#i literally have easier classes this year than i have *any* other year but i just feel like staring aimlessly at my wall for 6 hours

[justablah56]

bro ngl I am so fucking tired

[cinematicbookworm]

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[machine-saint]

the op of that "you should restart your computer every few days" post blocked me so i'm going to perform the full hater move of writing my own post to explain why he's wrong

why should you listen to me: took operating system design and a "how to go from transistors to a pipelined CPU" class in college, i have several servers (one physical, four virtual) that i maintain, i use nixos which is the linux distribution for people who are even bigger fucking nerds about computers than the typical linux user. i also ran this past the other people i know that are similarly tech competent and they also agreed OP is wrong (haven't run this post by them but nothing i say here is controversial).

anyway the tl;dr here is:

you don't need to shut down or restart your computer unless something is wrong or you need to install updates

i think this misconception that restarting is necessary comes from the fact that restarting often fixes problems, and so people think that the problems are because of the not restarting. this is, generally, not true. in most cases there's some specific program (or part of the operating system) that's gotten into a bad state, and restarting that one program would fix it. but restarting is easier since you don't have to identify specifically what's gone wrong. the most common problem i can think of that wouldn't fall under this category is your graphics card drivers fucking up; that's not something you can easily reinitialize without restarting the entire OS.

this isn't saying that restarting is a bad step; if you don't want to bother trying to figure out the problem, it's not a bad first go. personally, if something goes wrong i like to try to solve it without a restart, but i also know way, way more about computers than most people.

as more evidence to point to this, i would point out that servers are typically not restarted unless there's a specific need. this is not because they run special operating systems or have special parts; people can and do run servers using commodity consumer hardware, and while linux is much more common in the server world, it doesn't have any special features to make it more capable of long operation. my server with the longest uptime is 9 months, and i'd have one with even more uptime than that if i hadn't fucked it up so bad two months ago i had to restore from a full disk backup. the laptop i'm typing this on has about a month of uptime (including time spent in sleep mode). i've had servers with uptimes measuring in years.

there's also a lot of people that think that the parts being at an elevated temperature just from running is harmful. this is also, in general, not true. i'd be worried about running it at 100% full blast CPU/GPU for months on end, but nobody reading this post is doing that.

the other reason i see a lot is energy use. the typical energy use of a computer not doing anything is like... 20-30 watts. this is about two or three lightbulbs worth. that's not nothing, but it's not a lot to be concerned over. in terms of monetary cost, that's maybe $10 on your power bill. if it's in sleep mode it's even less, and if it's in full-blown hibernation mode it's literally zero.

there are also people in the replies to that post giving reasons. all of them are false.

temporary files generally don't use enough disk space to be worth worrying about

programs that leak memory return it all to the OS when they're closed, so it's enough to just close the program itself. and the OS generally doesn't leak memory.

'clearing your RAM' is not a thing you need to do. neither is resetting your registry values.

your computer can absolutely use disk space from deleted files without a restart. i've taken a server that was almost completely full, deleted a bunch of unnecessary files, and it continued fine without a restart.

[flowerflowerflo]

girl's guide to academic success: part 1 ⊹˚. ♡

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ organisation

first off, have something to organise ur academic life with! i personally use notion (which i'll add later) but u can use anything as long as it's cute, convenient, unique and accessible to you, your life and your schedule specifically. especially as a visual learner, i like to have somewhere i can dump literally everything regarding a singular area in my life, so i do this for almost everything along with school and i highly recommend this <3

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ recognition of talents & improvements

analyse your strengths and weaknesses. think back on tests, exams, marks, and analyse which ones you got highest and lowest on. dont beat urself up for it, obviously; it's just to check which subjects you're doing good in and which ones have room for improvement. for example i love science but im not the best at it sometimes and we had an assessment recently and i didn't get as high as i'd like so i wrote down a little list on a piece of paper in my pencilcase for the topics i got the least in for me to study on my own to practise later.

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ laying out goals

set down specific goals; i like to do this week by week accustomed to my schedule that week in my school notion page along with images and vision boards based on the term/semester, but you can do it for the week, the month, the year, anything as long as its helpful to you

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ productive planning

plan accordingly based on ur time energy. when creating any to do list or productivity plan dont pile a ridiculous amount onto it that just leaves you stressed and overwhelmed because that defeats the entire point; this works the same for academic plans and goals and lists etc.

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ extra credit

put extra work in to the subjects you know will help you in the future. for example, for my personal aspirations i need to excel in english, history and textiles so i always try my absolute hardest and put my all into those lessons and do extra studying for them in my free time where i can. school is to prepare you for the future so take advantage of that

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ asking questions

please don't be shy to ask questions! that's what teachers are there for and you won't have them forever so take advantage of it while you can! you can even do it in that little window of time just after class if ur too nervous to ask in class. for example, on my last english exam i went to my teacher after class and asked about what i needed to improve on to get the marks i missed next time, and he told me i added too much detail and some other things so i wrote it down and am keeping a note of it to remind me to improve on that next time! (i got top of my class though so i didnt mind. still kind of pissed i added too much detail though)

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ participation

participate! ok im saying this as someone who still struggles with social anxiety a fair amount but if u wanna get higher marks and get on good terms w ur teacher i 100% recommend this. i don't do this in every class but i do it where i can and when i'm confident in my answer, and it's really intimidating at first but what i did is i did it first in the classes i felt most comfortable on and continued from there. it gets easier every time i swear, and nobody's judging you; they'll forget about it after five minutes. plus, what would they be judging you for? being smarter than them?

🧸𓂃 ࣪˖ prioritising ur health

this is mentioned a lot in these types of posts but if you're tired or burnt out or overworked or just feel like you need to take a break then do. do the best you can and compromise like i said earlier if you need to, just make sure u are prioritising yourself over anything. <3

inspo ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

my notion ⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

i also really recommend this layout by @honeytonedhottie, she's amazing go follow her

lots of love! <3

[yuurei20]

hi ! do we know whats considered easy / hard magic ? as in like what is considered beginner level magic and what is considered malleus draconia level magic

Hello hello, thank you so much for this question!

I went through the game and collected all examples of non-unique, non-artifact, non-flight-magic that I could find, and there was a lot! So much that this answer is going to be separated into four parts m(_ _)m Apologies for any inconvenience!

First are the magics that seem to be easier than others: Color-Change Magic, Fireworks, Flames, Ice, Levitation, Basic Construction, Cooking

Color-Change Magic:

Sebek describes color-change magic as being extremely basic, saying that is is one of the first things that human mages learn upon entering school.

Floyd calls it a "baby magic," and Vil tells Jade a story about using it to change the color of his and his father's clothing to avoid paparazzi shortly after he enrolled at NRC and before he was able to do more complex spells.

Cater asks Ace, Deuce and Grim to use color-change magic on their first day of school before they have attended a single class, apparently assuming that they would already know how to do it, but Deuce and Grim both struggle (as does Ace in a vignette).

Fireworks:

Grim is capable of creating an impressive fireworks display, as are Deuce and Ruggie, and none of the three are known for being particularly adept students or mages.

Flames:

Jamil talks about using fire magic when he was still "a literal child," and both Grim and Epel also use fire magic in the game.

Ice:

Deuce seems capable of using ice magic, despite still being a first-year student.

Levitation:

Deuce also seems fairly adept at levitation, and Kalim says that getting a parrot feather to float was the first magic he ever did.

Levitation might have been an early form of magic for Epel as well: he says that he was moving crates of apples with magic prior to enrolling at NRC.

Grim struggles with levitating chairs in a vignette, but this seems to be less of an issue with the magic itself and more a problem with precision (more on this later 👀).

Crowley recommends that the students eject Magicam Monsters via levitation during Halloween, so he may expect that they are all capable of using it.

Simple Construction:

Ace creates a surfboard with ease during the Stitch event, so simple construction projects may not be too high level.

Cooking:

Not known for being one of the more talented students at the school, Kalim still seems to be able to cook with magic.

Uncertain: Summoning, Wind and Attacks

Summoning:

Deuce has been summoning cauldrons since before enrolling at NRC. Ace attempts to mimic him in Book 3 but says, "summoning magic ain't my strongest suit," so it is possible that this is just a particular strength of Deuce's rather than an overall easier magic (or maybe a particular weakness for Ace?).

Wind:

Ace has been using wind magic since the prologue, but it is a little unclear if it is a simpler magic for beginners overall or if Ace just happens to be particularly adept at it. It is possible that Jamil is the only other person we have seen use wind magic.

Attacks:

Even the magic-school-dropout in Book 5 is capable of using magic for attacks, so basic "attack magic" seems to be a fairly simple ability.

But the attacks we see in the game tend to be vague! Are the characters using things like wind, water and fire and it just isn't being specified? Or is there something else going on?

[gffa]

Over the last week, I decided to go ahead with bookmarking all the fics I've recommended over the years on AO3 since I abide by tumblr poll results always (and man pour one out for all the fic that never made it to AO3 or has since been deleted, sooooo many gems lost to time!) and it was a bit more than the ~3,000 I was expecting:

Hopefully, this will be easier than browsing the hundreds of recs posts I've made, since you can filter for any of the author's tags now! These are mostly focused on Star Wars and DC fandom, but I did my time in the anime mines and occasional tours through some TV fandoms or movies. You can dig into everything unfiltered and start your own filtering, or the bigger fandoms you'll find:

MAJOR FANDOMS: Each of these should have 100+ at minimum and, in the case of Star Wars, literally almost half of them are in that fandom. Look, Star Wars fandom might be a trash fire in a lot of ways, but it is ON FIRE with some good fic. (Older bookmarks not guaranteed to match my current sentiments, especially re: the Jedi, but they did catch my fancy at that point in time!)

STAR WARS: - All Star Wars -OR- All Star Wars minus the Obi-Wan/Anakin ship - OR- Nothing BUT Obi-Wan/Anakin

BATMAN/DC: - DC can sometimes be tricky, but you can do a Batman* search and get most of them (though, sometimes Nightwing* or Young Justice* or Superman* will catch some of the others). Honestly, though, you might want to just do a search for what character or dynamic you like and have fun from there, because otherwise you're getting a face full of my Dick Grayson Is The Center Of The Universe And I'm Making That Everyone Else's Problem agenda. ;)

MARVEL/MCU: - Marvel* will probably get most of the various properties, though you may want to filter for Defenders* or Guardians of the Galaxy* if you're interested -OR- Marvel* without the Thor/Loki - These focus a lot on the Thor* fandom if you want to witness the results of like 8 years of constant voracious reading in that fandom (Minus the ship), because, seriously, I read a LOT of Odinson family fic. - Bonus, just do a search for Maximoff* to find some really good X-Men: First Class-verse because, listen, I have been ALL ABOUT the Maximoff twins since long before the movies or MCU brought them over and I will DIE ON THE HILL of "Marvel, make Magneto their bio-dad again or I'm never reading another comic of yours ever".

TOLKIEN/LORD OF THE RINGS/SILMARILLION/HOBBIT: - Tolkien* -OR- Hobbit* -OR- Lord of the Rings* searches will turn up most of my Elf-hunting, I primarily focus on the Sindar Elves, but look I can't resist my problematic Feanorian faves or that I will die on the hill that Fingolfin is the best ever. (You have NO IDEA how sad I am that so much fic on Stories of Arda or FFNET is not easily bookmarked on AO3, sob. I externally bookmarked a few of the bigger ones, but sooo many shorter faves are missing from my recs tag.)

CLAMP: - X/Tokyo Babylon legitimately bums me out because it's not a huge fandom and yet so much of what was written was pre-AO3 and lost when CLAMPesque went down or was never brought over from Livejournal, yet this fandom (well, the Seishirou/Subaru pairing) still burns brightly in my heart.

MINOR FANDOMS: Ones that probably only have under 100 bookmarks (often around the 20-30 bookmarks range), but will at least give you a place to start! ANIME/MANGA: Bleach | Cardcaptor Sakura | Dragonball | Finder no Hyouteki/Viewfinder | Katekyou Hitman Reborn! | Kuroko no Basuke | One Piece | Sailor Moon | Madoka Magica | Naruto | Princess Tutu | Trigun | Weiss Kreuz | Yuri!!! on Ice

BOOKS: Chrestomanci | Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

DRAMAS: Nirvana in Fire | The Untamed -OR- Modao Zu Shi

TV SHOWS/MOVIES: Community | Game of Thrones -OR- ASOIAF | Good Omens | Hannibal | Highlander | The Old Guard | Our Flag Means Death | Stranger Things

VIDEO GAMES: Dragon Age: Inquisition | Final Fantasy 8 | Genshin Impact | Okami

BANDS: Arashi

All right, whew, that was actually a fun project, despite how much work it was to hunt down a lot of older faves to see if they were on AO3, hopefully you'll find this useful!

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

My mom bought me this book for Christmas

The Resurrectionist by EB Hudspeth, a fantasy field guide full of anatomical illustrations of monsters and cryptids.

The musculoskeletal systems are fun to look at, but not nearly as in-depth as I would have liked. If you have more than a passing knowledge of taxonomy (or in my case, access to Wikipedia), a lot of the details fall apart under scrutiny

The harpy has four upper limbs connected to one shoulder girdle; it shouldn't have arms, only wings

The sphinx is not classified as a mammal, but is still somehow in the family Felidae with cats (and like the harpy is also drawn with only two girdles despite having six limbs. I will give the author credit for giving the sphinx a keel for the wing muscles to attach to)

It lists the Hindu deity Genesha as a cryptid, which is a no-no.

Cerberus is also explicitly not a mammal, but somehow still a canine (literally in the species Canis with wolves, dogs, and coyotes)

Both mermaids and dragons are listed as members of the order Caudata; the only extant members of Caudata are salamanders, which kinda makes sense for dragons, but not so much for mermaids (also, the author keeps playing it fast and loose with cladistics; both mermaids and dragons are in the same order despite being in different classes, and while dragons are explicitly said to be amphibians, mermaids are given the fictional class mammicthyes, which means mammal-fish. At that point, why not just call mermaids amphibians? Why make up a fake latin hybrid name?)

But what bugs me most of all is the classification of the Minotaur as its own order of mammal when in mythology it is explicitly described as a hybrid of two known species (made possible only by the cruel machinations of the divine, but still)

To use actual taxonomical nomenclature, the minotaur's species would be B. taurus × H. sapiens (specifically B. taurus♂ × H. sapiens♀; there are, to my knowledge, no legends of H. sapiens♂ × B. taurus♀). That's how ligers, tigons, mules, zorses, pizzly bears, narlugas, etc., are described.

If I had written this book, I would have leaned more into evolutionary biology. Most land animals have four limbs because they all evolved from boney lobe-finned fish, which split off from the boneless sharks and rays millions of years earlier, so any six-limbed vertebrates would need to be descended from a fictitious category of six-finned fish which would either be an offshoot of boney fish/tetrapods (I guess they'd be hexapods, though that term refers to insect arthropods), OR a precursor to boney and cartilaginous fish that both clades split away from much earlier (it's easier to lose structures than to gain them, so it makes more sense for a six-limbed ancestor to spawn four-limbed descendants than the other way around).

Think about how different elephants are from humans, and humans are from aligators, and aligators are from penguins, and remember that they all evolved from the same ancestor tiktaalik, an amphibious fish that existed some 375 million years ago. Imagine a precursor six-limbed species and how diverse all its descendants would look after 400 million years. Save for the occasional instance of convergent evolution causing two unrelated species to independently evolve similar body plans to fill the same niche, tetrapods and hexapods would look nothing alike. There would be very little recognizable overlap between the two. A six-limbed "pegasus" would not look like a real world horse, and a six-limbed "dragon" would not look reptilian/dinosaur-ish, for much the same reason that giraffes don't look like frogs; they're just too distantly related. Bonless sharks and boney fish and whales/dolphins all have similar looking bodyplans only because their environment requires the same hydrodynamic shape, while terrstrial vertebrates are much more physically diverse.

[jackiehicks]

‘Best Kept Secret’

Wyatt Lykensen x Reader

request: wyatt x wells!reader with a secret relationship? they're just always sneaking away from friends during school to meet up.

A/N: my first request and it’s a wyatt x reader?? the stars literally aligned for me on this. i hope you guys like it!! this is set after the events of zombies 2 for timeline reasons. don’t get sick of wyatt just yet though, there might be some more content coming your way…

words: 1.6k

content warning: light swearing

y/n smiled at her phone and sighed. she had been dating wyatt for a few months now, but they had decided to keep it secret due to the fact that she was human and he was a werewolf. she knew seabrook was integrated now and the human/zombie/werewolf student body was becoming more familiar by the day, but it was just easier to keep her relationship with wyatt a secret.

she didn’t really know why they kept hush about it. perhaps it was so the two of them would be somewhat left alone by bucky and his aceys who found every opportunity to say something snide and cruel about y/n and her friends. maybe it was the fear of wyatt being shunned by his wolf pack - this was the first time a wolf and a human had started a relationship in well over a century. maybe it was the judgement she would get from her family.

to cut a long story short, y/n was burdened with the surname ‘wells’. not only was her mother the mayor and her father a well-respected zombie patrolman, but she was the twin sister of star cheerleader and monster-activism trailblazer addison wells.

it’s not that addison and y/n didn’t get along, they had been best friends since the day they were born - they practically came out of the womb holding hands - it’s just that y/n had seen everything that addison had gone through last year with her zombie boyfriend zed, and she did not want that for herself and wyatt. zombies were one thing, but werewolves were still a whole other story in seabrook.

on top of all that, y/n was simply never as popular as addison. she always felt like an outsider. where addison hid her natural hair with a blonde wig, y/n always wore her white locks proudly and defiantly. this got her in a lot of trouble with her parents and the school (seriously, being dress-coded for having naturally white hair was a joke) but she didn’t care. she wasn’t like all the other kids at seabrook, why try to fit in?

that’s how y/n and wyatt met, actually. y/n noticed how all of the wolves had streaks of white in their hair, and she was curious. maybe this was why she felt as though she was different from the others? she talked to wyatt about it, learned some interesting things about wolves, learned some interesting things about wyatt, and shared some interesting things about herself. the rest, as they say, is history.

so, y/n and wyatt were seabrook’s best kept secret. when they weren’t miserably hiding their relationship, it was sort of fun. y/n liked the danger of sneaking around with her “scary” boyfriend, and the thought of doing so was more than appealing as she stared down at her chemistry textbook on the table.

she closed the book and picked it up, making her way out of the library, when all of a sudden she felt a hand on her arm and was being pulled round the corner. she yelped just as she came face to face with her boyfriend.

“miss me?”

“wyatt, you frightened me!” she smacked him playfully on the arm.

“come on, i’ll walk you to your locker. you’re not gonna need any books next period.” he grinned as the two of them walked down the hall.

y/n placed the chemistry textbook in her locker as wyatt leaned nonchalant on the lockers next to her.

“where are we even going for our… free period?” he asked in a hushed voice. she smirked at him and shook her head. the halls were completely empty, everyone was already in their next classes.

“this was your idea, honey. i figured you would have a plan.”

“when do i ever have a plan for anything? you’ve been at this school far longer than i have, surely you know some good hiding spots.”

“i don’t know if you remember this, but i’m a wells. i have to be on my best behaviour at all times.”

“god, that’s pitiful. thank god you have me, you’d be so bored otherwise.”

y/n closed her locker and kissed wyatt on the cheek.

“thank god indeed. come on, i think the football field is unoccupied this period.” she grabbed wyatt’s hand as she started to run towards the school’s exit. he laughed loudly as he ran with her, and she shushed him.

y/n and wyatt sat on the bleachers, looking out over the seabrook football field. it was a warm day, as it usually was in their perfect town. wyatt and y/n enjoyed deep conversations in moments like this, no one around them to interrupt them, simply sitting and chatting. wyatt had his fingers interlocked with y/n’s as they spoke.

“you’d think the school would be more monster-friendly” wyatt sighed.

“yeah, i mean eliza was campaigning for zombie language classes which would have been dope, but there’s not much accommodation for zombies outside of what zed’s presidential campaign was going for.”

“and for werewolves… shit, people still won’t look us in the eye half the time.”

y/n smiled softly and squeezed wyatt’s hand. he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.

“sometimes i think you’re the only one outside of the pack who understands me, sweetheart.” he said. he was only inches away from y/n’s face, it would be so easy to just grab his cheeks and kiss him. so that’s exactly what she did.

y/n’s hands gripped wyatt’s face firmly and she kissed him square on the mouth - only briefly, but it left them both grinning. wyatt returned the favour, kissing her with such force that almost knocked y/n backwards. they laughed against each other’s lips until wyatt pulled away. he had a concerned look on his face, and y/n immediately worried.

“wy, what’s up?”

“not to panic you or anything, but i got a scent.”

“oh god, what is it?”

“smells like jock.”

“oh shit” y/n exclaimed, looking at her phone. there was 5 minutes left of their ‘free period’ and she had totally forgot that the football players and cheerleading squad start their practises early. this wouldn’t be much of an emergency, except for the fact that y/n’s sister was on the cheer team.

“we need to hide, right? if addison or zed sees us-“

wyatt finished her sentence for her. “we won’t be much of a secret anymore, i know. come on, let’s go.”

they made their way down the steps of the bleachers as fast as they could - why the hell did they sit all the way at the top?! - and began to make their way around the corner of the field when they saw the football team and cheer squad about to turn the same corner, with addison and zed leading the crowd.

“under the bleachers!” y/n whisper-shouted and grabbed wyatt’s hand, running to hide under the metal bleachers from her sister’s line of sight. the two were out of breath, quietly laughing with relief.

“you’re almost too good at this ‘keeping secrets’ thing, you know that?” wyatt asked, wrapping his arms around y/n’s waist. she put her arms on his shoulders and began fussing with the soft hair on the nape of his neck.

“oh please, this is a team effort.”

wyatt hummed in agreement as he leaned in for another kiss, but the two were interrupted by the sound of a throat clearing.

“you guys good under there?” zed grinned. addison was standing next to him, trying to hide her smile.

“i don’t know what shocks me more: the fact that you hid your boyfriend from us, or the fact that you skipped class, y/n.” she laughed.

“please don’t tell mom and dad.”

“about your truancy or your secret werewolf boyfriend?” zed interjected. y/n scowled at him.

“if you don’t want me to, i won’t.” addison reassured her. y/n breathed a sigh of relief.

“thank you.”

zed sauntered over to wyatt, putting him in a headlock.

“skipping class, huh? remember what i said about doing it like the zombies do?”

wyatt smacked his arm playfully. “yeah, right. like no zombie has ever cut class before.”

“we follow rules here at seabrook. come on, furball, can’t be missing two classes in a row.”

wyatt sighed as zed let him out of the headlock. he was still getting used to being so buddy-buddy with people outside of the pack, and zed really could be extra sometimes.

“he’s right, actually,” wyatt said to y/n, “we probably should get to our next classes. don’t wanna get caught by anyone else.”

“yeah, you’re right. you go ahead, i’ll catch up.”

wyatt winked at his girlfriend before he began to walk away. y/n turned to her sister, engulfing her in a hug.

“i’m so sorry i didn’t tell you, addy. you have no idea how badly i wanted to. we were just worried what everyone would think. wyatt hasn’t even told his sister either and she’s the alpha werewolf and she’s, like, actually scary.” y/n blabbered, squeezing addison tight. addison laughed.

“sis, it’s okay. i was nervous to tell you about zed and i when we first started dating. don’t stress.”

“ugh, i love you. i really should go though, i don’t wanna be late and i know for a fact wyatt is waiting for me a few feet away.”

addison untangled herself from her sister’s tight squeeze of a hug.

“i love you too, now go!” she spun y/n around by her shoulders and gave her a shove. y/n waved goodbye before she jogged to catch up with wyatt.

zed wiped a fake tear from his eye, “ah, young love.”

“come on, casanova, you’ve got football practise.”

[phantasmagoria-in-neverland]

HI!💛

I was wondering if you could write headcanons about the 141 + Rudy and Alejandro having a s/o who is a highschool art teacher? (or even just a highschool teacher in general if you want). I loved your writings! Thank you💛

141 + Rudy and Alejandro with a High School Teacher! Reader.

A\N: Thank you! Hope you enjoy! 💜

Johnny who laughs himself silly, to the point that he has to wipe away the tears in his eyes, when you tell him all the most absurd excuses you've heard from your students. He knows their shenanigans can be a pain for you, but in his head, he can't help but give them a pat on the back. He's almost tempted to use the most creative ones on Price, just to see what his Captain's reaction would be.

Johnny who loves to tell you stories of his own time at school, enjoying your horrified reaction as you put yourself in his teachers' shoes. Sure, he was one of the smartest kids in his year, every year, but he was also an absolute terror. Always skipping classes, causing some sort of trouble or joking around. Ever since he decided he wanted to dedicate his life to the military, he never paid school too much attention.

John who wants to make the most of every second you have together every time he's home, so he insists on coming to your school to spend your lunch breaks with you. And he takes care of bringing you a warm, home-cooked meal, a small act to show you how much he appreciates you, he always wants to take care of you.

John who's absolutely convinced you would be an amazing parent. Your infinite patience, the way you take care of your students, how understanding you are... it all makes his heart melt into a puddle. If you two ever decided to have children together, he'd watch you like a hawk, trying to learn from you. He thinks of you as an almost perfect balance between strict and loving, and even though he never admits that, you set him straight too quite often.

John whose salary as a Captain in the Army is quite generous, especially compared to yours (you both went on more than one rant about how unfair your pay is). If you let him, and he will literally beg you if he has to in order to convince you, he spoils you any chance he gets. You deserve the world, both for the person you are, and for how hard you work, so he will do his damned best to give it to you.

Alejandro who you know very well is a charmer like you've never seen. Even if they rarely meet him, all your students think he's the coolest, often asking you questions about him. During his time in school, Alejandro used to be every teacher's favourite, his natural charisma getting him out of most of the trouble he got in, without even having to kiss ass (he'd never do it, he's honest to a fault, and can't keep his opinions to himself if his life depends on it).

Alejandro who's high-key interested in all the gossip, he remembers the students and colleagues you talk about the most by name, and he always listens to you when you tell him about your day, no matter how unimportant or uninteresting you think it is. You could be telling him a story, and before you can explain who you're talking about, he's like "Ah si, you're talking about Rosa, verdad? The science teacher that bakes those cookies you like?" and you've talked about her once weeks ago.

Rudy who tries to make your life easier any chance he gets, when he has the time he helps you grade papers and review assignments. He always follows your lead and is a fair judge, he encourages you to stay focused and he's overall a wonderful help. If you're reluctant to let him help, he insists that the sooner your work gets done, the sooner the two of you will have time to spend with each other. But he mostly just says that to convince you, to him, the most important thing is that you aren't as stressed when you share your workload with him.

Rudy who absolutely loves the way you encourage your students, the way you are understanding while still pushing them to do better, the way you always let them know they can come to you if they need to, the way you stand up for them... it all makes him fall more and more in love with you everyday. And also, Rudy who encourages you, he's always right there cheering you on, he's your number one supporter, the one who knows better than anyone how hard you work, and he will never let you think you might not be doing a good enough job.

Simon who's constantly wondering how you haven't gone insane yet. Your students are loud and troublesome in a way that gives him a headache just hearing you talk about it, he tried to put himself in your shoes once and it was enough for him to envision his worst nightmare. He's convinced you must be a breath away from committing a crime at all times, no matter how sweet you are, and honestly, he wouldn't blame you one bit for it. He's probably going to offer to take you to a rage room every now and then, just to be safe.

Simon who refers to your students as your "disrespectful brats". He knows you adore your kids, or most of them anyway, so he tries his absolute best to not sound annoyed when he talks about them. He holds a personal grudge against the ones who give you the most grief, no matter how small their offence was, if they upset you, they will go straight to his mental blacklist. But aside from that, deep deep down inside Simon likes them too, if only because he knows how happy they make you.

Simon who is so incredibly protective of you. He knows better than most how bad people can be, so when it comes to your safety, he refuses to take any chances. If a student's parents ever give you trouble, he's more than ready to fix that. He knows that you can take care of yourself, but he'll gently insist on being the one to deal with it, because he knows exactly how to stop anyone from disrespecting you ever again with a single glare.

Kyle who buys you gifts related to your job, both for you and to be used in your classroom. Sometimes it's thoughtful little things, like your favourite brand of coloured pens, a new pretty water bottle to take to class, anything he heard you mention needing... other times it's something silly, like a "#1 Teacher" mug that he knows perfectly well you will find cringe, but it will put that beautiful exasperated smile on your face that makes his heart skip a beat, and you'll use it anyway just because he gave it to you.

Kyle who's more than understanding anytime you come home a bit grouchy, or just exhausted from your day at work. He knows exactly what to do to make you feel better, and he won't stop trying until he hears your small sigh of relief that lets him know you're successfully de-stressing. He gives you some very much needed peace and quiet, he'll take care of dinner, help you wash up if you're up for company, and then hold you close until your eyes fall shut and you can finally rest in the comfort of his arms.

[braxlrose]

I miss ur writings sm :(

I am so sorry that I've been gone for so long, I haven't posted any fan fiction in so many months and honestly I lost motivation 😭 so many ppl who were in this fandom and I created a community with, were slowly getting over this "phase" and it definitely affected me. But I'm going to try and get back into writing. I hope this will do good for now! Ive had a lot of ppl recently ask for 2005 bill hcs, and I've done that before so if this is repetitive for something else I've written, sorry!

content warnings: none

a/n: I'll be updating my tag list since it hasn't been updated since like August of last year and I don't want to be tagging people who don't care or want to see these posts anymore. So if you wanna be tagged, let me know!

2005!bill kaulitz x f!reader

sfw:

- I'm an alternative person so whenever I write for bill, I always imagine him with an alternative girl 😞 even though from what I've seen he's never really been w/ an alternative one, BUT LETS PRETEND OKAY 🙏🙏

• he absolutely loves doing hair together, I think he enjoys helping you do your hair in the morning and your make up. And he's even more greatful if you do his makeup. Then he can just relax while you help him.

• pookie has crunchy ass hair at the end of the day when he has to wash it out, don't make fun of him 😞

• getting piercings together is something he LOVES doing with you. Mainly early piercings because he only has a tongue and eyebrow piercing on his face.

• if you made music too, he would always go to your concerts and basically scream the entire time. Hopefully, you'd do the same for him.

• if you have longer nails, head scratches are always a must and he will lay in your lap for literal hours while you pamper him.

- I personally think he would love to learn words in your language if you keep something different than German. And despite what anybody thinks, he finds it hilarious to learn the dirty words.

• if you cook him something from your culture, he will literally die. He basically thinks everything about you is so cool, and learning about a culture different from his is so exciting

• but if you two really want to date, you'll have to both try to learn English or each other language because there is going to be a hard language barrier between you two.

- I think one of the reasons he would've fallen in love with you is because you were upfront with him. He's not the type of guy to just go up and kiss someone so if you confess first, that would make things so much easier.

- obviously, you'd have to get along with Tom, Georg and Gustav. So if you don't, there's no way he'll go out with you, especially if you can't get along or hate Tom.

-Dates together consist of stuff you guys bought somewhere, or if you guys went to a fastfood restaurant.

• He doesn't have a lot of money yet so dates wouldn't exactly be high class, hopefully you don't mind 😉

-Since this is around the time Tokio Hotel is getting increasingly famous, there are fangirls around trying to flirt and ask out bill all the time and he has to shoo them off. He reminds you every night about how much he loves you and that those fan girls shouldn't bother you.

-he likes to spoon you a lot, and you two switch back n forth between him being the big spoon and the small spoon.

• I think he also really likes it when you lay on top of him, with your face in his neck and your legs wrapped around him. (This also works sitting upwards).

• cuddling with him is so nice too because he actually smells really good 😱

- I think he still gets very insecure sometimes because of the haters and people who harass the band because they don't like them and you reassure him a lot.

a/n pt 2: sorry this wasn't too long! I'm trying to get back into the groove of writing so if this is terrible I'm sorry 😞

taglist: none right now

[nerdalmighty]

hey! so, i just recently started playing baldur's gate 3 after seeing people put it all over my dash for months--and you're one of the people i've seen reblogging a lot of posts about it LOL. so if you don't mind me asking, i was wondering what kind of character do you/did you play as? and do you have any sort of backstory for your tav that you'd like to share?

Hoooooooooooooh my god thank you so much for asking. I have a friend who comes over to watch me play on Thursdays and I make a powerpoint every week to catch her up on what she missed - this week's powerpoint literally has slides about my Tav's background (more on those later). This is about to be long, I'm about to drop ALL my lore so buckle up! AND THANK YOU FOR PUTTING UP WITH MY BG3 BRAIN WORMS!!!!! I'm glad they convinced you to play 😈

So to begin, I've been in my first ever dnd campaign with a group of friends for a little over a year now. I didn't know much about Baldur's Gate except that it was a dnd video game and that you could romance people. Me, being a Big Fan of Romance And Fantasy was like "okay well I'm in" and my friend actually let me start a game at his house. Through that, I met Shadowheart, Gale, and Astarion.

Backing up a bit to my character; I decided I'd put my character from my irl dnd campaign into the game since I already knew her whole deal. I get pretty overwhelmed with making decisions, ESPECIALLY with big open world games like bg3, so knowing who/what I wanted to be really helped me out.

In the campaign I'm in with friends, it's pirate themed, and I play a half-elf bard named Birdie Harp who's secretly half-siren (murder mermaid). To make a long story very short, she was born in the arctic and escaped her murderous pod during a coming-of-age trial where she also lost her siren abilities (hypnotizing voice, breathing underwater, etc).

I've watched a ton of Dimension 20 which is an actual play show on Dropout.tv (an "actual play" is where you watch other people run a campaign of dnd - like Critical Role, which a lot of people have at least heard of - HIGHLY recommend Dimension 20, as I find it incredibly funny and easier to get into than CR because of the episode lengths), and I knew that I really liked the silliness and theatricality of the bard class. I also loved the bards from The Owl House which helped influence my decision as well.

To be honest, Birdie is my first ever dnd character, so she's basically a self insert but with a MUCH more traumatic backstory than me (this IS dnd after all). As for the half-elf aspect, it was more of an "I want to be half mermaid, what's similar to that?" as opposed to a love for half-elves or something.

BACK TO BALDUR'S GATE - knowing I wanted Birdie to be in the game, I felt a lot less overwhelmed to come up with something entirely new - I knew a lot about the bard class having played one so I wanted to CONTINUE playing one (and I've learned even more since playing bg3!).

When I finally got my own game (I no longer play at my friend's house, but in the comfort of my own home), I recreated Birdie and started on my journey in earnest. I'm VERY MUCH someone who likes to be in control and know what to expect, so I've had guides and walkthroughs to help me the whole time - SUE ME! When it came to first meeting Shadowheart, Gale, and Astarion back at my friend's house, Gale actually immediately stole my heart - a kind, witty wizard who likes books and cats? Literally say less. I went home from that session with my friend fully thinking I'd be a Gale girlie until I really looked into the other options and saw The Vampire.

Blah blah blah, he's hot and funny, but he can also be incredibly soft, which really won me over in the end. So I've been romancing That Guy.

Through Acts 1 and 2, I wasn't all too sure about this version of Birdie's background - sure she COULD still be that half-siren from the arctic, but the game kept suggesting she was FROM Baldur's Gate. I LOVED the inclusion of the harpies in Act 1 and thought maybe that was a viable entry point for her backstory, but so far, she was kind of just... me? She was making the choices I wanted to make (and a few that I knew Astarion would like lmao), but she wasn't really her own entity apart from me except for her name. She also felt vastly different from that character I'd created for my friends over a year ago. For instance, my irl Birdie currently has a crush on a Gale-type character, but this Birdie is ass deep in Astarion (hey, sorry I said "ass deep in Astarion"). The thing I love about Baldur's Gate 3 is how you can really come up with your own backstories, since the in-game one for your Tav is so vague. It's totally fine to ignore tiny details in the game and mold them to your own headcanons for your Tav, but I was so unsure of what I wanted for this Birdie that I kind of internalized that she was from Baldur's Gate.

HEADS UP! The following has some spoilers for Act 3 and some side quests, so STOP reading if that's something you'd care to avoid (the last 3 paragraphs of this post are SAFE from spoilers):

When Act 3 finally rolled around (which is where I am currently, I only have the one playthrough so far because I become INCREDIBLY attached to things), I stumbled across the Water Queen's House in Baldur's Gate. Ah ha! Now this felt promising.

A temple dedicated to the Vengeful Sea Goddess, Umberlee, and her loyal Wave Servants to serve her. It's ocean themed, it has mermaid undertones, and their goddess is basically evil. Seems like the perfect place to FINALLY insert this version of Birdie. I wasn't 100% sure until I completed the Iron Throne mission and was faced with either handing a (mostly) innocent man over to the Wave Servants, or fighting to defend him.

Here are a few of the slides from this week's powerpoint that I mentioned all the way back at the start, starting with SOME background on the Wave Servants:

Ass and Shart are what I affectionately call Astarion and Shadowheart (Also I got this beautiful "Birdie" art on Pinterest which originated from someone named Dantrelium on Reddit):

Apologies for the small text here, but there are some more details about THIS Birdie here, which I literally made up/figured out earlier this week:

Essentially, this Birdie was born at the Water Queen's House as Kittiwake Crest - Kittiwakes are common arctic birds, which I thought would be a nice little homage to the original character she was based off of. She was raised by the collective of Wave Servants there, the main one being Flood Tide Allandra Grey who seems to be head honcho at the Wave Mother's House (in this reality, she is).

Since Umberlee is such a vengeful goddess, I imagine she asked her Wave Servants to commit unspeakable acts in her name, mainly drownings, which THEY see as merciful, but I think Birdie always saw as horrifying. Who were they to decide the fates of others? I also think that the Wave Servants themselves were abusive during her upbringing to keep her in line (but much like how Nocturne was a light in the darkness for Shadowheart, I don't think EVERY Wave Servant was evil). GOTTA have a classic tragic backstory.

Upon researching Umberlee, I learned that most of her servants are clerics, so in my mind, that means Birdie was raised to eventually become one, with her official title eventually going to be "Seawind Kittiwake Crest." Is she still half-siren/mermaid though? Not entirely sure. This IS a magical world though, so I'd be inclined to say yes, probably.

But when we first meet the Wave Servants, they're singing beautifully for their drowned sister, Holli. I think Birdie REALLY loved music and singing with her sisters and secretly trained herself in bard magic when she should have been learning to be a cleric. It's also a classic trait of bards to hide their pain through humor, so I often imagine the type of stupid things Birdie gets up to to bring herself joy (my favorite headcanon being when you meet Skittle the Rat in Wyrm's Rock prison - he's a rat merchant who speaks exclusively in puns. I think Birdie and Gale would excitedly throw puns back and forth with Skittle while Astarion and Shadowheart begrudgingly (and affectionately) roll their eyes in the background).

Another thing I love about the game is how you can string together your own ideas of how companions react to things between big cut scenes. For example, in my head, in my game, Astarion has really become a Big Softy thanks to how fucking Stupid (affectionate) Birdie acts in life and has drawn him out of his shell, but also runs a tag team scam with her where she plays her lute to distract people while he loots an entire place. Gale is Birdie's partner in crime when it comes to tomfoolery and loves to joke and fool around with her (so long as it goes easy on his knees). And Shadowheart is basically a sister figure who flip flops between sassing with Astarion and joining in on the fun. THEY'RE JUST THE BEST, OKAY? OF COURSE I'M GONNA WALK AROUND WITH A BUNCH OF IDIOTS. I LOVE THEM.

Anyway, back to Birdie's backstory: she always hated the atrocities that were asked of her, and she was looking for a way out, but was too scared to take that step and leave since the Wave Mother's House is all she's ever known. One night, while stepping out to quietly dip her toes in the water, the Mindflayers captured her, and that's where we start Act One, all the way up on the Nautiloid. She changed her name to Birdie to distance herself from her previous life, fully took up the bard class, and the rest is history.

Back to that dilemma with handing over that (mostly) innocent guy or fighting the Wave Servants: with encouragement from the party, they convince Birdie to face her traumatic upbringing and fight the Wave Servants once and for all. At this point in Act 3, she's basically helped every single person with their problems except her own. Here's another slide featuring Ass and Birdie:

That's right folks, Birdie faced her past! But the bad news is we don't get to see Astarion in this (audio from The Adventurous Adventures of One Direction):

(Video description - Astarion from Baldur's Gate 3 wearing the Wave Mother's Armor with the following audio:

Guard 1: Whoa, check it out.

Guard 2: Hubba hubba hubba.

Gaurd 1: Nice. I love dudes in skirts.

END VIDEO.) I don't want to tell you how many times I recorded that until I felt like I got it right lol. Also yes, I DID do a scum save where I handed the guy over ONCE just so I could see Ass in this outfit, but Birdie did canonically save Redhammer in my actual save file.

And honestly, that's BASICALLY it for now! My most recent save was after that battle, so I need to figure out if Birdie's going to go back with her party to confront the rest of (or most of) the Wave Servants, or if this chapter of her life is closed.

In an ideal world I'd LOVE to make one of those artsy gif edits of my Tav like this and this, but PS5s make it hard to download clips without uploading them to YouTube first which I don't really want to do.

Thank you SO MUCH for this ask, I had a blast writing it!! Sorry it's so long, I just love this game so much and LOVE talking about it. Please feel free to ask more questions OR chat with me about YOUR Tav! I'd love to hear all about them :)

[socstudies]

Hi, as someone who is going to be in their first year of college this fall, I'm curious about the note taking part

Is physical or digital note taking easier?

Is spending money on a laptop nessesary?

What is something you wish you would've done differently during your first year?

Do you have any advice?

If by any chance you see this, your blog and your aesthetic are amazing!

I'm wishing you a wonderful day/night.

If you do decide to reply, thank you in advance <3

helloo! sorry for the late reply & thank u for the ask! :)

ive tried both and i think i prefer handwritten notes, however they both have their pros and cons:

handwritten pros

proven to be better for retaining information

can't get distracted by other tabs

lighter to carry

costs less than a laptop

i've had some classes where we weren't allowed to use laptops so it's good to already be used to taking notes this way

cons:

much slower. sometimes i find im missing stuff and i have to go back to it at the end

have to print out diagrams etc if u want to include them

could possibly lose them, spill something etc

not enough space on desk for both laptop and notebook so u can't get slides up or google something

digital pros:

much quicker

easier to organise & pull up different notes at any time - u don't need to carry around or find older notebooks to be able to study or refer back to past classes

some people make notes directly onto the slides which u would have to print out if u wanted to do by hand

can also use for research and writing essays which u will need a computer for at some point so might as well do everything in one place

cons:

expensive

more stressful if u lose or break it

if u forget to charge it and u don't have paper .......

this upcoming year, im using a combination. most of the time i'll handwrite my notes, but for classes where they talk too quickly i'll type them (it's not worth the stress & extra time having to go back to recordings after). my notes for readings will be annotated straight onto the pdf. i'll be taking pictures of notes to put them all together.

---

unfortunately, i think it is because you'll need computer access to research and write ur essays, as well as to find course information etc. HOWEVER some universities (most?) have laptops that u can borrow and computers in the library, so if u know that you'll be motivated enough to get up and do all of ur work on campus, you could save this cost - bare in mind when u move off campus after first year it might be even harder. definitely look into this if cost is an issue for you! it doesn't need to be a fancy one if u do buy a laptop though, just remember u'll be carrying it around so don't get a super heavy one!

---

as for something i wish i'd done differently: as a sociology student, none of my classes have exams where i have to memorise things, instead it's all essay based. this led me to not 'study' i guess ??? like the stuff that i wrote my essays on, i knew like the back of my hand, but everything else i couldn't remember well. so if ur taking an essay based subject, remember that u still need to study a little & remember these things !! i was so overwhelmed tbh that i forgot about this oopsie!

---

extra advice:

when people say that after u skip one class, u'll skip the rest THEY. MEAN. IT. literally try so hard not to miss class bc you will never go again if u do. my classes would start off with not enough seats for everybody and end up with just a handful of us by the end of term.....

make time for urself !! it can become all consuming, especially if u live on campus, but pls make some dedicated time away from studying !!

u will find ur friends eventually. pls remember that it won't last or be that fun if u stick with friends who u don't have that much in common with just bc they were the first u met. tell me why i was going to bars and clubs with people in first term bc that;s what they wanted to do ????? it's ok to move onto different people bc u will eventually get tired of doing these things u don't like just to be able to hang out with people !! now i go to bookstores and cafes with my new friends and i love it!! don't settle !!

[yourtoradorasextendedwarranty]

You're Ignorant

This is going to be a lengthy post. Or I will manage to short form this.

So it does not matter if you are on the left or on the right in the United States. However, over the past 15 years, the prominence of this problem seems to happen far more frequently with those that vote for Democrats. IT DOES happen with republicans, but it's not as frequent or with the same fervor.

So public perception of Bills that go through the senate and the house is normally based on the name, or what the people putting the bill out tell you that it does. However since around the time of the Obama admin, bill drafted by democrats have been getting longer and longer and longer, so much so that they are massive enough to be wheeled out on a little red wagon.

Bills that are quite literally 100's if not 1000's of pages long. The reason people that are "Blue no matter who" voters actually piss me off is because they don't care if the bill actually kills people so long as the NAME is good. To paraphrase someone from a different post when this topic came up. "A bill could come out called the "Don't kick puppies act". And when it goes through the legislative, some republicans will vote against it, and then Democrats and the media will come out saying 'X amount of republicans want to kick puppies'. What they don't tell you is that on line 2 of the bill, it says it will send 2 billion dollars to Brazil to teach gay dance theory."

And that's the point. It's not about what the bill is called. It's not about what they WANT the bill to do. It is about what the bill will ACTUALLY do. What does it say? What are the legal implications? Does the legal jargon of the bill do something other than what is specified in bill? But it gets a little worse than that with all of this. Politicians lie. Not only do they tend to lie, they normally do it by misrepresenting intent. This can be seen with both parties as well but happens far more often with people that vote democrat because they are far easier to manipulate.

Take the "Don't say gay bill". It literally had nothing to do with talking about gay stuff. What it did disallow was talking about sexual identity and sexual orientation as a class discussion or part of a curriculum. Funny enough that also includes talking about being strait as a point of class discussion, or curriculum. People kept talking about use of pronouns but that had really nothing to do with the bill. What the bill was actually even created for was because a teacher, behind the back of the parents of the kid, started to transition a kid, after convincing the kid that she was trans. During the process, the kid was not getting mental or emotional health help at all. The teacher helped the kid get on hormones I believe and was aiming to find a way to help with surgeries but the teen girl tried to kill herself. After the parents found out what happened, they removed the kid from the school and started getting her mental health help.

After she started getting the help that she needed she pretty much came to realize that it was just a combination of (initially) mild depression, pressure from her peers and, pushing from the teaching and administrative staff that convinced her she was trans.

So yeah. THE BILL IN QUESTION called the "Parental Rights in Education Bill", had nothing to do with "Not saying gay". Hell the bill did not even stop kids from talking to teachers or counselors about being gay in private. IT DID however stop them from hiding important things about their kids from parents.

Fact of the matter is, just because a name of something is good, does not in any way imply that is good. Just because the democrats LIE and say that something "should be called" something, does not mean that it is. Or we can talk about the Restrict act. Which YES was the spawn of certain Republican lawmakers but had some support from the democrats as a Patriot Act 2.0. Ya know another bill that would strip more freedoms from us and remove more of our privacy. All under the guise of "Banning TikTok". Which I agree with only the ban.

Mostly because the app is a spyware app, that is causing legitimate mental illness in today's youth. That and the algorithm used for the US's version of the app is actually pretty damaging over all to people. More so with the sensationalism it tends to spread.

Long story short. If your preferred reps push a bill over 100 pages long, you MIGHT want to believe that you are being lied to about its contents. Or understand that what you are being told about it is not the whole truth.

Because fact of the matter is this. You might think Democrats have your best interest in mind and every bad thing is the fault of the "EVIL MAGA REPUBLIANS", but look at California and New York. Rampant homelessness. Removal of several safety offices. Policies that claim to help minority communities but hurt them more and more every day. And excess spending and misappropriation of funds. And both of these states have been under full rule of Dems for YEARS. Meaning that ZERO republican influence makes their laws. HELL, California I believe tried to remove their own discrimination laws so that companies in the state COULD IN FACT discriminate in hiring practices.

It's time you start looking past the names of things, and start look at intent. You start looking at effects. You start looking at the results of. Get your heads out of the sand, and stop being ignorant. Your pursuit of "doing good" "being inclusive" "spreading diversity" yeah all of that is normally damaged more and more every day by people like you because the Dems and Reps (at least 90% of them) don't give a shit about you and only make you believe that they do.

[adhsea]

You should give Pathfinder 2e a shot

Given the state of everything surrounding WOTC and OneD&D, I figured that now was a good time to make a post like this. I know how things like this sound, so I’m going to promise up front that I’m not here to shit on D&D. I played 5e for years and had a lot of fun with it. This is a message from someone who decided to try out PF2e and found a new favorite system, and thinks you might enjoy it too. So without further ado, here’s a few reasons to give Pathfinder 2e a shot:

Tactics and Teamwork: Combat is incredibly rewarding in 2e. Every character has 3 actions, and abilities are balanced with the idea of each action being just as valuable. Attacking multiple times a turn imposes a penalty, so it's important to figure out what you can do besides attack in order to help your party members do great on their turns as well. Attacks of Opportunity are rare, so moving into a flank position is easy to achieve. You can use skills to learn about your enemy, frighten them, knock them into the ground, it's a lot to put in one tiny snippet. If you've wanted more dynamic and tactical combat, why not give this a shot?

Balance part A: This game is incredibly well balanced on pretty much every level. The math in this game is built around the crit system, where every roll that's 10 or more above the DC is a critical success, and every roll that's 10 or more below the DC is a critical failure. This means that even as the numbers get higher and higher, they're still consistent. As a result, encounter building is simple and can be easily adjusted to fit the challenge the DM wants to give the players. It's trustworthy and reliable math that rewards tactics and good playing.

Balance part B: The martial vs caster disparity is much less of a problem in this game. Spellcasters can’t trivialize encounters with a single spell slot, and martials can feel like they have an impact on fights. For some people used to playing spellcasters, this can feel like a huge nerf. There are ways to play blaster casters and do it well, but for the most part casting is balanced around versatility and support. Martials on the other hand are stronger than in any other sword and sorcery system I've ever seen. Seriously if you've never played a martial character because you've felt they're too boring or don't have enough of an impact on the game, try one out in this system.

Character Building part Classes: As of writing this post, there are 24 unique classes to choose from in the game. 12 were released in the core rulebook, and 12 more were slowly released over the game's 4 year life span. They're not done either, there's another class coming in late summer. 2e is a game that tries to make as many character concepts possible as it can. Will you play an Investigator trying to solve crimes, an Oracle who struggles with a divine curse, and Inventor trying to create the perfect weapon, or maybe a Magus studying to deliver powerful spells through the might of your blade? The possibilities aren't endless, but they're not stopping until they might as well be.

Character Building part Ancestries: Also known as Races in D&D, your choice of Ancestry is a more impactful choice than you might expect. At various levels, you'll earn meaningful Ancestry feats that allow you to define how your character's origin shaped them. Your dwarf might've spent so much time around a forge that things like fire and smoke are easier to handle, while your goblin friend might have such a fascination with fire that they get a small bonus to doing damage with it. You can even get versatile Heritages to further define your character. Have you ever wanted to play an elven tiefling, or a gnomish aasimar? There's a lot that you can do to make your character feel truly yours.

Ease of Access: All of the rules are available for free online. Legally. This isn't a piracy statement Paizo literally makes the rules freely accessible without having to spend a cent. There's a ton of tools made by the community available online to help you play too. Pathbuilder is a great character builder that's available for free. The Archives of Nethys for 2e have the rules from every single published book available, even adventure paths. pf2easy is another great catalogue you can search through and filter. I could go on and on. The only time paizo ever really insists on payment are the prewritten adventures, which is completely understandable. And speaking of which.

The Adventure Paths: Paizo's prewritten Adventure Paths are great. They're available in physical copies or pdfs, always in sets of 3 or 6 books, with the 3 book sets being adventures spanning 10 levels and the 6 books spanning 1 to 20. They're written with making things as easy for the gm as possible in mind, and you can expect them to be mostly prepared for player approaches to problems. And hey, if the campaign goes off the rails before you finish the first book, you don't have to buy anymore and can just keep things going however you want. If you're just starting out, the Beginner's Box is a great way to get introduced to the system. It comes with simplified rules and prewritten sheets to teach you the basics if all the rules feel like too much to wrap your head around.

I'm cutting myself off because this post is long enough, and I'll just keep on writing run on sentences if I don't. If you've made it all this way, I hope I've convinced you to try out 2e. It's an incredible system that more people should know about. You can sometimes find people willing to run the beginner's box for free online, and there's no shortage of people willing to help answer questions about the system. And if you're willing to take the plunge right away, I'll leave you with the Rules Index on AON. Just click the tab that says Core Rulebook, and boom you have access to everything you need to get started. Good luck and have fun.

[autisticlancemcclain]

Hunk’s nose always twitches when he’s about to throw up.

It’s something Lance noticed over the years. Inevitably, right before a muffled gag or a hunch in his shoulders, Hunk’s nose would give the slightest twitch. Sometimes Lance thought his nose knew he was about to blow before his brain did.

Of course, the nose twitch wasn’t the only way Lance could see the catastrophe coming. In fact most of Hunk’s tells were pretty dependant on outside factors — some people cracked under pressure but Hunk, in a way, exploded. Hunk’s moms didn’t call on schedule? Lance knew to guide his best friend to the nearest washroom. Exams coming up? Lance kept a bag on him. (He stopped feeling any kind of squeamish about it when they were about 13.) The cafeteria was serving those nasty ass mashed potatoes again? Looks like they’re choosing a table next to a trash can.

The point was that Lance didn’t need some asshole condescending doctor to tell Hunk that most of his stomach bugs were psychosomatic. Anyone with eyes in their fuckin’ head could puzzle that one out.

The problem, fucking obviously, came with solving the issue.

Hunk — and by extension, the people around him — had done everything he could to make himself less prone to upchucking. Back before they head known that a lot of it was caused by anxiety, he’d cycled through a stupid amount of meds and treatments for a shitty immune system he didn’t have. There was a point where he and Lance used to joke that Hunk had experienced every medical side effect known to man.

It was funny in a very, very sad way.

It was almost worse that it all boiled down to mental health, though. It made the whole thing that much easier to dismiss.

Lance lost count of the amount of detentions he got cussing people out for being a dick to Hunk. And the amount of flack Hunk received for low attendance, for class disruption, and whatever other bullshit Garrison admin cooked up, was ridiculous. At the very best, it kind of levelled up to a…tolerance, almost? Over the years the two of them had become so adept with handling Hunk’s anxiety that it became easier and easier to manage.

Thus, the nose twitching. So when they’re at a diplomatic meeting, one dreadfully boring morning, Lance sees Hunk’s nose twitch ever so slightly after a comment on the effectiveness of one or two paladin’s fighting styles — namely, that of the yellow and red paladins, who seemed to be very prone to refusing risk in name of team safety.

Lance pulls out a solution fast.

He admits that turning his blaster to stealth mode and shooting a leg of the meeting table without anyone seeing, causing a the entire table to collapse and halt in anything other than dealing with the New Matter At Hand, might have been the slightest amount of overkill. He probably could have just, like, excused the two of them, or something.

Oh, well.

Instead he hurriedly rushes Hunk down the twisting corridors of the planet’s parliament building, desperately trying to remember where he saw the bathroom on the way in.

“Lance? What’s going on? Why are you —” Hunk interrupts himself with a gag. “Oh,” he says queasily, “that’s why.”

“Just a little longer, buddy,” Lance assures, and luckily he’s proved correct seconds later.

He pulls Hunk into the bathroom in the literal nick of time, the yellow paladin hunched over the toilet mere nanoseconds before the retching begins. Lance crouches beside him, placing a sympathetic hand on his shoulder and digging around his fanny pack pouch thing (Altean uniforms are weird as shit) for a water bottle.

“Why does this happen to me,” Hunk asks miserably.

Lance knows this is rhetorical, so he keeps his mouth shut. Hunk has said this dozens of times before, after all. He doesn’t need Lance’s cajoling, probably.

But Hunk continues, wiping his mouth and accepting the water bottle, sipping slowly. “I haven’t had an anxiety attack in weeks.” He scoffs. “There hasn’t been fuckin’ time for it with all the other shit.” His expression turns somber again, glancing down at his knees. “Why do I keep — I don’t know. Struggling, I guess? It doesn’t make sense.”

That sounds less rhetorical.

“You didn’t just…outgrow you anxiety,” Lance points out. “I mean, yeah, you’ve essentially had to shut off the part of your brain that feels fear to do this job. Not literally, but you know what I mean. We all have. But, man —” he nudges Hunk until he looks up at him, brown eyes meeting brown. He smiles slightly, trying to convince some of the defeatedness out of Hunk’s face. “You’re still a massive worry wart, Hunk. You think about shit. All the time. And unfortunately for you, you’re smart as hell, so all that thinking helps you identify a million and one problems with everything. And that stresses you out.”

Hunk snorts. “I guess so. But you’re smart, too, and you don’t throw up all the time.”

“That’s ‘cause I cry, dude.” Lance hadn’t meant it as a joke — he really does cry all the time, which is endlessly fucking annoying, especially when he’s trying to argue with someone — but Hunk laughs, which makes Lance grin, too. “Anxiety is a bitch. I know. But I’ve got you, dude.” He reaches out and grabs Hunk’s hand, squeezing gently. “Okay?”

Hunk squeezes back, smiling. “Thanks, Lance. I’ve got you too.”

[cinamun]

I think the people who think Bishop may care in a sick, demented way and people that think he’s doing this for his benefit…. are both right.

Lemme explain, y’all and don’t jump me! But I do think he does care. A lot of abusers (speaking from personal experience, my ex made me a victim of DV) care about their victims. The problem is That’s often why they seek out controlling and hurting the ones they love. They may love them, but they either don’t have the tools to love someone and treat em right, or they just don’t want to.

When Mercy held that knife to Bishop’s neck, I don’t think he was jus saying shit to say shit. He’s right, he was behind bars for 30 years and being controlled by others. Ion know much about his childhood or pre prison, but even just those thirty years should be enough to truly fucking rewire this guys brain. Control and Bishop go hand in hand, and there could be a deep, innate fear in him that if he doesn’t control - he gets controlled. Especially present in high emotional situations, such as finding a woman and possibly caring/having emotions towards her. Now I can’t say I like Bishop, I kinda wish Mercy cut his ass up when she had the chance - I just don’t know if I think he’s nothing but a stone cold psychopath, partly because of your tendency to very detailed, very nuanced takes on the human psyche, and partly because Most abusers are not jus….joe goldbergs or ted bundys.

I really am curious about Bishop’s childhood in more detail, and why he became this way - I think we need to be open to the fact that prison really did a number on this guy, y’all. That nonny that focused on the fact Bishop is the only one checking on this woman, making sure she eat, that’s true! Some of those behaviors could absolutely be this guy just tryna cover his tracks, but some of them are also….Ion know. I know someone said he may be covering his tracks because Jace know he’s at least abusive mentally, but I gotta point out this man successfully faked his own death and LITERALLY has a lair, y’all. This man would know better. I wonder if he ain’t leaving Mercy to die because he, himself, does not want her dead.

I think this is way more nuanced than just Bishop doing one or the other. I think the two sides have merged together to create the actions we see now, and I can’t wait to see where it goes further. I think he cares for Mercy, and that may be what’s actually triggering him to need to control her this badly. Either he’s scared of being controlled by her somehow, controlled by his emotions or… maybe he’s just fucking scared of losing the woman and it’s easier to control her than face the emotional worth he’s placed in her. It’s perfectly possible he cares for her in a sick, demented way (or at least shows it that way) AND calculates the risk and benefits of certain actions in terms of covering his own back. And PSA: even if prison reworked this man’s damn brain or whatever the case may be, it doesn’t make his actions any more forgivable - it does open the door to rehabilitation one day….possibly. Chile… anyways.

OOOHH WEEEE!!! Class has been in SESSION on this Holy Easter and Trans Visibility Day chile!!