#i have always categorized food into two categories

[aaesuki]

you’re the best part

characters: hinata shoyo, bokuto koutaro, miya osamu, akaashi keiji, oikawa tooru

genre: headcanons, fluff, american high school au

cw/tw: none

summary: you transfer to a new school, thinking you’d continue your average life until your local high school heartthrobs take an interest in you.

Y/N: Loser

Now, you’re not actually a loser

You’re a new student so you’re automatically placed into the loser category until further notice

However, at your previous school, you were categorized as a nerd because you joined the mathletes

You don’t think it’ll be any different at your new school, but several boys take interest in you

Hinata Shoyo: Loser

When you first met him, he definitely looked like a jock

He was bouncing off the walls just waiting to see the gym the volleyball team played in

He asked to exchange numbers when he realized you were a fellow new student at the principal’s office

He would occasionally check up on you through text

Unsurprisingly, his enthusiastic personality endears him to many people and before you know it, he looks like he’s been going to this school for years

Still, he doesn’t forget what you’ve done for him and always includes you in school festivals or parties

At the beginning of the school year, he would beg you to tutor him (not that your grades were particularly great)

Because you’ve been his house so many times through your study sessions, his sister has gotten familiar with you

He asked you to help him practice volleyball before the auditions

Still, you knew that he had friends that are much more athletic than you are

“Why do I ask you to practice with me? Because I like to spend time with you!”

Bokuto Koutaro: Jock

Unlike how jocks are usually portrayed in media, Bokuto is incredibly nice and caring

You accidentally bumped into him on your first day, but he just laughed it off

Upon noticing you looked a little lost, he led you to the principal’s office

Also exchanged numbers with you so you could text him when you had questions

However, when you did ask him something, he would always reply with “I don’t know” or “I’ll ask my friend”

He would ask you to go see his volleyball games and though you would always have a lot of homework, you would go anyways because you couldn’t stand his puppy eyes

He walks you home afterwards and consequently meets your parents

Needless to say, they love him

Definitely calls you pet names

Just like Hinata, everyone loves him because of his bright personality so he has a lot of connections

Though he doesn’t know much about classes and teachers, he does know where the best place to get food is

He’s the type of person that has a good future ahead of him

Falls in love with you at first sight and tells you so after five weeks of knowing him

Though you would like to stick around, your people and his people just don’t mix

When you tell him that, he shakes his head resolutely

“No matter what you say, nothing will change the fact that I like you.”

Miya Osamu: Jock, Nerd

Sure, he’s a nerd but not in the traditional sense

He’s the president, founder, and one of two members of the cooking club

Therefore, when he begs you to join the club (or else it’ll be shut down) you have to agree

Plus, he’s been bribing you with onigiri

Though you certainly weren’t bad at cooking, you weren’t exactly a master chef either

So, Osamu had to teach you the basics of cooking

On a Wednesday afternoon, the club (or it’s only three members) were making spam musubi

Seeing that you were struggling with cutting up the spam, Osamu wrapped his arms around you to lead you through it

However, with his well-toned body pressing up your back and his warm hands caressing your own, you couldn’t focus on anything else

And as such, you need help every time when handling a knife which also results in him helping you and the cycle repeats

Even though you’d expect to have his fill of cooking during club meetings, he still makes little treats at home and always somehow ends up with extras

He would give them to you and soon enough, would invite you to each lunch with him and his friends

Embarrassingly, he feeds you with his own chopsticks and his friends tease the two of you for looking like a pair of newlyweds

“Oh, these? Yeah, I made extra. You can have some if you want it. Here, let me feed you.”

Akaashi Keiji: Nerd, Jock

He works in the library during his free period

The friend that Bokuto always asks when he doesn’t know the answer to your question

The first time you saw him was when you were trying to find a book for your class

After ten minutes of failing, you approached him at the counter

He smiled up at you and you swore your heart skipped a beat

He’s the quiet type of beauty – the type that doesn’t stand out initially but once you spend more time with him, you’re sure to fall in love with him

He noticed the book you wanted to borrow was the same one that he had on him at the time and offered to lend it to you or read it with you

So thus began your weekly trips to the library where you spent two hours reading with an incredibly handsome guy

When you don’t understand a part of the book, he explains it nicely and patiently

When you were drifting off, he could only gaze at you, admiring your sleepy face

After the two of you finished the book required for class, he recommends shoujo manga to you and subtly but not-so-subtly points out the romantic parts

When you found out he played volleyball, you were incredibly surprised

He looks so soft and smart that he didn’t look like the type to take an interest in sports

Out of courtesy (and as thanks for lending you the book), you go to visit him at one of his games

However, since you know every other guy on the volleyball team, they think you’re here for them until Akaashi speaks up

“You’re here for me, right? Thanks for putting up with me and my manga. If you don’t mind, could we meet more often?”

Oikawa Tooru: Jock, Prep, Not-so-nerdy Nerd

Ah yes, everyone’s campus crush

Everyone loves him and that includes teachers and the parents of the students

He’s athletic, beautiful, and smart so naturally everyone wants him

Well, ever since you became aware of his existence, you’ve avoided him and all the drama that came with knowing him to continue your very average and peaceful life

One day when you were cleaning up the volleyballs after practicing with Hinata, he spotted you outside of the gym

He assumed you were one of his fans and gave you an air kiss

When you crossed your arms in an X to tell him that you weren’t a fan, he was extremely confused

After all, what else would a person hanging outside of the gym want if not to watch their most popular member?

Then, he suddenly remembers that the volleyball club had recently put up posters looking for manager

However, most applicants had been rejected since they only joined to get closer to the boys

Mistakenly assuming you wanted to become a manager, he introduced you to his coach and his coach agreed without even looking at you

And because you became the manager of the popular volleyball team, you became the enemy of envious fans

Oikawa started following you everywhere and asked for backrubs, massages, and whatnot (to his fans’ jealously)

Traditionally on Valentine’s Day, Oikawa accepts all his fans’ chocolates out of politeness and fanservice

However, this Valentine’s Day, a rumor started circulating

Oikawa hasn’t accepted anyone’s chocolates and is supposedly waiting for a special person’s chocolates

Is extremely disappointed when you tell him you weren’t planning on giving anyone chocolates

He then tells you that you can make up for it by treating him to the café near the park (but he makes it sound like you owe him)

“Why would I want other people’s chocolates? The only ones I want are yours. You’re special to me, y’know?”

[yeah-thats-probably-it]

If I may add amendments to the nickname portion of your meme (it’s trivial stuff and you’re free to ignore me but I dunno, maybe it’s interesting).

Oofy’s nickname is bc he’s the club millionaire and ‘oof’ used to slang for money. Biffy’s last name is Biffen so that’s presumably how he got his nickname.

The last two is merely speculation/I can’t remember if it’s canon or from a fanfic but Bingo used to be slang for “drunk” and Catsmeat is like a type of kebab.

I really enjoyed the name generator! There was so much thought and creativity put into it!

hey there! no worries at all! I've always wondered why Bingo was called Bingo, and "Catsmeat" was a morbid-sounding mystery until now. So that puts Bingo and Oofy in the 'personal characteristic' category, Biffy in 'based on name,' and Catsmeat in 'food pun.' Do you happen to know where Boko comes from? I googled, with "british slang" and "england" appended and everything, but as far as I can gather it's a random pair of syllables.

I still feel more or less comfortable with the nickname categories I came up with, though I know I'm taking a slight liberty with the compound words. If you ask me before a judge I'll say that 'random pair of syllables' covers a lot of ground and 'personal characteristic' could be stretched to 'thing person is associated with' if you're really determined.

I may amend the footnotes to put everyone in their appropriate categories, though. 'An earlier version of this meme incorrectly categorized Claude Potter-Pirbright's nickname "Catsmeat" as...'

Pongo is also a personal characteristic, don't you know, it means 'lazy, good for nothing person.' This is information I could have found earlier if I'd searched harder, but one sometimes takes a shorter way through when one has been at this 'inventing nicknames' wheeze since yesterday and just wants to move on to speculating about which colors a fictional character would like

I'm glad you liked the name generator!

[unstablenoodle]

Ok so I have something to share.

For my entire life, I have differentiated between different kinds of sweet. Specifically, I place them into two groups: opaque sweet and clear sweet. They are named as such because opaque sweet foods taste like you can’t see through them while clear sweet foods taste see-through. Pretty straight forward.

Except it is not. There are general patterns in categorization, but there are sufficient deviations. For example, cookies, cakes, pies, etc. are all opaque, and they are all confectionary items. However, honey is opaque as well, and bananas are more opaque than all of them. Here’s a table (not comprehensive):

As you can see, baked goods are always opaque while most fruits are clear, but there a sufficient number of deviations to argue that this is merely a correlation. It’s important to note also that if a source flavor is sweet, a derived flavoring or juice may not also be sweet.

What I didn’t show in this table was the combination category. Foods in this box lie somewhere along the spectrum. It includes foods like lemon squares, orange juice, MANGOS, and mint chocolate chip ice cream. I have a theory that these foods are the easiest to pair with the extremes and with non-sweet foods, but I digress.

Furthermore, opacity and clarity govern what texture or temperature is appropriate for the food. Would you heat up an orange? No. Would you heat up a brownie? Yes. Would you eat a cake with flesh-like membranes? I fucking hope not, but you would expect that quality in a juicy fruit. Clear foods tend to be best cold, and invite a wider variety of textures (slippery, membranes, chewy, crunchy) while opaque foods are meant to be soft or mousse-like.

This is not nearly all of it, but it’s a good general outline. Do y’all get what I’m saying?

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Prince Rielle (mentioned in Octavinelle chapter) was in Azul's + Tweels elementary class. And since he's a 'prince' he's probably from RSA, which is seen to interact with NRC quite a bit. I wonder if Rielle has ever went to Monstro Lounge and interacted with Azul and the Tweels. Imagine how that would go 🤭

Mmmm, I’m not sure how it would go? (Well, other than the Octatrio maybe being mildly annoyed by Rielle while trying to maintain a veneer of politeness.)

Unlike Neige, the Dwarves, and Chenya, we don’t have any confirmation on what kind of a person Rielle is. I’m sure we can make some assumptions based on his Disney inspiration and what the general RSA populace is like, but I don’t think we can really make such generalizations when even NRC has students that act different than the rest of their peers (for example, Kalim and Silver).

zndhisbsjsns I don’t think Rielle could just. Casually walk onto NRC campus like that???? Chenya had to go around NRC while invisible because when he was spotted by NRC mobs, they were so enraged to see a RSA boy in their vicinity that they proceeded to chase him away. I’d imagine that the same would apply for other RSA students outside of circumstances like VDC/SDC in which their two schools agree beforehand to collaborate or plan to hold joint events.

Mmm, come to think of it 😅 I find it interesting how we usually assume that certain characters go to NRC and RSA? I understand that it’s easy to draw those conclusions since they’re the two magic schools we know of by name, but Vargas has stated that he went to a school that isn’t NRC or RSA so it’s clear that other institutions exist 🤔

It’s also interesting that people usually think of Disney heroes as those who attend RSA and Disney villains as those who attend NRC, because we, the players, understand those divides via the Disney properties the characters are inspired by… but like???? What are the IN-UNIVERSE (of the game) reasons for the characters attending their respective schools????? We assume that “royals” go to RSA because of the school name and because of how the school is described to us, but NRC definitely has characters of royal descent too (Leona, Malleus, etc.). RSA also seems to have students that aren’t depicted to be royals (Neige, Chenya, the Dwarves, etc.).

It doesn’t make sense for schools to divide students by the nature of their character either, since NRC has “good” people attending it (Kalim technically got in via a bribe, but what about Silver??? You can also argue that each and every one of the boys IS morally grey, so there IS no defined line between good and evil). Not only that, but it’s just weird for the schools themselves to accept/reject students based on if they believe the kid is “good” or not, because ALL schools technically want “good” kids with potential—the whole point of a school is to prepare its students for careers, so why would there be one school that purposefully takes on “bad” kids???? The NRC staff definitely don’t see their students as monsters or anything, just as normal misbehaving teenagers that need guidance to become responsible young adults (and this thinking is probably no different over st RSA).

We have the tendency to categorize and think of things as “good” and “bad”, “hero” and “villain”, “RSA” and “NRC”. It helps our brains understand things better—but isn’t it cool that the line between those categories is so blurred within the world of Twisted Wonderland itself???? It really helps play into its overarching themes that no one is solely defined by a single trait or label, there’s always more to them beyond the surface 😌

Maybe I’m actually going nowhere with this and I’m just spitballing ideas and speculating 💦 but hey, it’s fascinating food for thought, isn’t it?

[dynamicsofthecity]

The Commodification of Koreatown and Benefits of Tourism: “Old” and “New” Style Restaurants

Suha Cho

“Old” vs “New”:

Out with the old and in with the new? Or if it isn’t broken, why fix it? These are the questions asked when looking at the restaurants Koreatown, Los Angeles has to offer. From traditional style dishes to Korean-Italian fusion, Koreatown now has restaurants with “new” and “old” style options. The restaurant highlighting Koreatown’s “old style” cooking or better labeled as Korean traditional style cooking is Mapo Kkak Doo Gee. Mapo is a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that serves Korean comfort food and classic dishes such as Bibimbap (Mixed rice) and Budae Jjigae (Army stew). Although the interior is small in size, with seating for only 30 people, their menu offers a wide variety of traditional dishes with 37 options in total. Each order comes with eight different side dishes or Banchan, which is a staple in Korean dining. The customers consist of mostly elderly Korean people, ages 40 and up, and the workers are all Korean immigrants as well. With all factors included, this restaurant has many aspects within its interior, exterior, plating, and design that categorize under the traditional Korean style. The restaurant that represents a “newer” style of Korean cuisine within Koreatown is called Hanchic. Hanchic is a Korean-Italian fusion restaurant that serves dishes inspired by Korean and Italian recipes combined, with menu options ranging from Bolognese Mandu and Bulgogi Risotto. The restaurant is fairly new, opening in September 2020 and opening indoor seating in early March 2021. Similar to Mapo, Hanchic has seating for around 30 people but has seasonal menus that include their popular dishes year-round. Their demographic consist of the younger generation along with non-Korean individuals, fitting under the category of “new” style Korean cuisine.

Commodification and Tourism:

Despite the differences in style, both restaurants can be seen commodifying their cultural space, marketing within their diversity, and benefiting from the tourist industry. Looking at Aytar and Rath’s writing called “The Transformation of Ethnic Neighbourhoods into places Leisure and Consumption,” the writers focus on tourism and its inclusive benefits, offering job opportunities to a wide range of people within the community. This includes natives, immigrants, skilled, and unskilled, males, and females. However, they emphasize that not every individual involved in the tourism industry is automatically benefiting from this business, considering its high risks. Relating back to Mapo Kkak Doo Gee and Hanchic, the difference in style between the two restaurants and the gap in customer demographic affect the way each of them make business. For example, in an article called “A tale of two Koreatowns: Hip spots thrive while older businesses struggle amid Omicron” by Jeong Park, Mapo Kkak Doo Gee is mentioned for their struggles during COVID; “‘The cost of ingredients is also going up. But raising prices is difficult when customers are already staying away,’ said Beak of Mapo Kkak Doo Gee.” On the other hand, Hanchic took advantage of the COVID situation and signed a lease for their restaurant, later popularizing it all over social media. The owners of Hanchic have been putting the benefits of tourism to use, attracting tourists to Koreatown through social media, using the slogan “not so traditional Korean,” and using fusion-style dishes to attract non-Korean customers. In an article called “Hanchic: Where Bouillabaise meets Bulgogi” by Hadley Tomicki, the owner explains, “I wanted to portray Korean flavors in an aspect where I can meet in the middle with people that don’t know Korean food.”

Fusion and Gentrification of Asian Cuisine:

The topic of fusion restaurants, however, brings in concerns that authors Aytar and Rath mention in their writing about how immigrants are not always on board with the transformation of their space turning into tourist attractions, considering many of the shops could have been established with the intention of catering to the needs of the in-group only. The owners of Mapo Kkak Doo Gee are immigrants from Korea, while the owners of Hanchic were born here in the U.S. While Mapo uses traditional Korean styles and can attract Korean people along with tourists looking for authentic flavor, Hanchic’s fusion may attract more tourists rather than people within the community. This also brings into question the topic of fusion restaurants and the act of gentrification within cultural cuisine. In an article called “The Gentrification of Asian Cuisine,” the authors Katherine Ly and Manisha Wanniappa talk about the rise in popularity of Asian cuisine through social media. They emphasize the white-washing of Asian foods through Westernized Asian dishes, fusion restaurants, and food trends. However, the article fails to mention the question of whether or not Asian fusion restaurants owned by Asian people, are partaking in an act of gentrification of Asian cuisine. Or is this considered a way in which they are using recipes authentic to an Asian style of cooking and adding a twist? If so, who then are they trying to appeal to when serving fusion dishes, and does it positively or negatively affect the cultural space within the community? Despite these aspects, Mapo Kkak Doo Gee and Hanchic are both commodifying their cultural space in different ways with the benefits of tourism within Koreatown, Los Angeles.

[llycaons]

CATEGORIES*

so this is difficult since I can only see 20 at a time and I also don’t even remember everything I have bookmarked or want to rec, but this is a start

when I go through them, I’ll tag what I want to include as ‘rec’ and assign them to a category. I’m struggling whether to categorize by setting or ‘genre’, but this is really satisfying my desire to sort and organize. and I like thinking up little titles for all of them.

I think I’ll make this rec page an actual page on my blog rather than a post or carrd. I think I remember how to do that.

*star system for safe authors - read all they’ve written without fear :) I can guarantee this at least for some authors - people who I’ve followed on other social media, mutuals or mutual-in-laws, people whose entire body of work I’ve read. so they’ll get a star. anyway, categories my beloved

so this first love was all for you: short and sweet, fluffy one-chapter works, any setting

if I were doomed to death...: flashback-era wx, from CR to the BM. not a lot of these, but most of them are fairly angsty

the name of the song: postcanon wx getting together (probably largest section - usually includes fluff, drama, angst, healing, smut)

the untamed: wwx character studies

I still am: lwj character studies, incl. childhood

jiang cheng is very miserable!!!: jc character studies

you will always have a home in lotus pier: yunmeng bros reconciliation: this is usually wrapped up in other fics so we’ll see how this one goes

well well well what have we here: introspective character and relationship studies/grief/healing/angst - will include works on nhs, lxc, wen ning, wq, and possibly jyl if I FIND anything

now all we need is a little one: wx kids (I have very few of these but I like this title so we’ll see)

to be in the world again: postcanon loss and healing -  explorations/meditations on lifelong grief and trauma in a safe and supportive environment

what was lost will be found: similarly, fics on mental health and recovery from non-canon assault or attempted suicide

now try saying something true and beautiful: rated E - might bleed into character introspection. we’ll see.

WHAT… your trans gener ……… that is so cool…: fics with trans wwx and/or lwj (a steadily-growing list!!)

shenanigans: comedy!

food is love: characters gaining weight! (not fetish)

ngl there will be some pwps in this but I prommy they’re only the best characterizations

one-hit wonders

postcanon: not wx focused (not many of these - maybe too vague)

modern but with cultivation/magic?

postcanon wx slice of life

just plain ol’ modern AUs

WOMEN. I don’t have a lot to put here so this is an optimistic category

canon-divergent/retellings

hurt/comfort (a lot of what I like is h/c so it’ll probably blend into the other fics, might be hard to differentiate)

casefics (I have like, two or three but they can’t rly go anywhere else)

unique structure/format. I don’t remember why I added this - oh! it was for that fic that was an anglo-saxon battle poem poetic retelling of the story. man, that poem fucked

I have so gd many to get through. can’t wait, love you all, happy friday

[eurydicees]

whenever you get a chance can you write more tamakyo? It is my food and I miss reading your fics (I have unfortunately not read/watched Haikyuu yet). Ily, you’re so talented and I love the way you think!!!

hi friend, you need only ask !!! this was SO fun to write, i love getting back to my tamakyo roots and learning them all over again. i really hope you enjoy <3

while i was sleeping, you loved me

summary: tamaki falls asleep; kyoya falls in love. they run out of time.

pairings: tamaki suoh/kyoya ootori

words: 1429

warnings: manga spoilers

Most of what Kyoya does can be split into two categories: things he does out of his own self-interest, and things he does for Tamaki Suoh. The rest of what he does can generally be categorized as things that benefit them both. 

So maybe it shouldn’t have come as a surprise when he realized that he was in love with Tamaki. Maybe it should have been obvious; maybe he should have seen this coming a little sooner than he did. 

But as it is, Kyoya didn’t realize he was in love with Tamaki until the middle of their third year at Ouran, when he ran out of time. He didn’t realize he was in love with Tamaki until it didn’t matter anymore, not with Haruhi loving Tamaki and with graduation coming and with everything changing. 

What does not change, though, at the very least: their friendship. The two of them spend each unremarkable evening just as they had always done before Tamaki truly started to follow in his father’s footsteps. They sit in Kyoya’s bedroom, Tamaki on one of the lounges, lost in some book with a French title that Kyoya, despite Rosetta Stone’s best efforts, can’t decipher. Kyoya himself is sitting across from Tamaki, kneeling on the floor in front of a table and trying to get some math homework done. But he keeps getting lost in his thoughts, the calculus problems going unsolved. 

It’s been a long time since they’ve been alone together like this, Kyoya realizes, and he’s grateful that the Suoh family drama has now finally begun to settle into the dust. He’s grateful, too, that Haruhi was able to pull Tamaki away from his own self-sacrificial nature in a way that he never could. Tamaki and Haruhi are made for each other in a way that Kyoya admires, respects. In a way that he will never be made for someone else. 

He rests his chin in the palm of his hand, staring down at the math worksheet and not quite seeing it. He should be trying a little harder to study, considering that university applications are coming up and people are beginning to expect him to know what he’s doing with his future. 

He has some ideas, because he wouldn’t be Kyoya Ootori if he didn’t have at least a skeleton of a plan or an outline of ambition, but he has yet to say any of those ideas out loud. He has yet to admit to them, to wanting things that he father didn’t want first. He’ll wait to be accepted before he’ll tell anyone his plans. Once he hears back from different universities, once he has all of his options, then he’ll think about it.  

Deep down, though, he knows that he’s just putting it off because he’s terrified of it. He doesn’t want to think about the future, about all of the things that are speeding towards him and Tamaki much faster than they have any right to. He doesn’t want to deal with all of the problems that they’re going to have to face, many of them without each other. 

The thing that scares him the most— more than the vague shadowy monster of a future— is that he will have to leave everything he loves behind in order to face that monster. If he wants to move forwards, move onwards, move upwards, there are so many loves that he is going to have to let go of. 

The problem with being friends with someone in high school in Japan right before you move to the United States for university is that you are going to lose them. You are going to love them, and you are going to lose them. 

There is not another ending to this story, Kyoya knows, because as close as he and Tamaki are, it’s going to be difficult with the time and distance between them. Tamaki has never been good at keeping track of things that are not right in front of him and Kyoya is terrible with texting; neither of them are made for a long distance anything. 

He closes his eyes for a moment, focusing on the feeling of the skin of his palm against his cheek. His hands are always so cold, but it wakes him up from the spiral he could feel himself running down. He’s been doing that a lot lately. Falling down rabbit holes of missing people before they’re even gone. 

When he opens his eyes, he looks up to Tamaki to ask about the math homework, if he had done it yet or if he could help Kyoya with problem set number three, but the words die on his lips before they’ve come out. 

Tamaki is curled into himself on the couch, the book open and resting on his chest. His eyes are fully closed, sleeping soundlessly. One hand is caught underneath the book, holding his page open; the other arm is being used as a pillow for his head. Tamaki shifts slightly, the book threatening to crash onto the floor, and murmurs something in his sleep. 

He’s been exhausted recently, Kyoya knows. He mentioned a few weeks ago that he doesn’t sleep very well in the first Suoh mansion— something about the echoing of the corridors, the towering height of the ceilings, the impersonal white and gold of the wall inlays. Something about all of the cold, fragile ghosts that must live there. 

He looks so soft as he sleeps, so calm and quiet. A calm and quiet Tamaki is often something only he gets to see, and Kyoya treasures the moment. A strand of hair has fallen in front of his closed eyelids, and Kyoya wants to brush it away, pressing his hand against the smooth skin of Tamaki’s cheek. It would probably wake him up, though, so Kyoya just takes a deep breath and stills the itch to kiss him. 

Besides, that’s not who they are. They’re not dating and they’re not in love and they can’t be. Kyoya refuses to let that happen, not now, not when he’s been spending the year preparing himself to lose him. Not when he knows that he will have to let go in only a few months, when Tamaki goes to Tokyo University and Kyoya gets on a plane. 

He swallows the urge to wake him up and ask about the math homework or ask about his relationship with Haruhi or ask, is he okay at all or is he like Kyoya, scared of a future that he cannot prevent from dawning? Is he like Kyoya, trying to distance himself from all of the things he will lose before he loses them? Or is he being brave? 

Kyoya knows the answer to that. He does not need nor does he want Tamaki to say it out loud. Tamaki has always been braver and stronger than he is. The bravest thing Kyoya has ever done is love Tamaki, and even that he cannot do loudly. 

So instead, he stands up, stifling a groan at the pins and needles in his left foot. He goes over to the linen closet in the corner to pull out the softest blanket he owns, the one he only pulls out for the coldest nights. 

Walking back to the couch, Kyoya looks at Tamaki again. In sleep, he is peaceful; there is nothing wrong in the world, there is no longing and there is no losing. In sleep, where he can see the love written into the lines of Kyoya’s mouth, Kyoya is allowed to smile at him.

He takes the book from Tamaki, putting in the bookmark at the right page and setting it down on the table. Then, carefully, he drapes the blanket over Tamaki, wrapping him in the only warmth Kyoya can provide in this echo of a bedroom. 

Before he can stop himself, he leans over and presses the lightest of kisses to Tamaki’s forehead. He’s straightening his back and stepping away before the kiss has even processed in his head; and then he’s just left to watch and beg Tamaki not to wake up. He waits: Tamaki shifts in his sleep, and then his hand goes to curl around the edge of the blanket and shift it closer to his chin. 

Kyoya lets out a breath, grateful that the kiss didn't disturb his sleep. But just as he’s about to turn away, go back to the table and his math homework and his anxiety over the future, he thinks maybe he catches the tired glimpse of Tamaki’s smile.

[kithtaehyung]

which couple sits how? 💕 

tagged by the lovely isi @triviafics​ ty ty!!

Rules: Categorize the couples from your masterlist into two separate seating habits for when they’re out eating in public:

1. The ones who sit side-by-side 2. The ones who sit face-to-face 

okay so first off, this is a very cute tag game so ty for tagging me! second, after thinking about some of these couples, i rebelled and added two more categories: either, and neither LOL answers under the cut.

the ones who sit side-by-side: 

last november : when they finally reunite - days and days from now - reader and jin sit shoulder-to-shoulder, holding hands under the table just like they used to while laughing along with their boisterous friends. 

first love, last love : after serving all the food, yoongi and reader would take their seats at their crowded table, the former quietly smiling into his food as reader excitedly tells everyone about his latest accomplishments. 

cry to my room : cuddling on their sofa, hoseok and reader enjoy saturday morning cartoons after making their own toasted breakfast sandwiches. reader is swallowed by yet another one of his oversized hoodies that he thought he lost.  

the ones who sit face-to-face: 

the ex not missed : jin would totally take reader out on a date after they finally take time to themselves to heal, and they both enjoy the wine they had during their whirlwind of a week in that cabin months ago. 

three tangerines : LMAOOO yoongi would be sitting across the booth after a party, slowly torturing reader with his furtive glances and winks. her brother would be at the same table but wouldn’t have a damn clue. 

room 3 : after convincing reader to meet him on her lunch break, he would sit across from her, asking about her day and trying to make her as comfortable as possible while her heart beats like a thundering roll. 

starry night : jungkook would love staring at reader while she spoke about anything and everything, reaching out across the table to wrap his loving hands around hers. definitely would be thinking about proposal every damn second.

either: 

hush, yeah? : PFFFT taehyung would absolutely choose violence either way, sneaking fingers onto reader’s thigh if beside her or devouring her with his eyes from across the very loud, very chaotic table. 

bewitched, body & soul : namjoon would adore being next to his lover at their dining table when they have company, but he would most ardently love to stare into her eyes while they enjoyed a nice meal alone. 

neither: 

what happened in neverland : oh... hoseok and reader wouldn’t even touch the same table if they knew the other had been there before PFFT. 

ugh f*ck : no one would even make it to a table dsfjksdljf much less outside. 

-

-

tagging (no pressure as always, and if you already did it link meee!): @sketchguk @lavienjin @floralseokjin @sugaurora @taesinferno @gcfkims @taegularities @missgeniality @underthejoon @suga-kookiemonster @kpopfanfictrash @bratkook @sugasbabiie @chateautae @yeoldontknow @jungkxook @joheunsaram @yoonia (i am.. aware that some of you have one million couples so dsjklf feel free to ignore! i just adore all of your writings and would love to see your perspectives.)

[kyidyl]

Kyidyl Does Archaeology - Part 4

(As before, if you’re only seeing this part 4, the rest of them have the tag KyidylCL)

THE ARTEFACTS

Ok, so I’ve talked about the site and what we’ve been digging in and such, but I’m gonna be honest with you guys: I like lab work exponentially more than field work.  So I am the one who has been processing the vast majority of the finds and ergo have lots of stuff.  That’s why I sometimes make jokes about the stuff in my basement - I’m storing the majority of it here in my basement.  I’ve gotten the question before about ownership, so here is how that works.  The dig is on private land so anything we get technically belongs to the owner of the land.  Now, as far as I know, he has no interest in keeping any of it so it’ll likely end up in the hands of the arch society, who will basically just be custodians of it but not owners.  It might end up in a museum, too.  I don’t really know, but that determination won’t be made until we’re finished, and not by me.  

So every site has its own sort of categories of stuff that you find depending on who lived there (although for ease, archaeologists often categorize this stuff based on location and time - more on that later.).  For our site the majority of it falls into these categories: animal bone, shell, lithics, pottery, charcoal, modern contaminants, and artefacts.  And, to lend a bit of clarity here...lithics are anything made of rock.  So they include fire cracked rocks, flakes from stone tool making, material that was used in construction, material that was crushed to make temper for pottery paste (more on that later, too.), etc.  If it came from a rock it’s a lithic.  

And imma tell you a secret: I hate lithics.  Everyone has their thing, their category of human refuse that they simply do not like.  A prof of mine hated teeth and pottery.  That’s just how it is, and mine is lithics.  I think they’re boring, I can’t tell a flake from a blade, I don’t give a single fuck what material they are, I don’t care about the style or craftsmanship...I just don’t care.  I call them all rocks, and I do it so much that everyone on the site has started accidentally calling them rocks, too, which amuses me.  Rocks, to an archaeologist, means “stone that wasn’t altered or used by people”.  They’re worthless.  Not that I think lithics are worthless - far from it - I just really hate them and this site has so.  goddamned.  many.  Lucky for me, we have a Rock Guy aka someone who really loves lithics and actually has gotten pretty good at flint knapping and just, y’know, is really into rocks.  

And to clarify about artefacts.  When you’re out in the field everything you find is either an artefact or a find.  The collection of these things is called an assemblage.  When you’re doing lab work and sorting through it all later on an artefact is, well...like a thing.  I’m explaining this poorly....it’s a complete object with a specific function.  So, a whole pot = artefact, broken pieces = sherds (not shards, sherds.). Complete arrowhead = artefact, flakes or a broken one = lithic.  Artefacts also tend to be somewhat unique, or at least something you don’t have a lot of.  They don’t always have to be complete, anything that is a specific object can go in here.  Like, for example, this piece of pipe we found: 

To recap, we’ve got pottery, charcoal, lithics, shell, bone (animal - we haven’t found human. But I’m just gonna say bone.), and artefacts.  If you are sensitive to things like that, this is your warning that this post is going to have pictures of animal bone and you should scroll quickly.  

Now, for reference, this is what it all looks like before I clean it and after it’s been dying out for a day or two (the ground has natural moisture, so I basically just open the bags and let them air out.): 

And, yes....I am cleaning them off on an actual antique blotter with real silver edges that my mom gave me for this express purpose.  A factoid I’m only sharing because it amuses me in that sort of “bet they never envisioned this use for this thing” sort of way.  Normally, if I was in a real lab, you’d do this over a metal tray.  When you’re working with an assemblage you never hold it over empty space, you always hold it over the bench and preferably over whatever your work surface is.  That doesn’t mean I haven’t dropped my fair share of stuff anyway, but most of it just lands on the work surface and not the floor, which is why you hold it over a work surface.  But anyway, as you can see, it just looks like a brown, dirty mess.  I usually do a quick sort of the stuff I know for sure what it is and then I wash it with a soft toothbrush and some water.  The rocks I just submerge and swoosh around because they’re rocks and I can’t really damage them and there’s SO FRIKKIN MANY that I refuse to clean them individually.  

So now that you’ve gotten through that long-winded but necessary explanation of terms, where are we at? Since I’m a bioarchaeologist and I prefer things that were once alive to the general detritus of human society, we’re gonna start with the bone.  Specifically, we’re gonna start with how I know those two pits from yesterday’s post are one pit.  This is how: 

This is a deer bone.  Don’t ask me which one bc I’m really not good at ID’ing species and animal anatomy, but it’s a leg bone of some kind.  See how it’s broken? One piece was found in one hole and the other piece was in the other.  Clearly it’s the same animal, ergo the pits are related to each other.  The vast majority of what came out of that particular feature was bone, with the rest being charcoal and the occasional pot sherd.  This means it was probably used for cooking and not as a garbage pit. Also there was food in it, if you recall the cooking accident from yesterday.  but sometimes y’know, stuff falls into the fire pit or it’s put in there as a way of disposing of it.  

But wait, I have more cool animal bones!! 

Ok, so there’s this one: 

This bone has a special place in my heart. IDK what species it is (I *think* it’s a fragment of deer long bone.), but that’s not why it’s cool.  This single bone is strong evidence for the presence of dogs.  =D See that circular mark on the right? That is the impression of a canine tooth from a carnivore.  Human teeth can’t make those marks in bones - our teeth aren’t strong enough to do significant damage to bone, and anyway we tend to crack bones open with rocks (a form of damage called percussion marks.) and not with our teeth.  Those other longer scratch marks are also likely from chewing, not butchery, because they’re in the right places and they’re the right shape.  Now we know this was a settlement, and this bone was found smack in the middle surrounded by human detritus and not on the fringes or outskirts.  There were no domesticated felines in the Americas at the time BC this is from the lower pre-contact level, so what’s really the only carnivore that would be wandering around a human settlement? Dogs.  I love this kinda stuff because it’s so easy see them chilling around the fire pit, talking and eating, teasing whomever it was that spilled dinner, and then tossing the bones to their dogs to gnaw on after dinner.  It’s just such a people kind of thing, you know? All from one small, circular mark.  I actually found more on later bones that came out of other places, so it’s pretty safe to say there were dogs living here with their people even though we have found neither people nor dogs.  

So here’s another cool bone: 

Again, no idea what species it is bc I’m not a zooarch (yes, there are archaeologists that specialize in animals and wooooo boy can they tell you a LOT about migration and eating habits of people.). It’s about the size of half my thumb, IE, not large.  This one is cool, and it’s the only one I have like this, because of that notch you can see vertically in the image on the right hand side.  I don’t know what it was for, but I DO know that it was an intentionally made modification to the bone.  Those striations aren’t natural - natural bone is smooth or has a very specific texture and this isn’t that.  It’s probably not damage done to the bone after it was deposited in the archaeological record.  It has the same patina as the majority of the rest of the bone, which you can compare to the lighter area there on the right hand end of the bone.  That lighter area does not have the patina of age that the rest of the bone does, and is the result of damage in a much more recent time - probably as we were taking it out of the ground.  Small bones are fragile.  So someone gouged this channel intentionally in this bone, either because they were going to use it as decoration or it served some purpose as a tool.  I’m not really sure what though.  Hell, they could have just been bored and fidgeting after eating.  Either way, it’s a human modification to this bone that has nothing to do with cooking or consumption (damage from human consumption is cracks and breaks, not scrapes.).  It could also be a butchery mark, although it’s a bit deep for that.  Butchery marks are there from separation of meat from bone - they’re usually just shallow scrapes.  

Ok, last cool bone I’m gonna show you.  Well, bones, plural.  

Ok so this is part of the same assemblage as the ones above, and if I remember correctly these were the ones that came out of that pit.  You can see the same bone with the canine tooth mark there in the center.  There’s also some interesting things like some pottery on the left and a couple teeth off to the right (one is a deer and I *think* that curved on is a squirrel.), but the really interesting thing is the series of 3 shiny bones that are in the center.  There’s a lot of ways to cook meat, and they all do different things to bones.  You will often find the dry, brown looking ones like you can see here in the non-shiny bones. That’s like...your basic “this bone had meat on it when it was cooked”. Then you’ll see ones that are black, and that’s “this bone probably didn’t have meat when it was cooked, or someone tossed it back in the fire when they were done”. Lastly, you’ll see white bone, and that’s a bone that has been burned at a high temperature for a long time.  Usually it’s done on purpose (you can use burned, powdered bone to make stuff.).  

But the shiny ones were in a soup.  And the reason I know that is *because* they’re shiny.  Bones, especially old ones, aren’t shiny.  I mean...you can see that.  You have to do stuff to ‘em.  And bones are porous, but those weren’t.  They felt like hard plastic. And they get that way by being boiled.  The shiny patina is what we call pot polish - they were stirred in the soup while it was cooking and rubbed against the side of the pot and each other, and it gives them a smoother texture.  

All of these collections of bones tell us what and how they ate things.  I know from what I can ID here (which isn’t everything, trust me.) that they ate a lot of deer and wild turkey (we have an entire almost completely intact turkey long bone.). There is also, I believe, squirrel (I found a portion of a skull and jaw that I’m pretty sure belong to a squirrel), and an assortment of other small rodents and birds.  Lots of birds.  Bird bone is really distinctive, it’s light and the spongy bone has a distinct texture.  A zooarchaeologist can look at bones like this and ID species and age, and from there tell you what time year something was probably killed.  Societies that hunted a lot tended to do it seasonally so that they wouldn’t damage the populations.  Plus especially with fish and stuff they have very specific growing cycles and short lifespans, so they can also tell you a lot about where the people were hunting and when.  Like certain fish will only spawn in certain places, so it’s really informative.  Zooarchs are so important and there just aren’t enough of them.  

Anyway, there are other cool things in the bones but I’m trying to strike a balance here between too much and not enough and I really love bone so I’m going to stop here for today.  Tomorrow is going to be other artefacts (yeah, sadly, even lithics, lol), and what they tell us about the site and the people who lived there.   As an aside: if anyone has any like just general “how do they know this?” sort of questions about history and archaeology those would be fun to answer.  I love to tell people how we do things but I don’t just wanna infodump.  I DO want to explain procedure in what I hope is a readable way because I think understanding how we make the sausage will help people have more trust in science.  So if you have any questions, please, send asks.  If I don’t know the answer I’ll research it or pass it on to someone who does.  

[ts4-poses]

New MASTERLIST WITH FILTER

Some of you have noticed that I posted yesterday a new masterlist. Unfortunatley I deleted by accident the new masterlist. Luckily I had a half-done backup. Oh Llama! So I did the rework and added even more tags. 

Currently, this blog experiences some massive changes and improvements, as most of you have noticed already. The TAG system did improve. As a result of the current changes, a new overhaul has been done. As of today, you will get a brand-new MASTERLIST with a filter system. Yep, you heard it.

Our lovely tags will remain as they are, but they have been reorganized, and a bunch of existing ones has been added. Some spelling errors are fixed. The list did explode with the number of new tags. It was time to change something. 🤨

The good news is: Masterlist is now way bigger and split into several categories and alphabetical order. Bad news? Well, the old layout is gone. Bye-bye, old masterlist, you served well, but we don’t need you anymore. 😆

The new filter helps to get a better overview of the tags we have. Took nearly two (now almost four) days to restructure and organize that babe. But it looks much better now. Promise! So here are the changes: 😏

Top: News/Updates, little Tutorial, a Help-Corner, Trigger Warning, and stuff you can find pose-related and beside poses on this blog.

Basics: Age & Gender, Amount, Position, Traits, and Type.

Actions: Activities and Actions. What else, right?

Accessories: The wonderful little thingies we need almost always to tell cool realistic stories.

Objects: All kinds of stuff and more stuff... you know the drill.

Sim’s Life: Everything that a Sim wants or needs in their life. Like Events & Socializing, Friends (NEW) Unbelievable, right? Not any more! Here you will find more categorized poses like Gestures, Life Stages, Location, Love, Music, Pets, Profession/Career, Transportation, and so on.

Genres: Historical Stuff, Supernatural Stuff, and whatever will come up in the future and has its own genre. This is the place to go.

Seasonal: Seasons? Holidays? Weather? Kinda, yeah! You get me, right?

Specials: Topics that don’t fit in any other category. Check out the poses for your potential general Simedits or Lookbook or whatever. Traits show up here as well, dope, huh?

Themed: Has been restructured and fulfills a new purpose. You look for Poses regarding Beauty & Care? Smokin’ fly! Yeah, I see you! Healthcare, anyone? Fame & Media? VIP, eh? Wedding? Yes, please! Foods? I knew your sim were hungry. Pregnancy? Uh, a little one is on the way?  Law & Order? Well, it can't be wrong to lock up those bad guys, right? You see where this is going?

Creators: Here you can explore who has changed their Simblr Names or if creators did retire, but most of their content is still available and more...

Trigger Warning: Link to the Trigger Info page. Just to make sure you will see that it is linked.

NSFW: The last section is the corner for ADULT CONTENT to be used at your own risk, and it requires you to read first the Trigger Warning Info if you dislike such topics.

A few tags have now a skull  ☠️. That means this tag can contain some NSFW-related content due to its nature of having multiple meanings or it serves multiple purposes. In this case, you need to see for yourself if you want/need to block those tags, too.

More topics for the ‘THEME’ section can be added in the future. If you have a suggestion, comment below. Maybe it will be added. 😉

Drop a note and tell if you like the new list with the new system.

This post will stay for 24 hours pinned before I will pin the previous Trigger Warning Post Info again.

Stay safe and sound. Happy Pose Findings! 😌

26th. April 2021

[hotchley]

🐨 Eid Mubarak!!! I hope you had a peaceful, meaningful month of Ramadan. And now, you get to eat all the food and sleep through the night!

I shoulda known you’re a Four. It fits! The other person I know who’s a Four didn’t think the Enneagram could like, sun him up into a category, and then he read the description of a Four and was like, “damn it, my reluctance to be categorized is what categorizes me”.

My church is…special. Last month we had both a pop-punk style Bible verse song that involved head banging until my glasses fell off, and something called Cardbord Night. And as for the worship team (affectionately nicknamed ‘Kate And The Middle Aged Men In The Back’ by the sound dude) we are all dorks who should not be given the access to microphones that we have. Our worship leader kept saying dad jokes into the whisper mic (a mic that feeds directly into the band’s in-ear monitors rather than through the house speakers) during the opening video during Christmas service, which I think sums us up well.

Yeah, I figured I know your first name, you may as well know mine! Feel free to use Kate as you please. Fun fact, I was named after both my grandmas, Kathryn and Kathleen, so my full name—Katelyn—is the Irish version of Kathy! I didn’t know that until I was like 14. And then my middle name is after my mom’s favorite book. I like knowing the stories behind people’s names; I feel like it’s a cool insight into who they are.

Thank you <3

It was a very good Eid! And I found Ramadan very peaceful, even if it wasn't a perfect month. That's okay though. It's about intention.

So funny story. After the first ask, I redid the test because I'm a different person to when I was fifteen/sixteen and I'm now a Type Two! Which means you were in fact right!!

Ooh that sounds great! My glasses kinda don't fit my face properly so they just naturally always fall off lol... anyways, your church sounds amazing and I love the name of your worship group!

Kate suits you! Like in my brain you're koala, but now you'll probably be both Kate and koala- and when I mention you to my friends I can be like; yes Kate, she's great anyways, listen to what happened-

That's a wonderful story! Also! In my novel, I wrote Jonathan's sister in and her name is Katherine so she gets called Kathy :)

Her almost name was Eloise but I just didn't like Eloise Kaysummer, so I ended with Katherine Kaysummer which sounds great- to me that is.

[acti-veg]

so I recently started getting into cooking jackfruit (because who can resist a cheap, easy meat substitute), and I realized I didn't really know what it was adding to my diet nutrition wise, since technically it's a fruit but I was using it as a protein. I was already aware that the traditional food pyramid is not really accurate, but I was still mentally thinking about how I needed more grains than anything in my diet, followed by vegetables, fruit, and protein when eating. (1/3)

however, after looking up that jackfruit indeed is higher in protein than other fruits, I was hit with a deeper understanding of just how messed up the food pyramid is considering how arbitrary the way we categorize food types is. so my question is: do you know what nutrients/minerals that each food group have that is what makes it so that those foods are the most/2nd most/3rd most/4th most needed in our diets? (2/3) I figure if I know that we need x amount of vegetables because they are high in y, I would know better what foods I should that count toward that vegetable category, for example. hopefully that makes sense? I was having trouble figuring out how to word this question. (3/3) The food pyramid always existed for two main reasons: To get across the idea that meals should be a mix of foods of different types, and the primary reason, to sell products. The one we know and love from the 1980′s was funded by animal agriculture interests - hence the existence of ‘meat’ and ‘dairy’ as food groups rather than foods. We have come a long way since that of course, nowadays they really exist just as a simplistic representation of the kinds of things we should be eating.

Food groupings are entirely arbitrary yes, they’re made up just as a way to categorise different foods. As much as I understand why they are used, I do think they have done some harm over the years. This common misconception that you neeed protein and here are the foods that contain protein, has people convinced they need to have protein powders as a vegan, failing to realise that  everything has protein. It’s a helpful tool in many ways, but the way we group foods really isn’t a reflection of their nutritional content.

[wool-f]

Money and motivation

In the wise words of Wu Tang Clan - Cash Rules Everything Around Me (CREAM). 

In a perfect world, this wouldn’t be the case, however, in the capitalist society that we are currently existing within, money is essential to survival. 

As much as I dislike this fact, I also am an active enthusiast in buying things, enjoying things and feeling luxurious in all experiences I have. Maybe it’s the Taurus in me, maybe it’s capitalism brainwashing me, either way, I like what I like, and money is a key element to enjoying some of those specific things.

One of my favourite enjoyment experiences, and one of the most expensive hobbies ever, is travelling. In my original blogpost on this blog I talked about how I was lucky enough to be able to travel around Europe for three months at the end of my degree in 2019. 

Unlike some people, I didn’t have the luxury of parent’s lending me money or being gifted the trip, I had to work two minimum wage jobs while also living out of home, paying normal bills and studying full time to be able to afford to go away for that period of time. I had to be disciplined and actively saving money the entire time, while also living a life where I wasn’t starving or missing bills. 

In this blogpost, I’ll go through the methods I used to be able to save, and the habits that I got into in order to strategically save money while also being able to continue having fun. Before I begin, I thought I should put out a little disclaimer, that I realise that not everyone is going to have to same privilege I did and do in some areas, so take this with a grain of salt, especially in regards to minimum wage. I live in Australia, so our minimum wage is quite good, and I have always had a stable financial environment, purely due to luck and the minimal financial literacy education that my parents were able to impart on me. With that being said, I by no means grew up surrounded by money - from a young age I knew what it meant to work hard and smart in order to maximise the return of my efforts, being energy and time expenditure into things is a significant factor in effectively doing anything in life. I have a strong work ethic and often overwork myself in order to meet (sometimes) unreasonable goals that I set for myself, and I’ve learnt the hard way that making realistic goals is the key to achieving anything in life. And so begins the guide on how I saved money whilst on minimum wage.

Step One: Setting Achievable Goals

The most important step is to actually assess how much money you are bringing in, putting aside the amount you need to have for bills and food, and then accurately attribute the leftover funds to enjoyment and to saving. 

If you haven’t saved before, this is probably the most important step, especially to not get overwhelmed or make it too difficult to achieve. 

When I was saving to travel, I was making around $900 Australian dollars a week between both the jobs I was working. So I used the following equation to save. 

Incoming: $900/week 

Rent: $250/week  Other Bills: $200/week Travel: $250 Deposit: $150 Fun: $50

On the weeks that I would earn more than $900, I would simply put the overflow straight into my travel account. 

Once you’ve figured out how you want to separate your pay into your chosen categories, you’re ready for step two!

Step Two: Bank Accounts

This step will differ depending on your bank and the way they organise their app. I am with ANZ, and have seven categorically named accounts. If you can do that with your bank account, I genuinely think it’s the easiest way to actively save money.

Every week I would be so disciplined and transfer those exact amounts to their selected accounts, and tick off the milestone goals I had made for myself in saving. 

I didn’t come up with this method myself. I’ve listened to my fair share of money podcasts, and I found this method the most effective for saving. The multiple account method I have described above came from the podcast My Millenial Money. The method has helped me so much that I tell anyone that will listen and I’m typing it out here now! 

Step Three: Breaking Down Achievable Goals

This might be my favourite step. If you’re anything like me, you get off on ticking off check list items. 

To satisfy this urge, I break down the big goal into smaller, quicker little goals. 

Once I achieve the saved amount in the smaller goals, I almost get more joy ticking off the amount from my list than from the money actually being in the account. 

I think this step also helps to keep the end goal in perspective without it being an overwhelming pressure to get there. It’s like any planned goal - breaking it down into small sections changes your focus from the long run, to the shorter and closer landmarks. 

Step Four: Consistency 

This is the last and probably the most important step. You have to consistently being saving your money to actually reach your goal. This is also something I can’t teach or give advice on, other than to say, just do it. Make it more attractive to your mind to save money than to spend it. Set your habit, stick to it. That goes for anything that you want to stick to in life. Be consistent. 

With that, this brings my guide to saving money to a close! If you use this method, please let me know via my asks box or comment on the post down below! Let me know what you’re saving for and when you achieve the goal using the method! 

Until the next blog post, feel free to follow me on my instagram, youtube or twitter. 

Have a great week :)

[sodapill]

days like television

words: 3.9k

relationships: denji & hayakawa aki & power, implied akiangel

ao3 link

a/n: here’s something i wrote exploring the dynamic of the hayakawa household from denji’s pov!

cw: mild emetophobia, smoking, ptsd

These days, Denji finds himself greeting every morning with a face full of cat fur.

These days, Denji finds himself greeting every morning with a face full of cat fur.

Nyako has taken a liking to sleeping in his room, and she’s got a strict routine that he’s expected to follow. Breakfast doesn’t begin at the reasonable time after Aki doles out their portions, but rather whenever Nyako demands it, usually before the sun has peaked past the horizon and always when Denji is dead asleep.

Her favorite method of waking him used to be persistent yowling, but recently she’s adopted a new strategy—settling the length of her pudgy stomach over his head and cutting off his air supply.

It’s devious but effective, and as Denji’s body kicks into fight or flight from lack of oxygen, he can’t help but think they’ve raised a spoiled brat.

Power claims that’s how all pets are, but Pochita never refused the pathetic scraps of food Denji managed to scrounge up for their sporadic meal times. Nyako is the odd one for being a normal cat with normal needs.

It’s a good thing Denji is “nothing if not adaptable,” a phrase Aki used once that he’s since latched onto. Whether Aki meant it as an insult or not is irrelevant.

Occasionally growing a chainsaw for a head has made him realize he can adapt to pretty much anything. The hardest part of it all was learning to live with other people, and Denji sort of manages that. What difference does a daily smothering make in the grand scheme of things?

He’s gotten used to pulling a purring Nyako from his face so he can trudge to the kitchen and open a can of cat food. It’s considered one of his chores anyway—and yeah, they have a chore chart now.

That was all Aki, of course. Fed up with the stacks of unwashed dishes and dirty clothes strewn across the living room floor, he’d cooked and then withheld a delicious hotpot dinner until Denji and Power both agreed to work out a schedule. They’d decided to cycle cleaning throughout the week and set Saturday as laundry day. That way there was no excuse for Power to walk around in her underwear under the guise of not having anything to wear. It was her idea that the penalty for missing a chore be losing a finger, and Aki added it to the chart like that wasn’t something he’d ever have to worry about.

Denji didn’t want to give either of his housemates the satisfaction, so he’d gotten used to doing chores.

Begrudgingly.

Make no mistake—he can get used to anything, but he doesn’t have to like it. He’s learned to tolerate doing dishes like he tolerates the acrid smell of second-hand smoke filling his lungs whenever Aki feels like having a cig indoors. Bad smells never bothered him when he’d lived in poverty, but the weight of smoke in particular is stomach-turning.

As he’s forced to crack open a window and watch Nyako slink a similar retreat onto the sill, Denji considers how all this luxury has possibly made him a bit spoiled too.

After all, not everything he grows accustomed to is outright shitty.

For all her annoying living habits, Power proves to be a low-maintenance roommate. Her moods fluctuate so wildly, if she finds anything to complain about in the first place, she’s over it by the next turn of the clock. She also takes bizarre pride in completing her chores, dragging him or Aki around the apartment to boast of what a good job she’s done.

She pouts if they don’t praise her enough—but whatever. Denji is used to it.

Her constant chatter becomes less annoying the more time they spend together, until he realizes the apartment is too quiet on the rare occasion she’s not there. The sound of her exchanging meows with Nyako reminds him he’s home, and even her cackling laugh soon registers as comforting background noise.

Similarly, Denji now recognizes the shifts in Aki’s tone well enough to know if he’s actually in trouble, versus if Aki is scolding him for the sake of propriety. Denji watches for other tells when pulling pranks with Power—an indulgent shake of the head and a tug at the corner of Aki’s lips means they’re in the clear.

It's easy to pinpoint exactly what shade of melancholy he’s drifted into just by counting the number of consecutive cigarettes he pulls from the pack. Two is contemplative—four, somber. Anything past that means they’ll have to arrange for takeout that night.

Aki is consistent, and when he starts drifting in and out of rooms like he’s lost something, his fingers trailing the walls as if navigating in the dark, Denji knows he’s actually looking for a distraction. In those moments, Denji makes an effort to act extra obnoxious, riling Power up in turn until Aki has no choice but to pay attention to them and forget whatever bad memory he’d gotten hung up on.

Gathering facts about the people he lives with isn’t a conscious choice. It’s instinctual, like how his body expects food on the regular. He’d put up with a constant state of starvation for his entire adolescence, doing odd jobs on an empty stomach like it was nothing. Now it ruins his entire day if he doesn’t get at least three meals. What’s crazier, his body punishes him when he takes advantage of the unrestricted access to food.

Aki’s cooking is good. So good in fact, that for a large span of time, Denji is constantly shifting into “eat as much as possible” mode, left over from when food was scarce. This results in several post-meal puke sessions, made all the more miserable because Denji’s body is pretty much invincible, right? He’d thought whatever devils were made out of meant they were above this shit. Ending up with his face inside a toilet bowl has forced him to rethink his previous assumptions.

It sucks waiting for his body to adjust alongside his brain, but Power and Aki do their best to make it more bearable. The first time Power kneels beside him on the cold tile, he’s sure she’s there to laugh at his misery—it wouldn't be the first time. He’s bewildered when instead, she places both palms on his back and rubs them vigorously up and down in what must be her version of a soothing caress. She doesn’t laugh or even complain, and only when his stomach is empty and he’s slumped against the wall in exhaustion does she get up and fetch Aki, who steps into the bathroom with a soldier's solemnity to deposit a mug of hot tea into Denji’s hands.

It happens enough times where Denji doesn’t bother to ask questions, filing it away as one of those things that fits into an unnamed category of half shitty, half not so shitty—like movie nights.

The three of them have vastly different tastes, Aki with his mind-numbing art house flicks and Power’s penchant for talking animal movies made for literal children. Denji doesn’t know what genre he likes most, but it’s definitely not either of those.

It’s an unspoken rule that they have to watch each one all the way through. Aki is the type to sit in complete silence because talking “ruins the integrity of the film,” whatever that means, and Denji’s running commentary annoys him to no end.

Denji and Power make bets each time on how long it’ll take him to snap or huff out a laugh.

On the rare occasion it’s Denji’s turn to choose, he splits the difference and puts on something from the best seller section at the video store. With this method, they all have to suffer through garbage, but occasionally he’ll stumble across a good movie—one he doesn’t mind staying quiet for. He watches Aki and Power rather than the television screen, their rapt attention filling him with an odd sense of pride.

Denji categorizes those nights as not so shitty.

After a while, he gets so used to the good and bad mundanities of domestic living, he can’t even imagine what a change in routine would look like.

Then they go to Hell, and instead of cat fur, Denji is more often violently jerked awake to the sound of Power’s screams.

She’s more dependent than ever before, clinging to Denji at all times like an extra limb. When the sun begins to set outside their windows, she startles at every sound, working herself into a panic while her nails dig half-moon circles into his arms that he’s sure would leave permanent scars were he fully human.

Looking after her turns out to be even more work than getting up at the crack of dawn to feed Nyako—but for some reason, Denji can’t bring himself to resent her for it.

He takes on the responsibility of comforting her with a resilience he never knew he had, going as far as holding her hand each night while she struggles to calm down enough to fall asleep.

Power isn’t the only one Denji has to keep an eye on.

At first, he doesn’t notice the way Aki will sometimes stop cold in the middle of cutting vegetables, gripping the knife handle hard enough to whiten his knuckles as a shudder of something awful passes through his body. He’s good at hiding it, and when Denji catches the tail end of one of these attacks, Aki brushes it off like it’s nothing.

It’s only after Aki suddenly sinks to the floor in the middle of a conversation, his hand clutching at the place where his missing arm wouldn’t reattach, that Denji realizes he’s overlooked something important.

Phantom limb syndrome, Aki explains, is an ongoing side effect of losing a limb wherein the brain gets mixed signals from the area of severance and translates them in the only way it knows how—as pain. He rambles off some more medical science that goes completely over Denji’s head, but from what he can gather, this affliction is severe, unavoidable, and sometimes life long. There’s no cure, but as with other chronic conditions, the goal is learning to manage it the best you can.

The thought of Aki suffering in silence makes Denji want to deck him as much as it makes him want to find a solution for his pain. He juggles these warring impulses until Aki clenches his jaw and looks away—and Denji understands that Aki won’t spend any extra energy looking after himself by choice.

So Denji and Power force him to.

They keep a hot pack in the cabinet above the microwave, and when Aki shows even the slightest sign of falling under the grip of pain, they warm it up and force him to sit with it pressed to the aching muscle. They know it’s particularly bad when Aki doesn’t bother hiding how much it hurts, and in those moments they take turns massaging his shoulder.

Aki refuses to speak with them during, so Denji and Power talk to each other, treating the situation like it’s something they’ve always done.

Denji doesn’t comment on Aki’s silence. He’s come to understand that there are some things they don't need to say aloud. When you’ve lived with a person long enough, you can share a thought with just a gesture, or pick up on ideas that you can't put into words

Power doesn't need to tell him she appreciates his company on her bad nights. Likewise, he doesn’t need to voice why he doesn’t mind taking care of her. He couldn’t even if he tried.

And when Denji questions Aki on why he’s wearing a glove indoors, Aki only has to shoot a single warning look to shut him up.

Later that night, Aki welcomes the Angel Devil into their apartment.

One arm between the two of them—Denji thinks that's pretty funny, but he doesn’t say so. Instead, he hangs back as Power slinks around their guest like she’s investigating a new play thing.

Angel endures her attention for a short time, then flicks Denji a cool look and tucks his wings in, settling on the couch without a word.

Aki hovers in the foyer, glancing between the three of them like he’s waiting for a fight to break out. It’s such a dumb look on him that Denji takes it upon himself to make the first move.

He plops down on the arm rest and asks Angel outright if he’s ever tried using the thing floating above his head as a frisbee.

Angel rolls his eyes and informs Denji that his halo is sharp enough to slice through metal.

“Sounds like a challenge,” Denji shoots back, and he’s sure Aki’s surprise mirrors his own when the corner of Angel’s mouth lifts into a smirk.

“By all means, be my guest,” he says, inclining his head in invitation.

Denji moves to take Angel up on his offer, but Aki comes back to himself and catches Denji’s hand in a tight hold. He then spends several minutes lecturing them both on how hard it is to get blood stains out of upholstery.

The rest of the night is...well, it’s still weird. But Aki so obviously wants it not to be that they all pretend for his sake. While he cooks dinner, Denji and Power keep their surprise guest company.

Angel is surprisingly talkative when prompted, though he always seems to veer their conversations into the morose. At one point, he stares glumly at Nyako snoozing on the counter and warns them to watch her closely.

“Cats don’t actually have nine lives,” he remarks, “I learned that the hard way.”

Denji doesn’t say anything when Aki lays out enough food to feed a small army, all special dishes that he’d never cook for Power or Denji even if they begged. He digs in without a word, and it’s a good thing his mouth is stuffed, otherwise he’d be gaping at the way Aki carefully feeds Angel, every so often lifting a glass of water to his lips.

They follow up dinner with ice cream—which must be Angel’s favorite as Aki spoons him two extra helpings—and then Power is tugging at Denji’s arm, urging him to come take a bath with her.

He relents under the assumption that Angel will be gone by the time they’re done washing up. But about half an hour later, Denji exits the bathroom toweling off his hair to find Angel is still there, sitting close to Aki. They’re angled towards each other, Aki’s arm thrown over the back of the couch and the fabric of his long sleeve shirt brushing the tops of Angel’s wings.

They both look up at Denji when he enters the room. Angel’s expression appears bored as usual, but Aki’s is strange, his face relaxed in an unfamiliar way.

Denji opens his mouth, then decides better.

Aki stands, helping Angel up with a steady gloved hand to his back, and it takes everything Denji has in him to stay quiet as Aki mumbles an awkward goodnight, shepherding Angel down the hall and into his room.

Denji immediately makes up an excuse to run to the convenience store so he can check the balcony outside Aki’s room from street level. Sure enough, Aki and Angel are leaning up against the railing, heads inclined as if they’re speaking in low tones.

Denji watches Aki light himself a cigarette. He offers the box to Angel, who says something that actually makes Aki laugh, the sound ringing clear even from a distance. Placing a second cigarette in Angel’s mouth, Aki holds his own steady between two fingers, bending forward to meet the smoldering end to Angel’s unlit one. A pinpoint glow of orange flares in the dark space between their faces like a morning star.

Denji turns away, stuffs his hands in his empty pockets, and decides he’ll swing by the convenience store after all.

By the time he gets back, Angel is gone.

Aki is once again sitting on the couch, staring at the blank TV screen with a stupid smile on his face, and Denji has to say something.

It turns out Aki can punch just as hard with one arm as with two.

After that, Denji pays closer attention. Without intending, he starts to notice the way Aki sometimes looks at him and Power—though he can’t focus long enough to figure out what those looks mean. They’re gentle and wistful in a way that makes Denji want to pull at Aki’s cheeks and mold a better expression.

He tries it once, but that puts Aki in a foul mood for hours so he doesn’t do it again.

Things get even more confusing on a night where they’re all sprawled out on the carpet. The movie Aki puts on is so boring it knocks Power out in minutes, her head pillowed in the crook of Denji’s arm. He starts drifting off soon after.

It happens as he’s on the verge of sleep. His mind is muddled to the world around him, but for a second, he imagines he feels Aki place an ear to his chest.

Denji is sure he dreamt it until he walks in on Aki in the same position over a napping Power, his cheek pressed to her collarbone and his brows furrowed in concentration.

Denji backs out of the room and thinks there’s something he’s missing here.

The next time Aki is in the kitchen, Denji tests a theory, loudly announcing that he’s going to take a nap before stretching out on the couch. He feigns sleep long enough to rethink his entire strategy—when he finally hears Aki pause his task and tread softly across the room.

Denji struggles to keep a straight face as Aki kneels beside the couch and lowers an ear to his chest, keeping it there much too long for someone trying not to get caught. Eventually, he heaves a great sigh and pulls away, returning to the kitchen like he’d never left.

So, yeah. There’s the whole listening to their heartbeats thing.

Another quirk to add onto the list of Aki behavior that Denji doesn’t understand but has to accept.

Aki is still Aki. He still shouts at them when they break things, still cooks their meals and tolerates their company—though, maybe tolerates isn’t the right word anymore.

Denji is flipping through the pages of a porno mag when one of the ads catches his eye. A smiling woman in a bikini holds up a machine with a handle on top and an open space in the middle. He thinks it might be some crazy sex thing, but he has Power read the description, and she tells him it’s for making a dessert called “shaved ice.”

Neither of them know what that is, but the ad makes it sound like the best thing ever—

“—and it can be ours for the low price of two-thousand yen!” Power shouts, smacking the magazine against his arm.

Denji tears out the ad and goes to pester Aki into buying it for them.

Aki bitches and moans about wasting money on useless shit, but after getting it out of his system, he puts down the laundry he was folding and snatches the page from Denji’s hand, dialing the number with a sour expression. He’s curt over the phone, reading off his credit card details like someone has a gun to his head. Denji wishes he could see the face of the unlucky salesperson on the other line.

“Denji.” Aki says, and Denji tilts his head before realizing he’s not being spoken to. Aki pauses, and then directs a puzzled frown his way. “Last name?”

Denji shrugs.

Aki blinks at him, the furrow between his brow smoothing as if in stunned realization. After a bizarre stretch of silence, he readjusts his hold on the handset and glances away, mumbling out, “Hayakawa. Hayakawa Denji.”

When he eventually hangs up, his gaze stays trained on the far wall like he’s lost in thought. Denji decides not to test his luck by sticking around, but Aki catches his wrist as he goes to leave.

“What?” Denji grumbles. “I said thank you, didn’t I?”

“You didn’t, actually,” Aki replies dryly, but there’s no real reproval in his tone. “That’s not—just hold on a minute.”

His faltering words give Denji pause. He shakes off Aki’s hand but stays put.

“Listen,” Aki begins, messing with the pile of clothes he’d left aside. He unfolds a shirt, holds it out, and then folds it again, all the while not meeting Denji’s eye. “If you or Power ever needed— If for some reason I wasn’t here...and you needed something for documents…”

“Why wouldn’t you be here?” Denji asks, and thinks of their work. “If you’re traveling we can call you.”

Aki turns to him then, something unreadable in his thousand-yard stare.

It’s like facing a door labeled, “do not open.”

Aki sighs and looks away. “Forget it.”

And Denji does forget—until a fews days later when a package arrives at their doorstep postmarked to one Hayakawa Denji.

Placing the box on the living room table, he studies the characters of his given name, covering and uncovering them with his palm. He’d never noticed how incomplete they looked without a surname to go before. The sight turns rusty gears in his head, almost like he’s on the verge of understanding an important truth.

Power bowls him over in her excitement before he comes to a conclusion.

They leave the setup to Aki, who confiscates the shaved ice maker and reads the instructions with the two of them hovering over his shoulder. It turns out to be very simple, just a matter of filling the upper compartment with ice and turning the lever. The machine wobbles below Aki’s hand, so Denji holds it steady, watching with fascination as snow-like flakes collect in the bowl underneath. The novelty wears off a little when he dips a finger in to taste and finds it flavorless like regular ice, but Aki bats his hand away and pulls out a bottle of blue liquid.

“Flavor syrup,” he says, scanning the label. “Hawaiian Blast—what’s that supposed to be?”

Whatever it is, it tastes delicious drizzled over the ice flakes, sweet and refreshing like no dessert Denji has ever had.

Power gobbles up the first serving faster than Aki can make more, and he’s unsympathetic to the excruciating brain freeze that earns her.

She flicks the lever and turns to Denji with a conspiratorial grin. “Think it would work with blood?”

“Great idea,” Aki says, chin in hand. “Why not make this perfectly innocent activity fucked up and evil?”

Power sticks her vibrant blue tongue out at him.

Denji hates getting cut open on principle, so he appeases her by mashing up strawberries with condensed milk into a gory looking topping they can all enjoy. Even Nyako gets to lick a drop off his finger.

Aki takes his first bite and gazes into his bowl like it’s a window into a far off time and place. “I haven’t had this since I was a kid.”

“Old man,” Denji snickers.

Power echoes him at double the volume, falling back and kicking her legs in the air. The motion disturbs Nyako, who clambers off her lap and settles at Aki’s feet

“Oh, shut it,” Aki says, but the hint of a smile softens his tone into fondness. He scratches at Nyako’s ear. “At least you’re on my side.”

Shaken by her cat’s betrayal, Power stammers out, “‘Tis only pity! Nyako feels nothing but pity for humans, just like her master!”

“Is that so?” Aki raises a brow and—to Power’s great dismay—makes a show of lifting Nyako into his lap. “Lucky us then.”

“Yeah,” Denji says, a brilliant grin working its way onto his face. “Lucky us.”

[evolutionsvoid]

I have to say, the more I think about Slimes, the more excited and confused I get. For a natural historian, they sure are fascinating creatures! There is just nothing else like them! However, they bring me a whole lot of headaches because how do you categorize these things!? How do you understand or even define them? The main issue I have is a bit similar to the problem I run into when figuring out how to categorize the different dryads and the ever-growing arrangement of hybrids. The wide array of crossbreeding and how each "species" can make other "species" is quite mind boggling in the dryad world. In the land of Slimes, it is even crazier! I am sure some may recall other entries I have had on Slimes, like the Flayers, Leg Eaters and Stone Chimneys. These Slimes have chosen particular lifestyles in certain environments, and this creates quite a distinct creature. Even the entry I will shortly get into here follows the same path. The thing is, though, is that these adaptations and abilities are not locked to one group! A Flayer has adjusted its pseudobody to create an adhesive composition, while a Leg Eater has influenced its own slime to produce acidic substances. Despite this, any other normal Slime could easily walk up to one of these "species" and copy their abilities! One simple transfer, and they could learn the ways to slowly change their composition to match. So all of these different groups are just Slimes who have decided to follow a certain path, one that they could just abruptly change at any moment, or even combine! What do we do when a Fire Flayer is created? Or spike-shooting Leg Eaters start to take form? It's a mess! Sure, we could just call them all Slimes and be done with it, but where is the organization? The understanding? That doesn't sound like a conclusion, it sounds like a surrender! I refuse to take the easy route! I do not just drop these things the moment they get tough! That is when I get motivated, because if we don't figure this out, then who will?! Oh right, I am supposed to be writing about Fire Slimes. Whoops! I am sure just saying the name "Fire Slime" already makes things quite obvious to most folk. They are Slimes that can produce fire. That description is a bit reductive, but if you needed to explain it to a common member of the public, it works. In truth, the Fire Slimes do not just conjure fire out of nowhere. The flame comes from the flammable fluid that their pseudobody creates from its food and waste. This liquid can be secreted on the outside of their bodies to coat themselves, or it can be stored in bubbles that are formed inside their pseudobody. Often, they do both, storing a whole lot of it on the inside, then sweating out the excess as a defensive measure. Despite their ability to secrete this flammable substance, they can't actually ignite it. The Slime does not have the means to naturally create the spark or heat that would be required to light it all aflame. This isn't too much of problem for them, as there are plenty of other sources in this vast world that can provide them with this spark. The easiest and most abundant are rocks like flint that can be struck with metals to create a shower of fiery sparks. The Fire Slimes will collect their first fire starters in their early stages of life, and continue to amass an entire collection during the following years. This is to ensure they always have a fire starter on hand even if a foe destroys one of them during a fight, and it is also for decoration. All Slimes love a bit of fashion, and these fellows enjoy coating themselves with rocks and steel. With a fire starter in their possession, a Fire Slime is now capable of igniting their fluids. Just one spark, and it all lights up in an instant! These flames don't last too long, as it burns through their fuel quite quickly. However, these Slimes have found many ways to utilize this weaponry to the best of their abilities. With stores of the liquid inside them, they can use internal pressure to shoot it out from their bodies, either in a tight stream or a wide spray. A quick clacking of their flints will ignite the torrent and turn it into a blast of fire! This is why people tend to think that Fire Slimes can breath fire from their "heads" or shoot it from their "arms," as it looks the part! Alternatively, the Fire Slime can gather its internal stores of liquid and seal it in a thin layer of slime. Pushing this bubble to the exterior of their bodies, they will coat the outside of it in fluid and set it on fire. In one quick motion, they will launch this burning gob at a foe, looking to stick it to their hides. The gooey coating will get stuck on armor or skin, but its loss of contact with the Slime's heart will cause it to fall apart. This means that the store of flammable fluid will begin to leak out, coming in contact with the fiery outside and igniting all at once. Essentially, it all goes "boom," and that is really bad when that stuff is adhered to your face. So, in short, they can fire off explosive gobs of flaming slime, quite the weapon! While intimidating, these weapons aren't the most commonly used ones. The most frequent use of all this is focused on the liquid that coats their whole pseudobodies. A thin layer of this fluid is present on them at all times, and a simple strike of their stony scales will set it all ablaze. When agitated, a Fire Slime will rattle its fire starters as a warning. If the foe ignores this, they will activate every pair of stone and steel on their bodies. A spray of sparks will ensue, and the outer coating of fluid will burst into a huge aura of flame. This sudden burst of fire is quite terrifying, but not super deadly. It lasts for only a few moments, and it will only singe those that are in close quarters. However, this display is often enough to scare away foes and leave them with a few smoking hairs. It is mainly used as an intimidation tactic, though it does have another use. External parasites are a plague for Slimes, and what better way to be rid of them than to burn them off?

 Fire Slimes can use this arsenal for defense, but they also find it handy for hunting. Explosive blobs are good for blowing apart larger prey,  and streams of flame can flush food from their burrows and dens. Seeing a Fire Slime torch a gnu is both fascinating and horrifying, and I am not sure if I am ever going to forget that. I am sure there are many who hear about this behavior and liken it to dragons and their fiery breath. In fact, there are quite a few folk out there that say that Fire Slimes picked up this ability by mimicking dragons. I mean, c'mon! Flammable liquid expelled from the "mouth" that is then lit by sparks! That's just like a dragon! While I won't deny the similarities, I believe this is not the source of their inspiration. I am not alone in this thinking, as a whole bunch of other researchers have looked into the spread of the Fire Slimes and the environments their ranges cover. Yes, Fire Slimes can appear in volcanic areas, but they are primarily found in arid places. Within this ranges, researchers have noted quite a few alkaline lakes in their territory, a habitat that Fire Slimes are quite fond of. Another piece to the puzzle is found on their pseudobodies, as Fire Slimes tend to form very familiar structures with their collected ores. Some would say it is an "avian" look! Speaking of birds, what are the most famous birds to inhabit these alkaline lakes? Phoenixes! Yes, indeed, we believe that Fire Slimes owe their origins to their blazing beauties of the burning lakes! I dare say it is obvious! Phoenixes use their metallic beaks to create sparks that ignite their own flammable powder, which would be the perfect inspiration for a curious Slime! They would mimic this behavior and even copy their appearance to better grasp the concept. A sparking beak and feathers can be seen in the way Fire Slimes carry themselves and their collections, unknowingly honoring the source of their epiphany! You can even look at the ranges of Phoenixes and Fire Slimes and see that the two tend to overlap quite a lot! It's incredible! It makes you wonder what Slimes will come up with next! What creature will they find inspiration from and birth an entirely new category of Slimes! Unfortunately, not everyone shares my excitement of these prospects, seeing as the Fire Slimes are already a bit of a problem. People already aren't a fan of Slimes, now imagine their joy when they see one that can spray fire. Though it varies with each individual Slime and their knowledge, there are indeed enough wilder Fire Slimes out there that don't grasp the concept of "please don't burn me and my property." It doesn't help that most of their problems are solved with fire, so the second they are accosted by an angry landowner they tend to start spraying. Or if they see a tasty goat that isn't theirs (which doesn't bother them, as concept of property is a bit of a shaky subject with Slimes) they will happily treat themselves to a cook-out without a hesitation. They don't really think about those who aren't resistant to burning, as the simpler Slimes tend to divide all living creatures into two groups: "Those That Burn" and "Those That Don't." To them, things that can be set on fire are Food, while things that cannot are Not Food. On one hand, it creates the obvious conclusion of "Hey! That farmer is on fire! I guess I can eat them!" However, it can also create the idea of "this person says they aren't food, so I guess they don't burn!" It is not as terrifying as the first example, but let me tell you it can cause its own set of problems. For example, a fellow Fire Slime may get annoyed by insects trying to feed on its pseudobody and decide to unleash its fire aura to fry the nibbling gnats. They do this without hesitation because they aren't worried about the fire, and since the inquisitive plant person accompanying them said they weren't food, they shouldn't mind either! I minded. Quite a lot.     Chlora Myron Dryad Natural Historian -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Going from something fresh and new to something that is really old and has been sitting in my posting folder for practically years. Nothing too crazy or flashy, but I had to post them sooner or later!

[momoliee]

Ch 43 and why I think xqc was both right and wrong for…what he said in those videos.

On why I think what he did can be justified :

Here we have to consider xqc’s background. Xqc’s parents were brutally murdered because of their line of work. As police officers, they were investigating a dangerous case and because of this case that they were investigating, they ended up being killed in a horrendous way. When they died, they left behind a 13 year old son and a 5 year old daughter, who neither had money nor relatives to take care of them. Their two kids had to suffer and go through a lot because their parents chose to not put into consideration the danger they were putting themselves in when they picked up the case. This, of course, traumatized xqc. He suddenly had to care for his sister, care for himself, make money to put food on the table, etc etc (I’ve already written a meta on this). It also gave him nightmares, seeing his beloved parents’ bodies crushed that way and all, and I dare say, Xqc might have suffered from a case of ptsd because of the incident.

So when he saw the video of Qin Ciyan being murdered, murdered because of his career and work, all his triggers were set off at once. Qin Ciyan, sacrificing everything for his line of work, Qin Ciyan leaving behind a daughter and a wife, Qin Ciyan being murdered in a very gore-y sort of way. It set off all his alarms, probably causing an immense shock that resulted in him taking a violent step backwards. He suddenly thought, the guy who killed Qin Ciyan was a mentally ill patient, and I deal with mentally ill patients all the time. What if I die like that too? Is this career worth it? Where would Xie Xue and my wife go if I’m gone? What will happen to them? Isn’t that exactly what happened to my parents? Aren’t I, too, putting myself in danger for my career even tho I have people who are dependent and reliant on me?

And so xqc treated that patient in the hospital the way he did. And he resigned the way he did. And he said all the words that he did. And he decided to cut off he yu the way he did. It was all…a trauma response. Trauma that he never properly healed and progressed and moved past, trauma that’s so bottled and stuffed in without any room to be let out, just suddenly coming out and biting him in the ass.

Now why I think everything he did and said was wrong, despite being justified :

First of all, mentally ill patients should never, ever, be demonized, treated as some sort of lowly animals that can’t be controlled, and especially not by a certified psychologist. As xqc himself once said, they are normal people who have been placed in abnormal environments and so had no choice but to develop a mindset that’s different from others. Of course, there are those who are BORN mentally ill, who are the way they are from the moment they came out of the womb.

Here is the thing tho : all mentally ill patients are victims. They are victims of their own disorders and illnesses, they suffer because of these illnesses more than anyone around them does. Because THEY are the ones experiencing the illness, THEY are the ones battling it and fighting it on a constant daily based. They are the ones who have to treat their own brains and minds as their biggest enemy.

Nevertheless, there ARE patients who are a danger on society. There are patients who will put others at the risk of harm. And those patients are dealt with in special means and ways. When being treated, everything is done to ensure the doctor’s and the patient’s safety. There are people standing ready with sedatives, there are special wards to accommodate them and avoid triggering them, and there are special ways of treating them, understanding their minds and brains, why they do what they do, what drives them to possibly harm others, and how that can be controlled, checked, and dealt with. There are ways to teach them how to deal with their illness, how to control their impulses, and how to coexist with others in society without harming themselves or those around them.

Qin Ciyan’s case was an exception that shouldn’t have been generalized. The son of the woman who died, might have been a mentally ill patient; however, he was an untreated patient who never stepped into the office of a psychologist that could have helped him. He lived his whole life like that, with his mother never telling him that his actions are wrong or trying to redirect him, in extreme poverty too, not even knowing that he was mentally ill or different from others. Most patients like him, don’t even realize that they’re suffering from a disease unless they’re told by a professional that they are. I bet his mother herself didn’t know that her son was mentally ill. The blame here lies on society for not educating the citizens more on mental health, and instead just treating it as a taboo topic and stamping it with harmful and demonizing stereotypes. So if the son’s actions and lash out was to be blamed on his illness, then we shouldn’t blame him. Rather, we should blame his circumstances, his poverty, the ignorance of society on the topic of mental health that allowed him to go on for so long without realizing he needed proper treatment. It is an exceptional case. Not a general one. Not every day the relative of a patient of yours who died comes barging in and stabbing you with knives.

But here’s the thing, it was later proven that, despite being mentally ill, he was completely sane during the time of the murder. Which showed that the murder wasn’t done because his illness caused him to lash out and lose control and be unable to distinguish between right and wrong. It was done because of his own vengeful intentions and wrath. If that’s the case, then why should all mental health patients be blamed for HIS decisions and actions? Why should they all be categorized into the same “can’t control themselves, might kill you at any time” box for a decision that one of them made when he was in a fully sane mindset? How is it their fault? Why didn’t xqc take the fact that he was sane at the time of the incident as any other resident when he chose to say the things he said?

Xqc, for anyone who DOESNT know about your background and what you’ve been through and why you reacted the way you did, of course they will call you a hypocrite! Because xqc, psychologists always get to choose their patients, and if they feel like they can’t handle a certain patient or their expertise isn’t enough to be able to treat said patient, they can easily transfer this patient to a more qualified and confident psychologist. Because xqc, when psychologists are dealing with a patient whom they deemed as dangerous and can suddenly lose control, they deal with such patients with utmost care and control, setting up so many precautions to ensure that no side is harmed during the treatment, at any given moment in time. Because at the end of the day, as a psychologist who must’ve treated countless patients before, you should know that every patient is unique, every patient has a story, every patient has a trigger. They all can’t be generalized into one category. Every case is different. Because as you yourself once said, isolating them from society and keeping them away from everyone else and treating them like some time bomb actually does more harm than good. Such treatment only triggers them further, hurts them further, and dehumanizes them in a discriminatory way. So of course such a video would paint you as a hypocrite, a doctor who lies to his patients, and someone whose previous patients can no longer trust or listen to.

If you wanted to be ‘safe’ for the sake of your family, you could’ve calmly stated that you are no longer qualified or able to deal with those patients with a sound mind anymore as the incident has affected you deeply, instead of going back on all your previous words and doing exactly what you yourself said people shouldn’t do when it comes to mentally ill patients. That’s probably what your colleagues thought when they heard you.

I rest my case by saying that I love xqc to bits, that although this analysis was highly criticizing, I still understand that he himself is a victim that shouldn’t be blamed for his trauma response. Also whatever reaction or treatment he yu will give him will be 10000000% justified. Also I love meatbun for managing to write smth so complicated and intricate and deep and full of layers that can’t be understood unless peeled carefully.