#i may either add onto / do an additional post at another time if i remember things i forgot to note but. for now this is fine lmao

[meatriarch]

MEATRIARCH OVERVIEW.

m'kay so -- mostly putting this together as both a quick look for new faces & a lil' refresher for those who've been following for a while but also as a general overview on not just how i run things but also on my muses, their portrayals, some blog updates, and so on! ♡ meant for clarity & hopefully ensure there's no confusion about certain things i may mention on the dash but always feel free to shoot me a message / ask for anything further! ♡

MARIA AURORA FLORES.

starting off with my main girl, my pride & joy, my sunshine incarnate. i write maria as someone very warm & with a whole mess of love to shower on those she cares about. she is achingly sweet, doting, affectionate; she adores her friends, adores her mama & sister, has a complicated relationship with her father. i've done quite a bit to flesh her out beyond what gun's put out for her in the slightest & i love where she's grown over the months since adding her onto the roster. she is my main / primary muse -- so know i constantly yap and ramble about her, i have headcanons and lore posts sprinkled all over the blog & the archived blog. i love & adore her as a muse and she's become both incredibly special to me & easily one of my absolute favorite characters to write as. that being said, with how much i've added to her, i view my portrayal of her as more oc at this point than a character of gun -- unfridged my girl, yanked her away from them and took off with her lmao alot of what i've built with her was both greatly helped by the dynamics weaved together with my affiliates / mains' portrayals which i'll get to later on ♡ but know some things may not carry over into interactions between my maria & any duplicates of my affiliates' muses!

ANA FLORES.

i haven't gone through much writing for ana yet -- but know when i do speak of ana in a general sense on here? i am specifically referring to my own ana & my personal flores' family lore! if i refer to other ana's in future posts i'll most likely note so either by, for example, ' renee's ana ' or if its to that point in plotting, then with a dynamics tag on the post! otherwise assume when i'm yapping about ana in general i'm referring to my own portrayal of her by default! c: ( note that all you cute ana mutuals are still more than welcome to interact with posts about her / her & maria / the flores' ♡ just something to keep in mind if i refer to her in a general sense in posts! )

DANNY ALEJO - OSORIO.

ya'll may know our just some guy danny by gun's canon of him -- danny gaines. the danny here however is technically my own portrayal of danny gaines that i developed before he was officially dropped & we got his last name. should i interact with others writing danny gaines? i'm completely gucci with considering my danny & gaines as entirely separate characters!

* correction : i now consider danny to be entirely severed from guns danny gaines and is, now, an oc fully. he is entirely his own character. otherwise, the speedrun of danny is as follows : danilo alejo-osorio is mexican-colombian, befriended maria in their early teens. he comes from a broken family with a very fractured & a.busive father, his mother returned to colombia and started another family there believing he'd have a better life staying in the states. he went through a very rough period hanging with a real shitty crowd of so-called friends, got into a shitton of fights, broke into homes and businesses with them, stole shit, broke shit, just in general not great influences. a break-in went wrong, his "friends" scattered, and he was arrested when the police showed up, and spent time in juvie for it. none of those friends ever came by. his father didn't, none of his family did. maria, her mother and ana, instead, were his constant visitors. and it was her coming to see him, her encouragement and push for him to do better is what finally made him realize he needed to turn his shit around. at the point of maria going missing & the house, danny's going to trade school by the southern coast for ship & underwater welding courses & training. he & maria are best friends. he is her ride, die, kill. gun noted once upon a time how strong dannys' devotion to her is -- my danny is very much devoted to her. he would kill for her without hesitation -- and not in his dire au's, even, but just in general. danny would do anything for those he cares about. any of the friendgroup.

THE FLORES FAMILY.

my personal take / lore is as follows basically : papa flores ( ramón ignacio ) & mama flores ( carmen ainara ) were long-term sweethearts whose marriage and little family seemed perfectly ideal. however, the closer that their eldest daughter, maria, got to her teen years, the sicker carmen started to become. she attempted to keep it under wraps, hush-hush from the girls' to not worry or scare them. but she was diagnosed with a lung disease ( p.ulmonary f.ibrosis fingerguns @ silver for same braincell lmao ) that is considered ( esp in the 70s likely ) to be terminal. while the girls' weren't aware of her being ill to that degree, ramon fully was. and the stress of coming to terms with his wife being sick and finding out that she may eventually pass due to it, so he claims, "caused" him to start an affair. carmen does find out, and ramon removes himself from the flores' family home to move in with his affair partner. maria, being forgiving and more gentle-hearted compared to ana, attempted to still paint him in a positive light so that ana wouldn't resent him. tried to give him the benefit of the doubt -- that he at least still did love them all. that he'd keep the promises to still be active in their lives, still show up when he said he would -- however, there's only so many excuses, so many promises broken, so many calls never ringing through, before that hope crumbles. ana would witness both her mother & maria deal with their fathers' heartbreak through closed bedroom doors, and it'd only make her despise him more for it. when maria later goes missing, ramon returns to try and help in whatever ways he can -- and ana is very unreceptive to him being there. he lost his chance in her eyes to play "dad" to them. and she makes it known clearly to him how much she resents him and reminds him he's got no place in their family, anymore. that he's there ONLY to help find maria and not to expect shit from any of them.

THE HEWITTS & THE SAWYERS.

by default, i say a giant fuck you to the difference in continuity's when it comes to the family! i write the hewitt's as an extension of the sawyer ( or, slaughter ) family tree. the hewitts & sawyers connected when luda mae married charlton hewitt sr. luda, in my personal canon, was born into the family through one of grandpa sawyers' many kids' he's taken in over his long-fuckin'-ass lifespan lmao alot of the family dynamics that are my canon here stem from lamb & i's back & forths. i find blending the various iterations of the family -- from originals to remakes etc -- as all just extended families to each other alot easier to work around and opens the door to more interactions with canons' from other versions of tcsm! c: i'm currently slow-piecing together a family tree of the hewitt-sawyers based on that blended concept. to the sawyers, luda is referred to by aunt or grandma ( sometimes ma luda, even ) and thomas is referred to as cousin tommy.

THOMAS & THE TITLE OF "L.EATHERFACE".

i was going to make this its own post but i'll add to this one instead. but with the idea of the hewitts & sawyers being just on massive family unit? of course there's the question of how the fuck do both thomas & bubba ( or other iterations of LF ) work then? i'd argue its primarily due to the fact that those who don't personally know them both don't know their actual names, and simply refer to them by the most notable feature -- the masks. with my thomas, yes, he does take faces of victims and he does wear them. however. thomas' skin condition -- flesh-eating disease / tumor growths on his face -- is why he wears his animal-leather half-mask. that half mask is his primary mask. he is almost always wearing that or varying versions of it. when thomas DOES skin someones' face to wear? it is almost always out of rage. hatred. it's done to intimidate. to unsettle. its from back in september but, one of my thomas' replies to kels notes this about thomas! the masks of both animal & human leather are still very much a part of thomas as i write him -- but, when it comes to the hewitt-sawyers being one family unit & thomas & bubba co-existing? "l.eatherface" becomes a title in a sense -- two giant motherfuckers who wear masks?? they get confused for one another. despite thomas being arguably much larger both being beefy & being 6'9 compared to bubba. they both don't really stray far from home. how often do outsiders get a chance to see them both separately let alone close to one another? likely not a common sight. it'd be very easy to spot one of them and then assume they are one in the same, honestly. that's how i go about things here, at least! it ties into more, again, of the back-&-forths lamb & i have minecrafted especially but, i'm all for altering that for specific interactions for those who don't want to meddle with all of that! (:

NANCY.

spooky momther will retain what her abilities have grown into by my personal headcanons across the board! however there are certain points to how i portray her that, from any posts about her i've made, are tied into lamb's johnny and so know that there will be differences in how she may be with other johnnys! i'm all ears to how different nancy & johnny's relationship can turn out! if theres anything i feel overlaps with other dynamics of theirs, i will let you know and we can work something else out c:

GENERAL PORTRAYAL NOTE.

mentioned it already but : all muses here are very heavily canon-divergent & built out from their canon lore by my own brainrot going wild with them all. with that in mind, i do just about consider each of my portrayals of these muses as my own oc's at this point with how much i've added onto them / built them up from literal nothing like in maria's case. i'm more than happy to either adapt how i write any of them to better fit into anyone elses' takes! and i'm more than happy to welcome more into the brainrot that i've minecrafted with the flores' or the hewitt-sawyers etc! that's something to come from plotting however! if we haven't really spoken ooc / etc then i default to a more general vision of the characters for the time being. i'm all up for taking different routes with new writing partners so please don't be shy about reaching out! c: if theres anything that conflicts with pre-existing personal lore of mine or is too similar to plots or dynamics i have already, i'll let you know and try to offer alternatives!

AFFILIATE PORTRAYALS & RELATED AU'S.

i have a few writing partners who i am affiliated with & with their respective tcsm canon muses. kels' leland, rae's connie, & lamb's johnny -- when i refer to leland/lee or connie or johnny in general on my posts, do know i am specifically referring to their portrayals as my general lore across my blog takes their muses & the dynamics built between them into account ♡ like i mentioned in ana's lil section, i'll start to make note in posts when i am referring to duplicate johnnys / lelands / connie's / etc for when im mentioning others' portrayals specifically! by default though i am always referring to my affiliates' portrayals when i post c: just wanted to clarify that though in case it was at all confusing or unclear ♡ affiliate verses here are as follows so far : - cold case ( cc / maria's dire au ; with lamb's johnny ) - no one saved you / we saved us ( nosy / wsu / maria & leland's joint dire au ; with kels' leland & lamb's johnny ) - oath binded ( maria & johnny's red string & reincarnation au / with lamb's johnny ) and then the still babiest dire au for my danny, - choke chained ( with lamb's johnny ). these verses, for me, are strictly worked with lamb ( & with kels for nosy/wsu ) -- meaning i'm not writing in them or doing similar au's with other portrayals of johnnys or lelands! again in case i haven't been clear on it before and it causes any confusion or anything! ♡

MARIA & JOHNNY.

i am not going to be shipping maria in any romantic / intimate sense nor am i open to any prolonged captive plots & interactions with other portrayals of johnny sawyer. those types of dynamics & interactions i've decided from this point on to close that for my maria to lamb's johnny ( @johnnysslaughter ) ♡ there has been a lot of plotting & build up between my portrayal of maria & lamb's portrayal of johnny and their varying dynamics across verses / au's and their different trajectories. and because of how many different iterations of their dynamic has been pieced together, i personally am not going to be taking other plots / dynamics with other johnny's that fall under the same umbrella as the dynamic between our maria & johnny do -- again meaning, i personally won't be shipping romantically / intimately nor will I take on plots that run parallel to cold case / no one saved you re: maria being taken captive for a prolonged period of time with other johnnys. alot of this decision on my part is very much due to how much we have developed them together -- another big part of it is my trust & comfort level with lamb to explore those dynamics between maria & johnny. this doesn't mean we are exclusive to one anothers' portrayals -- i am happy to write with other johnny's! and lamb is welcome to interact with other maria's! but from this point onward, i will only ship maria & johnny with lamb. ♡

[heroes-feasting]

Pumpkin Shaped Dinner Rolls

"On Halloween night, the Great Pumpkin rises from his pumpkin patch and flies through the air with his bag of toys to [give to] all the children." - Linus, It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!

Happy Halloween everyone! I’ve been a huge fan of Charlie Brown for as long as I can remember. Every year, my family watches the specials on TV and I must have read each volume in my grandmother’s massive collection at least three times.

So, when I saw this tumblr post late last year, I knew exactly what I wanted to make for Halloween this year… but with a twist! After some trial and error, I’ve found a way to add cinnamon/pumpkin spice sugar to these rolls while avoiding a massive pocket of it.

So, grab your fall-themed drink of choice and check out below for how to make a batch of these delicious pull-apart dinner rolls for yourself! The great pumpkin may just pay you a visit for your troubles…

(Based on the post by Chef John from All Recipes and the tumblr post linked above.)

Prep: 20 mins             Cook:  3 hrs             Total: 3 hrs 20 mins

Ingredients:

1 cup (240 ml) milk, warm

1 packet (2 ½ tsp, 6.5 g) active dry yeast

1 tbsp. (15 ml) honey

4 tbsp. (57 g) butter, melted

1 tsp (6 g) salt

2 ¾ cup (345 g) all-purpose flour, plus ¼ cup (30 g) more for dusting

Kitchen string cut into 12 32-inch long pieces

Vegetable oil

Pour in the warm milk, yeast, honey, and butter into a large bowl and stir to combine (top-left).

Next, add the salt and the 2 ¾ cups of flour. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the flour until a shaggy, sticky dough forms (top-right).

Turn the sticky dough out onto a clean, lightly floured work surface and knead the dough until it becomes smooth, elastic, and is no longer sticky, about 10 minutes. 

Form the dough into a rough ball shape by tucking in the sides. Lightly coat a medium or large bowl with vegetable oil and transfer the dough seam-side down (top-left).

Cover the bowl with lightly greased plastic wrap or a dish cloth and let rise until the dough has doubled in size, about 1 ½ hours (top-right).

Meanwhile, prepare two baking trays with parchment paper or reusable silicon liners.

TIP: I found that only about 3 tsp (8 g) of the reserved dusting flour spread out onto the board was needed to keep the dough workable without the buns becoming dense.

TIP: Remember from the video, you’ll know the dough has been kneaded enough when it springs back after being lightly pressed and you can stretch out a piece the dough like a windowpane without it ripping. The windowpane should also be able to support the weight of the rest of the piece of dough without ripping.

Once the dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto your clean work surface and knead it a few times to bring it back together.

Next, either cut the dough in half and divide each half into six even wedges or divide the dough into 50g - 55g portions using a kitchen scale.

Knead each portion a little and then pull in the edges of the dough to create a ball (like the big dough ball). Secure the its shape by placing the ball seam-side down on the work surface and gently rolling it with the palm of a clawed hand, for about 10 seconds.

Once the smaller dough balls have been formed, place them seam-side down on the prepared baking tray, cover, and let rest for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, place the pieces of kitchen string in bowl and toss them with a generous amount of vegetable oil. 

NOTE: Do not move onto the next step without this first rest. The dough will expand way too much around the string if you wrap it immediately.

Optional addition to this step:

If you’d would like slightly sweeter rolls to dip in coffee or tea, you can add some cinnamon/pumpkin spice sugar after kneading the measured portions and before shaping the rolls.

First, roll the dough flat and spread ~⅛ tsp. of the sugar mixture on one half (top left). Then, fold in half so the sugar mixture is covered and spread another ~⅛ tsp. on half of the folded dough (top right).

Fold in half again and follow the shaping instructions above to seal the rolls.

NOTE: If you put ¼ tsp. of the sugar mixture in the middle of the rolled dough and shape it from there, the mixture will not be evenly distributed throughout the dough - you’ll just get a dry sugar bomb in the middle of the roll.

After letting them rest, working one roll at a time, place the end of one piece of string on the seam-side of the roll with enough of an overhang to tie a double knot latter, ~2 inches (5 cm).

Wrap the string around the dough so eight sections are created. Unlike the tumblr video in the intro, I wrap the string around the dough in one motion (no crisscrossing or twisting strings).

The string should be secure but loose enough that it isn’t pressing much on the dough before the knot is tied.

Once wrapped, double knot the string so there is enough pressure to form small indents and return the roll to the baking tray knot-side down (which should also be seam-side down).

Cover and let rest for an additional 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 375॰F (190॰C) with the oven rack in the middle of the oven.

TIP: Any adjustments to the placement of the string should be made before the knot is tied. The string is virtually unmovable at that point.

TIP: If you’re choosing to add the sugar mixture, set a 15 minute timer once you’ve shaped the first roll. Depending on how long it takes to get through all the dough, you may be able to start wrapping the string around the rolls as soon as you finish shaping the last one.

Sift a little bit of flour on top of each roll (top left).

Bake until the rolls have lightly browned and sound hollow when knocked, about 20 to 25 mins (top right).

Once the rolls have cooled enough to handle, cut the strings off of each roll from the bottom. Slowly and carefully unwrap each roll, removing any strands of string that get stuck.

NOTE: It might have been the string I was using, but I found a lot of little strands were left behind as I unwrapped the rolls. The best solution for this I found was: 

Not to wring out any of the vegetable oil from the string when I took it from the bowl and, 

Have my finger directly behind the string as it slowly peeled away from the roll to help all the little strands come off. 

You’ll probably still need to go in an remove some from where the knot was tied, but this should get rid of most of them.

Finally, cut one or two cinnamon sticks into ¾ inch (2 cm) pieces and press one into the tops of each roll to create the stems.

TIP: To cut the cinnamon sticks, use a steak knife to make a small groove and then snap them at that mark. It’ll really save the durability of your knives. Use long sawing motions instead of short ones.

Voilà, your very own pumpkin dinner rolls! Overall, I would give these a 4.5/5 for the regular ones and a 4/5 for the sugar mixture ones - not because of the taste, but for the process.

Cutting the string, soaking them in oil, plus the wrapping, tying, and unwrapping nearly drove me insane each time. I would recommend making these, especially the sugar mixture ones, with a friend. The extra hands (and jokes) will go a long way.

In the end, although they were a little awkward to make, they were definitely a fun way to get into the spirit of the season (and flex on everyone /j)!

[fuchsiagrasshopper]

Contending the Flame IX

Author’s note: Happy New Year everyone! Let’s start it off right with positivity and no looking back on a bad 2020. Can’t wait to continue to write for such excellent fans, you guys/gals are the best!

Masterlist

Word count: 2741

Pairing: Ivar x Reader

Warnings: The usual, nothing new to add.

Since your unexpected kiss with Ivar in that dark corridor, you had avoided him. It was no simple task, as he seemed hell-bent on getting you alone if he could, and that made you feel like a mouse living with a cat. You double-checked every corner before turning, and you tried to finish your work before sundown. Audhild had been an additional ally to you, whether intentionally or by happy accident, you weren't sure. She kept you by her side even with tasks she could have accomplished without your help. You weren't certain of her relationships with the sons of Ragnar, only that she acted independently of them. That was something that still took getting used to; women operating on their own accord.

While you continued to ponder over Ivar's pursuing you, you also tried to make sense of your feelings. Men in general were something you had always been fearful of. You had seen rape and abuse from an early age on the streets of Rendlesham, and you learned quickly not to trust an innocent face. Ivar's face was fair when not screwed up and twisted in rage, and he had the shyness of a boy when he kissed you. But you could not forget he was a heathen. His affection had been severe, clutching and pulling with desperation you thought you would drown in. 

Your feelings were beginning to frighten you. You had returned the kiss without struggle, and you had been tempted to give in to more before a heightened sense of self had kicked in. This Viking had murdered your priests and his own brother, yet you were having lustful thoughts. God would be disappointed in your lack of restraint. 

You needed guidance. When you had been in the abbey, you would often go to the senior Sisters for advice. Audhild was patient, but she would not understand the inner turmoil of a Christian. There was only one other in the encampment who you could speak to, and the moment you were no longer needed by the healers, you snuck off towards the courtyard where Bishop Heahmund was being held.

Only one guard was posted now, as the Bishop had given them no more trouble since you had been brought to him. He was still fettered in chains, but he wore a serene look that would have angered the devil. His faith could not be shaken, and you envied his composure.

As you approached from the building across the way, the guard glanced at you. He did not dismiss you from coming closer to Heahmund, instead seeming to lose interest in you entirely. 

"Bishop Heahmund," You called softly, creeping nearer.

His eyes shot open, but he did not appear surprised by your intrusion. Giving you a smile, he indicated for you to sit. "Hello, Sister Mary Catharine. I wondered if I would see you again, but I had hoped. You are the bright light of York in this nest of heathens."

He couldn't seem to cease with the flattery, and you remembered the rumors about Heahmund being led into temptation by widows. Ivar wasn't wrong when he had accused you of having desirable thoughts for the man. Hearing stories of the Bishop, he had sounded larger than life, like a hero from a story. You used to envision him coming to take you away from your lonely days in the convent, this handsome and brave warrior. Those had been the daydreams of a young girl. Seeing him captured by the same heathens who had enslaved you, the glass had shattered, and what remained was just a man.

"How have you been?" You asked while tucking your dress behind you as you sat on the ground.

"My head is clear, and my resolve is set. They want me to fight for their cause, and I see no alternative to this request. If I want my freedom, I'll have to go along with whatever the Boneless one commands."

You frowned, not understanding why Ivar wanted Heahmund on his side. He was a devout Christian who wouldn't stray from his path and could turn on the heathens at the opportune moment. A part of you worried for Ivar. 

"Are you certain this is what God would want?"

"I do not see this as a defeat, rather that God has a new plan for me and this is the way I must follow," Heahmund said, and the chains rattled as he readjusted his position to look at you. "But you did not come here to discuss my fate, Sister. You are still bothered by what we spoke of the last time we met. The youngest son of Ragnar is still giving you trouble."

You ducked your head in a penitent gesture. "I feel lost, and in need of guidance. You keep calling me Sister, but shamefully I no longer think of myself as a nun."

"You have forsaken our Lord?"

You were surprised by how there was no venom behind his question, just bald-faced curiosity. "No, I still have my faith, but my station is misplaced. I would like it if you called me (Y/N)."

"(Y/N)? That was your name before you took your vows?"

"Yes, and though I haven't gone by it in years, I feel more like that abandoned little girl than I do Sister Mary Catharine."

"Their people are changing you," Heahmund said, appearing thoughtful. "Your heart is growing restless, and you are curious about their ways. The youngest son of Ragnar is trying to steal you away, but look sharp, for God would never allow one of his children to be pried from his embrace."

"Ivar he…he frightens me, but I am also excited when I am with him," You confessed, and your heart thundered at the admission. "I come alive when he's near. He sees me in a way that no one else ever has."

"(Y/N), look at me," Heahmund demanded, and you did, startled by his tone. "You cannot fall in love with this heathen. He will lead you astray, and leave when it is of most convenience for him. You must pray for forgiveness, and honor God by respecting the vows you have entered into."

His severe expression was marred by what he was preaching, and you felt your hand clench tight in anger. You surged up onto your feet, standing over him like a scarecrow in a field.

"And what of you, Bishop? Were you honoring your vows when you were between the legs of those widows?"

Heahmund turned away with a stiffness to his face, as if he couldn't believe you had spoken such a thing. You had surprised yourself as well. "That was different, and you wouldn't understand."

"You're right about that. Unless you were hoping to find God in the arms of those women, I couldn't possibly understand your reason."

"You are young, and you have yet to learn that life is often complicated."

You threw your arms up in the air, a wild gesture that probably resembled an agitated bird more than that of a rational woman. "Then let it be complicated. Hurt, and lust, and pain, and hunger; these aren't terrible things. They let us know that we are alive, and I've felt more of that here with these heathens than I ever did back home."

"You cannot possibly understand what you are saying," He argued back, and you thought he was going to lecture you further, but he took a moment to collect his breath. "My apologies. You sought my counsel, and I have only offered judgement. We should cling to each other in this desolate place if we are to survive the Northmen."

You didn't want to fight with him any longer either, but you could see that as far as Ivar and his people were concerned, you were not of one mind with Heahmund. Coming to him had erased some of your doubts, but you did not realize how much your tolerance towards the Vikings had shifted. There were bad men among them, but nothing anymore abhorrent than what you had seen from Saxons. 

"I'm sorry as well," You said, shifting back and forth on your feet. "I was quick to anger. Maybe I wasn't ready to admit in my heart how I have begun to change towards them."

"May I inquire something else about you? Seeing as I've already insulted you, I don't believe it is too bold to ask."

"You may," You said, permitting him. 

"If we were to be liberated by the King and his army this very moment, and brought back to Wessex, would you return to the Church?"

You came to your answer quickly and without trepidation. "No."

"I see." Heahmund didn't let on about how he felt about your answer, and you didn't want to know. Disappointing him seemed about the worst thing you could have done, and you didn't want to dwell on that. "(Y/N), you shouldn't have come here."

You frowned. "Why not?"

"We've been careless. Ivar knew you would come here. See there, the guard is gone."

You looked to where Heahmund's watch had been stationed to find the spot no longer occupied. The guard had taken his leave the moment you two had been engaged in your disagreement. Ivar must have known you would seek out Heahmund eventually. 

"It's fine," You said with more confidence than you felt. It was to be expected that Ivar would be waiting to speak with you again, and you knew he could have done so whenever he desired. He had held back on forcing you, but you didn't know if it was kindness or another manipulation on his part. "I think I'm ready to face him. There will be no more running for me."

"Go with the grace and strength God has given you. Even if you have turned from your path of the Church, God will never stop fighting for you."

You knelt before Heahmund. "Thank you, Bishop. I hope I am granted with clarity to see my true path."

You placed a parting kiss on his forehead and offered him a smile before standing. Taking a look around the courtyard you did not spot Ivar waiting for you. You knew he would find you though, and you began making your way back to the small room that you had been sharing with the other slaves who aided the healers. 

For such a short walk, one you had taken many times, it seemed to have grown in distance. You kept expecting Ivar or one of his guards to pop out and grab you, but nothing so substantial occurred. The faces you passed paid you no mind, and you arrived at your destination relieved and a little bit let down. You had been ready to get the confrontation over with.

You opened the door, ready to be met with the company of some of the other slaves. None of them spoke with you outside of your duties, and it bothered you. It was an act of self-preservation. They knew you held the attention of Ivar, and so that meant he spared them little mind. Better you than them was probably what many of them thought, and you couldn't fault them for that. It seemed you were fated to be alone. The only other slave who had gone out of her way to speak with you had been a spy, and you hadn't seen her since. Something about that felt deliberate.

When you entered inside of the cramped quarters, you did not find any of your bunkmates. You were alone with Ivar, and that meant his guard couldn't have been far behind. He had kept hidden, luring you into a false sense of security. 

"Hello," You greeted dumbly, not knowing what else to say. You kept tight by the door, not taking a step further in. Ivar was looking pensive, with an air of despondence clinging to him. 

"How is the Bishop fairing?"

"Resilient," You said, relaxing a bit that he didn't immediately discuss something of a more delicate nature. "He says he will fight for you."

"He doesn't have a choice. Either he fights or he dies, and I will need his strength soon enough," Ivar said, his severe tone causing you to flinch. With stiff movements, he maneuvered himself to stand, but he did not try to encroach upon your space. "The time to leave York has come, but some of my people have chosen to stay behind. Our army needs allies, but this business with the spy has made me doubtful of who I can trust."

"What will you do?" You asked, feeling out of depth to be having this conversation. You knew little of wars and alliances, and you didn't understand why Ivar was sharing this with you. 

"It's been decided that Ubbe will return home to Kattegat with a handful of warriors, under the pretense that he has abandoned our army. The woman ruling there murdered our mother, and it is likely she sent the spy."

"Where will you go then, if not home?"

Ivar hesitated, and you had never known him to look away when speaking with you. "I need to meet with Harald Finehair. He could be a potential ally to retake Kattegat...but I also suspect he sent the spy. The sons of Ragnar losing control of the Great Heathen army would benefit him in his bid to become King of Norway."

There was another man with lofty ambitions. The world must look different when you wake up as a Viking. You took a step forward, garnering Ivar's attention. 

"And where does he live?"

"In Vestfold, but you will not be going there," Ivar said, and he looked overcome with guilt. "I'm sending you with Ubbe to Kattegat. It is safer for you there."

"But I'm only a slave. What difference does it make where I go?"

"Harald and his men do not exercise restraint when it comes to Christians, and I can't have my eyes constantly on you nor can I keep a guard around one slave without arousing suspicion," He explained, but his reasoning was flawed. You had no doubt Heahmund would be going with him, and you knew Ivar didn't hold back when it came to murdering your people. "Ubbe will keep you safe, and Audhild will go with you as well."

You let out a dry chuckle, feeling any control over your life seeping through your fingers like sand. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do in Kattegat."

"I need you to stay alive," Ivar said with a fierceness that made it sound like an order. He crossed the short distance of the room before you could blink, and took your hands together to place something cold in your grasp. "Take this. It can take a life if you wield it right."

You looked down at the sheathed knife he had gifted you with. It was a heavy weight compared to the ones in the kitchen, and the hilt was carved into the shape of a wolf's head. You gave him a startled look before beginning to protest. "No, I cannot take a life Ivar."

You tried to return it to him, but he was forceful in making sure it stayed with you. "You will if someone wants to take yours. I won't let you die because of your stupid Christian beliefs about hell and perdition."

He squeezed his hand over the top of yours to secure your grip on the knife, and with the other he cupped the back of your neck, bringing you together for another kiss that you had been fearfully longing for. You didn't want to fight him, and you returned the kiss with all of the words you couldn't say. It wasn't a goodbye, you refused to believe that your time with this violent and vulnerable man was at an end. It was an 'until next we meet', and you cradled his jaw in your free hand, while you both still held onto the knife in the other. You don't know when you began to cry, only that the tears were silent as they slid down your face and transferred onto Ivar's cheeks. This caused him to hold you tighter. Even as the fire in the kiss dwindled, you clung to one another knowing this was the last moment you would share before you were to be parted.

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[springmachinery]

The super detailed eyebrow guide Part 1

Hello everyone, this will be my first post on this blog. Let’s cut to the chase, the first thing we will be talking about is eyebrow styling. There is no one “ideal” eyebrow shape that suits everyone and likely you suit a couple of eyebrow styles yourself. There is no absolute “wrong” answer when it comes to eyebrows, it greatly depends on what kind of vibe you desire to give off: cute, professional, sexy, mature, innocent, anything goes. These will just be some tips that might help you to figure out what works for you, just remember that it is very difficult to make an absolutely accurate guess without seeing your full face, this is ideally a self-help resource.

First of all, you will often see the basic styling guide that goes something like this:

However, I found that this wasn’t absolutely helpful to me. What about thickness? The height of the brow? How arched should I go? Some girls look amazing with perfectly straight brows, right? Is this the only arch that looks good? It’s hard to find info on all of this so let me start:

The thickness of the brows

Think of it this way: The eyebrows are supposed to accentuate what is already there or balance it, as such it is important to follow the lines of the face to create appropriate harmony. Faces are complicated and you may even suit a different type of eyebrows when you have more weight on you, I know I do. Along with that, when it comes to eyebrows, the eyes are the most important determinant, but not the ONLY determinant. Some faces need more softness/sharpness so you add the appropriate eyebrows, at other times, you want to play exactly into the type of features that you have. 

Would you say your facial features are more elongated, narrow and have a certain lightness? None of your features stand out, rather they all work together, no facial feature is too large. Then go for a thinner brow. Think of celebrities like Taylor Swift 

Or Charlize Theron

Heather Morris 

Hyuna ( kpop idols rarely rock completely thin eyebrows, but you can see that among them she has a thinner variant)  

Another point to present is the “chubbiness” vs “dryness” of your face. The more “dry” your face is, meaning the less facial fat and roundness you have, the more likely thin brows suit you. Let’s look at Halle Berry - the thinner her face became, the more she suited thin brows. 

And the midpoint:

One thing to notice is that her eyebrows were never TOO thick - her balanced features would simply never allow for it. Look at someone like Charlize with thick eyebrows, it just didn’t suit her. Her features are simply too delicate for that.

Are your features larger, heavier, more "in your face" - especially the eyes? Consider a much thicker brow like the following ladies. The brows need to follow the lines of your face, if your eyes are very “strong”, they deserve an appropriate assistant! Lucy Hale

Sofia Vergara

Sofia Loren

Lilly Collins

Aisha

Look how much better Beyonce looks with thicker brows, these eyebrows are not that thin to begin with, now imagine how much less flattering thinner eyebrows would be for her face:

The same can be said about Lykke Li, her face is much more balanced when she sports thicker brows due to her beautiful heavy features. 

Notice that many of these women have either rounder or wide cheeks, even if their faces may not hold onto more flesh, that’s the bone structure. That is a trait that suits thicker brows, on the other hand, the ladies in the “thin eyebrows” category often have slightly narrower lines and sharper bones. The thin eyebrows soften them up. 

However, there are some exceptions to this. If all of your features a very large or maybe even your forehead is smaller than you’d prefer, you may go the complete opposite route and take thin brows.

A youtube Anncy is a beautiful example of someone who made the right call going for thin brows instead of thick ones. Larger brows would wear down her face and perhaps take more space away from the rest of her features. When you have large features, sometimes it is difficult to juggle proportions: adding large eyebrows can take away either from eyebrow height or forehead length so if you recognize yourself in this, consider going for thinner brows even though your features are large. The only image of thick brows on her I could find offhand is this  but I felt it would be unfair to put them with the other ones, as I feel the lightning and angle isn’t equal or as flattering, but hopefully you get the point. 

Another example of this is Angelina Jolie. She goes for much thinner eyebrows than you’d expect from someone with features as large as those. 

Big eyebrows would simply be too much competition for the rest of her face:

However, many people don’t fit any type perfectly and that’s also perfectly fine. Most are in the hybrid category, so they have to pay attention to various features.

Kerry Washington is one such example. Her features are larger, yet her eyes are very delicate. Her face is narrow, but there is much fleshiness to it. She goes for a brow that isn’t too thick or too thin. They’re narrow to follow the longer line of the face, yet not too thin to harmonize with the roundness of her features, cheeks and chin. 

Megan Fox has fairly small features and yet she looks better with thicker brows? Why? Because her face possesses a certain sharpness, particularly in her features, that needs thick eyebrows to balance them out. This also has to do with her coloring and contrast, but that will be its own category in a following post. 

Also, while it may seem like blondes suit thinner brows and brunettes thicker ones, that may not exactly be it. I put the example of Lykke Li who shows that a blonde can perfectly rock thick eyebrows, and Hyuna and Halle, as an example that brunettes can also look beautiful with thin ones. I’ll go more in depth about this in the Coloring section. 

Arched vs Straight eyebrows

The arch of the brow depends on your overall features and the style you want to convey. A longer midface may suit straighter, longer eyebrows to add width to the face. Straight eyebrows also make you look younger and more cute. They can also help the forehead look wider. An example of this is Yoona, this girl has a longer midface and the brows add a vertical line that breaks apart the length of the midface. The straight brows also suit her cute and youthful appeal.

Mina from Twice is another good example of this. The straight brows add balance to the length of the face.

I would suggest straighter brows to people who’d prefer a cuter look usually, however many sexpots, so to speak, go for this look to balance out their features. Look how much width these straight brows, that extend far out, allow Jessica Alba’s longer face.

Straight eyebrows, depending on how dark they are, can also add drama and make the face seem more symmetrical and lifted, especially if the ends of the brows point up - that’s why they’re popular with models. Notice how symmetrical and compact, or even wide, a lot of these faces appear due to this effect. Additionally, these faces appear more dominant or modelesque and may even photograph better, which is why you may want to try them out. 

Let’s look at Nyane, her straight brows with a slight elevation towards the end point out the beautiful symmetry and sharpness of her face. When they are arched, there is too much sharpness. Even if they were shaped differently, the elevated arch would take away from a more balanced look.  

On the other hand, for the e-girl or cute girl look, the straight eyebrows don’t point up, rather, they point down. Look at the classic e-girl Belle Delphine for that. For the cute girl look, choose either an end that points neutrally or down. Beware that an eyebrow that point down may make your face appear less lifted, but many faces can handle it pretty well. It’s all subjective and not everyone wants the lifted look.

As for arched brows, they definitely bring up the sex appeal and make your eyes appear lifted. This is great if you want to go for enhanced sex appeal or have a negative canthal tilt (downturned eyes) that you’d like to change. Arched eyebrows are a classic and they add that “wow” factor to the face, in addition to that, it’s also a great choice for those who have a baby face and want to stray away from that. It’s great to add that arched eyebrows can break up a wide face and add “length”, it can also shrink the forehead and make the eyes appear larger, but that will be further covered in the placement section.

Gigi Hadid has beautiful eyebrows that make her eyes appear huge due to the high arch point. The eyebrows are her best feature and certainly add something to her look. Pay attention to how babylike her face would look without those eyebrows, if you’d cover them, her face would seem so much softer. The arched brows are exactly what make her face model like. It’s that extra something.

Aishwarya Rai is famous for her sex appeal and beauty and her eyebrows play up that aspect - she often lifts up one or both brows in photos to get an even more pronounced arch.

When her eyebrows are straighter, she loses some of that seductiveness.

Anne Hathaway has beautiful downturned eyes, however, in case one would like to “lift” the area up, so to speak, they could try out this type of style. The arch of the brow is exactly above where her eye ends and goes down, making for beautiful harmony.

Eyebrows can also be more sharply arched or have a more rounded arch. A sharper arch can add more dimension to the face, as well as sex appeal, while the rounded one can accentuate femininity (look Gigi and A,R, or someone like Sofia Vergara). Marylin Monroe, in tune with old Hollywood beauties, sported a sharper arch often, as did Olivia Wilde, to suit her sharp features.  

Naomi, is also an example of beautiful arched eyebrows, that mix up both the rounded and sharp aspect by going to no extreme. This can suit you really well if you have a mix of sharp and round features like she does (high cheekbones, elongated face + full lips, rounded cheeks etc.)

If you can’t decide which eyebrow to go for, consider the mix of the two: where the eyebrows bottom line is more straight and the top of it is arched. It is often seen on women with cat eyes that want to add softness but also show off that allure. Notice how the bottom of Barbara’s eyebrow here is straight and the top is arched - this is also great if you have difficulty with shaping your brows as it is forgiving for filling in + it looks very natural.

All of this said, it is up to you if you want to add sharpness or softness to your face - there is no right call and a lot of it has to do with what your style and taste is. Many of these women have tried out all types of arches and found that each look “sold” something, a particular essence. It is up to you to choose what you like, however, I hope this guide helped you in discovering which eyebrows suit what style. 

I wish to also address more finely tuned details of the eyebrow such as:

-Eyebrow placement (Low and High placed)

-The placement of the arch and its effects on the look you are portraying

-Having eyebrows compliment individual features (close set eyes, wide set eyes, broad noses etc)

-Coloring of the eyebrows

and perhaps some more. Stay tuned! 

[rainbowplussome]

on dazai’s backstory

okay so!! one of the most prominent mysteries of bungou stray dogs is dazai's backstory prior to his and mori's assassination of the previous boss. i've seen tons of speculation on it, and i thought i'd chip in with my personal thoughts and deductions! please note that for this analysis i'll be using wattpad user darkestjay8686's interpretation of the fifteen light novel, as i do not speak japanese nor have access to the original fifteen light novel. any alterations done to this translation are for ease of understanding (for example, changing "the hand of chuuya" to "chuuya's hand"). any and all of these changes are purely the result of personal preference and are not at all meant to either change the meaning of the passage or insult darkestjay8686. seeing as, once again, i do not speak japanese, i am operating under the assumption that this translation conveys the original intent as well as can be expected. for verification of certain quotes, i cross-checked @looking-for-stray-dog's excerpts of the novel.

with all of those disclaimers out of the way, let's get down to it!

1. on mori and dazai

there has been a lot of discussion on mori and dazai's relationship, and most of what needs to be said has been said. maybe i’ll discuss some things that i feel are often overlooked in a separate post! still, put briefly in a disorganized list, because formatting on tumblr is difficult:

when dazai and mori met, dazai "was nothing more than an attempted suicide patient."

dazai was already suicidal when he came under mori's care.

whatever "broke" dazai happened before mori (assuming that dazai's detached behavior comes from a place of trauma in addition to possible mental/personality disorders).

dazai served as witness shortly after to mori's assassination of the former boss.

mori did not know dazai intimately before PB's demise.

mori remarks that he underestimated dazai's darkness and wisdom, implying that he hadn't known dazai well enough previously in order to gauge these things.

we also know that dazai "was not a subordinate of Mori, nor of the mafia…[nor was] he…an illegitimate child, an orphan mori had picked up, or a medical assistant." their meeting is described as a "fateful encounter."

another interesting thing is that it takes a year for dazai to drop the childish mask we see him keep up around mori, seeing as this scene is where mori realizes that he's made a "miscalculation."

2. on the previous boss and dazai

dazai likely knew the previous boss on a personal level.

A distorted, crimson haze emerged from the other side of the subspace, and a figure appeared.

"There... there is a nostalgic face. Hey, brat... are you in good health? Have you been bullied by the doctor?"

It was the old boss floating in the air, wearing a traditional, black robe.

"Hey, there." Dazai smiled stiffly. "It's been a while. How's your back pain? Your complexion is looking nice. Wasn't it a good thing you died? Boss—no, previous boss."

this implies that the previous boss (thus abbreviated as PB) knows dazai, despite being clearly insane and severely ill in the one moment where we know dazai was present.

see: "nostalgic face"—PB views dazai as someone he's known long enough to view as nostalgic.

see: "brat"—PB views dazai with disdain. as he was clearly not in his right mind during the one time he and dazai are undeniably in a room together, i doubt he even realized dazai was there, and definitely not well enough to actually remember his face.

see: "are you in good health?"—we know for a fact that dazai attempted suicide at age fourteen (though we do not know if this was his first attempt). may indicate that PB is aware of dazai's attempt. >>could also just be a generic greeting that i'm reading into. who knows?

see: "have you been bullied by the doctor?"—the term "the doctor" indicates a sense of familiarity; PB does not need to specify further. this means that PB knows that dazai is in mori's care, or at least in regular contact with him. >>please note that it is unclear how much knowledge PB has of the outside world in death. >>furthermore: while this is more of an interpretational piece of evidence, the phrasing here comes across as mocking. PB is bitter that dazai was complicit in his assassination. one would not be bitter in such a way unless they felt somehow betrayed.

see: "dazai smiled stiffly."—possibly invalid due to translational errors and liberty, but dazai is capable of keeping his cool even in the most dire of circumstances. to intentionally mention that his smile is stiff could indicate one of two things: one, that dazai is pretending to be uncomfortable on purpose, or two, that dazai is honestly uncomfortable and stressed and is attempting to disguise this. as the first does not make sense in this particular situation, the latter must be true. >>please note that dazai was already out of his comfort zone in this scene, as the previous events had clearly taken him by surprise. make of that what you will.

see: "how's your back pain? your complexion is looking nice."—all imply that dazai knew both a) the exact issues of PB's illness, and b) how PB looked before said illness severely affected him, or at least knew him in illness long enough to draw an accurate comparison. >>could also just be generic mocking, as dazai at least knew that PB was in poor health. not necessarily indicative of further knowledge.

see: "wasn't it a good thing that you died?"—this can be taken a multitude of ways, but the way i initially interpreted it is that dazai has a personal opinion on the way PB was running the port mafia. in this interpretation, "good thing" is being applied for the people. however, dazai is explicitly amoral. so what could this mean? dazai may be saying that it is a "good thing" in a purely business sense. maybe he was projecting his own suicidal tendencies onto PB. maybe he was saying that it's what PB would have wanted in his right mind. no particular conclusions to draw here, but i thought it was worth analyzing.

see: "boss—no, previous boss."—dazai instinctually refers to PB as "boss." if he had not frequently referred to him this way in the pass, he would not have made the freudian slip. the correction, too, gives his words a certain level of mocking. you were the boss, but you're not anymore. dazai must have known PB or known of PB long enough to both form an opinion on him and to view him as "the boss."

conclusion: it makes the most sense that dazai knew the boss on a personal level.

thus begs the question: if dazai referred to PB as "boss," why was he not already a part of the mafia? multiple theories:

dazai was a part of the mafia, but mori simply didn't know and dazai did not correct him. extremely unlikely, as dazai says that being in the mafia might be worth a try, which means he hadn't tried it previously, as well as hirotsu claiming that dazai is "unrelated to the mafia."

dazai performed some other duty for PB separate from mafia duties.

dazai was PB's son/ward, and "boss" was what PB insisted he be called.

however: dazai was asked to join the sheep when he was young ("a long time ago" when he was fifteen). as far as we know (or can ever expect to know), the sheep exclusively recruit "down-on-their-luck" youth or homeless kids. this means that dazai must have been defined as one of the two at some point. with our two remaining conclusions (the first having been crossed off an account of unlikelihood), we can justify this in two ways:

if dazai performed some other duty separate from the mafia under PB, it gives him ample time to have a life outside the mafia. we do not know enough to speculate on what that life may have been, just that he was likely homeless at some point when he was very young.

if dazai was PB's son/ward, he must have either run away at some point or simply been out and about enough for the sheep to mistake him as homeless or "down on his luck."

either conclusion is equally likely, and thus equally unlikely!

hence, undeniable conclusions (tl;dr):

knew PB prior to his death.

did not know mori very well, if at all.

traumatized before he and mori assassinated PB (assuming his behavior and outlook is a result of trauma in combination with a personality/mental disorder).

at some point was frequently on the streets.

even if you disagree with these conclusions, please be kind! feel free to add anything if you think there's something i overlooked/misinterpreted.

[thatgamefromthatad]

3 more games like Merge Mansion - the genre is evolving!

More and more games like Merge Mansion (two-item merge games) are being released and I can hardly keep up, but I’m glad because I find this genre so satisfying! Here I’ll review three more relatively new games, which are all unique in that they break off quite a bit from the original Merge Mansion, and include their own mechanics not seen in the other Merge Mansion-esque games I’ve covered!

You can see my original Games like Merge Mansion review here, although it’s quite outdated as many of those games have made significant changes since I wrote that in early March. I’ll try to add some updates to the original post sometime in the near future to better reflect that current status of each of those games. You can also find links to the other two-item merge games I’ve previously reviewed in my final ranking at the end!

Read my full reviews of Plantopia, Merge Adventure and City Boom below:

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Plantopia: Merge Garden (Early Access)

Developer: Voodoo

Release Date: May 7, 2020 (Early Access)

This game is an interesting one because I only found it recently and started seeing ads for it recently although it’s apparently been around for about a year. I’m thinking it was soft launched and only recently made available in my region. The title screen indicates it’s still early access so that would make sense.

An initial release/soft launch date of May 2020 would actually make it older than Merge Mansion, which I believe was released in Sept. 2020. However I’m not sure about the exact timeline as they could have been in development/soft launched around the same time and the games are actually quite different overall so the basic similarities could be a coincidence.

This game truly amazed me because although it has the basic elements of what I would consider a Merge Mansion-like game, that being the two-item merge mechanic on a two-dimensional grid-like board viewed from the top, with item generators and item collection objectives, it’s otherwise very different from the other two-item merge games I’ve played. There are at least three separate boards, possibly more considering the tool shed and flower lab unlock a bit later in the game, and instead of completing objectives by getting items right off the board, you use items from the greenhouse and tool shed boards to start growing plants and then harvest the resources. The flower lab adds an additional step, as you can take the plants you’ve harvested to that board and merge them further to create bouquets and oils etc.

This game is probably the most complex and challenging out of all the two-item merge games I’ve played, which I think makes it more fun but less relaxing. Basically if I want something to play mindlessly while chilling out and watching YouTube videos I would play Merge Mansion or Merge Friends, but when I want to play something more advanced and for a longer period of time I play Plantopia.

🌼 Art: 3/3 (although I mostly prefer all 2D art, this game does the 3D/2D mixture better than some other games and I just love the colors and style of the different plants, boards and products. It all feels very “cottagecore” as the kids these days would say lol. The 2D character designs are also OK and pretty cute)

🌼 Story: 2/3 (it’s definitely a step above the “moving into this old mansion with my grandparents” story, I did get to know the characters a little better and some of the objectives are plot-related, such as growing aloe to help another character with his sunburn, or growing a special flower that reminds another character of her late husband etc. But I wasn’t really feeling like I wanted to learn more, and the storyline didn’t have a huge influence on my overall experience)

🌼 Gameplay: 5/5 (definitely the strongest game in terms of gameplay in my opinion, like I said it is more challenging and there’s more to think about but it makes for a really fun and varied experience!)

🌼 Variety: 2/3 (although there are three whole boards and you unlock different plants as you go along, there isn’t as much variety in the merging part since you basically just merge seeds into sprouts, sprouts into younger plants etc. until you have the full plant to place in a plot. You know exactly what you’re merging up to and there’s no thrill of discovering a new item by merging up. The items also come from boxes or from preset, unmovable generators so there’s no fun in discovering new generators either. But it is cool that each plant has its own planting requirements like more water, more fertilizer, more light etc.)

🌼 Playtime vs. Wait Time: 4/4 (another huge advantage of this game, there’s no energy system so you can play for very long, the only time constraint is waiting for plants to grow)

🌼 Overall Enjoyment: 4/5 (I’m definitely very impressed with this game but the things I mentioned in the Variety section are probably the biggest thing that prevents me from giving it a 5/5 overall. It is exciting when you unlock something new by progressing through the game but I especially enjoy moving up item ranks and discovering new generators, so in that area this game didn’t really do it for me. But otherwise it’s really a great game and a very unique entry within this genre!)

🌼 Total: 20/23

Merge Adventure - Dragons!

Developer: Ludigames

Release Date: March 25, 2021

First of all, even though the full name of this game includes the word dragons, I haven’t seen a single dragon unless one was mentioned in the written adventure logs, which I don’t usually read.

With that out of the way, this is another very unique game in terms of merge games as it is also an RPG. Some of the items you merge on the board are used to equip your hero, while others are used to unlock new adventures that yield different loot upon completion. You don’t actually get to engage in battles since the adventures themselves run on an idle system where you just get an adventure log to read to how your hero is doing and then collect the loot after a certain period of time. It is definitely something new for two-item merge games and deserves credit for the unique concept, but execution-wise it unfortunately fell short in a lot of ways.

🗡 Art: 1/3 (the art here isn’t necessarily awful but it is on the uglier side compared to a lot of the other games in this genre, specifically the board pieces. Maybe I’m biased because I prefer fun and colorful items, and these items involve a lot of wood and metal and such, but the board often seems so monochrome I can’t even tell certain items apart or remember which item track they belong to. Some of the level 1 items are just differently-shaped scraps of metal. The hero design isn’t bad but I only have one character to base that opinion on. We’ll get to that later)

🗡 Story: 2/3 (I honestly can’t remember if there’s an overarching plot but I will give it a point for the adventure logs, even though I usually don’t read them, it is cool that you can read what your character’s doing and how they obtained the loot they ultimately bring back)

🗡 Gameplay: 2/5 (I want to give it more points for being unique but despite the interesting concept I did have trouble with the gameplay. First of all, it has one of the smallest boards out of all the games I’ve played and a lot of different generators, which guarantees your board will become clogged very quickly. The numbers in the corners of each tile are supposed to help you keep track of what level items you have I presume, but they only make an already cluttered board look more cluttered, and the fact that I already couldn’t tell some of the item designs apart means having all the items crowded and jumbled makes for a very confusing and frustrating experience. Getting new items through loot from adventures seemed cool but then led to more frustration with more items to squeeze onto my fully packed board. Also I have no clue how to get more heroes, I’ve only had one this whole time playing so far, so there’s not much more to the RPG experience other than equipping more powerful items)

🗡 Variety: 2/3 (technically there’s a wide variety of items but as mentioned previously the very monochrome nature of the items makes the experience feel less varied and you can barely enjoy discovering new items when you’re just trying to find space on the board 90% of the time. Also, most of the item tracks just go: item, bigger item, bigger fancier item, biggest fanciest item, or, piece of item, more pieces of item, mostly put-together item, fully assembled item)

🗡 Playtime vs. Wait Time: 1/4 (your time is limited by the energy system, generators needing to refill AND waiting for your hero to return from an adventure)

🗡 Overall Enjoyment: 2/5 (sadly I didn’t really enjoy this game, although I guess my favorite part would be merging up weapons and other equippable items to make my hero more powerful, which isn’t something I could really do in any of these other games)

🗡 Total: 10/23

City Boom

Developer: Playwind Ltd.

Release Date: April 9, 2021

This game is very interesting as it’s the only merge game I’ve personally played that has you compete against other players. This game actually works pretty much exactly like a game I played loooooong ago called Coin Masters, where you gain coins by attacking or raiding other people’s bases while spending coins to build up your own base. The main difference here of course is that the other way to get coins is to merge items and complete requests, while in Coin Masters it was like a slot machine thing. I checked and they are not made by the same developer.

Anywho, the multiplayer aspect of this game was exciting since I definitely have a competitive streak, and I’ve been playing every day to try and climb up the leaderboard (I’m in the top 1,000 so far lol!) However this game is still new and pretty wonky, and it aggressively tries to get you to buy things, much more than any of the other two-item merge games. Also, this game is one of those games that’s very reliant on a constant internet connection so if you don’t have great internet (which I don’t) you will have a lot of issues with the game freezing, just a heads up.

💰 Art: 3/3 (I got to admit I’m a sucker for the cute, colorful and cartoony, and I just can’t get enough of the silly little cats in this game 😂 I appreciate that the 3D art style in this game is very consistent in all parts of the game, and this game also has 3D animated sections: for example, when you go to attack another player a cat rolls up in a little tank and rockets fly around)

💰 Story: 2/3 (there isn’t really a linear story but I give it a point for the different themed areas you progress through as you grow your town, plus the personality put into the cat characters)

💰 Gameplay: 3/5 (I do enjoy this game, especially the fact that I get to compete against other players, but there are a few issues. This game has a lot of limited time events, there’s seriously like 2 or 3 running at a time and seem to change every day, which does add some fun and variety, but creates a unique problem of having event-specific items on the board that I don’t know what to do with when the event ends. I don’t know if that event will come back again or if those items are just completely useless and should be sold now. Currently they’re just keeping my board very clogged. Also, this game really aggressively pushes overpriced microtransactions, which can get very annoying, but I will say that I was still able to play and enjoy the game a fair amount without paying anything. Lastly, the items make a really off putting clunk sound when they merge. May not seem important but it makes the merges less satisfying for me personally)

💰 Variety: 2/3 (There is a variety of event items but as far as the main items there’s very little variety, basically just four categories of items, so I put this in the middle)

💰 Playtime vs. Wait Time: 2/4 (what I like is that there are a lot of chances to get extra energy but what I don’t like is that rather than having energy refresh one at a time every few minutes, you have to wait like half an hour for all the energy to refill at once)

💰 Overall Enjoyment: 4/5 (honestly despite all my criticisms of it I kept coming back to this game, I really enjoy the competitive aspect and none of the problems with it are to the point where it seriously impedes my ability to play. That’s why I kind of have a separate category for overall enjoyment to begin with, because even if a game scores well or poorly in specific categories that won’t necessarily reflect my overall experience)

💰 Total: 16/23

Rankings

Plantopia (scored the same as Travel Town but after playing Travel Town for a while I’ve gotten more bored with it. Plantopia is the new reigning champion! 🎉)

Travel Town

Merge Design

Mergedom: Home Design

Merge Friends

Miss Merge

Merge Mansion

City Boom (scored the same as Merge Mansion but I preferred it less)

Merge Life (note: the linked review is outdated as the game has undergone a lot of updates since I wrote it, I will update it at some point but take the current version with a grain of salt)

Merge Matters

Merge Villa

Merge Adventure (scores the same as Merge Villa but I think I was a little harsh on Merge Villa to begin with, this game is much less playable)

Thank you so much for reading!!! I hope these reviews helped you if you enjoy merge games as much as I do! 💖 You can find more of my full game reviews here and follow me for more stuff about mobile games. Have a great day 🥳

[casualotptrash]

Persona Ask List: #26

“How do you feel about definitive editions/remasters/remakes” and this applies to all games.

I feel like this is a pretty interesting question because everyone has different expectations of what any of those mean and which treatment the persona games should receive.

Beware spoilers for all third semesters and added waifus

I have made a previous post about what I would want for a Persona 3 definitive edition to be (and what I consider remasters and remakes to be in that post) but to tl;dr that whole section: by definitive I mean that the game has added content and adds the most content in comparison to the other games, by remaster I mean the core game is not changed at all but the graphics and such are updated, and by remake I mean the game is remade from scratch with new assets and graphics and all of that. Like I said in that post, I have a hard time fitting what I believe a definitive edition embodies into either of those categories, even if it probably could be forced into one of those two options.

With that said, I actually really enjoy the definitive versions of these games. I think making a “definitive edition” that kind of toes the line of remaster and remake is the best route to go. Remasters are nice, but it’s a combination of the upgraded graphics and gameplay that hooks me in. Also, as far as I remember remasters have a tendency to be half-assed (I think Nocturne had some negative feedback?) but people (understandably) buy them anyway because it’s a game they really like that’s been updated a bit. Remakes can also be cool, but personally I wouldn’t want like a completely new story for the game; or enough major changes to make it seem like a whole different game. Because definitions toe that line, and seem to have the best of both options, it’s enough to make the games feel new but not unfamiliar. As a side note, I also can understand some frustration with the definitive editions because (at least with P5 and P5R) the definitive editions is usually released 3/4 years later with what may seem like “minimal” additions. At least, minimal enough to not warrant another $60 price tag. Royal is definitely worth the $60 on its own as a game, but when taking Vanilla into consideration it does feel kind of overpriced (and that’s not even counting the DLC issue).

Onto the more in-depth details about the editions and my opinions, for Persona 3 I believe an actual definitive game would mostly end the P3P vs P3 FES debate and I would love that. As far as Persona 4 goes, I never played the original, but from what I’ve heard Golden does improve upon it a lot. Now for Persona 5, where I experienced Vanilla and Royal both, I definitely like Royal 100x more than Vanilla. I thought that the third semester content tied in well to the main plot, even if there was a bit of a disconnect between the Yaldy fight and the third semester, and that Sumire’s introduction and use wasn’t too heavy handed. My only complaint with her, besides the ending credit scene, is the fact that you can’t use her until the last Palace when she agrees to help out with Shido’s. I get that she didn’t “truly awaken” until the last Palace, and that scene probably wouldn’t fit in during the whole Shido arc, but overall I think she was handled alright. I do wish she had more scenes with the overall thieves, but that’s just an issue Persona 5 as a whole has with its cast members.

As for the typical things that accompany the definitive version, aka a “third semester” and added female waifu, I think they could have done a lot better. I have not finished P4G yet, but I’ve heard that the “third semester” type deal in 4 has a lot more disconnect than the third semester in P5R. I have also seen a lot of Marie, as I maxed her confidant, but have not seen her “third semester” stuff, and my opinion of her is...mixed. On one hand I like how they have her interact with a lot more of the cast, on the other hand I absolutely hate spending time with her. Her poems are just annoying and her tsundere attitude isn’t endearing to me. All in all, I maxed her only because I knew I had to, so that probably isn’t the best sign. Even though I didn’t play base P4, I still think that they incorporated Sumire better into the overall plot than they did with Marie, but I wish we got to spend more time with Sumire rather than Kasumi. It was pretty disappointing to find out that we can only use her for one palace at the very end of the game, especially when she offers to help even earlier, and that we only get to interact with the “real her” for also that one palace.

I do not know how I would have worked her in earlier, but if we were able to get to know Sumire, and see her reactions to things in the eyes of Sumire rather than Kasumi, and use her in an earlier palace with everything still making sense I would have liked that a lot better. To be honest, it’s just an unfortunate trend for the last party member that they’re often underutilized due to their late introduction. It definitely happened with Haru in P5 Vanilla, but is slightly fixed for her in Royal due to her not technically being the last member. I feel that Naoto doesn’t experience this as much due to her importance in the plot from early on in the game, although it is annoying having to speedrun her social link in order to max it, and P3 doesn’t have this issue at all due to the fact that the last party member joins in September. I actually really appreciate that part of P3′s story, because then you have all of the time from September until the end of the game to get to know the characters and have them all interact with plot points.

Overall, my opinion is that I like the definitive editions that come out, but I believe they could be executed a little better (and perhaps be a little lower in price). It’s interesting to see the new twists on the already-formed story that the edition can add, but I wish it did something a little different than adding “Ok you get an extra month for the new story plot” and “Here’s a plot-centric waifu that has some hidden backstory.” Also, please make it so we can get more time with the “real” new character rather than the “fake” them that we interact with through most of the game.

[ryqoshay]

How to Handle a Nico: Third Valentine’s

Primary Pairing: NicoMaki Words: ~2.2k Rating: G Time Frame: February of Maki’s 3rd year of high school and Nico’s 2nd year of college. Story Arc: Stand Alone

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Author’s Note: Cutting things a bit close this year. I really thought I would get more written/finished during the Maki banner event in SIFAS. Obviously, that didn’t happen. Que zura, zura.

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“Mmm… something smells wonderful.” A voice came from the entryway.

“Welcome home, Nozomi.” Nico called from her position at the stove.

“It’s almost a shame Elicchi and I already have plans tonight. You’ll save some leftovers for us, right?”

“Maybe, we’ll see.”

Nozomi giggled in response. A moment later, she rounded the corner and entered the kitchen. “Wow, that’ll be quite a spread.”

“Maki-chan is coming over.”

“I know.”

“Let me guess, the cards told you?”

Nozomi grinned. “I don’t need the cards to tell me when Maki-chan is coming over. Nicocchi does that well enough on her own.”

Nico rolled her eyes as she turned back to the stove.

“And is there a reason one such as Maki-chan is coming over to spend an evening such as this alone with Nicocchi?”

“You know why, Nozomi.” Nico couldn’t help a bit of bitterness in her tone.

“Yeah, I know.” Arms encircled Nico from behind. “And I believe she knows as well, even if she won’t admit it.”

“Yeah…” Nico sighed, relaxing into the embrace.

“But I have confidence that you two will figure things out soon.”

“I hope so.”

“You’ll be fine.” Nozomi assured. “These things can happen when dealing with someone so stubborn.”

“Well the fact that she’s spending time with me tonight of all nights has to at least mean something.”

“I wasn’t just talking about Maki-chan, you know.” Nozomi laughed as she let go. “Although, speaking of, I think she’s here.” The purple-haired girl scampered out of the room before Nico could reply. “Welcome, Maki-chan!” Nico could hear her announce at the front door.

“Hey, Nozomi.” Maki greeted in return. “Something smells wonderful in here.”

Nozomi laughed. “I said the same thing just a moment ago. Nicocchi is making something super special.”

“Hey, Nico-chan!” Maki greeted, far more cheerfully, Nico noted, as she entered the kitchen a moment later.

Nico turned toward the younger girl. “Welcome, Maki-chan.” She replied with a grin. “Do you mind setting the table? I’m almost done.”

Maki nodded and moved to the cupboards. “Uhm, two or four settings?” She asked.

“Just two.” Nozomi was the one to respond. “I’m headed to Elicchi’s once I change.”

“Alright.” Maki started gathering the needed items.

“So, we haven’t seen much of Maki-chan lately.” Nozomi commented as she leaned against the doorway.

“Yeah, I’ve been studying a lot for finals.”

“It is that time of year.” Nozomi agreed. “Are you anxious to join us in the college world?”

Maki chuckled. “Papa already found a dorm for me, though it’s a little farther from campus than I would have liked. This place is actually a couple stations closer.”

Nozomi laughed as well. “So, does that mean we’ll be seeing even more of Maki-chan in the coming months?”

“Maybe, if you don’t mind…”

“Of course not. As always, you’re welcome anytime.”

“Thank you.”

“Nicocchi always…”

“Don’t you have to get going soon?” Nico interrupted.

Nozomi laughed even more. “Right, right.”

“Oh, Nozomi,” Maki started, moving back toward the entryway where she had left her bag “take this with you tonight. It’s for you and Eli.” She held out a box of chocolates. “No caramels.”

“Thanks, Maki-chan.” Nozomi accepted the package. “They’ll make a good dessert later.” With that said, she turned and headed to her room.

As Nico gave a side glance toward Maki’s progress in setting the table, she noticed an extra bag next to the couch in the living room, besides her usual one for school. So, Maki intended to spend the night, again. It had become a common enough occurrence that she had all but stopped asking. Everyone was fairly open about their schedules, so it was no secret what nights would and wouldn’t work, not that there were many that didn’t work. Nozomi proudly and with good reason, boasted that their friends were welcome anytime and as far as Nico could remember, the majority of the issues in scheduling had been on Maki’s side of things.

However, tonight was different, at least from a social perspective. As Nico began the last phase of her meal preparations, she found herself wondering if Maki was aware of how some may interpret her behavior on a night like tonight.

Two individuals who shared a bond far closer than most friendships spending an evening alone together, enjoying a special, home cooked meal together, watching some cheesy romance movie together while cuddled on the… Well, no, they probably wouldn’t actually be cuddling, even if Nico knew she would be hard pressed to pass up the opportunity to at least lean against or put an arm around the girl on whom she had been crushing for years. If such an opportunity arose, of course.

In any case, after the movie, they could sit close enough to one another to share earbuds to listen to music together as they stu… Wait, no, that wasn’t right either. They didn’t actually have plans to study tonight, right? Surely even someone as socially oblivious as Maki wouldn’t insist on studying on a night like tonight, right?

And surely, even someone as romantically dense as Maki would realize the implications of everything going on tonight, right? Maybe?

Although, if Nico was being honest, she wasn’t entirely sure if she herself was ready for Maki to be ready. There was no question in her mind what she wanted, but as she had already excused and justified putting off doing anything about those desires for all this time, she couldn’t help continuing to do so. After all, there remained many complications for both of them.

Nico shook her head to clear it. Now wasn’t the time for such thoughts. Now was the time to enjoy a nice dinner and evening with her favoritest Maki-chan.

“Nico-chan?”

Oh, she must have seen me. “Nothing, Maki-chan.” Nico responded. “Nozomi was just teasing me earlier and I was just…” She made some exaggerated hand motions in lieu of having the proper words to describe the issue. While it wasn’t an outright lie, it wasn’t exactly the full truth either.

Thankfully, Maki’s light laughter seemed to indicate she understood what Nico was intending to convey. The future doctor was well aware of the spiritual girl’s antics, after all.

“I only tease you when you deserve it, Nicocchi.” Nozomi said, coming down the hallway. Nico was about to retort when she continued. “I’m out now. You two have a good night! Happy Valentine’s Day!” She slipped on her heels and was out the door before either of the remaining occupants could respond.

“Anyway…” Nico muttered, “where were we? How’s the table coming?”

“It’s ready.” Maki replied. “Anything else?”

“Nope, I’m done here too.” Nico slid the food out of the pan onto a serving dish. “You know, Nico has been eating a lot more tomatoes ever since she met Maki-chan.” She commented as she brought the food over to the table.

“Tomatoes are good though…” Maki’s tone bordered apologetic.

Nico laughed. “Yeah, Nico knows tomatoes are Maki-chan’s favorite. Maybe someday Nico will have to make an entire meal out of tomatoes…”

“An entire meal of tomatoes.” Maki was obviously intrigued by the idea.

“Yeah, like a full four course ordeal.” Nico thought aloud as she began serving, making sure to scoop up a few extra cherry tomato halves onto Maki’s plate. “Appetizer, salad, the easy part, a main course and dessert.”

“A tomato dessert?”

“Sure, why not?” Nico shrugged. “Tomatoes are technically a fruit, even if they aren’t always used as such. But some kinds are sweeter, and of course you can always add sugar. Surly, someone out there in the world has to have made something with them and posted the recipe online.”

“I’m sure whatever it is, it will be good if Nico-chan makes it.” Maki said with a smile.

“But of course!” Nico preened. “Nico is the No 1 Tomato Cook in the Universe!”

Maki rolled her eyes. “Idiot…” She said before chuckling.

“You like it.”

“Maybe… Probably…”

Well, that was a new addition to the tradition, though by no means an unwelcome one. Nico wondered for a moment if she were to just hack a tomato into wedges, splash it with olive oil and throw some salt on it if Maki would still drool over it simply because it was a tomato dish that Nico had made. Perhaps, to use her own words; maybe, probably.

Conversation remained lighthearted between the two girls as their meal progressed at a casual pace. Nico contented herself in watching Maki savor every bite, as had become one of her favorite pastimes over the last year or so. Still, despite their relaxed rate, the meal still seemed to reach its end far too soon as far as Nico was concerned. Then again, there was always dessert…

“Ne, Maki-chan.” Nico said, coming out of her bedroom as the redhead was busy settling down on the couch. The two had just finished cleaning up and were preparing for the rest of their evening together. “Happy Valentine’s Day!” She proclaimed proudly, presenting a pristine package.

Maki’s eyes lit up as she reached up to accept. “Thank you, Nico-chan. Can I open it now?”

“Of course.”

Maki immediately tore into the wrapping as though the present had been from a certain fanciful figure from a few months back.

“Nico-nii’s Super Special, Valentine’s Day Only Chocolates!” Nico announced as the box was revealed.

“With dried fruit?” Maki seemed to anticipate.

“But of course! It’s pretty much a tradition at this point.”

The cover was slid aside, a piece selected and bitten into. “Mmm…” Maki hummed her approval as she chewed. “I look forward to these every year.”

Nico grinned happily, though decided not to point out that this was only the third time she’d given Maki such chocolates. Apparently, that was all it took for the younger girl to be hooked. And that pleased Nico greatly.

“I’m glad you like them.”

Maki smiled as she snatched one more before closing the lid. “And in return…” She popped the second piece into her mouth before leaning over the arm of the couch to where she had set her bags earlier.

From her position, Nico couldn’t see, but she could hear the zipper being opened.

“Happy Valentine’s, Nico-chan.”

Nico had to blink to keep her eyes from bulging out of their sockets. By the gods, that was a massive package, easily half again the size as the one from last year. And it was also thicker, so probably a double layer, making it that much bigger. “T-thank you…” she had to put in conscious effort to avoid stuttering further.

“Everyone enjoyed them last time, right?” Maki asked, apparently sensing Nico’s hesitation.

“Everyone? Last time?”

“You shared them with your family last year, right?”

“Well, yeah, because there were so many…”

“So, now you can share even more?”

Something melted in Nico. This girl…

Nico set the partially opened package on the coffee table.

“Nico-chan?”

Without responding verbally, Nico knelt on the cushion beside Maki, turned, and wrapped her arms around her.

“Thank you.” Nico finally managed after a long moment of silence. “The kids will be thrilled.”

“You’re welcome.” Maki replied. “But, Nico-chan likes them too, right?”

Nico chuckled. “Of course, I like them. And getting them from Maki-chan is becoming a wonderful new tradition.”

“I’m glad.” Though she couldn’t see it, Nico could feel Maki’s smile as it moved her cheek against hers.

Nico took a deep breath and swallowed down what felt like tears that had started to bubble up. Slowly, she let go of the other girl and twisted down into a proper sitting position. Next, she leaned forward to retrieve the box and finish unwrapping it. Finally, following Maki’s behavior from moments ago, she slipped the cover open enough to grab two pieces. However, instead of eating both, she offered one to Maki.

“With this many, I can share with even more people.” Nico said with a smile.

Maki smiled in return as she took the offered chocolate.

“Now,” Nico grabbed the remote and turned on the television “let’s see what cheesy romance movies are playing.”

“Is that going to be our tradition now?” Maki’s tone was one of teasing.

“Sure, why not.” Nico shrugged. “And the cheesier the better, right?”

“I suppose.” Maki rolled her eyes but didn’t otherwise protest.

As Nico started browsing the menu on the screen, she realized she hadn’t taken her traditional, for lack of a better word, spot on the other end of the couch. However, Maki wasn’t pushing her away, nor was she leaning away, nor mentioning it any way. Perhaps she was fine with this arrangement? Certainly they sat close together when they shared headphones, but this was even closer.

Nico stole a quick glance at the girl beside her. There was no trace of red in the redhead’s cheeks, rather a simple, content smile as she read the titles on the scrolling list in front of them.

“Oh, how about that one?” Maki suddenly said, pointing. “With a title like that, it has to be cheesy.”

Nico looked back at the screen. “Yeah, it’s super cheesy, even by my standards.”

“The cheesier the better, right?”

“I suppose.” Nico followed Maki’s original response, earning laughter from the other girl. She then started the show and settled in for a cozy Valentine’s evening.

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Author’s Note Continued in Followup Post

[avengersassemble-fics]

What is it About You?

Kylo Ren (Ben Solo) x Reader

Summary: The First Order is trying to stomp out the Resistance. Work on the Starkiller Base is non-stop everyday. Some work on the weapon itself, and others get to work on the fleets fighters and shuttles. One engineer sparks the interests of the commander himself. But why? What is it about this engineer that the Force and Commander Kylo Ren, seem so interested in?

part 01/10 “encounters”

word count 3.6k

an: lmao look don’t judge me for ANOTHER new piece. when it comes to me it comes to me. this is my first ever kylo piece so hopefully i can do him justice.

Starkiller Base was a lot of things, none of those being a place you would ever consider home. It was freezing cold, it held this unsettling feeling in it, and if you weren’t concerned about keeping your job, then you probably would have left as soon as you stepped onto the tarmac. But, this was your first major assignment post, and it wasn’t an opportunity you could pass up.

You didn’t work on anything too important. Did you know what they were building? No not exactly, just that it was a weapon. Your main concern was making sure that the TIE fighters and transports that came from battle or missions were back to pristine condition. Some days you pulled in a 6 hour shift, while others you felt like you could see the sun peaking over the horizon. Those days were the ones you dreaded the most. Why?

Because the only reason you had those days was when Commander Kylo Ren returned, and his command shuttle was in complete disarray. And today was one of those days.

You reveled in freedom when it and its owner weren’t on the base. Every time you were informed of a departure check being needed, you felt the happiness flow back into your life. That is how much you hated that shuttle, and though you wouldn’t admit that to anyone, that is how much you hated Commander Ren as well. It made you feel like your work and time meant absolutely nothing to that man.

Well you knew it didn’t. How could someone like that care about anyone’s feelings? That’s probably the reason why you felt yourself dragging your feet as you made your way to the incoming bay. The only thing that you looked forward to at that moment was seeing your friend who hopefully had brought you a cup of coffee. Besides the tiredness felt in your eyes, your body craved that warmth.

Being an engineer is one thing, but being a female engineer felt like you were an animal on display in a cage. No, you didn’t get to wear pants like the men engineers, you had to wear a grey dress. The only thing you could add to keep your body warm (on a snow planet!) was a black turtleneck sweater underneath, and not so relatively thick black stockings. Everyday. Five days a week.

You hated the cold.

The bay doors opened to your presence and the cold air hit your body. You shivered, seeing your friend in the distance on a terminal, and thank the stars you could see not one but TWO steaming cups. You wanted to skip with joy. You made your way over, your steps echoing in the air, and your friend turned, shoving your cup towards you.

“Here, grumpy,” her sweet voice said, and you smiled, “I knew if I didn’t bring you one you’d be a raging bitch all day.”

“Your words hurt me,” you said sarcastically, but none the less you took the cup and bumped her shoulder, “but my love for you outweighs it all.”

“Shut up,” she said and you chuckled, taking a sip as you looked over her shoulder, “your transport is 30 minutes out.”

“Great,” you mumbled, taking yet another sip before putting the cup down, “can’t wait to see what’s happened to it this time.”

Reina Duune. She was one of the only other female engineers on the base (there was only 6 total), and she was your best friend. You both went to the same school, and befriended one another when you got into a fight with one of the boys who tried to put his hand up your skirt. She jumped in to defend you as well, and you both got suspended for a week. The boy? He got off scot free. To this day it made your blood boil, because it just showed that the men were seen as more important than the women.

Reina was beautiful. She made the room stop, turn, and look at her beauty when she’d enter rooms. You noticed, but she never did. Did she overshadow you? Yes, but you didn’t mind. You didn’t like being stared at by strangers. You were attractive you would say, you did garner some attention but not on the level Reina did, but then again you weren’t too upset about that.

“Don’t worry about the other fighters coming in today, I’ll finish with those while you do the shuttle,” she told you and you gasped playfully putting a hand on your heart.

“You do love me back, I always knew it,” you laughed and she followed, rolling her eyes.

“Okay joker go do your work,” she commented and you gave her pouty lips as you backed away holding your coffee.

25 minutes.

You spun around and walked over the farthest terminal in the bay. The Command Shuttle always landed here, and you needed to prepare the area for its arrival. Not only did you have to put up with Commander Ren today, but because he travelled on his own that meant General Hux was going to be here soon to greet him as well. You know how it sounds, oh you don’t like Ren and Hux? Is it because they’re men in power? No of course not. You didn’t care who had power. Hell, you didn’t like Captain Phasma either. They’re all just assholes.

20 minutes.

The area was spotless, that’s how you always left it. But there were a few crates tossed down from somewhere and you groaned as you set the warm cup of your drink. You walked over to one of the crates and tried to get it to open to no avail. You squinted, trying to read the wordings on the side, but the faded letters told you nothing. You mumbled to yourself and you shoved it barely an inch. It was heavy, whatever inside weighed it down to where you could barely push it. You tried pushing it with your hips when someone jogged up behind you.

“Here, let me help you with that,” the deeper voice said, and you turned to look at the source. He was dressed in white Stormtrooper armour, but no helmet. You recognized him, but could never remember his number. Just that it started with FN. He got on your side, and you both pushed the crate to the wall.

“Thank you,” you breathed, and moved to the second crate, and he followed your lead, both of you putting your hands on the edge to push.

“Yeah of course,” he said before you both pushed hard against the crate to the wall next to the other one.

“Wonder what the hell is in these things,” you commented, feeling the heat build in your face.

15 minutes.

“No clue,” the Stormtrooper said, and you both moved to the last one, “probably not that important if it’s just left around.”

You both pushed hard on the third on, it sliding across the ground slow, “Yeah,” you grunted, “but we’re the ones having to move them.”

With one final push from you both, it went against the wall like the others. You both had to catch your breath, and you wiped your hands together to try and rub the redness out of them. His hands went to his hips and you could see a trickle of sweat down the side of his cheek. You motioned your head to him.

10 minutes.

“Are you leaving on a mission?” You asked him and he nodded.

“Yeah,” he breathed, “there’s word of Resistance activity on Jakku, we leave in a few days. Captain Pasma wanted additional training before we embarked.”

“And here I thought you wore that for fun,” you joked, and you earned a chuckle from him.

“I would trade this heavy and hot armour for rags any day,” and you smiled and shook your head, you nodded at you, “what’s your name?”

“(Y/N),” you replied, not bothering with your last name, but he extended his hand and you shook it.

“FN-2187,” he replied and you nodded. It was weird to you that they didn’t use their names. Or maybe they just didn’t remember them.

“I’m terrible as it is with names, let alone call numbers, maybe I’ll just call you Finn for short,” you commented, there seemed to be a spark in his eyes and before he could reply, you nodded behind him, “you may want to get back to your squad.”

The trooper, Finn you’d call him, turned to look behind him and noticed Captain Phasma and General Hux entering. You straightened yourself as did he, and he backed up from your presence.

“Thanks (Y/N),” he commented and you smiled waving a bit as his back turned to you and went back to join his squad. You fixed your hair and went to the terminal, pressing a few keys and standing tall as General Hux made his way over. Clean workspace, happy General, that’s all he cared about. You heard a call come in in your ear, from the pilot on the shuttle. They were inbound, and you nodded to yourself.

General Hux was finally near you, along with one of his guards (another Stormtrooper), and he stationed himself away from where you were.

“Any word from the shuttle?” He asked you. No greeting, no acknowledgement to your presence, nothing. God, you hated him.

“Yes, sir, the pilot says they’ve exited hyperspace, should be any moment now,” you replied. Just because you hated the man didn’t mean you weren’t respectful to him. It just made your life easier.

“Begin the landing procedure, then,” he said and you nodded your head. You pressed a few keys and the bay door began to open. It cracked open slowly but the cold air hit everyone quickly. Wind whipped at your face and pushed your hair back and you had to clench your jaw to stop your teeth from chattering.

You could see the shuttle in the distance, and General Hux made a comment to his guard, not so much to you, “If the commander is not piloting then that is not a good sign.”

You wanted to groan and roll your eyes. Of course it’s not a good sign, when is it ever? You hoped the damage wasn’t too extensive. But you just stood there and laced your fingers in front of you. The shuttle finally neared, and you could hear the engines slow as it pulled into the bay. As it did, it pushed more wind into your bodies, but you held your ground fine.

You looked over the body of the shuttle, not seeing much damage on the outside. It needed some cleaning maybe, and you would have to check the engines and make sure it was still in near perfect condition. The shuttle landing gear extended out, and touched the ground, and the ramp almost immediately began to lower. You straighten your posture and stare straight ahead, while the engines died in a buzz. The first to exit were the troopers who had gone with the commander, and they stood at your side as Commander Ren stepped down the ramp.

He was tall and dark, covered completely in black robes, and his presence would undoubtedly scare the average person. But not you. You had managed this whole time flying under his radar, you paid him not attention. The only time you really thought about him was when a few of the others would speculate who or what exactly was under that helmet. All you cared about was the fact you could see his fists tightened into a ball, and his posture looked angry. Hux and him spoke momentarily before they both walked off with one another.

The troopers beside you began to follow, one turning to face you as you relaxed your stance, “Just a fair warning, it’s not pretty in there.” Before you could say your thanks, you closed your eyes for a moment.

Great, this was great. Just what you wanted to hear.

You grabbed a pad from the terminal and began to walk the perimeter of the shuttle. Not too much outer damage, it was almost in the same perfect condition as it left. Maybe a couple scratches, easy to buff out, and you typed on the pad your findings. You stepped towards the ramp that led inside and took a breath to prepare yourself. Time to see what exactly the condition looked like in here.

You stepped aboard and nearly gapped. There were slashes down a side of the wall, still sputtering electrical shocks as you stood there gawking. Oh you knew what that damage was. Fucking lightsaber marks. You set your pad down on the piloting console, and walked over to the wall.

What. The. Fuck. What the fuck was this guys problem? Was he really that inconsiderate that he literally fucking ripped through metal? For what! What makes someone do that?

You felt lightheaded, it was sudden and you had to hold onto the torn apart wall to hold yourself up. Your vision went fuzzy, and you blinked to try and see clear again. You heard footsteps coming your way, and you shook your head to compose yourself, and grabbed your data pad to begin ordering repairs for this..damage.

The presence stomped up the ramp, and you knew exactly who it was by the sound of it. You closed your eyes and fought back the groan you wanted so badly to let out. Fucking great.

“Is something wrong, officer,” the voice said. The filter in the helmet gave nothing away, but you could tell the tone of voice was irritated. You took a deep breath in and spun around, holding the data pad against your chest.

“Commander Ren, I’m just performing the post-flight-”

“I didn’t ask you that,” he cut you off and took a step forward to you. He was taller and bigger than you in stature, but you didn’t back off, “I asked if something was wrong.”

“I don’t know what you mean, sir,” you replied, looking up to meet his gaze. Out of the corner of your eye you could see his fist tighten. He looked you over quietly and you didn’t like that. But you didn’t avert your eyes. Look then, you wanted to say. Take a fucking picture too if you want.

What was wrong with you today.

“I would watch your tone, officer,” he commented, and that made you raise a brow, “you should feel nothing but gratefulness for the opportunity you have with the First Order.”

What did that mean. What? Tone of voice?

“Yes, sir,” you replied. He looked you over once more, and turned to walk down the ramp. Your shoulder relaxed, and all you could think was what an opportunity it was to clean up after someone who acted like such a child.

He stopped in his tracks, and you stared at his back. Commander Ren looked over his shoulder for a moment and finally left the shuttle. You let out a breath of relief, and looked back to the wall. What a weird morning already.

The day seemed to drag on as you put in work orders for everything that was needed. You were in what you would call your office, that was shared with three other people. You sat down in a chair that was right in front of a larger terminal, easier to work on then the one in the bay, and you were busy typing away what you needed. You also couldn’t help but go over the events that had transpired that day. You shook the thoughts from your mind when the door to the room opened.

“You missed all the fun today,” your friend Reina said to you. She sat at the terminal she claimed was hers, and spun her chair to face yours, but you had to keep typing as she spoke, “I’d say there’s one hell of a Resistance pilot out there.”

“Hey if you want to switch, be my guest and you can finish all these work orders,” you threw back at her.

“That bad?”

“That bad,” you replied and shrugged your shoulders, “just because you have a lightsaber doesn’t mean you should just use it to trash your own shuttle. Especially when someone else had to clean up the mess.”

Reina shook her head, “Yes but they don't care about that. They know someone is going to fix it so it doesn’t matter what they do.”

You sighed, finishing the last work order you had to punch in. 22 requests needed within the next day. It was going to be a long 48 hours for you and the team who’d be assigned to assist you. You spun your chair to meet Reina’s face.

“I didn’t think when I joined the First Order I’d just wind up being someone’s maintenance bitch,��� you commented and she gave you a sad smile, “it just doesn’t feel like my work is that important.”

“But it is,” she replied, “hell without you no one could fix that thing. Even I don’t know how the ins and outs of it, but as someone who helped develop its plans-”

“But no one knows I helped develop the shuttle plans. That’s the problem, they’re long gone with promotions and making twice as much as I do.”

Reina extended her hand for you to take, and you did, and she clasped her other hand over it, “You’re going to get the recognition you deserve one day. It sucks it’s not now, but it’ll happen. Too damn smart for it not to.”

Reina always knew how to help you feel better. You gave her a sad smile and off you two went to get some kind of food into your systems.

2300 hours.

You had finally made it back to your room. It was decently sized, you couldn’t really complain. But the metal walls, metal bed that held your mattress (if you could call it that), no decorations, and a bathroom with a decent refresher. You reached behind your back to unzip your uniform, struggling to reach the zipper. You stopped when there was a beep at your door. You sighed, and walked back over, and instead undid your hair that was in a ponytail all day, letting your hair relax. You didn’t know who it was, but you ruffled your hair as you pressed a button near the door and allowed it to open.

Were you expecting Commander Ren to be there? No. Absolutely not, and you could not hide your surprise.

“Commander Ren-”

He walked into your room without paying you any mind. You stood at the door for a moment and blinked trying to comprehend what the fuck was going on.

“Please, come in,” you muttered and turned to face him. The door to your room shut, and almost immediately, Commander Ren’s hand extended out, and there was a grip around your neck. You gasped, the air exhaling your body as you struggled to breathe.

“Your thoughts are too loud,” he said, taking a step forward, his hand pinched like it was around your throat.

“What do you mean,” you tried to manage but it didn’t really come out that audible. But he heard you.

“Don’t play stupid, (Y/L/N),” you shook your head, almost feeling like your eyes were going to flutter close, and right then he released his grip on you and you gasped for air.

“Every thought since I’ve returned, I could hear each one,” he said, and you rubbed your throat, “your attitude towards me are the loudest thoughts you have.”

“You just fucking choked me,” you shook your head, “I don’t even know what you’re going on about!”

“Don’t talk to me like that,” he warned you, and you stood straight, “you incompetence annoys me.”

“My incomp-” you stopped yourself from continuing this charade, “y’know what? Please get out.”

“No.”

“No? What do you mean no?!”

He took another step forward, and you swallowed the lump in your throat. Kylo Ren towered over you once again that day, you would lie if you didn’t say he made you nervous.

“I’m making you nervous,” he said and you blinked at him. Stop doing that!

“What is it about you,” he said again, and looked over you, “why is the Force connecting us like this.”

“Please leave,” you asked again. You didn’t know if his eyes were locked with yours, but he moved around you and to your door. Without saying a word, you relaxed, and rubbed your shoulder. What the fuck was that? You forcefully reached around your back and barely reached the zipper on your uniform, and pulled it down, and let your clothes hit the floor. You walked to your bathroom that held the refresher in it and continued to strip down, desperately needing a shower. Anything to get today’s grime off of you.

You turned the refresher on and stepped into the warm water. You didn’t know what Commander Ren meant, by any of it, but you tried not to think too much about it. Since he could (apparently) hear what you were thinking. You cleared your mind as you washed your body down. You stayed in there until the water started to turn cold, and you turned it off and carefully exited, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around yourself.

The only thought in your head right now was getting into bed and getting some rest for tomorrow.

[simana-x]

Oh yeah, and this is the information page for the BTHB if you’re interested in taking part!

BTHB About Page

Guidelines + Rules

(home ask)

What is this? — Getting Started — How It Works — The Rules — FAQ —

What is this?

This is your motivation to write that fic. Always fun to take prompts when they’re in the form of games you remember from elementary school birthday parties.

You may have seen some bingo cards floating around in the fanfic community. People make a card featuring 24 prompts, and other people will submit a request for one of these prompts to be filled, as well as choosing which character(s) will prominently feature, and occasionally other details as well, depending on the cardholder’s preference. The cardholder then writes the fic and marks it off on the card.

Sounds fun, right? Right.

We all know that some of us are here to get DARK. So, why not make a bingo game focusing on Bad Things?

At this page you will find a list of tropes and scenarios. Currently, there are over four hundred listed. Most are whump-focused, some are more angst, and a few are centered around the ‘comfort’ part of hurt/comfort. Some are fairly general, some are very specific. Some are fairly lighthearted, and some take you right into the heart of Sadism Land.

These are the fics we’ll be writing.

Getting Started

Once you’ve finished reading the rules and FAQ, click on the ‘request a card’ link on the home page or here. This will take you to an application. Let us know the tumblr url you want us to send the card to, and if you want, what fandoms you intend to write for.

Next, you pick your tropes. We’ve got a lot of them, and of course, not everyone would be interested in writing for all of them. Some tropes may not work in the setting you want to write for, some may be difficult to get inspiration for, some may be too dark for you or not dark enough. Go ahead and check off the box next to every trope that you ARE okay with having on your card. You must choose at least 25, so every space on the card has a prompt. (There is no free space; freedom is an illusion.)

There will be a couple of additional questions at the end of the application, then, just submit! Make sure you have your submission box open on your tumblr, with the option to submit a photo, so that we can send you your bingo card. If your submission box is not open, you will not receive a card.

How It Works

When you receive your bingo card, you can start writing! You can write at your own pace and in your own time frame. Go ahead and post your bingo card if you’re making the fics available to your followers, and don’t forget to keep track of which spaces you’ve completed! Doesn’t have to be anything fancy; you can use anything from Photoshop to MS Paint to a text post with strikethroughs to track your progress.

For fic bingos, many people like to take prompts from their followers. Someone will send an ask requesting one of the tropes from your card and a character(s) for the fic to focus on. If you’d like, you can also let your followers prompt other details such as which character you want to have hurt and which one should be the comforter, whether it should be romantic or platonic, an AU to set it in, anything at all. Sky’s the limit. However, prompts are not required; you can select which combinations of tropes and characters you want to write and in what order you want to write them on your own.

Once you’ve written a fic, post it! If in your application you gave us permission to reblog your work, we’ll put it right here on this blog to share with other players and readers. Be sure to tag it with #badthingshappenbingo, or @ us in the post, to ensure we see it. Additionally, please tag the trope featured in the fic, and the fandom you wrote it for.

If you cross-post the fic on AO3, we have a badthingshappenbingo collection, which you can find here! Feel free to add your fic to the collection!

Once you’ve completed five squares in a row horizontally, vertically, or diagonally, you will be added to the Hall of Fame! But don’t feel like you have to stop once you’ve gotten a Bingo; the Hall of Fame will also give special prominence to those of you who get a Blackout - that is, completing every space on your card!

Rules

~ You must have your submissions open in order to receive a card.

~ Although you may request a new Bingo card, you can only have one card in play at a time. We urge you to try to complete your current card before getting a new one if you can.

~ Fics can be NSFW, but they MUST be tagged as such, and all NSFW content MUST be placed under a Read More.

~ There is no word minimum. There is no word maximum.

~ You are allowed to cross-post works you wrote for this event on other platforms, such as AO3, FFN, etc., but we’d like you to also either post the fic on tumblr, or post a link to it, so we can find it.

~ Your entry must be completed before you can mark off its space on your bingo card. The exception is if you are writing a multi-chapter fic, but the chapter featuring the prompt must still be completed.

~ Your entry must be newly written for the bingo, not retroactively tagged or added on to a pre-existing fic.

~ Please indicate somewhere on the post or in the tags which fandom your fic was written for.

~ Feel free to message the blog if we missed reblogging a post you created for this event.

~ Only one prompt per post counts. You can include multiple tropes in a story/chapter, but you can only officially tag/mark off the square for one of them.

~ We love drama in our fics, not on our dash. If a fic is written for a work or a ship that you don’t like, don’t read it. That’s all there is to it. ~ RPF (Real Person Fic) content is not allowed.

~ Although the official Bingo game is a writing-only challenge, you can also participate in this event as an artist. Find the details in this post here!

FAQ

Q: How long does this event last?

A: Forever and ever, I guess. There is no time limit for completing your fics.

Q: How long does it take to receive a card after applying for one?

A: Anywhere from several hours to one week. It depends entirely on how busy the mods are, how frequently applications are coming in, and how long the waiting list is. All of these factors fluctuate wildly from day to day.

Q: Which fandoms can we write for?

A: You can write for any fandom you’d like. This even includes original work, which we like to view as one-person fandoms. The only exception is that we do not allow RPF (real person fic) content. Let’s stick to hurting FICTIONAL people.

Q: I sent in an application, but did not receive a card. Why is that?

A: Most likely, it’s because your submissions were closed. If, however, your submissions are open and you still did not receive a card, it’s probably because either the Google Docs form did not go through, or tumblr ate the submission. Message us off of anon and we’ll get it sorted out.

Q: Can we submit completed fics for this bingo that are also written for other bingos or writing events?

A: As long as the other event also allows it, yes, that’s perfectly fine.

Q: Can we collaborate on fics?

A: When you apply for a card, the username or usernames on the application should always be the author of all prompt fills. If you apply for a card for yourself and another user to share, all works for the card must be a collaboration between the two of you. If you apply for a card for a single user, all works for the card should be written by that single user.

Q: I posted a filled prompt and you didn’t reblog it. Why is that?

A: We aim to reblog all filled prompts. However, due to tumblr being tumblr, occasionally we will miss a filled prompt due to the post not showing up in the tag and/or an @ not making it onto our activity feed. So if you have posted a filled prompt and it has been 48 hours or more without us reblogging, that means we didn’t see it, so you can go ahead and submit or direct message the link to us and we’ll get to it as soon as possible.

Q: Can you add [trope] to the trope list?

A: Probably. As long as it is succinct enough to fit in a space on the bingo card. We would love for the masterlist to be continually expanding. We also want to ensure that all aspects of this event are inclusive to gen writers and to aromantic-asexual characters, due to the fact that they’re so often overlooked or left out of fandom events and activities, so no prompts that inherently require the protagonist/whumpee to be alloromantic and/or allosexual (Unrequited Pining, Cheated On, Left at the Altar, etc.) will ever be included in the masterlist.

Q: Can we make our own cards, or do we have to get them from you?

A: In order to keep track of who’s participating, we ask that you specifically request a card from us. The mods are active, and should be prompt in getting you your card. If you’d like to make your own, feel free - we don’t own these tropes. However, if you make your own, don’t tag the completed fic as #badthingshappenbingo. Only cards made and distributed by us are included in the event proper.

Q: Do we have to post the fics we write for this event?

A: It’s not required. You can request a card for personal/private use if you’d like.

Q: Are there any prizes?

A: Bragging rights, a spot in the Hall of Fame, a sense of accomplishment, and a boost to your grand total fanfic word count. That’s all the reward you need, right?

[becomewings]

I feel Taehyung is going to get invoved in the whole time travel thing with seokjin as he is the closest to knowing what is happening and also his dreams. What do u think?

Note: the following refers to fictional characters and events in BTS Universe.

Interesting idea! While I do think it’s in the realm of possibility that TaeHyung will be the first, or one of the first, to figure out what is happening with the loops, I personally don’t think it’s as likely that he will directly assist SeokJin’s time traveling. This is, in part, because I’m not sure if the “gift” of remembering the previous loops can extend to anyone else (beyond the dreams and fragments haunting TaeHyung and a few of the others), but also mostly because I don’t believe that SeokJin will openly allow for his help.

From the beginning, SeokJin has guarded his secret carefully. The Save Me webtoon presents SeokJin’s (many) early attempts at saving his friends. He tries to fix everything himself and fails when events keep spiraling out of his control, sparking his friends’ suspicions along the way. By the time loop(s) presented in The Notes 1, SeokJin has determined that he must guide his friends to save each other, essentially manipulating them from the shadows whenever possible. When he learns of TaeHyung’s nightmares that contain visions of previous failed loops, he does not take the opportunity to explain himself.

“Several days ago, he came to me and asked me about the dream he’d been having. ‘You know what it means, right?’ He pressed me for an answer, but I acted like I didn’t know. I said, ‘How could I know? It was just a dream.’ TaeHyung got upset and turned away. It wasn’t completely a lie. I didn’t know why TaeHyung had been having such a dream. But I did know how brutal it was. That’s why I couldn’t tell him the truth.’ — SeokJin, 22 May Year 22. The Notes 1.

SeokJin intends to confess something that night at the seaside cabin, but TaeHyung interrupts to demand if he’s talking about ratting them out to the principal and causing YoonGi’s expulsion. It’s unclear if this is the high school event SeokJin meant to confess, though he does acknowledge it as true. But when TaeHyung continues pressing him to reveal what else he is hiding, he refuses to yield any more information and a fight ultimately breaks out between them. (For more on that moment, see my latest post Rift.)

That is only one version of May 22. In an earlier variation, we know that TaeHyung jumps from the observatory platform into the sea before they make it to the cabin. Thanks to the choose-your-own adventure style Notes 2 excerpts posted on the official Smeraldo Books Twitter account from late July to early August, we now also know that there is another version in which TaeHyung follows SeokJin up the observatory. The wind on the tower seems strangely familiar to TaeHyung, and he almost tears up at the sight of SeokJin’s cold face. Per the audience’s popular vote, he decides to ask if SeokJin is helping them.

“‘I know you’re helping us. I don’t know how. I can’t explain it.’ I went on and on about awful things that nearly happened to us and how mysterious coincidences took place right before those horrible events to prevent them from happening. SeokJin pushed me away and said, ‘I don’t need anyone’s help, and I don’t help anyone.’” — TaeHyung, 22 May Year 22. The Notes 2 (SB excerpts: #3A, posted Aug. 2020).

I don’t want to dive into too many more details about SeokJin’s development because I’m tentatively planning a post for after I’ve read The Notes 2, but I’ll add briefly that it’s become apparent in the more recent album-released Notes (and now these Notes 2 previews) that these countless failures and repetitions are taking a toll on him. SeokJin’s motivations seem to have gradually twisted from saving his friends to self-preservation, particularly due to new knowledge of an accident that apparently has happened—will happen—on September 30. To me, this does not sound like a SeokJin willing to accept anyone’s help to reach his goal.

“I could only think of one thing: stopping the accident on September 30 and ending the loop. I was only moving toward that goal. Even if there was a problem with that process, or if someone was hurt or alienated, I couldn’t do anything about it. If I let myself linger on or be overwhelmed by those things, I would never achieve my goal. Even more important than saving everyone was that I myself was able to survive and escape. That was the lesson that the endlessly repeating loop had taught me.” — SeokJin, 11 April Year 22. The Notes: 7. Translation cr. @origamifirefly tw.

To wrap up, let’s consider TaeHyung's perspective. He is plagued by nightmares and visions of violence enacted onto others and by himself. He may have the best intentions for finding the answers to this mystery, but like SeokJin faces his own share of setbacks. His failures often drive members of their friend group apart (for example: they all go their separate ways after he fights SeokJin on May 22). And like the others, he participates in the lack of communication that harms them all.

But there is hope. Thanks to another entry from MotS:7, we do learn that TaeHyung and NamJoon have finally reunited by midsummer, as they have spent several weeks as of July 18 searching for something or some place in Songju based on signs from TaeHyung’s dreams. Since it came from one of his dreams, it is likely that they’re investigating something connected to the time traveling—whether they suspect that is what’s happening yet or not. I’m excited that these two found their way back to each other, but I’ll leave you with one last thought: they will never break free of the loop until they are all working together. Particularly in the case of TaeHyung’s search, another friend may have already had the answer. Because this is not the first time we’ve heard of a clover symbol like he saw in his dream:

“‘Did you find it?’ I drew closer to JiMin and asked. ‘Find what?’ JiMin sounded confused. ‘Your house.’ JiMin nodded. ‘I grew up in the orphanage right there.’ I pointed to a place beyond the railroad. ‘Do you see the supermarket in the direction of the river from the gas station where NamJoon works? Do you see the clover-shaped neon sign behind it? The orphanage is to the left of that neon sign. I lived there for more than ten years.’” — HoSeok, 16 May Year 22. The Notes 1.

Thank you again for submitting your question! This was fun to think about, and I hope it inspired some new ideas for you all too! If anyone has any additional questions, either about this topic or some other aspect of the BU, please send them in!

[nocherryblood]

PLEASE REBLOG FOR AWARENESS- S*X BOTS:

So, only recently, in the past week I've been getting a lot (and a lot, for my blogs, is six) of random followers, and it was making me a little suspicious, so in the end I just decided to check everything out and see what was going on.

I mean, did a post of mine do really well or something? Did someone tag me a bunch of times? Did someone reblog something?

NO.

I checked who had followed me recently, and, low and behold, it was: bots! How great.

But what was even worse, was that these were s*x bots (I'm censoring some words to keep my blog somewhat safe). S*x bots.

So since I've seen a lot of these over the past few weeks, I've decided to put together a little of what I've found. It's nothing new- and it's pretty much common knowledge- but hopefully it might help a few people out (especially since I'm one of many people who try to keep their blog safe from harmful, or 18+ content) and maybe even help keep some people a little safer here on Tumblr

So, here we go:

PROFILE PICTURES AND USERNAMES:

First of all, check the pfps and usernames. Sometimes they'll be something like "d3rtyg1rl", but not always. Other times it'll be something like "sangdori" or "jpi011" (those are two real accounts that followed me, I've just changed one or two of the letters in them)- so something that sounds like a regular Tumblr account to tebe average user. So if the username checks out as 'normal', the next thing to look at, is the profile picture.

These, similar to the usernames, and all the other things I'm going to mention, may seem normal at first. Some of them may be fluffy kittens (a lot of them are "generic"), others may be a seemingly innocent selfie, a few of them are just blank Tumblr and some are just... straight-up 18+ photos. So be aware that not all of them are going to be easy to spot right away.

LIKES, FOLLOWS AND UPLOADS:

Right, so now we've come to the part where you've checked out the usernames and profile pics, and they both show no signs of anything sinister. Good- now, if you're still suspicious, it's time to check the actual account itself.

The first thing you might want to take a look at, is the content they've uploaded, or in some cases haven't uploaded, onto their blog. This is where things can get deceiving. Many of these accounts have just one "generic" post- such as slime, kittens, glitter, etc (usually these are eye-catching things, which means it can draw people, especially children, in)- immediately followed by some sort of sexual content underneath that, usually in the form of a nude photo or p*rn (some are obscured, though most aren't), which catches you off-guard, to say the least.

Now, as I said before, not all of these bot accounts are the same. Some don't have any uploaded content at all- this is where checking their Likes page comes in.

(And I'm aware that this may sound like we're stalking someone's account at this point, but trust me, we're not. We're just trying to keep ourselves safe- and these are not people, remember, they're bots. Bots don't care, bots don't have feelings. Bots don't care if we block them). So, back to the point, the next thing we check is the Likes pages.

Now, some of these pages will be purely 18+ content, as you would expect. Just straight-up p*rn links, or nude photos. But others, however, seem innocent at first... that is, until you scroll down the page. Usually, it's just liked photos of (again, the generic, and eye-catching stuff) some cute animals, a GIF of slime, or a popular meme, but if you scroll down a little further underneath that, you'll see that same innapropriate content all over again.

Though again, as with all the other things I've mentioned, some of these liked pages seem fine upon inspection, which is where we move onto the final thing to check if what you're seeing is a bot account: the following page.

To be quite simple... this is where you'll need to look at a bunch of accounts all over again... hooray! If you find that some of the accounts seem suspicious from just looking at the pfps and usernames, then great, that usually means you know that the account you were originally looking at is a bot account, and you can block them and be done with it (and even if you're not entirely sure, blocking them will keep you safe, and besides, it doesn't hurt anyone- believe me, your safety takes 100% priority over having that one extra follower).

But, if you can't tell just by looking at them, and you're still suspicious, and you don't want to just block the original account you were looking at... then this would be the time do all of the above again (checking likes, following pages, and content) just to make sure.

If you don't find anything else suspicious, then congratulations, it's probably not a bot account, and you don't have to worry about it. But again, if you ARE worried, then PLEASE do just block and/or report, the account. It's better to have one less follower, than be unsafe, or have to feel uncomfortable.

SO, I THINK IT'S A BOT ACCOUNT, NOW WHAT?

Now, if you've been through all of the above, and/or you're pretty sure that what you've seen is a bot account, then it's time to either block it, or report it.

To block an account, simply tap on the little 'human/person' icon in the top right of that specific account, and tap 'block' (note: this will only report them from one of your blogs. If you want to block them from another, or all of your blogs, you'll have to add them to the block list for taht specific blog). To report someone instead, just tap 'report'.

So, you might be wondering: what's the difference between reporting someone and blocking them?

Well, I'll tell you as best as I can. Blocking someone means:

They won’t be able to follow your blog, or send you fan mails or asks to your blog, and they won't be able to see your blog’s posts in their Dashboard. In addition to that, neither will they be able to like, reblog, or reply to your posts, and your blog won’t show up in their search results. It's a really good option.

They'll still be able to read your posts if they somehow come across them, but they can't interact/reblog them- at all. The only way people would even know you've blocked them is if they find that they get denied permission to interact with your blog- but remember, the chances of the finding out that youve blocked them is VERY slim, if it even happens at all (though remember we're talking about bots here though, not actual people, I just thought it would be useful information to include anyway).

Alright, so now onto reporting someone. Reporting someone means that:

The account will receive an email stating that they've posted banned content and must take it down. Tumblr will then still automatically take it down, and the account either gets suspended or deleted.

I would say that reporting the s*x bots would be the best thing you can do in this situation (you can still block them afterwards), seeing as the account will hopefully then be taken down (instead of just blocked on your blog) after being reviewed, which could help keep Tumblr at least a little safer once it does.

And just in case you were wondering: no-one will know if you've reported their account. The only way they'll know they've been reported (and they won't know who reported them) is if their content gets taken down or if their account is deleted- so don't worry about people accusing you of reporting them, as Tumblr keeps it anonymous anyway.

(Again, I've only added that part as useful information, seeing as s*x bots aren't real people and therefore won't care if they've been blocked or reported.)

There's more information about reporting and blocking people, along with Tumblr's policies and guidelines here, if you need it:

https://iheartmob.org/resources/safety_guides/tumblr_guide

Right... so I think that just about covers everything I wanted to say. If there's anything I've gotten wrong, or you think you could add on to, just drop a note or reblog this to help. After all, I don't know everything about these s*x bots, and just writing from my experience and what I've noticed about them. So help and/or additional information would be greatly appreciated.

I'm just fed up of seeing them everywhere and them making me think I've got a new follower who's actually interested in the blogs I make, when it's actually just a not trying to take me to some random p*rn website. It's wrong. So I just decided to write about my frustrations.

Now, Tumblr, if you could please sort your shit out, that'd be great, thank you very much, and we can all get on with our day.

If you've read this far, thank you very much for your time, and I hope I've managed to help you at least somewhat when it comes to dealing with these types of things in the future, or maybe just given you a little more awareness about how to stay safe on Tumblr, and other similar sites.

Anyway, I hope y'all have a wonderful day, and that you stay safe. Happy new year, too! 💛💙

[bigdblogger]

Top 12 Ways to Improve your Handwriting

Hello ! In this article I have posted about the top ways or methods to improve one's individual handwriting. As even though we all have our smart devices used for typing instead of writing to save our time, at some point of time we all are in situation were we are required to write instead of typing. So for those who want to develop their handwriting kindly ensure that you study the whole article. If you do like this article kindly like and comment. If you do want to know my previous article do visit my website please bigdeepblogger.blogspot.com. Thank you !

1.Our handwriting is the reflection of our character 1/12 :

The beginning of computers and laptops may have revolutionized the world and completely overthrown the ‘handwritten’ documentation in the professional pitch, yet, there is no doubt about the fact that our handwriting is the reflection of our character. People with good handwriting are able to project self-confidence, diligence and dexterity onto the paper. We cannot replace the beauty of a handwritten letter with the printed alphabet and so, for anyone who has always wanted to have that beautiful and legible scribble, here are ten, simple yet powerful ways to equip you with a legible hand

2.Keep it comfortable2/12 :

The first step is to be comfortable. Do not put a lot of force on the paper while writing. A beautiful letter and a smooth writing should come with ease. Let smoothness flow through the ink otherwise either the pencil tip will break too often or sheet will be full of ink smudges. Hold the pen/pencil where it feels comfortable. Ideally, it should not be held too close to the tip or too far from it either. Don’t move your hand too much or you will soon be tired. Position your hand on the paper and then let your arm move ,you don’t have to craft and draw every alphabet, you just need to form them. That would need much of a wrist or hand movement but basically an arm’s motion.

3.Try out a different mantra3/12 :

We have all heard that ‘the pen is mightier than sword’, so find that right weapon for yourself! Try out first with a pencil since it brings out the grace in a better way. You could even equip yourself with colored pens, sketch pens, bold markers or even calligraphy pens to add diversity and colors to your notes. After sufficient practice you may even go for an artistic brush and paints!! Don’t use gaudy, fancy bejeweled or decorative pens. They would only add to the work by making you put unnecessary extra effort, and you would end up putting more time on a piece of work.

4.Sit right and set it right4/12 :

Try not to tire yourself; in any case the wizardry of your hand will wear off. Sit in an agreeable, yet ideally, upstanding stance. Sit on a seat and utilize a table. It's anything but a savvy or prudent plan to start by putting a notebook on your lap and allowing the pen to move across the paper's surface. This would get considerably more chaotic than previously! Utilize one hand (regardless of whether left or option) to compose and put the other one to help the piece of paper. Attempt to be mindful. Your eyes should follow the development of your pen. This will give you a superior fixation power.

5.Lines are your best friend5/12 :

At first it is prudent to utilize an administered sheet. This would help you structure equi-relative letter sets and characters. Compose on the line, not above it. This will leave your letters in order alone more uniform rather that sporadic. It is likewise prudent to work on composition on a diagram paper to keep the letters in order more adjusted. Later you may attempt your 'hand' on a plain sheet. Past that, you are free for investigating welcoming cards and that's only the tip of the iceberg!!

6.Give them a break6/12 :

Offer your words a reprieve! This may appear to be too little to be in any way perceptible, yet this is something vital to be remembered while focusing on an ideal penmanship. On the off chance that your words will in general stay together excessively, they may get unrecognizable to add to the burdens! Give abundant space between two words to make every one discernable from another. At first one could give 'a couple of fingers' space between each word. Afterward, it would get self-consolidated in your penmanship, and you will not need to stress over it by any stretch of the imagination !

7.Try not to let it lean7/12 :

In spite of the fact that you are allowed to pick how you need to compose however by and large words ought not inclination a lot forward (to one side) or in reverse (to one side). They will in general be hard to be perused. One may need to shift their heads to comprehend the word! An instructor would just discover it excessively irritating! To have a decent effect the penmanship needs to look adjusted. Take a stab at rehearsing on giving just a slight or next to no tendency to your letter sets, in the event that you need (and that too ideally a tendency to one side!). There is no predisposition except for words inclining to the privilege ordinarily are preferable unmistakable over words scheduling to one side.

8.Practice makes you perfect8/12 :

This is anything but an occasion's home undertaking or significant semester task. So keep it cool! Attempt to compose little sections every day at whatever point you go ahead and do as such. There are not a viable replacement for a decent practice and no way out from difficult work. It would be surprisingly better to compose a unique piece, say, how your day went or about your timetable for the following day or even designs for an exceptional day! This will keep you in a positive perspective. In the wake of completing it, generally return to audit what you composed. Look at on that sentence structure and spellings as well. Not exclusively will you have an excellent composition yet in addition delightful and syntactically right language !

9.Be patient9/12 :

The disposition consistently courses through your work. If you understand it, the others typically do. The penmanship mirrors your disposition and surprisingly your perspective. Anyway awful your penmanship might be, a cheerful mind-set consistently improves it than previously while a disappointed one leaves it in a more regrettable state! So don't get eager after a couple of pages of scrawl. Give yourself time. You know it's certainly feasible. In any case, it will require practice and steadiness, after all even Rome wasn't implicit a day!

10.Be inventive be cursive10/12 :

You don't need to duplicate content and duplicate styles, simply attempt to be YOU. Make various letter sets and see which one you find simple to make and fast to embrace. Attempt to draw cursive letter sets rather than disjoint ones. Cursive penmanship, however educated in nursery, is the way to compose words rapidly and flawlessly without lifting your pen excessively! In spite of the fact that it is turning into an evaporating workmanship yet it stays perhaps the most ideal approaches to have a clear and slick penmanship.

11.Compose 'palaces' in the air11/12 :

This one isn't care for dreaming ceaselessly however takes you nearer to your fantasy! Albeit the majority of us might be unconscious of this stunt yet lo and observe, it has been deductively contemplated, tested and demonstrated that writing noticeable all around fortifies the muscles of the arm, shoulder and hand. Start by composing large noticeable all around and progress to composing little. Attempt to move less of your wrist and a greater amount of your arm. You don't need to look senseless by doing this in everybody's essence, except another way could be utilizing a chalk and board or a marker pen and white board! At last, the point is to oversee your developments and accomplish that impeccable progression of words.

12.All the Best!12/12 :

Recollect , great penmanship is an expertise and it stays with you even after you leave the assessment lobby … so investing the additional exertion to compose a decipherable piece easily is something little to request a valued belonging. Keep in mind, that it is an obtained ability, anyone can thus can you!

[kingofdirtandnothing]

@polyfacetious big ass Christmas Drabble Extravagaza: Day Three

“Alright handsome, show me what you got.” 

Tony posts up against the back door to the restaurant, arms crossed over his chest. The morning air has a nip of coolness to it, but the heat of the day would be right on its heels. Before long, the sun would be beating down on this place, and the kitchen would end up another twenty degrees hotter than even the humid streets outside.

 His apron, where it hung looped around his waist and tied into double knots at his hip, was crisp and white. It was a brand new day and the fresh linens had been dropped off by the dry cleaners before dawn. The thing would look like he’d been mud wrestling pigs and losing by the time they sent out the last dish from the kitchen tonight, but it felt good to start out fresh and clean. 

There was something hopeful about starting the day with fresh, clean linens. It felt like a promise of things to come. That no matter what happened, the day could go either way. It was a toss up. Tony liked having that kind of optimism on tap. He couldn’t come up with it at home a lot. Depression had a nasty habit of hanging heavy on his shoulders when he wasn’t caught up in his work.

The other thing that made the dawn of a new day optimistic? Fresh seafood. Right from the coast. It made all the difference in his dishes. Tony wouldn’t even work directly with the fish market. It was too far, too much time spent on ice. 

That’s why he had Jack. A “local” fisherman who would bring his catch right to Tony’s back door every morning. 

“Now now, Anthony. You know I only offer my wares to the most polite and upstanding of citizens.” Jack Sparrow had a voice like whiskey. Smooth on the first listen, but something about it warmed you from the inside and burned a little too, in the best way possible. 

It might also be possible that Tony was pining a little bit for his fishmonger. But he didn’t think too hard about that. He’s worked too hard to get Maria’s built up into a destination. It took eight years to get the place up and running. Another two were spent tweaking the menu to get them awarded a Michelin star. 

To say this restaurant was his baby was the understatement of the century. Tony had an emotionally distant childhood followed by tumultuous twenties and two divorces to show for his troubles. No kids though, thank God. He wasn’t the type of man who would ever be good with kids. 

That’s why Maria’s was his one and only baby. And why the seafood being perfect and fresh was the most important part of the menu. Which meant no letting his shower thoughts of the handsome, charming fishmonger get the better of him. Failed relationships were a dime a dozen. Good oysters were hard to find.

And sure enough, Jack is shaking a container full of fresh oysters in front of him, a five gallon bucket nearly half full of the things, clanging together like stones. Tony had to give it to the guy, he knew his audience. “Straight from the sea’s bosom to your plate, mate.” There’s a glint of gold when Jack smiles. It always derails Tony’s train of thought. 

“You know I’ll take them.” Tony waves the oysters over and then hefts the bucket back up onto the step behind him, like he’s worried Jack might change his mind and try to take them back. The oysters and caviar were the most popular things on his menu. It didn’t matter what was seasonally available, it didn’t matter if the sun was baking the cobblestones or the cool breezes of winter were catching in the corridor and sneaking under collars to cause chills. People always wanted their oysters and caviar. 

“What about some tuna? You got any of that?” Jack runs his hands down the front of his jacket, patting his pockets playfully. It was an old joke between them. While fresh tuna was always a big seller, it required a bigger boat than Jack had. It was probably for the best that Tony didn’t have the option to drop ten grand on Ahi tuna in a day. He was an impulse buyer. 

Which was probably one of the reasons Jack came to him first every morning. Tony was always at the mercy of his whims, and Jack always managed to bring him something unique when he was feeling stymied or bored. 

And he was. Tony needed his next great adventure. 

“Fresh out. But I do have something that’ll get your motor running.” Jack reaches behind him and hefts a large styrofoam cooler onto the step in front of him. “Go on. The anticipation is enough to set a man to salivating.” The rings on Jack’s fingers glint in the early morning light as he gestures like a woman on The Price is Right. 

Tony is just about ready to say something to him about it when he opens the cooler, and all the breath is knocked out of his lungs. “You didn’t.” Tony’s own dark eyes are wide eyed as he looks up. 

“I did in fact.” There’s no hiding the smug satisfaction in the way Jack holds himself, though Tony can see a hint of something beneath the surface. “That was all that was there to be had, my friend.” It sounds almost like an apology. 

But Tony isn’t looking for an apology right about now. He’s too busy trying not to whoop with joy so he doesn’t wake up the neighbors. He hops around the cooler, one foot on the first step, the second landing on the other before he careens into Jack, grabbing his face into his hands so he can plant a kiss on each one of his cheeks. 

“Sei un angelo mandato dal Cielo.” For one crazy second, Tony thinks about planting a kiss on those upturned lips in the space between the smacking smooch to one cheek and then the next. But he’s not risking their friendship. Or the chance for him to make this deal. 

“Name your price.” Tony will pay anything. Absolutely anything. He steps gingerly back over the cooler to stand back on the step of the restaurant again. Fourchu lobster was an incredible find, especially in waters like these. It was supposed to be the most luscious and delicious lobster that a person would ever eat. 

The Rolls Royce of Lobster. That’s what he’d read it was called in a gushing review he’d read in a magazine a few short months ago. 

That would make it expensive enough, but when you added in the fact that they were only able to be fished ten weeks out of the year, from May through July, that it made this delicacy even more of a commodity. 

Like hell Tony was going to pass up the opportunity to try these bad boys in his own kitchen. He was already making plans for what he was going to do with them. A little butter, a little lemon juice in the pan. With a taste as delicate as this, you didn’t want to do anything to overwhelm it. Tony could put a call in to a dairy farmer he knew out in the country. Fresh butter would make this even better. 

“Oy. You listening to me?” Tony jumps guiltily from his thoughts of fresh cream and butter, and smashed garlic potatoes to smile sheepishly at Jack. But what he sees when he makes eye contact with his friend is just amusement. “I said the going rate is twenty dollars a pound.” 

Tony spared a look down at the cooler, and the four lobsters scrabbling around inside, trying to gauge their weight by eyeballing alone. The lobsters were probably sitting around a pound and a half apiece. Which meant Tony was looking at about a hundred dollars alone, just for these four guys. 

It was a steal. “Done.” He holds out a hand to shake on it. This wouldn’t be enough to even think about putting it on the menu tonight. But honestly? Between the pats of butter and sweet cream dancing in his head? Tony wasn’t thinking about serving this to customers. 

Jack takes his hand, and after a firm shake, the touch lingers for a second or two before Jack slowly pulls his hand free. Tony finds himself trying to remember if a handshake has ever left him feeling so flustered before. 

“But I have a condition.” Tony holds up a single finger, and bites down on a laugh when Jack squints at him. Yeah, he knows. It’s cheating the system to add pieces to the deal after you already shook on it. But Tony was hoping these additions would be agreed to, easily enough. 

“Shady business deals you’re having today, Anthony.” But Jack was an incurable gossip, and Tony had learned in no time flat of knowing Jack that his curiosity would always get the best of him. So after a moment’s pause and another long squint, he relents. “Alright. Alright. You’ve got me on the hook, go on.”

“Dinner with me, tonight.” Tony gets the words out all in a rush, but it doesn’t do a damn thing for the way his heart is hammering in his chest. So Tony clarifies. “After the front of the house closes. Just you and me.” And he clarifies some more. “You went to all the trouble to find these guys for me. The least I can do is share them with you.”

And if Tony has any chance at all of winning over his jolly sailor bold here, then it was going to be with the Rolls Royce of lobster. This was going to be a menu fit for a king. Tony just wasn’t going to tell him that. Better to keep the pressure off, just in case he screwed something up between now and then. Better safe than sorry. 

“So what do you say? You head inside, drop off your invoice with Pep and get paid, and I’ll see you back here at...ten?” A late dinner, but that meant they’d have the kitchen all to themselves. The staff would already be cleared out for the night. Privacy was the name of the game. 

Tony takes a deep breath, and finally phrases it as the question it should have been from the start, before he talked himself into a pretzel note. 

“You, me and the best lobster in the world. Ten o’ clock. Sound good?”

Jack watches him, and Tony just knows that there’s something more going on behind those intelligent eyes. And he was dying to learn that language, to know what in the hell was going on in that bright, sea swept mind of his. 

Whatever time they spent together, it was always fleeting. Morning haggling over fish prices was the bulk of the time Tony got to spend with Jack. Sometimes, he got lucky and Jack would wander by the back door after the lunch rush, an alley cat looking for scraps. (Five was the one who started feeding him, now there was no getting rid of him.)

This would be at least an hour of uninterrupted time. With good wine and good food, and no risk of overbearing customers or fires in the kitchen, either of the literal or metaphorical sense. All Tony needed was for Jack to say the word. 

It takes everything he has not to squirm under Jack’s gaze. Tony was forty five years old, he wasn’t a teenager anymore, trying to get Carmella DiMarro to go to prom with him. He wasn’t going to get nervous over this. 

Or at least not visibly. 

After another few impossibly long beats of Tony’s heart, Jack comes to a conclusion, nodding and holding out his hand again for another shake to seal the deal. 

“Ten it is, then.”

[losingitinjersey]

I continue to be amazed by how busy life has become as a new parent.  I always figured since I was spending time at home that I’d have plenty of time to tackle projects around the house, maybe cull through drawers and clean things out.  Nope!  There are days when I barely find the time to do a 10 minute yoga session.  To be fair, I’m prioritizing things over it - like a nap or a shower.  

All this to say I’ve had several draft posts waiting to be written for weeks.  My problem is I like to spend at least 30+ minutes crafting a post from my laptop rather than posting on the mobile app.  We’ll see how that changes moving forward.  I keep hoping that once I make a catch up post (like this one) I then have the freedom to post more frequently, likely from my phone.  I keep taking pictures of every meal and activity like I’m posting daily thus resulting in a phone chock full of pics that never get posted.  

The pictures above are a good summary of what I’ve been up to.  Of most significance - I’m officially back into walking!  Since January 14th (three weeks postpartum) I’ve made my way out the door nine times (my first two walks weren’t logged due to my not downloading Runkeeper to my new phone in advance).  Today marked my first day out with just erp - and it was great!!!  Thankfully I had eight other walks under my belt (three with the babe) to get my comfort level back up, so I felt fully prepared today to go solo.  This week I even did my first five mile walk, which I used to do every other day pre-pregnancy.  Today, I listened to a “Getting Curious” podcast and loved the time outdoors in the fresh air with erp even though she was sleeping the entire time as she’s prone to do any time she’s in her car seat (hallelujah!). 

I also started lifting again this week!  Starting off from square one doing just the bar for bench and squat and minimal weights for deads.  It feels soso good integrating fitness back into my life again after basically being off for the last nine months.  I’m starting to be mindful of my eating and while I’m not back to strict keto I am trying to do moderate/low-carb.  I’m not counting every calorie but have started logging some meals in to get an idea of what my intake is while also stepping on the scale a few times per week.  I’m sure I’ll be back to full blown weight-loss efforts soon as I’m not a fan of how clothes are fitting now that I don’t have a baby bump to work with.  

Yoga is back to an every day priority which also brings back my vinyl of the day, which I’d missed.  I do love a solid routine!  

Erp is now over a month old (WHAT) and the center pic is an outtake from her one month photoshoot for FB documentation (although, I don’t intend to post more than at one, six and twelve months I’m sure I’ll continue to take them for my own records).  That bottom lip quiver gets me every time.  Since I’m not into frequent FB posting I downloaded an app called Tiny Beans where just my family and friends who want an onslaught of pics can subscribe and see the daily pics and videos I’m posting.  It feels like a really happy medium.  

Saki continues to be my best friend and occupies my lap any time there’s not a baby on it.  While he’s protective of his brood he isn’t the biggest fan of the babe.  He’ll usually jump on me, discover my lap is full, give her a good few sniffs before running off.  Occasionally he’ll share my lap or arms with her when he’s especially needy but that’s been rare.  Although, when he sees I’m sans baby he’ll be my shadow and can barely wait for me to sit down before he climbs on me for all the cuddles.  

Check out this random sprout coming out of this succulent!  I’ve had the plant since my bff’s bridal shower in May but apparently this little growth wanted to make his appearance nine months later on January 17th and the last picture taken today, January 28th.  I know nothing about plants but that seems like an awful lot of growth for just over a week.  I’m fascinated to see what’s going to happen next!  When is it going to get too tall to keep going straight up?  Will it lose all structural integrity and collapse?  Will it flower!?  This sprout is keeping me more than entertained.  

Speaking of entertainment, I’m zipping through shows like nobody’s business.  I’m sure I’m unable to remember all programming I’ve consumed but I’ve completed at least the following shows:  Fleabag, Crashing, BoJack Horseman, latest season of Grace and Frankie, You, Troop Zero, Unbelievable, Brittany Runs A Marathon, and I’m currently on the second season of The Let Down.  Not to say that I’m prioritizing watching shows over being productive, it’s just that I’m trapped in a chair either breastfeeding, pumping or rocking my child for the majority of the day and there’s only so much social media I can stomach.  

Breastfeeding and pumping have been going pretty well although I’ve recently been very close to running out of my entire stock of milk since my child is now on an extreme growth spurt.  She’s eating about 34oz a day and I’m producing roughly 32oz.  This past weekend we started supplementing with formula so I can start building back up a supply for when daycare starts next week.  I’m now pumping every two hours during the day and every three hours at night.  Each time I feed her about 6oz of breast milk then 2-3oz of formula to top her off.  I had allllll the feels about not being able to keep up and needing to use formula but thankfully I’m less emotional about it now that we’ve started doing it.  Fed is best and I’m doing everything I can for her and that has to be enough.  

All in all I’m doing really really well.  I’ve never had more purpose or felt this fulfilled and I’m loving taking care of erp, Kevin, Saki, the house and myself.  Sadly, this precious time starts to end this coming Monday when I go back to work.  Thankfully, I negotiated having six additional weeks of flex time so I’ll work from the office 2-3 days a week and work from home the remaining days.  Although, given how hard it is for me to get anything done I am worried how my work is going to suffer on days I’m working from home.  I doubt anyone (other than myself) has high expectations of me so I just need to give myself grace and try and find a balance.  Easier said than done, I’m sure!  

For now, my daughter is sound asleep in my arms, I’ve got half an hour before another pumping session then onto making dinner.  Even though this post is more than long enough, I have to add - Kevin has been amazing.  His school schedule has been extremely light so he’s home most of the day and does more than his fair share of baby duty.  He’ll prop her up on his desk while he’s playing computer games while feeding her or holding her as she falls asleep.  He just loves being with her as often as he can be.  He takes the first part of most night shifts so I can get rest and reminds me constantly how proud he is of me and how well I’m doing.  My favorite time is when we do bath time together as a team sport.  I really lucked out in the partner department and, man, did we make a cute kid! 

[edge-lorde]

hp update: its been a long time, boys. ud think that with this plague outbreak id have more time for shitty phone games, and ud be right! however, the time i normally might use to make tumblr posts has been taken up by reading lotr orc fanfiction non-stop for at least 1 full month. id still be in the thick of that obsession even now if only the fics would update. that is how i find you today folks, for the first time in many weeks i am staring at a screen with nothing to do. so come with me friends, theres no better way to fill the soulless void we are all in than reading a nice long tumbler post. 

disclaimer, first of all, a lot has happened, i prefer to keep these updates as plot spoiler free as possible but do to extenuating circumstances i feel like it is necessary to say, [SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER BELOW]

that rowan fucking died,

i wont say exactly how, but i will say that her death was animated as were animations of myself and a few others reacting to our friend fresh corpse. obviously meant to be serious moments but the animations made it seem almost comical. 

i saw at least one post going around right after this update that was like ‘how could the game devs do this to us..... how could they hate rowan so.... this is punishment from on high’ and its like.... u guys do know what a story is right? the events of  a story are not typically done to punish less faithful fans, im pretty sure they were planning to kill rowan off from the beginning. this isnt disney im pretty sure the writers are not writing each chapter the night before its released by popular vote. 

that little “are we drifting away..?” scene with rowan makes more sense now. there was a bit in one of the scenes where the kids all reminisce on rowans life and the mc talks about it being the last real one on one time they had with rowan. a nice bitter sweet moment. i dont hate this turn of events. its a good reminder that actions have consequences and we are way past they days of “should i wear a hat or scarf?” its YA time now. 

i did manage to take 1 screenshot from this time, i had commented that before that when rowan said she didnt have many friedns that barnaby seemed to be hanging out with her without be there as a friend buffer and here was his reaction to her death:

;_;

the funniest part in all of this however, was of course cedericks reaction to rowans death “but she was so young....” LOL fuckin RIP.

lets see... what else.... i forget a lot of what happened but i think there was a time sensitive quidditch event in there somewhere? if so i  dont remember it. what i do remember of the quidditch pals is that im gonna play beater now, skye is being weird and cagey about it, andre is involved.... the others are there.....

sidenote, i love the shitty b characters they throw in to be like yes you know this person but no they are not cool enough for u to even think about befriending. the first one of those is face paint kid, and now we have another, who is a former beater girl with horrible bangs named bean who didnt go to any classes for a whole season so she could just play ball 24/7 and got kicked off the team.  this is a character who only exists to provide an explanation as to why there would be a beater position open but i love them on principle. 

right now im in the midst of another time sensitive event, this one is a bother-your-brother-at-work-day event where recent hogwarts graduate bill weasley is bullied by myself and his younger brother charlie into letting us go with him on one of his curse breaking jobs. 

so for those unfamiliar, bill works for the magical bank of england.... and his job seems to be “retrieving treasure” for said bank. in the books, there is a bit where he takes his family on one of his trips to egypt, where his job seemed to have been tomb plundering indiana jones style for the posterity of the english bank :X. i wont explain here why thats bad but its bad. 

the game devs however in this instance, at least SEEM to be doing what jkr couldnt do by attempting to salvage what is left of gringotts bank and form it into not a super shitty implications factory run by horrible jewish caricatures. bills mission is to retrieve a goblin made artifact that was taken by dragons, so no going to foreign countries to steal things from other people! only going to a dragon reserve to rifle through animal nests. they even appear to be providing us with a likable goblin character, egad!  

my hope for this event is that we get a plotline about how maybe, goblins arent shifty human haters for no reason, and in fact they hate magic humans for very understandable reasons, like being forced to go into hiding with the rest of the magical world even though only the humans wanted to do that, and maybe despite running the bank in england they still dont have a lot of political sway in the world of wizards and witches, and have to rely on the faith that said wizards and witches wont fuck them over at every turn, even as they see how they treat other non-humans, such as house elves, which they desperately dont want to end up like. and maybe they DONT only care about gold... maybe thats a human stereotype based on the fact that theres a long history of humans not respecting goblin ownership customs.... which i could get into..... but i wont.... i just....... very badly dont want them to suck ;__________;

i know i said its ok to still like a piece of media as long as you recognize the problems with it, and i do, but once this game is done im gonna stop hp posting all together. ive been feeling more and more uncomfortable making these posts lately.  

GENERAL GAME NOTES; theres been some new layout changes and such. 

most notably the stairs screen has been changed from a bulleted list of all locations to a screen with tiles picturing an image of each location along with the name + icons of all classes at each place. there is one additional location that is new and yet to be unlocked, and the dragon reservation is appearing temporarily as its own tile as well. i prefer this method of getting in and out of a temporary location to how they did it with car during the last christmas special. the stairs icon also now stays in the corner when you scroll through locations, allowing you to open the stairs menu without scrolling all the way back to the left. 

they also moved a few of the buttons down into the lower left corner rather than the left side & combined the story button and sidequest button. they added a little camera button as well, just like in the dormitory, that makes all the icons in a location disappear and look better for screenshots. 

the daily special add offer thing now has its own button in the top right corner of the screen, and idk if i mentioned it before but now there are daily challenges that appear in the sidequest screen that offer small rewards for completing 3 tasks per day + a better one if u get all 3. the prizes are things like 4 energy, 75 coins, 3 monster food. the better rewards are usually either more coins, 8 energy, 3 gems, or 1 notebook. i think that it does all the different color notebooks but i cant remember for sure if i ever saw the gold one up as a reward. i like this addition in any case. if you dont pick up ur reward by the end of the day, the next time u log on it will force u to stop and accept them, and if one of the rewards is energy and ur energy bar is full, it does not seem to stack beyond the bar so watch out.

 the character stats page is now more zoomed out so you can see your full character instead of just from the waist up. no change to the leaderboard. rowans face in the friendship roster is now a still black and white image that says ur friend may be gone but friendship is forever u-u. 

rowan has been removed from all classes. in the classes where the minigames involved her, those minigames have passed the mantle onto other friends in the class. in potions that person is now liz helping u find stuff off the shelves and in tranfiguration that person is badeea. bless these girls for helping mc get through it. touched my heart. 

theres been a few fun little “i know u have more free time now so uhhhh have some energy” prizes like they do sometimes when they dont update on schedule so thats been nice. just a few days ago they gifted us 3 gold notebooks the same way. :O. 

theres also been a few instances of a energy happy hour where for a limited time energy takes less time to refresh. normally it takes 4 mins for 1 energy to do this but during happy hour its like 2:30 mins. :U its all very interesting.

and that will have to do it for tonight my friends, ill do a post for the dragon event when its done because i do like it so far and i do like getting to bully bill with charlie. 

until next time, remember.......