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dollyafterhours · 2 years

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What's it like to start college at 21?

Ah, college. That little thing I was supposed to do that's been taunting me since lockdown in 2020. The farther away from my high school graduation I got, the scarier it became to imagine myself going back, yet here I am! I have a feeling there are people out there with the same questions or fears I've had about returning to academics, and after finishing my second week, I have some insights on what it's like:

1: You're probably more prepared for it than you think.

When you think of bachelors degree programs, how do you define them? Before starting my own, I thought studying for a bachelors degree meant I would be taught the core curriculum of my chosen field so I could get that sparkling piece of cardstock and get myself a good job. This is only half of the truth. Bachelors degree programs also prepare 18-22 year old young adults to enter the "real world," maintaining a full time schedule, living independently, and juggling deadlines. Chances are, if you didn't start college immediately after high school, you've already lived in the real world, most likely with less privilege than someone with a degree. You've budgeted, cooked and cleaned for yourself, worked a full time job with low pay, and handled your bills. I find that I'm struggling less with my workload as a freshman than most people have told me they did at 18, and I contribute this success to the real-world experience I have under my belt.

2: You might miss parts of your old life.

If you return to education, it's likely that you built some sort of life for yourself in your time away, and you probably can't take 100% of it with you to college. College is demanding in many ways. You'll have to live in a certain location to access your campus, you'll have to choose your schedule based on what classes you need, and you'll have less free time due to homework and studying outside of class. I miss late mornings spent knitting and reading, late nights spent watching TV, my friends at my old waitressing job, constant travel, and waking up next to my partner. It's important to acknowledge these feelings, and just as important to be grateful for the new opportunities you have in the present. If you return to education later in life, you're preforming an act of self care, trading in parts of your old life in pursuit of knowledge, enrichment, and a brighter future.

3. Your social life might be a little weird.

Unfortunately, being older than your peers probably isn't going to give you the upper hand when it comes to socializing. It can be awkward to navigate a world where everyone has such drastically different life experiences compared to you. What sort of plans do you make with an 18 year old? Why are all these teenagers so cool and intimidating? How do you act chill in a setting where everyone can see you... all the time? Don't get discouraged. Making friends starts off with small interactions, baby steps. You will meet people your age, and you might even figure out how to navigate healthy relationships with people who are not. After all, going to the same school and being in the same classes gives you something in common with everyone around you. Be confident in who you are, and be excited about who other people are!

4. You will be a non-traditional student.

Taking one gap year, in my opinion, makes you a non-traditional student, as we would usually think of a "traditional student" as someone who begins their post-secondary education directly after high school. Taking three, five, ten gap years, obviously will make you even more so. Depending on your situation, you may also have children, disabilities, or have to take a part-time course load. All of these things are outside of the realm of what most people would consider "traditional," and that is perfectly okay. As a non-traditional student, you may have to jump through some hoops with your chosen institution, read the fine print, and navigate university offices, scheduling, and websites on your own. It's scary, but it's like doing your taxes, you'll figure it out! Being a non-traditional student is something to be proud of, and you won't be the only one.

5. You may have to re-learn some "easy" stuff.

I have a vivid memory of taking the sixth-grade honors math pre-test, and realizing that over summer break, I had forgotten how to do long division. I was terrified, and thought the teacher would kick me out of my honors placement. (Spoiler alert, she didn't.) This phenomenon is called "brain drain." We've all heard of it, and it's just as real as a grown adult as it was in sixth grade. If you return to education after taking some time off, you'll definitely need to take some refresher courses, and that's okay! You are not stupid, and there's no reason to put yourself down. You just need to take some time to remember what you forgot. This week, I've taken ten pages of notes on slope and parabolas. I learned it when I was 14, and I'm learning it again now. My advice is to:

1) Be grateful that you're being given equal opportunity as an older student to achieve mastery of "easy" subjects before continuing to advance in higher education.

2) Be engaged in the "easy" work. Slope and parabolas are interesting, and as an adult, I find the "what's" and "whys" of simple algebra much more fascinating than ever before.

3) Be excited that you get to work on the basics, because that means you'll get to move on to more complex subjects really soon!

6. You'll realize you ARE capable.

During the pandemic, I chose not to go to college because I didn't think I was capable of handling my courses online, and once colleges transitioned back to in-person classes, I didn't think I was capable at all. For the past three years, this insecurity has played a large part in keeping me from post-secondary education. Now that I've finally set my insecurity aside and taken the leap, I realize that I am capable! My time away gave me a leg up, because I now know why I'm doing what I'm doing. I know that I do want to be in college, and that my success does matter. In academics, hard work and dedication will take you far, no matter how old you are or where you came from. Going back to school is a lot of work. It's overwhelming and it takes guts, but I promise, when you start seeing it pay off, when you get that that first A on a test or make your first new friend, your confidence will blossom in a way you can't imagine.

I believe in you and support you on whatever path you choose to take, traditional or not. You are capable of anything!

#studyblr #studywithme #study inspo #study aesthetic #studying #note taking #study blog #school #university #college #academia #non traditional student #stem major #english major #back to school #aesthetic notes #my posts

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livvyofthelake · 5 months

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tell me about your book omg... how was it different from the movie do you think it's worth reading what was so bad about the whole book fair thing (if you want to do some hating) do you think the detractors on the basis of the novel being problematic are dense or do they have a point... etc <3 also generally what's your fav and least fav book you've read so far this year I'm curious 😁

FIRST of all the bookstore party dinner whatever the hell that shit was was THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD thank you for letting me complain. it was fine actually i just hated that section of part three because it was really boring. it made me feel like when i was 15 and reading the picture of dorian gray and it was slow going but i was doing it until there was one chapter that was so bad and boring i had to literally give up for six months. i always meant to revisit that book btw if anyone else wants to do that i'm putting out an open call to do a little book club moment with our pal oscar wilde... hashtag literacy yay <3 i digress. there wasn't really anything bad about the writing in that section i just didn't like it... so what happens is that before oliver goes back to america at the end of summer, he needed to go to rome to like meet with translators and publishers for his book or whatever it's literally so beyond unimportant. so elio went to rome with him and they like, go sightseeing and what have you. and there's one night where they go to this event at a bookstore and it goes on FOREVER and then everybody at the bookstore goes to dinner and they all spend a million hours being pretentious about poetry and pissing me the fuck off!!!! the whole book up to that point is sooo focused only on elio and oliver and them alone and this stupid section was like hey what if there were like five other people we're pretending are important suddenly? and i was like andré i am going to put a bomb in your house. ok stepping back and looking at the situation like a not insane person. it's literally fine. i imagine the point of all that was to show how elio is like, intelligent and capable of holding his own in the world among other scholarly pretentious people like him (i can't even begin to describe how annoying he is btw. his main hobbies are transcribing music and reading obscure novels in five different languages) he's a lot like a prince in the sense that his parents are rich and he really doesn't have to do anything and all his hobbies are artistic because he's never had to worry about anything outside his personal turmoil or whatever. and in the snse that he has the manners and social graces and ability to act like he's above everything. he literally would have excelled as a medieval royal. anyway it was just a section of the book that i was annoyed by because it was long and too focused on random other characters i didn't even care about at alllllll.

ok we persist. do i think it's worth reading? well it depends. yes and no... if you're a fan of the movie but haven't read the book i think it's definitely worth reading i think in that context it offers a lot of new perspective that enriches the experience or whatever, but if you don't even think you'd like the movie i don't think you should read the book. i guess it depends on the person. do i think you specifically my beloved tee tumblr user lonesomedotmp3 should read it? well summer is the season to do it if ever but really it would depend on whether you want to read a book that it 60% some guy being horny and 30% some guy being sooooo anxious and 10% you sitting there thinking wow this is so boring. actually you read more real world set stuff like this than i do maybe you won't find it so boring. i'm not like. an intellectual with my chosen books i’m a cassie girl.... i need someone to be solving a murder or going on a quest or something to be entertained most of the time… i mean. you should read it if i’ve intrigued you i think it would be better than if you read the curse workers like you said you wanted to because the curse workers ended up being kinda bad in the end… but also don’t blame me if you hate it. i can see multiple paths…. but if you’re gonna read it you should watch the movie first i know people don’t usually advocate for that but i am. or don’t do either idk i’m not telling anybody to do any of it i don’t want that on my conscious if you hate it i’m just saying IF you’re going to…

do i think people who object to it on the basis of it being Problematic are dense or do they have a point? that’s a juicy question… as we all know i do always think you can’t dismiss something unless you actually know what you’re talking about. like there’s of course a difference between not wanting to read/watch something and saying that reading/watching that thing makes anyone who does it a bad person. i don’t know if everyone had the experience i had but i remember a time on this fuckass internet where there were so many people who were so smug about not having even seen the movie and genuinely thought they were like. better human beings for Not Having Partaken In The Problematic Movie. as if everyone who watched it when it came out was tricked by the devil or something and it was a moral failing. it was a ridiculous time i don’t think i’ll ever truly get over it tbh. obviously they DO have a Point with everything that has been said. everyone has a point, that’s what art is about i think!! there IS a weird age gap between these characters! that’s true! elio literally has to go back to HIGH SCHOOL at the end of the story. high school!!!! that being said it’s hard to see it as oliver “taking advantage” in any real way considering oliver is suchhh a loser about it… like he’s a grad student everyone knows grad students are like overgrown babies who are afraid to leave school. sorry to all the grad students i’m just being real and speaking my truth. anyway the whole crux of their relationship is that they’re intellectual peers, which i can understand is hard to grasp for people who don’t speak to anyone outside their immediate age range. i didn’t understand it when i was 16 and all the Discourse was happening because i didn’t know anyone that much older than me. and now at the decrepit and hag like age of almost 23 i work with a bunch of teenagers and get along with them well and don’t think of them as little babies because in many ways we are peers. now i wouldn’t date any of those little bitches i think oliver is a freak for that genuinely i’m just offering a perspective where you as an early to mid twenties person can be peers with a teenager and it’s not weird. basically i wouldn’t call their specific ass situation “predatory” but i DO very much think oliver is a massive freak weirdo. the great news is that this book isn’t about oliver except as an extension of elio <3 and in oliver’s defense you can understand when you read it that he’s clearly in the midst of a sexuality crisis and elio happened to be the other gay person in the vicinity. like it’s nice that they got lucky and were also friends and respected each other and liked each other and were attracted to each other but we must be real and acknowledge that crucially. elio happened to be gay and in his vicinity. and for oliver this was like. a summer affair and then he went back to his real life and girlfriend and got married and had kids. which sucks but is so august illicit affairs taylor swift coded which is awesome. i’m going to be real i don’t think andré aciman would like a lot of the things i’ve interpreted about his book. i’m like painting oliver as this unwitting careless villain and andré literally wrote a sequel in which they get back together and raise a child. frankly i think he’s stupid as shit for that can you imagine ruining your own book so bad with a crap sequel you only wrote because a movie made you popular and you wanted to capitalize? he should kill himself 🙄 it’s giving mcu. it’s giving roberto aguirre sacasa in a way. we have to stop letting men write books they don’t know what they’re doing omg. ok sorry i got away from the point. what was the point actually what were we talking about. you know what i feel like i’ve said enough on that point let’s move. i could maybe keep yapping if we want later but i’m over it rn literally let’s move <3

my favorite and least favorite books i’ve read this year…. first of all FUCK the raven king for real oh my god. i don’t mean that the raven king was like. fine. i already yapped lydia’s ear off about it to very brief responses due to their offline-ness so i’m kinda over talking and complaining about it but let’s just say i’ve never been happy with any ending book in a series ever in my life except perhaps city of heavenly fire. and the only reason i fucked with that was because it was never really an Ending in the sense that there wouldn’t be more. like i knew going into cohf that lady midnight would come out in two years… it was never Over you know? now the last book in the wicked powers? that’s gonna make me kill myself when it comes out. like unless i’ve found true love or something awesome but let’s not pin all our hopes on that lmao… anyway. i’m rereading the raven king rn to give it a second chance and also because i reread all the others in the series and had to give her my due diligence yk? so we’ll see what changes. also fuck the sun and the star. but you all saw all my bitching about that one and really i didn’t even Hate it it was complicated. however. FUCK where the crawdads sing for real and genuinely oh my godddd boring ass book. i haven’t finished it but i will. i guess. i’m just complaining whilst in the middle of it <3 as for favorites… what a thing to think about… well i loved rereading the darkest part of the forest i’ll be a holly black girl forever i fear <3 also i read the first enola holmes book and like. it slayed… like it’s a children’s book but i’m just saying it was great fun… i haven’t really read any Big Girl Books this year tbh. well ok i read cmbyn. but that’s not my favorite be serious. but really i think my favorite favorite book i’ve read this year was the dream thieves… will patton as an audiobook narrator you will ALWAYS be famous… i listened to it a month ago but i’m literally still going around my house talking to myself in the voice he did for kavinsky… i can’t describe it you just have to know… it was this crazy jersey accent but the cadence with which he spoke was just mesmerizing to me… also the book was good. didn’t mean to imply i liked it because of that one character although i did think he was Awesome. but i know that’s not in the camp of popular opinions to have about the raven cycle so we don’t have to be getting into it. we also don’t have to be getting into how i feel about ronan lynch it’s a lot and all the information you need to know is that i said the dream thieves was my favorite book i’ve read this year and i also publicly compared him to my special guy from redacted. you may all draw your conclusions on what i think of him… i’m not doing fandom shit over it…

wow i need to read more books this year those answers were bleak. 😐 when i finally read mexican gothic it’s over for everybodyyyy

#asks #loved complaining with u tee :)

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foilfreak · 3 years

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4 Lords Raise Rose AU Ideas

Not a single person asked for this, but that other post where I talk about the 4 lords adopting Rose but still technically being terrible people got way more popular than I expected it to, so, with about 6 shots of tequila in my system and a terrible urge to spit my thoughts out for all the internet to see and judge, I’ve decided to make a follow up post. Here’s how I think the 4 lords would take care of Rose in the event they rebelled against Mother Miranda and decided to raise Rose as their own instead, but like under the cut after a little bit cuz i accidentally went way too fucking hard with this and I don’t want ppl to get mad at me for making them scroll for an hour to get past this post:

First and foremost, I think they’d do it in stages, and what I mean by this is that Rose would essentially be given to a specific Lord for some period of her life, like a couple years, and then when she was deemed old or strong or annoying enough, she’d be moved to a different lord for some period of time and so on and so forth. They would do this because a) they all live in different areas and have shit to do so it’s easier to have Rose live with one lord at a time and then the other lords can just go visit her there from time to time, rather than try to work out a weekly custody schedule which we all know Alcina and Karl would NEVER be able to agree on so let’s not even bother, and b) because each lord would have either some skill or set of knowledge that would make them the best for caring for Rose at that specific point in her life. This way, all the lords have a (somewhat) equal chance to be a part of Rose’s life and teach her something while she’s with them. So with all that in mind now, let’s get down to who would have Rose and at what point in her life.

1. Starting off with infant Rose, I think she’d end up with the Dimitrescu’s for the first few years of her life, and the reason why I think this is because... well, Alcina IS already a mother to 3 girls, and while we don’t know a terrible amount about Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela’s “upbringing” under Alcina, we can gleam and theorize from her notes that, despite their fully grown bodies, the girls could very well have started out with the mental and physical capabilities of infants, and thus needed to be cared for and brought up in a similar manner as infants or children until they reached a certain point where they could officially be considered adults in mentality and ability, not just in physical appearance. So with this in mind, it’s entirely possible that Alcina could have at least some vague idea of how to care for an infant child through her experiences with the bug sisters; perhaps there’s some gaps in her knowledge, but if nothing else I imagine Alcina would be an infant Rose’s best shot at surviving infancy if only because the other 3 are so incompetent on how to care for a baby that Alcina looks like an expert in comparison. Not to mention that, of the possible locations for an infant to be raised, I do genuinely think that castle Dimitrescu would be the safest place for Rose to be kept during this vulnerable part of her life. Not only that but if Alcina has actually come to care for Rose as though she were one of her own daughters, then she would absolutely spoil Rose rotten with all the nicest clothes and fanciest toys, things that a small infant wouldnt be able to appreciate but would show that she’s loved and cared for nonetheless, and don’t even get me started on the bug sisters, I could see them fawning over Rose for hours on end, playing with her, singing to her, telling her stories of all the man-things they’ve gotten to play with today, and so much more. Overall, Rose would just be the most spoiled and pampered little baby with the Dimitrescus and there’s no changing my mind about this. The only thing I’m struggling to wrap my head around is how they’d feed her, since I doubt a small infant would take very well to blood wine and human flesh. I suppose it wouldn’t be terribly outrageous for them to hire a wet nurse/nanny to care for Rose during the day while the other Dimitrescus go about their daily duties, and when Rose is finally old enough to be introduced to solid food (I.e. fried human flesh cubes) they could do what they always do and turn the nurse into wine too, I guess. It’s not a solid idea but it’s more plausible than anything else I thought of so it’ll work!

2. After spending about 3 years with the Dimitrescus, Rose would then be moved to the Beneviento house. Now, If u don’t know anything about 3 year olds, then you’re probably ignorant to the fact that they are some of the craftiest, sneakiest, and most coniving groups of people to exist on this planet. 3 year olds are masters at getting into and touching just about anything and everything u don’t want them to touch, and worst of all, u won’t realize what they’re doing until they’ve already done it and left a huge mess behind, so while the Dimitrescus love and adore Rose dearly, they know it’s sadly time to hand her over when they find her sitting on top of a pile of dead bodies playing with a metal scythe in the dungeons. Once Rose is dropped off at the Beneviento house, I imagine Donna is her usual stoic self the first few weeks Rose is with her. She’s not cold or distant necessarily, in fact she’s quite happy that it’s finally her turn with precious baby Rose, but Donna isn’t exactly known for being outwardly expressive herself (and even Angie isn’t being quite as forward as she normally is), so things are quiet and peaceful for the first little while that Rose is under her care. It’s not until Rose takes an interest in her doll Angie, and more importantly the things that Donna can do with Angie, that things really start getting fun. By the end of Rose’s first month in the Beneviento house she and Donna are the best of friends and often spend their days either playing dress up and make pretend with Donna’s extensive doll collection, or playing elaborate games of cat and mouse, where Donna will set up lots of puzzles throughout the house for Rose to find and solve (I.e. rose has to match her dress to the doll with the same one as her to find a map telling her which kitchen cabinet Donna hid the chocolate in, or something like that), but be careful little Rose, Angie has been trying to get her hands on that chocolate all day, and if u take too long, she’ll find the map first and eat all the chocolate without saving you a single piece. Just silly little puzzles with enough at stake to engage the mind of a curious 3 year old, but never enough to put rose in any actual danger. Donna is nothing if not a watchful caretaker, so she makes sure she has sight of Rose at all times, occasionally giving her a hint if she’s struggling, and perhaps occasionally making things harder if that day’s puzzle is proving too easy for her. Overall, Rose’s time with Donna, while not as grand and luxurious as the Dimitrescus, was still a fun and enriching experience for the young girl, and there’s nobody in this world who thinks that Donna’s scar is cool more than Rose.

3. After another 3 years with Donna, Rose is now 6 years old and officially far too good at puzzle solving for Donna to keep up with. No matter what she tries or how hard she makes it, Rose just keeps blazing through the puzzles at an almost alarming rate, making it clear that Rose is desperately in need of not only a change in scenery, but also a change in education, and this is where Salvatore finally comes in. After leaving the Beneviento house, I think the next logical place for Rose to stay would be with Salvatore, who, with lore hinting at him perhaps being a scholarly man of some kind, would basically act as her elementary school teacher throughout the duration of her stay. Now, to be fair, Rose could have gone to Heisenburg’s factory, but Heisenberg outright refused to take her and the other 3 lords decide that the factory is simply too dangerous for Rose rn, who thus far hasn’t shown any signs of being anything other than a normal human girl with no noticeable abilities (save for a smart mouth and a terrifying habit of popping up when least expected, a habit she mostly uses to mess with Heisenberg, much to his disdain and Lady Dimitrescu’s delight), so it is to the mutant fish man’s unimaginable delight that he is unanimously voted Roses next caretaker, and the one responsible for her basic education. Despite his initial excitement however, when Rose is finally dropped off at the windmills by Donna, Salvatore realizes that he’s not 100% sure what to do with Rose now that he has her. He’d like to get started on her education right away but at the same time he’s so fearful of Rose hating him because of his disgusting appearance that he kind of just... avoids her entirely at first. He’s never far away from the little girl and is always ready to jump to her rescue should she need it, but other than that Salvatore seldom allows himself to be seen for the first month that Rose is with him, the only sign of him still being around being the platefuls of food that mysteriously appear in Rose’s room 3 times a day, as well as the occasional shiny trinket Salvatore found and thought Rose would like. At first, rose doesn’t seem to mind being left entirely to her own devices, but after every stone, log, and rotting fish corpse within 5 miles of the lake has been turned over and thoroughly examined, Rose decides she’s had quite enough of her Uncle Sal ignoring her, prompting the headstrong little girl to go looking for him herself. She finds Salvatore hiding underneath a patch of floating algae not far away from where she was playing and all but demands that the mutant man come out of the water and give her something to do or she’d tell Mother on him. Salvatore, shocked by the small child’s fearlessly blunt request, hesitates, not wanting to frighten Rose, but ultimately relents, crawling out of the water and timidly suggesting that he teach her how to read and write. Rose quickly agrees, seeming totally unbothered by Salvatore’s grotesque appearance, and the two quickly move to the schoolroom that had been set up specifically for Rose, where Salvatore spends hours upon hours a day teaching Rose everything he knows, filling the little girl’s head up first with the basics, letters and words, then numbers and simple equations, followed later by historical dates and time periods, algebraic formulas, and classic literature analysis, then biology, chemistry, physics, astrology, calculus, ecology, and so much more. Basically, anything there is to know, Salvatore knows at least something about it and he’ll make sure that Rose knows about it too. In the 3 years Rose spends with Salvatore she goes from already sharp as a whip, to being smarter than most adults even, and Salvatore takes immense pride in how intelligent and knowledgable Rose becomes thanks to his surprisingly effective teaching style. Overall, as a caretaker, Salvatore is pretty weird and doubts himself a lot, but Rose thinks he’s funny and loves learning from him so they get along very well and she loves him very dearly! He probs teaches her to swim and fish too.

4. So another 3 years come and go with incredible speed, and its with great sadness on Salvatore’s part that Heisenberg finally comes banging on the fish man’s door, all but demanding that he now be given his turn with Rose. Now, personally, I can see several different arguments being raised by the other 3 lords over why its a terrible idea to let a 9 year old anywhere near Heisenberg, much less be given into his care fully. After about 9 years of seeing his siblings paling around with the constantly growing child, and looking like theyre having the time of their lives all the while, however, Karl decides that perhaps there’s more to this little girl than he originally thought, and, with his interest now piqued (or at the very least looking forward to pissing the other 3 off for entertainment purposes), that its only fair that he be given a turn with her now too, seeing as how he’s the only one who hasn’t been given the chance to be her caretaker yet. This naturally does NOT go over well with the other 3 lords. Alcina all but threatens to kill Karl should he step so much as within 10 ft of Rose, while Donna pipes up and demands to know what his sudden interest in Rose is. Even Salvatore, who is quick to flinch away from direct conflict, goes as far as to harshly point out the plethora of times Karl had outright denied their previous attempts to get him to engage with Rose, so why on earth would they hand her over to him now when he’s previously shown to have absolutely no interest in her? After a long spout of yelling between the 4 siblings, an agreement is reached, wherein Rose herself will be given the chance to decide whether she wants to go with Heisenberg, or whether she’ll return to one of the other 3 lords for the time being. It is to Alcina, Donna, and Salvatore’s absolute horror however, that Rose enthusiastically agrees to go with her Uncle Karl to live in his factory, and with the deal already set, the other lords can do nothing to stop her from going. The trip to drop off Rose at heisenberg’s factory is a long and arduous one, especially for Salvatore, who sobs the whole way there about Rose forgetting about him despite the young girl’s insistence that she’d visit. The first thing Karl does after officially having Rose handed over to him, is give her an extensive list of all the places in the factory in which she is under no circumstances permitted to enter without his permission (which basically only leaves the control room and the old storage closet that acts as her bedroom as viable places for Rose to go and explore). The second thing Karl does is dump her in her new storage closet bedroom and then hightail it for his workshop to work on whatever sick and twisted amalgamation he’s got cooked up this time around. At first, Rose isn’t terribly bothered by this, since she’s used to having something of an “adjustment period” when she’s with a new caretaker, but unfortunately for her, this adjustment period lasts a hell of a lot longer than the others did, and by the time 3 months of almost no meaningful contact with Karl, Rose decides to take matters into her own hands and ascends into the depths of the factory despite the express orders not to do so. Now, going back to the idea that the 4 lords are still pretty terrible people, I doubt Rose has been kept ignorant to the less savory aspects of her caretaker’s lives, and tbh she probably doesn’t think anything of the fact that the Dimitrescus makes wine out of the blood of virgin women or that Salvatore still does cadou experiments (and had her help on occasion), but I imagine even Rose would find the projects Karl works on to be at least a little

4, cont. gruesome and horrifying in nature, especially since Heisenberg is the one she knows the least about. However, instead of turning Rose away from Heisenberg, these terrifying metal creatures she sees locked up only spark her already insatiable curiosity, and by the time she finally tracks Karl down, Rose is all but trembling to learn more about this horrifyingly fascinating metal world. Unfortunately, Karl is not nearly as happy to see Rose as Rose is to see him, and the engineer all but grabs Rose by the scruff of her neck and drags her back up to the control room, yelling and screaming at her all the while about how she was explicitly instructed not to enter these parts of the factory without his permission. Needless to say that Rose does not enjoy this treatment and immediately lashes out, half out of anger and half out of confusion as to why Karl was treating her like this. He was the one who wanted her here in the first place, so why the hell was he just ignoring her now? It didn’t make any sense and it was starting to piss Rose off, so naturally the only thing left for her to do in order to solve this complicated situation would be to continue to disobey Karl until he either gave up and sent her back to one of the other lords, or finally payed some damn attention to her for once. So that’s exactly what she did. Every single day Rose left her room (which Karl kept telling himself he needed to put a lock on, but never did cuz he’s an idiot) and descended down into the depths of the factory looking for something ogle at or tinker with, and every single day Karl would track her down wherever she’d managed to get to and throw her back upstairs threatening to feed her to the lycans if she did it again. This incredibly frustrating cycle continued on for the better part of the next month or so, finally coming to a head when Rose managed to wander into the part of the factory where the... less than successful experiments got put whenever Karl doesn’t have any further use for them but is feeling too lazy to kill them off himself. Long story short, Rose runs into a Sturm that chases her around the factory, causing all manner of mayhem and destruction, and would have torn her to ribbons had it not been for Karl, who jumped in at the last second and was able to fend the damn thing off long enough for Rose to get the ever living fuck out and back up to the control room where it’s safe. There’s a lot of loud noises and explosions coming from deep within the factory that last for what feels like an eternity, but Rose doesn’t dare venture out again until everything has gone eerily quiet and a deep sense of worry has settled in the pit of her stomach over what had become of her latest caretaker. Turns out the Sturm had recognized its creator and, after watching its initial prey escape because of said creator, quickly decided that it fucking hated Karl with every fiber of its being and wanted him dead if it was the last thing it’s propellers did. Now, we all know that Karl is a big strong boy who’s more than capable of handling his own creations and taking down strong enemies, but the Sturm is a creation that even he struggles to control on good days and today is decidedly not a good day so not only does Karl not have the slightest bit of control over the death machine trying to kill him, but its also a lot stronger than Karl initially thought and apparently not picky about the method which causes Karl’s death, which is evidenced by the nearly dead Sturm ramming itself into a power generator as a final act of defiance and nearly blowing up the whole factory and everybody inside. Heisenberg is able to contain the explosion somehow but not without considerable damage to himself first. Rose is, naturally, quite horrified to find Karl passed out in the elevator that had taken him up from the lower levels of the factory where the explosion was, skin burnt nearly to a crisp in certain areas and blood pooling from just about every part of him, and immediately heads over to try and help her injured caretaker.

4, cont. again cuz I physically can’t stop myself. Now, I imagine that any normal 9 year old probably wouldnt be able to handle this sort of situation in any meaningful way, but i think we can all agree that Rose is the furthest thing from normal (especially considering who raised her) and has probably seen enough blood and gore to not be terribly freaked out by it, but this is where things get a little speculative because we don’t know what Rose’s powers are exactly but we do know from the final cutscene that she does have them, perhaps even a plethora of abilities, and I like to think that some of those powers are related to Ethan’s superhuman healing capabilities, but unlike Ethan however, who from what we’ve seen could only heal himself, Rose can actually heal other people (tho this isn’t something she’s aware of at this point in time). The second the elevator door opens to reveal, what looks to be, a half-dead Karl slumped over in the corner, Rose panics and runs to him, doing everything she can think of save for maybe grabbing him by the collar or slapping him across the face, to try and get Karl to wake up, except nothing works, he wont wake up no matter how hard Rose tries and i imagine this must be incredibly distressing for Rose who never intended for something like this to happen or for her caretaker to die because he had to protect her even tho he told her not to go down there because its dangerous and anything down there WOULD kill her if given the opportunity. Anyways Rose is now full on sobbing on top of Karl like only a 9 year old who just discovered that her actions have consequences can, but unbeknownst to her (and technically Karl cuz he’s a little busy bleeding out all over the floor) Karl’s wounds are slowly beginning to close, the burns on his face and hands shift from a bright red to a dark brown before crusting over and flaking off, and even his breathing, which had been labored and inconsistent at first, began to level out slightly. Karl woke up not long after that and was surprised to find that a) he was still alive, which was cool, b) he was injured but not in indescribable pain, also cool, and c) there was a literal sobbing child all but sitting on top of him, which is definitely not something Karl was expecting but he supposed he’s been met with worse things upon waking up after almost dying so why question it. After taking a moment to gather their bearings, the two return to the safer parts of the factory to rest and recover and for the most part this little incident of their’s goes largely unspoken, with Rose not exactly in the mood to talk about how her disobedience nearly got herself and Karl killed, and Karl being too fucking tired to go after her about it, especially since she seems to have learned her lesson. The only downside to this whole thing is that now Karl has a busted up fuckin leg thats gonna take an eternity to heal even for him, and with so much work to still do he’s more or less forced to drag Rose around the factory and use her like the annoying assistant he never wanted (except he did want her, thats how this whole fucking mess started, you lug), except that Rose, who is more than used to playing lab assistant from her time with Salvatore, quickly proves to be a rather capable and handy person to have around, if only because she knows the difference between a philips and a flathead screwdriver even better than he does. An amicable, if still slightly awkward peace settles over Heisenberg’s factory once Karl starts actively engaging with Rose and giving her something to do on a daily basis, even if its just standing around watching him work and occasionally having her questions about what he’s doing answered. It doesn’t take very long after that for Karl to begin realizing that perhaps throwing a huge tantrum to get Rose to come here only to ditch her upstairs by herself for 3 months might not have been the smartest (or most considerate) thing he’s ever done, and even goes as far as to (kinda) apologize to Rose for being such a dick to her since she arrived.

4, last one i swear. Rose forgives him, though not before adding that she already knew he was an asshole from Alcina, which earns her a halfhearted swipe from Karl that Rose easily dodges with a childish giggle. From that point on their relationship improves astronomically as Karl finally gives in and teaches Rose about about engineering and everything else that goes into making the metal horrors that he’s known for. Karl is shocked at how quickly Rose picks up on the trade, getting to the point where Karl wonders if he should start giving Rose her own projects to work on, but quickly rolls his eyes and groans when he remember that Salvatore was the one responsible for her education up until this point, the mere thought of having to give compliments to that “moronic freak” for giving Rose such a good educational foundation makes him want to vomit despite how secretly impressed he is. Overall, Rose’s time with Heisenberg starts out shaky, very shaky even, but after a bit of disaster and some swallowing of the pride on Karl’s part, they end up growing quite close and have a nice fun Uncle and martass Neice dynamic. They make a good team and Karl does genuinely enjoy having a little assistant around to help him with his projects, even if Rose can sound a bit too much like Alcina on some days for his liking.

5. 3 more years come and go and now Rose is a strong and healthy 12 years old, perhaps riddled with a few more scars and smearings of ash and motor oil across her skin than when she first arrived but still strong and capable nonetheless. Going back to that first statement however, this of course means that it’s time for the other 3 lords to come banging on Karl’s door for a change, all but demanding that Rose be handed back over to them. Karl of course refuses, telling them all to fuck off and that Rose didn’t want a leave the factory, so upon realization that all 4 lords were gathered here with the intention of taking Rose back to live with them indefinitely, a fight immediately breaks out between the 4 siblings, as each one makes their case as to why Rose should be returned to them and not the other 3, which of course none of the 4 lords can come to an agreement about because they ALL want Rose to stay with them. So after another long and pointlessly arduous argument, Alcina finally breaks, proclaiming that they’d be here for all eternity of they didn’t make a decision now, and that, like the first time the 4 siblings argued over whether Rose should go with Heisenberg or return to one of the previous lords, Rose would be the one to decide which of her four caretakers she would return to. The agreement is made reluctantly, mostly on the part of Salvatore, Donna, and Heisenberg, but there was seemingly no other way for them to come to a decision, so it would unfortunately have to be up to Rose to decide which of her 4 caretakers she wants to stay with permanently. Rose is quickly brought before the 4 lords and explained the situation, before being given some time to herself to think and make her final decision. A tense and uneasy silence falls over the 4 lords as they wait for the little girl, who they had shown an uncharacteristic amount of mercy and time and devotion and love in the 12 years since Mother Miranda had brought her to the village with the intention of using her to revive an already lost and long-gone baby that she never would have gotten back no matter how hard she tried. Although they refused to admit it to one another, the lords all secretly knew that Rose had wormed her way into each of their cold, dead hearts, reviving an aspect of their humanity that they’d all thought had been lost ages ago. Rose came to the village bringing with her a wave of death and destruction, and yet throughout her childhood she has brought them nothing but light and life, illuminating their previously dark and desolate existences. The 4 lords loved their Rose very dearly and desperately wanted her to be happy, yet each of them possesses a dark and selfish desire to have Rose pick them over the other 3, to come and live with them forever and fill the hole deep inside them that they never knew needed filling. After a short while, Rose comes back out and stands before her 4 beloved caretakers, looking around nervously as she picks at her fingernails. The silence is thick and heavy as the 4 lords stare at the young girl, waiting with bated breaths for her to give her final verdict. Rose continues to say nothing as tears begin to flow from her eyes, sliding down her cheeks in thick streams as the girl begins to sob, dropping her head and clenching her dress. The 4 lords look between one another in confusion, unsure of what to do with this sudden burst of tears. Rose tearfully admits that she can’t and doesn’t want to choose which of the 4 lords she wants to live with permanently because she loves them all very much and wants to be able to see and live with all of them, like they’ve done thus far. Although the lords detest the idea of having to share Rose with anyone, they reluctantly come to an agreement for the girl’s sake, deciding that they would continue with the arrangement they’ve had thus far, only that Rose would switch between caretakers every 3 months instead of every 3 years, giving rose plenty of opportunities to see each of her caretakers just like she wanted. From then on, Rose continues to live her life

5, cont. growing up and learning more and more from each of her beloved caretakers. Although Rose would likely never know what a normal life looks like, living with 4 criminally insane monsters in the remote mountain village in Romania, it would be impossible to say that she wouldn’t have a happy life despite that. Perhaps its because the girl simply doesn’t know any better, so she doesn’t have the ability to see just how messed up her life and her 4 caretakers really are, but i imagine that Rose probably wouldn’t care very much to learn even if she had the opportunity. She’s a happy little girl living a strange but enjoyable life with the only family she’ll ever need. What more could she possibly ask for?

6. As for how Mother Miranda would play into this whole scenario I’ve just drunkenly spat out, im honestly not 100% sure. Ive seen some people suggesting that MM just kinda chills and lets the lords do what they want with Rose, but tbh I honestly don’t see that happening in this universe. MM would still have been just as crazy and driven to get Eva back as she was in canon, so i doubt she’d willingly standby and let her “false children” take away her one shot of getting her real child back simply because they didn’t want to hurt her, i just don’t personally see that happening. The two most likely scenarios i can come up with is that the Lords either banded together and look Miranda on together, their combined forces being enough to take her down and kill her, OR, Ethan is the one to take down MM like he did in canon but he passes out before he can get to rose, giving the lords (who he hadn’t ended up killing but just escaping from i guess) the opportunity to slide in, grab rose, and hightail it out of there, leaving Ethan’s body to be retrieved by Chris, who, due to not seeing or hearing Rose anywhere, believes that Rose must have been accidentally killed along with MM, which he later tells to Ethan and Mia. Regardless of how MM gets taken out of the picture (or if she’s given room to potentially come back later), the 4 lords retreat with Rose and begin the whole cycle I explained up above, but i did want to briefly address how I saw MM fitting into all of this since she is a vital part of the original story and the biggest obstacle to the lords having anything to do with Rose.

Anyways, that was so much longer than I intended it to be but I had so much fun with it just because it gave me the opportunity to spit some fun ideas and potential plot points out about this cool AU that I like and hope someone does SOMETHING with, please god someone do it, I’d do it myself but i have enough projects at the moment unfortunately. If you managed to make it all the way to the bottom, thank you for reading all of that, I appreciate it, and I hope you enjoyed at least some parts of this, and maybe even agree with some of the things I said. Feel free to leave your own ideas in the comments, I’d love to read them and hopefully if enough people like this maybe i will actually do something with it. Who knows? I certainly dont. Anyways thank you for reading all this, i hope you have a great day, and maybe ill see you around in another post. Bye!!! <3

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blessedarethebinarybreakers · 4 years

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Answer asap (I feel bad saying that, but I'm stuck). Do you have any resources for dating/not dating non-christians? A dear friend of mine told me they care for me, and I feel the same for them, but... all the resources online warn again and again not to date non-christians lest they endanger my faith. I feel like going forward with this would be ignorant at best and would set us both up for heartbreak. And I fear my fear itself would lead to me trying to convert them. But I still care for them.

Hey, anon! Thanks for reaching out -- the rhetoric among many Christians against interfaith relationships, particularly with the argument that they’re “unequally yoked,” is something I haven’t addressed in years, and have been meaning to discuss again.

Little disclaimer at the start that this stuff is so contextual, and it’s personal -- I don’t know your life as well as you do, or this friend of yours like you do. Maybe what i say doesn’t fit you and your situation.

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To begin, I firmly believe that interfaith relationships can be and often are truly beautiful, holy partnerships. (This includes relationships in which one or multiple members identifies as an atheist / otherwise doesn’t ascribe to a particular religion.)

When both (or all) members are respectful of one another’s beliefs, and find as much joy in learning as in teaching their partner(s), their unique perspectives can deeply enrich one another. You can bear good fruit together that glorifies God and nourishes others.

This being said, you definitely want to at least begin working through your worries and fears before starting to date this person. If you enter the relationship overwhelmed with fear or guilt about dating them, it’ll bring a lot of resentment and angst. The rest of this post points out things you’ll want to reflect on and read up on before entering this or any interfaith relationship -- and offers resources that can help.

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Interfaith Partners: Always “Unequally Yoked”?

I’m sure you’ve seen a certain phrase on those websites you mentioned, drawn from 2 Corinthians 6:14 -- “unequally yoked.” I’m going to end this post with some alternative ways of interpreting this verse, but what Christians who advise against interfaith relationships take it to mean is something like this:

Just as two animals yoked to the same plow should be of equal strength and on the same page so that one doesn’t do more of the work, or get tugged away from the work by the other one, two partners should also be of equal “spiritual” strength and on the same page when it comes to their faith...

And of course, these people will say, a person who is Christian is definitely spiritually stronger than any non-Christian -- and a non-Christian might just pull them away from The Way, getting them to skip church or prayers or even stop being Christian entirely.

But there are a lot of assumptions there that don’t hold true in every relationship, right? First off, who says every Christian is necessarily “spiritually stronger” than every non-Christian? To claim that is to assume that non-Christians don’t also have access to spirituality or to the Divine -- which I’m going to push against throughout this post.

Furthermore, the assumption that a non-Christian partner will definitely harm your own Christian faith doesn’t have to be true, as I’ll get to in a second.

So yeah, keeping these assumptions about an interfaith relationship being inherently “unequally yoked” in mind, and with a plan on returning to this phrase at the end, let’s move on to specific things you should think about before entering an interfaith relationship.

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Must a non-Christian partner “endanger” your faith -- or can they enrich it?

If being open to learning about how our fellow human beings perceive the world, humanity, and the divine “endangers one’s faith,” perhaps that kind of faith was not made to last. Perhaps it has to give way in order to birth a new, deeper faith -- a faith that is bold enough to wrestle with God as Jacob did; broad enough to survive questions and doubts and times of grief; and wise enough to perceive the Spirit blowing wherever She will (John 3:8), not only among Christians.

If your partner truly respects you and your faith even if it’s different from theirs, they’ll do what they can to help you be the best Christian you can be -- or at the very least, they will give you the space and time you need to go to church, pray, etc. And you will do the same, helping them to be the best Muslim, Buddhist, or simply person they can be.

I highly recommend asking this friend of yours before you start dating what their thoughts are on your being a Christian, and/or on Christianity in general.

Is it something that makes them happy for you? is it something that makes them deeply uncomfortable? or something that they don’t have strong feelings one way or the other on? .

How “involved” would they be open to being in your faith? Would they be interested in going to church with you, as long as they could trust you weren’t trying to force them into anything? Would they enjoy talking about your varying beliefs together and how they impact your lives? Or would they never ever want you to bring up Christianity (which I imagine for you would be a deal breaker)? .

Be open and honest with one another about what expectations you each have about things like boundaries around discussing faith, about time and space you each want for practicing your faith, etc. As you seem aware, it’s better to get all this clear before you start dating, to avoid problems later down the road!

For an example of what such discussions might look like, I found this story from Robert Repta, a Christian man married to a Jewish man. Their union, he says, has included working out what it means not only to be gay persons of faith, but also persons of two different faiths:

“Ultimately, what happened was that in our struggles to find ourselves, we ended up growing closer together. We both supported and challenged each other. We began asking each other bigger life questions and talking about religion, God, science. Both of our lives were evolving, and what started to happen was that we started seeing the similarities in our core beliefs more than the differences. Some of those beliefs even evolved along the way.

We both believed in God. We both believed that God is love. We volunteered together. He would occasionally come with me to church, and I would occasionally go with him to the synagogue. Eventually, I could see that the common thread between us was unconditional love. The same unconditional love of God.”

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On pressuring a non-Christian partner to convert -- assumptions about Christian superiority & fearing for their afterlife destination

It’s really good you recognize that it might end up being hard for you not to try to get this person to convert! Before dating them, you should keep reflecting on this and decide whether that’s something you can let go of or not. If it’s not, then you’re probably right in thinking this relationship won’t work out.

It would be highly disrespectful to this person you care about to pressure them to become a Christian in order for you to feel okay about being with them. (And for more thoughts on how evangelism and conversion as carried out by many Christians isn’t what Jesus had in mind, see this post.) Doing so would imply a lot of things, including that you don’t think they’re a worthy or equal partner unless they make this big change, that whatever beliefs or ideologies they currently hold are inferior to yours, etc.

In order for your interfaith relationship to go well, you would need to come to understand non-Christians as being equally made in God’s image, equally worthy of dignity, equally capable of doing good in the world. You’d have to come to believe that there is much of value within their own religion / ideology that you as a Christian could learn from.

Let’s bring in our lovely Christian/Jewish couple from before: as his relationship with David developed, Robert discovered that

“God is not conformed to this world we live in; God does not belong solely to the Pentecostals or the Baptists, to the Jews or Gentiles, to Muslims or Zoroastrians. Two of the most profound self-identifiers God calls himself in the Bible is “love” and “I am.””

Here are a few resources that can help you explore the idea that other religions are as valid as Christianity and also have much wisdom to bring to the world:

I highly recommend you check out the book Holy Envy by Barbara Brown Taylor to help you explore how you can be a devout Christian and learn from and form mutual relationships with persons who are not Christian. You can check out passages from the book in my tag here. .

You might also like my two podcast episodes on interfaith relationships (in general, not romantic ones, but the same material applies) -- episode 30, “No One Owns God: Readying yourself for respectful interfaith encounters” and episode 31, “It's good to have wings, but you have to have roots too": Cultivating your faith while embracing religious pluralism.” You can find links to both episodes as well as their transcripts over on this webpage. .

There might also be some helpful stuff in my #interfaith tag or #other faiths tag if you wander around. .

Simply getting to know whatever religion this friend does belong to (or what ideologies and value systems they maintain if they’re atheist / non-religious) can also be super helpful. Ask them what resources they can think of that can help get to know their religion as they experience it. Attend worship service (virtually works!), seek out folks on social media who share their religion, etc. I bet you’ll find a lot that you have in common -- and hopefully you’ll find some of the differences thought-provoking and enriching to your own understandings of Divinity!

I’m guessing a lot of your worry stems from the assumption that non-Christians don’t go to heaven. If you believe that not being a Christian leads to hell after death, it’s very hard to view non-Christians and their beliefs as equal to your own!

That Holy Envy book discusses this genuine fear many Christians have on behalf of non-Christians, and how to let it go. .

Here’s a post with links to other posts describing the belief that many faithful and serious Christians hold that non-Christians don’t all get whisked to hell. .

And a post on the harm done by fearmongering about hell. .

Finally, a little more on the academic side but if you’re interested in some history behind Christian views of hell that can help you see that there really is no one “true” belief here, check out the links in this post.

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Reinterpreting “unequally yoked”

I said we’d get back to this, and here we are! While the easiest to find interpretation of 2 Corinthians 6:14′s “Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers” is that it argues against interfaith marriage, there are other ways to read this text.

I adore this article I found on the passage from a Christian minister who is married to a Hindu monk -- “Unequally Yoked”: How Christians Get Interfaith Marriage Wrong.” Incredibly, Rev. J. Dana Trent writes that when she and her now-husband dug into 2 Corinthians 6:14 to see what it was all about, she found that

“An ancient scripture meant to deter us from getting involved with each other actually brought us together. Our core beliefs in God became the focus of our study and relationship, not the issues that divided us.”

She also explains that biblical scholars say this verse isn’t even specifically about interfaith marriage -- which becomes clear when you read the full chapter surrounding it! It’s more general -- about the hazards of “working with” an unbeliever.

And what exactly is an unbeliever? Paul and other “believers” of these very early days of Christianity had a different definition than we might today -- an “unbeliever” wasn’t synonymous with “non-Christian,” because Christianity hadn’t even solidified into an actual religion yet! Instead, a nonbeliever was "anyone exposed to but was not faithful to Christ’s teachings—someone not characterized by devotion, love, peace, mercy, and forgiveness.”

In other words, if a person in those early days was told about the good news of Jesus that entailed things like liberation of the oppressed and love of neighbor, they didn’t have to “become a Christian” to accept that good news. And thus, Rev. Trent continues,

“Today, my husband’s deep Hindu faith has taught me to dig deeper into what Jesus would have me do. Perhaps Paul might have even considered me an “unbeliever,” as I claimed to be a baptized Christian, but my life did not inwardly and outwardly reflect the Gospel. Since marrying Fred, I re-attuned my life to Christian spiritual practices: spending more time in contemplative prayer, practicing non-violence through a vegetarian diet, limiting my consumption, and increasing my service to others.

Much to many Christians’ dismay, it took a person of another faith—a seemingly “unequally yoked” partner, to strengthen my Christian walk.”

Isn’t it beautiful to hear how this relationship between a Christian minister and Hindu monk has born good fruit for both of them? They help one another become the best Christian and best Hindu they can be, respectively. They are both so deeply committed to faith -- that doesn’t sound like an “unequal yoking” to me.

______

Whew, this got long! But it’s a big topic, and one I hope you’ll take the time to explore. Bring God into it; bring your friend into as much as they’re comfortable. And feel free to come back and ask me more questions as you go.

If anyone knows of other articles or other resources that explore the good fruit that can come from an interfaith partnership, please share!

#interfaith relationships #unequally yoked #progressive christians #interfaith dating #Anonymous #relationship tag

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dimensionwriter · 5 years

Text

100 Days

Part One

Alien x Reader

Warning: None

Word Count: 1947

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Okay so this is just an experiment in a way. So just remember to LIKE, COMMENT and REBLOG. I'll appreciate it.

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The creature floated in front of you in a giant alien containment. The container was 12 feet wide and 10 feet tall. The liquid that filled it was enriched with a substance that would allow the creature to continue to thrive even while being out of it's native world.

"How is experiment 337?" A deep voice buzzed in your ear. You jumped at the intrusive noise that disturbed the silence in the room. You sometimes forget that this is actually a job.

"Still unconscious, sir," you reported walking around the containment to look at it's sleeping form.

The creature had grayish blue skin that turned black once it reached it's appendages. It was bipedal with the legs thick and muscular. They had a set of arms that extended from it's shoulder, similars to a human. A second and third set of arms came from their spine and wrapped forward. A thick tail came from it's back and had a length of 3 feet and 2 inches.

"The vitals?" The voice demanded. You held in a sigh and walked over to the computer showing all the vitals. The things on the screen was a lot more complicated than that of a human.

"Fine, I believe. Though, the second heart has slowed down a lot in the last hour. Maybe get one of the doctors to come up here to check them out," you stated sliding through the chart the computer made on the creature's health. You guys didn't know how their normal health looked, so you just take the health they come in as normal and report any change in it.

"Damn thing might be trying to die on us. Well, it's not like it's giving us much information while it's unconscious, so might be a good thing." He ended it with a bark of laughter. You didn't join him as you rolled your eyes at him. He truly didn't have any patience. Some of the creatures that get sent here are here for months before they even begin to show some signs of responsiveness.

"Okay, sir. Please send that doctor in here," you quickly said before tapping your ear piece. You just had to get the boss that's the worse. He does not care for these creatures at all.

"You requested me," a montone voice asked. You turned around to see your vector's doctor walking in. They had a heavy set of bags under their eyes that showed how busy they were.

"Yeah, experiment 337's second heart rate seem to have slowed down," you explain pulling up the chart to show them. They leaned over your shoulder to look at them.

"I'll check on them. You can start your lunch break if you would like," they said looking over at you with a raised eyebrow. You pulled your lab coat back to look at your watch. Your break was supposed to start 20 minutes ago.

"Thanks. You can write anything you find in the notes under Experiment 337. I will see them there if you leave before I'm back," you rambled running around to grab your stuff. It's protocol to leave none of your things behind since you don't know what these creatures can do.

You took off your lab jacket and threw it in the waste bin. Glancing at the doctor, you could already see they were working on the creature. Hopefully nothing is wrong with them.

An hour later, you scan your ID at the door. It open slowly allowing you to see the empty room. Well except for the container with all the machinery hooked up to it. The doctor seem to be gone.

You threw your stuff on the free table and walked over to the metal closet. Inside of here were fresh and sterlized lab coats. There was also some gloves, but that was used if you could touch your experiment. And since yours were unconscious at the moment, it meant that you wouldn't be making any contact for a while.

"Examiner!" Someone yelled causing you to jump. You spun around towards the sound to see the doctor in the container. Their eyes were widen in panic as they struggled in the liquid.

"What? How?!" You stumbled while running to the container. You went to the computer to pull up the container's system. You have ot get them out.

"The creature. He woke up in the middle of me checking on him and he got out. I tried to push the panic alarm, but he sealed me in here. Hurry, get me out!" Their voice yelled out in fear. You stopped typing and turned slowly to the doctor.

"I noticed you said 'he' a lot. We usually say an alien is a they," you said lifting an eyebrow at the 'doctor'. They stopped thrashing and just floated. Since they weren't moving, you could see all the things hooked into them. No alien trying to escape would take the time to stick all those things into a person.

"Hmm, I thought I would identify closest to a male on this planet." The doctor's voice dropped two octaves causing your eyes to widen.

"You can shape shift," you screamed happily running to the glass. He looked exactly like the doctor. He even copied the mole hidden under their hair.

"What about it? You can't," he teased you raising a single eyebrow. It felt weird seeing the doctor, but having the actions and voice be so different.

"Can you please change? I have plenty of questions I want to ask you," you said going back to the computer. You closed the coding for the containment and pulled up the notes on this creature.

"Is this better, babe?" Your fingers froze as you turned your head slowly to the right. The creature was pressed against the glass closest to you. But instead of seeing an alien, you saw yourself.

"What's wrong, cat got your tongue?" The creature teased in your voice. A giant smirk slipped onto your face that looked so unnatural on you. "Well, I guess it's more like I have your tongue."

Laughter came out of your mouth as the creature started floating around. This felt weird. Seeing yourself do all these things while you are standing here really felt like whipflash.

"Wonder what's under here," he sung out before grabbing the front of the shirt. He pulled it away and started peaking around.

"Hey, stop that," you yelled banging on the glass. Deep laughter came from his, well yours, lips as he swam back over to the edge of the glass.

"Don't worry darling." He pulled the shirt down to reveal that underneath was his greyish blue skin. It faded from your skin into his as it passed the collar. "I can't turn into something I don't know."

You quickly turned to the computer and started typing in shapeshifter into his records. Putting a subsection underneath, you added that he can't shift into something he doesn't know or can't see.

"Is there anything else you cant do?" You asked looking over at him. Alien-you leaned back in the liquid and tapped his chin.

"I guess stop being so good looking," he grumbled out. You bit your lip as you thought of a perfect joke. It would be unprofessional to joke around with him, but you have heard other examiner say that they joke and play around with theirs.

"You do look like me, so I will have to agree with you on that statement." His mouth dropped open as soft stutters of laughter escaped. He closed it and rolled his tongue along his teeth.

Slowly, your skin started to turn into that grayish blue until your entire body started to contort. Your clothes turned to ashes before disappearing in the liquid. Jutting his head back, the skull seem to be shifting underneath as it became sharper and fuller.

"I think this looks a little a better," he purred pressing a clawed hand on the glass. He was back to his original form except this time clothed.

A skin tight black material covered from his knees to the peak of his neck, but it didn't cover any of his arms. It kind of reminded you of an old style swim suit in a way, very basic but covered all necessary things.

"So, you can produce clothing on yourself?" You asked thinking of how he perfectly replicated the clothes you were wearing. You leaned over to the computer and typed that in.

"Well, would you like for me to be butt naked in this container?" You stopped typing as you thought it over. It would help with getting data over everything and that increases chance for experiments. "I'm not liking that silence. You pervert."

Embarrassment encased your body as you shook your head trying to rid yourself of the accusation. "No, I was looking at it from a scientific standpoint. I promise."

He swam up and peaked over the top of the glass, so he was starring down at you. His black eyes glimmered with amusement as he threw a swift wink at you. "You can call it whatever you want, baby."

Your jaw dropped in shock at what you assumed was his flirtatious comment. What type of alien were you assigned to examine?

"I-" luckily you were cut off by a voice in your ear interrupting you. You had to stop yourself from letting out a groan as that annoying voice spoke.

"Don't forget we have a required seminar in 39 minutes. Go ahead and put your alien into hibernation and report all vitals before leaving." You rolled your eyes as you remember those dumb seminars. You really didn't want to go.

"Did I blow your mind, buttercup? Guess you imagine what is under my this suit." You zoned back into your environment as you looked back at the alien. Half of his upper body was tilting out of the container at you. His second and third set of arms slowly kept him afloat.

"Sadly, no. I have to put you to sleep now," you commented walking over to the computer. You quickly wrote in the notes that he seems to be made for swimming.

"But if I'm asleep, I can't see that beautiful face of yours," he whined out splashing his tail behind him. Luckily, none of it feel over.

"Don't worry, you can see me in your dreams," you joked typing in the code to send in the sleeping medicine. Blue liquid flowed from the machine and towards the IV stuck into him.

"You didn't even give me your name or give me a name." You tilted your head in confusion at the last statement. Why would you give him a name?

His eyes looked down at the blue liquid as it started going into him. He let out a shaky breath and dropped down into the container. His body slowly sank to the bottom where he leaned against the corner of the container.

You walked towards the glass and gently placed your hand on it. He was blinking slowly at you as he tried to fight the medicine. But you knew in ten seconds, he would be out.

"How about I call you Shark?" You joked looking at his grey skin. Bubbles floated out of his mouth from his laughter. His head plopped against the wall as his eyes shut.

"It's a good thing you cute or I would be offended by that." Silence followed as his breathing even out. The rest of his body sunk down into the floor.

Work was about to get a lot more exciting with him around. Maybe you could actually start looking forward to this.

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So this is going to be an ongoing stories. I want to try to use some stories prompt or word prompts for this as practice for my writing. Also, I want to try to write a flirty character instead of a soft blushy one like usual. So this entire thing is a giant experiment for me. So leave a comment and let me know what you think.💜💜💜💜💜

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capricxs · 4 years

Photo

so you’ve been roleplaying for years... things change, the way the community does things shift, and sometimes there’s new skills you need to pick up and adjust to in order to make your time rping as creatively rich and fulfilling as it can be. one of those things that’s become extremely important is plotting & hcing. either in groups, in indie, or doing 1x1s, these two are the foundation to your interaction (unless you’re the type to wing it). sometimes when i interact with people, it seems they don’t really click with this process, so in the guide below, i’ll help to explain why these are so important, and how to do it in a way that not only gives you a rich plot, but helps inspire and keep your writing partner engaged with you.

disclaimer --- this is just my personal experience and opinions being shared. i am not the end-all-be-all on how to interact with writing partners. this is just here to get people to begin thinking about things they otherwise wouldn’t have thought about.

questions regarding this help post can be found here. let’s jump in!

WHY IS PLOTTING & HCING SO IMPORTANT?

firstly, rp has changed a lot since the days of launching into an rp or writing a random starter for a new follower. things are a lot more established and regardless of if you’re in a bio/skeleton rp with pre-written connections, or you’re in a new plotless group or indie and you’re coming up with them on your own, it’s a major foundation to your writing experience, so don’t treat it lightly!

secondly, regardless of format, and with the shifts in rp culture, behind the scenes plotting & hcing is crucial to the development of your plot & characters. as writers, we take more time with our replies so development on dash happens a lot slower. personally i don’t mind that, but i don’t want that to hinder my writing experience so i like taking things behind the scenes to help build up dynamics and situations so the whole relationship isn’t based off one or two threads/instances.

lastly, it helps to keep things inspiring. sound dumb? you bet, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles baby. so many times i have plotted ships, sibling relationships, best friends, or other core relationships, and wanted to sink my teeth in relationship lore and background and dynamics, only to be returned with “hahah yes! i love that!” now i understand this is never ill-intentioned, but it does suck the muse right out the situation. if you do not validate & expand on your partner’s ideas, it’s not going to make that writer’s ideas feel appreciated or loved. the way to tell them you love their ideas? sink your teeth right back and send an equally meaty response right back!

PART ONE: SO YOU WANT TO PLOT

you don’t need this post to tell you how to come up with plot ideas, that’s a whole different guide, but let’s say you’re in the brainstorming process. you’re throwing ideas back and forth based on your muse’s two backgrounds and seeing what sticks. what is SUCH a downer, is when a writing partner is just ... not contributing. yes, we are all guilty of the line “i’m open to anything!” but try and limit yourself to using that line once in a conversation. hell, i prefer it when a person doesn’t even say it at all and they’re HONEST. if i come in guns-a-blazing and i ask ‘what plots do you need filled?’ if a person responds with ‘i need someone who hurt my muse’ there’s two option, i fill that plot, or i don’t. it’s that simple. don’t be afraid to say what you want, the worst that can happen is the person says ‘eh, i don’t really think that fits my character’ and you come up with something else! but when you’re already passionate about the idea, you’re setting yourself up for such great success!

so what do you do when your one (1) braincell isn’t working and you can’t come up with any connection ideas? two options, you can either go to one of the dozens of guides for basic connection ideas and give your partner something, or you can look at the other person’s bio, and your muse, and try and find connections between them. both of these are painfully easy! i’m a personal fan of the latter as it seems a bit more grounded and juicy than the former, but those can be twisted into something great too! **if you’re in a group setting, even asking what that person’s other connections are, and piggybacking off of that. these create super spicy connections. example: you find out muse a is muse b’s ex, and your muse, muse c, is best friends w muse b, so it’s safe to assume your muse c will probably not get along with muse a.

this important thing is not to make your partner feel like they’re doing all the work. because that’s never fun, and truthfully, it doesn’t make that person want to write with you if you’re not also putting in the elbow grease. plotting is fun, not a chore! make it a party!

PART TWO: NOW YOU HAVE TO BACK IT UP

you’ve got your plot now, congrats! and you’re so excited. but now you need that plot to be fleshed out a bit. there’s some history there so you’ve got to establish it. in comes the powerhouse--- my favorite part to this whole thing: HCING. it’s the most laid back, and in my opinion, creative part of the rping process. truthfully, i enjoy it more than threads because of the absolute insanity you can dig up. but i only love it if my partner can hand it back just as i can serve it.

maybe you’ve never quite thought that this part was that important, but i can assure you, if a person is giving you 3+ sentences about the dynamic of your characters, they’re trying to hc with you, and if you don’t enrich them, your dynamic is going to wither away.

i brought up an idea in the first part of this guide that’s extremely important to how you hc with your writing partner: VALIDATE & EXPAND. it’s the idea that no matter how much or how little your rp partner gives you in terms of an hc, you respond to it with a validation, which can range anywhere from ‘i LOVE that’ to as simple as a key smash and the pleading emotion, or even repeating a fraction of what they said to show you understand their vision. but then you have to back that up with expanding on that idea. hcs could be about a situation or about your writing partner’s character, so expand on how your character feels and reacts to things. it’s beyond discouraging when i write a whole idea out, explaining how my character feels in this emotionally intense setting, and my writing partner only gives me the validation portion, and now i have no idea how my opp’s character thinks, feels, or interacts.

see, a point i mentioned above is the fact that threads don’t work like they used to. and that’s fine! but hcing is an easy and fun way to make up for the fact that we take time with our threads now. if you’re rping to find rich, in-depth, satisfying dynamics, it’s going to take many many months to get your understanding of your opp’s muse, and the relationship they have, hcing fast tracks that process. i’m writing with you, i love your muse, give me the dirty details, i promise it’s not obnoxious. the more your give back, the more you will receive. so why wait around, sitting on our thumbs for me to fully get a grasp of your character’s voice, and your character’s thoughts, when we could do that on chat and have a grand time.

but now you’re thinking to yourself: okay, but how exactly do i validate and expand? and for that, we go to EXAMPLE-BOT 3000 !! not a real bot, unfortunately, but example bot has dug up a personal interaction i’ve had hcing. for context, this is a 1x1 writing partner i’ve had for years. we have an excellent dynamic and they are perfect. they have also given me permission to use our convos as example.

here is my message [ CONTEXT: this is a sandbox-star-wars-esque verse]

Okay but I had a thot in the shower,,, where the best thoughts are had. And what if,,, after this meeting and they part ways and such and it was just another weird occurrence in their lives, blastis gets a mission and it’s either to protecc salia or like guide salia across the galaxy to do something smth and save some lives or whatever. And ofc not because she couldn’t take care of herself but he has smth she doesn’t that gives an edge or just a close loved one of her’s didn’t want to see her get hurt. So you have these two traveling across the galaxy,,, sometimes arguing bc she can manage herself but he’s just fulfilling the mission. And them both kicking but. And all the steamy tension and cliches.

let’s break this message down before we get into the response. first, hcs don’t have to be formal. they are the most fun when they’re less together and don’t rely so much on “sounding good”. you’re just rolling off the top of your brain, chatting like you would with a friend, don’t worry too much on formalities because this isn’t the place for that.

i am also presenting my idea in a way that is confident, and with plenty of ideas to work on. i am involving my partner’s character but not godmodding. i am taking things i have learned from character introductions (like salia being independent and empowered, and wanting to do good/help others) and not disrespecting them, but having her take part in the plot. there are also small bits at the end of this idea that are little nuggets to build off of.

let’s look at my partner’s response.

AAAAH okay i love the idea!!! however shes a v. freelance kinda healer and doesnt really take official things. and she doesnt have loved ones that would know if there was danger - she can telepathically communicate with her own people but if she doesnt want them to know things they cant just. force their way in its a Closed Communication line not an open invitation into her thoughts asdfghjsh. But i could imagine that some guy or family hire her to find their children maybe who were lost on their adventure/mission with friends and the last message sounded like one was hurt,,, badly. and the other cant help for some reason. and they hire blastis to both protect her and later the people shes supposed to heal??

but anYWAY the Important part is ofc. the tension. and his big ass in her ship bc why would she?? take another if hers is right there. so hes gonna take that single bed and not complain. but ooof those two?? just kicking ass and being amazing. growing on each other more and more.

right off the bat is validation. and validation doesn’t have to be as direct as it is in this message. the validation is important here specifically, my partner showed they were interested and supportive of the idea i presented, but needed the plot to fit in their character’s story better. we see them making adjustments--- this is a collaborative experience so i alone shouldn’t be the one coming up with the plot, nor would i want my idea taken just as is. instead they mold it to fit what makes sense, getting more specific than my idea with a “mission purpose”. this is where the bouncing off of each other begins.

they then take the “bait” and start building on the tension our muses will experience (this is a ship afterall). while this is the beginning of our conversation, and there’s aren’t specific moments we’re working off of, this is setting the ground for future headcanons (see: the focus on sexual tension, living in a ship together, kicking butt), we are both mutually giving each other little tethers to take hold of. this is a very good start to begin working out the dynamic and situations these two characters are found in, with multiple different launch-off points.

CONCLUSION

there’s no right or wrong way to rp. even the tips listed here might not be applicable to your style, just having the idea in the back of your mind helps. the important thing is you and the person you’re writing with are having fun. you both are respecting each other’s time and ideas and creating a beautiful dynamic or world or relationship. this is a collaborative experience, and it’s important not to leave your partner feeling like they’re doing all the heavy lifting creatively.

hope this helped! as always, you can send me any questions you have in regards to this topic HERE. you can find a tag of answered questions in relation to this topic HERE.

#rpt #rpc #rph #writing guide #rp guide #hc guide

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its-me-jessi · 4 years

Text

Love Finds Its Way PT4

Summary: Preventing Ivar from joining the crew even if well intended might eventually backfire and Ivar's presence brings back not so pleasant memories.

A/N: I hope you like the fourth part of “Love finds its Way” as well. It turned out much longer than the previous parts. Feel free to leave any kind of feedback. 🤗🧡

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 5

I turned around quickly and adjusted my pirate hat so that it casts shadows over my face. Ivar knew me too well; he would recognize my face immediately. I had no choice but to hide it. But if he had already recognized me, I would be hamstrung, my cover would be blown in front of the entire crew, including the captain, and my plan to find my parents, while forgetting Ivar and leaving the time with him behind, would burst like a bubble. Then the procedure would start all over again.

I was shocked when a hand landed rudely on my right shoulder. Ever since I pretended to be a man, I was treated accordingly. A handshake was no longer a harmless handshake, it was a test of strength. My dainty, rather small hand was gripped and pressed; crushed ruthlessly. It was not uncommon for the men to make fun of my small hands. For them, I was the undersized wimp. As an actual woman, I found it difficult to keep up with them.

I had raised my head slowly and cautiously. I grabbed the brim of my pirate hat and raised it, as a sign of respect, before tilting it again. When the captain stepped past me and went to the crew's table, unmistakably full of meat and pitchers of rum, I sighed in relief. At first I was afraid the captain's hand was originally Ivar's, who might have recognized me. However, my hope that Ivar had decided against this step, joining the piracy or that the captain had refused him, vanished when I saw him follow the captain to the crew.

Our crew was complete, we didn't need another man, which is why I was quite optimistic about Ivar getting rejected, but he had tremendous stamina. When he got something on his mind, he held onto it, no matter how difficult it was, and even if it took a long time for him to achieve. There was hardly anything that he did not claim for himself. Whatever he had done to win the captain over, he was now part of the crew, which meant he would be at sea with us for a long time, on board of a small, overseeable ship that didn't provide much room for a hideaway. Ivar and I would often run into each other and I had the feeling that it would cause a lot of problems. One thing was set as if engraved on stone tablets, I would never be able to forget him. On the contrary, his presence would arouse feelings I had repressed for a long time. It was already difficult for me to keep my distance. It had been two years since I was close to him, let alone exchanged a word with him and I longed for it. Especially now since I saw him physically standing right in front of me.

"Everybody, listen up!", The captain spoke with a raised voice and the laughter of the crew instantly ceased. He grabbed Ivar by the shoulder and squeezed it firmly as he announced the news, “From today on this landlubber here will be part of the crew. He will sail the seas with us, fight, capture and plunder under our flag. - We're well staffed, but we'd definitely like to welcome adventurous, daring youngsters on board of the Rubin, wouldn't we?”, after listening to the captain’s speech, the crew bursts out laughing and roaring, excluding me. If I had the chance to, I would have immediately got him out of trouble. "You are now outlawed, boy - the freedom of the seas lies ahead of you, enjoy it as long as you can!" The captain laughed scornfully.

"Captain!" I cleared my throat. Now I had to sound convincing and at the same time manly enough not to make Ivar prick up his ears. As if it wasn't difficult enough. One crooked tone and my cover would be blown, this time not only in front of the crew, but also in front of Ivar. It was extremely risky to ask for a hearing in this situation, I knew that, but I could no longer stand aside and do nothing.

Since I hardly ever spoke to the captain, he was all the more surprised that I was now standing directly in front of him. My heart sank to my boots as I felt the eyes of the entire crew in me, including Ivar’s and the captain’s. The last time I got so much attention was when I was introduced to the crew and even then, I felt uneasy. I swallowed hard, before I eventually proclaimed my request: “We're already overstaffed, captain! Our supplies are just enough for the crew. In addition, he would just stand in the way, there is no task left that he could take on. That's only wasted supplies, space, and spoil. After all, he is one man more who is eligible of a part of the treasures.", I tried hard to remain standing confidently in front of him. I had never questioned any of the captain's decisions. Under other circumstances I would have held myself back this time too, but the thought of Ivar made me push my limits, especially since I didn't know what he was up to. It could not only harm the crew, who had grown dear to my heart after the long time I’ve sailed with them, but also Ivar himself and I wanted to prevent that.

The captain laughed. He must take me for a joke figure. Taking deep breaths in and out, I tried to stand firmly. The smell of alcohol rises to my nose, no wonder, most of the sailors here were no longer even able to hold their jug upright. At the smell, I felt the rare need to take a sip, to use a bit Dutch courage. "Very true! We are indeed overstaffed, we don't have enough supplies and, as you already said, the ship has no space for another sailor.”, He scratched his braided beard, “I have a better idea! How about him taking your place?”

I did not expect that kind of reaction. Instead of preventing Ivar from joining the piracy, I provoked my own expulsion. My plan threatened to fail miserably. Without a pirate crew there would be no clue to the whereabouts of my family and without a ship I had no means of transportation. I had risked all of that without thinking.

I clenched my teeth with anger. I was now in trouble and I was mad, mad at myself and my own stupidity. “What do you think,” the captain grabbed my shoulders and turned me to Ivar, “which of you two would really be an enrichment to the crew? Obviously, he's not such a wimp (here we go again) like you!”

I bowed my head. First, to avoid Ivar's eyes, and second, because I knew he was right. Ivar was strong, much stronger than an obscure kid like me. I only took care of the inventory and medical care of the men. In the beginning I also participated in fights. I knew how to use a sword, I had secretly taught myself to do it at night behind a bar, but my problem was, I couldn’t, and I didn't want to kill. A human life was far too valuable. How can you sacrifice someone's existence so senselessly? I didn't understand and I never wanted to.

“I'm sure there will be enough space for both of us!”, Ivar said. His voice sounded like music to my ears. The words "I look forward to it", which he had whispered in my ear in that deep male voice, came to my mind and again, a pleasant tingling sensation went through my body that caused my eyes to close for a brief moment. With a smile on my face, I enjoyed the pleasant, warm feeling.

Ivar had reached out a hand, hoping for a forgiving handshake and was waiting for me to shake it, but I didn’t. He was taken aback when I didn't return the handshake and just nodded politely instead. I would have loved to return the gesture, but I preferred to play it safe. During my absence he had surely met some women, maybe it’s been way more easier for him to forget me and all we had, than it was for me, but that still did not assure me that he did not remember my little hands. To be honest, I was hoping he'd remember at least a tiny little thing about me, even though he had every right to want to forget me. After all, I disappeared from his life without a word. Every day I imagined what would have happened if I had stayed, if I had just not paid so much attention to the conversation between him and our foster parents. Each time a different variant of our future came to my mind. Would we be married? Would we already have a child, a young son, or a young daughter? I sometimes imagined us teaching our child how to walk in the meadow in front of the yard, where the cows grazed in the afternoons. If it fell down, it would laugh, and his or her light blue eyes would shine with joy. I was sure our child would have Ivar's eyes.

Whenever I imagined our future like this, I regretted what I had done back then, but then the negative thoughts reminded me of why I had acted the way I did.

I waited longingly for Ivar to return from the market. I always felt overjoyed when I got to see him again after such a long day, but on that evening, I was overflowing with happiness and bliss. After we had finally confessed our feelings to each other and got together, I couldn't wait to feel him in my arms again. I wanted to be enveloped in his body heat and scent again as soon as possible. I wanted to bury my hands in his hair when we kissed. Just the thought of the feeling of his lips on mine made me melt away. They were so warm, soft, and clung to mine as if they were made for each other. After only one time I was already addicted to them, to him. I could hardly wait for him to come back.

It was already getting dark outside. I stood in front of the kitchen window, out of excitement completely forgetting about dinner, and watched the clouds as they rolled by the orange-pink coloured sky. Meanwhile I daydreamed about no less than Ivar to sweeten up the waiting time. I couldn't wait for the daydreams to come true.

When I saw him turn the corner, I was about to open the window and call him. My longing was almost unbearable. But before I could even utter a sound, our foster mother's voice rang out. She sounded extremely worried, and she must have been if she couldn't even wait for Ivar to enter the house. People nearby also took notice of my foster mother's calls and watched the scene for a brief moment before they went back to their own business. Normally Ivar would have come to me first. He would have told me briefly about the events that took place at the market, which were sometimes more and sometimes less exciting, and I told him what had happened on the farm while he was away. He then entered the house, disclosed the revenues to our father, and afterwards the two of them sat down together at the dining table and discussed the following morning schedule before the food was served. Tonight, everything was different. Ivar also noticed our foster mother’s concern and eventually he started to run.

I wondered what it was, that threw our mother in such a turmoil and I wanted to help her, just like she had helped us when Ivar and I were standing completely soaked to the bones and freezing in front of her door and she still took us in not hesitating for even a second. She was always there for us and I tried every day to prove myself grateful for everything she did for us.

I put out the fire of the hearth so that our dinner did not suffer even more damage than it had already suffered because of my dreaminess. To look for my foster mother, I left the kitchen, but stopped halfway and hid behind the door frame that separated the kitchen from the hallway and dining area. Astonished, I listened to the conversation that my mother was having with Ivar. "Look, my son!", Elisabeth, our foster-mother, referred to the article that covered the entire front page of the daily newspaper, "There are important news from the royal family. Your mother, Queen Aslaug, gave birth to a son, your brother!". Queen? I knew he came from a wealthy family, which the noble clothes he wore back then revealed, but I didn't know he came from a royal background. Ivar had never spoken about it, at least not to me. That must be a misunderstanding. Come on, Ivar, say something. My hands grabbed the fabric of the apron I was wearing as I listened tensely to the conversation, which was never meant for my ears.

For a short time, it was quiet in the hallway. Everyone fell silent, including Ivar, even after reading the article carefully he uttered not even a single word. "Ivar!", Elisabeth exclaimed indignantly, as Ivar pushed the newspaper aside and fetched the bag with the money, as if he wanted to move on with the usual daily routine and without paying any more attention to the article. "You can't live like this forever, here with us, on the farm and working for us! You are a prince, you belong to the royal family!", she preached to him, as he emptied out the bag on the table, completely lost in thoughts, and the clattering of the thalers drowned out some of Elizabeth's words. "I'm not going anywhere! My home is right here, you're my home and I'm won’t abandon you", he said, raising his gaze. He looked firmly at Elisabeth and Helge, our foster father. “With the child, the succession to the throne is now taken care of, there is no reason left for me to return!", Ivar said. "You are the child of the first marriage! The son of the once reigning king, to whom everyone looked up! Do not allow your father’s inheritance to go to waste and take the place that you are entitled to, as the legitimate successor of your father!" Elisabeth argued. She just meant well for him. She always wanted only the best for us. "I will never set a foot in that castle again! I will never forgive my mother for replacing my father without further ado! She hasn’t sent out one single ship for us!". I peeped from behind the door frame to Ivar. His eyes reflected the anger and the disappointment as well as the pain that he felt. At that moment I realized where his sleepless nights came from. He had such an infinite burden to bear, the burden associated with the death of his father and that of the rest of his family, for which I felt partly responsible. If only all of this hadn’t happened. His father would still be alive if my father had not attacked him and Ivar would have been in his rightful place, perhaps even king by now.

Now, since I knew that Ivar was not just a noble man, but a prince, I felt very different. My joy was blown away and what remained was the feeling of loss. I did not belong to the higher class. My mother worked as a cook and my father was a pirate. I was the daughter of a pirate, the pirate, because of who Ivars farther, the king, died. So, our relationship was star-crossed. Our future together, which I have always longed for, would remain a dream forever. A relationship between a prince like him and a woman of the lower class like me would never come to a happy end, only to an end full of sorrow and pain. If I couldn't spare him the death of his father, couldn't take away the pain of the past, I wanted to spare him at least all the pain of the future.

"Ivar, keep your father in mind! Do it for him. I'm sure he wouldn't have wanted anyone but you as his successor!", because of the ongoing heated discussion, all three of them were distracted enough for me to sneak into my room unnoticed. I sighed deeply as I closed the door behind me. I remembered the morning. I've never been as happy as when he confessed his feelings to me. The memory of the following kiss brought tears to my eyes. The sad thing was not the kiss, it was the thought that it would be the last one. From an early age, I abhorred goodbyes, but none of them hurt as much as saying goodbye to my one and only great love. I have to go, and I have to hurry before they notice me. Just as the tears were threatening to fall, I wiped them out of my eyes. I didn't own many things, so, that saved me from having to carry heavy luggage. I just reached for my cape that was lying on my bed. As I hung it around my shoulders and as I let my eyes wander around my little chamber, a shell catched my eye. The Arcida shell has a unique shape and I liked it very much, even more because it was a gift from Ivar. One day Ivar found the shell entangled in the fishing net and he decided to gift it to me. "Look what I caught, just for you!", he had said as he presented the shell.

I took my only keepsake of him and carefully put it in the little bag I always carried around my hip. In this bag I usually kept several variations of medicinal herbs, which I, if necessary, administered to the animals, such as mint for maldigestion.

Not only bidding farewell to Ivar, but also to my foster parents was extremely difficult for me. They raised me like their own child, taught me important life lessons, loved me, and stood by my side throughout my life. I couldn't have wished for better foster parents and I would be grateful forever. I hoped I’d someday get the chance to see them again.

Before I finally left the house and the people I loved behind, I took my pen and ink and wrote a letter to Elisabeth, Helge, and Ivar. In the end, I didn't have the heart to leave without saying goodbye to them.

Dear Mother, Dear Father

I'm terribly sorry and I wish I could stay, but I have to go.

I thank you with all my heart for everything you had done for me. You have always been there for me, you have never rejected me, even though you knew where I came from.

I have found a new home and a family in you and I will be grateful forever.

Thank you for everything and may God protect you

In Love Y/N

While I was writing the letter, I couldn't choke back my tears. They ran down my cheeks, but before they could drip on the paper, I quickly wiped them away.

My beloved Ivar

I remember the day we met as if it were yesterday. I thank God for placing you on my way, I just wish it would have been a different occasion that led us to each other.

Ivar, please don't get me wrong, I love you with all my heart, but I fear our love will not have a future. Our destiny is too different.

I know you are destined for greatness and I ask you to promise me that you will follow your destiny, I firmly believe you will succeed. Your father would be proud of you!

I wish you all the best of the future and may God always accompany you on your way.

In Love Y/N

Quickly I wrote the letter addressed to Ivar before stepping out of the window into the darkness. The sun had set about three-quarters of an hour ago. Only the light of the moon and the stars guided me through the darkness.

One last time I looked back before I started running. It’s only a matter of time until someone would notice that I was gone, so I had to hurry up. I didn’t know where I was supposed to run, I hadn't thought about it yet. I just tried to get away as soon as possible, so I ran as far as I could in that short amount of time.

After a while I found myself at the harbor. The wind howled and spread ice cold air. The waves hit the ships, causing them to shake. I stood in the middle of the impending storm, trembling in the cold, looking for a refuge. Trying to shield myself from the cold wind, I covered my upper arms and walked along the harbor. I listened to the sound of the sea and the salty smell of the sea reached my nostrils.

If I kept staying there, in the exact same city, Ivar would sooner or later find me and I knew that if I saw him again, I couldn't bring myself to leave him again. Consequently, I had to leave the city as soon as possible. Coincidentally, I became aware of how some men were constantly carrying boxes on board of a ship. Individual men on deck readied the ship for departure, which implied that this ship would soon be running out of port. This was my chance. So, I grabbed it without thinking too much about it and mingled with the men carrying heavy wooden boxes who gradually boarded. This was the second time I boarded a ship without permission, but this time I made sure it wasn't a pirate ship. It was a merchant ship, which I recognized by the infinite variations of goods. From rare fabrics through to exotic spices, they had everything. The ship would go to several mercantile cities and I decided to jump ship after arriving at the next port.

Before I knew what was happening, the ship had already left the harbor and I officially left everything I connected with the small town behind and sailed towards a new stage of life.

Thank you so so much for reading! Stay safe!😇🧡

Tagged: @youbloodymadgenius @heavenly1927 @curvynerdfan @xvxcarolinexvx

#ivar the boneless #ivar x reader #ivar vikings x reader #vikings ivar #ivar fanfiction #ivar fanfic #ivar fic #vikings tv show #vikings fanfiction #vikings fanfic #vikings imagine #fanfiction #fanfic #vikings #ivar imagine #ivar ragnarsson

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eliteprepsat · 6 months

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Think about how well you and your college counselor know each other. How often do you voluntarily talk to him or her? Counselors can be a tremendous resource of information and support beyond just enrolling you in classes, so if you don’t already, try regularly setting up times to meet with them.

To make the most of your time together, go in with strategic questions based on your curiosities and needs. Here are 6 questions to get you thinking:

1. HOW DO I FIND THE COLLEGES OR UNIVERSITIES THAT ARE BEST FOR ME? 🔍

The college or university that is right for you might not be the same one you’ve heard about from your friends, parents, or favorite TV show. Each school has a unique set of characteristics, and finding the one that best fits your preferences will set you up for future success. Imagine a place you would thrive in. Consider factors such as size, location, academic programs, extracurriculars, and overall campus culture. Your counselor can provide guidance for how to assess which schools best meet your criteria and are most likely to admit you.

If you already have a list of colleges that interest you, you can ask your counselor if your list looks balanced or if you could benefit from modifying it. He or she can also inform you of any upcoming college fairs where you can consult with individual college representatives.

2. WHAT SHOULD I BE DOING THIS YEAR TO PREPARE FOR COLLEGE?

Depending on what grade you are in, your counselor will have different recommendations for how you can best prepare for college. It’s helpful to devise a road map of sorts so you know you’re not missing any key steps. You can discuss topics such as choosing between the SAT or ACT, taking SAT Subject Tests, planning testing dates, stepping up your involvement in extracurricular activities, and making the most out of college visits.

3. AM I TAKING THE RIGHT COURSES? 📚

The requirements for which high school classes you must take vary by college and they may differ from your high school’s graduation criteria. For example, UC and CSU schools have what are called “a-g” class requirements, which stipulate the minimum type and number of courses you must take to be eligible to apply to these schools. Navigating these details with an expert can give you peace of mind as you piece together your schedule.

Not only can your counselor help you plan your class schedule so that you time everything appropriately, but he or she can help you choose the classes that will increase your competitiveness for college admissions. For example, if you’re thinking of applying with a major like engineering, you’ll want to take as many rigorous STEM classes as you can to demonstrate your interest and ability in that field.

4. HOW DOES MY SUMMER PLAN LOOK?

As part of getting to know you, colleges like to see how you spend your free time. Summers are a great opportunity to explore and develop interests and further your academic career. Your counselor can help you decide what to do this coming summer–whether it be an internship, enrichment course, paid or volunteer job, or academic summer program–and provide resources for finding such opportunities.

5. HOW DO I APPLY FOR FINANCIAL AID? 💰

College, as you may have heard, can be surprisingly pricey. Harvey Mudd, for instance, estimates the cost of attendance for the 2019-2020 year at about $79,539 per year. Fortunately, you can find plenty of financial assistance in the form of grants, loans, scholarships, and work study programs. Filling out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) application is the best way to ensure you qualify for as much of this aid as possible. The form can be a little confusing, so you might ask your counselor if your school offers any events that walk students and parents through filling it out.

Your counselor will also likely know about additional local or national scholarships that you may qualify for. Each independent scholarship has its own application requirements, so finding out early can help you budget your time and not allow any deadlines–aka free money–to pass you by.

6. IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I SHOULD BE DOING TO IMPROVE MY CHANCE?

Especially if your counselor knows you well, he or she may have some additional tips for helping you get into your target colleges or universities. Perhaps you will be applying to schools that offer interviews and could benefit from interview pointers, or maybe your priority should be fine-tuning your college essays, increasing your GPA, or taking the SAT again to reach a target score. A great thing about talking with your counselor, rather than exploring the sea of online information alone, is that you get access to an interactive expert who knows you as an individual, able to tailor specific answers to your specific situation.

Hopefully you’ll use these six questions to get thinking about what topics you want to bring up with your counselor. Think about what areas you’re most unsure of, keeping in mind that the quality of the information you get depends on the quality of the questions you ask.

#appblr #studyblr #college prep #college admissions #college counseling #go to college #high school

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ub-sessed · 5 years

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Selected excerpts from that Netflix interview with Joey Batey, Feb. 25, 2020

“When I got the role of Jaskier I went away and I read all the books and I played the game -- the Witcher 3 game; I’ve not played the first two -- and a big part of that wasn’t necessarily to do with research -- the game, that is, I mean. The books are invaluable. The game was more about understanding the fandom, I think, and it was about appreciating that yes, we’re taking the show in a new direction, in a new format, in a new medium, but in order to understand how important these characters are to everyone, that was the most important thing for me, in terms of connecting with people who knew Geralt and Yennefer and Ciri and Jaskier or Dandelion before I even met them.”

[The rest is under the cut because it is quite long:]

“I’ve done roles that have come from books before, quite a lot, but this is a different breed of fan. They own it more than you do. And if you can in any way be half of the character that they know and love then hopefully you’ve done your job. But this is the first time I’ve encountered a love for these stories and these games. It’s at first quite intimidating and then as soon as you start to loosen up and you meet people who love it so much, you realize that they’ve got nothing but love for new things, and they have respect for an ambitious narrative structure, whether they like it or not, there’s an inherent respect for it, for trying something, and that’s what I’ve taken away from a lot of the fan reaction, is everyone’s just kind of going, ‘Hey, OK, like we appreciate that these characters are going to be different to their previous incarnations’ or to how they imagined them when they were reading the books.”

“I don’t go on the Internet. I’m not very good at it. It scares the bejesus out of me. I’m quite a socially anxious human being, so I think it’s the equivalent of walking into a crowded room for me. It’s my idea of hell. So I try and dabble occasionally. But a friend sent me a thing the other day being like ‘Oh well, you know the critics have set this percentage,’ whatever it was, I think it was fairly average, ‘but the fan response has -- all the percentages are huge, they’re rocketing.’ And I think that was something, when the show came out, we all went, ‘Oh great, so the people who we wanted to make this for like it, and it doesn’t matter what the quote-unquote professionals think.’ And that was really heartwarming. And also, we were all punching the air ’cause it meant that we can move forward into season 2 with a sense of confidence and a sense of family and love, and we know that this is the first step on hopefully what will be a very long and rewarding journey.”

“The video game fans understand that at the end of the day this is a different medium and the games are equally brilliant at tackling lots of different challenging themes. I think Lauren and her wonderful writing team have made some really strong, bold, ambitious moves towards something that hopefully isn’t there for no reason. They’re not there just to be woke, they’re there because it’s interesting to talk about and interesting to explore, and what’s brilliant about the Continent and the world of The Witcher is that nothing is black and white and no-one’s really right or wrong in it. The question of morality is constantly questioned, and it’s the exploration of those themes that hopefully hooks and grabs people and keeps them in this world, enriches the world around them.”

[replying to a question about being prepared for the fan reaction to Jaskier:] “It’s one of those beautiful things where you think you prepare mentally. You know, I spent from about October, November onwards before the release of the show in December, I spent a lot of time just kind of checking in with myself and making sure I was ready for the response, good or bad. At the end of the day my job is to get up and play this character as best I can. And he is exhausting to play. As soon as I finished shooting I got ill. I was in bed for a month, ’cause I was on about 150 percent for months. He’s incredibly difficult to switch off. Once Jaskier comes out, I can’t really put him back in a box. He’s got a bit of a mind of his own. Hence a lot of the improvisation. I never have any clue what I’ve said at the end of a take, he just sort of takes over. All the fan videos and all the covers and all the fan art, it’s just incredibly heartwarming. And I think I get about three or four proposals of marriage a day on social media. And if I could I would marry each and every single one of them. The love for these characters... I’m so lucky that the fans have responded so positively not only to the show but to Jaskier ’cause it is obviously my interpretation, and I was worried at points, ‘Oh is this a departure from the text?’ But we’re playing in a very different world. He’s a young guy at the start of this show and matures into a -- and will continue maturing into a new character throughout the series, hopefully. All the videos and stuff... If I’m completely honest, a lot of them are quite weird and bonkers, and that’s fantastic, and that’s just the greatest sort of celebration. Forty, fifty years ago you’d be getting fanmail, and now these days that’s the equivalent. I should check some more of them out, because I kind of avoided them ’cause I was like, ‘I don’t want to stare at my own face for an afternoon.’ But the love that’s been poured into them, it warms my heart.”

“I’m gonna tell you now, my lute-playing is terrible. I learned the lute a while back for another project and then I... Well, I say ‘learned’. If a professional lutanist looked at what I was doing, they’d be like, ‘OK.’ It’s the equivalent of the guy at a party who gets on a piano and the only thing he can play is Hey Jude. That’s my level on the lute. But it’s enough because music has been a huge part of my life ever since I was young. We were an incredibly musical family, and it’s sort of in my blood. I play in a folk-rock group called The Amazing Devil, which is very sort of folky and almost Witchery anyway, and I've been playing in them for six, seven years or something now. So when the role landed in my lap, it did feel a little like kismet, ’cause I was like, ‘Well this means I get to explore all my favourite things -- and pick the fucking lute up again.’ ’Cause that instrument is unwieldy. I’m currently practising for season 2, just to kind of get my fingers back in gear, and I am not enjoying it, but it’s the job.”

“I have a lute at home and it sits in a corner gathering dust until I work up the courage to throw myself at it. That’s what I mostly practise on. I don’t touch the prop lute ’cause they’re so fragile and I will just sit on it at some point. And there’s only two of them I think, so if I break one -- and they’re so expensive. So I’m kind of working on it at the moment and trying to get my head back into Jaskier starting season 2. It’s a slow process.”

[regarding the music] “The recording process was a bit of a blur for me because I was quite sick, and the whole process went by very, very quickly. I think Her Sweet Kiss is the thing that I’m proudest of in the show. Which is a song that was originally going to be in an episode. It was originally going to be in episode 6 as its own piece. Then various different things changed in post-production and it became the credit sequence in that. That was the thing that I was probably the proudest of. And it was a mad recording process, it was very, very quick, but I enjoyed every second of it and if there’s more music to come then bring it on.”

From I’m Obsessed with This, a Netflix podcast hosted by Bobby Finger, February 25, 2020.

#note that this is a netflix podcast #joey batey #podcast #interview #i'm obsessed with this #netflix #the witcher #bobby finger

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magnetictapedatastorage · 4 years

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I’ve started keeping a list of questions, remnants of a past life that I now need a beat or two to remember, if I can remember at all: What time do parties end? How tall is my boss? What does a bar smell like? Are babies heavy? Does my dentist have a mustache? On what street was the good sandwich place near work, the one that toasted its bread? How much does a movie popcorn cost? What do people talk about when they don’t have a global disaster to talk about all the time? You have to wear high heels the whole night? It’s more baffling than distressing, most of the time.

Full text of the (excellent) article is under the cut. (The Atlantic, March 8th, 2021)

I first became aware that I was losing my mind in late December. It was a Friday night, the start of my 40-somethingth pandemic weekend: Hours and hours with no work to distract me, and outside temperatures prohibitive of anything other than staying in. I couldn’t for the life of me figure out how to fill the time. “What did I used to … do on weekends?” I asked my boyfriend, like a soap-opera amnesiac. He couldn’t really remember either.

Since then, I can’t stop noticing all the things I’m forgetting. Sometimes I grasp at a word or a name. Sometimes I walk into the kitchen and find myself bewildered as to why I am there. (At one point during the writing of this article, I absentmindedly cleaned my glasses with nail-polish remover.) Other times, the forgetting feels like someone is taking a chisel to the bedrock of my brain, prying everything loose. I’ve started keeping a list of questions, remnants of a past life that I now need a beat or two to remember, if I can remember at all: What time do parties end? How tall is my boss? What does a bar smell like? Are babies heavy? Does my dentist have a mustache? On what street was the good sandwich place near work, the one that toasted its bread? How much does a movie popcorn cost? What do people talk about when they don’t have a global disaster to talk about all the time? You have to wear high heels the whole night? It’s more baffling than distressing, most of the time.