#just above me managers

[artcalledtattoo]

Lizzie’s Lizzie’s eyes are always so high But yet Watered and almost falling out! Hand hold with deer eyes But not or just dropping Slithering the highs Neither One Managing

[aq2003]

i hope fantasy high junior year happens so that murph can turn to the camera, say "riz gukgak is aromantic and asexual", then unhinge his jaw and swallow the camera whole

[just-slightly-chayotic]

i've always loved this scene between kim and korn

at no point does it seem like a conversation between father and son. rather it's a conversation between two opponents.

but korn doesn't seem to see kim as a genuine threat (the whole season he doesn't seem to be doing anything to hinder kim's investigation or bring him back into the fold), but he does deeply distrust him. he doesn't offer more information than kim already has (kinn has a new bodyguard. he used to be a bartender), goes on the defense when kim pries more into his motivations ("why? are you interested?") and the second kim leaves, he checks the drawer kim snooped in.

i think it's an amazing way to show the dynamic between the two. now if only kim's investigation had actually gone somewhere.

[pastafossa]

How do you get past writer's block? I have a fic that I'm working on that is updating on a schedule, and I made the mistake of giving myself a month off in between parts and now I can't really get back into writing it. I don't want to leave it abandoned because I have a few people who I know are really invested and I don't want to leave them hanging, but I'm having a hard time getting as excited to write it as I did before.

Ok so I'm in a weird place for this, hilariously. Because The Answer That Usually Works For Me (TM) and that carried me through a regular weekly update schedule for almost two and a half years is, in fact, not at present working for me apparently my brain can write through a pandemic but not through recovery from the shit that went down in December/Jan so we found my writing kryptonite. However, I'm going to assume you're closer to 2021 Pasta than 2024 Pasta. SO LET'S GO WITH THE METHOD I NORMALLY USE SINCE IT WAS SUCCESSFUL FOR YEARS. Cause that's the thing: sure, I've written almost a million words, and pumped out chapters for years (ignoring the past few months) but I promise, I hit the same walls as everyone else even when nailing weekly uploads. But over those years, I came up with a fairly solid list of steps that I'd go through one by one.

Fun one first: when I'm in a block, I almost always try re-engaging with canon first. I'd rewatch my favorite episodes, binge a whole season, or even the whole series depending on how much of a boost I needed. For me at least that was often like Pavlov's bell, my favorite story triggering a flood of affection. I'd remember why I loved this fandom and the characters so much, and it could often kickstart my brain and excitement back into gear. If you really want to dangle a carrot and your fic touches on canon, focus on watching parts you're excited to get to in your story. A big one for me in TRT for example was the post-Nobu, Nelson v. Murdock episode, since I'd had that planned for TRT almost since the start, and I was very excited to reach the hurt/comfort I had planned. Even if your fic isn't following canon though, see if it'll give you a creative rush again!

So let's say step 1 doesn't work, either because the canon just isn't hitting the spot or because your fic is dealing with something else. In this case, my next step was usually to jump ahead to write a scene I was really eager to get to. It was often a short blurb, but it was always something I REALLY wanted to explore, and because I'm also a reader who likes exactly the tropes and plots I'm writing, I want to read what fucking happens. Except, fuck, I'm not there yet, am I? And I can't see how that scene finishes until I write my way up to it and finish it. This is my own carrot. Multiple scenes in TRT were written months or even years in advance, simply as a way to bribe myself. This is also an option!

But maybe this doesn't work. Sometimes it didn't. This is when it got a bit more serious. For anyone who was reading at the time, you'd have noticed that I'd sometimes drop side fics, either Matt POVs or one-shots. This was me, in essence, working on the shower principle (basically, ideas/solutions will come if you stop thinking about it and do something else, like take a shower). I figured if I went and wrote something else - either with less stress, or something fun and dopamine-inducing - the part of my brain focused on my Big Fic would wander around the writer's block beneath my notice. And it almost always worked, all while I still kept my brain trained that, hey, even if we're not writing This Thing, we're still writing.

But let's say this doesn't work either. You're well, and truly, stuck. Been there now and then. And, you're going to hate this one. I hate it but it works 9 times of 10. And it is: Write anyway. Half of it was spite. I was not going to give up my schedule, I liked my schedule. The other half was that I knew myself. I knew if I could just get past the chapter/plot/dialogue I was struggling with, I'd be able to roll along again. And so I made a rule: whatever I wrote didn't have to be pretty. It just had to exist. If that meant I wrote, "Jane chased the cat in circles and caught it. She was happy." then that's what I wrote. Because everything, EVERYTHING, can be fixed in editing. But you can't fix what doesn't exist. And so there were those nights when I would scowl and groan and snarl and bash my head against that writer's block until 5 in the morning, but in the end Jane chased that fucking cat adn caught it, it was written. Hilariously, sometimes those chapters have wound up amazing (likely because I spent so much time hammering at them) and reader favorites. There are absolutely, I believe, moments where you can, and should, see if you can push through.

But that brings me to *waves* now. A lesson I've only recently recently and with encouragement. Namely... sometimes brain no go and that's ok. My steps work for me 99.9% of the time, but I've done the above during the past few months, and it just... hasn't dragged me out entirely out of it yet. Sometimes, our brains demand that break, especially when things just aren't going great. There's a reason TRT had a break of roughly 2 years between chapter 4 and chapter 5 (feel free to check the chapter index with dates on AO3!). I had some life things happening and I just was not in a place to write, even if I was still busily plotting and planning and thinking about TRT behind the scenes. And that was ok. We're not machines. I came back like a bulldozer in Jan 2021, yes, and bulldozed through weekly updates, but that break was needed. And now I'm obviously taking a short one again while I recover from everything. It's ok if you're not in a place for it. So the last step is one I've been told a lot by dear friends recently as they helped me through this: be kind to yourself, and try not to stress if none of the above works. The story will always be there, and if TRT is any indication through all its highs and lows, your readers will be there when you start up again.

[homoqueerjewhobbit]

Oooh can I rant/spill some family drama into the echochamber of people who don't know my family and will agree with me because they've been carefully selected to?

Like you're gonna stop me.

So my grandmother died about a year ago. The night before the funeral, my aunt (let's call her Karen, all names gonna be fake duh) pulls my mom aside and says, "you should make sure my son, Kyle, isn't in the same limo to the cemetery as your nonbinary kid, Ash, because he might say something transphobic to them." (to be clear, Kyle, ash and I are all in our 30s.) obviously, my mom has a breakdown about this because it's a horrible thing to dump on her the night before her mother's funeral and there's nothing more classic Karen than thinking it's my mom's responsibility to police her children's behavior.

Now, to be clear, Kyle is a libertarian gun nut and nobody likes him, but neither I nor Ash nor my parents have ever witnessed him saying or doing anything homophobic or transphobic. Mostly because we never see or talk to him, but still. Besides wearing his crypto-MAGA hat while he was pall-bearing, he was on his best behavior at Nana's funeral and a Poppy's two months later.

Fasr forward to now and @slugdge-boy, who is trans, and I are planning our wedding. So i tell my parents, "I'm not inviting Kyle, because he is transphobic and my partner, sibling, and best friend are all trans as are a number of other people being invited."

But my parents think it would "create unnecessary drama" if I don't invite him but "don't worry, he won't come anyway." which is probably true, he never comes to family things. No one was even sure he would come to the funeral.

But I don't want him to think he's welcome. I don't want even a 5% chance he might come. I don't want to even worry about the possibility of it. Even if he comes and is on his very best behavior, I don't want to wonder if he's making fun of his to his friends later.

So right now, I think I'm just going to "accidentally" leave his name off the list. I doubt anyone will even notice. I mean, it's an email invite ffs.

[spocks-kaathyra]

"ur repressed" okay well have u even considered that emotions r purposeless and only serve to cause harm to those around u and I have achieved a unique transcendent state beyond them. have u considered that

[diveyne]

begging personals to please stop reblogging my posts 😭 especially my random fuck ass ooc ones omg 😭

[savetheghost]

im gonna need more meat

[throwdownyourheart]

…

[padfootastic]

Day 1 - Prongsfoot Week 2023

massive thanks to the lovely Jen for organising another wonderful event for us!!! you're the best <3

What are the first 5 things that pop to mind when you think about Prongsfoot?

oooh okay, okay, not as easy as u think, this one. because the only thing that pops into mind when i think about pf is like. cacophonous screaming. incoherence. a teenage fangirl running around a room, arms waving madly, mind lost in the obsession. im uh. a bit unhinged for j&s, if u couldnt tell so far lol. but i'll try.

soulmates. in every world, they're connected to each other and they'll find each other. it's a comforting thought precisely because of how tragic canon j/s is.

unattainable. both of individually, and together, are so far out of most people's leagues its not even funny. they're an intimidatingly attractive couple, and they're almost always in the middle of an inside joke that no one else understands. their friendship is inherently exclusionary and it doesnt bother them at all

affectionate beyond belief. gosh they're a public menace. in any decent society, they'd get locked up for obscenity and 'offending sensibilities' and 'outraging the modesty of people' etc etc bc theyre SO all over each other all the time. its a problem.

jigsaw puzzle. they fit like one, filling in each other's cracks perfectly. at any given time, they're what the other needs, and both consciously and subconsciously at that. seeing them together is a treat bc they're so in sync its almost unreal. even...magical, one could say ;)

larger than life. they're not. a real couple ykno? its not a relationship you'd want in reality, nor does it make sense for that to happen. it's fantastical and amazing and not constrained by practical concerns. u dont have to worry yourself with minor issues bc these two are just. *that* intertwined. i dont know how to explain this one properly haha but just know, they're not a relatable couple nor do they try to be.

[arabela25]

job applications that ask about career ambition....... idk earn enough money to have a place to live? and buy food?? some extra for fun things and a vacation once in a while???

[midigated]

I'm probably in the minority with this but I wish the first 3 arcs of Sailor Moon Crystal were a two-part movie series (like they did with Eternal and Cosmos.).

This will probably make the Crystal fans seethe at the mouth bc God forbid anyone has an opinion different from them. But we probably would've avoided a lot of the embarrassing poor animation choices had they turned the material into two-part movies for each arc. They'd have more time to focus on the good bits that moved the story along. They'd have more time to also focus on the animation quality of the movies.

Maybe, as a result, they could've spent more time honing their character designs versus getting better after three FULL seasons of SMC.

Sorry not sorry, the designs in Eternal and Cosmos are way better than the poor attempts to copy Naoko's style that plagued the first 3 seasons of SMC.

[theoxvest]

Invasion of the Pearlheads

[imaginary-wanderer]

My job contract has been renewed for a year. While it's great, I hate how companies keep us in a very precarious situation for years just because they can. It's the third temporary contract. Next contract, if they keep me, will be a permanent contract, by law, they can't give me a fourth temporary contract but let me tell you they definitely would if they could.

And it's not even a matter of performance, because I know I do a very good job. No, it's just them keeping us totally unstable for no reason. It could be because "we never know, the market could change" but no, they can't let me go, we're a team with just the amount of people they need (and they're even hiring another person right now!) and more work will arrive soon with big contracts.

Meanwhile, I can't plan anything to move forward in my life because no one will trust someone with a temporary contract who lives alone with a very average salary.

[incendiorum]

io wrenched their shoulder while falling from a tree and trying to grab onto another branch, and then to put icing on the cake hit the ground shoulder-first, too. and because at that moment in time they were living alone in actual wilderness, did not have any help what-so-ever and it didn't heal well or even correctly. all of which has made their left shoulder weak and painful. they wear a brace on it 90% of the time or occasionally bundle it into a shitty sling if it's really bad.

[butchviking]

just had a dream that mcr did this teeny tiny show in this little pub with a meet & greet after and i wanted to meet gerard but i literally could not think of one single thing i would say to the man so instead i just hung out near the table he was meeting people at and chatted with some drunk lady for a while. and then after some time of this i suddenly remembered the existence of ray toro, who was at a different table with the rest of the band (i mean mikey.. frank strangely did not feature in this dream At All like i assume he was there but i guess i just did not look at him one single time. sorry frank) meeting people. ran full speed across the pub, slipped, fell, and stood up just in time to see him getting up and leaving through the back to an area we weren't allowed in. i tried to cry out after him but it was too late he was already gone. do you think this qualifies as a nightmare?