#like i'm sure you have more than enough skill to quality you for the position

[literaryvein-reblogs]

I hope this doesn't sound confusing, but is there a way to strike a balance between using "simple" words and "complex" words? Like, trying to write something that isn't too simple or too verbose.

I think context is the keyword here.

What I do is I just write using my current vocabulary, so that I'm able to convey what I mean as accurately as possible. And if I want to sort of elevate my writing, that's when I might swap out some simpler words with more "complex"/poetic words, or maybe even phrases. But I make sure I'm using the appropriate vocabulary. How do we do this? I'm just going to copy and paste here an excerpt from this writing resource to answer this question:

It’s important to use words and expressions that fit the context so your meaning is clear. For example, different audiences for your writing will require different levels of formality: the vocabulary you use in an academic essay may not be effective for a blogpost targeting a popular audience. Consider the following questions to help you choose the most appropriate words for your audience and purpose. a. What’s the exact meaning of the word? Words may be broadly similar in meaning but differ in important aspects of that meaning. Consider the difference between ‘the fragrance of flowers’  and ‘the odour of rotten eggs.’ Both words refer to the sense of smell, but fragrance has a positive core meaning while odour has a negative one. If you don’t know what a word exactly means, check it in a dictionary. Also look up sample sentences that use your "complex"/fancy word, and see how it is actually used. But, once you truly know what a word means, wordplay can be your friend. b. Is the word attached to a feeling? Compare the two sentences: ‘The freeway snakes through the town’ and ‘The freeway meanders through the town’. In this example, snake indicates negative feelings about the freeway while meander doesn’t. c. What level of intensity does the word show? Many words with similar meanings describe different degrees of the same quality or action. For example, ‘comical’, ‘hilarious’ and ‘side-splitting’  show different degrees of funniness. Think about the intensity of what you want to convey when choosing words. d. Is the word formal or informal? Go for formal words and expressions in business communication and academic writing. In the following examples, the second expression in each pair is more formal than the first: (1) come up with / create (2) one after another / at regular intervals (3) huge / considerable (4) enough / sufficient e. Is the word polite? Words which describe negative qualities or sensitive issues too directly can be offensive. Good communicators consider the feelings of their audience. For example, when writing about childhood obesity, it’s more appropriate to use ‘children with weight problems’ or ‘children of an unhealthy weight’ than ‘fat children’. f. Is the word specific or general? Use words with specific meanings whenever possible to make your message clearer to your audience. For example, avoid overusing general verbs such as ‘be’, ‘do’, ‘have’ and ‘get’, especially in academic writing, as they don’t accurately convey specific ideas. It’s better to use a more specific verb or verb phrase to strengthen your message. Compare the impact of the verbs in these sentences: ‘To be successful, learners need to have high-level literacy skills.’ ‘To be successful, learners need to develop and demonstrate high-level literacy skills.’ g. What other words does the word often go with? Some words are frequently used together and therefore sound more natural in combination. This is called collocation. For example, we say ‘fast train’ not ‘quick train’, but ‘quick shower’ not ‘fast shower’. Similarly, it’s more natural to say ‘highly critical’ rather than ‘deeply critical.’ Additionally, be aware of idioms. Idioms are commonly used word combinations or expressions. These have very specific meanings that are not obvious from the words they contain, e.g. ‘a piece of cake’, ‘get the hang of it’, ‘an Indian summer’, and ‘after a fashion’. Many dictionaries list and define idioms if you look up the component words. For example, try looking up ‘Indian’ or ‘summer’ to find ‘Indian summer’.

But if you have a wide vocabulary that people have difficulty understanding you, maybe you can do the opposite of this and swap out the too complex words with simpler ones, haha!

Lastly, when you read through your work whilst editing, ask yourself: Does this sound natural? Does it sound like your literary voice? Do you recognise yourself in this written work? Or do the simple/complex words you've inserted sound too unfamiliar?

Hope this helps, dear Anon. But if anyone has a better answer for this, do let us know.

[weaselle]

Dog Walking Post 3 of 3

@hatchan is hiring dog walkers and since i am in the business, has asked me what qualities and skills i think make the perfect dog walker.

So far i've told the story of two dog walkers we've hired where i work: Dave, who is such a perfect temperament for dogs that it fooled us into thinking he understands dogs well. And Jim, who was good with dogs, but was scattered and unreliable in stressful conditions.

The point of these stories is that it is easy to focus on finding someone who loves dogs and has good interactions with them, but what you really need is someone who can be in charge of dogs. And of course by "in charge" i mean responsible for the dogs and maintaining safe control of their experience, none of this Alpha/Dominance bullshit you hear so much about in this industry.

So we've talked about being good in an emergency, and we've talked about understanding things from a dog's point of view, now i'm going to spend a minute on paying attention. For this, we're going to talk about another employee that didn't work out, lets call him Greg.

There were a lot of reasons Greg didn't work out, and i personally had to do the paperwork and meetings and actual firing of Greg, which was sad because i liked him and still really hope he's finding happiness and success somewhere. But the thing i'm going to talk about is how much trouble Greg had remembering to pay enough attention to the dogs.

For example, one day we were each walking a pack of dogs, and the route was on a pedestrian path (we switched routes to that path that day because while it's not as good for dog walking as our more usual route, it has a lot more shade and that was a very hot day -- you want a dog walker who pays attention to that sort of thing)

Now this path crossed a street, and had the sort of posts they put on that kind of path to prevent cars from thinking they can turn onto the pedestrian path, like this

Now, if you are walking a pack of 8 dogs through these, you want to check to make sure none of your dogs are taking their leash on the wrong side of the posts as you pass through. Greg had been walking with us for more than two months at this point, mostly with my boss, and i just... didn't think i had to tell him to make sure the leashes didn't hang up on the posts.

But he just... walked through at full speed without looking at any of his dogs at all. And sure enough, one of them went on the other side of one of the posts and got hung up hard by the neck. It was hard enough that she yelped in pain, which hurt my heart because i should have been looking out for her better. Greg was my responsibility that day, and therefor all his dogs were my responsibility too, and i failed that poor dog. I just didn't think a person would walk through something like that without even looking... anyway.

I stopped us and talked to him about how important it is to always be paying attention to the dogs, specifically talking about leash hang-ups and neck injuries.

Then, because i was starting to get a feel for what working with Greg was like, I deliberately passed us back through those same exact posts two more times in the next 45 minutes. And i am still flabbergasted when i tell you he did not check the leashes while passing through EITHER TIME even after being reminded again.

The thing is, Greg just couldn't focus. Walking was an activity that made him zone out. And even when not walking, he would do stuff like forget to block the open van door with his body while dealing with a dog that was already out, even if it had only been 2 minutes since you reminded him that he needed to position himself to prevent dogs from jumping out of the van and into traffic. Or, when repeatedly told during the walk that he had to make sure a specific dog didn't get a hold of pine cones and sticks because she would eat them, he simply would not notice her darting over to pick one up, and he would not notice her walking along chewing on it.

He just couldn't remember protocols or focus or pay full attention to the dogs. As someone who probably has some kind of ADHD thing going on myself, i empathized with his mental state, but he was just not compatible with the job, he could not be trusted to keep the dogs safe. I wish him well wherever he is now.

So that was a lot of talking about people who did the job wrong, but what we are discussing is who to hire for dog walking, and i'm hoping hatchan and i can both learn from my hiring mistakes.

To answer in the positive though... What skills and traits would i combine in a lab to create the perfect dog walker?

Someone with an instinctive understanding of dogs - they don't have to be perfect at knowing all dog body language etc, but they have to understand on an internalized level the basics of how to read dogs and how to interact with dogs who are in various emotional states. For example being able to tell a dog is nervous, and knowing without having to stop and think about it not to make sudden movements toward that dog. Crucially, this is different than loving dogs or having good energy around dogs or interacting comfortably and easily with dogs, all of which are also things to look for of course.

Someone who is calm and in control under stressful conditions. This is hard to assess, but you might try suddenly changing something or... idk, i might hand a leashed dog over during the second interview (which would be a working interview to observe them with dogs) and inform them that this dog really dislikes the dog i'm about to bring into the room and then go get another dog on a leash and see how they handle that. I wouldn't really bring together two dogs that had beef, i'd actually use two dogs that had a normal relationship, but this would give you insight into not only how this person handled a potentially stressful situation, but also how quickly the person picked up from the dogs that they were actually fine together.

I'd be looking for the person to do things like position themselves between the dog they had and the dog that was entering, stay clam and try to keep the attention of the dog they were holding, see if they were able to pay attention to both dogs, and assess how quickly they realized there was actually no issue between the dogs. I'd also at that point be looking for them to ask questions that indicated they understood that some dogs seem fine right up until they aren't. Questions like have these dogs had physical altercations before, do either of these dogs snap without warning, what did their last bad interaction look like, is their behavior together different off leash, on the walk, or in the van, etc etc. Then i'd be asking them what they thought of the two dogs emotional state around each other and having them tell me what they were basing that off of before admitting the dogs were actually fine. I've never done this, so maybe it's not a great idea, but if i was fully in charge of hiring it's something i might try.

You want someone who is reliable, knows where their gear is at all times, who always shows up fully prepared for the day, who accepts responsibility for their actions and understands the dogs' health and safety are in their hands while they have those dogs. Someone who can keep track of who threw up, and what that looked like, and why it's important to pass that on to the owners. Someone who can tell when the dogs are getting too hot, who notices a slight limp, who is on the look out for ticks and foxtails and discarded cooked chicken and pork bones.

And you want someone who is very patient and doesn't have any flares of temper.

And lastly, here's one that was harder for me to look for: someone who can be decisive and firm. Dave from the previous post has a lot of trouble telling dogs that their behavior is unacceptable. The dogs i walk will mostly listen when i tell them to drop a chicken bone because they know i'll reach all the way down their throat after it; they know to shut down a fight before it really gets going when i tell them to shut it down because they know i'll climb back there and haul them apart and make them not fight if i have to; they know to stop gearing up to bark at someone else's dog on the walk because i'm already telling them i see what they're thinking and i'll turn them around to walk the other way or blow air in their face or dump water on them or wheelbarrow them to distract them or whatever else -- the point is i'm not going to stand for them behaving badly.

But Dave will be too soft and will give up too easily. He'll make a soft attempt to get a bone away from a dog and then throw his hands up and concede, he'll tell a dog that's already barking not to bark at other dogs, but then he won't do much to enforce it, and he won't give them a warning the instant he sees that they are tense about the other dog in the first place. As a result his dogs misbehave a lot more. So you need someone who isn't too soft, and will be proactive and act decisively, but without ever getting angry about it. And who balances that out by actively creating a positive relationship with the dogs founded on mutual respect. You want a person who isn't afraid to take corrective action, but who leads with positive preventative action first.

And so, dear hatchan, that is my answer

[marsbar17]

Hello! Do you have any Bloodhound × Reader headcanons? 👀

YES, SORRY THEY'RE MY FAVORITE CHARACTER IN THE GAME AND I RELATE TO THEM SO MUCH I HAVE SO MANY IDEAS ALSO SORRY FOR NOT ANSWERING SOONER

I'm going to assume that the reader is another legend in the apex games btw

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

《SFW》

• Bloodhound didn't reach out to you when you first joined, but that was normal

• The other legends assured you that they were cold with everyone, preferring to keep to themselves

• Your first match together, a duos on King's Canyon, you got to really see how their abilities worked and there was something wildly alluring about it

• There wasn't a lot of speaking between you two, more just observing each other's skills up close for the first time

• After winning that game, the games put you together more often, and through shared curiosity of each other, you got closer

• "You are very interesting, félagi fighter." "I could say the same about you, Hound."

• You started spending more time around them, they wouldn't reach out to hangout with you but they didn't push you away when you showed up at their door

• The line between platonic and romantic was sort of blurry, and neither of you could remember when supportive pats on the back and fistbumps turned into soft holding of your waist or them calling you 'elskan'

• It wasn't until one of the other legends pointed it out jokingly that you both realized you loved each other

• Dating them comes easy, since it felt like you already were

• Their love language is words of affirmation and quality time

• They always make sure you know that you are the most divine thing in the world to them, their gift from the allfather

• I can see them taking you into the woods to go hunting

• Just the two of you in silence, enjoying the sounds of the forest and feeling like the rest of the world doesn't exist

• Life feels easier with them, the pressure from the apex games and the syndicate seems to disappear when you're in their arms

• When you aren't on a team on the games, you seek each other out, competing to see who can kill the other first in a gory game of tag

• Sometimes they just follow you, and you've gotten better at seeing the signs of them, slight rustling of leaves or a crow nearby

• Everytime you're downed at their hands, they make sure to finish you off properly, never letting you bleed out in pain

• "Have I told you how pretty you look like this, elskan?" "Many times, but say it again, please."

• They'd lift your chin up with two fingers, unclasping their mask to give you a lingering kiss before the bullet rips through your body

《NSFW》 (with no specified genitals)

• If they're topping, it's full of praise and worship

• It's either vanilla, or really kinky

• Slight blood kink, bondage, maybe a bit of pet play, very much praise and worship or your body

• No matter what you look like, they think you're beautiful

• "Watching you take me like this, it's hard to control myself, elskan."

• Their favorite positions when topping are doggy and riding, although mating press is a good one

• They groan and let out small moans, but they're aren't very loud

• They're more focused on your pleasure than their own, making sure you like everything they do and that you always cum before they do

• They love eating you out/sucking you off, tasting you turns them on so much, same with the other way around

• Tug at their hair when they're in between your thighs and they will literally growl against you

• Overstimulation, either top or bottom, love seeing you cry and twitch from overwhelming pleasure, and they also love being reduced to a whimpering mess as you make them cum over and over again

• In terms of them being the bottom, they whine and whimper a lot

• Even as a bottom, they love riding

• Will literally grab your hands and drag them to their hips so you can hold them

• Pull their haaaaiiirrrrr

• Just a bit on pain, like pulling their hair or gripping their hips hard enough to leave bruises, gets them to cum so much faster

• Mutters your name over and over, worshipping you and making sure your name is etched in their brain while they cum

• Loves it when you leave your mark on them, it's completely covered by their heavy uniform but just the thought of it being there is enough for them

• Aftercare consists of a lot of cuddling and praise, both ways

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Thank you for your patience! I've been doing stuff for my mental health recently and it's taking a lot of time out of my days (therapy 3 days a week is insane dawg) but I love doing this!

[roseverdict]

Writing Commissions Open!

Hey howdy hey, guess who's broke and whose brain has latched on to the idea of getting a bike or a trike to get places other than the one (1) coffee shop in walking distance!

YEP. I need to open commissions.

However, I do have at least one thing going for me- I'm told I'm fairly good at writing things! Fanfic things, at least. While I'm not dumb enough to outright go "hey, pay me to write fanfiction," I figure I can at least point out some fanfics I've written that seem to have gone over well as examples of my work, since that's most of what I've got for proof of my skills.

x x

x

x x x

x x

x x

I'd show more, but Tumblr won't let me add more images, and even these fought me Tooth And Nail when I was trying to format them properly. Truly a functioning website.

Hopefully these kind of give an idea of the vibes I'm strongest with, too. Pricing and rules will be under the cut. I do have a target I'm trying to reach here, but depending on how well this goes, I might end up keeping commissions open indefinitely. We'll see. :D

DM me if you're interested!

Things I'm Comfortable Writing:

Original Storylines (Brief primer on the world/characters I'll be writing with will be required)

Things like the pieces shown on my AO3 account

OCs

Y/N-style pieces (both with and without the actual usage of "Y/N")

Mild Romance

Gore/Severe Injury

Body Horror

Whump

Look, if it's in the Danny Phantom phandom and basically nowhere else, I'm probably just fine writing it, despite its intensity xD

Things I Will Not Write:

Smut. There's no shame in enjoying it, I just. Don't.

Incest. Absolutely NONE. Even leaving aside the whole debate about whether or not people should ship incest ships, I would not be able to enjoy writing it, which would make the resulting work of low quality, which would be a huge waste of time for everyone involved.

Pedophilia- specifically, ships with a minor and an adult multiple years their senior. See above. 17yo x 18yo is pushing it, but depending on the circumstances, I might allow it. They aren't exactly in completely different phases of life there. However, I'm in my 20s and don't particularly want to think about or write about kids the age of my youngest brother dating people my age or older, you feel me?

Bigotry presented to the reader as a positive thing. I'm not gonna write your favorite heroic character declaring OOC that minorities are terrible people. If you want something from the POV of a character meant to be terrible, such as someone like Fire Lord Ozai in AtLA, however, I may be willing to write it.

I reserve the right to refuse any commission and not have to explain why. Person-to-person, though, this will likely only come up if someone tries to commission something that crosses these lines and refuses to acknowledge such.

Payment: 5¢ USD per word. This works out to…

$12.50 for 250 words

$25 for 500 words

$50 for 1K words

and so on.

I'll need half the payment up front as a deposit, then the rest upon completion. If, for whatever reason, I fail to write the commission, you will be refunded in full.

If you pay me for a given number of words, I will do my best to stick to it. I will make sure you at least get your money's worth, but if I just can't quite fit the writing into the given limit, I won't charge you for the extra words. Call it 100 words or so of wiggle room.

A commission for a fic 1K or larger that runs 100 words or less over the intended length will not cost extra

A commission for a fic between 500 and 999 words that runs 50 words or less over will not cost extra

A commission for a fic 499 words or below that runs 25 words or less over will not cost extra

A commission for a fic that has enough going on to run over that limit will result in me contacting you to ask for either a scaled-down plot or payment for the extra writing.

I will not consider calling a commission complete until I can hit the target wordcount at minimum.

If it should happen that I just can't make a scene stretch to the full wordcount, but you still want to keep what is written, the words that were not written will be refunded.

[starflungwaddledee]

do you have any tips for leaving compliments on other people's art ?? your tags are always so well phrased !

oooo oooooooooooooo uuhhhhhhhh hmmm!

firstly, thank you!! i'm rather glad to hear that! i try quite hard to leave meaningful comments so it's nice when folks notice or appreciate it!

outside of commenting on the work, i first consider the tone of what i'm saying and who i'm saying it to.

i always try to make sure that what i'm saying will be appreciated by the person! that's the point. for the most part i leave comments to bring joy to the op, and thank them for their hard work, for being here and sharing art that made me happy! if i'm speaking to a mutual or friend, there's gonna be inside jokes and probably an amount of casual yelling. possibly even a little friendly roast, if i know them well enough. if i'm speaking with someone i don't know as well i try to keep it a little more professional, but i keep in mind that this is a fandom so an amount of yelling and screaming is expected. i tend to think about what i would like from someone else.

also if i notice that a caption or a blogs about is not in english i double check. if english is not the first language of the artist i make sure to construct tags that are easily translated and i use only and exclusively positive phrases. saying things like "delete this!!!! /pos" or "eating my own hands" can be totally lost in translation. i also keep in mind the age of the OP. don't tag as though you're Looking Disrespectfully at the art of a minor, even if that's your favourite blorbo.

as for how to comment on art or storytelling itself, this is indeed a learned skill, and it can be helped by training your eye to understand different things in artwork. but it's easy to start practicing! this is intuitive to me now, but an easy way to begin is to pick out one or two things that really stand out to you on a piece. (examples could be line quality; is it smooth? neat? textured? full of emotion?, shading: is it crisp? atmospheric? realistically rendered?, or colour choice: is it vibrant? is it moody? is it perfectly on model?) and draw attention to them and how the artist successfully used them to make the piece work.

if the piece includes design-work, pick something of that which you like as well. (clothes, colour choices, abilities, parallels to other characters, totally new or unique concepts that you haven't seen before. if you see your favourite colour combos or notions, let them know, but if it's a stranger remember they made the design for themselves, and you just share (good) tastes!) if you really want to make an artist/designer/storyteller's day, try to find the Little Thing that they've snuck into their art or design that ties into the story or lore that they are telling. even guesses to this end tend to be appreciated!

generally useful things you can also comment on are how well an artist has utilised a medium for its strengths, especially if the medium is a little unusual. if someone @'d me in particular i make sure to acknowledge that too because they probably read me for something and i should acknowledge the effort!

another thing i also always, always encourage, is to try to periodically share and comment on the work of people who are either less experienced or who have less visibility than you. especially if you have more of a platform! if you want to keep your blog clean of too many reblogs for aesthetic or professional reasons you can even go through and remove them later, but sharing the work of smaller accounts- even temporarily- makes such a huge difference! and encouraging + supporting younger or beginner artists is something we should be endeavouring to do as much as possible!

at the end of the day, i always just try to be very earnest in my tags.

there is generally no reason to withhold any praises i can think of, because it's usually nice to have your work perceived and appreciated! i personally loooovvve long rambling tags, screaming tags, stuff like "AAHH NOOOOOOO (THE BLORBO)" and so on. i try to leave the kind of thoughtful comments that i like (and am lucky enough) to receive, and i try to share artwork from a wide variety of people!

[danieyells]

About Taiga's nails, they probably need to like shot him with a tranquilizer gun first. Like:

Underling Nº1: The Boss nail's are getting chipped.

Underling Nº2: *Puts down normal gun, starts loading a dart gun.* Go get some anomaly meat to distract him.

On a positive note, once they graduate they would be VERY good at handling animals at zoos(?)

Re: Taiga's marble print nails

They graduate and end up working in whatever the greater Institute equivalent of Jabberwock is lmao THEY'VE HAD PRACTICE TAIGA IS FAR MORE DANGEROUS THAN YOUR AVERAGE ANOMALY. They can put "taiga wrangling" on their resumes and the academy will back them up on that it's a practical skill

The funny thing is i'm sure taiga likes having his nails done he just. Does not have the temperament to hold still and not do anything else while they're being painted. Just the black is probably simple and quick enough with underlings who've gotten good at it though. He's also gotta recognize and feel comfortable with you a good amount to let you touch him in the first place--

If not working with animals and anomalies they'll probably make really fast, high quality nail artists!

[untitled5071]

your taffy and creature quality time was super cute!! i’d absolutely love it if you could do an unrequited love oneshot of taffy falling for the creature whilst trying to help him woo lisa! (it’s okay if you don’t want to!)

This was such an interesting ask, I hope I did it justice! Writing the pining was easy because I, too, am in unrequited love with Creature, as I'm sure most of us are. I hope you enjoy!

🪦🪦🪦🪦🪦🪦🪦🪦🪦

If Taffy had to watch them carry on like this for much longer, she would surely go insane. 

She was nestled on the far right end of the couch, Lisa's creature next to her and Lisa on the other side, all of them with their attention turned to the television as The Princess Bride played. 

It had been Taffy's suggestion; she had come home to see Creature (it was the only title that suited him, really, no name seemed to fully fit) trying to woo Lisa with his piano playing skills, and though Lisa was dancing and singing along (and when was the last time Taffy had heard Lisa sing? Had she ever?), it was clear that she was painfully oblivious to the undead man's affections, and would remain so until something was done about it. 

Taffy had stood there, watching Creature's fingers fly across the piano keys and ignoring the clenching in her heart before she decided that she would be the person to do something about this one-sided love, because come on, she was not going to let her sister ignore what was right in front of her.

Especially since Lisa seemed to be the only person who would be lucky enough to hold such a high standard in the corpse's unbeating heart. 

It would be a shame to let that much devotion go to waste. 

So she had loudly declared her presence (making both of them jump) and dictated that they should have a movie night, giving the other two no room to protest as she strode over to the television and turned it on, inviting them both to join her on the couch as she found the perfect movie. 

The second she saw Cary Elwes’ face, she knew there was only one correct choice of feature film for the evening. 

She snuck a glance at the two of them during the Shrieking Eels scene and saw that they were both totally entranced, Lisa by the movie Taffy knew she secretly loved and Creature by the fact that he was watching something as wonderous as a movie in general. 

As Buttercup was rescued, Taffy took a second to examine the reanimated corpse sitting next to her; he looked–for lack of a better word–more human than he had when she had first stumbled upon him, save for the stitched-on features she refused to think about the origins of and some intense purple eye bags. His hair flopped over on the right side of his head in dark waves that by all accounts should not look as soft as they did, and his eyes were a deep, intelligent blue, brimming with emotion and complexity as he watched the Man in Black scale the Cliffs of Insanity. 

She was sick of trying to pretend like she was still in denial about the feelings she had for him. 

In all honesty, it shouldn't even be a possibility; he was rotting in the ground not too long ago, and now he was sitting on the couch next to her, his knee slightly knocking into hers and making her heart flutter with every brush of contact. She was very much not into necrophilia, but the corpse to her right was so undeniably and deeply human despite his subzero body temperature that she couldn't help it. 

And his very obvious and intense emotional intelligence weren't making things any easier. 

Anyone with any sense regarding love could see how deeply smitten he was with Lisa. Well, everyone save for Lisa herself. He listened to her, really listened to her in a way that no one had since her mom had died (as much as Taffy tried, she knew she lacked a bit in that regard), and she could see the positive effect it was having on her introverted stepsister. Taffy has never seen her so empowered and talkative, and it was all thanks to the strange creature that had broken into their home.

Despite herself, Taffy wanted someone like that in her life. 

She wanted him. 

But alas, it was not to be, and as they watched the Man in Black enter into a battle of wits with the arrogant Vizzini to reclaim the princess, she saw Lisa lean her head on Creature's shoulder, and the cadavear blushed as much as a corpse could, and it didn't take a genius to see how much the simple gesture meant to the lovesick man. 

Suddenly feeling very restless, Taffy stood up from the couch, answering the inquiring looks from the two still on the couch with a dismissive arm wave and a smile. 

“I don't know where my manners were, we can't have a movie without snacks! You guys just hang tight, I'll be right back. Don't worry about pausing it, I've got this part memorized.”

She flashed another carefully rehearsed smile at the pair before hurrying off to the kitchen before either of them could answer or let her know what they wanted, separating herself from their clueless display. 

She busied herself with gathering a large bowl and setting some Jiffy-pop on the stove, and as it started to heat up she took a moment to give herself one of her famous pep talks, her voice drowned out by the creschendo of popping on the stove.

 

“C'mon Taff, you've got to get it together. You could have any guy you wanted, everyone says so. You've got a reputation to maintain, you can't go falling for a pathetic Victorian man who is very obviously and very permanently in love with your sister. And she deserves it; she hasn't been happy in a long time, and he's going to be able to give that to her, if she ever notices his very obvious hints. The good thing to do is just stay behind and let them have each other. They deserve that, at least. He's not for you.”

She sighed, giving the pan one last shake as if to shake herself out of the feelings she hadn't meant to fall into. When she spoke again, her voice was quiet and solem, secret as her heartache. 

“He's not for you.”

She poured the finished popcorn into the bowl and took a deep breath to center herself just like she did before any cheer routine, though somehow walking back into the room with Lisa and the Creature felt more daunting than being thrown into the air by her fellow cheerleaders. 

When she returned to the living room, a distraught Buttercup was squaring up with her latest captor now, and he revealed herself to be her beloved Westley with his cry of “As You Wish” as he stumbled down the ravine he was pushed into. Naturally, Buttercup flung herself in after him, and they landed at the bottom together as lovers reunited. 

And on the couch, Lisa was still pressed against the Creature, both of their eyes soft as they watched Westley rush to hold Buttercup. 

Her presence still unknown to the pair, Taffy pretended she didn't see the way Creature’s head turned the tiniest bit as if he wanted to kiss Lisa on the forehead, but decided against it. 

Westley's voice rang out from the TV, his tone even but his sincerity immense. 

“Death can not stop true love. All it can do is delay it for a while.”

It was almost too much; from her hidden spot in the threshold, Taffy saw Lisa and the Creature exchange a meaningful glance, both looking away and blushing as the two figures onscreen leaned in for a kiss. 

Taffy took that as her cue.

She strolled her way back into the room, plopping herself down and offering the bowl to her two companions while promptly ignoring the ache in her heart. 

Lisa deserves this. Taffy would just have to be content to find her own happiness somewhere else, even if it pained her.

It's what a good sister would do, after all. 

“So, who wants popcorn?”

[nerdnag]

"Now then, Sunshine," Hubert said, plucking a fresh sheet of parchment from the corner of his desk and readying his quill. "Tell me about this person you wish to bring into Lady Edelgard's service."

"Really, Hubert, you should be ashamed not to have heard of my dearest Sara before!" Constance crowed. She unfurled her fan purely to brandish it for dramatic effect. "Her talent for the magical arts is simply extraordinary! Th-though, no match for my own, of course…" she added nervously.

"Yes, yes, your magical prowess is unparalleled," Hubert intoned, waving a dismissive hand yet smiling fondly. "Continue."

Constance stomped her foot. "Hubert! Have you forgotten which of us is the more skilled with Morfean magic?! Anyway… Sara is really quite accomplished in her field! She is trusted with the most important clients, and many of her coworkers rely on her expertise and insight. It is marvellous how skillfully she interprets contracts of privacy law and explains them to others! And the other day, she came up with a most revolutionary Excel formula as well! Why, I believe that with the proper training, she and I could truly be Sister Sages of the highest calibre!"

"And that is not all," Constance continued on. "No no! Sara has many talents off the battlefield as well! She pens the loveliest stories. In fact, you should read the wondrous tale I commissioned her to write about our activities on our wedding night—"

Hubert choked on his coffee.

"And she draws quite skillfully also!"

"Please tell me you didn't commission a painting to go with that story," Hubert groaned, head in his hands.

"Oh, no, I mainly commission her to paint flattering portraits of myself," Constance replied airily. "One of my favourites is a particularly striking one of me against a starry sky that I'm sure you shall like to see sometime!"

"Ah, but I can see you against a starry sky any night I wish, lovelier than any painting."* Hubert smirked as Constance flushed and began fanning herself, clearly flustered.

"I— yes, well—" Constance took a moment to compose herself again. "Let me finish telling you about my dearest Sara's redeeming qualities! She is an excellent friend: a joy to be around, and her presence is sure to brighten one's day. She is funny and kind, and, dare I say, very nearly as charming as myself!"

"I see. She does sound quite promising." Hubert put down his pen. "I shall have to conduct a background check, of course."

"Is my word not enough?!" Constance protested. "Need I remind you that for all your repute as Imperial spymaster, you had not even heard of such a dazzling star as is Sara before?"

"Need I remind you who it was that brought Epimenides himself into our midst?" Hubert shot back, but there was no real fire in his voice. "Based on your personal recommendation, I shall expedite the process. If all goes well, we will send this Sara a formal offer by the end of the moon."

Constance huffed, unable to argue the point. "I suppose that is agreeable enough."

"It's settled, then. Now, I believe we have tea with Lady Edelgard to be getting to." Hubert stood and offered Constance his arm. "Shall we, my dear Countess Vestra?"

Constance took it, positively glowing at the form of address. "Yes, Count Vestra, we shall!"

* Eifie double dog dared herself to write this line.

OH. MY. GOD?! You wrote this for me..? 😭💚

Original Eifie work! So cleverly written!! Lots of references to my fic and little details about me and incredibly well-characterized! You even went out of your way to include romo 🥹

THE EXCEL FORMULA ASDFGHJKL it truly is like magic. Also I LOVE the idea that every single art work and fic I've ever made of/about Constance has been commissioned by her. That is hereby canon.

Thank you for taking me into consideration for the position!! 🙏 (Though I must admit I'm a little scared of what Hubert's background check will mean for me......)

[doubledyke]

I always see edd as having a severe inferiority complex, because being smart and moral is all he actually has. Outside of it, he's a scrawny wimp '' who can't lift a butterfly'', he's very socially inept and awkward, and his family seems so cold and unsupportive yet very controlling of him. He's unsure and overacts being smart and moral because he can't say anything more positive about himself.

he's basically like hermione granger in that matter.

i've never watched h*rry p*tter, so i can't speak to your last point but i can rant about edd!!!

i do think he's got an inferiority complex, for sure. not necessarily because he's actually inferior though, i think he just doesn't get any validation from his parents. so he's gotta try to squeeze it from the kids around him.

"you really think i'm a genius??" he asks ed of all people...

he is really smart and inventive. but he's also clever and witty. he's kind hearted, gentle, empathetic, magnanimous, loyal, and when the time comes he can be pretty courageous. but you'd be hard pressed to find a kid in the cul-de-sac (or anywhere) mature enough to appreciate those non-material skills and qualities. with no adults to point out those important attributes, he leans on intelligence as the thing that gives him value.

as far as his holier-than-thou schtick, he definitely gets that from his parents. i won't go into detail cuz i've posted plenty about how much i hate edd's parents. it comes from their unreasonable expectation of maturity from a 12 year old. he has to rise above puerility and act as the neighborhood fun police. otherwise what would mother and father think? we all know he rarely practices what he preaches, however.

tbh i don't even see him as that awkward in the later seasons. he's weird around girls but who isn't? he and eddy both try to be smooth talkers but edd is more successful because he's not as abrasive and uses big words to sound convincing. he's good at putting on a front, especially when he feels like he's got the moral/intellectual high ground (which is often). so even if he's faking it, he can come off as somewhat composed.

it's possible and entirely realistic for someone to have seemingly opposing values and characteristics and be contradictory. that's edd is, to a t! that's why we love him.

[noelclover]

Honkai: Star Rail or "I Ramble About Luocha, Kafka, Silver Wolf and Turn Based RPGs Then Realize It's Getting Too Long, I'm Tired and Can Only Talk About One Of Them"

From looking through Youtube comments, I realized that quite a lot of people don't seem to really understand where to look for a character's power, what makes them good/bad, the main advantages and disadvantages you'd get from rolling and building them. And since I haven't written anything and I really like talking about games, I figured why not?

This will also probably be a rather long post as I've a tendency to just ramble

A key concept people don't seem to realize is that action economy is a thing. The more turns you have, the more options you get. What this also means is that free actions have quite a lot of value to them.

Counters or Follow-Ups lead to damage and possibly Breaks ((which may or may not be the Break you want, but you'll have to strategize around that)) and heals lead to a free turn for the healer, which leads to either more healing or damage, with the latter being super important because you get skill points to use abilties.

This means that characters like Kafka, March 7th and even Herta bringing in a lot of value, albeit to varying degrees.

Which leads to a conversation involving and about Luocha. While initially I had no plans to roll for him, despite him being voiced by Katsura and being a healer, I realized, upon reading his kit, that he brought a lot of convenience and quality of life to the team, so much so that I could definitely play more aggressively and not be punished for it.

You see, Luocha is a character that would have been strong even if all he had was his conditional auto healing ((Luocha heals any ally at 50% HP or under. This can only happen once every two turns)). All Mihoyo had to do was give the man this ability and another group healing ult and he would have been a strong contender against Bailu and Natasha.

((In fact, it would have been a pretty interesting balance, with Luocha being able to auto heal and thus provide options, Bailu having a ress and Natasha bringing in a cleanse)) In their infinite wisdom, Mihoyo decided to not just give him a cleanse, they gave him his healing field, which immediately ramped up his value to stupid degrees, as now every single attack from a team mate would heal themselves and, with a quick upgrade down his Trace tree, the team. While you'd often find the use of the heal field overkill, it's absolutely great when fighting bosses such as Phantylia, with every attack healing a few hundred to a thousand of the PC's HP.

To balance this, Mihoyo gave him a damage dealing ult which also removes buffs from the enemy, including resurrection. As it's not a team wide heal you have to plan a bit around enemy bursts and line up an additional ultimate or two to make sure you get some healing as the healing field comes up.

But the sheer power of the healing and off turn healing is simply so ridiculous that it barely matters. In a game where healing costs both a Skill Point and a turn, the ability to heal without using either is simply ridiculous.

To put it into perspective:

Character A uses their turn to attack and generate a skill point. Healer uses their turn to heal one character.

This means that to perform a heal, you need to expend two turns and a skill point.

However, in the case of Luocha, this changes to

Character A uses their turn to attack and generate a skill point. Luocha ignores the wounded and attacks, generating another skill point. Character A who was wounded is hit, and is now under 50% health Luocha heals Character A

So now not only did you get a heal, you've gotten two skill points, putting you in a significantly better position than if you were using another healer. Note that this does come at the risk of having your characters hit ((sub))50% HP, which can be a bit of an iffy condition sometimes, but from my experience, it's not an issue that pops up often enough to warrant concern.

This means that you could run a skill point hungry team and mostly be finem and when manually piloting the team you'll generally have enough skill points that you don't actually have to think too hard about budgeting them.

And then you get his healing field, which is basically a super healing phase to take your whole team back to full health at little to no extra cost, which is basically the advantages of his off-turn healing on steroids.

All this makes him an absolute monster at generating skill points.

Anyways, the reason why I'm talking about Luocha is that he's a great example of things to consider when rolling for a character. Honkai: Star Rail doesn't have characters that can heal off-turn without the use of their ultimates, which take three to four turns to charge up, which means he gets a strong single target heal a turn or two quicker, which is invaluable in a pinch.

A character like Luocha opens up a lot of opportunities and gives quite a lot of quality of life.

Note that this does not mean that he's a must pull, only that a character like him brings a lot more to the table than most people seem to realize.

[vaicomcas]

On Bitterness

cw: very long and cringey self-reflection of an unrepentant, dean critical, spn critical bitter Cas fan. It's actually kind of funny how melodramatic I am.

I once read a post that said, if you hate the show so much, why are you on tumblr writing post after post about it, go away leave us who love it alone. Or, the very fact that you keep going on is the validation of how great the show is. Or, that's a miserable way to engage with media. Or, please only focus on what you like rather than what you hate and "make the fandom better ". Or, do you even know how to consume media, just ignore what you dislike. I see this type of post periodically. I follow few active blogs so I'm sure I only see a fraction of them.

Some of it seems fair enough. To say "I hate the show so much" is an oversimplification because I am obviously consumed by my love for Castiel, and the show created Castiel. Also a lot of the ideas/writing/visuals are brilliant (although quite a lot not so much--but of course, it's easy to criticize and hard to create something that went on for so long). Lots of amazing actors of course. The skills and quality are of course there. But does that validate the show? I say no.

I honestly hate a lot of the overall narrative and underlying values of the show. And I have come to hate the Winchesters, espeically Dean, because of the type of men they stand for--reflecting my own experience and bias, no doubt. Just like how anybody "consumes media": from their own perspective.

I am not looking for reassurance or validation. I don't accept it when I read that people like me are consuming or engaging with media wrong. I don't make any personal criticism of writers or producers (I try not to even know who they are most of the time, though it's impossible). I don't go out of my way to argue with or upset people I disagree with. I tag myself clearly and people can block me. I paid for my DVDs. Within these confines of what my conscience requires, I can consume media however I want. So what if what I share on tumblr is not "positive". I read rage-filled posts about Cas from 2, 4, 7 or more years ago from bitter Cas fans who came before me, and these posts are what I came to the internet for: they made me feel less alone. Yet, there are simply not enough of them. I post to let my own rage out, and to add to this particular voice so others like me can also find it and feel less alone.

I do ask myself all the time: why don't I just let the bitterness go for my own mental health? Like they say condescendingly, "it's a miserable way to engage with media". (what a loser you are is what this means.) They say to be bitter is like drinking poison in order to kill your enemy. I don't dispute that. Yeah it is miserable. Yeah it's truly not healthy. Yeah it infects my outlook in real life too. Can't I just focus on the positive like so many people seem to be able to do? Isn't there so much, so much positive about Castiel?

I can't. Being miserable is the only way for me to love Cas. Only in the first two seasons was he genuinely celebrated (to a degree and not nearly enough), followed by relentless reduction and sidelining of him. I should clarify: it's not his suffering and his pain in the plot per se that depresses and angers me. It's the slander, the subjugation, and the enslavement of his brilliance to serve the main characters who can't hold a candle to him. My kind of love for Castiel means that it would be an insult to not feel sad and outraged about him. There is not even a grain of "positivity" in that show that is uncontaminated with the injustice done to his character. As far as I am concerned, nobody on earth deserves to be happy because of what was done to Castiel, because it could never be undone. (this is hyperbole, of course. I don't actually want to make other people unhappy unless they want company in misery. That's why I put heavy warning on the bitterest of my posts.)

I'm aware of how melodramatic I am about a TV show character. I am aware all of it is written to elicit reactions, all of it is artifice, and I am picking and choosing what I love and hate about it. I am aware there are real social injustices that deserve my outrage a lot more. The thing is I have never cared about fictional characters. It is unfathomable why I chose this sickness of taking Castiel seriously, as real flesh and blood and grace and spirit being in a half-real half-fake universe. If I allow myself to be objective, if I allow myself to acknowledge that he is not real (rather, just the sum of a series of often inconsistent writing and production decisions by a large heterogeneous mixture of people) in order to get away from the misery, I would then also have no reason to care about him at all. And that's unacceptable, at least for now. I dread the day, possibly not far away now, when I will wake up from this dream.

Back to part of why I keep thinking and writing about the show when I am so bitter about it. Something occurred to me. The show didn't just create Castiel out of thin air. The show's underlying universe came from the wellspring of the Abrahamic religions and related lore and a lot of the characters/stories are taken directly from the bible. Yet, it made God and its world order, including heaven and angels, corrupt and evil and ultimately vanquished.

I am not criticizing the show about making God evil. But If the show gets to trash its source material, in fact subverting its source material being the cornerstone of the show, then why can't I?

I am "canon parallel".

[mostlymobilegames]

HS2 first impressions

(spoilers from both books and complaining)

((This isn't as coherent as I would've liked it to be but I've spend too much time writing it already))

So after getting my ducks in order the beginning of HS2 wasn't really a bad experience, even though I still have a lot to complain about.

First of all, the MC is just not what I would've liked her to be after 10 years and like 2 consecutive wars. She still comes off as hotheaded and stuck in her own ways at times, which isn't what I want from a +30 year old high ranked immortal, especially from one who considers herself a "leader" (c'mon now). It gives off the impression that, even though she was basically Heaven's main weapon some time ago, getting a cozy spot on the Council didn't push her to get better. You can't possibly be in such a high position for such a long time and not get a better and less sensitive attitude (sure, there can be something said about the amount of trauma Vicky suffered in her Academy days which probably had an impact in her growth and is the reason for her nightmares but I'm not a psychologist, I'm just here to complain).

This isn't the worst thing (and my expectations are high because it's Alice and RC keeps creating top tier MCs) but it annoys me how small the development is after such a long time. It's not a good look, it's a look that makes it seem like she literally only got the place on the Council after graduation because she had been useful (which is somehow true, considering your average immortal had to spend years climbing the hierarchy), and that isn't completely bad unless she's not developing any skills afterwards. I do understand that she accepted that she had darkness inside her, she has power yada yada yada, but... why didn't she look into it more? Malbonte always kept talking about getting his power back from her, so why didn't anyone, not even Rebecca, look into this at some point? I don't mean immediately after winning the war, but some time down the line.

I will say that I might be too quick to judge (we started off with solitary confinement and relationship breaking) and that maybe I'm too harsh, too soon, and Vicky will prove herself in the future. I'm sure she will (proving herself is like one of her most redeeming qualities) but for know... she's not impressive. She's literally back to square one, no power, no status. Actually, she's worse now.

Now, returning to the power swap moment done by Plague, I really liked that. Not the part about how the MC became powerless, but that it was really the moment of "omg this is actually the villain". The fact that it was so easy to take away MC's only hope is horrifying but it also leaves her completely vulnerable. There's nothing there for her to use anymore.

Speaking of Plague, she's so annoying. I can't even try to respect the prowess because she's so shit. She is powerful, but the fact that she's an unknown danger and sadistic contributes more to her scary factor than her actual powers. I can't deal with villains like her, their good looks just aren't enough. Not even gonna get into the leashes scene or how creepy she is with the men, she definitely can't take refusals. I dislike that in bad guys. She's also not as bad as she likes to think she is, her power is fuelled (at least partially) by people's desperation. Her presence makes me wanna scratch my skin off.

I don't know what the plan is with characters like Loy and Andy. I only had Andy alive just for him to die immediately in HS2 so...

The rest of the LIs are as I would expect after probably being tortured for at least 3 months. I'd be really surprised if there's any genuine betrayal happening, cause I only see them as being beaten (not necessarily in a literal sense) into reluctant submission. Maybe characters like Fencio and Torendo were willing, but I doubt any of the others wanted or expected this when they went with Plague. I have no explanation for why she saw Dino as not loving the MC anymore but I'm sure there will be one.

Their new looks are superior tho, at least. And I really like how the relationship between the MC and her long time partner is being presented. Regardless of who the player was romancing, their relationship during school ran pretty hot because it was forbidden and dangerous: sneaking around, getting in trouble because of the ban, worrying about death for 3 seasons straight and so on. It's not surprising that after so many years things not only settle down drastically but they see each other more clearly. Being closed off isn't sexy anymore, it causes real tension, working late puts a strain on the relationship, being on different sides isn't exciting, it's exhausting. Real life gets in the way, they aren't college kids (who fight for their lives), they're adults who are responsible for many other people (Mimi for her students, Dino, MC and Luci for the people under them, Andy for his squad not anymore but whatever). Although it is sus how very little opening up happened in 10 years, it's expected and not surprising that the relationship turned out kinda meh.

I am curious if there will be other LIs. Part of me doubts it, there are already established romances, but idk.

The flashback in Mexico is... not that good. It isn't bad in the sense of visuals or writing, it just doesn't make sense, the four of them were never in a close friendship to the point where they'd just chill on earth. When would something like that even had happened? In season 1 of book 1 Lucifer wasn't really part of the team and idk why Dino would've agreed to go on vacation with him anyway, and in seasons 2 and 3 (in 3 more) there was a bunch of drama and wars and breaking people out of jail and being captured and training etc. WHEN did this holiday celebration happen? It couldn't have happened after defeating Malbonte, since they all graduated pretty fast and my Lucifer wasn't even alive (it makes even less sense for it to have happened after the MC sided with Malbonte🗿). It's just such a weird situation, the group was never the kind to have holidays together, even if we were to accept that Lucifer eventually warmed up to Dino enough for them to be buddies (that's not their relationship)

I have very high expectations from Rebecca and Mammon. Idk where Rebecca disappeared in chapter 2, cause I'm pretty sure no one said anything about her, only Mammon is confirmed to have ran away, so they're literally the only ones not captured (who we know exist, I don't know how many characters Plague resurrected).

The visuals in HS2 are great, no complaints there. It does seem like I've had more bad things to say than good things about the book but I am expecting abnormal levels of badassery in the future to make up for the humiliation and pain received so soon. There's just no way MC isn't gonna have her revenge on Plague. I'm really hoping she figures this powerless shit out, but I'm really liking the new partnership with Shephamalum, I'm 100% down to fill the empty vessel with god powers 🤞

[strwbmei]

"Does anyone else just have an inherent belief that they are a bad person?.."

•

Literally. I had this little thing from a few years ago that I managed to somewhat push down. It's weird and I don't know how to feel about it. It's like- I sometimes overthink too much and sabotage myself, thinking something in the lines of; "I am not attractive/good/successful enough to be happy alongside my friends/family" (and it's something simple like laughing together or just hanging out around them)

[It got so bad that I dedicated 2 years into 'fixing' my nose bump that was (and kind of still is) my biggest insecurity, and ended up breaking my nose, damaging some internal shit that made it fill with liquid, not to mention the pain, and now I am left with a permanent red scar on my nose bridge, but at least I got over it and changed my view of it - it's something so little and so insignificant but it somehow makes me feel like less than other people.]

In my case it's mostly based off appearance but I also feel like I should be as productive as an adult while I am actually just a depressed teenager (16). I feel like I am wasting my time with anything that I don't get a clear result out of. I have really high standards for myself. Being a perfectionist also doesn't help my case. So a 'solution' to this is my new schedule that I hold myself strict to - getting up at 5 am, doing all sorts of things while still having most of my time go to school, doing a specific sport 3 times a week for my dad (nevermind that I still have my own goals and work out separately), actively trying to get better at art and writing, as well as pick up new hobbies, and still aiming to get around 8 full hours of quality sleep.

What I'm trying to say is that I subconsciously and consciously think that I will become a failure if I don't excell in every aspect of my life - education/hobbies/skills/social life.. etc. And that gives me the twisted thought that I don't deserve happiness before I actually achieve something significant.

I kind of went on a bit of a ramble here but your post awoken a memory that I needed to write down (to maybe get my head cleared)

One thing that has really helped me, and continues to, is MBTI. But the deeper version of it that's more than just the immaculate, 'for fun' test - the actual trying to understand the way that different people's brains work.

I am no expert on it but I am getting the hang of it. Enough to find out my MBTI - ENTJ (8w9). Knowing my strengths and weaknesses, and the thought process I go through have really helped me better understand and eventually better myself, I also find it quite fun.

So yeah, I feel like a 'bad' person quite a lot.

I'm sorry if my post made you uncomfortable in any way. I can't say that I've ever gone to the same extent, but I definitely empathize with the feeling that I don't deserve to be happy unless I do something that others deem remarkable and worthy of attention. I don't know you personally, but I'm sure that you aren't a bad person!

On the more positive side, mad respect to you for somehow being able to balance all of that stuff! I can barely keep up with having 3 hobbies, ahaha... I'm glad you found a healthy way to cope with what you're feeling, though.

[alivesoul]

Work

Every so often I write a post about work. It's usually during work I write this post. I write these posts during work because that's when whatever work thought I have is freshest. I've written about competing unnecessarily with co-workers. I've written about how silly the term "workaholic" is (I'm not sure why it is so hard to call Employer Abuse by its proper name). Today I want to talk about being underutilized. You might find yourself at a job one day just kind of sitting there and wondering, maybe I should do something to make myself busy. Or you might say to yourself, let me get up and take more initiative. I am here to say that you should not do either of those things, or anything related to you actually asking someone else to give you work to do.

When you were contacted about your current position, you provided your employer with an up-to-date resume. On that resume was a complete list of your former employers, what duties you had while at said employer, and for how long you performed those duties for that employer. On any good resume, there is usually a section called "Skills" which details what programs, certifications and proficiencies you have. Some resumes even have a section for references so they can contact some of your former co-workers to ascertain just how good you were at your job. My point is that your job is well aware of what you can do and how well you can do it. The idea that you have to constantly email or contact someone because you don't have enough to do is not only ridiculous and unprofessional, but it is also dis-respectful. Every so often I find myself in this position and I used to get so upset because I would be sitting there like, WTF??? Don't they know how good I am? Do they not trust me? Do I not work well? In other words, I made it about me. It was my fault my employer didn't value me enough to keep me involved. WRONG. It has absolutely nothing to do with you. There are many reasons people find themselves in this position, sometimes, it's just really slow, but other times, it's much more nefarious. I won't get into the many reasons why employers treat their employees in this fashion, but what I will say is you should never ask anyone to keep you busy. You are being paid for skills and YOUR TIME.

If your employer wants to spend their money on you sitting there, that is their prerogative. If you have demonstrated that you are ready, willing, able, and responsive, that is enough. Maintain your work ethic by continuing to respond when your name is called, produce all work with the same quality and excellence you usually do, and continue to show up on time. What I believe you will find if you do this, is that your employer will be more frustrated that you are. Your value for an employer does not lie in their inability to take advantage of what you have to offer. That is their folly, not yours. Do ALL the things that push you forward during your downtime and that fully includes job-searching on their time to plot your way to better more inclusive opportunity, writing book chapters, blogging to get you through the day, whatever but DO NOT BEG FOR WORK.

I am NOT saying you shouldn't take any initiative. I am not saying you shouldn't go above and beyond. What I AM saying is that if you have demonstrated the ability to take initiative and the willingness to go above and beyond, you shouldn't need to beg anyone for work. Your employer should value you more than that.

[hydr9]

the perception of all-rounders and "out-of-place" members in kpop

I watch a lot of full-focused/choreo-focused cams of groups, and 2day I got sucked into a small itzy choreo-cam rabbit hole, and now I'm in the mood to talk out of my ass.

itzy, obviously, as a group of their fame and status, has a lot of expectations, and a constant flood of commentary, praise, and criticism.

so, as the resident advocate for simplification, let me simplify it for you: itzy is a performance-based group

its not about having the best vocals, its about having good and stable vocals. its not about being able to sing flawlessly and with good technique and unique color, its about having good power that you can execute while doing equally good high-energy choreo.

and lia, as we've seen, faces a shitton of criticism. her vocals are too weak, her dancing is too weak, she's out of place in itzy. this gets thrown at soo many different idols, and i honestly think its mostly a downright stupid take. with how cutthroat the trainee system is, and especially with how small itzy is, do you not think there is intention behind every choice?

lia has something to offer that no one else in itzy does. that's the point. it's not about every member excelling at everything---something kpop stans seem to be obsessed with nowadays---its about being greater than the sum of all your parts.

thats why its a group. all-rounders or aces are special, of course, and theyre to be admired, but theyre not necessary. it doesnt make a group better than any other group. positions can be limiting, sure, but its important to acknowledge a member's strengths. before a group becomes famous enough that each idol will be known for what they are good at, they all have a role. something to take care of individually so that when they are together, they mesh and perform something that is the unique combination of them.

lia has this sweet, romantic, honey-voice quality that the other members dont. there are definitely some performances where her stage presence is weaker than others but she is absolutely not incapable of having a special aura about her while shes on stage. her dancing is not as powerful as the rest of the girls. but then again, for example, yuna's voice isnt as powerful as hers either. and ryujin can't capture her sweet and honey-like aura.

being an 'all-rounder' doesnt make you better at any of this. doesnt make you stand out. doesnt give the audience something to chew on, when you have average-to-good singing, dancing, and rapping skills. when idols are pigeonholed into this position, it almost makes me feel more like they dont have any actual standout skills rather than that they are actually good at everything.

this is why, for example, han from stray kids and soyeon from gidle are not all-rounders/aces just because they sing rap and dance (which most idols do, for the record). it's because they have something special to offer in each of these things. they are rappers (something many idols cant claim). and they are singers. they are all of these things, they dont just possess the capability of all of them. this might seem arbitrary and like im just picking at semantics, but i hope my point picks up.

rm from bts, for example, has a good voice. but for most of his career, he was only seen as one thing: a rapper. he didnt fight that, wasnt necessarily trying to break out of that box. he was a rapper, and that was the one thing he really cared about. he dances because he's part of an idol group. he doesn't sing, because that's not what he does. people joked about it, but no one tried to claim he was talentless because all he did was rap.

and then he released his fools cover with jungkook, and the fans were Amazed. years of joke-bad singing, and suddenly, he is singing. maybe his voice is not as strong or versatile as jungkook, but he had his moment to show another skill, and it wasnt a bad thing. because he didnt have to be good at singing. he was good enough at rapping. there wasnt any shame in that, to have one skill, one thing to be proficient at that no one can argue.

and what is this tangent to say? its that now, if an idol is bad at something, its as if its a great shame. its a great shame to say, they're the main vocal, it's okay if their dance isn't as strong as others. they're the main rapper, it's okay if their voice isn't that strong. and any combination of these things!!

i don't understand kpop fans attachment to taking any group you like, or want to support and always claiming it's a group of all-rounders. they're all always main vocals, dancers, rappers, visuals. i don't think there's any pride in that.

i think it's great to let some members step out of the spotlight when there's something they're not good at. i think it's okay, and it should again be acceptable for an idol to joke that they're not a good dancer, or a good singer. and yes, it's never okay to bully or harass or insult them, but i don't think fans should act as if there's shame in it. aren't you making it worse? to say, fuck you, my idol is better, they're all-around perfect singers, rappers, AND dancers? as if being one of these titles isn't enough pride?

and this all goes into my problem with the hate towards lia. maybe there is members of groups that are shoved into a concept that doesnt suit them. but before you jump to that, acknowledge the value they have in that group. how they can show that concept in a way no one else can.

how seungmin from stray kids, with his "pure and romantic" image can portray thunderous, an aggressive and loud song, in a way changbin with his "tough rapper" image can't. how eunchae with her young and cute image can portray antifragile in a way that yunjin with her confident and powerful image cant.

in fact, even chaeryeong has a feminine and graceful quality to her dancing that's different than yeji's powerful and precise one, and even to ryujin's fluid and heavy one.

in FACT, imagine how the fuck seventeen, a group with THIRTEEN MEMBERS, manages to have SO many different concepts, and still manages to excel at all of them, with no one feeling out of place. because there's an intent and a positive to every member, no matter how different they seem.

as usual i'll always end by unnecessarily praising seventeen. have a nice day

[aimportantdragoncollector]

For the AFO dating questionnaire!

1. Green! Not the same shade as Yoichi (mine are lighter and sometimes look kinda grey in some lighting)

2. Yes, I'm not entirely sure about the human experimentation on me but I'd probably go through with it as long as I knew it wouldn't like kill me and I got proper painkillers

3. Sounds good, Yoichi is very cute both physically and personality wise so I wouldn't mind

4. Tracking devices, yes, hidden cameras, also yes. I also think that putting microphones on said child is a good idea when they get old enough to be susceptible to manipulation from outside forces

5. Totally! As long as I'm provided for financially and my husband comes home to see me and the kid every once in a while I'm happy

6. I say two children is good, one to keep Yoichi company while AFO is gone!

7. I'm very good at western meals and I know how to bake, I'm not very good with spice but I'd be willing to learn Japanese cooking if necessary

8. If it makes you feel emotions, PUT IT DOWN FOREVER

9. Nah, ties be used for murder attempts so best to keep them off

10. Demon king was well, an absolute king! He deserved to win and he had a wayyy more compelling arc than Captain Hero

11. Absolutely not! Family should be cherished at all times

12. Why not. Also I would want to keep Tenko

13. Really annoying, I would kick him in the balls if given the opportunity. The kind of man who deserves to have his stomach pulled out

14. MOST BLONDES ARE ABSOLUTE BASTARDS. SPIKEY BLONDS SPECIFICALLY. KEEP AWAY FROM FAMILY MEMBERS (and me) AT ALL COST.

15. Depends on the family, are your children incredibly rebellious? Then C. If not, B, just in case

16. 1 - only because I think the quirks it shows off are cool sometimes

17. B-C depending on the relationship of course

18. B, but instead of gently, we raise the kid so that this never happens in the first place by limiting their access to all Hero-society positive media

19. B! My baby is flawless and can do no wrong, obviously someone else is taking advantage of them and twisting their mind.

20. A

21. C (fuck that guy)

22. Depends on the quirk, most of the time I'm quirk positive

23. C, as long I get to join in :)

24. I think so? I like to wear lots of black in my everyday life anyway but I don't know if I'm good looking or not.

25. B, but if possible just make sure they don't die

26. I like his ambitious nature, that's always attractive, I also like how he's not afraid to go for what he wants. He's physically appealing and I think he would take good care of his hair which naturally appeals to my sensory issues. His massive connections in life are incredibly impressive, obviously he's hardworking and intelligent, which is again very attractive to me. I like suits and I also appreciate having an evil empire. I've always had a thing for villains and I personally think Hero Society should go off and die somewhere, so we have similar opinions on that! I also have a very cute baby brother, so I can understand why he would want to protect him from the world (and stupid blondes). Personally, I find AFO's most attractive qualities are his dedication to his family and his resilience, no matter what he doesn't abandon the ones he loves and that is, in my opinion, the best thing to look for in a potential partner. So in summary, AFO's many skills and great personality traits along with his connections in life, are very attractive to me as base level things, but I believe his Familial Core makes him the ideal partner.

What, you don't trust Dr. Garaki to experiment on you? Shocking! He has a medical license and it only expired a century ago.

All for One agrees that Yoichi is adorable and he seconds your idea to add microphones to children too. There's no such thing as too much security.

All for One promises that he'd always visit his family regularly but looking at some of my Dad for One AUs, I'm not sure I'd believe him. An immortal's sense of time is a bit off. However, if you know his secret identity then you can always show up at his workplace if he's too late for dinner.

Truly, you have the same beliefs as All for One on finishing stories, ties, and family values. How wonderful! Most of all, All for One appreciated your tirade about spikey-haired people, who definitely suck. When he takes over Japan, he will outlaw hair gel.

Your simping brought a tear to All for One's nonexistent eye. Finally, someone appreciates him for his devotion to family! Even most of his minions look at him funny when he starts talking about his brother. I'm sure you two will get along absolutely fabulously. All for One is eager to meet with you and trash All Might together. He has plans to talk you to Chojiro, one of the most famous sushi joints in Japan, to show you the joy of Japanese cooking. Then he'll take you to a Broadway play that you can not finish together. He'll pick you up for a date on Wednesday evening. Wear black.