#anyway comments always appreciated

[laddertek]

etho said actually you _don't_ understand the intricacies of how tango is my boyfriend and bdubs is my ex

(and how tango and bdubs kiss too)

Scar: We went on that little adventure, you know! Etho: Yeah, yeah, we had our adventure, that's true, that's true. Scar: You disparaged your teammates. That's it, all right, no more spoilers. Etho: (laughs) Our team has -- our team has some weird dynamics this -- this season. Cleo: (overlapping) Really, Etho? Is there trouble in paradise? (pause) Who's third-wheeling with you, again? I can't remember. Etho: (laughs) Uhh. The -- Cleo: Genuinely can't remember. I know it's you and Bdubs. And...Tango? Tango. Tango. Etho: (loudly) Why -- Why is Tango the third wheel? Why -- why isn't Bdubs the third wheel? Cleo: Because it's you and Bdubs. I'm sorry. I understand how that relationship goes. Etho: (dissatisfied) Hmm.

[monikatouhou]

Ran Yakumo Simulator 2023

[CORE_SOUL: On]

You are nowhere. There is nothing.

In truth, you are likely in your body, hopefully where you last left it, but you cannot tell at this time.

[DIVINATION_MODULE_v3.5: On] - It will take eight minutes to gain visual input in the right eye. It will take an hour and five minutes for [AUX_AUDIT_PROC_v9] to come online. Heat a tortoise shell and observe the cracks for more information.

You are glad Lady Yukari made it so that this is what typically comes online first. It usually gives you something to look forward to. Though it would perhaps be nicer to be able to see or move first. However, you know from experience that these are some of the more difficult parts of a shikigami to make work.

[CHEN_CONNECTION_v12: On] - She is fast asleep. No further information.

This is the only part of yourself that you made largely on your own. Naturally, it is the least functional. It was worse in the past though.

[...]

[ROCK_GAP_SIMULACRUM: On]

In place of this there used to be a gap connection to the outside world. Lady Yukari called it a "Load Bearing Coconut", even though it was clearly connected to a rock. However, it apparently shattered last year, which of course caused practically everything to either malfunction or break completely. This is a replacement she made. This increased loading time, as did all the previous band-aid fixes over the last several centuries.

[...]

[OLD_REPURPOSED_MODULE_(REPLACE_THIS): On]

[SENSE_INPUT_BUS: On]

[SMELL: On]

[VISION_R: On]

The left eye for some reason always takes at least a few more minutes to come online. Lady Yukari has not been able to explain why that is to you.

You know that you are in fact in your room, and you know that eight minutes have passed. Little you can do with this information for now, since you still cannot move.

You should change your duvet cover later today. This one needs to be washed.

[PROPRIOCEPTION: On]

[TASTE: On]

[SOMATOSENSORY: On]

Your eyes are very dry, much like every morning. They open automatically when you first awake, but you can only blink voluntarily. Not an urgent fix, since this cannot cause you any damage, it's just unpleasant.

[FIXUPS_v3: On]

For the time being, you are stuck staring at the ceiling. Yukari told you once that body motion and eye motion are controlled largely separately in humans, but this is not the case in your body. You cannot move your eyes until the bodily output bus comes online.

[...]

[FIXUPS_B_v5.5: On]

[MOTOR_CONTROL_CORE_v4: On]

This part will help you coordinate your movements once you are able to move.

[FIXUPS_C_v4: On]

[MOTORICS_STABILISER_v2: On]

[...]

[BODILY_OUTPUT_BUS: On]

[GAP: On]

At long last. You blink and rub your eyes in an attempt to get rid of the dryness. You finally sit up. You get up from your bed.

What is this gap for, in any case?

You should probably start going about your day.

You look around your room for what might be your hairbrush. None of your visual processing modules are on yet, and so identifying objects is difficult. Also, your left eye is taking a while to start working. Nevertheless you find what you figure is a brush - it is about the correct lenght, has one thinner part that may be a handle, and a wider part bearing what might be the hairs. Using the same memorized motions you've used for centuries, you brush your hair.

Maybe you should leave your room. Might be good to try to cook something, or if your object identification processing module isn't on yet by then, maybe get a drink.

You walk towards what seems like a door. You look over it to make sure it is not your closet door. The shape of the handle seems right for the one you are looking for, so you start walking towards it.

[FIXUP_OVERHAUL_v0.99: On]

Suffering a momentary lapse of consciousness, you crash right into the door, and fall onto the floor.

This was an attempt of Lady Yukari's to eventually replace all the overly big "fixup" modules with some more streamlined implementation. This giant module, currently attached somewhere around the other fixup and motorics modules, is the result. Frankly, you would be better off without it.

You get back up and open the door.

[VISION_L: On]

[SPEECH_MOTORICS_v2: On]

Took a while. You walk out of your room and head to the kitchen, using your mental map of the house, walking carefully, since your ability to notice obstacles by sight is still impaired.

You enter what you're fairly sure is the kitchen. Probably best you do not cook just yet. You remember Yukari recently purchased some outside world drink. You could try that, to pass the time.

It is bottled, so you look for a bottle, and a glass to pour the drink into. You find objects identifiable as such.

You pour yourself a glass. Isn't this smell strange? You take a sip..

You spit it out. This is vinegar. This was not the right bottle.

[AUX_VISUAL_PROC_OBJECTS_IDENT_v4: On]

This would have been very useful a few seconds ago.

[STAR_MAP_HD: On]

[CLOCK: On] - It is 7:21:30.2912 am

You are unsure what the star chart is for, and every time you asked Yukari, she just chuckled and refused to answer.

You hear a sound behind you in the kitchen. Laughter?

You look in the direction of the sound. The source of it is some sort of person. You cannot tell apart faces yet, but they are wearing one of Yukari's dresses and have blond hair, and so you easily conclude this is probably Lady Yukari.

YAKUMO YUKARI - [Unintelligible]

You cannot yet process speech, so you don't know what she is saying.

YOU - "I'm sorry, Lady Yukari. My auditory processor is not on yet, and so I cannot understand you."

The person you presumed is Lady Yukari laughs again.

You sigh.

You used to be able to do a lot of this processing with the core soul alone, didn't you? Has your core just lost its functions, as it could rely on all the auxiliary processors?

Not that it matters.

You come back to the stove to cook breakfast for yourself, Lady Yukari and Chen. By the time you are done, most modules should be on.

[exdeputysonso]

“You got a stupid smile you know that pal?” MISSISSIPPI BURNING (1988)

[marimbles]

It seems to be pretty well established that most fanfic authors don’t mind when readers leave comments on old fics and in fact welcome it. But what about authors replying to old comments?

Do readers care in general whether an author replies? Is it expected and seen as rude if they don’t? Is it nice when they do but not expected? Is there a time limit to the welcomeness of replies? Like is it nice if they respond within a few weeks but if it’s been months or years it feels awkward because you don’t remember the fic anymore? I’m curious!

[its-all-papaya]

The “not champion mentality” is honestly one of the worst to me.

Bc if we break this down, this is people saying that if you struggle with self confidence, self doubt, mental health or anxiety then you’re not capable of achieving success.

It’s such a dangerous and toxic message that people don’t realize is hurting a lot more people than just Lando. (Bc lets be so fr these aren’t opinions, these are comments meant to hurt and hate)

And as a Rosberg fan back in the day, I KNOW how bad that man’s mental health was when he won his WDC. He pushed through that self doubt, anxiety, mental health issues and he still won. He’s living proof that there is no perfect/specific “champion mentality.”

I absolutely understand your struggle with the F1 community/people online rn. I’ve felt the same way today. (And many other days). I’ve been a fan since I was a kid, it’s been rough watching fans become nothing more than a herd mentality of hate and toxicity. It’s exhausting honestly and I’ve been so close to stopping watching the sport entirely bc it felt so miserable at times.

But I’m grateful for people like you bc you make it a positive place to be. You don’t contribute to hate, you don’t trash teams or drivers you don’t like, instead you support your team, write fics and create a positive environment for so many people. You have no idea how much of an impact that can make. It’s rough out there but I’m glad we got good ones like you.

(You absolutely can ignore this, Ik you were hoping to move on/forget about this negative online stuff, your post just had me thinking and ranting so I thought I’d give my own input lol)

(I really am incapable of sending a normal sized message aren’t I?) -og

yeah, no, i mean the reason i crash out about lando is because i identify with him so much in moments of failure/non-perfection. like the WHOLE original inspo for anybody, nowhere were his comments after silverstone, as i've said before, but more specifically the horrible mental place that i'm familiar with where you're trying SO HARD to figure out where to assign blame, and it feels like a knife's edge between "all me" or "all others." and no matter what lando says, it's the wrong amount of one or the other for people. if he says the car's difficult it's "if i was in woking i'd hate him" and if he says it's himself making mistakes it's "not a champion mentality." and in moments of high stress and intense emotions, like straight after a botched qualifying, it's nearly impossible to remove yourself from a situation enough to make sound determinations about what went wrong where and who's to "blame" for it (which. whatever on that word but.) and so i am IN HIS WALLS in those moments where it feels easiest, optically, to blame yourself entirely. because then the worst thing people can say about you is "he's too hard on himself" and not "he won't accept his own faults" or "he's making excuses," which both feel morally worse.

the other irritating thing to me about it all is that self-confidence is not usually something you can just pull out of fucking nowhere, especially if you're already struggling with it. like if you're told to be more confident and then picked apart and smeared at every turn, how the fuck are you going to do that? like sure, therapy, your loved ones, etc, but it's the people saying you're not confident originally who you're trying to "prove" yourself to, and they're the ones making it impossible. as you say, it's the narrative that if you don't handle negative emotion in the "right" way, it's a moral or competitive failing. you're lesser, you're a burden, you're "stealing" resources or a seat or a "rocket ship" from someone who "deserves it more" just because they're a more outwardly confident person. and by the way, if you let any of that shit that people are implying or outright saying get to you - if you even acknowledge it - that's your fault, too. basically, it's really hard to perform under the pressure of everybody hoping you'll fail, and it's even harder never to reveal outwardly how that's affecting you as a person.

i think i suffer a lot from projecting on lando and then internalizing things people say about him because of that, but i also don't think i'm alone in that, as you say. "mental health" is such a buzzword to everybody that it literally means nothing to most people in practice.

at the end of the day, i know lando's got a really, really good and solid support system and i know he'll be fine and it's early in the season. but it's so hard to watch people i know and i'm friends with make jokes about this to me because it's like what are you saying about me to other people, then? because nothing lando's said today or ever after a disappointing result is remarkably different than things i've said about my own job and my own self over the last ten months. just demoralizing.

anyway, i appreciate you saying that last bit, because a lot of the time i don't FEEL like i'm being very positive here. and to be clear, when i'm frustrated about f1 fans, it's very, very rarely a tumblr issue. as much as rpf is funny and fake and a game for us, i do think it does work to humanize drivers in a lot of ways. i like interacting with fans of all drivers, i just can't stand how every one of lando's mistakes feels quadrupled to me because i know there are people (on twitter mainly, as well as my irl friends) who are going to make it into more than it is to feed their narratives.

sometimes a man is suffering with a car just because he is. if it ended with that, i'd be handling this way better.

[ferronite]

On Faded Gold and Starless Skies

Chapter 1: A Mission Is Given

(A/N: sorry if this one's a bit less... eventful? Gotta get through the Exposition, or... smth. some of the details here might change later down the line, I'm not sure.)

<- Prologue Next Chapter ->

I woke up to the sound of knocking on the door of my room. As I sat up with an irritable sigh, I heard footsteps echoing down the hallway – evidently whoever knocked did so just for the sake of waking me up. There was probably a reason for it, so I reached over to check my phone, and sure enough; there was a message from one of the higher-ups asking me to meet them in an hour. I doubted it’d be anything important – I didn’t really hold a major role in the company, after all (and if I had before, well… doesn’t matter now.) - but if the higher-ups call for you, you can’t really refuse them.

When I opened the door to the meeting room, I was surprised to see that it was completely empty; though, I had arrived slightly early. So I chose a seat at the table (not at the head, of course – I wouldn’t dare do that) and sat down to wait.

Just as I was beginning to worry that I’d got the wrong room despite checking the message seven times on the way up, the door swung open and someone walked in. The higher-ups at Limbus Company are pretty mysterious – most people don’t even know their job titles, let alone their names – but they all carry a distinct commanding presence with them, and this person was no exception. They didn’t so much as glance at me as they strode across the room until they had taken the seat opposite me and placed their briefcase on the table.

“You made it here early, I see. That makes things easier.”

I didn’t reply – they weren’t expecting me to.

“I presume you’re wondering why you were called here. You can rest assured that this meeting is not due to any improper conduct, and is instead because we have a… request for you.”

A… request? That seemed rather unlikely, but they left no room for rebuttal, instead continuing:

“You will have heard by now that the LCB has been dispatched, led by the individual known as Dante, to gather objects known as Golden Boughs from the remnants of Lobotomy Corporation’s branches.”

I had, in fact, heard about this – the Mephistopheles had left HQ at the start of last week, with confirmation that they’d located the Executive Manager coming through a few days later. The news had apparently come through at night, but by morning pretty much everyone who was in HQ was talking about it. I couldn’t really see what this had to do with me, though.

“However, we believe there to be more, lesser Golden Boughs across the City that the Bus Department will be unable to collect, for various reasons. These additional Boughs are not vital to the success of our plan, but they could cause issues for us if they were to fall into the wrong hands.”

Extra Boughs? That seemed somewhat odd, honestly. If they weren’t vital, but could still be a threat, why not just get the Bus Department to collect them at some point? It is their job, after all – it would make more sense to just add these lesser Boughs to their journey. What reasons could there be that would make them unable to do that?

“It is for this reason that we have gathered six additional suitable individuals in order to create the Support Department, whose mission will be to gather these additional Golden Boughs and return them to HQ - or if necessary, the Mephistopheles – in order to support and secure the mission of the Bus Department. However, this team is still lacking an Executive Manager.”

Wait a second. They couldn’t be saying-

“And that’s why we called for you this morning. We believe you to be a suitable candidate for this role.”

What.

…Apparently I had said that part out loud, as they stared at me briefly and cleared their throat as a sharp digital tone faded out.

“If you have any questions, please ask them now. We do hope you will accept this request.”

Well, that’s their way of saying that you have no choice in the matter, so… I figured I might as well ask the main question that was on my mind.

[Why-]

I was cut off by a sheet of paper being pushed towards me.

“In writing, if you don’t mind.”

…oh, right. How could I forget.

I fished a pen out of my pocket, and started to write.

“Why was I deemed suitable for this role? As far as I was aware, I’d failed the testing process previously.”

(A scathing judgement. A dark, featureless sky. Falling into the endless abyss. Panicked shouts, warped and buried beneath the frenzied ticking of a clock. A sudden, sharp pain.)

“Whilst it is true that you were not found to be suitable during the initial trial, you only failed a single test. This failure is what made you unable to take up the planned role. However, due to the nature of the objective of the Support Department, the results of that test are irrelevant to this new suggested role. Your performance throughout the rest of the trial, therefore, makes you perfectly suited for the position.”

“But I am no longer in possession of the equipment that was being tested. Do I even have the correct abilities for this anymore?”

“The replacement you were given after your failure is a prototype, and as such has most of the same basic functions as the finished model. Though it is missing some of the more advanced features, that shouldn’t prove an issue for this purpose.”

Huh. I didn’t know that – I figured they’d just given me some generic replacement after I failed.

“Any further questions?”

I just shook my head.

“Then I will state once more: we wish for you to head the LCS in its mission to retrieve the lesser Boughs that have been located across the City. Will you accept this position?”

They left no room for a refusal.

“Yes. I will.”

Some of the tension seemed to drain from the room.

“As expected. In that case, I will provide you with some relevant material.”

From their briefcase, they pulled out a small stack of files and what looked to be a pile of fabric, which they slid across the table towards me.

“These files contain the information you will need to know in relation to the six others assigned to your department, along with more details on your role and objective. We have also provided you with a uniform – you will be expected to wear it and keep it in good condition so as to maintain a positive image for the company. You will also be expected to attend another meeting tomorrow, where you will receive your full briefing. Whilst you will not be required to go through the trial procedure a second time, you may – if you wish – request testing for certain functionalities if you believe you will need it.

“Do you have any further questions?”

They nodded in response to the quiet shake of my head, closing their briefcase with a snap.

“Thank you for your compliance. You are dismissed.”

My mind was racing as I walked through the corridors, and yet I couldn’t discern a single thought. When I got to my room, the door clicked shut behind me, and I collapsed onto my bed with a sigh, quiet static crackling through the air.

After a while, I figured I should look at the things I’d been given at the end of the meeting. I picked the uniform up off of the pile, and started to unfold it. Most of it was nothing special – but when I took a closer look at the dark blue overcoat, I noticed something written on it.

“Eris”

…Looks like I was right about not having a choice in this.

I carefully re-folded everything and put it to the side, instead picking up the files that I’d left underneath. Flicking through them, I skimmed their contents, faces staring blankly up at me from their photographs.

A Wing employee, a teacher-turned-informant, a widow, a Syndicate member, a Fixer, and one file whose background was simply listed as “unknown”. The files contained details on all of them, from their previous affiliations to the District they were found in. I returned to the first, determined to read each one carefully – this information was sure to be useful, after all, though there seemed to be many areas that had been redacted.

When I finally fell asleep, I dreamed of a hooded figure smiling under a featureless sky.

[faaun]

said goodbye to him feeling weird!

[miitopiaenjoyer]

Dread!!! :D

Realized I hadn't posted them here before, which is criminal. So, I wanted to show them some appreciation!

And of course, my method of doing that is John Hugs. :)

Here are a couple posts which particularly inspired my design for them!

https://www.tumblr.com/spicey-trash/666590940606136320/anyways-heres-a-cool-picture-of-dread-i-did-by?source=share

https://www.tumblr.com/nameless-sketches/667583793175068672/dread-my-favorite-angst-filled-club-suit-angel?source=share

[kit-screams-into-the-future]

IS WEREDOC A BORZOI? LMAO

GJBKGBJKGJK. we love reading comprehension :tada::tada: good to know you didn't even need to read the tags to see it

i'm glad you see the vision. tall, long face, shaggy white hair, a general aura of wetness,

[likeabxrdinflight]

...I should be editing my dissertation but now I'm thinking about how both Azula and Katara are perhaps the most "adultified" of the atla characters and...hmm. Interesting.

[cpunkhobie]

sometimes i realize im more popular than some of my favorite artists but only on tumblr so it basically doesnt matter

[asterparfait]

ONCE AGAIN AT THE END OF A YEAR WOAAHhhGgh

[lilflowerpot]

Hi! Hope ur well, just wondering how the galra would feel about ivf and surrogate mothers and such things.

Also, would diabazaal have had any other religious groups or did they have one decided belief

I've actually addressed both Imperial surrogacy, and the Empire's major religious groups (along with a follow-up regarding various funerary rites) before!

I know my blog has rather a lot to comb through at this point, but for those of you not in the know, I //am// a meticulous tagger, so you can notably narrow down my posts to just the worldbuilding ones if you take a gander at #galra history & culture!

[rickybaby]

Daniel and Franz in the garage ahead of FP1 (Photo by Rudy Carezzevoli/Getty Images)

[lemongogo]

[seventh-district]

again and again i find myself lamenting that audio roleplay isn't taken more seriously by some people. like yeah, they often have a romantic element, and by nature they usually directly involve/address the listener- and i totally get that those things aren't to everyone's taste. no art or entertainment is universally appealing, and that's okay! but.. it still makes me a lil sad that the "cringe" reputation of asmr/audio rp precedes it. there's a whole lot of talent and creativity being poured into these audios by so many people that i feel goes unrecognized and/or disrespected simply due to the medium that the stories are being told through.