#the goal is hopefully around end of June but if not then sometime in July when it’ll be posted to AO3 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

lunaleetarot · 4 years

Text

Capricorn Year Ahead Birthday Spread

Starting from the top clockwise, theme in the middle.

1. December 2020- The World- This card usually means you will have a good outcome. You have completed one stage of your life, and now you're moving on to the next. You’re made your goals a reality, and now you want to make new ones. Often you see this card with newlyweds in marriage or someone who started their own business. You will need to get comfortable in your new life. This is a travel card. You may be more involved in issues going on around the world. With the pandemic going on, this meaning may not resonate with most of you but I want to point out that it is a potential interpretation.

2. January 2021-Death- As we move into 2021, you are undergoing a transformation. Perhaps you were warming up to a new life change last month and now you're ready to make that change happen with the death card. Although the name of this card is enough to turn you off, it could mean something as simple as a career or love life metamorphosis. You will be faced with a life changing decision. Sometimes we need endings to move on to something better, so this may not necessarily be a bad thing. Usually this is a dramatic change. You won’t come out of this the same person you were before. Keep in mind this card does have a sinister meaning. This change is going to be drastic. It can mean literal death, but it doesn’t always have to. The best case scenario for your January outcome is that this is the beginning of a blessing in disguise. You will likely feel sad or depressed over these events and should take extra care of yourself. Especially if this is an unwelcome change. This is a Scorpio card, so you may be dealing with one of them.

3. February 2021-The Emperor- This February you are going to achieve a level up in status. You will be an authority figure, or will have an authority figure take you under their wing and pull you up. I feel this has to do with career advancement. This will likely be a male. This is a person you love, that is in a higher social standing than yourself. You will have powerful and stable people around you. It could be in your career, where people see potential in you and want to promote you or invest in you in some way. Remember you don’t know everything. There’s a lot to be learned from this person. No matter how smart or capable we are, we need to enlist help to achieve our goals. If this doesn’t apply to your career, it could be your father, father-figure or husband. This is an Aries card so you are likely dealing with someone of that sign here.

4. March 2021- The Fool- While winter melts away and spring begins to bloom, you will go through yet another transitional period. New beginnings for you this Spring! I feel like you had one stable month in February, and now your back at the drawing board ready to reinvent yourself once again. You will have a burning desire to try something new. In this case I think you should go for it! If you overthink it you’ll only come up with reasons why you shouldn’t. Perhaps you are comfortable in February’s stable situation but you don’t find it rewarding emotionally or spiritually? I feel if you follow your heart's desires, all will go well. However if this is nothing but pure rebellion be mindful of what you’re doing. Don’t just run away from your responsibilities. If you are no longer happy in February’s outcome there is the “right way” and a “wrong way” to leave it. This card can also mean someone else will do the running from you, so keep that in mind. This may be a risk that has no promise of reward, as a Capricorn I’m not sure you will be comfortable with that. You may go through a period of uncharacteristic indecisiveness. On the positive sign I feel you will have a lot of fun this month. You will have a level of enthusiasm and a thirst for life that will help you recover from January. Just don’t let your behavior get too wild. Especially if mental health is a concern for you.

5. April 2021- Four of Pentacles- In April, you are going to be holding on tightly to all you have. This is a card about possessions and possessiveness. You need to pay attention to how much your financial habits and health. In more extreme cases, this could be hoarding behavior. Perhaps all the change you went through in the beginning of the year has made you want to hold on to what you have. However it’s unlikely you will want to share with others. You may be holding onto things that no longer serve you. This doesn’t have to just mean material things, it can be emotions or relationships you’ve outgrown but keep holding onto. In love, you may want your lover all to yourself. You refuse to let them go. This behavior may make you look needy or even worse obsessed. After awhile this behavior may annoy your partner and push them away. If you’ve been supporting a family member, you are no longer going to be footing the bill. You feel like you shouldn’t have to cover their groovy lifestyle. Or it could be vice versa. Assign the roles as you will. This could also indicate a revision of a will or inheritance. However if you have money, you are lucky to be in the position to hoard in the first place. Many are struggling right now and don’t have it as easy. Keep that in mind when you cling to your purse strings. There’s nothing wrong with being frugal, but don’t become cheap. This is your own card, so I feel this is your energy. However it’s possible you could be dealing with a fellow Capricorn.

6. May 2021-Five of Cups- In May you will be hit with a wave of sadness. You may have fallen into self pity and don’t know what your next move will be. This is a shift for you into being more concerned about your personal relationships than you have been for the year so far. This is a break up card. I feel the overbearing behavior from last month will bring your relationship to an end. This is going to be very hard for you to deal with, but rest assured there is someone out there who is better for you. You and this person you're having the break up with weren’t a good match, your personalities weren’t compatible. But you don’t see that yet. Your life is not over by any means, Capricorn. Nonetheless, you are feeling doom and gloom over it. You should seek help for your feelings from a therapist or people who are understanding in your life. Just don’t try to battle this alone. If that doesn’t apply. It could mean a fall out in your career. This will seem bad at first but you will gain valuable experience. Divorce and strained friendships could be at play here. All is not lost here, you will get a second chance after the dust settles. The universe likes people who get back up after being knocked down. This is another Scorpio card.

7. June 2021-Seven of Cups- Halfway through the year you will be faced with decisions. You will be faced with many valid choices, and will have to pick one. To make it even more tricky you will have a time frame to make the decisions. If you don’t make your choice soon you could go from having many options to having none. You will also hear a lot of opinions about it too, everyone in your life is going to give you their two cents. Keep in mind not everyone knows your situation or has your best interest at heart. The work you do this month will dictate what your future looks like. One positive thing about having a lot of options is that you will be living a comfortable lifestyle. However nothing is guaranteed in your future so think about what's best for you down the road. This is yet another Scorpio card!

8. July 2021- Six of Cups- Something or someone from your past is going to reemerge this month. This is the “ex” card. So if you want to get back with your ex-lover this is a welcome sign. If that doesn’t apply to you this is also a family expansion card. A case of childhood nostalgia may resurface because you are dealing with adult responsibilities now. If you want to have a baby this card is a good sign. This card can also mean the house you grew up in, or town. It’s up to you to apply how this would fit into your life. On the negative side, there may be people from your past coming back that you don’t want to see, or old drama coming out when you don’t want it to. Something near and dear to your heart may vanish this month. Watch out, because this could be because you are neglecting the things you care about. This is yet another Scorpio card.

9. August 2021- Queen of Cups- You have a loyal female in your life with strong intuition. She’s sympathetic towards those she loves. This could be your own energy or a female who is close to you like your mother, sister or wife. This person puts others before herself. No matter what she has their back. Sometimes this can be a negative when you're looking at a situation with rose colored glasses. This card can also mean you need to take on the traits of this person. You may not be thinking of the other’s point of view or you're just being down right selfish. You should aspire to be more like the Queen of Cups. How can you be more understanding of other people’s feelings? You may be dealing with someone born on the Gemini-Cancer cusp (June 19-24).

10. September 2021-Ace of Cups- As we roll into September, we see the ace of cups which usually means a sweet and pure love! I believe this could mean the start of a new relationship for you! So expect your love life to be of interest to you this month. However this may not be a long term relationship, but enjoy it while it lasts. This is also a pregnancy card. Specifically the birth of a female child. If this doesn’t apply to you it could be your mother, sister, or someone close to you. This card can also mean a new beginning after a tragic ending. This card also means you will have a lot of dinner dates with friends and family. Hopefully we won’t have to socially distance anymore by then!

11. October 2021-Queen of Swords- With the queen of swords for your October, Halloween hi jinks will be the least of your worries. There will be a female in your business who loves drama and conflict. You may already know who this person is. She just wants to know the news of your life, she does not actually care about you as a person. Beware because this month she will be more involved in your life. This is a period of your year where you are going to feel very lonely. If none of this applies to you, it’s possible you need to adapt the queen of swords mentality. This person is very direct and to the point. I feel you are like this as well Capricorn. Even if she comes across as sort of a, well, bitch- at least others know where they stand with her. She tells it like it is. You may need to stand on your own two feet here and stop relying on others. You’ve got this Capricorn! You may be dealing with someone born on the Virgo-Libra cusp (September 19-24).

12. November 2021- The Chariot- This November will be a month of triumph for you! You will succeed in all of your endeavors this month. You won’t have any competitors. You will have an abundance of energy to make this all happen. However you may step on a few toes to get yourself in a higher status. The chariot can mean that you will use other people to get what you want. You should try to keep this behavior in check. Enjoy your accomplishments, but don’t live off them for too long. If you start to look down on others you will lose their respect. Modesty will benefit you in the long run. If you have a driving test coming up, you will likely ace it! If you are in a position of power watch how you treat your employees. You may be dealing with a Cancer here.

13. Theme of the Year- Seven of Swords- You or someone else in your life is causing trouble this year. Drama and conflict accompany this card. You're surrounding yourself with people who are not loyal to you. When they sell you out, it’s going to leave you feeling hurt and betrayed. You may get the blame for something you didn’t do. This is likely someone who is trying to cover up their own bad behavior. You will become the scapegoat. This person may be you. Consider if you are the type of person who tries to cover up their own bad behavior instead of facing the consequences. In less extreme cases this card can mean self-deception. You may be forcing yourself into believing you are happy with something you aren’t. This will start to affect you emotionally this year. Play your cards close to the chest. Be honest with yourself about what it is you truly want. You may be dealing with an Aquarius in this situation or someone of this sign will have a major impact in your year ahead.

#Capricorn #capricornseason #yearahead #birthday #tarot spread #earth signs #tarot #tarotreader #lunaleetarot #Zodiac

20 notes · View notes

fandom-star · 4 years

Text

Transgender Pride Month Challenge

So, I'm an admin on a trans meme/info account on Instagram, and one of the guys on there sent this to our chat, so I thought I'd do it on here.

1. My name is Elliott or Ell. I am asexual and bi/panromantic (both fit me so I use both) and I am a transmasculine non-binary person.

2. The only proper coming out I've had was with my mum. I don't feel like putting it here, it's somewhere on my blog. Most of the time I've either given my friends my Tumblr knowing they'd figure it out or I've just dropped a thousand hints in group chats! I dunno, I just prefer coming out like that with people I know will be okay with it.

3. I've probably always had an idea, at least since I was about 8, but after the age of 10 I kind of went into a fair bit of denial and threw myself into being a fangirl. I eventually realised I should look into it in May 2018, when I first identified as a demigirl.

4. I am not on hormones. It's probably something I'll look into doing maybe in my mid twenties for half a year, maybe a year, to get the extent of the effects that I want, but I don't think I'd stay on for much more than a year.

5. My support system is mostly my friends.

6. My chest, my deadname (mostly seeing it written), sometimes my voice, sometimes my height.

7. When I decided to change my name (July 2018 when I was exploring the possibility of being a trans guy) the one thing I knew was that I wanted to still be able to feasibly use the nickname Ell. So I basically looked around online for names with that sound in them. I ended up with about five or six and wrote down the pros and cons of them all. The only con on the name Elliott was that there was a guy in my form class with the same name (Elliot), whereas the others usually had about two. So I chose Elliott.

8. I haven't had much of a transition journey. I had my hair cut short in July 2018. Had my first irl coming out in September 2018 as non-binary to a friend who figured it out. July 2019 I changed my name. July and August 2019 I came out to my mum (if you followed me then you'll know what that story is and why it was over two months). November 2019 I went to a comic con with my friends which was my first time being openly non-binary in public, and I also bought my first pronoun badge there. Later in the month, my mum bought me a pronoun badge. December 2019 my best friend bought me my first binder. And some point before September 2020 I will have come out on my personal Instagram.

9. I don't think I have any regrets. I feel like I shouldn't have any, because everything I have done has brought me here, and I'm happy where I am. Maybe I regret backing out of coming out on Instagram last month, because I was gonna try coming out on 1st of July, but with everything happening I felt like it was a really inappropriate time.

10. My binder is a blue half tank from GC2B. His name is Robbie. I can't be bothered to take a photo!

11. My definite transition goals are to legally change my name and gender (but only when the UK legally recognises non-binary people, until then imma confuse people by having a masculine legal name but being legally recognised as female!) and have a chest reduction. As I said earlier, I'm definitely considering testosterone, but the two effects I definitely want from it are facial hair and a deeper voice, both of which I could probably achieve to an extent without the involvement of T. (I basically have the ability to grow a beard naturally, but I never have because mum's worried about me being bullied or whatever if it gets too much.)

14. I am single and have never been in a relationship. I know, I know, the shock and the horror of a 16 year old having never been in a relationship, but I'm permanently anxious about everything, and I don't develop crushes very often and the last two I've had have been on friends, one of which doesn't live near me and I've never met in person, so.... Yeah, and that means I can't really say whether people knowing I'm trans or not has had any difference in them being attracted to me.

15. Obviously, I'm not completely out right now, but when I do come out I will be quite open about it. There's no real way to be stealth as a non-binary person, so that's not really a possibility. Even on the trans masc side of things, I don't think I'd ever be able to be stealth nor do I really want to be. For one, my transition plans don't exactly allow for it particularly, but also, while being referred to as male is highly preferable to being referred to as female, if I can have control over it, I won't be seen as strictly either.

16. I think I stand with the majority when I say that the only concern I can think of around transitioning is transphobia. Especially with my classmates, because while some of them are amazing (hello the whole five of you here) there's a lot of casual transphobia and explicit mockery of non-binary people at my school. It's one of the reasons I really hope our pride group continues when I start back at Sixth Form in September, because I feel like we could do a lot to combat that.

17. I mean, I guess I basically went over fear of rejection in 16, but I guess I could extend on that by explaining why I don't really mention my dad in regards to all this. Basically, I haven't come out to him about anything regarding my queer identity. This isn't necessarily because of him being explicitly homophobic or transphobic (he's never said anything homophobic ever and seemingly supports my going to pride events), it's mostly because our relationship is somewhat distant. We don't have an awful lot to do with each other outside of sharing interests. And he tends to be averse to anything "new". So, yes, I fear that if I came out to my father about being non-binary he would react by either ignoring it or me or not believing me.

20. September 2016 vs Today, June 2020

21. Something I'm most proud of relating to being trans... ooh! Probably the time I went out for lunch with my mum and my granny (who is basically deaf) and being called "sir" and "young man" by two different waiters while mum went to the toilet. The reason that's such an amazing moment for me is because I was feeling extremely dysphoric about how long my hair was getting, so I wasn't even making any attempt to look at all masculine.

22. Things that make me euphoric are binding, people saying my name, listening to recordings of my voice (a lot of the time it sounds a lot more androgynous than I expect) and seeing photos of myself in cosplay.

23. Music. Very generic! Um... I have a Spotify playlist of songs to listen to when I feel dysphoric. Speaking of Spotify playlists, most of them are based on ships or characters. My username is seltudoor. I have a rather large record collection and an old record player/radio/cassette player that used to be my dad's that I think is from the 80s. Everything else you know! Classic rock, Sinatra and all that.

24. Freddie Mercury is the love of my life (HA!) and my role model. I have put into words why somewhere on my music blog, but I can't exactly remember. It goes a bit deeper than that he wasn't afraid to be true to himself. I also have an entire post about my trans role model Lou Sullivan that I made last June. In short, he was the first trans man to medically transition as an openly gay man who was also a badass, though I mainly say that because towards the end of his life (he died from AIDS complications) he wrote that, although the medical system didn't recognise him as a gay man, it seemed as though he was going to die like one.

25. Weirdest fact about me. Hmm... not sure I have any weird facts. My bookshelf organisation has two aspects to it that I don't think I've seen anyone else have. I group them by genre and order them by publication date from earliest to latest.

26. Things that cross my mind a lot. The fact that I should really be doing some writing instead of reading another fanfiction or watching another YouTube video that spoils most of Merlin for me. I don't know really.

27. You can win my heart by having a presence that makes me feel like I can happy stim in front of you whilst we watch something together, by accepting the fact that you will probably come second to my fandoms/obsessions a lot of the time, by allowing me to be touchy and clingy at random moments for often a long period of time, by not judging that I can't do "normal everyday things" and helping me with them and by being weird.

28. My mum, @maestrowave, @in3ffable-husbands, @fandom-0bsession and everyone else in my active group chats on Instagram, @britpop-bowie, @esperata and some other people.

29. I don't know what I'm most scared of.

30. I think I'm mostly happy. I have great friends, my education is probably headed in a direction that will allow me to progress into an industry I've wanted to work in since I was 9 and in two years' time I will hopefully be at uni and able to experiment with my transition without worrying about what my parents think.

#pride #pride month #pride 2020 #transgender #trans #non-binary #transgender challenge #about me #don't reblog #if you want to do the challenge just save the picture

7 notes · View notes

sparklyjojos · 4 years

Text

CARNIVAL DAY recaps [10/13]

Today’s recap: Finally some explanations, or: the R language, bulls and deers and horses, and everything’s connected.

FIFTY-ONE

26 Jul 1997 — 01 Aug 1997

LABYRINTH

(Amagi Hyouma was one of RISE’s guests along with Ryuuguu Otohime, Tsukumo Nemu, Christmas Mizuno, Yaiba Somahito, Diana Hosey, Hanto Maimu & Kuraimu. During their time in the Sanctuary, they learned the identities of the Rainbow Sophists.

Below is Amagi Hyouma’s testimony. [Originally in first person.])

Hyouma had never seen this Fabian woman before, but she seemed to believe (or convincingly pretended to believe) that he was Yemon. She claimed she didn’t know any Yakuma Suzume.

Well, it was true that Yakuma hadn’t shown himself since that day when Hyouma had been taken to the Sanctuary. White even said Yakuma was “no longer here”.

Hyouma pointed out how weird it was that only JDC-related people were chosen to be RISE’s guests. Fabian answered that they didn’t need anyone else; JDC was important, even more so considering the Billion Killer had chosen them for his first attack. Japan would play a great role in the events too, especially the Japanese language. R language had a very similar base to Japanese, but was much more fluid and freestyle, resembling the kind of language young people in Japan spoke these days. Basically, Fabian claimed that Hyouma had been already unknowingly using R language.

Just like Japanese words are often written and pronounced in many different ways, R language also has “the rule of no rules”. For example, the tower of the Moonbow Palace is called Tow Dreamer, a mix of English-like words “tower” and “dreamer”. However, this name is written 夢幻想塔, which would normally be read mugensoutou. The kanji convey “a tower where one can dream”, and mugensoutou also points to the infinitude (mugen written 無限) of their fuhrer (soutou written 総統).

...which sounded horribly farfetched to Hyouma. Was this entire R language just puns? Fabian claimed that it conveyed the entire history of humanity, and using it—seeing the meaning hidden in Japanese words—could help uncovering the world’s secrets.

At least they got an explanation for why all the guests were young adults from Japan [Yaiba is like forty, but I guess he still counts]. Diana Hosey came from the USA, but she had been secretly taught R language by her father Theodore, who always told her it was just Japanese.

Done with their conversations with the Sophists, all the guests returned to the round table and talked about what they had learned.

Since the Rainbow Sophists had been wearing masks and acting like the S-detectives all the time, none of them knew the true identities of the others before (only RS and the Master had known). This round table talk was the first time they learned about who their fellow executives were.

Yellow Bishop turned out not to be Ajiro after all. But then where was Ajiro? He’d been missing ever since the explosion. Hanto Maimu got that strange phone call allegedly from Ajiro, but it was just Tanna Sazen using his voice mimicry. Tanna would sometimes pretend to be White, and other times share a single role of Yellow Bishop with Theodore Hosey. (There was a bit of chaos when Tanna was chased off a cliff that one time, but he knew how to survive the fall, and then he simply cancelled the pursuit by calling the pursuers as Yellow Bishop.) Tanna hadn’t anticipated his child would inherit his knowledge, so RISE investigated the Hantos just in case.

Everyone wanted to know where Ajiro was (Hyouma especially). Yaiba had come up with a theory almost by accident. Back when he had been in Russia, the boy Amano noticed the number on the train engine was 999, which was 666 upside down. Inspired by this, Yaiba thought of the word Russia (Ro-shi-a), also turned it around, and it became A-shi-ro… Ajiro. Maybe Ajiro and Russia were connected? This would be just a ridiculous wordplay in any other situation, but Hyouma couldn’t laugh it off now that he’d been told about R language.

Seeing that the detectives wouldn’t leave the topic alone, Black said they would have a chance to see Ajiro soon.

Indeed, when they met by the round table some time afterwards (with Black, Red, and the real White also present), Ajiro was there and alive. However, he was seated in a wheelchair, unmoving and unresponsive, his eyes completely unfocused, like an empty shell of a person. White explained that they had been keeping him locked on the Russian space station Mir. No proper astronaut training and long-term isolation resulted in this sorry state. White claimed they had had no choice but to keep Ajiro in space, just like they had to drag Christmas through hell, and that it was all for the future of humanity.

It wasn’t impossible for Ajiro to return to his former self, but it would require everyone’s help. Maybe his friends would manage to break through the mental wall that kept him isolated from the outside world, and Ajiro would go back to being the JDC representative they know and love.

And speaking of JDC… White casually informed them that JDC had been created by RISE. Not directly created, mind you—that was Ajiro’s doing—but RISE had pulled all the necessary strings to cause the events to run like they wanted.

The Ajiro Family Murder Case, the Saimon Family Murder Case, the Geneijo Murder Case and the Locked Room Lord Murder Case, the bombing of JDC—all of them had more meaning than the detectives suspected.

If they wanted to know more, they should get around to bringing Ajiro back to his former glory.

No matter how much they talked to Ajiro, he wouldn’t respond, but they never gave up. They recounted their times together at JDC, both joyful and sad. They all stayed in the same room with him as long as they could, then established shifts.

Two weeks passed and nothing changed. They even got a pack of Ajiro’s favorite cigars and put it in his lap, but he still didn’t react.

At the end of a shift, Yaiba left the room to call the next pair, leaving Hyouma alone with Ajiro. Though Hyouma had stopped smoking a few years ago, in this depressing situation he decided to help himself to a cigar, which mostly resulted in a fit of coughing. Then he noticed something—tears were running down Ajiro’s cheeks. Unsure of whether or not this was just an instinctual reaction to smoke, Hyouma experimented some more, until Yaiba came back with Otohime and Nemu and yelled at him for tormenting the patient with smoke—but then Ajiro just slightly moved his finger. After a short time of Hyouma desperately calling his name, Ajiro slowly moved his hand, then wiped his own tears.

“...don’t have to be so loud…” he murmured. “...I can hear you…”

Ajiro’s mind was back in working order in a few days more, but he still had to undergo two weeks of physical rehabilitation. He told everyone that he’d been able to hear everything they said to him even when he couldn’t respond, and he promised to do his best to help them solve all the mysteries around.

At the beginning of June, they all sat at the round table: Ajiro, Hyouma, Yaiba, Nemu, Otohime, Maimu with Kuraimu, Diana, Christmas, and also Black, White and Red. With Ajiro around, it felt strangely like yet another meeting at JDC.

Ajiro recalled the day of the JDC explosion. He clearly remembered sitting at his desk, his assistant Mito Muramasa working nearby. Then came a rumble and vibrations like an earthquake—and then Ajiro was suddenly floating in a small room in outer space. He did consider the possibility that he’d been rendered unconscious by the explosion and then transported to space, but it seemed to him like there had been no lapse in his consciousness. He really was just instantly transported from Kyoto to the space station. But how?

White only replied that there was a lot the guests didn’t know about the world. When people saw something they couldn’t understand, they would often give up on thinking and just believe in transcendent beings.

White tried to move to the topic of Beasts and Gods (or rather, those two groups and a third type that is neither), but he could see that Ajiro was more interested in how much influence RISE had on JDC, so Beasts and Gods would have to wait.

Ajiro could see how RISE could have been the masterminds behind Geneijo and the Locked Room Lord. But what could they gain from the family cases of the Ajiros and the Saimons? It’s true that his own family’s case had inspired him to create Nihon Tantei Club. It was also the first time he came in contact with Saimon Ryuusui, which would lead to getting involved in solving the Saimon murders.

White added that after that case, Nihon Tantei Club was renamed to JDC. Both the organization and Ajiro became famous as the ones who solved “the crime revolution” that was the Saimon Family Murder Case. Basically, had that case not happened, JDC would need much more time to become well-known.

All those great cases also led to Tsukumo Juku becoming famous and revered. The one who contributed to solving the Saimon Family Murder Case! The one who solved both Geneijo and the Locked Room Lord! Propelled by the trust and popularity given to JDC and Ajiro, Tsukumo Juku quickly gathered recognition as the God of Detectives.

And that was exactly what RISE wanted. They needed to raise Tsukumo Juku to become the world’s greatest detective so he could stop the Crime Olympics. That was RISE’s end goal, after all—it’s not them who wanted to kill everyone, but “the union of 666 worst evils”, Akuren.

(This was the first time the detectives heard the name Akuren, so Black Rook explained more about it—see Black Rook’s testimony from earlier.)

Way back when, RISE realized that Akuren was about to attempt the destruction of humanity once more. RISE got their hands on the Crime Olympics plan so they could hopefully mitigate the impact. Back then, the plan was a bit different; the Crime Olympics were supposed to start in July 1999 and last seven months, resulting in the human race being wiped out by February 2000. The Crime Olympics were eventually moved to three years earlier.

In order for RISE’s own plans to work, they had to keep Akuren’s trust, and so had no choice but to really prepare the Crime Olympics using their trump cards of Alive, the Billion Killer, and the Cosmic Bomb. Thankfully, Akuren didn’t plan on killing everyone instantly—they wanted to drown humanity in evil and despair first—and they determined a time limit before the Cosmic Bomb would drop.

Akuren wanted to make sure everything would go smoothly, so they sent one of them to oversee RISE’s actions—a man with the code name Tsukumo Jaki. He was actually White’s younger brother, Endou Masato. The detectives may have known him as their fellow Yakuma Suzume (actually an imposter).

Christmas wondered whether that minotaur “Great King Enma” he had met wasn’t also this fake Yakuma. According to legends, if you lied to Lord Enma, he would cut off your tongue. This could be connected through a wordplay to the Tongue-cut Sparrow, Shita-kiri Suzume, the same folk tale that Juku had used to guess that Jaki was Yakuma Suzume. Also, the first kanji of the name Yakuma (役間) could be read as en, making the entire name Enma. (Again, this seemed like just another strange wordplay, but knowing all that stuff about R Language…)

What about the horse mask man and the deer mask man that had assisted Enma? Otohime recalled that the short story Another Joker had a horse and a deer in it. That was specifically a man-eating horse, so maybe it was a hint about all the cannibalism in Shangri-La.

Lemuria admitted he’d been the one wearing the deer mask. He stated he was actually Jaki’s loyal underling, and it had been on Jaki’s orders that he first entered RISE and became Red Knight. The horse mask man who cooperated closely with him and Jaki was someone the detectives didn’t know. He had stayed behind and died in Shangri-La, as his role in the plan had ended—just like the horse in Another Joker, he ended up reduced to a pile of bones.

All those animal masks… Why would Minase Nagisa wear a bull mask when she killed Juku? Sullivan explained that the mask was the symbol of RISE’s leader, something they had inherited from the organization before them. Similarly, RISE’s second and third in charge were a deer and a horse. The bull mask symbolized that the wearer’s actions were done in the name of RISE’s leader. Nagisa was chosen to kill Juku because of her hatred for the man and her familiarity with the terrain around Gensoukan, and though she died from Alive in the process, she managed to fulfill her mission. Jaki’s true goal in killing Juku was stopping RISE’s secret plans—preventing the God of Detectives from ending the Crime Olympics early.

But why would Nagisa hate Juku so much? Black explained that when Juku had solved the Locked Room Lord case, Nagisa’s brother Dakushoin Ryuusui’s name was irreparably tarnished. Juku even personally confronted Nagisa afterwards and stopped her from hiding critical evidence. Cosmic and Joker further hurt Dakushoin’s reputation. With all that frustration already present in Nagisa, Jaki just had to redirect it all towards Juku.

But there was another reason why Nagisa wanted to kill Juku, the same reason why Fuumonji Jouka was killed, and it would be protecting someone’s (the third writer’s) true identity—but that would be explained later.

Ajiro noticed that something didn’t seem right. If Lemuria Sullivan really was working together with Jaki, that is with Akuren, then why were Black and White casually discussing RISE’s plans right in front of him? White admitted that no matter how stealthy RISE tried to be, Akuren still managed to know their every step, so there was really no point in hiding their true goal anymore. Both groups knew the other was ultimately an enemy, but RISE was still useful. After all, it’d be hard for Akuren to achieve their goal without the Cosmic Bomb.

Ajiro stated that it all seemed to have a single point of origin to him, though he didn’t yet know what it was exactly. RISE, the Sanctuary, the Billion Killer cases, Alive, the Cosmic Bomb, Beasts and Gods… White only responded that they would learn everything later. For now, they would make a short stop in the Moonbow Palace, and then the detectives would be taken to Heaven / El Dorado in the depths of the Mariana Trench.

With this, the meeting concluded. When Hyouma saw the news afterwards, he learned that Yuiga Dokuson had disappeared after leaving a strange message that he was the Billion Killer. However, Black said that Dokuson’s actions had nothing to do with RISE, and that it was still too early to talk about the actual Billion Killer.

(And in the latest news…)

...the number of Alive victims have been falling since New Years and finally reached zero in July. It’s estimated that 240 million people died from Alive, making it the worst pandemic to date. WHO and CDC announce the end of Alive, but warn that it can possibly come back. It’s still unknown how the number of infections diminished so rapidly without a vaccine in place.

[>>>NEXT PART>>>]

#sparkly reads carnival day #maijo and jdc stuff #the plot thickens!

2 notes · View notes

someonefromseoul · 4 years

Text

Fuck Me.

Hello. I don’t know who or what I’m directing this to but I’ll just pretend there’s someone actually reading this. Temptation is a strong fundamental desire that doesn’t always have our best interest. Like that time you look in the mirror wishing you haven't had that donut for lunch, or that other time when you turn and toss, only to find yourself not being able to sleep at 4am from the nap you had earlier that day.

I feel like shit right now. I had oily ass bacon for breakfast, cup noodles for brunch, pepperoni pizza for lunch, ice cream cone for dessert, almond soy bean milk as my “work drink”, only to transition my day into a nap.

I feel bloated as fuck and my pimples are having the time of their lives, meeting new friends and such.

So this only leads me to my usual routine of self hatred and disgust for a solid hour, drotting down what the rest of my day will look like just to fool myself to thinking I’m productive, and get on Tumblr to waste more time complaining about my day!

Okay, but here’s the deal. I really do want to get better again. I stopped working out ever since my gym closed down from that fucking coronavirus (yes, I am that spoiled and self centered only to be complaining about my gym closing during this time of crisis) which has been a couple of months now.

I had diet fillers on my chin area to get rid of my chin fat right before the quarantine. That was a fucking waste of money since my double chin is back.

Anyway, my point is that I want to be somewhat sane again. My mind is literally going crazy over being stuck at home and I clearly don’t love my body enough judging by how I’ve been treating it.

I put a face mask earlier today. That’s a change. I’m going to work out starting NOW. In like a few hours. And I’m going to document the progress and process because I want to see the change and actually hold myself accountable if I don’t go through with this.

So this is the plan.

1. I am 51.8kg (114.2 pounds) right now. My goal weight is 48kg (105 pounds). Okay, so basically my goal is to lose around 10 pounds.

2. I just started an art instagram. Try to post three times a week. I want to have 10 followers by the end of May. And NOT by asking my limited amount of friends to follow. I want to connect with real strangers who are really there for my art.

3. My fucked up skin. Let’s try to clear that out as soon as possible as well. I know I have oily skin and a huge part of that comes down to what I consume. Let’s fucking please stay away from oily and salty food. Drinks permitted is only water, tea, and sometimes alcohol.

4. Speaking of alcohol, try to stay away from that. Which I’m doing a good job of these days because I’m “social distancing” (no friends). I’m going out tomorrow though but let’s really try to keep it like max 3 drinking nights per month. MAX. preferably once to none.

5. You can never single out alcohol when you’re a smoker. Hi, hello, I’m a smoker. I’ll write a post going more in depth about my smoking journey. Long story short, I’ve been smoking since August of 2013. So like 7 years already. I genuinely don’t know why I started it. Actually that’s a lie, I got into it because I thought it looked cool and I wanted to fit in. Sad, sad weakling I was. Anyway, I’m going to QUIT. I literally say this like merry Christmas to the point my friends just roll their eyes at me whenever I say this. Like, let’s really try to make this a reality instead of this having to be that time I cried wolf again. LIKE PLEASE. For yourself, man. You know you’re getting old and it’s not like you have any more health to spare.

6. Work on my art project. You know which one I mean. I want to keep it on the down low. To roughly plan, I want to work on my portfolio around June July and August. but by June, let’s focus on instagram, enhancing my drawing skills from proko, and this personal art project I’m not going to specifically go into because it’s confidential. Let’s call it Arty. So yeah, finish Arty.

7. My relationships. Mind you, I’ve never seen a therapist because I’m not financially independent and it’s a taboo subject to bring up in Asian culture. At least with my family. So no, I haven’t been professionally diagnosed, but who needs a doctor when we have google, right? So to preface, this is not a legitimate claim I’m making. But I strongly think and believe that I have anxiety; especially social anxiety and an avoidant personality disorder. I definitely deal with SOMETHING-I do plan on going to a therapist the moment I get the chance to, which is hopefully, soon. Anyway, getting back on topic. I want to work on my relationships with my friends and family because I’ve literally been in my shell for the past couple of months. Avoiding people at all costs. Not healthy at all.

8. My mental health. Probably the most important one. If this was a meat house and I could grade my health, I would give it a B+. Definitely not a S, not exactly an A either-but on the fence between A and B. Not quite A- but more of a B+. I don't have any serious health issues but I’m not great either. I feel slightly uncomfortable when breathing, my mind is foggy, and I think I might have hemorrhoids soon. Literally keeps me up at night because it frightens me-I constantly flex my butthole just in case things might peep out (sorry for the TMI but this is my fucking blog so deal) (me still pretending like someone’s actually still reading this shit post) I lose sleep over it, don’t even get me started. Anyway, if my body health is a B+, my mental health is probably around a B-. I don’t think it’s around the C level, but it’s definitely below average (average being a B). It’s at the verge of either becoming average or enter into the C level. A or S is obviously out of reach with my potential right now. But I want to get to an A; possibly to a S some day. Some day. A girl can dream. Anyway, how I want to go about this is to keep writing on this blog. Because I have a fake ass personality, I literally hide my real self to everybody. Kinda psycho like that. At least this little spot can be my safe space where I can get all my genuine shit out. To be serious for 2 seconds, I think I’m fake to people these days because I don’t feel comfortable being completely myself. My self esteem really plummeted after I graduated high school. I’ve been shushing myself internally too-shaming myself about how stupid and weird I sound. I’ve been trying to press down all my negative judgements and thoughts because I didn't want to spread that kind of energy to other people which made me be fake positive all the time. That can be really fucking suffocating, guys. Those of you who know what I mean say I.

Anyway, I want to find my color again. I think I’ve been shushing and shaming myself for so long, I don't even know who I am anymore. Hopefully writing like this helps. And apparently physically working out does as well. Let’s try to aim everyday, maybe a lazy day per week.

Side note-Kakaotalk keeps spamming me about the sakura flowers and how beautiful it is, suggesting me to go see it. Um, hello. Can you stop harassing me with these insensitive messages? Some people don’t have friends to go with. And it’s quarantine season? Are you dumb?

9. My looks. which goes under self care as well. I’m not gonna lie, I think I’m a fairly okay looking girl. I’m going to change my makeup style because after not putting on makeup for so long and looking back at my old photos, I’ve seen my bare face for so long, I grew fresh pair of eyes to see how I REALLY looked prior to this quarantine. And I finally got what people meant by “your makeup looks obnoxious.” Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE makeup. I’ve loved makeup ever since I was a sophomore in high school. I follow many of the beauty gurus (how they used to call it back in the days. I think people call them beauty influencers or makeup artists now) from youtube and Sephora was my second home. My broke ass owns like majority of the urban decay naked palettes in exchange for eating kimchi and eggs for weeks with my poor college student self in exchange. Poor college student with a BEAT makeup look though.

Anyway, the point I want to get across is that I respect and love ANY form of self expression. There is no such thing as too much or too less (is that even a word) makeup as long as YOU feel good in it. I personally did and I enjoyed my extra caked face. But not anymore. Maybe on some occasions, but I just don’t feel like that’s me anymore. So I need a new make up look, and I literally want new clothes. I hate my freaking outfits. Going to invest in some soon.

I can’t really think of anything else. I want to go in further with some of the topics I’ve tackled today but I think that’s enough journal writing for today. If I think of anything else, I can always update later. I just fucking pray I don't get hemorrhoids. I don’t have it now but I’m just so paranoid because I literally sit down 25/8 and apparently sitting for an extended period of time continuously can cause hemorrhoids. And for some reason I keep feeling like I’m going to get it soon. Like my butthole low-key feels a little weird at times. Hopefully I’m okay.

#journal #selfcare #goingcrazy #self reflection #hate myself #thoughts #plans #life

1 note · View note

illegalastrology111 · 5 years

Photo

KARMA FILES -SuXXess 2020: MONEY & POWER

LIBRA

MONEY: With Uranus in Taurus, March 7th 2019 - July 7th 2025, affecting the house of joint financial partnerships, the past karma, secret enemies, legacies and endings, you can expect a lo of change in all the above areas, so that the Universe can bring new opportunities etc., into your life. There will be sudden separations/endings occurring, in addition to karma from the past that is unresolved, coming back into your life. Secrets will be revealed. At the core of is self-worth, because this house is ruled by Scorpio, which happens to be in your 2nd house of money, material possessions, self-worth and personal resources. Mercury will be in Scorpio September 20th - December 1st and retrogrades October 29th - November 2nd. This will be an intense time for karmic money matters that affect how you feel about money, how you make money and what you have accumulated with money so far. The retrograde will bring up past situations/people that haven’t been confronted or confronted properly so they can be resolved in order for you to move forward.

Taurus also happens to be the ruler of the 2nd house, therefore Uranus being in Taurus for several years will bring to the surface everything that you feel about Self, earning money and your unique talents. A very intense time for internal/external upheaval and self- introspection, which is needed to heal karma. Opportunities will come and go quickly, they won’t be permanent, but you should make the best of them and pay attention to the “lesson” the Universe is bringing to your attention.

Neptune in Pisces, February 4th 2012 -March 31st 2025 will be in your house of work, service to Self and others and health. This transit is indicative of the veil of illusion/delusion being lifted, so that truth/reality can be seen. You may not like what you see, but it will make you internally stronger and more capable to deal with life’s challenges. Events throughout this very long slow cycle, are there for you to see what you do/don’t do that creates karma, then leads to sorrow, self-undoing. Choices made that are not the highest and best. At the same time learning from past mistakes in this areas so they’re not repeated. In order for work to be successful and profitable, you must be realistic. Having a dream/vision is great, but there must be a strong solid foundation supporting them, otherwise they cannot be made tangible.

In addition, a lot of deep introspection will be needed during this transit, so that you can gain deeper insights into what went wrong. Health will become an issue too, as health issues that are hidden will be revealed for your attention. There will most likely be a necessary diet change during this cycle.

POWER: The Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Cancer January 10th, brought an ending of how you feel/relate to career, goals and ambitions, authority and power, at that time, especially involving women. This “ending” would have created significant change in your foundation of life on some level, hopefully for the better if you saw this “ending” coming on the horizon. This aspect would have had an affect on being powerful/powerless. Most likely connected to being a martyr, giving and getting little back in return. However, you may find yourself back in the same if not similar position around the New Moon Solar Eclipse in Cancer June 21st. If the past comes back to haunt you, think very carefully before saying yes, it could be a “test” from the Universe, to see if you have the courage to say no!

The Full/Moon Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius June 5th, marks the ending of the direction projects, plans and ideas have been moving towards. It’s time for a new approach and a broader outlook in order to see the possibilities available to you. When the New Moon Solar Eclipse on December 14th, heralds a new cycle for you to travel, expand horizons with projects/ideas. Opportunities that present themselves will also be a way of the Universe “testing” you to see what you’ve learned, if anything from past mistakes in the same area of life.

With the Nodes of the moon changing to South Node in Sagittarius, North Node in Gemini, May 6th - January 19th 2022. The South Node in Sagittarius will be urging you to look at the things you’ve chosen to believe, implemented and communicated to get your ideas/knowledge out to the world on a bigger scale. If it hasn’t produced the results you expected, it maybe time for you to learn a new talent to enhance what you have already created. One thing is for certain, you can’t continue on the same path and hope for success, you need to change course.

Venus will also move into Gemini, April 4th - August 8th, in your house fo good luck, growth, expansion, travel, higher learning and beliefs. Venus in this house indicates a change of appearance to attract a different more positive response than you’re currently receiving form others. You may not see this immediately, but when Venus retrogrades, May 13th - June 25th, it’ll become more obvious. Also work on broadening spiritual understandings of life, then applying them daily, with positive affirmation.

When Jupiter moves into Aquarius December 20th, into your house of creativity, happiness and risk for one year, you can expect unexpected surprises that may require you to take a gamble that could bring positive results or fail miserably, Discernment and forethought will be needed to help you decide whether to move forward or not.

The Full Moon/Super Moon in Libra April 7th, will bring an ending of how, up to this point you’ve presented Self to the world and how the world sees you/treats you. Any image changes you implement should be well thought through, so that you’re seen at your best and as a result attract prosperity/positive people into your life, who will be willing to help/support you. This is a cycle of the caterpillar turning into a butterfly, empowering you to come the person you always wanted to be and deep down knew you were.

The Harvest Full Moon in Pisces, September 2nd, will initiate a “wake-up call” in the area of work, where the “veil” is finally lifted and you’re able to see the truth/reality of what has been going on around you, as well as people in their true colors. This is a sign, that the type of employment you’ve been doing up to this point is over and you must look to greener pastures that serve your needs and pay your worth.

2020 will be a challenging year of being “tested” by the Universe. Life will therefore, sometimes feel like an uphill struggle, especially if you’re not too self-aware or implement deep introspection on a consistent basis. A lot of the situations that will be faced are primarily karma. It is your choice whether you confront the karma or not. However, bear in mind the Universe is abundant and each person, on some level, is the Cause of the Affect in the their lives and we therefore “reap what we sow”. Stay away from negative scenarios and people that don’t have your best interests at heart, seeing clearly who is afraid or enemy, then the Universe can help to bring more positive individuals/situations into your life.. Ultimately, the absence of Light brings darkness..

KARMA FILE

Power struggles you experience this year are from the past. Individuals you’ve known before, as friends, siblings, relatives or in close partnerships. Therefore when you feel deep tension or antagonism towards someone, or they to you, know this has happened before and is carried over from previous incarnations. The best course of action, is to not continue the pattern of conflict, but to instead demonstrate reasonable tolerance and understanding towards them. By taking a different approach and deciding to not perpetuate the friction of the past, you send a message to the Universe that you’re ready for healing to happen and a more positive experience/people to come into your life.

SCORPIO

MONEY: With Mars entering your house of work, service to Self and others, June 29th - November 14th, you might be motivated to start a new project or business idea. However, Mars will retrograde, September 9th - November 13th, which is an indication of success being short-lived, fraught with conflict and delays. it would be better to wait until December to start anything new or even January 2021. Unless you feel that it would be a small stepping stone to help your progress in some way, it’s not advisable to take the risk. Retrogrades bring more successful results if they are used for internal growth/progress without any outward reward. At the same time avoid taking on jobs that involve working very hard for very little money, this may well be the case during or around the retrograde cycle,

Venus will be in Gemini, April 4th - August 8th and retrograde, May 13th - June 25th. This is the perfect aspect for projects, plans and ideas to make money, except when the planet is retrograde. This particular transit falls in your house of joint financial partnerships, the past, secrets, karma, the hidden and legacies. Therefore, if you join forces with others anywhere close to the retrograde cycle, it will be hard to get enthusiasm for your idea, let alone make money.. Individuals from the past, that are intense in nature and carrying karma, will return for things to be resolved, so that situations can be healed and progress to begin. Things will become more complex when the Nodes of the Moon switch to North Node Gemini, South Node Sagittarius, May 6th 2020 - January 19th 2022. These Nodes affect everyone on planetary scale as wells individuals. Because the South Node - Sagittarius falls in your house of money, material possessions, self-worth, personal resources, you really have to give serous thought to your own beliefs about prosperity, making money and how you go about earning it. Somewhere in your perspective is a stagnant viewpoint, that is causing the block and flow of abundance. Ask yourself if you really believe the Universe is abundant and you know what the public wants, or have formed partnerships with the right people to help you achieve goals. If you’re stagnating, there’s your answer.

The North Node in Gemini is for you to learn/understand how the past affects the present and future and if you ignore past lessons or keep repeating them stagnation will be the result. You have to communicate in some form, to someone or in a journal these deep hidden thoughts, karmas, feelings that you still hold onto snd thin about. The “truth will set you free”. This truth must be about yourself. By being honest about everything you’ve accomplished so far, the person you’ve become and how you got to this place, you’ll be on track towards a more prosperous path.

When the Full Moon.Lunar Eclipse occurs in Sagittarius June 5th, be prepared for a change in finances, the way you earn money. It maybe necessary for you find a mother form of employment or add to an existing one because things are not working out as planned. It’ll take to the end of the year for things to being to sort themselves out.

The New Moon/Solar Eclipse in Sagittarius, December 14th, highlights a new money-making offer, that takes you out of your financial comfort zone and also in front of the public. It’ll be a chance to learn something new and add this knowledge to your exiting talents, which will bring financial increase.

POWER: With Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter all in your house of projects, plans , ideas and learning, everything you’ve learned so far is being “tested” You must be wiling to let go of everything you learned from childhood and be wiling to implement new knowledge. This is the time to confront fear, insecurity doubt and old molds of thought, that have-not place in your current journey forward. The structure of your ideas etc., needs to change, your business model needs to change your mind needs an overhaul. A retreat wouldn’t be a bad idea, to help this process along. It can be done if the willingness is there. Change is not easy, but for Scorpio its necessary so that you can be true to your sign. The symbol of the Phoenix arising from its own ashes.

For Scorpio, 2020 is a year of transformation, rebirth and healing. If the desire for this to happen is there it can and will happen. All the retrogrades of 2020 are cycles to support a lot of inner cleansing to take place, so that the results manifest positive healing, a new path and direction. The choice is an individual once, therefore choose to the very version of Self you can be.

KARMA FILE

You must try to understand the concept of Cause and Affect, reincarnation and Karma. As incredulous as it all may seem, there is truth in these concepts. The past does make a mark on the present and future. This year take time to read and understand some of these concepts, because experiences you’re currently going through, are a result of events that continually repeat themselves. Karma ignored, never confronted. If you want improvement to happen you have to make more of an effort to take responsibility for thought, word and deed, and the affect on others. Ultimately, you are the Creator of your destiny.

SAGITTARIUS

MONEY: With Pluto, Saturn and Jupiter all in Capricorn and your house of money, material possessions, self-worth and personal resources, there’s no way your current form of making money won’t change over the next few years. You may have already seen/experienced old, established financial formats beginning to crumble/fall away. Fear, insecurity and doubt will all be there for you to confront where money is concerned. Try not to panic, take everything that occurs, feelings you experience, one day at a time one step at a time. Jupiter will magnify all your strengths/weakness concerning money and self-worth, so that you can begin to sort out what you want to do to increase prosperity.

Uranus in Taurus, March 7th 2019 - July 7th 2025, will bring unexpected events that cause career change guiding you towards using different talents to make money. When Uranus retrogrades, August 25th - January 14th 2021, you’ll have doubts about whether or not you’ve made the right choices/changes. Ask yourself whether or not you’re fulfilled in your current vocation? With this particular Uranus in Taurus aspect, reversal of fortune is likely. Therefore, you have the potential to make a great deal of money if you pick the right creative talent to be your earning powerhouse.

As soon as 2020 began you would have experienced joint financial partnership changing/ending, as feelings towards certain things aren’t the same as when the partnership began, courtesy of the Full Moon/Lunar Eclipse in Cancer January 10th.

The two Eclipses in your sign this year, first the Full Moon Lunar Eclipse in Sagittarius, June 5th, which highlights a change in the direction you’ve been moving towards, how you interact with others and their response. The second a New Moon Solar Eclipse, December 14th, will open a door of opportunity to present your talents in a new but empowering structure, start a new business and connect with new powerful people who will be wiling/able to help you get to the next level.

joint financial partnerships will get a boost around the New Moon Solar Eclipse in Cancer, June 21st, although this will probably be a call from the past, an offer to step back into familiar territory. Whether or not you choose to move in this direction, depends on if it will hinder future progress in any way, taking into consideration Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune and Pluto will all be retrograde, slowing down/hindering prospects of success and/or completion. A great deal of discernment will be necessary before making decisions concerning finances, recognition or business offers because there are so many retrogrades occurring at the same time. However, if you tread with care you’ll get through with few problems.

POWER: The Full Moon/Super Moon in Virgo, March 9th, marked the end of a certain career direction that no longer serves your needs. It’s up to you, to do the necessary work to create something new in the void. The Universe will help as long as you show a willingness to expand beyond your comfort zone, trying new things that stretch your talents/abilities. At the root of this is an issue of self-worth. You have to know and believe on a very deep level that you’re capable of achieving the impossible, moving into unknown territory without fear, insecurity or doubt. It is time for you to receive the recognition you deserve and present yourself as if you’re already successful.

2020 ends with Jupiter moving into Aquarius December 20th - May 14th 2021. The house of projects, plans, ideas and communication will be affected. This cycle is about thinking big, don’t be afraid to be more public with what you have to offer, at the same time putting yourself in situations to communicate your ideas to people, who will want to work with you.

Even though 202 is a year of turbulent/change, it will be worth it in the end. You can’t stay stagnant forever and you deserve to be paid for your talents. Speak up and ask for what you want and let people see what you can do.

KARMA FILE

It’s important in 2020 to gain more self-awareness and understanding of the fact we are all linked, therefore what affects one person will affect another. You’re not an island unto yourself, where actions have no consequences. A great deal of what you’ve experienced so far and through 2020 is because you have a tendency to ignore this fact., or pretend certain scenarios don’t exit. Once you’re able to integrate this concept into your everyday life, things will slowly but surely get better. Remember, for every action there is a reaction and if you leave things undone, you’ll find your life will start to completely unravel.

#libra money #libra success #libra karma #scorpio money #scorpio success #scorpio karma #sagittarius money #sagittarius karma #sagittariius power #sagittarius usccess #libra power #scorpio power #karma in horoscopes #karma in astrology #understanding karma #definition of karma

1 note · View note

comicteaparty · 5 years

Text

January 4th-January 10th, 2020 Creator Babble Archive

The archive for the Creator Babble chat that occurred from January 4th, 2020 to January 10th, 2020. The chat focused on the following question:

What goals do you have going forward with this new year for your story?

carcarchu

well i basically have the same goal every year which is to cover more ground, i made the mistake of making my first comic be a super long 3 part epic so it feels like it's going to take me years to make it even part way through when i try to make my chapters longer however it generally leads me to feeling burned out so i still have a way to go when it comes to finding the right length per chapter that i can put out consistently

LadyLazuli (Phantomarine)

In Phantomarine (http://www.phantomarine.com/), this year I finally reach the chapter where all my main characters meet and start interacting - it's where the story truly kicks off. I've spent almost 2 years in setup/exposition mode, and I finally get to exit it properly. I'm so. SO. Excited. And I really want to take my time and do it properly. It's about to get very fun for me, and I hope it will show in the work!

Cronaj

My goals mainly consist of reaching page 100. I'm over 1/4th of the way there, and I believe I can get there before 2021. I also want to reach the introduction of one of the main characters, but I don't think that'll happen this year. This character doesn't appear until the end of Ch. 5, which is somewhere around page 170-180. Am I waiting too long to introduce this character? Absolutely.

eli [a winged tale]

I am almost halfway through Arc 1 and almost at 10% of the story Looking forward to chugging away at it and hope to reach the First Plot Point by the end of the year

kayotics

I guess one of my goals is to reformat chapter 1 for printing (I drew it at the wrong size), and then update chapters 1 & 2 for colors. I’d like to compile the first four chapters into a book, but I’d like all the chapters to be visually similar in color at least.

Tuyetnhi

Gonna try to finish two chapters this year and clean up ch.1 and 2 for printing its gonna be a lot of work but I know it can be managed~

snuffysam

In terms of where the main story will go - Book 3 just started, and Chapter 1 should be finished mid-March. Chapter 2 will be finished early-mid July, maybe even late June? Chapter 3 will be finished sometime in September. And then it's Chapter 4... which won't be finished until like June 2021 lol. But anyway, by the end of the year we'll be introduced to all the important characters of this arc (though we won't have had much time with some of them). Including a character who's so important, I'd almost call them the deuteragonist of the entire comic if not for the fact that they're only showing up 700 pages in, lol.(edited)

Past the actual story aspects - the comic will be celebrating its fourth birthday at the end of February! And, given that the first page of the comic was started on a leap day, it's technically the first birthday the comic has actually had. The upcoming short stories for the year are some of my favorites so far, so that's exciting. I'm also interested to see how the shipping contest & fan-art contest turn out. We'll also be reaching page 750 at some point this year, which is a pretty big milestone.

Deo101

I have a goal for my second comic to get it off of hiatus, and for my main one I would really like to make improvements in the areas I've received critiques! Mostly, I just want to keep making them for another year <3 I don't really have any goals other than to keep on going with it

(also, a preemptive congrats on four years!)(edited)

AntiBunny

Well, having fully reuploaded my archives, I'm letting them update gradually to hopefully attract a new audience over on comic fury. When it catches back up I intend to finish up Chapter 10, and with it book 2. Then I'll finally launch book 3, Coast to Coast, which will allow me to tell more different stories by changing locations.

Kelsey (Kurio)

Hey Vinnie! How goes it?

AntiBunny

Still chugging along.

Holmeaa - working on WAYFINDERS

The big goal for Wayfinders off course is first of all to launch! In start February (we will find a date today iiih!!) Then at the end of 2020, if everything goes accordingly we should have produced 7 chapters enough for a book Ah! This is all so exciting

Cap’n Lee (Flowerlark Studios)

Pretty much my goal is to just keep swimming. I hope to complete more chapters this year. I should be able to finish chapter one of my comic, Eryl, unless I have to take a long hiatus (which, honestly, is looking very likely). Ashes is less time intensive than Eryl and the chapters half as long (only 16 pages each; Eryl chapters are usually 30-35 pages), so I’m going to try and finish at least two, if not three chapters before 2021. But honesty, just getting what I can done and continuing to push forward is my biggest goal.

Mei

I only started My Husband is a Cultist last year in April (https://tapas.io/series/MyHusbandisaCultist) and my goal is to reach that first year anniversary and to keep the train rolling for this comic! I initially wanted to have the rest of this arc completed in 2020, but I've decided to be realistic as I will be making a grad film at the same time (yay), so I just plan to do as much as I can, and to at least have Chapter 4 completed before March, and maybe Chapter 5 after that! I have a lot of story I want to tell and it's hard to stay focussed on it, but I'm doing my best, doing a little at a time!

Phin (Heirs of the Veil)

My goals are mainly to become a little quicker and finish the second book in time for the Heirs of the Veils (http://heirsoftheveil.fervorcraft.de/) fourth anniversary next October. Story-wise we want to have all the bits and pieces in place to slowly approach the actual meaty parts of the comic and prepare well enough to finish it in the coming 3 years.

FeatherNotes

Our goal is to have our book fully edited, with help from editors and friends, so we can be more confident in it's true rendition. Im not one to stick to making pages perfect, but there are definitely parts that could use some attention! Other than that, book 4 is on it's way and it's always a main goal to get to print for upcoming cons!

varethane

My goal this year is to get to the end of the first arc of Wychwood! After a year of working on it, I'm roughly halfway there. I'd also like to lern 2 colour better.

Capitania do Azar

This year I hope to get a new book out!! That would be great and also you know, just keep going. If all goes well I can get a chapter out until the end of the year and that'd be cool (but also perhaps a bit too hopeful, since my chapters have started to...get bigger with time..)

SAWHAND

This year my goal is to start posting the comic! And, if it works out, I'd love to get the whole thing thumbnailed out by the end of the year. Fingers crossed!!

DanitheCarutor

My goal is to finish chapter 5 in less than a year. Up until now it's taken a year to finish a chapter thanks to work, chores and the occasional procrastination spell. But in December I quit my depressing job that was a two hour drive away, so I'm hoping to be more productive, even if I get part time work somewhere in town.

twothirty

along with finishing chapter 6 and 7, im also hoping to have all of book 2's script written and edited~

renieplayerone

My goal is id love to get the first chapter or two of kate blast printed

#ctparchive #comics #webcomics #indie comics #comic chat #comic discussion #comic tea party #ctp #creator interview #comic creator interview #creator babble

1 note · View note

icypantherwrites · 5 years

Text

Looks Like I’m Making a Zine! (Survey Results & Outcomes) ♥

First off, thank you so much to those who for participated in my interest survey. Your feedback is the reason this project is being given the green light and helped me to determine some of the larger details and schematics of it.

Let’s go over the results :D

45 of you said you would be interested in the idea of purchasing a zine, and considering I was aiming for about ~50 copies for the base goal that seems rather sporting. To those of you who voted against, thank you for your honest answer. As much as one would love to see a poll of only yes’s that’s not realistic and I appreciate you helping me round out the results :)

30 individuals and 60 percent majority voted for the option of having the zine feature old content and a few new pieces that would be later published online. As you can see, there was a close divide between the two other options, although the zine only content was the low vote getter. With all of these in mind, the zine will be publishing several zine exclusive pieces that will then publish online at a later date. To all those who said they just wanted a physical copy, nothing extra required, you are so sweet ♥

I was incredibly touched by the large number (21 individuals with 42 percent majority) who wished to spend the highest dollar amount of $25USD, which would result in roughly a ~70k word zine. Taking both that large percentage and the other two votes, I think at this point the zine would be priced at $22 USD with an approximate word count of ~58k, which would result in two zine exclusive pieces and that could change based on stretch goals. Please do note that the $22 does include shipping inside the U.S. (first class USPS with tracking). International orders will have an extra shipping cost tacked onto that.

I would love to offer the higher word count zine per the majority vote, but I don’t want to dissuade those that selected the $15 option with too large of a jump and $7 isn’t too much, especially given the extra content, and hopefully not too much either for the $20 group. Feel free to drop a comment below if you have different thoughts on this as this number is not set in stone until I finish designing the book and pre-orders go up.

I was both surprised and touched at where the majority fell here. It means a lot to me that not only are my chosen charities accepted but that so many of you care about where your money is going ♥ I always do my research when donating as I want to make sure the money goes to the cause, not the chairman, so this was pleasant. A poll with options will be put up at a later date as we move along and you guys will determine which charity we ultimately pick.

To note, while a good chunk of this zine’s earnings will be going towards the charity, a large portion will be going to both production and shipping costs (and service fees associated with those things) and I will also be partaking in some of the profit as it is a book of my works and also all of the design work and time being put into this project.

What next?

What next indeed. Now that we’ve gotten an idea of the length and the cost I am going to start selecting stories to be placed into the zine (officially titled “A Collection of Langst”) and begin layout design. I am doing the story selection on my own to make sure there’s a range of both types of angst and other characters involved with Lance, but depending on stretch goals later you could have the option to select additional fics.

Given that there will be (for now) two zine exclusive pieces I’m going to be reaching out to your help in determining the plot/trope of those. Tumblr will be choosing one piece and members of my Patreon will be voting on the other (and if you happen to be both, whoot whoot!) Those pieces will each be between 2k-5k words; I’m not locking into any set number at this time.

I’ll be setting up the above charity poll as well soon too as I’d like to give everyone time to look into the options and vote for the one you like best. ♥

I will also be creating a few stretch goal items based on pre-order sales that could result in additional content being added to the zine at no extra charge to you. These items could include both already published content and new pieces.

Timeline wise I could see this project entering the pre-order buy phase beginning in early May because I have no stop button and just go go go all the time. Dates will be communicated as we progress and pre-orders will remain open (via BigCartel) for about one month. My goal would be to ship these out to you come mid-late June / early July.

Other zines in the works?

This is my first foray into this type of thing so I’m not trying to go too crazy. If, by chance, there is a lot of interest I could always create a “Volume Two” of even more Langst deliciousness later in the year (or even next).

Color will not be being made into a zine as it is far, far too large, but if there was enough interest both Sin and Hope could be considered for their own publications. We’ll see how this all goes first and make a decision at a later time. But you may be seeing an interest poll sometime around summer for those items.

Thank you all again for your support of this project. It means so much to me that so many of you are interested in purchasing a physical copy of my works. Bodes well for that novel, eh? ;p I’ll stop spamming the page (other than a couple reblogs of this) with zine content for at least a few days as I prep on my end, but look forward to some posts in the coming weeks as we kick off!

AO3 | Ko-Fi | Patreon | Discord

#Zine #A Collection of Langst #Voltron #VLD #Fanfiction #Fanfic #IcyPanther #Icypantherwrites #Icy's making a zine!#ahhhhh!#Lance #Langst #Angst #Whump #Lance fanfiction #Poll #Survey #Results #Survey results

35 notes · View notes

randomoranges · 5 years

Text

oTENTIK

aka Monmongaryweek day whatever - Vacation

[this is the last one without gary. i promise.] [inspired by a discovery i made a month ago. fueled by the fact that it’ll be gone by the end of the season. apparently three sentences went out the window on this one. it coulda been longer had i not gone the Usual Way]

With the purchase of the house and all the expenses that came with it, they had agreed that this year, for their anniversary, they would keep it simple and not go all out.

The fact that they even acknowledged their anniversary was a minor miracle, but they had agreed, a longer time ago still, that for this, it would be best if they were honest and actually admitted to liking the idea of having such a thing as a real and proper anniversary date and not skate around it and go out of their ways to make a not-gesture for the other and then skirt around admitting to actually remembering when All of This Had Started (Officially).

(It had been one August Afternoon – it had been rather nice outside, the weather pleasant, when Edward had Returned for the New Scholastic Term. They had talked About Things and had Admitted to Things and there may or may not have been Tears, but they had been of the Happy Kind so it had all Worked Out and it had ended with a walk to the ice cream parlour.)

It was easier this way, they had agreed, and it was also nicer to actually have this. (And there were times when Étienne still couldn’t believe that he actually had such a thing as a proper anniversary date – but he did! And he loved it. Whether or not he actually admitted to loving it was an entirely different matter, but Edward knew – he knew because he felt exactly the same.)

They had friends who liked to say it was minor miracle they had actually managed to get together, but that they deserved each other – idiosyncrasies and all – they weren’t wrong.

There was, of course, an addendum to the whole “keeping it simple” and “not go all out” bit – because there were always exceptions to the games they played.

With the years, between Étienne who loved nothing more but to spoil Edward rotten and to shower him with all sorts of attention and who had – apparently – made it his lifelong mission to take Edward out on every and all authentic Montreal experience, and Edward who wanted nothing more but to make Étienne smile, they had agreed that for their anniversary, to save each other the frustration, they would either plan the evening together, or, if one of them had a Great Idea, they would have to warn the other, and they couldn’t be the one in charge the following year. Or Something Like That.

(There had already been too many insistences of Double Booking to last a lifetime and even though they had laughed off each and every one – to some extent – the idea of actually Knowing what they were doing outweighed everything else – that and one memorable argument that they didn’t necessarily want to relive ever again.)

For the most part, it worked.

Now, even though they had agreed to keep it simple, due to the expenses of the house, last summer, on one innocuous day, Étienne had gone out with his sister for one of their “twin-dates” as they liked to call it and upon their urban exploration of the city’s finest abandoned buildings from the glorious industrial past, Étienne had discovered the most charming of little camping sites, nestled right in the city, by the Lachine Canal.

Seven little huts reminiscent of wooden cabins were dispersed on a patch of grass, away from the city, yet right in the heart of it, the Old Port at one of its edges, Grain Silo 5 behind it, and a breathtaking view of the city’s skyscrapers further away, while surrounded by the quietude of trees and the park. Étienne had been utterly charmed and surprised he had never heard of such a place. He’d been reassured by the helpful staff member that this was only their second season and Étienne’s mind had already been running with possibilities. He’d collected all the necessary information, thanked the man, and then proceeded to gush about this great discovery with his sister.

At the end of the day, while Edward had been taking a shower, Étienne had done some investigation, wondering if he could rent out one of the cabins for the weekend of their anniversary and surprise Edward with a little weekend getaway – just the two of them – or rent out any other weekend, if possible, but to his great chagrin, every cabin was booked solid for much of the summer and the only availabilities he was able to find didn’t match up with their schedules. He mourned the possibilities of what could have been for a moment, and then made himself a reminder on his phone for the months of February, March, April, May, June and July so that he could check and not miss his chance for the following year – and he hoped this little camping ground would return as well.

Fixated as he was on this, Étienne made sure to check the moment the new year rolled in and he tried to select the unit and the weekend he wanted every so often, until finally – sometime towards the end of March, reservations opened and Étienne jumped on his chance. He booked for the two nights, paid in full, made himself another reminder on his phone, and then proceeded to tell Edward that they had plans for their anniversary that very same night. Edward hadn’t been necessarily surprised that Étienne already had Plans and Ideas – because frankly, there was always something cooking up in that wonderful head of his, but his palpable excitement and extreme vagueness over what exactly they would be doing certainly added to the mystery of it all.

It was very hard for him to keep it a surprise and Edward’s curiosity and incessant asking certainly did not help.

But somehow, he managed.

(And retrospectively, Étienne was so very glad he managed to get a reservation, for it turned out that this was the last summer that this camping ground would be around and Étienne tried very hard not to have an existential crisis over it. In his opinion, it was such a shame and really unfair that this great thing was closing down after such a short run. But, he consoled himself, at least he would get a chance to go, unlike one of his friend’s who had been quite upset at the news and really jealous that he got to go – but that was an entirely different story. )

About two weeks or so before their anniversary – their sixth anniversary – and wasn’t that something, a sixth anniversary!, Étienne told Edward that they were going away for the weekend and Edward quirked an eyebrow at that and wondered, not for the first time, what it was Étienne was getting them into. Étienne brushed his boyfriend off, told him it would be good for them to get out of the house, away from the renovations and paint fumes and that fresh air would be beneficial to them in more ways than one. It was the only hint he was going to give and he just hoped that Edward would never piece it together.

Étienne planned everything – from the coolers, to their bags – he had made lists upon lists on his phone of what he needed to bring and had even set himself reminders, in case he forgot. He was forever thankful that Edward didn’t work from home and that Edward was a good soul who had learnt a long time ago to humour him and just roll with whatever scheme it was Étienne was running. It was better this way, they were normally good outcomes and – Edward liked to make Étienne happy. And Étienne looked really happy and excited at the prospect of spending the weekend together. Who was he to even dare dream of bursting his boyfriend’s bubble?

When Friday finally arrived, Edward was given very specific instructions to come and pick Étienne up at home, to hand over the keys, to change into something comfortable and then to sit in the passenger side of the car and nicely put a blindfold over his eyes – no questions asked.

Edward had many questions, but Étienne remained an enigmatic tomb of secrets and simply laughed (if a little nervously) when he pulled out of their driveway (because they had one now) and then followed the GPS on his phone to the campground.

(And Étienne was oh so thankful he had remembered to mute the device – at this point, he was so close to his goal of keeping this a secret that it would have been a really stupid way to spoil the surprise and he would have never ever forgiven himself for ruining his own carefully crafted surprise).

Étienne thanked his lucky stars that the weather forecast called for warm weather, blue skies, lots of sunshine and pleasant evenings. He drove with the notion that this would be a really great weekend, that he would get Edward all to himself, that for the moment of one weekend they could get away from emptying out boxes, discussing potential furniture and crashing on their bed exhausted from spending whatever quality time they had cleaning and fixing and painting and rearranging, and that – hopefully – Edward would like the place. As they got closer to the campground, Étienne started second-guessing himself, realising that this wasn’t a grand place like some of the camping sites Edward had visited in his youth, that there was nothing prestigious about the place and by the time Étienne parked the car, he wondered if it wasn’t too late to turn back and call the whole thing off.

Logically, he knew he was being silly, but as he told Edward to stay in the car and not to peek his enthusiasm had given way to anxiety as he walked on over to the information cabin to retrieve the keys for cabin #7. When he came back, he bought himself some time by unloading the car, brought everything over to the cabin – thought of taking their clothes out, but then felt a little bad for Edward who was still patiently waiting, considering he had told Edward that he wouldn’t be long, told him to stay put and then walked back to the car and only took one small detour to have a smoke; he still had to give himself a moment to take a deep breath and remind himself that he was here with Edward, his boyfriend of six years, who rarely ever called anything Étienne did lame.

Still.

Étienne opened the passenger door, put on a bright smile, and then helped his boyfriend out of the car, “Here we are!” He said as he unfastened the blindfold from Edward’s eyes and held his breath as Edward blinked and then looked around himself, obviously confused.

“Where in the world are we?” He asked, trying to look for familiar markers – the drive had felt both long and short; they had taken the highway, for that Edward was certain, and there had been some traffic at some point, but other than that, Edward wasn’t able to gage how much distance they had actually covered and so it was hard to pinpoint a specific location as to where they could be – not that he hadn’t tried mapping out the streets in his mind.

Étienne gave him a moment, until it finally dawned on Edward, “Wait – isn’t that? That’s the skyline,” He said looking straight away and then turned to look back at Étienne, a million different questions running through his head, “And that’s one of those old decrepit buildings you love so much,” There was no bite to his tone, which was why Étienne nodded and grinned, a little hopeful, “Bouclé, I don’t understand – where are we? This doesn’t look like Montreal and yet, these are Montreal landmarks. Are we in some sort of alternate dimension?”

“Surprise!” He said, unable to keep it in any longer, “This is a Park’s Canada camping site! Right here, in Montreal!” If he sounded a little too enthused, Edward didn’t comment, still too surprised by the location of the place, “I know it’s not the majestic scenery of the parks in Jasper and that there’s no iconic view of the mountains – and I know we’re not even very far away from the city, but I thought it was pretty neat when I found this place – and I figured it could be pretty great? To get away? But still be close? It’s like – urban camping? Ish? Going to someone’s chalet up north? And it’s pretty quiet and secluded – and they have all sorts of amenities here and we can go walking through the park, or even walk on over to the Old Port – or whatever, it’s fine, and –,” He was babbling – badly. He knew it – but he did this when he was nervous and his hands were all over the place, tugging at the hem of his tank top one moment, pointing to the cabins the next, and the longer Edward remained quiet, the more Étienne feared that this had been a terrible idea and that this was lame, and kitsch, and that he had lost his touch with finding authentic experiences in Montreal, and –

“It’s perfect,” Edward finally said, a huge grin spreading on his face, before he balanced on his tippy-toes to press a quick kiss to Étienne’s lips, “You’re perfect – I love it, this is really great,” Étienne felt his face go hot all over, but he let out a breath he hadn’t realised he’d been holding, relieved that Edward did not hate this place, did not think this was the lamest place ever created on God’s green Earth, and that he seemed genuinely endeared by it, “Think you can show me around?”

That, Étienne could absolutely do.

They seemed to be the perfect words to get Étienne out of his slump as he nodded eagerly; Edward reached out for his boyfriend’s hand and thrilled silently when Étienne laced their fingers together, before locking up the car and walking towards their cabin, “I got us cabin 7,” He said, as though Edward was supposed to understand what that meant, “It’s on the edge of the camp grounds and secluded from the others – it’s like we’ll have our own little bit of island to ourselves – there’s even Adirondack chairs with a view of the Canal – Ed, it’s so gorgeous, you’ll love it!”

Edward had no doubt he would and had to take a moment to silently laugh at his boyfriend’s antics. Leave it to Étienne to find something so completely unique and so utterly romantic, even though he would never ever admit to being of the romantic kind. But Edward had realised with the years that Étienne’s understanding of what romance was and his outlook on what he did were two very different things and that Étienne aimed to please, at all times, and he rarely fell short.

“Here we are,” Étienne repeated for the second time as he revealed the cabin they would be spending the next two nights in. The cabin was larger than he had pictured and really did look to be a cross between a tent and someone’s little cottage up north. It looked incredibly cozy, seemed spacious enough that they wouldn’t be all over each other’s space and just as Étienne had said, the cabin was isolated from the rest of the grounds, accessible by a little footbridge and surrounded by a few trees. There was a breathtaking view of the city and the Canal and the Adirondack chairs Étienne had previously mentioned. Edward could already picture themselves sitting on those chairs, watching the sunset paint the sky in glorious colours and hues – it was a really nice thought and he looked forward to it already. He could already imagine waking up by Étienne’s side, falling asleep in his arms, and exchanging a dozen or so kisses as gentle moonlight filtered in through one of the many windows.

It was a good thing it was their anniversary and that he had all the excuses in the world to be this sappy and romantic.

“This is perfect,” Edward reiterated and let Étienne unlock the door to the cabin so that Edward could see what it looked like on the inside.

It was fairly spacious and Edward was impressed at the use of space an entire family could get out of the cabin. Up to six people could properly sleep in the cabin, what with the double bunk bed and larger four-person space underneath. Edward wondered if Étienne would have them sleep on the top bunk, what with the roof window that would allow them to watch the stars as they slumbered off, or if he would prefer to spread out over the space below – if they arranged the bedding in a specific way, they would have even more space than their current bed gave them.

Edward walked through the space and took inventory of the table and two chairs, the large windows overlooking the Canal and Edward immediately fell in love with the cozy atmosphere of the place. He noticed the bags Étienne had carefully packed and laughed when he found the cooler stocked full to the brim with food for their little weekend getaway, “Did you pack a barbeque?” He joked, when he found a container of marinating meat underneath the icepacks and ice cubes. Étienne rolled his eyes as he started placing the sleeping bags and blankets on the bed over the provided thin mattresses – it seemed Étienne wanted to splurge into the extra space.

“I didn’t need to pack a barbeque, they have all the necessary tools we can use – I figured we could make our food ourselves? But if you don’t want, we can always walk down to the Old Port... it’s literally one kilometer away – also, there’s no electricity here, so it adds to that rustic feel – I figured we could even shut off our phones and really connect with everything around us – I even brought my old camera for photos, but, like, we don’t have to if you don’t want.” That same sense of worry returned and Edward had to pull Étienne to him, sit on the cot for a moment with Étienne on his lap and looked up into his face to make him understand that he was absolutely charmed by this, he loved the idea of spending a weekend in this little cabin with him and that whatever he had planned would be absolutely delightful – rain or shine. Étienne relaxed in Edward’s arms – finally – and proceeded to list half a dozen or so ideas he had for everything they could do and that he wanted to do this weekend. The storm had been averted and after he helped Étienne settle the rest of their belongings, they headed out to explore the rest of the grounds.

“There are also pedal boats we can use to our leisure. We can do that later, if you want.” Edward nodded, linked his hand with his boyfriend’s and continued on with their little walk.

It was nice, walking with Edward, surrounded by the tranquility of nature and the view of the city. It was nice being able to link hands with his boyfriend and see the faint blush on his cheeks and Étienne wanted to stop for a second to frame the moment for himself. To catalog the way the light hit Edward’s hazel eyes just so or the way it coloured his hair a shade or two lighter – he was beautiful and breathtaking and not for the first time Étienne wondered what it was he had ever done to deserve such a kind and beautiful person in his life.

Étienne did stop, eventually, to take photos – to pull Edward for some when his boyfriend stepped out every time Étienne aimed the camera at him and Étienne laughed when Edward wrestled the camera out of his hands to take photos of him instead – to see how much he liked it – but Étienne indulged him and smiled prettily up at him – his smile bright and golden like the sun that danced on his skin, only making Edward’s blush darken a little bit more – only making him want to run his hands down sun kissed skin and cart every groove and every ridge – to map every little detail that made Étienne so unique to his eyes, but there would be time for that later, he supposed and for now he contented himself with documenting every one of Étienne’s carefree smiles as his boyfriend laughed and posed for him – for the camera he held up to cover his blushing face.

It was nice, by the waterfront, and after a nice dinner by it, Edward took to one of the Adirondack chairs and Étienne joined him moments later, forgoing getting a chair of his own. It was a good thing the chair was rather large and long, for Étienne decided that the best way to unwind after such a perfect afternoon was to sit with Edward, on the same chair, and to curl up in his space, making himself small in Edward’s willing embrace. They watched the sun slowly set in this position, relaxing and enjoying each other’s company without needing to use words to convey what it was they felt at the current moment.

It was nice – tranquil and quiet – and Étienne felt so very much at peace in Edward’s arms as the sun slowly dipped into the waters of the Canal, painting the skies in various shades and hues, giving its breathtaking spectacle to them and it almost felt like a private show, a special performance they had been invited to, and they remained there, watching, unmoving safe for gentle kisses Edward placed occasionally to the crook of Étienne’s neck and the soft caresses Étienne drew on Edward’s knee until the last of the sun’s golden rays bid them adieu for the time being, promising to return the following day, extending the invitation to them.

With the sun gone, however, the temperature dipped a few degrees and almost as if on cue, Étienne started shivering, goosebumps creeping on his legs and arms. He tried burrowing further into Edward’s body warmth, slipping his hands in the folds of Edward’s shirt, searching for pools of warmth and using any excuse he could to get even closer. Edward wasn’t even surprised – far too used to this happening on many given summer evenings – especially this late in the season – and instead he pulled out the sweatshirt he had thought to bring along to the chairs after dinner, and wordlessly handed it over to his boyfriend.

Étienne was ever so grateful for the item of clothing and only bothered uncurling himself from the warmth of Edward’s body to take the briefest of moments to slip the sweater on. He didn’t even bother to look at which sweater it was, so long as it was warm, and if it smelled of Edward, belonged to him or happened to be one of his boyfriend’s favourites, well it was only an added bonus. (Privately, Edward thought Étienne looked quite good in forest green and golden-yellow, but that was a thought he kept to himself and if he had purposely brought this sweater along in the hopes that Étienne would need a sweater, well he was only human.)

When Étienne resettled himself, his hands deep in the sweater’s pockets, Edward pulled up the hood over Étienne’s head, teasing smile on his face, and declared that he didn’t want Étienne to be cold. His boyfriend huffed, fondly annoyed, and only pushed it back a little so that he could see the shy stars reflected in Edward’s eyes. And if Edward tucked an errand curl behind Étienne’s ear and if Étienne’s face flushed ever so, they didn’t comment on it and instead settled in.

They stayed out and remained that way, entwined together, watching the night sky turn dark and fill up with stars, for quite some time. The Adirondack chair provided them with some comfort, Étienne served as a blanket of sorts for Edward – not that he really needed it, and Edward’s gentle caresses to Étienne’s back lulled him into a deep state of well being Étienne wasn’t sure he ever wanted to leave. They hadn’t spoken in hours, and yet Étienne felt as connected as he ever did with his boyfriend.

They were perfectly content listening to the singing of the crickets, the occasional muffled laughter coming from someone a distance away and the water that lapped the stonewalls of the Canal. It was a blessedly cool evening, which Edward was thankful for, even if it had more to do with the fact that Étienne was clingier than usual and less with the fact that it wasn’t still thirty-five degrees at nighttime.

Time no longer held meaning here in this little carved out place of paradise and Edward would have been content spending the entirety of the night out here. There was something incredibly soothing about the vast expanse of sky, the grass that tickled the sole of his feet and the even rise and fall of Étienne’s chest. He cradled Étienne close, no longer certain how long they had been out here and had it not been for the very deep yawn Étienne let out and the sleepy way he balled a hand into Edward’s shirt, after taking it out from his pocket, he probably would have stayed out until the first rays of sun returned.

“Hey, maybe we should go to bed?” Edward asked, his voice a low rasp after not using it for so long. Étienne gave a noncommittal grunt and only seemed to want to make himself more comfortable around the warmth of Edward’s body – try to find a way to crawl under Edward’s shirt and steal all the warmth for himself, “Come on, you can snuggle all you want in an actual bed.”

Étienne made to move and Edward thought for sure they were getting up, but it seemed Étienne’s body wasn’t letting him at the moment. Edward would have protested – would have gently pushed Étienne upwards, but getting up did seem like an arduous task and it was so very cozy out on the chair.

Edward couldn’t say how much longer they spent on that Adirondack chair – maybe another half-hour or more, but when he heard Étienne snore softly, he almost let him be, until he figured that Étienne’s shoulder would prefer waking up in a bed, instead of an Adirondack chair. With all the patience and care in the world, Edward nudged Étienne’s shoulder, until his boyfriend opened bleary eyes and frowned when he realised he’d been roused from slumber.

“Bed, up you get, Teddy,” It was testament to Étienne’s sleep ladled brain that he barely reacted to the nickname as he groggily unwound himself from the comforts of Edward’s body and tried his best not to fall face first into the grass as he got up.

Edward was quick to follow and then guided his boyfriend back to their cabin to retrieve their toiletry kits, before shepherding Étienne towards the general area where the toilets and sinks were, even though Étienne protested at the idea of having the walk so far, but Edward was adamant about dental hygiene and luckily for Étienne, Edward didn’t push him to shower – that could be done in the morning.

Edward made sure Étienne didn’t drown in the sink as he brushed his teeth and then made sure his boyfriend was leaning on a wall while he did the same, before he slowly walked them back to the cabin. Had it not been for the fact that Edward knew Étienne would freeze over the course of the next few hours, he would have stripped him of his day clothes and then tucked him into the sleeping bag, but Edward knew better and so he gently coaxed Étienne to remove the sweatshirt, “Only for a moment,” he promised, helped him with his shorts and tank-top, “Nearly there,” he cooed, and then helped him into his pajamas as Étienne trembled all over, “There you go, ready for bed.”

Étienne mumbled something in his semi-awake-half-asleep state as he pulled blankets and sleeping bag over him and the short amount of time it took Edward to change into his own pajamas was apparently enough for Étienne to doze back off to sleep. Still, Edward moved his boyfriend around for a moment so that he too could get comfortable, and he nearly laughed aloud when Étienne – now officially asleep – found a way to barnacle his way around Edward all over again.

Edward marvelled, as always, at how Étienne always found ways to wrap himself around him, but foolish it would be of him to push his boyfriend away. Instead, Edward gave one last lingering thought to the day they had spent and the man besides him, before he closed his eyes, and let himself be lulled to sleep.

It had been a really nice day, he looked forward to the next one, and he counted his lucky stars to have someone so precious as Étienne in his life. He was blessed, really, and couldn’t believe he was this lucky. Tomorrow, (later) was their anniversary, and he couldn’t wait to start the day by greeting his boyfriend and letting him know.

Étienne remembered the following day rather well. He remembered waking up early with gentle sunshine coming through the window. He remembered hearing Edward’s even breathing next to him and the surge of affection he felt for him in that moment. He remembered wanting both to go outside and greet the day – enjoy this other perfect summer day as early as he could and wanting to remain inside the cabin a little longer, until Edward would wake and greet him with his usual “Good morning, Beautiful,” that still managed to pink his soul and make his spirit soar every time.

Étienne had tried getting some more sleep – really he had, but his mind was already whirring into gear and the possibilities of the day kept him awake and alert. It took a lot of his willpower not to wake Edward, but it would have been cruel of him and rest was important. Instead, he’d done his best to remain as still as possible, not wanting to rouse his sleeping lover and he settled in to watch him sleep, mesmerized as always that this was a life he got to live.

Perhaps he did end up dozing, in the end, for when he next opened his eyes; he found Edward’s hazel ones looking at him with the most tender of looks. He’d stretched luxuriously, kicking off the blankets and sleeping bag, the cabin now perfectly warmed by the sun, before he burrowed right back beside Edward. Edward had laughed, soft and low, and had pulled him closer still, kissing the shell of his ear and murmured, “Happy anniversary, Beautiful,” which was a wonderful change from the usual.

Étienne had smiled, sleep still clinging to his soul, but his heart suddenly alert, awake and ready to make sure Edward and he had the greatest of days. “Happy anniversary,” He parroted back, grinning, carding his fingers through Edward’s sleep tousled hair and nuzzling their noses together.

Étienne couldn’t necessarily recall who it was that initiated the first kiss that morning, but even after all these years, he swore he could still remember the way Edward’s hands had felt against his warm skin – how he’d sought subsequent kisses that had left him yearning for a greater closeness and how he had thought to himself that if every morning could start this way, he would die a happy man. How breathtakingly gorgeous Edward had looked, there in that cabin by the Lachine Canal, lying next to him, (to him!), and how for a little longer, Étienne hadn’t minded staying inside, if it meant he could have Edward all to himself to love and cherish every inch of him – and how there hadn’t been a single worry running through his mind every time Edward looked at him.

It wasn’t anything they hadn’t done before – there had been a multitude of mornings that had started off in a similar fashion, but maybe the location, the occasion, the scenery, the company or a mixture and combination of all those factors had made it one of the most memorable mornings for Étienne and one he cherished deep within his heart even after so many years.

(There had been another one, years later, that would have normally topped this one – that by all standards would have been even better, but he supposed that by mornings alone, it had been quite spectacular and perfect, but it had been what had come afterwards that had tainted it forever – but that was a different memory and one he relived enough times in his nightmares that he tried his best not to think about it when he didn’t have to.)

Étienne couldn’t say when it was they finally stepped out of the cabin, but he remembered a quiet breakfast at the picnic table and a sense of peace and tranquility in him that he wished he felt more often. There were no real plans for the day other than a promise to spend it together and a vague suggestion of going for that pedal boat ride and many fond exchanges. Étienne loved the idea of having this large amount of time to just be with Edward without any great plans – with no rush to go anywhere or do anything specific – to have all the possibilities of the world in the palm of his hand and that if they so felt like sitting by the water in the Adirondack chairs for the greater part of the day that they could do just that and it would be perfectly fine.

And in the end, they did just that – in their own way and under their own terms.

Étienne had placed one of the Adirondack chairs facing Silo 5 and had decided to watercolour it in his sketchbook – a new medium he wasn’t particularly comfortable with but that intrigued him more than anything else and that he’d decided would be his summer project – the possibilities of errors and colour creation fascinating and he slowly set himself to work, while Edward pulled another chair close and found a book Étienne had packed for him. They didn’t need to talk or do the same thing – so long as they could share this same space it was more than sufficient.

Edward made sure Étienne remembered to drink and reapply sunscreen and handed him a dampened kerchief for his head when the sun was high in the sky and Étienne let Edward know that he had packed a small parasol, if it got too hot for him. Occasionally, Étienne would show his progress to his boyfriend – something that now felt perfectly normal, when for so long Étienne had guarded his art away from Edward’s curious eyes. Occasionally, they would stop and chat for a moment, Étienne half leaning over his chair to drape an arm or his legs over his boyfriend. Occasionally, they both wondered what would happen if this moment stretched on for just a little longer – if they ran off somewhere remote to read and paint for the rest of their lives.

Edward took care of lunch, recognising the concentrated posture of Étienne deeply engrossed in a project and knew that it was best to leave him be. He would have left him alone until Étienne decided that he needed a break, but Edward had learnt the hard way that sometimes, Étienne would and could spend more than an entire day working on a project and sort of forget himself in the process. It was only when the table was set and the food ready that he went to retrieve him from whatever creative world had trapped him in.

Afterwards, Étienne agreed to a break and a change of scenery, and so they walked up to the pedal boat rental cabin and set off on a different type of journey for the afternoon.

Étienne must have taken dozens of photos of the water, of the pedal boat, of the scenery and of Edward. Close-ups, wide-shots, shots that only made sense to Étienne, focused and unfocused ones, panoramas and the likes. Edward had even managed to wrestle the camera out of Étienne’s hands long enough to pull his boyfriend close for a selfie or two and they had both laughed when the photos had been less than stellar and it had taken them a while to remember how to get the both of them in the photo while using the camera. It was a shame laughter couldn’t be recorded on photos, but Étienne still remembered the way Edward’s laugh had been particularly bright and deep and how it had warmed his insides to see and hear him be so carefree and happy.

(The photos still existed – somewhere, in some photo album he had carefully arranged afterwards and they’d both looked back to it fondly from time to time. He still knew where the photo album was, but like with many things from Then he hadn’t looked back to that photo album in quite some time.)

Étienne tried hard not to think of the elaborate dinner he had organised for them that night – of the picnic table he had pushed underneath one of the trees, of the bottle of champagne that had chilled overnight in the cooler, of the nice tablecloth he had brought along or the (plastic) champagne flutes he had packed away for this very evening. Étienne had cleverly sent Edward away to grill the meat while he fussed over the presentation of the table, going so far as to elaborately fold over the napkins and if he’d prepared Edward’s favourite dessert for later, well so be it.

They had dined with the company of the setting sun, toasting their relationship, hoping for a long, bright future together, laughing over the shared champagne and excellent meal, tangling feet together and brushing fingers against wrists and forearms. They shared dessert together, afterwards, spoon feeding each other every second bite or so, and Étienne would have stopped time to bask in Edward’s presence for just a little longer, but instead, he contented himself with what he had – it was already so much more than he ever thought he’d ever have.

Edward could tease him all he wanted about old romantic bones and the like, but Étienne was a simple man who liked the finer pleasures of life and Edward happened to be one of them. If it meant that he was able to breathe a little freer every time he saw Edward smile, then he would do whatever it took for him to see that smile.

Normally, on any given day, Étienne didn’t mind having his brain picked by Edward about their common past. Étienne was always willing to sit with him and shed light on whatever muddled memory Edward was struggling with, but for some reason, Étienne was never able to speak about this particular anniversary. There was something about it that Étienne had loved reliving with Edward, before, and knowing that it was lost forever to him hurt in a way that he wasn’t able to pinpoint. It had been such a lovely and perfect weekend and to know that Edward had forgotten all about it – that nothing of that radiating joy, the laughter, or love had stayed with him, still made his heart ache.

And it was fine, really, in the grand scheme of things, there were many other tales to regal Edward with – what was one weekend – one anniversary weekend – when they had been together for years, almost two full decades – there was a lot to pick from and enough mementos from those times to help him remember some finer details as well, and his friend never seemed to dwell on specific events that Étienne didn’t bring up, because how could he, if he didn’t even remember them?

Étienne tried hard not to dwell on it.

Instead, he waited for Edward to join him and diverted the conversation to an entirely different topic.

-----------

also LOOK AT IT!:

#monmongaryweek #pc: montreal #pc: edmonton #Edward Murphy #étienne maisonneuve #au #fic #amnesia au #post amnesia au #pre amnesia au #idk which one to tag it as lamao #yeah yeah i know im predictable #but like after the prompts were released i was like EXCELLENT i can use this monster for that prompt!#look it's all about having stuff for the prompts - so wtv was around and ready...#spoons and knives lamao

3 notes · View notes

never-not-ever · 5 years

Text

Very long update post about work 😂

I started back in Arlington today! I don’t even know how to phrase it, new job? New job title? New job location? Lmao oh well... So for the past 9 years I’ve worked at the same grocery store but throughout the years I’ve been in different departments. In the spring of 2017 I started working in the florist department. I used to always help out during the holidays so I kind of knew a little but I learned a lot during my first full year in florist. In May of 2018 I went from part time florist clerk to full time florist manager and I ran my own department in the Arlington store for about two months. A manager in a different store was out on leave for a few months so a bunch of us got shifted around. Once everyone went back where they came from I became the full time “floater” and from September of last year to June I basically went wherever they needed me. I’d cover vacations, days off, be an extra set of hands during the holidays etc. In the 10 months that I’ve been the floater I’ve gone to 6 different stores, sometimes 4 different stores a week and even 2 different stores a day. Fun times! Kinda being sarcastic, kinda not. I learned a lot and I’m grateful for that opportunity but I am so beyond excited that I’m back in Arlington as their permanent florist manager! Last year when I went there I didn’t know how long it would be and to be honest by the time I left there I was in a pretty bad mental state and actually ended up taking a leave from work for July and August. I used to think that Arlington was too small of a store and that I was lonely and felt trapped like holy shit is this going to be what I do for the rest of my life?? But in these past couple months I’ve grown to miss Arlington and I’ve also come to the decision to go back to school and hopefully work in the mental health field one day. So now I’m back in Arlington knowing that it’s only temporary in the sense that yes I’m their permanent manager and I’m not going to be moved again but temporary for me personally because I have other goals that involve me getting a different job where I’m helping people and using my full potential.

So today was my first day back and it’s honestly a little stressful. As a floater I didn’t have as much responsibility as an actual manager. All the paperwork is a little daunting and every store is a little different with how they do certain things so I still have to learn some stuff. On top of the normal stress of a new location it’s inventory tomorrow and I basically spent all of today going through all of the previous managers storage and she had so much junk that she’s kept. Inventory itself is stressful because it’s all numbers. It’s simple in the sense that you just count everything that is in the department but stressful because if the numbers don’t add up like money out versus money in you could get in trouble if your inventory is extremely high.

BUT these next two weeks there’s lots of days off and relaxation ahead so I’m looking forward to that! My typical schedule is working 5 days a week, with one night shift and Sunday is optional but time and half so I usually work it. I’m so lucky that my new location is not only close to McLean but legit 5 minutes down the road from my new therapists office. As a floater I always requested to work Tuesday night and be off Thursday or vice versa. Therefore every other day I never knew what my schedule would be and it would always be different. Now that I’m a manager it’s going to be consistent and I’m so looking forward to that stability again! So basically...

Sunday: 8-2 (out early and extra money!!)

Monday: 8-5

Tuesday: group 9-10, therapy 10-11, work 11-8

Wednesday: 8-5

Thursday: group 10-11, off work

Friday: 8-5

Saturday: 8-5

These next two weeks though I’m only working a half day this Wednesday and then I’m off for the 4th and during a holiday week your day off can’t be a holiday so I’m off on Saturday as well. Then next week I’m off Fri-Sun causd I’m going away for the weekend up to NH with my girlfriend and her family for a wedding and I can’t wait!!

and that’s what you missed on glee

#personal #everytime my girlfriend tells a long story she always says ‘and thats what you missed on glee’ and now shes got me saying it🙄#but i love her 😂

3 notes · View notes

imperium-romanum · 6 years

Text

Welcome to 2019, everyone!

I spent the last week and a half at my family’s shack, enjoying the company of close family and friends, and Kali the #ClassicsCat, of course! I’m excited about the fresh start the New Year brings. 2018 was a difficult year for me personally. I haven’t talked about it on the blog because I prefer to focus on positives but as I prepare to face this New Year head on, I would like to reflect on some of the major hurdles that I had to overcome in 2018.

In January, my partner and I were forced to get a restraint order against my neighbour of six and a half years who became aggressive and threatening due to severe (suspected) drug-induced paranoia. We moved in with my parents while we went through the process to have the temporary restraint order confirmed. The restraint order was confirmed in February – a win – but we were not able to return to our unit. The local council, after 11 years of my parents owning the property, decided that our unit was not a legal dwelling. Bureaucracy at its finest.

During March and April, we fought the council for an explanation and started to try and resolve the problem. It seemed we were much more willing to work with them than they were to work with us, though. Shortly before the Easter break commenced my parents received a threatening letter from the council claiming that we were still living in the unit and that we would be fined approximately $20,000 AUD for the violation. This claim was blatantly false, but we still had to go through the process of overturning the impending fine.

We continued to try and solve the problem with our unit in May, but this was soon put on the back-burner when our cat, Kali, developed ketoacidosis due to undiagnosed diabetes. Within the space of 12 hours, she went from being her bright happy self to knocking on death’s door. She spent four days in constant care. I am forever grateful to my parents who paid for her care, which quickly tallied in the thousands. Without their compassion and love for her, we would have been forced to put her to sleep. I recieved many well-wishes during this time from followers, and I am thankful for the support and kindess you showed.

Left: Kali at AHVEC, weighing just 2.7kg. Right: Kali snuggling me and my fiance at a much healthier 4kg.

Kali's struggles weren't over, in June. She again visited the emergency vet hospital after getting into the bin, pulling out a wedged in chicken container, and eating the silicone absorbent pad while we were out for a half-hour at most. We still don’t know how she managed to do it! Thankfully it wasn’t serious in the end; she brought it all back up and suffered no consequences apart from all the dirty looks that my family gave her because of the panic she caused.

After a couple relatively quiet months, my fiancé’s family dog, Jess, also developed diabetes. She was not as lucky as Kali, however, and did not respond to treatment. Within weeks she went completely blind, among other problems. At only 9 years old, my fiancé’s parents were forced to make the difficult decision to put her to sleep. While I do not regret being there for them, it was the first time I had to deal with death in such a confronting way and it was a terrible reminder of how lucky Kali was to survive.

I hit perhaps my lowest ever point mental health-wise around this time. Although the semester was very rewarding, after such an intense period of balancing my personal life and commitments, PhD research, studying a language, and tutoring both academically and privately, I felt emotionally and mentally used up. The best way to describe how I functioned during this period is that I was on auto-pilot.

Although 2018 was undeniably the most difficult year of my almost 26 years of life, there were plenty of positives too. In January I completed my Confirmation of Candidature, which involved presenting a 20-minute paper on my research topic. Then, in February, I was very lucky to upgrade my car by 12 years. Again, I am very grateful to my parents and very aware of how fortunate I am that they are willing and able to assist me financially, with work flexible enough to fit in with a PhD being so hard to come by.

I entered my second year of candidature in late February. It was a reasonably uneventful couple of months until, over two days, I gave two more presentations in May – one at Pint of History titled ‘Catastrophic Crassus: Parthia, #EpicFails, and the Death of Rome’s Richest Man’ and one at the Humanities Showcase at my university, titled ‘It Speaks! The Voice of the Door in the Roman Paraclausithyron’.

I also secured a casual job at UConnect, UTAS’s student services. I had four weeks of nearly full-time work at the start of both semesters which allowed me to save enough money to get me through each semester.

In June, Kali’s glucose curve stabilised, much to ours and the vet’s relief; she has settled into diabetes life well ever since.

July was a month of firsts. I went to New Zealand for the first time and attended my first conference, Amphorae XII. At Amphorae XII, I presented my first conference paper, ‘Pompey’s Eastern Settlements: Considerations and Consequences’. I met some wonderful people, including some mutual followers! I also visited some of the sights, including the Auckland War Memorial Museum, Auckland Art Gallery, Hobbiton, and Hamilton Gardens.

When I returned from New Zealand, I enjoyed another four-week stint working for UConnect and, through the semester, I was also lucky to tutor the first years for HTC104: Introduction to Ancient Rome. This was my first time tutoring in an official capacity and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

When September came around, I received the good news that my abstract had been accepted for ASCS40. My fiancé and I were also finally able to move out of my parents’ house and back into a place of our own. The situation with our unit is still up in the air, unfortunately, but it is moving slowly forward. Still, it’s important to appreciate the small milestones, so to celebrate our return to relative independence we established a small succulent garden in the back area and grew far too many tomato plants.

In November, I reached a major milestone in my PhD journey by completing the necessary coursework element (what UTAS calls a Graduate Certificate in Research) of my degree. As a result, I now have the equivalent of a minor in Latin on top of the Certificate itself. Imperium Romanum also reached its first anniversary!

Finally, in December, my fiancé and I spent many weekends at the family shack enjoying the blessedly warm weather that usually skips Tasmania. Over the Christmas-New Year break, I went to the beach a record three days in a row. Sometimes, you just need to enjoy the simple things.

And so I must turn my attention to 2019. This, like the years before, will be another big one. I’m venturing into the third year of my PhD candidature in late February and, with the GCR finished, I’m looking forward to devoting my time to research. I’ll be attending not one but (hopefully) two conferences this year. The first is ASCS40, 4 to 7 February, at the University of New England in Armidale. It’s now only 33 days away – my funding was approved in December and I’ve booked my flights, accommodation, and hire car. As with Amphorae XII, I’ll be live tweeting the conference and blogging about my adventures in Armidale, which I have not visited before. I’m also hoping to attend Roman Memory: Pacific Rim Roman Literature Seminar 33 in July at the University of Newcastle – I’ll keep you posted on that one.

To finish up, I have a few New Year’s Goals that I would like to share with you. I won’t call them resolutions as I find that term comes with a lot of negative connotations; I’m not solving problems nor do I need to ‘better’ myself. Instead, I want to focus on enjoying all aspects of my life, from the private sphere to the academic.

1. Read more fiction.

I love reading, yet, over the last few years, I’ve noticed that I do very little reading simply for the pleasure of it. Because the last six years of my life have been so academically focused – having gone straight from a Bachelor to Honours to a PhD – I’ve spent so much time reading for university subjects and research that the thought of doing more reading, even fiction, is exhausting. I could probably count the number of new books I’ve read (that haven’t been set for a class) on my fingers. I’ve set myself the goal of reading two to three new fiction books every month – if I can read more, great!

2. Do more activities.

Last year, I went on a fantastic one-day road trip with two friends to Freycinet National Park on Tasmania’s east coast. Then, through December, I enjoyed many more small adventures with my fiancé. Even though I’ve never been particularly fit, I’ve always enjoyed the outdoors. Now that I’m equipped with some top quality hiking boots, I want to get out more – do more bushwalking, walk more rugged and rocky coastlines, and explore more of Tasmania’s wilderness.

I also want to spend less time playing computer games (much as I enjoy them), and more time making things. I’m no artist, but I still love to create things. I’m going to start off by making a pom pom rug in my Harry Potter house colours – Ravenclaw – to go under my desk. I won’t be posting my creations of Imperium Romanum, but I will be posting about them on Instagram and Twitter for those who are interested.

3. Participate in a ‘100 Days of Productivity’ challenge.

While I have a reputation for being a productive student with good grades, the truth is that I am a chronic procrastinator who happens to be very good at whipping up strong assignments last minute. Even outside of the academic sphere, I’m somewhat of a procrastinator, thanks in part to anxiety. So, while I will continue to bring you the latest Classics news, there will be some changes coming to Imperium Romanum as I turn more attention to the everyday realities of studying Classics and my experiences as a student. Life can often be overwhelming, and acknowledging this and finding a better way to tackle the day-to-day burdens before the month-to-month or the year-to-year is going to be a major focus for me. I think that a productivity challenge is an excellent way to do this. Starting January 3, I’ll be documenting my productive efforts via Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr. While I expect most of my days will be related to research, I have no doubt that the challenge will have a positive impact on my life outside of university.

And with that, I’ll wrap up. To all my followers, old and new, I wish you a very happy and prosperous 2019. I hope you’ll share your adventures with me too, and I encourage you to share your New Years Goals – my ask box and submissions are always open!

~ Admin @sassy-cicero-says

14 notes · View notes