#anyway. as an Adult Technology Professional

[minevn]

Haruto's new ref is finished!!

I kept his hair mostly the same, just made the bang symmetrical. His hair color also leans more towards red then it did before without being completely red, I did this cause I wanted his and Kage's hair to be closer to the same color. I also made the his eyes more green to compliment the reddish tones on him. I gave him freckles. I also made his eyes less doe-like but still doe eyes. And then obviously I changed his clothes. I imagine him wearing more neutral colors to appear more mature but he still likes to add those pops of color. I also didn't want to get rid of the green in his original design so I added it as accent colors and based his date outfit roughly on his original(Mainly the color). I also gave him a heart locket, on one side is a picture of you, and on the other is a picture of Kage and their mom. He has this in every outfit but sometimes he tucks it in. He also likes wearing layered clothing so if you ever get cold he can offer you his jacket/sweater/blazer. His personality got a minor update as well! I wanted him to seem more relaxed and calm with you and rather then getting smug outwardly when he see's others getting jealous that he gets to touch you so carefree(Which sometimes he enjoyed touching you to get a reaction out of the others), he just generally touches you without trying to make others jealous(he still can't help the smugness he feels when he see's them jealous though) I'd say his Yandere-ness got toned down, just a bit, and really only around you. Before, Haruto seemed ballsy with his yandere tendencies and I think he'd be more careful. He's more accepting of Aki and Kage, he still feels betrayed when he finds out they like you, but he still won't do anything and might even help them, just a little. All in all though I feel like he'd think of it as a little competition between you three on who wins and no matter what the outcome is, he still cares about them. I'd say he's a lot more closed off now but the friends he made as a child he's close to them and holds them dear to his heart, it's just a bit harder to make friends as an adult and he prefers to keep things professional, but he doesn't mind most people. He also doesn't mind other people as much, but he still doesn't like seeing others get closer to you, that being said he still despises Kei's guts. I also wanted to add more humor onto him, like he cracks stupid jokes with the mc, but he has a very good balance between personal life and work life.

Anyways, some more general info!

Height: 5'8 or 172.7cm

Birthday: 6/15

Likes: You, his friends and family, technology, cleaning, schedules, having you rely on him, animals(he has a love hate relationship with more messy animals though, on one end he hates the mess, on the other he likes cleaning and finds it relaxing), learning new things, jokes

Dislikes: Insects, messes, arrogant and incompetent people, people getting too close to you, having to do his hair for work, having his neck feel restricted(ex: his work tie and collar buttons, he loosens them every break and after work almost instantly. The necklace is fine though since it's not tight :3), KEI

Family: Mother(deceased), Father(who knows where he is?), Kage(younger brother :))

Signature Color: Orange

Extra: He also has a pair of reading glasses!! He's gotten bad eyesight from staying up late and studying.

[anonymouspuzzler]

Hey, Puzz— hey!! Look OVER hERE

Get QUESTION GAUNTLET'D! ! !

• Between Buck and Davey, who's the neat freak and the messy partner of the relationship (or like. Who is. The one who. Cleans often while the other makes a mess lol)?

• How does the trio personally unwind after a long day of work?

• What's their favourite chores if they like doing em?

• Who would be most likely to get excited abt buying new sponges and dishwashing soap...... (I personally am very guilty of this LMAOOO)

• Who is most likely to impulsively buy. Things?

• Does any of the trio collect things? Ik Minnie likes animals a lot but I'm talking more of. Trinkets and stuff. And if so, what would they usually collect? (Can they show me..... /Nf)

Found myself suddenly thinking of domestic fluff for your OCs while I was washing dishes woops ehehehe. I'm also a sucker for. The mundane and the sweet little things that can happen during that 👍

THE BLORBOS FRO MY HEAD HAVE INVADED YOURS AND NOW I GET TO REAP THE BENEFITS BY TALKING ABOUT THEM ON PURPOSE!!! HAHAHA YIPEEEEEEEEEEE

Generally speaking, Buck's the neat freak of the two - Davey isn't exactly a mess by any means, but he's pretty laid-back about stuff, whereas Buck likes things A Certain Way and spends a lot of his free time on chores and tidying stuff up. (It's exactly the opposite in their workspace, though. Davey's Actually Professionally Trained and tends to try and keep tools and supplies properly cared for and sorted and such, and their tech and whatnot maintained as professionally as he can manage, whereas Buck is full. yeah yeah just slap some duct tape on that bad boy. put another fan down there to deal with that thing that keeps spewing smoke. it's fine. don't be a baby about it)

Davey's big on just putting something on TV or playing video games to unwind, as is Minnie. Buck kind of does the same, but he's more about just kind of sitting back and having something making noise in the background vs. actively watching or doing something, if that makes sense. Minnie also enjoys doing some reading (as does Buck on occasion, but to a much lesser extent, and not usually after he's been working and is already exhausted), and Davey will occasionally take a jog to wind down if he's got the energy to spare. (Buck and Davey are also big on some good ol' fashioned post-work Casual Physical Affection, but less so now that Minnie's living with them. They Will Not Be Making Out In Front Of Their Niece Actually)

Buck, despite complaining, actually generally likes most if not all chores. He likes getting his living spaces Clean and In Order! Davey and Minnie, by contrast, are pretty ambivalent at best to chores - I don't think there's any they'd say they "like." (Secretly Minnie's come to enjoy helping to keep the workshop clean, though.)

Buck. One Hundred Percent Buck. Davey and Minnie Do Not Understand but like Davey at least is happy his boyfriend's happy.

They all have their weaknesses for this, with asterisks - Minnie's both an impulsive shithead 13 year old and actually Very Recently comes from a background where she Could just kind of buy whatever without consequences, so in that respect she's the most likely. Davey, meanwhile, likes little useless trinkets and such and can be a little bit driven by impulse on occasion, but 1) he's a reasonable adult who has learned, sometimes the hard way, that he doesn't need and shouldn't have everything that briefly strikes his fancy, and 2) if he decides he wants it anyway he's a supervillain he's just gonna steal it. he don't have money lmao. Buck is the least likely EXCEPT that he's very susceptible to like... dark pattern type marketing-slash-game things? What I'm trying to say is Buck spent a lot of money on Cookie Run until Davey got it off his phone and password locked the app store

Davey collects video games! especially older ones he played growing up. He's also got a soft spot for weird old technology in general, but doesn't actively seek it out so much, though occasionally Buck or someone like the Junkyard Queens'll gift him something they find along those lines. Speaking of I guess technically Buck collects junk and scrap and such to tinker with. Like i Guess that counts

[sage-nebula]

when it comes to you, the one i remember most fondly is that one oneshot you did of future jou and his job as a radio broadcaster! it's such a fun snapshot into a lively future where jou really is making a name for himself and carving out his niche!!!

Sorry I'm replying to this so late! And oooh, thank you!!

I will admit: I was partially inspired to give Jounouchi the future career as a radio host because I was really into Welcome to Night Vale at the time, and the way Cecil both delivered news while also rambling on air about his personal life was something that I both enjoyed and something I could see Jounouchi doing. Let's be honest: the boy has the gift of gab. He is 100% the type who can talk, and talk, and talk, and if ever taken hostage by someone who couldn't put him under mind control (even if that mind control ultimately didn't last) would annoy his captor to death by never shutting up. Putting him in a career path where he then needs to be comfortable talking endlessly seems like a natural fit, then, at least in my opinion. Plus, radio hosts get plenty of opportunity to meet musicians, get news first about up and coming things (which in the world of YGO is very game-centric), et cetera, which also fits into Jounouchi's sphere of interest since he loves being on the central pulse of what's hot and new so that he can share it with everyone and also know about it himself.

In addition to all of that, I've always disliked the idea that he'd be a "professional duelist" for a few reasons. First, maybe it's just me being a killjoy adult, but I just don't see "professional Duel Monsters player" being something someone could make a career out of, especially in the world of the manga where it's not something that takes over the entire world the way it does in the anime. There are a grand total of two tournaments in the manga, each spanning two days. That does not a career make.

In addition, for Jounouchi specifically, it amounts to gambling. And while I understand that his deck does have a gambling theme because he's a lucky boy, remember that his abusive alcoholic father put their family into untold debt because of gambling. Now, gambling is an addiction (much like alcoholism), and a disposition for addiction can be genetic. So I'm not saying that it's impossible for Jounouchi to develop addictions. But what I am saying is that I personally think that Jounouchi, because of the trauma that he has from growing up as an abused child who had to work while in school (something typically illegal in Japan) to pay his father's gambling debts, wouldn't want to become a professional gambler himself. You could say, well, there's more strategy to Duel Monsters than there is slots! But we don't know that Jounouchi's father was gambling with slots. In fact, he very well could have been playing mahjong, as many mahjong parlors in Japan have ties to the yakuza (who own and operate illegal casinos since most forms of gambling are illegal in Japan). Mahjong requires just as much strategy as Duel Monsters does, and just as much luck as well. So I just feel like, for Jounouchi, becoming a professional Duel Monsters player isn't something that he would want to do. He would still like to play Duel Monsters, of course, but to stake his livelihood on it? No. It would remind him too much of his father. It was another reason why I really disliked that movie that came out a couple years ago.

So anyway, those were my thoughts going into picking that career for Jounouchi! And then of course I added in that, for the radio station, he also ends up making Let's Play videos and things like that as technology progresses (which, let's be honest, despite taking place in the 90s, technology in the YGO world progressed at an alarmingly fast rate, so they had Let's Play tech ready to go long before we did in our world, LOL). He becomes like a local celebrity in Domino, and as much as the station manager wants him to stop insulting Kaiba on air, the listeners actually love the beef he and Kaiba have with each other, so ratings always go up whenever he goes on a tangent about how much Kaiba sucks, and so the station manager can't fire him over it. It's great.

(Not that he'd fire Jounouchi anyway, since on top of Jounouchi being damn good at his job he also has personal connections to the Mutou Yuugi and Bakura Ryou and can have them in the station for interviews at literally any time so it's like . . . where else are you going to find a host like that. Nowhere. The man is literally too valuable to fire. So if he says on air that Kaiba Seto has his head shoved so far up his own ass that he can smell his own stomach lining and that Kaiba Mokuba is literally the only reason why KaibaCorp hasn't been swallowed into the depths of Hell so the underworld can reclaim its king, station management is just going to have to let him. Especially since Mokuba said that his brother doesn't even listen to Jounouchi's show, and that he (Mokuba) is cool with it since the implication here is that he doesn't belong in Hell and he understands why Jounouchi feels that his brother does. When Jounouchi heard this reply, he said, "Of course Kaiba doesn't listen to the show. It's hard to listen when your ears are in your stomach 'cause your head's shoved up your ass."

His station manager popped four ibuprofen after that.)

(Tell me which fic of mine you most associate with me, and I'll tell you something about it!)

[zacksoto]

Back in 2011, I was asked "So, what old DC comic would YOU like to reboot, and what's the angle, and can you draw a cover for this theoretical comic relaunch?" I was not asked this by a professional editor at DC, but by my friend Jon who was doing a themed blog thingie. Look, it was before the world we live in now—we had time to imagine a better world and fool around! Anyway, I am reposting the "pitch" I wrote, as well as the illo I did back in 2011 (below), just to have it here. Above is a more recent posca drawing/painting of Dart (as you will see if you read the wall of text below, she's my favorite 😂)

ATARI FORCE #1 (of 12)

2063: A.T.A.R.I. (Advanced Technology And Research Institute) combs an infinite number of realities in order to find a suitable new world for the population of a dying Earth. In their travels through the Multiverse, one of the expeditionary forces does battle with and ultimately kills the ultimate evil - a lovecraftian devourer of dimensions they dub the DARK DESTROYER. In the course of this battle, they find a perfect, empty world in a universe teeming with advanced civilizations. After some false starts both the recolonization of New Earth and the socialization of the New Earthlings with the rest of their new neighbors is a success.

2088: THE ATARI FOUNDATION, now the de facto governing party of New Earth, has ushered in a new era of utopian prosperity. After the Old Earth was brought to the brink of destruction by gross negligence and mismanagement, the people of New Earth are only too happy to put themselves in the guiding hands of ATARI. All live in relative prosperity and happiness..

Except for MARTIN CHAMPION, brilliant Multiversal scientist and the leader of the original expedition that battled the Destroyer. Martin is haunted by the death of his wife in childbirth, and is convinced that the Dark Destroyer somehow caused it. Instead of going about his life and picking up the pieces, Martin sits in his lab sending probes out in to the Multiverse, in hopes of finding proof of the existence of the Dark Destroyer. Martin has, over the years, become a laughingstock of ATARI, as well as driven his now adult son out of his life, due to misplaced anger about the death of his wife. All he has left is his obsession..

Until one of his probes goes missing after sending back readings of energy very similar to the kind the Destroyer radiates. Worried that he's given the Dark Destroyer a direct route back to New Earth in the lost probe, Martin hijacks his now antique Multiversal scout ship

SCANNER ONE and heads out to stop the Destroyer once and for all. To help him on this mission, he enlists:

ERIN BIA O'ROURKE-SINGH, aka DART - A telepathic mercenary, as well as his goddaughter. She's one of the deadliest, sexiest beings in the universe, and she has a precognitive "second sight" that comes in handy.

MORPHEA - An alien empath, forced on Champion by the ATARI FOUNDATION to serve as his psychiatrist. Ostensibly she's there to help him with his "delusions", but her connection to Martin's deepest convictions gives her reason to think he's actually right about the danger facing the Multiverse.

CHRIS CHAMPION, aka TEMPEST - Martin's estranged son. A professional fighting champion who's anger management issues and freakish teleportation abilities have made him a star in the Mega-Brawl circuit.

Wanted by the government of New Earth, and pursued by the ATARI Security Squad, Champion has to outwit them all and defeat the ultimate expression of evil all over again. Luckily this time he has the new, improved, ATARI FORCE!

Over the course of their adventure, their rag tag team grows in size as they pick up new members:

BABE - The hulking, freakishly strong infant from a world of rock-like creatures.

TUKLA OLY, aka PAKRAT - An impish, self-absorbed master thief who goes into berserker rages when cornered.

TAZ - A master soldier, last of her race, who carries deep anger and sadness within her.

MOSES FISK, aka BLACKJAK - Dart's lover, a roguish mercenary once thought dead, secretly brainwashed to do the Dark Destroyer's bidding. --- I loved AF as a kid, so when Jon asked me what book I'd reboot if I got the chance, it was one of a handful of titles I considered. I especially loved Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez' designs and storytelling, and Gerry Conway did a really good job weaving all these plot threads together in an exciting way.

My reboot of the book would reprise it as a 12 issue mini series (or maxi series, as it would have been called back then), and really play up some of the hard sci fi elements at the fringes of the concept, as well as inject a sort of European sense of storytelling to the character bits, while still remaining true to the general arc of the original.

The only character I would really change that much is Chris, who in the original is pretty lame/bland/whiney and was quickly overshadowed by Dart. I thought giving him the MMA-style fighting league to be a part of would be something interesting for him to use to try and cope with being crapped on by his dad all his life, as well as ground him more than in the original series, where he's really sort of a cypher-brat.

Another wrinkle I would explore is the sexual tension between him and his "sister", Dart. It's hinted at in the original series, but I think that I'd have it bloom fully in my version on these long weeks and months stuck on Scanner One - Chris always having had a thing for Dart since they were kids, and Dart being rather depressed and lovesick because of Blackjak's apparent death early in the series. Things would, of course get rather sticky when Blackjak reappears.

Needless to say, the ATARI FORCE gang eventually wins out against the new iteration of the Dark Destroyer, but not without some serious losses, and they limp off still wanted by the ATARI FOUNDATION and use the failing Multiversal drive on Scanner One to take them into unknown space..

Atari Force was created by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas. (Read more)

[utterlyinevitable]

Becca/Ode is finishing her shift when Ethan surprises her with a mysterious date invitation, refusing to reveal any details. How does she react? What has Grumpsey planned for them? 👀💖

Amazing (1/2)

Pairing: Ethan x F!MC (Becca Lao) Rating: Teen+ Summary: Ethan doesn’t understand new workplace technologies. He does understand how to woo his unofficial girlfriend.   Trope: Fluff; Date; Secret Relationship 

A/N: Hilde my LOVE! thank you for sending me this a million years ago & so sorry it took so long to answer. also sorry that i’ve answered with a fic that is is old(er than the ask). like summer 2020 old. don’t hold it against me 😬

__________________

The last dregs of sunlight spills through the glass walls of Edenbrook’s diagnostic office, highlighting paragraphs and pages of paperwork Rebecca Lao was finishing off at the team table, all the while her boss huffed at the screen behind his desk.  

“I don’t understand this damn system!” Ethan groaned with a slap of his mouse down onto the sturdy wooden surface. 

The hospital board had just implemented an app called ‘PocketDoc’ to hopefully help drum up more patients by doing video appointments, and in hopes of freeing up the clinic. Every senior attending was required to hold 5 video appointments per shift. As a department head Ethan Ramsey also was required to oversee that his team did in fact meet their quotas. All-in-all a truly insufferable feat. 

“It’s a video chat, Ethan. What’s not to understand?” Becca asked incredulously from where she sat folded in her chair. 

He glared at her in the way he does when she is being far too insufferable. 

Becca could feel his eyes burning a hole into her cheek. So intense she had to bite back the snide smirk tugging at the corner of her mouth. 

“Haven’t you ever done this before?” she asked, ever the picture of professionalism, setting her pen down and closing the last file. “You must’ve if you’ve consulted across the country.”  

“If I am ever required to be visible, I use the ready set-up in one of the conference rooms. What am I supposed to do with this?” He motioned to the computer screen.  

“Your job.” She couldn’t keep the smile off her face. “Do you need me to walk you through it before I go?” 

“No,” Ethan’s quick to retort, eyes glancing at the clock and the overtime she’s already well into. And anyway, he’s an adult. The smartest man in Edenbrook. He can figure this out but it’s just taking so long and there’s so much other more beneficial things he could be doing than going through this software walkthrough. “But if you wanted to…” 

She rolled her eyes as she closed the space between them. Ethan’s eyes watching her as she saunters over with infernal pride and pink lips pulled knowingly. As she presses his shoulder, pushes just hard enough to roll him back so she could squeeze in and perch herself on his desk. It’s 6:17pm - the hospital is still buzzing, people everywhere with peering eyes landing their way at any minute, and Ethan knows it’s much too early to be playing these games. 

“This here is the camera,” she points, stretches across to tap the device at the top of the screen. “You look into it and the person on the other side can see you.”  

“I understand that,” he chides; and before Becca could continue her Training 101 session, added, “I know what a microphone is too.” 

That sweet smile she shoots him is all he can think about as she runs through all the relevant capabilities of the program. Cheeky, yet reserved, with sparkles in her brown eyes. The kind of smile he’s sure it’s just for him. He’s sure Becca knows that his heart beats just a bit faster every time she looks at him like that - that it renders him helpless. That every time she smiles like that he remembers all the times she’s done it before, when they’ve been happier than they’ve ever been.

“And here's where you can order a script,” she says with finality. “Got it, old man?” 

There’s that smile full of mirth. 

A short exhale and Ethan’s back in the workplace - “I think so. Thank you for your assistance, Rookie.”

He watches as that smile takes over her entire face at the pet name he so seldom uses since they’ve crossed the line.  

“Anytime.” Becca slides off the desk, smooths out the creases of her trousers to look anywhere but at the poorly concealed heat in his stare. “Wish I could be there for your first video call - that’d be a sight.” 

“What do you expect?” 

“A total disaster. Hopefully something embarrassing behind you.” 

He smiles back. “I’m glad you have such little faith in me.” 

Evening has firmly become night and the garden apartment is a full house - Becca’s roommates are settled among blankets and pillows camping out in front of the flat screen of their living room.   

“Becca,” Sienna calls as Becca shuffles back in juggling more snacks. With a regretful lilt and a wave of her phone, Sienna informs, “Dr. Ramsey wants you to answer your phone.” 

Oh the groan that crawls up Becca’s throat is a mix of emotions. Flabbergasted that he would be texting her friend. Annoyed for not wanting to deal with a case on her evening off, the only rational reason he’s texting Sienna about her. And happy, because she always is when his name is tied with hers. 

Everything ok? 

Not even a full heartbeat after she shoots off the text does Becca get a conference call notification through the PocketDoc app. 

“Really?” 

“You said I should practice.” That shitty smirk that shines through the screen and shows off his laugh lines nearly knock her knees. “You also failed to mention the conference call option between physicians.” 

“Maybe that was intentional.” 

He laughed. Low and jubilant and just for her. 

“Did you call for a reason or…” she asks, strolling through the apartment towards her room. 

“Sorry for interrupting your evening.”  

“That’s fine, we were just relaxing and watching reruns of Doctor Who. For a second I thought we got another case and I’d have to skip family night.”  

“Nothing of the sort,” he says, and she can tell that there’s more too it between the words he does say and the way he’s sitting in his living room. But instead, his eyes squint and he’s nodding towards something behind her. “What’s that?” 

With a frantic look over her shoulder, Becca hung up and logged out, leaving Ethan shocked at the curt informality. 

Seconds later a Facetime call took over his screen.  

“Hey. Sorry. Bit unprofessional to have a personal conversation on a work app.” 

Ethan’s eyes only rolled halfway into his head when some sort of deep violet fabric overtook the video screen. 

“That’s my new child,” Becca giddily explained. “Got it 75% off. No idea when or where I’ll ever get to wear it but I needed her in my lie. Look how pretty!” 

“It is quite nice,” he adds in between Becca’s excited camera panning in and out of every notable feature. The long lace sleeves, the deep v neckline, and the peep of a skirt slit. 

“Nice!? It is the most perfect piece of fashion I have ever come in contact with.” 

She flopped on her bed. The video going black and then turning so he could see her face. Laying on her stomach, her chin resting on her forearms. 

“What’s Jenner up to?” she asks, knowing he’s watching his dad’s dog for a few days.  

“Sleeping. What else does he do?” 

“Lemme see!”

And Ethan did show her the dog sleeping at his feet, even holding his phone so she could ask the animal about it’s day, winding him up until the old boy’s tail couldn’t wag no more and he fell right back to sleep. 

They talked for a while, Ethan and Becca. Long enough for her to strip down to her pajamas and tuck herself in bed, and for Ethan shred his shirt and relax with his feet up on the couch more comfortably.  

“What’s with the face?”  

“What face?”  

“You’re staring.” 

“Can’t prove it.” Her pink cheeks betrayed her, though neither were hiding their heated gazes. “Are you going to bed any time soon?” 

“Probably should - it is getting late.” 

“Yeah… it’s my day off tomorrow.” 

“I know. Do… you have any plans?” 

“No. Sleep in hopefully, maybe treat myself to brunch. The guys are all working so it’s just me.” The mention of sleep had Becca’s eyes closing and her body slumping further into the pillows. “What’re you doing?” 

“I planned on going over some paperwork I’ve been avoiding.” 

“Nerd. Get a life, Ramsey.”

The sound of his chuckle lulled her to sleep. 

___________________

a/n: sorry it’s garbage! but this trash can gets a part 2 soon!!

@choicesficwriterscreations @openheartfanfics

[ohheyidothat]

Wow isn't it weird that I got shingles last year even though I had been vaccinated against chicken pox as a kid? So weird.

Anyways reminder that as of 2017 the vaccine technology improved *so much* and there is a new shingles vaccine that you can absolutely talk to a medical professional about.

[pieandhotdogs]

Hi, hope this is ok to ask! "All things have a spirit" seems so simple but...why does it feel harder to find spirit in, say, modern things or man-made areas or just adult life? It might just be me. Thanks for reading anyway and also unrelated, but your username makes me crave steak pie and mash every time I see it...

Oh absolutely, that’s a major stumbling block for many, including myself. We are conditioned very early on to put away childish things, and that includes the denial of the Spirit present within even the most everyday objects. That’s the nature of the Fall; the disconnection of mankind from the inherent spirituality of the mundane. Even technology was fashioned with creative hands and minds, imbibing it with Divinity. Our society, as a result of the lie we tell ourselves, attempts to cheapen and deaden this Divinity through mass production and professional burnout. We must fight against this lie, we must thrash against the bars of the cage which hold us in. This is why so many esoteric traditions speak of the Child Self who sees the world through unclouded eyes. This Self can help us to see the true Spirit present in trees and birds and rivers, as well as the Spirit within things like sidewalks and circuit boards.

Thanks for the ask :)

[amorosebeing]

Headcanons about Bug Fables Teams

Some of these are borrowed from other people, most are original.

Some of these are related to my crossover AU idea with Hollow Knight, but I’ll try to keep those to a minimum.

There are spoilers below!

Team Slacker (Stratos and Delilah)

Their main role is investigating rumors of monsters and ruins out in the wilderness. Sometimes they get sent out to find ‘giant supplies’ like a tire for rubber, old tools for metal, etc. kinda like oil prospectors. This job is typically seen as highly dangerous due to the issues of long-distance travel, lesser bugs, bandits, etc. and thus is paid extremely well. Team Slacker, however, is so strong that they just do not have to worry about any of that.

Stratos has been divorced at least once, possibly even twice or thrice. He has kids and Delilah is their adopted wine aunt.

Team Celia (Celia and Levi)

They’re the ‘detective’ team, responsible for investigating criminals and handling some of the more court-related paperwork that the association has to handle.

Levi is trying his absolute best to be a hero, both for the sake of it and also to make ladybugs more accepted.

They have a friendly rivalry with Team Slacker. They banter and lightly glare at each other sometimes. This is at least in-part because Team Celia works so hard to professionally investigate things and take notes and then they just see Team Slacker chasing rumors and constantly slacking off.

Celia came from the same colony as Tiso from Hollow Knight.

Team Bookwork (Reeves and the Reading Ant)

If you aren’t familar, it has been officially confirmed that these two formed an explorer team specifically so that they could get access to the Ant Kingdom library.

I think they sneak into explorer meetings for free food. Most of the association straight up forgets that they exist.

Team Maki

They are the de facto leaders of the association. By ‘they’ I mean mostly Maki and also Kina when Maki is away and she yells at the other teams for being dumb idiots.

Many assume that Yin, for whatever reason, is an adult in-body due to her size. This is actually a popular misconception, she is going to get so much larger, and stronger. She’s gonna have like 3 defense.

Team Ant (Gen on the left and Eri on the right)

They do tons of community service and less dangerous missions. Basically everyone in the Ant Kingdom recongizes them as those friendly ladies that found their lost pet or whatever.

Elizant II secretly worries about the association becoming too powerful and distant from both her and the common citizens. Team Ant, being a less imposing team that works alongside everyday bugs a ton, are meant to prevent that.

Maki is aware that they lead his fanclub, he’s not really sure what to do with that information.

Team Snakemouth

Yes, Chompy does count as a member. Leif tried to get Maki to include her on the paperwork.

Vi loves the Termacade. Leif supports her but teases her about it, and Kabbu also encourages her but he’s kinda of a himbo and is very confused by the technology.

Kabbu is incredibly gay, by both definitions. I think we can all agree on this.

Leif is responsible for cooking and paperwork, Vi for managing their berries and schedule, and Kabbu for cleaning and gardening.

Team Mothiva

OH boy I actually have so many headcanons, but most of them relate to the aforementioned AU. Anyways here are some: 

Zasp makes dinners and lunches. Mothiva makes teas and desserts. Breakfasts are made together. Zasp is actually a really good cook.

Zasp has no idea that wasps are meant to be carnivores, absolute himbo. She doesn’t know either, if you’re wondering.

Emo rock is their favorite genre of music, pop is a close second.

The developers confirmed that Zasp was planned to have lightning magic, but that was scrapped. I like the idea that he REALLY wishes he had it and if you give him a taser his reaction is somewhere between ‘little kid who just got candy’ and ‘manically laughing cartoon villain.’

All of the explorer moths are some level of cryptid. Yin is biologically, but not in terms of vibes. Leif has always acted like a weirdo even before going into Snakemouth Den. Mothiva was just actually a cryptid at one point. Like there’s just some town outside of Bugaria where the locals will mention some weird moth that people kept having sightings of.

She has an incredibly strange patchwork of knowledge. Before she met Zasp, she did not know how to do taxes, but did know stonecarving and how to bury a body.

He’s trans I’ve decided.

[bugbyte]

I keep thinking about the whole AI art scenario, and I keep returning to the same metaphors in my mind, because apparently my brain just works in a Darmok and Jalad fashion most of the time. Anyway.

What gets me is that it’s a neat computer trick, it feels magical, which is when technology is often at its best, in my opinion. There’s a sense of wonder in watching a thing a happen.

However, it also makes me think of other experiences in my life. Even if all the popular AI art-generating platforms weren’t based on theft and scraping real artists’ efforts from all over the web, how can it possibly be fulfilling?

Like this:

I am a former half-marathonner. I enjoyed running because it was fun and it felt good, but I was far from able to run well. I was very slow. I never really got good, but I had fun trying anyway. But! There are a lot of races that accept runners who are more beginner, as well as those of higher skill levels. You just need to be able to do the thing, you don’t have to be a professional. So I did, and it was fun. I ran in the same races that some former Olympians ran in! That feels neat to know! But I, myself, am not, nor do I aspire to be, an Olympian. And that’s ok!

But about that “former” part from above; I can no longer run half-marathons due to some health issues. I could, in theory, get in a car and drive the race course from start to finish, moving my body from the beginning point to the end, which “technically” is the same thing, and I’d finish in minutes, with an incredible time. But I wouldn’t, obviously, because there would be absolutely no sense of accomplishment. I would feel nothing, because I did nothing, and what would the point even be? Just because you technically finished the task doesn’t mean it has the same value when taken out of its proper context.

I can see toying around with an AI in various ways as a learning tool, or something, but I simply do not understand the arguments pro-AI folks make about how they are artists now, too. A driver is not a marathon runner just because they went fast. Artmaking is a very human experience. You don’t have to be “good” at it if you like doing it. And like anything else, you can continue to practice and your improvement will be measurable! Look at the archives of practically any webcomic. I mean, look at the entire human history of art. We all started by drawing on cave walls and rocks, and the entire process was refined slowly as we learned, together, how to draw babies that weren’t just miniature adults, and stuff like that. (Like, for real, learning a bit of art history will change your thinking about both art and history.)

If you want to make art, just do it. The learning is part of the making. It’s ok to be imperfect.

Temba, his arms wide.

[pykestowatchoutfor]

“Sky Command”Sucks!: A Note on Art and History on the Margins of the High Republic

This is an expansion of some thoughts I brought up in the wonderful Cerebro discord so credit to my interlocutors over there for bouncing some of this stuff back and forth!

---

I’m in the middle of catching up on phase one of The High Republic, and finding myself really more engaged than I expected with these younger-reader novels. I’ve found that the distinction between the main novels and the YA novels is very thin, and seemingly predicated more on where the books’ senses of scale fall than on differing degrees of sophistication (the YA novels being a bit more interested in close studies of a smaller cast of characters and their difficulties with the contradictions of their milieus versus the larger scale ensemble stuff in the adult novels), and while the junior books are definitely very much pitched towards a younger audience, they still feel substantial and interesting enough to justify a read, particularly since they breeze by.

Anyway, I was struck by this brief scene from Chapter Nine of Justina Ireland’s Mission to Disaster. Avon Starros, a precocious young genius held captive by the Nihil, is with a bunch of other kids when their captors drop off a little treat:

So-- narratively, this is important because Avon, being a precocious young genius, is able to cobble these shitty old video game consoles into a means to have the ship’s doors and gain temporary freedom. But it struck me-- throughout the High Republic material, we’re told with some frequency about stuff people do for fun, and more tellingly, pieces of mass media that they enjoy. Holochron movies and serials, musical recordings, and here, even video games with enough cultural cachet that even a century on this disparate grab-bag of young hostages recognize them! 

It occurred to me that the original trilogy is very much a product of its time in terms of the horizons it imagined for telecommunication, mass media, and entertainment in a sci-fi universe with otherwise fantastic technology. Off the top of my dome, peoples’ pleasures are mostly low-tech, local, and non-professionalized. In the first six movies, and again I’m making no pretense to rigor here, people fill their spare time with:

1. Shooting rats in the desert 2. Shooting the shit at Tosche Station 3. Drinking 4. Listening to jizz wailers 5. Playing space rock ‘em sock ‘em robots 6. Fine dining 7. Bloodsports 8. Watching dancers 9. Yacht ride 10. Podracing 11. Fucking 12. Death sticks 13. Whatever strange opera Sheev and Anakin go to 14. Oh, I forgot sabacc! 

With the exception of the opera and the Boonta Eve Classic these largely seem to be provisional, unsanctioned affairs done by people who momentarily find themselves with nothing super urgent to attend to. We don’t know if Max Rebo is the best musician in the galaxy or just the guy who can blow jizz better than anybody else immediately on hand. We don’t know if kids on Tatooine and kids on Alderaan are reading the same books, hearing the same fairy tales, listening to the same music, etc., and it seems eminently plausible to me that most people live in pretty tightly circumscribed spheres in the world imagined by the original trilogy to the extent that people could become quite hazy on what the jedi order was like in the space of a generation. So much of A New Hope is about the perils and precarity of getting information from one place to another-- Vader choking Ozzel through the screen in Empire Strikes Back is as much about the unworldly miracle of video conferencing as it is about the unworldly miracle of the Force.

So it’s interesting to me that in the “golden age” of the High Republic there does seem to be not only more consistent and widespread galactic-scale communication technology, but also more (and more widely disseminated) culture. Avon and Petri and their fellow prisoners are from a grab bag of planets and a grab bag of species but they all find a common distaste for the tacky, outdated games dropped at their feet by their captors.

I think that’s a cool little way of telling me something about the world these kids live in-- what they can afford to take for granted, what common cultural coin they hold in common.

 And what’s more-- that they can appreciably manage to assess and dismiss this game for being old and out of style is extraordinary. One of my little qualms with KOTOR and SWTOR-- games which to me range from a fun enough MMO to a masterpiece of the medium-- is that despite taking place thousands and thousands of years before the movies, fashion, architecture, and engineering design seem frozen in time. The bad guys wear chic black and grey-tone Hugo Boss-ish numbers, the jedi wear their demure brown tunics and cowls, regular joes and josephines run around in their dusty, well-worn flight suits-- same as it ever was, same as it ever was. And I get the utility of this-- it communicates to a casual player “hey, this is Star Wars!” with a ruthless efficiency, AND it suggests something about cyclicality and repetition on the visual level that is reinforced and challenged by turn in the script. But all this only makes sense to me on the level of myth-- in the real world, of course, art changes, fads come and go, taste mutates and meanders along. A videogame from a century ago would be demode to a little kid, no less than a videogame from a mere decade ago might turn off a child in the real world. This feels so beautifully in keeping with the OT’s lived-in, patch-work look-- it implies a kind of relationship between people and their objects that is subject to change, and suggests that we can learn about the people by observing the changes closely enough. Time doesn’t stand still, and people rush to keep up with it-- our machines break down, our hip new kitchen remodels gradually fade into kitsch, and no shit Petri does NOT want to play FUCKING Sky Command!!!!

We see this quite a bit in the High Republic stuff really! People talk about cheesy holovids and compare their real life experiences to the fiction they grew up consuming, Bell and Burryaga help defuse their fear creeping through the dark underbelly of Starlight by cracking jokes about  “fright holos” (I imagine Claudia Gray and I are on the same page about “horror holos” being a mouthful). There’s a ruefulness to this-- these are all suggested to be kids’ stuff, fantasies that act as a contrast to the all-too-serious situations the characters find themselves in. They outgrow art on a personal trajectory too-- or expect that they should-- but keep calling back to these really tangible cultural touchstones-- a tension that feels kind of rich and delicious as a grown-ass woman reading Star Wars novels and finding them frequently delightful. Just as much as the gleaming, pristine temple garments and the spectacle of the Starlight Station itself, this sense of a wide-spread, easily accessible, and historically mobile aesthetic culture does so much to convey that something between here and the Prequels was lost, something which did meaningfully bind people across the galaxy together.

[queenlua]

holy shit, raptureready.com still exists

[dreamsintoreality111]

Fun Stuff to Manifest

for when you're kinda bored of being God, wanna spice things up a little bit and play with reality like a mf fiddle i know @/snowhi just posted one of these but—

remember there’s no logic to manifesting !

Technology

↣ unlimited free trial on the same (desired) account (spotify, netflix, youtube premium, etc.)/unlimited free trial on apps/programs (photoshop, after effects, etc.)

↣ always have safe & lightning speed wifi anywhere everywhere for free

↣ no matter how much you use your data, it only actually consumes 1KB (so for ex: watching a full documentary using your data only consumes 1KB rather than 300MB)

↣ unlimited storage space

↣ tap any electronic device and it instantly becomes fully charged/unlimited battery life on all of your electronic devices/when your electronic device is about to be drained, it stays the same battery % until you’re able to charge

↣ all charging cords works on all angles all the time/your charging cord stretches so that you can use your device in your bed or smth in whatever position whatsoever + charging cords are immune to breaking/bending

↣ if you crack your (phone) screen, simply swipe on it like a piece of dust and the crack is completely gone

↣ whatever exact colour (#XXXXXX) you want of your phone (that doesn’t exist) is suddenly available for sale by the original company

↣ have whatever show/movie you want available in your country without using a VPN

↣ all appa/programs you have works perfectly fine for you (no crashes, no glitches, bugs, whatsoever)

Adulting

↣ always at the right place at the right time

↣ always have an extremely good relationship with powerful people, always leave a great impression, always exceed expectations

↣ be and exude an aura of being educated & fully know the ins-and-ours of your occupation/career and confidence (confident in what you talk about, confident in your abilities because you truly excel in it and truly deeply know about it)

↣ somehow always know exactly the right/best course of action to do and execute it incredibly well/flexible, able to pick up on everything quickly even though things may keep on changing and are fast-paced

↣ always make the right choices

↣ immune to forgetting anything important

↣ always presentable and have great hygiene (smell good, no sweat/very minimal sweat, breath that smells good regardless of what you eat, hair is always clean & neatly done, etc.)

↣ excellent at managing stress/no matter what happens you stay level-headed and have little-to-no stress because you can take on anythinggg/emotionally, mentally, physically incredibly strong

↣ always healthy, immune to any sickness/disease, medical conditions

↣ immune to ‘hidden’ additional fees

↣ bills are always paid and are cheap/affordable

↣ always get free upgrades/positive special treatment (be sold a gorgeous property that isn’t being advertised to others, free upgrades to a better hotel room, if you forget something ((ex: an id to get into a mall, to book an appointment)) they allow you in/serve you nicely anyway and the other customers are 100% fine with it and/or don’t know about it)

↣ all employees/staff/workers always treat you incredibly well and always do a great job with/on you (for ex: a masseuse, doctors, bankers, etc.)

↣ all documents whatsoever gets properly processed in less than a day

↣ everything you invest on is incredibly successful/all your endeavors are successful

↣ have thousands of loyal customers, and be the favourite [insert whatever business or occupation] of all kinds of celebrities

↣ learn/shadow/apprentice from the best of the best/your desired professional in your desired industry

↣ have an incredibly high paying job while in highschool/college/university or right out of hs/college/university + the perfect boss & co-workers/colleagues (get along with them swimmingly)

↣ age like fine wine

↣ immune to getting stretch marks

↣ easy, painless, quick and no complications with giving birth

↣ no complications with pregnancy/n-sfw!! only get pregnant whenever you consciously decide to (regardless if you wrap it up or not ykwm)

Random/Miscellaneous

↣ whatever you want to eat is instantly inside of your refrigerator, pantry, or wherever you keep that certain food

↣ always get the best tickets in a concert (best seats, at the best price, the date of the concert is when you’re available, its your desired/favourite artist, playing your desired/favourite album & songs)

↣ people respect your boundaries and personal-alone time/people only socialize with you/invite you out when you feel like it/have energy for it (for my introverts/homebodies out there)

↣ your house/apartment is forever immune to having any kind of pests, insects, bugs, etc. inside of the house/kill bugs from even 100ft away with perfect aim (🤣)

↣ whenever you want to make something you’ve seen on pinterest, youtube, or wherever (food, clothing, a room design, etc.) you easily always find everything you’re exactly looking for/wanting to buy

↣ all your pets are potty-trained (without anyone teaching them) and doesn’t bite people

↣ your pets are immune to shedding all over your clothes and furniture

↣ have a ‘green-thumb’/literally breathe/blow into a plant and it’ll come back to life

↣ play any instrument you want perfectly and perfectly learn to play any song that you want while listening to it once (as in the first time you are hearing the song, you are playing the song on your desired instrument perfectly & in sync)

↣ learn any dance that you want perfectly while watching it once (same as with the instrument)

↣ painless menstruation that lasts only a day every month

↣ run your hands through your body, shaping it how you would like just like clay and it will turn out perfectly & come out exactly the way you wanted

↣ hover your hand(s) over your (target) blemishes and it will disappear

↣ wake up at the right time and be fully recharged whether you sleep for only an hour or less

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

So I (finally!) bought a pair of really good noise cancelling headphones, and it has changed my life! It's the fanciest thing I've bought in years, so to recoup some of the cost, I’ve researched & written a little essay based on my experiences with extreme noise sensitivity.

Hypersensitivity to sound is something I’ve dealt with all of my life, but I only recently found out it's medically known a Hyperacusis. (Please note this is a separate condition from Misophonia.) If you consistently struggle to cope with noise, the info below could be helpful! I’m including a link to my ko-fi, and I will be answering questions in the notes.

(skip to the bottom to read fun facts about my tax return and/or street organs vendettas!)

DISCLAIMER: I am not a professional, this is based solely on my experiences as a patient, and on what I have read and been told by professionals. Please notify me if you have corrections or concerns about accuracy!

BACKGROUND: Sensitivity to sound is a common type of sensory issue. While anyone can experience such issues (most people, for example, might be bothered by loud music in a crowded restaurant), some people are more sensitive than others, to the point it becomes a quality-of-life aka a medical issue.

If you consistently struggle with environmental stimuli that other people aren’t bothered by (background noises, bright lights, certain textures and tastes, etc), to the point it causes daily discomfort or limits the environments you can be in, I recommend reading about Sensory Processing Disorder.

SPD and sound sensitivity are both super common in autistic folks (like me!), but allistic (non-autistic) people can experience them too. Weep, ye prisoners of mortal coil, for none are safe, nothing sacred, not in this thy most accursed tomb of human flesh!

Anyway.

SOUND SENSITIVITY or HYPERACUSIS: Noise issues are particularly difficult to navigate in a world that is increasingly...noisy. The relatively new phenomenon of constant overhead music in restaurants, grocery stores, shopping malls etc—all of this means that public spaces are increasingly inaccessible to people with auditory issues.*

As a kid, nothing quite triggered sensory overload/meltdowns for me like the constant exposure to noise I couldn’t control—the background chatter of other kids in the lunchroom, the constant noise in public spaces, being trapped in the car with the radio on.... I had so many fights with my siblings about the car radio, and who got to choose the music.**

But it’s not just loud sounds that are the problem. As an adult who lives alone and works from home***, I’m lucky enough to be able to avoid loud environments most of the time. This does wonders for my general levels of anxiety and discomfort. But even in a mostly controlled environment, I still experience problems. Because part of sound sensitivity is that even normal or quiet sounds can feel loud and intrusive. Here are some “normal” sounds that can cause me discomfort (ranging from annoyance to outright pain, depending on the day):

refrigerator/AC/ceiling lights humming

dishwasher/washing machine noises

ceiling fan making that damn ceiling fan noise

faint sounds of traffic

riding in a car

other people having a normal conversation in the background

someone talking to me in a perfectly normal inside voice

Unfortunately, even in a “controlled” environment, many triggering noises can’t be controlled. And many parts of life can’t be lived in a controlled environment. This presents...some incredibly freaking annoying problems. Luckily there are solutions!

Sorta.

There are sorta some solutions.

They are imperfect, but they help.

TREATMENT: And now I have something rather shame-faced to admit. In all the years of managing my symptoms, it never once occurred to me to see a hearing specialist for my issues with sound. I wasn’t even aware that treatment options exist, because none of my other doctors mentioned it. Instead, I’ve spent years finding my own coping mechanisms and tools, with help from therapists and psychiatrists, but without ever consulting an audiologist/ENT. It was only while researching this post that I found out that was even an option, holy shit.

So it turns out I am going to be making an appointment with my local ENT practice. shit.

Apparently treatment options include sound/acoustic therapy, systematic desensitization/exposure therapy, cognitive behavior therapy, sound machines, and other options that I had no idea even existed, goddammit.

MANAGEMENT: In the meantime, here are my current coping mechanisms. I’ve relied rather heavily on hearing protection, which is very useful when used in moderation. Unfortunately, it can cause its own problems: it’s important not to overuse hearing protection, because in the long-term this can increase your sensitivity. So again: a useful tool, but be careful not to overdo it.

With that in mind, here are some of the coping strategies I’ve used over the last decade to manage my symptoms. This is not a perfect system and you should contact your local ENT clinic for better, long-term solutions, but in the meantime here are some tips I use to just get myself through the damn day:

Regularly spending time in a quiet controlled environment, to allow my nervous system to decompress.

Wearing earplugs, (I use two different grade, depending on the level of noise prevention I need), and always carrying an extra pair in case I need them unexpectedly. I bought a 50 pack for $7 and put spares in all my bags and jacket pockets.

(I mostly use Mack’s Ultra Soft, but there are so many types and materials and brands, including foam, silicone, wax, custom moldable etc. Even if you have trouble wearing things in your ears, you might be able to find something comfortable.)

Similarly: hearing protection earmuffs, the kind used in gun ranges and on construction sites. I bought mine online for $10. they look like normal wireless headphones, so I've never gotten comments when wearing mine in public (other than “cool heaphones” bc i added skull glitter stickers).

Sometimes I wear the earmuffs on top of earplugs, when life is just too damn LOUD.

Listening to music w/ earbuds or headphones is a great way to balance out background noises, especially if you can find soothing playlists that help you concentrate. Also useful to put in just one earbud when you need to pay attention in class/at work.

Pro tip: if your hair is long enough you can wear wireless earbuds without anyone knowing.

White noise, rain noises, ocean noises etc can be helpful! Some people like whale songs although personally this activates my primal fear response

Active noise cancelling headphones: the reason I wrote this post to begin with—I finally bought a pair! As in, a really good pair! As in, a depressingly expensive pair with noise cancelling technology that actually WORKS, holy shit. I probably need to wear them a little less at home (bc overprotection causes problems in the longterm) but they have absolutely transformed my ability to go out in public and i never ever want to take these suckers off again please take a power screwdriver and nail these to my head, bury me in the sweet sweet shroud of silence. holy canoli and cream puffs I want to marry form a civil partnership with these headphones. Plus they have a bunch of features, like being able to control the level of noise cancellation, so I can hold a conversation or be aware of some ambient noise for safety reasons.

Oh, and also they play music I guess?

Sorry sorry I promise this post wasn’t supposed to be me shilling for Big Electronics. I’m just excited, I’m an excited flabby little ball of expired flubber. ANC headphones aren’t a perfect solution, and I still sometimes wear earplugs underneath, and I will always be uncomfortable some of the time, but for me it’s been a big step.

Unfortunately the cost of good quality ANC technology means this isn’t an option for everyone, and the (much cheaper) gunshot protection earmuffs I mentioned earlier still provide an impressive amount of protection and bang-for-your buck (maybe even an equal amount of protection, if you can find ones that fit well). But if noise consistently prevents you from enjoying public space and life in general, and you’ve already tried earmuffs & earplugs and find they don’t offer enough comfort/convenience/protection, and if you’re in a position to save up for a one time non-necessity purchase of $150+, noise cancelling headphones are an option to be aware of. (Please always check the return policy so you can try before you buy. I ended up buying and returning 2 pairs before finding what worked best for me. And please look for a retailer that offers an extended warranty. You want those motherforkers to last).

There are cheaper options available, including some under $50. The ones I tried didn't work as well as my hearing protection earmuffs, but some people report good experiences, so that is something to consider. it's always good to know your options! Passive noise canceling is another affordable alternative.

Medication: A final tool in my toolbox, which for me personally has helped as much as every other method combined. Like, a lot, it’s helped a lot. It turns out some anti-anxiety medications can also help sensory issues. There’s not much research on this, and I only discovered it firsthand when a medication my doctor prescribed for anxiety ended up significantly helping my sensory issues. I no longer need medication for anxiety, but my psychiatrist still prescribes that same medication off-label for my sensory stuff. Ask your psychiatrist to research your options (they will probably have to do some digging to find relevant research, but you deserve to know all your options, even the obscure ones). Fyi, the medication I use is in the benzodiazepines class, but there are other options for those concerned about dependency or side effects.

(I'm also told anti-anxiety supplements may be helpful, though I haven't tried this yet. If you're on prescription meds, always talk to your doctor about contraindications before taking anything over-the-counter.)

So there you have it, my main coping strategies for sound sensitivity! They are not a replacement for medical treatment (except that last one which is in fact...medical treatment), but I find them helpful and I hope some of you will too! I’ve struggled for a long time, and I’m very pleased to have reached the point where I can just do things in public. Eating out in loud restaurants? I can do that now, and even enjoy it, holy shit! I can comfortably travel in cars for hours at a time, and walk around shopping malls and grocery stores with overhead music, and, and —and just exist. It is so so freeing, to feel like maybe, after everything, you are actually allowed to just exist in a world that wasn’t really designed for you.

Again, be careful not to overuse hearing protection—the goal is to allow you to be less uncomfortable and to function better, but if you find you are becoming more sensitive to noise, it is time to dial it back a notch. Or maybe consider listening to music (at a reasonable volume) to block out background noise instead.

*(This also includes people with hearing loss and related issues, btw. While that’s not my area of knowledge, I would welcome it if any of my HoH followers want to share their experiences.)

**A sign of sensory issues that parents often miss is when a child complains about music being too loud—but has no problem listening to their own music at high volume. This is because music that is already familiar to the listener (and that the listener enjoys) is much easier for the brain to process, since it knows what pattern of sounds to expect. Loud music that they get to control can be soothing for people with sound issues, especially when it blocks out background noise and sensations. This is why repetitively playing the same songs can be a helpful form of stimming.

***(working on this blog, actually. since it’s my only source of income, my 2020 income tax return literally lists my occupation as ‘Tumblr Blogger.’ Oddly, my parent didn’t feel this achievement was worth including in the holiday family newsletter.)

bonus fun fact: Charles Babbage aka “father of the computer” may have been autistic and hypersensitive to sound. He definitely had a huge problem with public noise pollution, and spent his later year waging a war on street musicians (and organ grinders in particular).

(bc like, yeah. screw organ grinders.)

Sometimes when I’m out in public and the overhead music is particularly unbearable, I’ll take a moment to look up to the sky and scream out: “HE TRIED TO WARN US! THE FATHER OF COMPUTERS TRIED TO WARN US!!! we should have listened, sweet heaven we should have listened!”

except i don’t scream it, i say it very quietly under my breath

(i have issues with noise)

so yeah that is my short essay. and here is the ko-fi goal

k ciao i gotta go pick out glitter stickers for my headphones

[phoenixyfriend]

SW/HP crossovers (as you do)

So, a standard multi-context HP crossover of either intrusive or shared-universe setup is "external characters show up during Harry's fifth year, either mess with Umbridge while fake-enrolled as students if they're young enough, or teach a class." Usually they teach Defense if they can get away with it, otherwise Divination or Muggle Studies, or Something They Can Claim Is Relevant like Alchemy if it's an option (which is what we see in a lot of FMA crossovers).

But! Jedi, especially since they don't speak English and their 'magic' is completely different and they don't have the same worldview to an extreme degree, are kind of useless as teachers.

So you know what I think would be very funny?

17yo Anakin and 33yo Obi-Wan in Harry's third year with Dumbledore using the excuse of "Oh, we don't need your dementors, minister, I Hired These Warrior Monks."

Which is... only partly a lie.

Obi-Wan and Anakin messed with something they shouldn't have and got dumped in the wrong universe. As we all know, this is SOP for them. As is standard, they need Hogwarts' help to get home. This means that 'pretend to be school guards' is a convenient excuse for hanging around the castle and doing research and Using Laser Swords On School Property.

Anakin, after getting a grasp on English, keeps arguing with people (Percy? Percy) about why magic fucks up electronics. He wants to Yell. He wants to Argue. He's a zen warrior monk but also he's a former professional child pod racer and he wants to do technology things.

He's building a racing pod in an empty classroom in his free time and there are regular explosions and angry yelling and clanging noises that Obi-Wan just tells people to ignore

Anakin meditates in the Great Hall because he's trying to see if long-term magical enchantments enhance or block his connection to the Force and that means a lot of meditating in different parts of the building and he does this at Monk Times, which occasionally means 5 AM, and that results in a whole lot of quietly awed children and teenagers walking into their breakfast room and gaping at That Weird Cool Warrior Monk just floating crosslegged in the middle of the room with a bunch of Random Plates And Such floating in orbit around him.

Obi-Wan walks in and just sighs, which even the teachers are very ???? about, and Obi-Wan goes to poke Anakin down because people want to eat and they need the plates and cutlery to do that.

They're very clear on the fact that Anakin is not here as a student, he's here as Obi-Wan's student, because warrior monks do apprenticeships.

Anakin finds out about the House Elves and is three seconds away from a breakdown as Dumbledore explains that the House Elves reject payment and such, and he recognizes this is an issue, and Anakin's working himself up into a tizzy for understandable reasons until Dumbledore says "there is one House Elf that requested payment, and when I offered him a competitive rate even for a human employee, he argued me down because he felt uncomfortable with the quantity; I could have him come speak with you if you'd like to discuss such matters with a member of that community who has looked into better circumstances."

Anyway, Anakin&Dobby is a friendship I think deserves some consideration.

Meanwhile Obi-Wan has to go by Ben because nineties Wizarding England is uhhhhhhhhhhh not great about certain things and very likely everyone said "that sounds like an Asian Name, why aren't you Asian?" and it was just very...

But from grown adults who should know better, so Obi-Wan just went "fuck this, I can't deal with civilians who are THIS prejudiced" and decided to go by Ben until they can go home.

[adobe-outdesign]

Pokemon Worldbuilding Headcanons, Part 2

Part 2 of this. Some are based on the game, some on the anime, and some directly contradict both because the Pokemon lore is made up and your feelings don’t matter.

Intelligence

Pokemon are generally sentient and sapient, and most have strong cognitive abilities.

They don’t know the names of their moves innately, but will quickly learn what words correlate to what moves once they’ve started training.

They’re also quite good at picking up tone of voice and will learn their trainer’s body language as they work together, making it relatively easy for trainers to understand their Pokemon and vice versa.

Some Pokemon can learn to speak English if they have vocal cords capable of mimicking human speech, but this isn’t common. More commonly, many psychic types can communicate with telepathy, and many Pokemon can learn sign language.

There are many Pokemon-specific types of sign language that have been modified to accommodate for different numbers of fingers.

Pokemon therapists (therapists that help Pokemon, not Pokemon that are therapists) exist. In addition to helping with human-Pokemon relations (like helping trainers better understand their Pokemon), they also help Pokemon recover from mental trauma and help diagnose various mental illnesses. They usually work with translators.

Occasionally, a psychic human will be able to understand Pokemon via a specific type of telepathy. They commonly work as professional translators, and will commonly pick up jobs as nurses, therapists, rehabilitators, and more.

Highly intelligent Pokemon will occasionally become Pokemon trainers themselves--there’s no laws against it, though many object to it on principle.

A famous example was an Alakazam that eventually got fed up with its abusive trainer and, realizing no trainer could ever be smarter than them, became a trainer themselves. They eventually made it to gym leader status.

Some intelligent Pokemon form their own mini-societies out in the wilderness. These are designated as no-catch zones, though the Pokemon that live there can always choose to leave if they want to find a trainer to partner with.

Pokemon Centers

Pokemon nurses work at Pokemon Centers. They deal with day-to-day healings, checkups, and other small medical issues. More serious issues are handled by Pokemon doctors at hospitals.

Pokemon nurses treat all species of Pokemon, as they know some degree of standard medical care that’s near-universal.

Pokemon doctors, meanwhile, are trained in specific types and phylogenies, making them experts but only for a small amount of Pokemon.

Pokemon can instantly be teleported to various hospitals for treatment if the issue is too severe or specific for the Center to treat. Pokemon that know teleport are used to move medicine and Pokemon that won’t go in Pokeballs. 

Pokemon can be instantly healed by adding small amounts of energy to them while they’re in their Pokeballs, which helps them recover from minor injuries such as cuts, bruises, small burns, ect.

This process does not help heal severe injuries (illness, broken bones, internal issues, ect.). Instead, these injuries are treated over time using more traditional methods.

Sleep powder is used on Pokemon when they first are released inside of the center/hospital, so nurses/doctors don’t have to worry about getting attacked while looking them over. (Pokemon that are immune to sleep powder are usually paralyzed with stun spore or have disable used on them instead, depending on what needs to be done.)

Pokeballs can be life-saving, as the Pokemon’s energy form means that while it can still become weak and faint, it won’t take severe bodily damage from injuries. This gives trainers more time to get their Pokemon to a medical center and the doctors more time to prepare treatments.

Pokerus is a mutualistic virus; the virus lives in the body and produces energy as a waste product, which is then absorbed by Pokemon. This has a lot of positive health benefits for them, such as faster evolution rates. The only effects are mild fever and cough, which go away as the virus becomes dormant after about 4 days.

However, the reason people don’t actively try to spread it around constantly is that Pokerus can spread to humans, and the effects are much more dangerous than in Pokemon (with no additional benefits to boot). Ergo, most Pokemon that catch it are quarantined, and many trainers get Pokerus vaccinations to be safe. 

Tech

Cars exist, but aren’t used often as many Pokemon view them as threats and will attack them on sight. They’re not really commercially viable anyway when you can just saddle up a large Pokemon you caught instead.

Pokeballs have trackers built into them, so they can be easily relocated if lost. Most Pokemon Centers will have at least one Pokemon that knows teleport that can retrieve the ball as well.

Pokemon Storage Systems are relatively new. They work by teleporting a Pokeball into a large designated storage space, usually a warehouse or an underground area. When a person’s license is scanned, a machine finds and teleports back the Pokeball based on an automated grid system.

The warehouses are heavily guarded at all times, and because the contents of the Pokeballs aren’t labeled poachers are usually deterred from trying to steal from them directly.

The trays that the balls are stored in are known as “boxes”, hence why its referred to as “boxing your Pokemon”.

The energy of a Pokemon is slowed when in storage, effectively putting them to sleep. This allows them to remain in their Pokeballs for longer periods of time. Legally, Pokemon cannot be stored for more than a month for their well-being.

TMs are CDs that are inserted into a cube-like device that the Pokeball is then placed into. These change the simulation inside a Pokeball, creating scenarios that help the Pokemon to learn the new move. They work most of the time, but there’s no guarantee that your Pokemon will figure it out.

Teleportation technology is still being developed. Small objects can be teleported effortlessly; teleportation of living creatures and larger objects is a more recent, hence why warp tiles aren’t used everywhere.

Teleportation was figured out by studying psychic-types who know the move. Catching or renting a psychic-type is still one of the fastest ways to get around.

Food

People used to hunt Pokemon a few thousand years ago out of necessity, though they stuck to common, lower-intelligence Pokemon like Margikarp and Farfetch'd (which is how they became rare). However, this has fallen out of practice over time as humans and Pokemon have gotten closer.

There are many ways to ethically source meat and dairy products. Miltank produce milk, Chansey produce infertile eggs, and Slowpoke and Crabrawler naturally drop and regenerate body parts that can be farmed without harming them (tails and claws, respectively). Other than that, humans rely on plant-based food/synthetic meat in order to get by.

Carnivore Pokemon will hunt and kill other Pokemon in the wild; in captivity, they eat the aforementioned ethically sourced meat.

Pokemon don’t really have “hunting instincts”, in the sense that they won’t blindly maim other prey Pokemon. Indeed, Pokemon in captivity understand that their trainers will feed them, and thus won’t risk harming other Pokemon less they get attacked themselves.

With that said, it’s generally recommended to not put your Corsola and Mareanie on the same team, solely because there’ll likely always be tension between two rival Pokemon and they’re unlikely to get along (though predator/prey friendships aren’t unheard of).

Some intelligent Pokemon have been known to farm both plants and other Pokemon out in the wild, in order to have a continuous food source.

Intelligent Pokemon also understand how to cook and mix ingredients. There are quite a few commonplace recipes in the Pokemon world that originated from Pokemon themselves.

Laws and Regulations

It is illegal to catch immature baby Pokemon, as they’re still too young to leave their parents at that stage (so you couldn’t catch a one-tailed baby Vulpix, for example).

Vintage Pokeballs have to be retrofitted with modern tech. This is because modern tech has things like the aforementioned tracking devices that make them safer to use.

Rare species of Pokemon, legendaries, and shinies are frequently moved onto preserves for protection against poachers. While people are welcome to visit these spaces, they are no-catch zones and rangers enforce this law strictly.

There are several different types of Pokemon licenses, with varying difficulties in obtaining them.

The default licenses can be obtained by anyone 8 years or older, and allows for Pokemon to live in a domestic setting. This requires passing a variety of tests covering basic Pokemon laws and welfare, and is easy to obtain.

Trainer licenses (10+ years) allow for Pokemon to be battled with, entered in contests, ect. This requires having a default license, passing a test regarding safe battling methods, and passing a test battle with a rental Pokemon (doesn’t matter if you win; it’s more about technique, caring for the Pokemon, ect.)

It is only legal to batte without a trainer license if it’s an act of self-defense.

There are also separate licenses for medical and commercial use of Pokemon. These are only obtainable by adults and regulated by the government.

Technically speaking, there’s a permit needed in order to ride Pokemon to make sure that traffic laws are obeyed. Few people with rideable Pokemon actually bother getting one however.

Licenses can be revoked for a number of reasons. Whether or not a licenses is revoked is determined by the local authorities or a judge, if necessary.

Guns and weaponry technically exist, but are almost never used. The reason for this is that a bullet is highly unlikely to kill any given Pokemon, and that Pokemon can and will outright kill someone if they harm their trainer. Ergo, it’s easier to just battle and knock out a person’s Pokemon legally in a battle.

Pokemon that commit crimes are usually judged based on whether or not they were acting of their own accord or being psychology manipulated or abused into performing the act. Most Pokemon are put into rehabilitation programs and may be rehomed or released if the rehab is successful.

If it’s not sucessful, the Pokemon has a tracker placed on them and they’re released into private, sanctioned-off wild areas where they can’t hurt other Pokemon or people.

Wild areas have official ratings regarding how dangerous they are to be in, which is based on factors like the kind of wild Pokemon living there. This helps trainers pick out areas that are relatively safe for catching (or not, if they’ve got a strong team already and want something more powerful).

Funerals

A Pokemon’s body deteriorates into energy after 1-2 weeks or so, depending on size.

There are a variety of funeral options for a deceased Pokemon. Funeral services are almost always a given, which can be small ceremonies for friends or larger events for more well-known Pokemon (such as those belonging to gym leaders). Burials, cremations, and more are all options.

One option that’s been rising in popularity is to return the Pokemon’s body to their Pokeball, then breaking the capture mechanism to prevent stealing of higher-end balls. The Pokeball is then placed on a pillow in a “cubby” with a glass door, which can be filled with belongings, favored items, or photographs.

The Pokeballs can be kept as-is, polished and shined to look like new, or even decorated in things like gold leaf, depending on the trainer’s preferences.

A Pokemon can only stay in its ball for 1-3 years straight without eventually dying from energy atrophy (thankfully, this is painless). Because Pokemon can leave their balls whenever they want, deaths like this are virtually unheard of.

Ghost-type Pokemon can sometimes be spirits of the deceased (both humans and Pokemon), but they can also be just random collections of energy. There are also regular ghosts, which are different from ghost-types and cannot be caught.

Catching ghost-types is illegal around most burial grounds, as many of them are just visiting their former trainers as they come by to mourn.

Pokemon that are ghosts retain their memories of their past lives, and can still use attacks that they knew previously.

Ghost-types don’t usually remember their previous lives, but it isn’t unheard of for them to remember one or two former attacks despite this. This means that ghost-types can potentially know any type of attack outside of the ones they know naturally or learn from TMs.

[spaceasianmillennial]

Part 5: Home

Summary: Alucard and Sypha give Trevor Belmont a bath... with soap.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

The sun shimmered and he awoke to the sound of her breathing, a warm wind upon his cheek and jaw. When he yawned and fluttered his eyelids, there she was, eyes crinkled with exhaustion but her lips curled into a smile, a deep relief that she was not dreaming and Trevor Belmont was there. Minutes passed between their gazing. He wanted to say something, something to light up a bigger smile and assure himself that he was real as well. If he could lift his right arm, he'd twirl his finger in her hair.

"Sypha, I've been thinking."

"What, Treffy?"

"What if I'm not Trevor Belmont?"

"Hmmm?" She paused. "Well, I did wonder if you were a beastie in disguise."

"What if I'm an incubus?"

Now her face wrinkled into playful disapproval, as if processing this as yet another one of his crude joke that hadn't sunk into her Speaker brain. She would know of incubi, they went through a rundown of beasts in the Belmont library before they hit the road together. 

"What if I'm an incubus who shapeshifted into the form of Trevor Belmont and was sent to seduce you and infiltrate this human village?"

She seemed to be in on the joke, but the way her brows lifted indicated that she was trying to dissect some hidden meaning.

"If you're an incubus come to seduce me, well, you're doing a good job dressing up like Trevor Belmont and being all crude and getting on my nerves. I have to hand it to you. If you keep up this ruse, I might not mind spending the rest of my life with you. Keep up the ruse and I won't kill you, incubus." She patted his jaw.

But there was something he did not tell her. That incubus thing was a joke between his mother and father. "Your father never touched me. He had to have been an incubus. He must have killed Gabriel Belmont, took his shape and skin, and came to the Belmont Hold to seduce me. And I didn't care. Your father never touched me so I rather an incubus love me than not. It took having human children to convince me that it was Gabriel."

++

"Belmont, can you chew, or shall I spoonfeed you?" Alucard opened the cover, releasing the steamy scent made Trevor's mouth water. Trout with some lettuce leaves. Finally, something that wasn't broth.

"I'm not letting you spoonfeed me. Let Sypha spoonfeed me."

"Suit yourself, Belmont. By the way, Greta, the headwoman, wants to speak with you later this evening. So there's something we need to do with you. Just, don't panic." 

"What?" He was expecting more experimental painkillers leaves to chew on. 

"Belmont, as he said, don't panic," Sypha added, her expression mildly sour as if preparing for the worse.

"You're going to react," warned Alucard.

"Ok."

"We have to give you a bath, Belmont."

"Ok."

Alucard's expression remained unmoved. "With soap, Belmont."

"Ok."

Alucard lifted his brow. "You're not... repulsed? I figured you were so comfortable in your own filth and stink for eons that soap repels you the way silver and close-up crosses do to a vampire." Even Sypha seemed to raise her brows with skepticism. Trevor Belmont, not repelled by soap.

"Oh haha. Soap is not my weakness, hahaha."

"Belmont, will you be okay with me carrying you into the tub?"

Trevor finally pegged down what Alucard was implying, what the vampire did not want to say out loud. That the task of bathing Trevor Belmont would involve Alucard carrying said Belmont--naked--into the tub.

It was not the most ideal situation, to be carried naked by a man both your vampire adversary and your battle compatriot, but the benefits of not lying in his stink and unwashed wounds outweigh the cost of subjecting Sypha--and himself--to his scent. It would be as practical as your war comrade needing to tear your clothing to tend to a wound. Sypha had to endure weeks without him, so she deserved a less scruffy Belmont to make love to her.

"Whatever you need to do, Alucard. You're the doctor." 

++

There was even one attribute of Lord Dracula that the Belmont family respected as they deemed Dracula Tepes as a serious threat. Lord Tepes was a man who understood that technology was magic in itself.

There sat a large porcelain basin standing on four golden lion-claw legs. A tube and knobs protruded from a wall. Sypha turned on these knobs and water-- "captured rainwater," Alucard explained--poured out. Sypha snapped up sparks of fire onto the coals beneath the basin to heat it up.

Sypha helped loosen the drawstrings of Trevor's trousers. 

And so Alucard lifted him. The gesture was a clinical affair for a man raised by a doctor and far from the manners of a man who lifts his lover to the bridal chamber, yet Trevor swore he saw some tints on the vampire's cheeks as he lowered him into the warm water but the thought washed away as the warm water wrapped and sloshed him in its warmth.

"How do you feel?" Sypha asked.

"Better." The hot water embraced his numbing arm and he flexed his stiff fingers. When was the last time he bathed? He fondly remembered those times climbing into the cool lakewater with Sypha. He could detect that memory in Sypha's sly eyes and the curve of her lips whenever she wanted him badly. She took a soapy washcloth and began scrubbing his arm, his pits, his neck. She squeezed the water onto his hair and scrubbed it with sweet-smelling soap in circular motions. She winked at him before she reached deeper to draw the cloth at his pelvis and electricity shot up against his body. 

"I sure miss looking at that body of yours, Trevor. I was wondering how I was going to live without that body for the next decades of my life."

He was aware that Alucard was sitting right there, just idly reading a book.

"You could join me," Trevor offered, loudly, to pester Alucard.

She smirked. "Another day, Belmont." 

When she judged him pristine enough, she yanked the plug and the water drained into a pipe connected to the floor. He dried himself and she slid on him a long nightshirt that went down to his knees. Alucard carried him out and they helped him back to the bedroom.

This nightshirt, satin and smooth, felt so comfortable that it didn't feel right.

++

Greta sat in an armchair, uptight and professional.

"We've met, Trevor Belmont, but now's a great time for a proper reintroduction. I had a great deal of time to get to know Sypha. She's wise. She's very eager to help out. She's been great help sorting out the preserved herbs in the castle. So if there's anything you need or any suggestions you have or anything you want to contribute, you can go to me--or send for me. After all, you are a man of knowledge. We might have to consult you for many things."

"Well you got the books for that. Centuries worth of research down my family line, down from Leon Belmont."

"Yes. And you yourself must have knowledge that wouldn't be documented in the books."

Knowledge. It felt gratifying and he reminded himself to boast about it to Sypha, who was sitting by and observing the conversation. That someone came to him for knowledge, that word, as if he were a scholar. 

Alucard, the bastard, must have clocked his thoughts and had to chime in, "Careful Greta, I don't think Belmont gets these kinds of compliments, let alone earn them."

Trevor continued on, "I understand your people of Danesti have grown fond of the libraries."

"A lot of them were excited to explore through to their hearts' content. They even asked Alucard if they could take some of the books home to Danesti. Some volunteered to stay back and be transcribers as well to bring it back to Danesti. Then it became clear that our lives would improve if we stayed around. For one, they didn't want to leave the graves of their loved ones and there were bodies to move, but two, they didn't want to leave behind knowledge that could very well save their children's lives."  

"Which one do they seem to like better? The boring books about medicine and cosmos in Dracula's castle? Or the books about monster-slaying in the Belmont hold?"

The headwoman smirked at him. She seemed to have figured that he wanted something to rub in Alucard's face.

"I say the adults like them both equally but the kids look through the Belmont books more." Alucard gave her a furtive glare. "I think I'm more preferential to your books, Belmont. But anyway, I also wanted to meet with you because, while this is my village, this is also your land, and your library, as well and you should have input in how you want your home to be respected."

Home. Trevor felt tempted to slump down. He never quite wanted to go back and felt disconnected from the idea that this was his land. While he would technically be its heir, he never harbored real ownership when he bequeathed the lands to Alucard. It had been taken from him and that was that. It made a nice visiting place, or a place to restock weapons or retrieve research, but living among the ghosts and ruins was another weighty matter. Once something had been stolen by the zealous and bloodcurling priests, it could never be given back. 

"We look forward to having you in our new town of Belmont, Trevor Belmont."

Having you. No one really asked him to stay. He was just expected to stay. He simply nodded.

"Great, as long as you don't name it Treffy."

Greta's eyes darted at Alucard and Trevor was sure that bastard vampire suggested that dreaded name to her.

She gave a head bow. When she and Alucard left, Trevor clocked the way Greta touched Alucard's shoulder, reminding him of the way his mother danced her fingers on Father's shoulders or when married relatives would rub their significant other's shoulder. 

Sypha stroked his hand. "Greta likes you. That's good."

"She's trustworthy?" He liked Greta at first sight, had her pegged as a dutiful leader and someone who worked for her people. But God, anyone these days could be playing nice.  God, they didn't want to get ensnared in a Judge situation again. 

"She brought her people there to the castle to protect them. She listens to them. She... doesn't talk cheerfully about flogging her people. She and Alucard founded this village so they can have better things, including books and schools." She smiled, as if sensing his caution. "She... checks out."

Glad to know she's likely no child murderer. "If I doubt Alucard's judgment, then I trust Sypha Belnades's judgment," he announced. He wanted a moment to talk to her, about the idea of staying, but he decided that would wait, perhaps when his body no longer ached.

++

His eyes followed the seams. His finger traced over the patched area. He had finished mending his tunic. He figured that steadying a needle and thread could bring back some precision to his still numbing right arm. Alucard and Sypha brought him clothing from the Belmont hold, where he once acquired the meteorite-dark utility tunics with his knife-wielding cuffs. Now he had nothing else to do but to swat at any passing gnat.

His eyes fell on the open books at the nightstand, books that Sypha had been reading.

And then he reached for a book. He flipped idly around the text and illustrations of the sun, moon, and stars. He liked illustrations. Usually, he'll look at them and his mother would read to them. He already knew which creature tends to appear in a full moon or a dark moon or a crescent moon, which creature is powered by daylight (ironically), and which came out during certain constellations. But for the first time in eons, Trevor Belmont read about the stars.

–

Next up: Trevor *gasp* reading.

–> PART 6

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