” You clear your throat.

Bakugou freezes for a moment and looks up at you, examining you. The flushed skin, short breaths, and how you keep as much distance between the two of you as the small lab provides.

“So why are you so far away then?” The smirk on his face is sinful as all hell.

Cheeky bastard.

“Surely I don’t have to spell it out for you.” Resisting the urge to turn your face away from him like a pouty child..

“HA!” The smug look on his face momentarily lifts the cloud of lust and replaces it with anger. “Of course you’re attracted to me, who wouldn’t be?”

“Well, aren't you a cocky bastard?” Hoping you're not about to embarrass yourself you take a chance and muster up some courage. Slowly walking up to him you notice that his forehead is glistening with sweat, his breathing heavy, ears and back of his neck flushed with pink. “Tell me, Katsuki. How are you feeling?”

A few steps and you can see his hands balled up in white knuckled fists, a few more his jaw clench and unclench. Once you are only an arms length away you can see him swallow harshly, Adam's apple bobbing, nostrils flaring. You push your breasts against his toned chest, the light friction causing a moan to escape your mouth, the sound going straight to his cock.

“I’m - I’m fine.” Bakugou clears his throat, the sound of his first name from your lips sweeter than it should be.

“Lookin a little flushed, you feeling hot?”

He doesn’t answer, his attention captured by the closeness of your body, your lips, the tops of your breasts peeking out of the v neck top you’re wearing.. He stops breathing when your tongue flicks out to lick your bottom lip.

“Cat got your tongue?”

On impulse his hands move to rest on your hips, eyes never leaving your lips. “What was the question again?”

“How. Are. You. Feeling.” you walk your fingers up his chest with each word before pulling his head down so you can whisper in his ear, the anger fading fast. “Katsuki.” You hear him growl, the sound reverberating through your core, then you're being picked up.

“I’m gonna ruin you.” Bakugou crashes his lips to yours, pressing you up against one of the walls and bracing you with one hand so that the other can wrap around your throat. “Fuck, you drive me crazy.” He bites your lip, licking it to soothe the hurt. “Smart, funny, sexy, beautiful.”

You whine at the words and grind against the bulge in his pants, your pussy throbbing with need. “Need to feel you touch me Bakugou.” He stops moving and you shift to try and grind against him again but he holds you tight, slightly squeezing the sides of your neck.

“What happened to calling me by my first name, baby girl?” Loosening his hand and crouching down as if to put you down you sputter out “Kat-Katsuki Please touch me.”

The feral grin on his face has your pussy drooling and you all but sigh in relief when he stands up straight and slips a hand under your shirt, cupping one of your breasts. “Oh god yes.”

“You’re so soft baby,” he pulls one of the cups down and rolls your nipple in between his fingers. “Take off your shirt, wanna see those pretty tits.”

Katsuki keeps playing with your nipple when you rip your shirt off, making short work of your bra and tossing it. As soon as the other nipple is in view he dives down to suckle it, his mouth hot. You throw your head back, grabbing fistfuls of his hair and pushing your chest out to give him better access.

He is merciless in his teasing, alternating between breasts, making sure to suck each nipple till they are both hard peaks. Kissing the top of your soft globes, your collarbone and neck, everywhere his mouth goes is left with a mark in varying shades of red and purple.

You grow impatient with him, needing to make him feel as good wanting to feel him with your hands, mouth, teeth.

“Wanna feel you too Katsuki.” you whine as he pinches one nipple while nibbling the other one. When you pull on his hair a little he groans but lifts his head, pulling both nipples with him before letting them go.

“What do ya wanna feel, baby girl?”

With all your inhibitions throw out the window you lean down and whisper in his ear. “Wanna feel you fuck me.”

You pull away and he quickly sets you down, you’re about to object when he takes his shirt off in one smooth motion then starts unbuttoning his jeans. You rush to follow, unzipping your pants and pulling them down, before you can pull down your panties he grabs your hand stopping you. “Leave ‘m on.”

Katsuki picks you up again before you can get a good look at his cock, but when it's pressed against you there is no need to see it. “Fuck you��re huge.”

He smirks at you, smug pride in his eyes. “Glad you approve.” Reaching a hand down he pulls your panties to the side and runs his fingers through your wet folds. “This all for me?” bringing his fingers up to show you the slick dripping down them he puts them in his mouth and sucks. “Gonna have to enjoy that tasty treat later.”

Your body is burning up, breathing is heavy as you both watch him drag his cock along your wet slit before pushing in. Your moans echo in the lab and neither one of you cares as Katsuki's cock drags against your inner walls until bottoming out. Right now is not the time for slow strokes, not with the aphrodisiac flowing through both of your bodies, so he starts a pace that has your ass slapping against his thighs.

“C-cumming!” You scream out before your body bows in on itself and you're creaming around his cock.

“Already?” a sideways grin on his face Katsuki starts moving you up and down in time with his thrusts, his cock reaching that much deeper. “Gonna cum for me again? Come on baby, wanna feel you milk my cock.”

Your mind is going blank, the only thing running through it is Katsuki. “Please don’t stop,” you dig your nails into his shoulders. “M Gonna cum again.” His thrusts go shallow and the head of his cock drags against your walls, hitting all the right spots.

You’re repeating his name endlessly, the only word that is in your mind then you’re cumming again. Your legs tense around his waist and your pussy clenches down hard enough that he has to stop moving or risk hurting you. He watches your face contorted in pleasure and starts thrusting as soon as he feels your orgasm subside.

“One more.”

Your head fuzzy, body limp from two orgasms. “I can’t!”

“Wrong,” Katsuki pulls out for a second, setting you on the floor and pushing on your back. You obediently bend forward grabbing the edge of the counter top and he wastes no time in rutting back into you. “You want me to stop?”

“NO”

“Then you got one more beautiful thing.” He sticks two fingers in his mouth, getting them wet then reaches around rubbing soft circles on your puffy clit. His other hand gripping your hip, before moving up and grabbing your shoulder using it as leverage to fuck into you harder.

“Come on, cum for me.”

You turn your head to the side trying your best to look in his eyes, yours tearing up at the overstimulation. “You cum too, fill me up Katsuki.”

“Oh fuck yeah.” Bending his knees he thrusts up into you and with the new angle, teasing circles being rubbed on your clit and the feral moans coming out of his mouth you cum one last time.

Fuckfuckfuckfuck

Katsuki cums after you, rope after rope of cum coating your fluttering walls.

You both stand there catching your breath. Katsuki pulls out and you whimper, “Oh don’t worry beautiful,” he picks you up again, walks over to a chair and sits down with you in his lap “not done with you yet.”

By the time you are spent both of you are exhausted and lost track of how many times either of you came. He helps you stand up, quickly pulling your panties back in place. “Don’t want you leakin.”

You giggle and pick up your clothes from the floor, he helps you get dressed and you both walk to the door. Making sure to check the air quality before leaving the lab you confirm that nothing is left in the air and unlock it. Before opening the door you turn to him opening your mouth to ask a question but he talks first.

“Let's go back to my room, yeah? I’ll help you clean up.” His voice rough from moaning and growling but you can see a small smile on his lips. Even though you know that the effects of the extract have worn off you can’t help but worry that he is still under their influence. Nodding your head you turn away from him again and open the door, walking into the lobby.

“I assume you're finished with the lab?”

You stop dead in your tracks, Katsuki bumping into you. “P-professor Aizawa?” Red hair peeks out behind him and Kirishima looks at you both with a nervous sharp toothed smile and red face. The fog of your memory clears and you vaguely remember hearing knocking on the window and door while you were… indisposed.

Katsuki steps in front of you, from the lack of red on his face or neck you know he isn’t nearly as mortified as you. “How long have you been standing there?”

The tired eyes of your teacher examine both of you. “Long enough.” He sighs heavily and pinches the bridge of his nose. “You are both to meet me in my office tomorrow morning.”

And just before you can’t get anymore embarrassed he walks out and says over his shoulder. “The labs aren’t sound proof, and these walls echo.”

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