#which is probably not the best time to read the entire website on how to move to the uk

[janeway-lover]

there are so many words on this website. why does england have so many rules. just lemme get there and i'll figure it out man.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Actually, I think this does link in with a wider conversation that I have been thinking for a while Tumblr maybe needs to hear.

There's a common meme on this site now that no one here has any reading comprehension skills. The best one is, of course, the original "No offense but reading comprehension on this site is piss poor/How dare you say we piss on the poor" post, which gave rise to the nickname "pissing-on-the-poor website". There's also the "I like pancakes/How dare you say waffles are terrible" one. Both of these are great, because they're silly jokey ways to show two closely related phenomena that are probably the commonest ways to fail a reading comprehension check.

The first is someone reading certain catchphrases or buzzwords in the post, and based on their own biases or prior experiences or whatever else, their brain simply fills in what it reckons the poster is saying on the topic. Instead of reading the rest of the sentence and digesting it, the reader then just uses their assumption as the interpretation, and reacts to that.

The second is closely related, because it also uses biases and prior experiences to to interpret the post, but rather than ignoring what the OP is actually saying, it instead performs a series of gymnastic leaps to construct a whole new assertion on the OP's behalf that simply isn't there.

There's also a third, of course; that one is people being so eager to feel smug and superior over someone they perceive as Bad that they wilfully assume the OP is stupid or being serious when they're actually joking. And if the reader hadn't been so blinded by their desire to get to look down on someone, they'd have seen the very obvious tells, sometimes even including sentences like "Obviously this is a joke." (I think we have all seen examples of these. Also, in a bid to avoid as many reading comprehension fails here as possible, this does not include misunderstandings borne entirely of neurodiverse struggles to parse intentions; but, neurodiverse people are just as likely as neurotypicals to have ego play a part in their misinterpretation of others, and that is what this point is about.)

And the thing is... actually, we are all capable of any of these. I imagine a sizable chunk of people reading until this point were probably thinking "Lol, yeah, people are so stupid," but na, nage, I'm not having that. Literally everyone does these sometimes. And it becomes a particular risk when the topic under discussion is something that might brush against an issue that is a pressure point for you, like a social justice talking point that you are forever having to argue with internet strangers about, for example. Your brain holds schemas! And sometimes it likes to pattern match things before it deigns to tell you about its findings! And that can hit you right in the emotions, which if they are strong enough, really can shut down all rational thought.

But. This brings me to the real point of the post.

Because the thing is, we have all saddled up and gone to war under these conditions, or at the very least been strongly tempted to. And a vital skill that literally everyone has to learn, sooner or later, is:

Before you hit 'reply', double check the post to make sure you fucking understood it.

And that does not mean "simply re-read, confirm your bias, carry on." It means, "Is it possible to read this post from the point of view of someone who doesn't intend it the way I've taken it? If I put myself in the shoes of an innocent, could they still have written these words? Is there another interpretation for these phrases?"

And you do have to do this step. You simply do have to. Because if your desire is to 'clap back' and call someone a gargling knobskin made of garbage, fuck me sideways but you must see that it is imperative that you check if they actually deserve that kind of treatment first. You cannot spend your time claiming that we must all choose to be kind and then not bother doing your due diligence before screaming a person's various and assorted bigotries at them. If you misread it, and they were innocent - you are the raging aggressive cunt in this situation.

It does not matter that you reacted from an emotional place of normally having to defend yourself either, by the way. Sure, that makes the quality of your human soul better than that of the average Redditor who just enjoys anonymously hurting people, I guess? But it's also irrelevant. If you messaged someone and called them a misogynist because you performed several mental somersaults and landed on your own sore spot when they meant no such thing, you are the attacker. You owe them an apology. And yeah, sure, you can explain your over-reaction as the product of your normal experiences if you like, but that is only an explanation, not an excuse. You are still the asshole here. You still need to apologise and mean it.

And you could have avoided it if you'd done that due diligence, as you should have. If you're going to take a swing, make sure it's the right target. This was once described to me as donkey people - they don't think, they just kick. This is admittedly a little unkind to donkeys, who always do their due diligence, but I feel it's an apt metaphor.

TL;DR: If you feel moved to angrily reply to something, first make sure you've interpreted it right. Don't be a donkey person. And if you ask for clarification, people are innocent until proven guilty. Ask nicely. If they are a bigot, you can then smelt them for parts.

[alexanderwales]

We were talking on my server the other day about a sort of "performance prose" piece, a way to have a work of fiction that takes place within the digital world. I'm a fan of epistolary novels, and this is an epistolary novel that would have a time component to it.

Basically, the idea is that you set up a discord server, make all the channels read-only, then have a "performance" where bots are talking to each other according to a script. (You could also do this via roleplay, but I think that would be worse.) All these bots are "reading their lines" in these channels, forming a coherent story that's told entirely through text messages, but also, importantly, through the timing of when messages are sent, through when the messages are edited, through mutes and bans and slow modes.

It would all be realtime, that's part of the gimmick. I think it would be best if it was actually on discord, mostly because I think that's a better gimmick than having a javascript thing on some separate dedicated website.

There are lots of options for how you'd do it. Time is one major consideration: an hourlong "performance" as the bots do their scripted actions is interesting, nice and tight, more like a movie than anything else, something you sit down for as a dedicated viewing "experience". But at the other extreme, it could be as long as a week (more than that is probably impractical). Since it's in real time, that means that people actually need to check in and keep up with it, and you can actually miss things, catching them only in the backlog.

In practical terms, I think you'd only want ~10 characters and another ~20 secondary characters, the "main chatters" and the people who come in for a few lines every now and then. This is just a format in which the writing would take place, you'd want to figure out what the plot is, what it's "about", if it's about more than just internet/online culture.

So it's a stage play, but it takes place within a chat client of some kind, and has its own rhythms, and because we're using bots and not humans, and because we're using a format that has verisimilitude, we can do cool things with it.

And you might be asking "well wait, you're writing a script, just write a chat log instead, that's a relatively normal thing to write and read" but I dunno, there's something that's magical about doing it "live", witnessing a quiet conversation in the middle of the night, seeing the whole server get embroiled in a flashpoint issue, watching these characters get revealed in ways large and small.

[akira-dulbar]

The Life You Left Behind - Part 1/3: Discovery

part 2 part3 part4 part5

Summary: Before Jason died, he had a relationship with a classmate. Years later, Damián is struck by the resemblance a child has to his brother Jason.

Warning: Mentions of teen pregnancy, breaking and entering, slight mention of caffeine addiction, swearing, mention of religion. (I honestly don't know what else to add.)

----

Damian was a warrior. From birth, he was trained to face everything and everyone, and not surprise anyone in the process.

But that child…

When Alfred picked him up from school that day, nothing seemed strange. It wasn't until they stopped at a red light that Damian realized there was a kindergarten a few blocks from his school. The place was fenced (for the children's safety), the building was red, and had a flower arrangement of all kinds (which didn't surprise him). He could see the children running back and forth. But what caught his attention wasn't the racket those children were making, but rather the fact that there was one sitting further away from the rest, facing the road with his legs crossed on the grass and a book resting on his lap, seemingly very focused on whatever he was reading.

Now, there was nothing unusual about a child reading during recess, or about the child being isolated from the rest; that was everyone's taste (he did it too, rather than waste his time in unnecessary conversations), but there was something about that child that disturbed him somehow.

Normal people would try to ignore it, but then again, Damián wasn't normal. He was raised for greatness. His father was the best detective in the world, and therefore, he also considered himself the best, better than Drake (although he was a worthy opponent, he would deny it his entire life). So, he stared at the child, trying to figure out why he was so disturbed.

Is it the way he sat? No. The way he dressed? That doesn't make sense. Is it the way he furrowed his eyebrows while reading? He had to admit it reminded him of someone, but it was still strange.

Before he knew it, the light had already changed, and he still hadn't figured out the root of the concern. It wasn't until Alfred was about to set off that the boy decided to raise his head and…

"Oh my God," Damian said, "so now he wasn't religious, just like the rest of his family wasn't. But when electric blue eyes looked at him, he felt like someone from above was playing a trick on him. And it wasn't just the eyes, no, it was also the way she looked at him and how identical he was to his brother… Damian just stared at one point, his head full of questions.

"A clone? Probably, but if he was a clone, it wouldn't make sense for him to be in kindergarten." But Damian knew something wasn't right, since a clone was identical to a person, and even though this boy was identical to his brother, there were still things that didn't fit, like his nose and mouth were different from Jason's.

"Young Master Damian, is something wrong?" When he realized, Alfred was holding the door for Damian to come down, looking at him with concern and warmth. Damian knew not responding was disrespectful and that he should answer the butler (also his father's adoptive father) calmly, but all Damian could do was blink several times.

"Are you okay? Is something hurting?" "Yes, something is wrong." No, nothing hurts, but that's not what he's going to tell Alfred now, not until he resolves this. Besides, he'll surely find out somehow in the end. It's Alfred, for God's sake.

--------

When Tim woke up this morning, he thought it would be like every other Wednesday: going to college, solving a case, and drinking coffee until his body thought it had had enough for today and collapsed, or he'd stay awake until someone (mostly Alfred) forced him to get some sleep.

But what he didn't expect was his younger brother Damian (with whom he has a love/hate relationship) in front of the Batcomputer, looking at images and websites from a kindergarten a few blocks from Damian's school.

"May I know what you're doing?" Tim hoped it wasn't that Damian had gotten into a fight with a kid and was now seeking revenge. Because if that were the case, he'd have to talk to Bruce and Dick once and for all.

"None of your business, Drake." Damian continued to flip through group photos of several kids in the kindergarten, stopping at one and then opening another tab, without even glancing at it.

"God, it's too early for this," Tim could only think, needing an extra-strong black coffee and a new, preferably more pleasant, younger brother (though deep down he knew he'd miss this bat-child demon). He had every intention of leaving when something on the screen caught his attention.

"Are you looking for birth records?" Tim prays that Damian isn't thinking of kidnapping a child; they've already got enough with Bruce's adoption tendency.

"It's good to know your eyes aren't failing you, Drake." Tim wants to strangle him, but he didn't want another scolding from Dick (or Alfred). Anyway, this couldn't be left like this.

"If you're thinking of kidnapping a child, I'll call Bruce." Please don't let that be it.

"I'm not going to kidnap anyone. There's no need to call anyone."

"Then enlighten me. What are you doing looking for birth certificates, because what I think is you're going to make someone disappear?"

"Nobody cares about your way of thinking, Drake."

"I'll call Dick." Tim watched as Damian remained silent for a few seconds, then looked back at him (perhaps checking if he was capable of doing it) and sighed. He then turned back to the batcomputer and started opening more tabs.

Tim was about to pick up his phone and have a serious chat with Dick about Damian's behavior. Until he said, he turned to him and pointed out a specific photo out of many.

Tim leaned closer to look at the photo, realizing it was a group photo of several kindergarten children that Damian had previously had on the screen. He honestly didn't know what he was looking at because they were just the typical photos the kindergartens posted on their social media from each year with different grades. Oh, that's what he thought until his eyes fell on the image of a boy with a book in his hands, clutching it to his chest and looking at the camera with a smile.

"A clone?" That was the only answer Tim could have come up with because, as far as he was concerned, there was no other explanation for a six-year-old (maybe five?) boy looking so much like his older brother (with whom he also has a love/hate relationship, damn it), and he doubted Jason was even in kindergarten at that age. (The photo also showed the date it was taken, so it was impossible for it to have been taken now since Jason is 21.)

"No," needless to say, Tim didn't like that answer at all.

"What do you mean, no? We're seeing the same thing, aren't we?"

"Tt, it can't be that your eyes are failing, Drake. Even the worst detective would realize he has to look at the entire screen." Okay, Tim was offended by that because he knew beforehand that he was still in second place in that category, and it was Damian who told him to look at the photo, not the entire Batcomputer screen, so where he's concerned, he's a good detective.

In any case, he looked at the screen again, and there were several photos (as he noticed earlier), but not all of them were from kindergarten. Some were, but from years past, where the boy was getting younger and younger. He also noticed that in some of them, a young woman, not quite in her twenties, appeared with the child in her arms. In this photo, the child was closer to the camera, and his resemblance to Jason was even more striking.

Tim felt that the conclusion he would reach would turn his stomach. He didn't want to look any further, as he felt like he had opened Pandora's box (although it was Damian who opened it). It wasn't until his eyes looked at three photos that he felt his heart leap out of his body. On the left is an older photo from school with the same woman as before, but much younger (damn, she looked younger than Tim, and he's 17) and with his damn undead brother.

Tim is surprised that Jason, before and after his death, doesn't look so much like the same person, since in the photo he looks thinner and smaller than he does now, where he looks like a damn elephant (thanks, Lazarus Pit).

In any case, in the photo they're both smiling and holding hands, looking very happy. Which is fine, normal when you're with your girlfriend and you're as happy as a clam. But the other two photos are what make Tim reconsider his decision to not have slept when Alfred told him to, because otherwise he wouldn't be having to look at these images, but instead he'd be snuggled up in his bed and at peace.

In both photos, you could see the same young woman from the previous one, but something had changed. One photo was holding an ultrasound (God have mercy on Tim), and in the other, she was disheveled in a hostel room with a baby in her arms (a baby… a fucking baby, for God's sake, Jason, what did you do?). Now Tim understands Alfred and his need to keep giving the "talk"…

God, he feels so tired… And he still hasn't even finished his sixth cup of extra-strong black coffee of the day.

"When was the baby born?" Tim could only close his eyes as he asked. It could still be a dream, right? Faith is the last thing you lose (although no one in this family was religious).

"7 and a half months after Jason's death." All Tim could think about was how old Jason was at that moment.

"So, at 15, he got a girl pregnant a month and a half before he died?" When Tim saw that Damian was about to answer, he interrupted him.

"No, Damian, it wasn't a question… The damn thing," Tim decided, deciding that the next time he saw Jason, he would strangle him just like Homer Simpson would do to his son Bart…

"There's still a chance…" Tim looked at Damian in disbelief and saw that Damian was looking at him calmly and gently, as if trying to calm him down (which is nice to know the little devil cares about him).

"Which one?" Okay, denying the child might not be the best idea, considering all the evidence that yes, it could be Jason's son (Tim feels his mouth go dry after thinking of the child as his brother's son), but they can't blame him; this alone is bad enough.

"A DNA test. We need something from the child to compare with Jason's DNA." The Batcomputer had DNA from everyone in the family in case something happened and it was needed. So, trying to get Jason's DNA was already solved. However, Tim feels there's still a small chance that the child wasn't Jason's, but it's a possibility that will be embraced with open arms.

"Where does he live?" Okay, Tim. One step at a time. First, an extra strong black coffee, and then we'll get to work.

--------

Again, when Tim woke up that morning after passing out from exhaustion the night before, he didn't think he'd find himself trying to break into a kid's apartment to steal some DNA and test if he was his brother's son (who, if found, would strangle him for nearly having a seizure). If someone had told him that, he'd look at him like he was crazy and try to prove he was under the influence of something.

But here he is, opening the window to the kid's room and going in to prove he's not Jason's son (again, Tim feels his mouth go dry)…which is great!…

It wasn't difficult for Tim to get into the room (which is worrying because it's not very safe), and the first thing he saw was the large shelf full of books against a wall (which, for his own peace of mind, he tried not to look at). There were also a bunch of dinosaur toys, some Superman figures, and a number of Wonder Woman figures and statues (which I also ignored, for his own good).

He went to what seemed like the window display to see if he could find a comb with the boy's hair so he could get out of there. But it seemed God wasn't on his side because when he found the comb, he realized it didn't have a single hair of the boy's (which was great for him). Tim could only frown and sigh because again, nothing had gone his way.

When Tim felt something moving, he quickly turned around to check the threat, but realized the boy in the bed had rolled over to lie on the other side, leaving his hair in place. Without further ado, Tim approached him so he could cut a few of his hair without much force so as not to wake him and be able to leave.

Now, since he entered the apartment, Tim didn't want to look at the boy so as not to confirm the truth that he might be his brother's son, making him his nephew. So he quickly ripped out two pieces of hair and then went straight to the window to leave, when he was about to leave, for some strange reason he felt he had to turn around, there was no going back if he turned around, he would be confirming something he didn't want to know, so without further ado he went out the window back to the batcave with two pieces of hair for the DNA test.

--------

Well, it turns out it doesn't matter whether you turn around or not, because it still came back positive, which made Tim's stomach churn.

"So now?" Tim felt like he needed three extra strong black coffees to get this over with.

"I have to say, even though it wasn't what we planned, the result seemed pretty obvious."

"Haha," Tim could feel himself about to throw up, and he didn't want to imagine when Jason found out…

"Wait…"

"Oh God," Tim had just realized something.

"Oh God, how are we going to tell him??"

"Drake…"

"How are we going to tell him?!" Tim started pacing, getting louder and louder.

"Drake…!!!" Tim didn't seem to see how Damian was tense in the Batcomputer chair.

"HOW ARE WE GOING TO TELL JASON HE HAS A SON?!" Tim yelled desperately at Damian, who in turn kept looking behind him.

"What?" Tim tensed when he recognized that voice, Dick.

"Hey, replacement, what are you talking about?" Tim turned around and could clearly see three figures: Batman, Red Hood, and Nightwish. The first one still had his mask on and kept staring at the Batcomputer with a frown, while the other two were staring at him and Damian.

"No, wait…" Tim couldn't think of a congruent response, considering the Batcomputer still had everything about the boy, along with three DNA tests (yes, three, because the third time's the charm), and they approached the Batcomputer after not receiving a response, which Tim knew was over. (The good thing about this is that he let Damian explain, after all, he was the one who opened Pandora's box.)

-Red Robin report- yep, let Damian explain everything to Batman (and his brothers). After all, he's already done enough and urgently needed three more strong black coffees to relieve this tension he's feeling.

-Oh God, Jason, what did you do?- he watched as Dick stared at Jason, who was still staring at the Batcomputer screen and looked like he was going to die again, but this time it wouldn't be the Joker's fault.

-!!!!!…- And when he heard something (or rather, someone) collapse to the floor, fainting (Jason, probably after seeing the evidence), all he could do was sigh.

-(It's going to be a long night)-

-------

I have this 3-part mini story in Spanish, but I'm missing the English one, If I see that you like it, I will upload the other two parts, if not, then here it is. anyway, I don't know English.

[golmorehotgirl]

Thank you for having a brain about Cahciua, genuinely. It's so disheartening to see the hateful her when imo she's actually one of the best moms we've seen in this game. it's refreshing to see a parent with actual flaws but she so clearly cares about Erenville and it's so obvious that she actually knows her son quite well from how they interact. That whole last section with her illustrates that best imo.

First I want to apologize for sitting on this ask, the past few days have been quite hectic for me. That said, thank you for this message I genuinely feel a little insane at times reading reactions to her. I'm going to spoiler this as it's very text heavy and there are images added in!

I agree completely about how nice it is seeing a parent with flaws when too often this game falls into the pitfall of either making mothers cartoonishly evil and selfish or otherwise just the embodiment of the Victorian ideal of mother's being the "guardian angel" of the home (i.e. perfect, maternal, ever giving saints.) To me Erenville and Cahciua were really the heart of Dawntrail and emotionally impacted me the most and the reason for that is just how real and complicated their relationship was. You are completely right as well about how much she cared for him, and I know not everyone takes the time to read npc dialogue between quests but multiple people mentioned just how much Cahciua talked about him, the entire reason she did everything she did was in the slim chance she would be able to see him again and she had the faith he could against all odds make it back to her. When you go back and speak to Geode he literally says this

Once again, your completely right that she knows her son best and it's all in how they interact. Even in the final scene when she says she has a brilliant idea, and even though he initially brushes her off, what ends up happening? You see him for once in that entire zone come out of his sulking, actually interact with us and finally break out of his up til then, self induced isolation to ask us to come along. He realizes he needs his friends to help support him to finally confront that which he and Cahciua had been putting off the entire time. She knew him well enough to know he needed to be distracted in order to pull himself out of his head. Even though she may not have said things perfectly, who could? It was a fucked situation that everyone was doing their best to navigate. Really put yourself into her position of having to explain to your child that you are long dead, for the website that jokes about not even being able to order in a restaurant, coming up with the perfect words here seems a tall order. Furthermore we have to remember this isn't the real Cahciua we're even talking to, this is an amalgamation of her memories. We have no idea how the real Cahciua would have acted or what she would have said. I also see the idea that "she abandoned him" thrown around a lot and I think you're losing the forest for the trees here. Just because Erenville felt she abandoned him doesn't mean she really did. Whenever we engage with Vieran societies in game we have to set aside our ideas of a nuclear family, they do not ascribe to them. They form close knit, matriarchal societies that live communally. Due to in game limitations they can't really show us this but I'm sure he had Aunts, Grandmas (probably multiple due to vieran aging), other family members and close friends (Iyaate being one) that helped look after him. At this point I'm also going to bring up that we all agree parents shouldn't have to completely rid themselves of wants/desires/dreams and we're seeing this in action, a mother holding onto her dreams and she is being treated so unfairly. It's really insane how quickly people will accidentally push very traditional gender essentialist lines of thinking without realizing it (her place is in the home where she should stay.) If she had been a father leaving her child in the care of family while taking trips (keep in mind we have no idea how many times she did this or how long she was gone btw) would you be as upset?

All that said, I will defend Cahciua till my dying breath (even though, I myself have mixed feelings on her due to my own complicated relationship with my mother) because the things this fandom and the world at large let characters perceived as masculine do while woobifying and come up with a million reasons why what they did was right and moral actually and they were justified vs feminine characters is crazy. Originally I had made a point of comparing Emet Selch who gets sympathy from the majority of the fandom despite his deeds but @eriyu made a great point that Thancred and Ryne are a much more apt comparison point. Thancred does neglect Ryne’s emotional needs throughout Shadowbringers and this causes incredible damage to her emotionally and her sense of self esteem yet he’s beloved as a father and everyone accepts him for his faults. Thancred got the chance to learn and grow and make amends after being confronted with how detrimental his behavior was, Cahciua did not. Not only due to her early death, but also because at this point she’s a computer generated version of herself. (I could also throw Fourchenalt in here as another father who largely neglected his own children (and even abandoned them, during an apocalypse no less!!!) and isn’t subject to the same scrutiny.) It's just very disheartening to see her get little support and of what there is, most of it is over-sexualization.

I'll end all this by inserting some of my favorite comments from this reddit thread that really helped me understand her and their relationship better.

Editing in to add, in case this gets lost; the entire point I’m making is that Cahciua wasn’t a perfect parent because there is literally no such thing as one. She’s human and I love that they depicted her as such, flaws and all and humans fuck their children up. Even the most well intentioned parent will fuck their children up in some way because they’re human, it’s inevitable. The thesis of this is that it’s unfair she gets unjustly misaligned for simply doing what every parent who has ever existed has done in some way, had their own issues that gave their children issues.

[incredipuppy]

Okay so I was originally planning to post all the notes I took at once but I realized there was a lot so I’m going to made a post for each day

Anyway, here are the notes I took during panels on the first day of the Salute to Cobra Kai convention:

Martin Kove

- “He’s not the most evil person. He’s just misunderstood” (about Kreese)

- Entire final scene between Kreese and Silver was filmed in one take

- Everything in Karate Kid 3 was originally written for John Kreese but they later came up with Terry Silver because Martin Kove was too busy to film

- There was originally an ending scene shot where there was a hand with a ring and cigar which was clearly Kreese picking up a magazine that said “What ever happened to the Business Man Terry Silver?”

- He personally believes that Kreese survived because he always manages a way to get out of things

- He never liked the scene in the parking lot with Miyagi and Kreese. He thought it was goofy and cartoonish for him to have his nose honked.

- Someone asked if Kreese killed Tory’s mom and he says he didn’t

- “I wanted to have more scenes with Amanda”

- Amanda/Courtney really slapped Martin

- He wanted to smile but the directors told him not to because it was too weird and lowkey sensual

- He joked that he killed Johnnys mom

- A kid asked “what does it feel like to act at your age” and he jokingly got up and stumbled across the stage

- “How did you survive the snake bite in the cave?” “Hollywood”. Additionally, he wishes that scene was longer so it was clearer it was a dream and he wished Kreese suffered more

- Every time Kreese would ask Hawk something in a scene, he would always come up with the right answer

- Jacob Bertrand was hitting a steak over and over in the scene where Hawk beats up Brucks

The Creators

- Cobra Kai was originally a movie idea but they realized it would work better as a show

- John Hurwitz has always been a huge fan of Billy Zabka and even made a website for him when he was younger

- They didn’t know Peyton List had the history of Disney acting and just saw her as intimidating and scary

- They said that Kreese died despite the fact that they apparently filmed a potential ending where Kreese didn’t die

- They considered having Johnny’s dad show up later in the show and see what Johnny was up to

- The house Johnny ends up buying in the end is the same house that’s in Carmen’s dream sequence

- Chozen was originally very friendly to Danny but they realized there needed to be a little rivalry between them

- Someone asked why the cops are never there and they just laughed and said it’s LA so the cops have a lot of other things to focus on

Alicia Hannah-Kim & Yuji Okumoto

- The make-out scene was fun to film

- Kim is disapproving of Chozen’s taste in reality TV taste but probably turns a blind eye because she cares about him

- Alicia took the dojo bomber jacket and Yuji took the black belt from the set

- Yuji arrived on set and Alicia ran up to him, saying “Did you read the latest script?!” and that’s how they found out about the romance arc

- Yuji joked that he wants Kumiko to ruins Danny’s marriage like she ruined Chozen

- Both of them would take Johnnys role if they had to choose any other role

- When asked which student he’d like to see Chozen bond with, he said he really liked working with Peyton, but if he chose a character, Yuji wishes he could’ve had more scenes with Hawk. He said Chozen could’ve related to Hawk’s wild side.

Ralph Macchio & Billy Zabka

- Ralph acknowledged that they brought up Miyagi so much and joked about how people would get annoyed by him constantly talking about his mentor

- If Danny had another minute with Mr. Miyagi, he would probably reiterate that that he’s the best friend Danny’s ever had

- Joked about Bert being the unsung hero and said there should be a spin off called “Bert” with him and Stingray

- Ralph said he’s Eagle Fang all the way but also Miyagi Do for life

- Billy’s favorite fight scene is the first fight scene where Johnny defends Miguel in the parking lot

- They filmed their duel in s4e5 in short increments one a really cold night (February?) and they had to go into heating vans in between takes because it was so cold

- Ralph still has the original yellow car from the original movie and whenever the car show up in the show, it’s the original car

- Ralph wishes we could’ve had Danny addressing and referencing his dad who doesn’t show up at all

One of the actresses/stunt women, Caitlin Hutson, also mentioned that underneath the platform in s6, they used a bunch of cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other to cushion their falls, and it was brought up numerous times both days that they used cardboard to soften the falls

[sippy--sippy]

Page Turner (Kageyama Tobio x Reader) Part 1

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Summary: The last place one would think to find Kageyama Tobio is a public library. But when he feels like he’s reached a wall in his progress as a professional volleyball athlete, he turns to books for help. Luckily, the closest library to him has a cute manager that’s eager to help.

Word Count: 5,823

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 A/N: Fanart credit to the Haikyuu pookie bear herself: Loony (Z) on TikTok and freaka_loonyz on Instagram. Go support her work, I drool over every post.

-

As hard as it is to believe, Kageyama Tobio had never stepped foot in a public library before. At least, not that he could remember anyway. When he was younger, his grandpa or sister probably dragged him to one once or twice but he’s never gone to one on his own with the intention of finding a book. He’s never had any reason to go to a library until today but he’s reached a point in his volleyball career where he feels like he’s not improving anymore. 

Every set, serve and spike he does feels flawless but he feels he could still do better. There’s got to be something he can work on, but he doesn’t know where to start. And with a big Adlers championship game approaching quickly, he’s more eager than ever to make sure he’s at his best. 

Obviously, online articles and websites were the first place he went to read all he could about things like form and technique but after a while, he felt like he was just reading the same things over and over again. When his friend Akaashi suggested trying to find an actual book to see if there’s older research that could help him, he was hesitant (as his academic career was a little lackluster and reading wasn’t his strong suit) but figured he had nothing to lose. 

That’s how he found himself walking through the front doors of the closest public library. It was pretty small for a public library and he didn’t see many people inside which was a good thing. He couldn’t go anywhere anymore without being bombarded with admirers. While it was flattering, it was starting to get mildly annoying. Luckily, this felt like a place he wouldn’t have to worry about a swarm of fans. He could lie low, blend in with the other people inside and try to find a book that will help ease his worries.

-

Being the general manager of one of the smallest public libraries in Tokyo had its fair share of pros and cons. It's a relatively simple gig, it pays decently and you have more time to read than you know what to do with. Once all of the returned books are reshelved, new books are entered into the system, other miscellaneous chores are completed and there’s a lull in customers, there’s a book in your hand. It was the greatest job one could ever ask for.

One of the only cons to your job were some of the people you were unfortunate enough to come across. While most of the people that walked into your library were pleasant and fellow book lovers, there were occasionally people that set off warning bells in your brain the second they walked in. Since the library was near a local bar, you would occasionally have a drunk patron wander inside and wreak havoc on your neat shelves. Most leave without fuss after a little gentle persuasion but sometimes an angry drunk will ruin your whole night. Other times, some people will come in with a sour mood and take their frustrations out on you. You’re usually able to stay level-headed and diffuse the situation with ease. 

Needless to say, you pride yourself on being able to read the vibe of most people who walk through the door and how you should handle them. However, you’re not quite sure how you should feel about the man that walked through your door one Tuesday evening. 

He was tall with a set of broad shoulders. His body was mostly concealed by a long black coat which wasn’t entirely out of the ordinary, seeing how it was the middle of January. A baseball cap was pulled low on his head and he was wearing sunglasses. This normally wouldn’t cause you any concern but when it’s 6pm, there’s barely any sun outside to warrant sunglasses and he doesn’t take the sunglasses off when he gets inside, it raises some flags. 

You adjusted the book you held on your lap and fiddled with the pages, trying to decide how you should approach him. Here you were, hoping for a relaxing closing shift and then this shady character walks through your doors.

Besides looking a little suspicious, he doesn’t do anything to make you worry. In fact, he takes a couple steps inside and then just… stares at the rows of shelves. If you didn’t know any better, he looked a little lost. Like he didn’t know how to begin looking for whatever he came to the library to find. You couldn’t tell if he was actually confused or if it was all just an elaborate act and he was actually trying to decide what books he could steal. Nonetheless, you were the manager so it was your responsibility to manage the situation. Kill them with kindness.

“Welcome in, sir! Let me know if I can help you find anything!” you say with a smile. 

It seems the stranger hadn’t actually seen you sitting behind the counter of the front desk, because he jumped ever so slightly at the sound of your voice. He looked your way and didn’t say anything for a second. At least, you assumed he was looking at you. With his sunglasses on, it was hard to tell. The silence between the two of you was on the verge of getting awkward until he gave you the slightest of nods.

“Thank you.”

With that, he shoved his hands into the pockets of his long puffy coat and started to wander further back into the library. You watched him shuffle down the long aisle and eventually disappear behind the shelves. Letting out a sigh of relief, you slumped back into your chair and cleared your throat. He was dressed weird but his voice actually sounded quite kind, albeit a little monotone. While he wasn’t completely off your radar yet, you sat a little easier at your desk and decided to focus on your book, leaving the stranger to his business. 

Looking down at your book, you settled back into the romantic story. It was a couple minutes later, when out of the corner of your eye, you noticed the man walk to another shelf. You didn’t think anything of it until you started to notice him move to multiple shelves, even revisiting ones he had already been to. When he returned a fourth time to a row of books he had already been to, you started to get concerned. What was he doing? 

Book forgotten, you watched his pacing curiously. He seemed to be getting frustrated. Was he having trouble finding what he’s looking for? Deciding to be a good samaritan (and, you supposed, a proper manager), you slid your cafe receipt bookmark into your book and stood up from your chair. You walked around the threshold of the front desk and started approaching the stranger, who was scanning the lines of books he stood in front of. As you got closer, you started to realise how tall this man really was. Definitely over 6 feet tall! It was a little intimidating as you neared him from behind.

Hoping not to scare him like you did the first time, you very lightly knocked on the worn wood shelf that he stood next to. He shifted his gaze (still shrouded by sunglasses) from the books to you. Even with the sunglasses on, you could see the frustrated crease in his brow. You gave him a small smile.

“Are you looking for something specific? I can try to help you find it! These shelves can be hard to comb through when you don’t know where to look.”

The agitation in his face seemed to ease just slightly and he shifted on his feet. He turned to look at the books and then looked back at you. To your surprise, his long, slender hand raised and he slowly shifted the sunglasses off his face. With his face now exposed, you immediately felt your cheeks heat up. It was clear to you now that he looked to be around your age, maybe a little older. 25 or 26 maybe? His eyes were a beautiful shade of dark blue which complimented his sharp features nicely. You also finally took notice of the small hints of black hair that poked out from under his hat. 

It took you a second to realize you were staring at him and that he had said something to you. Who could blame you for being star struck, this man was without a doubt the most attractive man you’ve seen come into your library to date.

“S-Sorry, what?”

“I’m not looking for a specific book, but do you have any… fitness related books? Or sports. Or something like that?” His voice was deep and it sent a shiver from the top of your head to the tips of your toes.

“Yes! Yeah, we’ve got a section like that. Follow me!” 

You turned on your heel and led him a couple rows down. He followed a few paces behind you and stopped when you faced a large shelf full of various sport books, books about physical training, motivational books and the like. You motioned to the whole isle.

“I think you’ll find what you’re looking for here. Everything is ordered alphabetically by the author’s last name and if you think of a specific book you want to find, there’s a couple computers towards the middle of the library you can use to help track the book down. We also have a large collection of sports magazines available as well that you can check out! Does this help narrow your search down a little?”

The stranger took a second to scan the spines of the books and nodded. “Yes, I should be able to find what I’m looking for. Thank you for your help.”

You gave him a happy smile and started to shuffle back to the front of the library. “Of course! Let me know if you need anything else.” 

Giving him one last glance, you walked back to your desk and plopped back down in your chair with a giddy sigh. Of course, the patron you thought was about to rob the library blind ended up being a tall, devilishly handsome twenty-something year old who you were immediately attracted to. You really needed to stop judging people by their appearance, you decided.

After helping a sweet old lady renew her library card, you noticed the stranger approach the small portion of the library that had a couple of comfortable couches and chairs so patrons could sit and read. He held a book in his hands but you couldn’t tell what it was called or what it was about. He stood next to one of the couches and set the book down on the arm rest. Then, he proceeded to shed his long coat and you had to stop yourself from drooling. He wasn’t wearing anything fancy, just a baggy off-white long sleeved shirt and a pair of black athletic pants but boy did he make it work. With the coat off, you could better see his physique. He had a slimmer build, but you could tell he was strong by the way he held his slightly broader shoulders. This man didn’t skip the gym, that’s for sure.

After setting his coat down on the back of the couch, he settled onto one of the cushions and grabbed the book again. He stared at the cover for a second before opening to the first page and started to read. 

There he stayed for over an hour, slowly reading through the book. You helped a handful of people at the counter, but mostly spent the rest of your shift reading your own book while occasionally sneaking glances at the man. 

20 minutes before closing, he closed the book and slowly stood up. He stretched his arms high above his head which made his shirt ride up, exposing his abdomen which you could now see looked like it had been chiseled from stone. 

Pull yourself together, woman. You were 99% sure your nose started bleeding.

The stranger put his coat back on and adjusted the hat on his head before heading back to the shelf he found his book. You presumed he put it back because he then walked back to the front of the library without a book in his hands. You sat up and gave him a big smile as he passed.

“Thanks for coming! Have a good night!”

He looked your way and shoved his hands in his pockets. To your surprise he gave you the tiniest hint of a smile.

“Thank you. You do the same.” 

And he left. 

-

Your heart fluttered in your chest when the stranger showed up again the next day. And the next. And a couple days after that. Whatever he found in your library must’ve really helped him, because he came in and picked up the same book to read on the couch again. And when he seemed to finish that book, he found a new one. 

Your interactions with him were pretty short but had gotten a little more friendly. One time he said hello before you had a chance to say it first! And he’d given you a couple more little smiles! 

He always came adorning the same outfit. Some kind of exercise clothing underneath his big coat, a hat and sunglasses. But boy, did he make it look good every time.

While seeing him made your whole shift worth it, you started to feel a little bad. You started to wonder if he came to the library so often because he had to in order to read his books. The stranger (who you realized a week after meeting that you still didn’t know his name) had never set up a library card so he could check out his books and bring them home. Maybe he didn’t like coming to the library but didn’t know how to set up a library card. Or maybe he didn’t even realize it was an option.

These thoughts plagued your conscience for days before you finally decided to just ask him. He seemed friendly enough so you were sure he wouldn’t mind an innocent inquiry. That didn’t stop the nervous butterflies from forming when he came in next, looking handsome as ever of course.

The sunglasses came off as soon as he walked in which was a more recent development, and you swooned a little each time you saw those dark blue eyes. Usually he’d walk past you and give you a tiny smile or a tiny nod or something when you welcome him in but today you stopped him before he walked too far.

“Hey! Can I ask you a question?” 

He stopped in his tracks and turned towards you. His eyes were slightly wider than normal, probably surprised by your off script question. Luckily, he didn’t just brush you off like you were sort of expecting him to. You stood up from your chair as he approached the front desk and almost fell to the floor when he lifted his hat just slightly to muss up his hair. Was he scratching an itch? Was he doing it for you? You didn’t know but it was the first time you’d seen past his forehead and you were sure you would feel the same primal urges if he had just stripped naked right in your lobby. 

Mentally smacking yourself in the face, you drummed your fingers on the counter and nervously smiled at him. “I was just wondering if you would be interested in setting up a library card? It’s totally free and you can check out as many books as you’d like. That way you don’t have to spend so much time here.”

His expression instantly went from neutral to a little offended. Your heart dropped and you started spewing apologies.

“N-Not that I don’t like having you here! Because I do! I love it when you come in- I mean I love it when anyone comes in. But especially you, I guess. You’re nice and quiet, don’t cause any trouble…”

You felt like you were about to throw up. He went back to his usual neutral self, maybe even had a hint of amusement on his face. With him, it was hard to tell. And lord, his stare was always so intense. He had no trouble keeping eye contact, but you on the other hand? You were looking everywhere but him.

“Anyways, I just wanted to make sure you knew it was an option. I’d feel bad if you felt like the only way to enjoy the books here was staying for hours at a time when you could take them home and enjoy them there.”

You were pretty sure you were sweating through your sweater but he seemed to be pondering what you said. He fiddled with one of the tiny pencils that littered the countertop and shrugged. “I don’t mind coming here. It’s peaceful and I don’t usually frequent places that are quiet like this. But I’ll set one up just in case I don’t have time to stay and read.”

Instantly your worries about possibly offending him vanished and you grinned. “Alright! Let’s get one set up for you. It’s really easy, I’ll just need some basic information.”

You asked him for his address which he, for some reason, was hesitant to give out but you assured him it was just to make sure he lived in the area. Then you asked him for his name and two forms of ID.

“Kageyama Tobio.”

Kageyama Tobio. Finally a name to put to his face, and it fit him perfectly! That and… you couldn’t help but feel like you’d heard his name before. You didn’t go to school with him, right? That would be awkward if you had and didn’t recognize a fellow classmate. Maybe it was a different Kageyama you were thinking of?

Brushing off the feeling you looked at the ID’s he gave you. One driver’s license and his passport. Everything on his ID’s matched the information he had given you so all was well. You couldn’t help but notice that his passport seemed well used and looked to be stamped pretty recently.

“Travel often?” you asked while you grabbed a new library card and started attaching all of his information to it.

The stranger, Kageyama, took his license and passport back and started putting them away in the backpack he always had with him. “Yeah, I leave the country pretty often for…. work.”

“Ah, very cool! Well, here’s your new library card! Anytime you want to check something out you just have to bring the book to one of these computers, scan the book and your card and it’ll be yours for a week!”

He reached out and took the card from your hand, long fingers brushing yours ever so slightly. Guess you were never going to wash that hand again.

“Thank you. I appreciate your help.” He slid the card into his coat pocket and took a step back. “Have a good night (Y/n).” 

You watched him with blaring red cheeks as he stepped out into the night. How did he know your name? Was he stalking you? Surely not… he didn’t seem the type. Your concern didn’t last long when you realized you were wearing your name tag.  

-

Despite having his new library card, Kageyama continued to stay in the library to read his books. You weren’t sure why (part of you hoped it was because he enjoyed seeing you) but you were glad he felt a sense of peace here that he apparently rarely felt anywhere else. Unfortunately, your conversations with him were still short and sweet. He seemed to either not care too much for conversation or felt too awkward to really talk to you. However, he did make a bit more of an effort to say hi to you when he came in now, one time even waiting until you were finished with another patron to say good evening. 

The turning point in your relationship started one Friday night. 

It was a rare busy day at the library and you barely had time to think. The library had multiple activities and events planned that day that were very chaotic. Storytimes, an author signing, a tiny book fair, a giant class field trip. With everything happening, your library was in disarray. It took the last two hours of your shift to get everything back in order. Shelves were reorganised, the carpet was vacuumed, and the toilet was unclogged. Some punk 6th grader thought it would be funny to shove 3 whole rolls of toilet paper down the drain. By the time 9pm rolled around, you were wiped and eager to go home. 

While you were doing the rounds of the library as a final check to make sure everything was in order before you closed up for the weekend, you almost had a heart attack when you took notice of someone laying on one of the little couches. It was Kageyama and he was sound asleep. His hat was pulled over his eyes and he was snoring ever so slightly. One of his arms dangled off the couch and the other rested over his chest where his book was sitting open. He was so tall, his feet were sticking over one of the armrests. You hadn’t even seen him come in. You must’ve been so preoccupied he didn’t feel like you had time to say hello. He looked so peaceful, you didn’t want to wake him up but unfortunately you couldn’t just leave him here. 

Stepping quietly over to him, you very slowly rested your hand over his hand that was laying over the top of his book. It was the first time you were seeing the books he was picking up close. 

The Mental Game of Volleyball

Interesting pick, you thought. You gently shook his hand but he didn’t budge so you shook a little harder. It took you a couple more shakes and a hushed “Kageyama” to wake him up. He didn’t startle awake thank goodness, just slowly shifted and lifted the hat off his eyes so he could see. He looked bleary at you and then looked around at where he was.

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t want to wake you but I have to close up. It’s 9 o’clock.”

That seemed to wake him up a little because he shuffled into a sitting position while you backed away a little bit. You could’ve sworn you saw the slightest hint of red tinge his cheeks but it could’ve been the low lighting. 

“I’m sorry to have kept you waiting. I thought I just dozed off for a couple minutes.” He stood up and started gathering his things while you waved him off.

“No worries! It happens more often than you’d think, I promise. These couches are some of the comfiest things in the universe so I don’t blame you!”

He had a small smile on his face when he threw his coat on. The both of you walked back towards the front of the library after he put his book back on the shelf (you didn’t make a comment about how he could just bring it with him) and you flipped almost all of the lights off, leaving just a couple on so you could see when you came back in on Monday. Kageyama shuffled forward so he could hold the door open for you, which you thanked him for. It took you a couple seconds to lock the doors before you both started to head towards the parking lot. A lone car sat waiting, which you assumed was Kageyama’s. It looked like a pretty new model and it was dark blue in color. You smiled internally. It matched his eyes! You noticed him looking around the lot and turned to you in question. 

“Where’s your car?”

“Ah, I take the bus! I do have a car but my sister is currently using it because she works late shifts at the hospital and the buses usually aren’t running by the time she gets off work so I want to make sure she has a ride home. I don’t mind it actually! It’s a nice calming end to my day.” 

Kageyama was fidgeting with his car keys as you both approached his car. The bus stop was just a couple minute walk from here so you were just planning on saying your goodbyes once you reached his vehicle. You were about to tell him to have a goodnight before he interrupted you.

“Can I walk you to the bus stop? It’s late and dark. I would offer you a ride home but figured you would maybe… not be comfortable with that. Seeing as how we don’t know each other too well…” his voice tapered off and you were sure you were seeing red on his cheeks this time. It warmed your heart that he wanted to make sure you were safe but also took into consideration your possible hesitancy to get a ride home from an almost stranger.

“I’d love for you to join me on my walk! It’s not too far so it shouldn’t take up too much of your time.”

He seemed relieved you agreed to let him come. Together you both started walking towards the bus stop. It was a quiet walk at first, not too uncomfortable but you definitely wanted to try to fill the silence.

“I noticed you’re reading a book about volleyball. Do you like the sport?”

He looked at you in mild surprise before nodding a little bit, one of his small smiles creeping onto his face. “I enjoy it, yeah.”

“Cool! I’m not big into sports in general to be honest. I’m not very coordinated so they’re not my strong suit but they’re fun to watch! I guess if I had to pick a favorite, volleyball would be pretty high on my list. I’m not good at it but it was a fun unit in gym class! I’ve been seeing quite a few news segments about volleyball recently. I don’t follow it too often but people sure like it around here. Actually, I think one of Japan’s professional teams practices near here, right? What are they called… it’s some kind of bird name I think?”

Kageyama didn’t say anything but you could see that he was smiling more than you had ever seen him smile before. Were you completely off? If he’s reading a volleyball book, he must follow the game closely and you probably just embarrassed the hell out of yourself with your limited knowledge. While you were mentally beating yourself up, the two of you reached the bus stop. It was void of people, and void of a bus. Kageyama didn’t make any moves to leave you at the stop alone so you turned to face him.

“I’m probably way wrong. All my volleyball knowledge about teams and such comes from the news, ads or passing conversations in a store.” you said with a laugh, hoping to save at least some of your dignity. To your surprise, Kageyama actually laughed a little bit with you. It was a beautiful sound that you doubted you’d ever forget. You had a feeling he didn’t laugh too often so it was something special to hear.

You smiled and shifted your gaze down the street, watching for the bus. You were dreading for this moment to end. While you had embarrassed yourself, you had also made Kageyama laugh which trumped the humiliation. 

Looking around some more, a poster hung up on the walls of the bus stop caught your eye. “Speak of the devil!” you exclaimed, walking up to the flyer.

 It was a poster for the volleyball team you had just been talking about. The poster was advertising a big championship game. “Look! I wasn’t crazy, they do have a bird name. The Schweiden Adlers. Looks like they have a big game coming up.” Looking closer at the poster, you noticed the date of the game. “Oh! It’s tomorrow!”

Kageyama walked up to stand next to you, observing the poster himself. He didn’t say anything, just listened to you.

“Looks like a pretty big game! They’re playing the best volleyball team in America. Very cool. ‘Come watch some of the greatest volleyball players in Japan!’” You continued to scan the page until you read one of the text boxes that was bolded darker than most of the rest of the poster.

Featuring key players of the Japan Men’s National team, including the two-time Olympic champion setter: Kageyama Tobio

You stared at the text while your brain tried to catch up to what you had just read. This was just a coincidence. There’s no way the Kageyama standing next to you was an Olympic champion, right? There’s probably another Kageyama Tobio. However, you started to look at the picture on the poster and almost fainted. Right there, in the middle of the team picture, was your Kageyama. He wore a white jersey with some black and gold accents and a large number 20 right in the middle of it. He was surrounded by his teammates, and they seemed to be fresh off a game because they looked exhausted but exhilarated, sweat dripping down their necks.

Slack jawed, you glanced over at him. He was watching you, gaging your reaction to this news. 

“Sorry I didn’t tell you anything about what I do. It just never came up and nowadays it’s hard to find strangers who don’t recognize me. You were a nice change of pace. Someone who treated me like a regular person. That’s one of the reasons I like coming to your library so much.”

 Everything was starting to fall in place. Why he always wore a hat and sunglasses and looked like he was hesitant to show his face. Why he was always wearing athletic attire. The books he read. You felt a little stupid for not putting it all together earlier. 

“N-No, it’s ok! I should’ve probably put two and two together a little sooner. I recognized your name when you set up the library card, but couldn’t remember where I had heard it before. Now I know I have definitely heard your name on the news. But… you’re an Olympic athlete?! What is that like?”

He looked a little sheepish now that you sort of knew who he was. Reaching up, he took off his hat entirely which was the first time he had ever done so in front of you. His hair was a little messy from being in the hat for so long but it looked good on him. He had black hair but when the light hit it just right, it had some blue undertones. And boy did it look soft.

“It’s every athlete’s dream. Getting to play the greatest volleyball players from all over the world was exciting and I hope I get more chances to go. That’s why I’ve been coming to your library. To try to find ways I can improve.”

You nodded in understanding and let out a little laugh. “I’m sure you’ll get a chance to go again. I mean, this poster is basically calling you the greatest setter in all of Japan so your chances look pretty good! So how did-“

You were cut off when the loud sounds of a  bus started pulling into the station. You wanted to ask him so many more questions but it seemed like they’d have to wait. Hopefully he’ll still feel comfortable coming back to the library, now that you sort of know who he is. Shifting on your feet, you stepped towards the bus.

“Well it’s nice to officially meet you Kageyama! I’m excited to hear about the championship game-“ He stopped your goodbye by reaching out and gently grabbing your forearm. 

“Come to the game tomorrow. I-I have an extra ticket that’ll give you a front row seat, and I have a couple of friends going that can keep you company. It should be a fun game to watch.”

Shocked by the invitation, you stammered with a response. “B-But I don’t want to be a bother and steal your extra ticket! And I don’t even really know how volleyball works, just the basics-“

“My friends can teach you while you watch. Trust me, you’ll probably wish they’d stop talking by the end of the game. That and there’s no one else I’d want to give the ticket to. I want you to come.” He looked almost desperate. 

You really didn’t have a reason why you couldn’t go. The only thing on your agenda tomorrow was watering your plants. “Alright, yeah I’ll come! Umm… but how do I get my ticket and where do I go-“

“I’ll give you my number and send you your ticket. One of my friends can meet you outside the stadium and show you where to go. I’ll text you all the details. Does that work?”

He gave a lopsided smile when you nodded in agreement. Quickly exchanging phone numbers, you waved goodbye as you got on the bus and watched him start walking back to his car. Butterflies were running rampant in your stomach and your mind was racing.

This random stranger, who turned out to be one of the best of the best in volleyball, just asked you to come watch his game. You! A little library manager! What should you wear? Are Kageyama’s friends nice? How do you score a point in volleyball again? What’s Kageyama going to look like when he’s in his element?

Tomorrow was shaping up to be an interesting day.

----------------------------

A/N: This is the first fan-fiction I've written in years so I don't remember how this works ;-; but thanks for reading! I got this idea in the shower, and it plagued me so much I had to put the ideas into words. Part 2 is in the works! Kageyama my beloved

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Insufferable Comic Relief Round 1

Propaganda why Neelix is an insufferable Comic Relief:

"I hate him. His narratives are probably not even that bad he just annoys me so much I can't watch scenes with him in them"

"I read this mfer only had one submission; I assumed he was already 1000x submitted but I guess if you want something done right you gotta do it yourself. He's supposed to have scavenged around for ages, but all he does is play stupid, be a jealous asshole, eat hot bacteria cheese, and lie. He's got the intellectual capacity of a toddler, the maturity of a sixteen year old incel, and the discipline of an orange cat. And frankly it's a WASTE of Ethan Phillips' talent, too. He's got a couple good episodes where he gets to have depth, but noooo, for the rest of the show, he's just annoyingly goofy. "I'm the senior Talaxian on board" you are the senior CLOWN on board. Sit the fuck down Pagliacci. "Neelix is dumb and lied his way into the job and can't tell left from right" is fun once, maybe twice, but seven seasons of it? Yeet that mfer out the airlock I beg you. They tried sooo hard to make a Spock/Data/Odo type character who doesn't get humans and mix some Quark fun hijinks into it but all they got was a fucked up Wesley Crusher. Get him off this show ASAP. The website I got the picture from says "Why Neelix Leaving The USS Voyager Is A Perfect Star Trek Ending" BECAUSE HE FINALLY LEFT THAT'S WHY.

AU where Neelix actually got to have character development, Neelix (Star Trek) Redemption, Slow Build, Alternate Universe: what if VOY didn't waste one of its best actors, PLEASE"

"Seconding Neelix Voyager because UGH is he fucking annoying. He's inconvenient and he wants to "help" people all the time but doesn't care if they want to be helped which leads to SO MANY awkward scenes. Completely ignores his coworker Tuvok's comfort and culture and just DECIDES he's going to help Tuvok be more chill even though Tuvok never implied he wanted that and actually prides himself in following Vulcan culture. Besides he's annoyingly jealous of his girlfriend Kes in earlier seasons, leading to him fighting with one of her few friends for... being nice to her? Spending time with her? I hate that fucker honestly, sorry to any Neelix fans, he only grows on me when Naomi gets introduced"

Propaganda why Lobbo is an insufferable Comic Relief:

"Everything about him makes me wanna kick like the ball he is shaped like

I can't even begin to explain why I hate him, it's one of those things where you have to see him and hear him to understand

He doesn't need to be there, and he will never need to be there

His only reason to exist is to cause my suffering, I'm sure of it at this point "

"He is annoying and rude as the joke, as well as constantly saying his own name as if it’s supposed to be funny."

"I don't know how easily I can condense my hatred towards this ball-shaped thing into words, but I will try my best. He is the most immensely frustrating and annoying character within the confines of this show. Every time he unfortunately floats onto the screen, I want to lob him across the Merged Lands. His entire personality and speech patterns are irksome. I genuinely, truly, from the bottom of my Undertale heart soul, wish that he was never included in the show."

[riddlers-left-buttcheek]

Commission Advice? (pls help)

Hey heyy

I wanna start doing commissions, but I've never done it before, and have no idea where to start. So I thought I'd make this post and ask any artist, that would like to share how they go about commissions, for advice.

I've summed up some of the questions that came to mind below the cut. I would want to take requests outside of Tumblr as well, just fyi. I'm well aware that most of what I ask depends on the individual artist and their works, and that there won't be a single formula to follow - I'd just like to gain a bit of perspective and see how different people go about these things, so that I can get an idea for myself.

Any helpful links to other posts or websites on this topic are much appreciated 💚

Replies to this in DMs are fine too ☺️

Questions below ⬇️

Communication?

Do you text with the client entirely through Tumblr (etc.) DMs, or do you use a different platform (like Discord, WhatsApp)?

Pricing?

My biggest issue is how much to charge for an art piece. I know it depends on multiple factors, like what type of drawing it is, is it lineart only, is it in colour, etc. Then there's also taxes. I've looked at a couple artists, but the prices vary so widely, and I have no idea where to put myself on that spectrum. I also have a huge problem knowing my worth, which definitely doesn't help.

Payment?

Which payment method do you use? My first thought was PayPal, I also read that many people use Stripe (that I never heard of before my research). And when do you ask for the transaction to be made? I've seen 50% upfront, the other 50% once it's done a lot. Some say to not give the customer the finished piece until you've received 100% of the money.

Slots?

How do you decide on how many you have available? Do have a fixed number or just take requests until you think you can't take any more?

Time?

How long does it take you to finish a request? Again, I know it depends on many many things. A couple examples would already help a lot.

Updates? Previews?

Do you give the client in-between updates on your progress? Do you send a preview before sending the finished piece? I've read that, before sending the final file, you should always have the images in low quality and with a watermark over it.

Changes?

If the client is dissatisfied with the final piece, do you allow changes? If yes, how many, where do you draw the line? Do you charge extra? Also, what do you do if the client doesn't like the entire thing?

Licensing

I absolutely suck at this, my brain just doesn't want to comprehend legal language. So most I've read on this, I still don't fully understand, but probably because I've never put it to practice. Is there a specific type of licensing you use? What do you tell your client on what they can do, but more importantly, can't do, with the art you create for them?

Final files?

In which file format do you send the finished art piece to the client? I was thinking pdf, maybe jpg and png? Also, how do you send it? In DMs? Per email?

Scams?

Also one of the more important questions for me, since I get paranoid about these things easily (and turn out to be right most of the time). Any advice on scams? I've read Instagram is filled with them, and to best avoid requests over Insta alltogether. Any experiences you've had, anything I should definitely look out for?

Any other advice?

Anything at all. I'm probably definitely overthinking this and it's most likely really not that complicated, but I'm a very anxious, insecure and paranoid person. 🙈 So I'll take any and all advice I can get.

Thank you 🤗💚

[jeio-kimi]

Lost In Translation

A deep dive into the widespread misinformation of 19 Days (19天) prod. By: Old Xian (Old先)

Part: 1

Part: 2

Hello! 19 days readers! How many times have you and I seen this online?

"19 days takes place in the past when all of the characters are in middle school."

"I've been reading 19 Days online, and I just found out that they're all 15 year olds??!"

"What? They don't look like they're in middle school."

Many people within the 19 Days Fandom seem to believe in two important details about this story: 1. This story is a flashback. 2. The flashback of this story takes place when the characters are in middle school.

However, while it is provably canonical that the story we are reading is majorly in the past. The ages of the characters have never been specified by the creator of the web series Old Xian. In fact, there is more evidence directing towards an older age for the main characters than the one perceived by most readers. But why is this the case? If the story itself shows the readers what the ages should be assumed to be, why would so many people assume a completely different age? This confusion is mostly caused through the mistranslation of the readers.

Now, while it should be stated that 19 Days has no official English translation at this time. The fandom's appointed English translator, "Maomaozaii" (on Twitter), has never stated within the translation of a chapter, nor off script the canonical ages of the characters. So where is this "they're all 15 year olds" claim derive from?

Here's what I've fround:

19 Days: Chapter 45

In what is probably one of the most perplexing chapters of the series, Our main character Zhan Zheng Xi, explains that his best friend Jian Yi had disappeared after the second day of high-school began. Jian Yi explains in a "flashback" sequence that he was kindaped to an island by two strange men, which Zhan Zheng Xi has a hard time believing.

This has lead to the majority of the fandom assuming that the story of 19 days takes place before Jian Yi was kindaped. When the two boys would have been in middle school.

However this idea can be quickly debunked when continuing to the next chapter.

It is never stated how long Jian Yi was gone for, but what is stated is that both boys are still in high-school after Jian Yi returns.

After showing back up to Zhan Zheng Xi house, Jian Yi works on homework and expresses that he wants to attend the same university as Zhan Zheng Xi when he graduates. The chapters after Jian Yi's return continue with the two's daily life in high-school with no reference of taking place in the past. Due to this I can be assured that the story is taking place contemporarily.

19 Days Wikia

Now I'm sure most of us understand why "Wiki" & "Wikipedia" pages are not considered reliable sources, I will explain just incase. Fandom "Wiki" and "Wikipedia" itself are pages of a website that can be created and edited by anyone with a wiki account. These accounts are not moderated and not verified by the site owners. Meaning, any information released on the web pages are not from official or trusted sources, and shouldn't be taken as authentic. The 19 days Wikia, makes claims of canonical information that has never been specified by the creator, within or outside of the web series. Along with this, the web page itself is entirely outdated, only having coverage of the series up to chapter 210. As well as other false information.

19 Days: Chapter 122

This chapter introduces the infamous "3rd Year" label on the lockers next to He Tian and Jian Yi. Most people will see this and try to surmise what "3rd Year" refers too. So let's talk about the Chinese school system.

"3rd Year" in this instance can refer one of two Grade levels: "Chu-3" (9th Grade) or Gao-3 (12th Grade). The assimilation by viewers that believed that Jian Yi is still in middle school with Zhan Zheng Xi that the "3rd Year" label refers to "Chu-3" making all of our main characters 9th graders. However, as I stated earlier, it is shown to us that Jian Yi and Zhan Zheng Xi are both still in high-school when he returns. Which if the label refers to "Gao-3" or 12th Grade this would also make since. If Jian Yi gets kindaped the second day of 10th grade (second day of high-school), disappears for two years, then comes back, it would make him a 10th grader. Which would make the most sense following what is shown to us within the story. I will STRONGLY note; that neither, Jian Yi nor He Tian interact with the side the lockers labeled "3rd Year" are on. So, it's possible that it's not even in reference to their grade level.

So... what are their ages?

Continues in:

Part: 2

[likethestarsatnight]

Hiii!! I’m very new to the Greek Pantheon and honestly religion in general and am doing my best to learn! I’m trying to research and worship both Dionysus and Apollo but don’t know exactly where to start. Is it possible you could give me a few tips on good places to begin research, begin worship, etc?

I’m likely going to gather and essentially get a hold of recourses and an idea of what exactly to do before I really start doing anything in full, and by then I’ll probably pick either Dionysus or Apollo to start with since idk how I’d do both at once lol

Also if it’s not too much to ask, which it’s totally fine if it is, are there any specific “no”s that I should make sure not to do? I understand that I’m bound to make mistakes and stuff and that it’s fine, but it always helps to know things I should lean towards and things I should lean away from yknow?

Anyways that was a lot /np on any of this ofc!

Hey, ty for asking!! I love educating and I'll try my best, but pls know I've only been worshipping for a few months, so I'm still learning as well!! Also sry if this advice comes off as too basic :3

Oki, first, I'll cover how to start worshipping. It's very easy, all you have to do is... start! -As in you don't have to do anything to be able to be a follower of the gods, just beleive and boom ur set to start. There was misinformation spreading back in 2020 about having to ask the gods for permission to worship, but that isn't true at all, I bring that up cause I made that mistake when i first started (⸝⸝⸝O﹏ O⸝⸝⸝).

Here's some things to know about worship:

-Altars aren't necessary!

-Prayer and offerings are important, but it's completely okay if you can't pray or give an offering all the time!

-Worship is a very personal thing, so go at your own pace, and don't feel guilty if you have periods where you can't practice do to external or internal forces!

Oki, onto researching. Some beginner friendly websites are Hellenism 101, The Theoi, Hellenicfaith, and Baring in the Aegis. Reading books are very good too! If you don't want to read an entire book though, I encourage tp look at the table of contents for information you really want and take notes. (I was gonna link you the link to that one post abt free books but i saw you already reblogged it so heck yeah 💪.)

Social media can be very good for learning at times but also really bad due to misinformation. R/Hellenism on reddit and Tumblr is really good, but make sure you continue doing independent research to verify things things others teach about the practice. Also fuck tiktok, 9/10 times its bull.

I encourage you to start with learning about the core values of helpol, cleansing, and how the ancient greeks worshipped in their normal day to day lives!

Now to the do nots!

- don't insult them pls 😭 don't call them slurs for fun or call them things like "daddy/mommy" in a weird way. That's the most common examples of disrespect I've seen.

- don't rush

- don't give human blood offerings. (Idk how old u are but if you like hunting, It's completely fine to give animal blood or any sort of animal offering if the animal is ETHICALLY killed -as in basically not tortured or killed when it's not the animal's season to be hunted. Just wanted to point that out cause some people mix it up and think it's bad to give ALL blood offerings).

- don't rely on candle flames for communication. If you want to communicate with a god, you'll have to learn divination which is its own entire thing to learn about. This is another common mistake I've seen ppl do.

- don't be afraid to do your own thing, you don't have to copy what everyone else is doing!

- don't take myths literally, they're just stories humans made!

Oki that's all I know to say rn (≧▽≦)! Though i wasn't sure if you wanted to know about specifically Apollo and Dionysius, so ifyou want to discuss how to worship them and want to know how I do things in my practice or my experiences, feel free to tell me by commenting or dming me!!!!!

[tomatoluvr69]

Brief check in re: Helene. TLDR I’m alive but my world has been upended and I’ll be off this website for awhile, even if I wanted to we barely have communications in our flood ravaged city. Don’t read this if you have any sort of disaster trauma I guess, I probably should’ve kept this shorter but it kind of got away from me. I may delete/edit later but I don’t really have the capacity for self censorship At the moment, i guess it was good for me to get some of it out stream of consciousness style? Lol idk guess I’m just using my blog as a blog. Anyways I lived bitch

Hi guys, thanks to the couple people who messaged me checking if I was ok, I don’t really have capacity or time to reply to them all, but I’m doing ok all things considered. Basically I live in Western North Carolina and our city has been utterly shattered by flooding after Hurricane Helene. We made it safely to Durham but we are going back tonight with a car full of mutual aid supplies like childrens medicine and chainsaw fuel and cooking oil. I don’t really have the words to describe what I’ve been going through, being cut off from all communications and information for days and have no way to reach your loved ones, to walk through a friend’s house to try to reach their water and food stash and look up at the tree in the ceiling, to stand on a railroad bridge and look down at an entire neighborhood swept away, to know that your family back home hasn’t heard from you in four days and has no way to know if you’re dead. Five people with one degree of separation to me drowned in flash floods, including two children. A college friend had his entire home swept down the river. It’s just all so uncertain. I cry at nothing. Wandering around unscathed Durham and watching people mow their lawns and go to brunch has been a surreal dream and I can’t believe I am going back. But we got some clean underwear, our first shower, and I even got my favorite taqueria order, a torta de lengua and Jesus Christ you can’t imagine how good that tasted

We’ve been without power for 10 days and the water is likely to be out for weeks, the groundwater people are using to drink and bathe may be contaminated by chemicals from manufacturing plants and you just have no way of knowing, and because the city’s water and septic systems were obliterated there is going to be untold amounts of human waste and waste-borne diseases threatening public health, we just don’t know yet. My brain and body have been wracked by it all, there are times when I am somewhere safe and feel mentally calm but note with this weird sense of detachment that my body is trembling. It’s just indescribable to have your city be unrecognizable and underwater, I’m really shaken. Before we got some texting capacity back, if your roommate just failed to come home one night, you had no way to know that she wasn’t killed out there. We will be without drinking water for weeks when all this is over but that’s peanuts compared to the cars you pass by with the search and rescue symbol for “we found a body here” painted on them.

All of which is just to say I’m alive but things are still very bad and I’ll be without reliable communication for the foreseeable future, not to mention no water, and so obviously I’ll be off here awhile. I’ll be back soon enough complaining about mundane inconveniences but frankly it’s difficult to even talk to anyone outside of Helene’s destruction, I’m going to be reeling for a long time. Don’t reblog this because I won’t have the capacity to monitor this post but I guess donate to the Asheville Survival Project if you have the inclination, that’s a way for people like me who are relatively unscathed to get direct needs like formula, insulin, underwear, and shelf stable goods directly into people’s hands who fared worse, without jumping through the impossible hoops of things like FEMA. But I’ll probably be stepping back from mutual aid stuff to support my best friend who is now responsible for arranging the burials of a family of four, including his friend/coworker and her two boys, whose upcoming wedding he was going to will now be their combined funeral date. It’s really insane out here and leaving the stability of Durham with its electricity, grocery stores, toilets, and internet is honestly a bit devastating. But weirdly it will also be a relief to be back in a place where the grimness in your heart is not at odds with your surroundings and you talk to people without preface, with dirty hair and dirty clothes and break down in tears in any given conversation with a stranger, if that makes sense? I also can’t really imagine evacuating cause that’d be incredibly jarring in a different way. It’s so hard to explain. I’m so irritable and angry and numb all the time. I’m yelling at the person who loves me most in the world, so many of the emotional issues I had before this exploded to a boiling point in shocking and unpredictable ways. I go around floating in a daze.

But I’m very, very lucky to be alive and none of my loved ones killed, I just don’t really know what the next few weeks will hold and if, like, cholera is gonna break out, or people I know will die of things like food allergies because they can’t get a new epipen. There’s absolutely no way to convey what this survivor’s guilt is like, of having survived through sheer random luck of the draw. And the things I have seen with my own eyes will never leave me, and the gruesome phone calls I sat with my friend as he received, with the trauma unfolding in waves as the family’s bodies were identified one by one, and all the graphic details we absorbed of the eyewitness account of their panicked attempts to escape the floodwaters before they were swept to TN. I did not witness it but I cannot shake it. I can’t go more than a few minutes before the phrases ring through my head again. And I work at a school and I have no way of finding out if all my students survived, because they are children without their own contact info, until the school is able to contact me with any deaths. That uncertainty is weighing tremendously on my shoulders right now and I can’t believe I’m sitting in a cafe and I still don’t know the extent of the death toll or if the kids I’ve known and worked with every day for so long we’re able to escape their homes.

I guess just keep Western NC in your thoughts, the devastation is going to take years to crawl back from, but also keep paying attention to Gaza, the trauma and devastation there is so much more unimaginable and this has given me a new perspective on what it’s like to watch from afar as people continue their lives while yours is unrecognizable. Idk how much longer I’m gonna have the capacity for mutual aid stuff here but I’m going to try. I may yet decide to evac, but you must understand this is my home and my community, and I want to be here to support my closest friend through this unimaginable loss, and the fact that he is responsible for arranging all four of their burials. Unless the city orders non essential personnel to leave then I will probably stay.

And there are of course moments of levity and fun, especially before we found out about the people, like breaking into a NC state extension agricultural experiment field and stealing some veggies off the vine, or cooking up big giant feasts of whatever we could save from the fridge.

I’ll check back in when I can and if any of you guys also live in southern Appalachia and need to be put in touch with aid I’ll check my DMs here when I can, we can get people out to you with whatever you need. But yeah just keep us in your thoughts I guess, things are still really bad. I’m going back to shop for more mutual aid stuff but then we’re leaving again but I’ll check in when the internet’s back I suppose

Eat a nice hot meal for me, don’t take ice cubes or your shower for granted, and watch something pretentious. xoxoxoxoxox ur favorite natural disaster survivor, tomato lover sixty nine

[indigostudies]

What are those apps you usually post in your productivity updates?

hi! here's a breakdown of apps i use, as well as websites and other resources i've used/use for my learning (mainly chinese, though some of these resources can be used for other languages as well).

apps i use every day:

dot languages: this is a chinese-specific app where you select your hsk level, and then read articles at that level. there's a pop-up dictionary, an option to show pinyin, post-article vocab practice (audio, matching, translation, and writing), and the option to have your articles either in simplified or traditional.

TOFU learn: a blend between flashcards and writing, you can find decks for various things, including hsk level-specific decks, and you learn new vocab with the stroke order and then write each new term three times—once with an overlay (so the term is visible), and then two times from memory. there's also a review function, which helps you practice terms you've already learnt, and each term has audio that goes with it. i use it for chinese, but there's decks for esperanto, french, german, italian, japanese, korean, norweigian, portuguese, russian, spanish, swedish, and turkish.

the pleco dictionary app: my favourite chinese dictionary app; allows you to translate from english to chinese or chinese to english, has options for writing, radical, vocal, and keyboard entry, and has both traditional and simplified characters.

ankiapp: this one's not particularly complicated; it's a flashcard app, where you can make your own decks or download decks other people have made. it uses a spaced repetition system to help you remember terms—you rate yourself from worst to best on how well you remembered the term, and that determines how many times it'll pop up afterwards. it also gives you an overall grade for each deck, which is a nice way to measure your progress.

duolingo: probably my least favourite of all of the apps i use; the chinese course isn't the best, and now that they've removed the notes/grammar information option, there's no way for people who aren't already fairly familiar with the language and its inner workings to learn them if they exclusively use duolingo. it's okay for maintenance practice, though, but i'm already almost finished with the entire course and i would say it barely reaches to lower hsk 4, so i wouldn't say it's a good tool if you're more advanced.

apps i have but use less often:

readibu: this is sort of like dot in that it's an app for reading in chinese with a pop-up dictionary. however, that's where the similarities end; readibu has novels, short stories, and articles aimed at children, and each of those are further split into genres. readibu also lets you add your own web-pages and read them on the app, so you can use its pop-up dictionary with them. it's aimed more to intermediate and upper intermediate learners, with hsk levels ranging from hsk 4 to hsk 6. the only reason i rate dot above readibu is because dot has a larger range of levels (hsk 1 through hsk 6 i believe? but it may go higher) and exercises built in to help you learn the vocab.

the chairman's bao: also a chinese reading app, though if you use the free version, you only get one sample article per hsk level (hsk 1 - hsk 6). i believe that every so often you get a new sample article for each level, but i'm not sure what the interval on that is. it also has a pop-up dictionary and a flashcard option for saved vocab.

du chinese: another chinese reading app; it has articles divided into newbie through master (six levels in total, though they don't line up perfectly with the hsk in my experience), and new articles are free for a certain period of time before becoming locked behind a paywall. there's a pop-up dictionary and a vocab review/test option for vocab you save.

memrise: flashcards with audio, depending on whether you're using an official course or a user-generated deck. decent, but it can get repetitive.

hellotalk: not exclusively chinese, but i believe it started off mainly aimed that way. you set your language, and then your target language, and then you can talk to native speakers who have your language as their target language. potentially incredibly useful, but if you're like me and extremely introverted you may have a hard time using this app, since it requires a lot of one-on-one interaction.

slowly: i haven't actually gotten around to using this, but it's sort of like a digital penpal app, as i understand it. you can learn more about it here.

websites and other miscellanea:

this massive mega drive by @salvadorbonaparte (languages, linguistics, translation studies, and more).

this masterpost by @loveletter2you (linguistics, languages, and language learning books/textbooks).

this masterpost on chinese minority literature by @zaobitouguang

the integrated chinese textbooks by cheng and tsui, which are the textbooks i use for self-study—there's textbooks and workbooks, as well as character workbooks (though these can easily be cut out without suffering from the loss).

mandarinbean: graded readers, hsk 1 - hsk 6, with a pop-up dictionary and the option to read in traditional or simplified

chinese reading practice: reading, beginner through advanced (three levels), with a pop-up dictionary and some additional notes included on vocab and language-specific things non-native speakers might struggle with or not know.

hsk reading: graded readers, hsk 1 - hsk 6, divided into three sections (beginner, intermediate, advanced). does not have a pop-up dictionary, but does have an option to translate the text, post-reading quizzes, and notes on important vocab with example sentences.

my chinese reading: reading from beginner to advanced (four levels); has a pop-up dictionary, the option to play an audio recording of the passage you're reading, notes on key words, things that are difficult to translate, grammar, and post-reading comprehension questions.

the heavenly path notion website, which i would say is one of the best resources i've ever found, with a massive number of guides, lists of chinese media in a variety of forms, and general resources.

chinese character stroke order dictionary: what it says on the tin; will show you the stroke order for a given character.

hanzigrids: allows you to generate your own character worksheets. i use this very frequently, and can recommend it. the only downside is if you want to create multiple pages at once, you have to pay; however this can easily be circumnavigated by creating only one sheet at a time. you can download the sheet as a pdf and print it out for personal use.

21st century chinese poety: a resource i only came across recently; has a massive collection of contemporary chinese poetry, including translations; much more approachable than classical poetry, which can often be incredibly dense and hard to parse due to the writing style.

zhongwen pop-up dictionary: if you're reading something in chinese on a website that doesn't have a pop-up dictionary, this is a must. i've never encountered any words that it doesn't have a translation for so far, including colloquialisms/slang. i use it to read webnovels, and it's been a fantastic tool. you can also save vocab by hitting the r key when you're hovering over a word/phrase, making it easy to go back and add terms to your flashcard deck(s).

chinese reading world: a website put together by the university of iowa; split into three levels (beginner, intermediate, and advanced), with thirty units per level, and ten modules per unit, as well as multiple proficiency tests per level. each module is split into three parts: a pre-reading vocab quiz, the reading with a number of comprehension questions based on it, and a post-vocab reading quiz. it also rates you in relation to someone with a native proficiency based on how quickly you read and answer the comprehension questions, and how many vocab questions you get right.

jiaoyu baike: an extensive chinese-to-chinese dictionary, put out by the taiwanese ministry of education. you can find an extensive write-up on it here, by @linghxr.

social media etc: see this post by @rongzhi.

qianpian: another chinese-to-chinese dictionary; @ruhua-langblr has a write-up on it here.

this writeup on zero to hero by @meichenxi; initially aimed at chinese learning, but now has expanded greatly.

music rec's: this masterpost by @linghxr.

tv/film: youtube is a great place to find chinese tv shows and films, and they often have english subtitles. if you can't find something on there, though, you can probably find it either on iqiyi or asianvote, which have both chinese and other asian shows and films (though you'll want an adblock if you're going to use the latter). i use these a lot to watch things, and have discovered a lot of media through these, and then novels through those when i went searching to see what they were adapted from.

polylogger: a website for logging the amount of time/type of language study you do. has a wide variety of languages, and the option to follow other people. still, it's a fairly basic site.

[mariacallous]

If you actually measure the amount of time you spend scrolling through algorithm-led social media feeds each day, it will probably add up to more hours and minutes than you’d guess. Time can quickly slip away while you're checking up on friends, celebrities, the news, and the viral memes of the day.

The term doomscrolling has sprung up to describe this behavior, which, let's face it, isn't usually the most edifying or the best for our mood. It's no surprise that the word began to gain traction at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, a period of lockdowns and social isolation that we're still feeling the effects of.

There are ways to fight back against doomscrolling though, some of which are built into your phone and can be enabled with a couple of taps. See how much time and mental well-being they can help you reclaim.

(The Android instructions below apply to Pixel phones running Android 15 or later. If you're using something different, you should be able to find similar features and settings, though they might not be in exactly the same place).

Turn Off Notifications

News and social media alerts can drag you into apps when you weren't even thinking about checking them. Disabling notifications can keep you from getting sucked in. You can shut off notifications altogether or just quieten them.

On Android, head to Settings, then tap Notifications > App notifications. On iOS, from Settings choose Notifications to see an app list.

Delete Apps

For a more extreme approach, you can delete these apps from your mobile devices entirely, which stops you from checking them at all. On Android, you can drag an app from the app drawer up to the Uninstall button at the top of the screen. On iOS, tap and hold on an app in the app library, then choose Delete App from the pop-up menu.

Deleting apps on an iPhone Courtesy of David Nield

This may just lead you to check these apps more often on the web—but you can always delete your accounts entirely. This is usually not too difficult to do: In the case of X, for example, head to the website and log in, then click More > Settings and privacy > Your account > Deactivate your account and follow the instructions.

Put Your Phone in Another Room

You could consider putting your phone in a different room during parts of the day—especially at bedtime, to avoid doomscrolling when you should be sleeping.

Note that several studies have shown that just having a phone in the same room with you can have an impact on your attention and focus, even if you don't actually pick it up and use it.

Set Screen Time Limits

Modern phones come with built-in tools that allow you to limit your screen time, so you can put restrictions on how long you use specific apps and how long you're on your phone overall. Of course, you're able to disable these limits as easily as you can enable them—it's your phone after all—but you can use them in combination with your own willpower to change your habits.

If you're on Android, you can open Settings and choose Digital Wellbeing and Parental Controls, then App limits, to put some restrictions in place. Over on iOS, from Settings tap Screen Time, then App & Website Activity. On both platforms, you get a pretty detailed breakdown of how you've been spending your time on your phone.

Scroll Something Else

If you must spend time on your phone (what else are you going to do on the subway platform?), you can replace social media and news with apps like Calm for mindful meditation; Blinklist for reading summaries of books, podcasts, and talks; and Kindle for ebook reading, which will also be synced to your actual Kindle, if you have one.

Tell Your Phone It’s Bedtime

Enabling a bedtime schedule on Android Courtesy of David Nield

Both Android and iOS now let you set a specific bedtime on your phone, the idea being that it helps you wind down properly by steering you away from opening apps and doomscrolling into the early hours. These bedtime modes put limits on incoming notifications, dim the screen, and give you the option of using a more simplified phone interface late at night.

If you're on Android, open the Clock app and switch to the Bedtime tab: You can set start and end times for the mode and access settings such as turning the screen gray at a specific hour. On iPhone, head to the main iOS Settings screen, then tap Focus, then Sleep. The next screen will show all the available options and timers.

Get a Reminder to Stop

This is iPhone only, but Adam Davidson over at How-To Geek has a neat idea: Create an iOS shortcut to generate a snarky message from ChatGPT or Claude AI that warns about the harm of doomscrolling, and have it go off every time you open certain apps. The message can be shown on screen or read aloud.

[bubu0h]

How I Manage my personal AO3 e-library Archive

Download everything I want/hope to read in EPUB format. I try to anyways... if I notice I got too many tabs open on my browser, time to download If multi-chapter remember first to press 'Entire Work' and then 'Download'

2. I use Book Story (Android App) to manage the mess that is my downloads folder - this app is a great book database manager AND scroll reader with Big letters as well - The app has this fantastic feature that allows me put the books into 'Reading' 'Already Read' 'Planing' 'Dropped' categories; I move the books around and it helps me keep a visual tab on them - , plus if you like scroll reading this one is fantastic at that as well.

Periodically I update the BACKUP of the folder(s) were the copies of books live. KEEP A BACKUP OF YOUR BACKUP , if you mess around and don't got no backup is really painful and irreversible.

On my computer I then make a copy of my messy ass downloads folder from my phone into my computer. While looking at the visual information the app provides me I delete books that I 'Dropped' and I move 'Already Read' books into my computer E-Library Data Base (I use Calibre) that's my main book hub where I will quickly notice what books need covers and I take my time working to finding an image I like for the book , so I can recognize them books by just looking at the covers I am terrible at remembering book titles

If you are curious this is what Calibre looks like - this is just AO3

3. To read EPUB books I use Libera FD Is frankly the best reader I have tried because I prefer page turning. If you like scroll reading Book Story is much better option for scroll reading.

Libera FD can customize pretty much EVERYTHING and is very very feature rich ( it can be overwhelming) HUMONGOUS FONT SIZE , you can download any font you want to use, replace words if I want to , it has OLED dark mode for reading at 3 am, you can configure it so it reads to you (using TTS) , several reading modes including auto scroll and speed reading mode, and so much more; the dev(s) are still updating and adding functions to it is kind of amazing I am probably not using it to its full potential You can sort books by 'Genre' which is how the app recognize the tags from the website.

Here some visuals of Libera FD (I wrote in the ALT of pics, click on it)

Book Story is a neat app , less overwhelming and the UI is a lot more intuitive. It looks like this for me , you can configure the essentials to your preference. Is a fairly new app be patient with it (sometimes just give two minutes to cook) , it is still being updated. The dev is very active if you got suggestion or present bugs.

4. How to provide enrichment to glorious magnificent authors , that share their passion with us for free. When you open any ao3 .epub on either of these apps the links are underlined. I tap on the link it leads back to the original posted website page at the beginning of every book you get from A03.

Tap the link, keep it open in your browser and star reading.

Open a note taking app.

I usually take notes about my silly musings as I read, copy quotes and whatever else I want to leave in the comment section of the chapter I am on. Cut and paste and that's it. I load the next chapter in the website and then continue reading the next chapter on the reading app (I comment on all the chapters if I have something to comment, sometime I don't have anything to say so I don't . Figure it makes authors happy and i find it very fun. Sometimes they answer back it feels nice) remember to leave kudos and comments specially if you are rereading.

I use Quillpad (android app) the most important feature of any note taking app you choose, in this case in particular, is that it saves your notes automatically (I used some apps that didn't it was devastating losing all my notes like that. I though that as long as I didn't close the app it was fine turns out not - some you have to manually save - and sometimes it would timeout and gone , all my notes gone. With Quillpad I haven't lost notes)

I haven't taken the time to figure out if Librera has a feature for annotation that could be useful for commentary note taking

I think that's all I can think of sharing on this topic. I am open to questions and adding things to this post with visual aid and whatever I can do to help , do let me know.

Keeping a copy of books safe and easy to find KEEP BACKUPS OF YOUR BACKUPS

-Updated Nov. 11 , 2024.

[nerdywriter36]

Fanfiction Author Interview Game

Thank you @brendadaaedestler for the tag!

How many works do you have on AO3?

30 as it stands!

What's your total AO3 word count?

591,986

Your top 5 stories by kudos:

Sticky Notes and Serendipity // collab with @brendadaaedestler // Erik/Christine long-fic // 224 kudos

Say You'll Share With Me // oneshot collection, mostly Erik/Christine // 143 kudos

Our Little Home // oneshot // Erik/Christine // 139 kudos

Starting Fresh // twoshot // Erik/Christine // 99 kudos

my heart is home when my hand is in yours // oneshot collection, collab with @brendadaaedestler // mostly Erik/Christine // 83 kudos

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I always do! I love seeing readers interacting with my fics and sharing what they enjoyed about them, and I always want to show my appreciation for those comments. The only reason I wouldn't is if I missed it somehow or if my frequent co-author has beaten me to the punch and replied already.

What's the fic you've written with the angstiest ending?

It's probably Sleep So Long Awaited, which is a play on the end of LND where Erik dies instead of Christine. It's sad, it's got sad Gustave, a moment of peace between Erik and Raoul, and...well, Erik dies. It's not a happy story.

What's the fic you've written with the happiest ending?

I would definitely say Sticky Notes and Serendipity! The epilogue hasn't gone up yet, but it's super fluffy and sweet, and the entire fic just came to such a happy, wonderful ending. You'll see what I mean on Saturday 😉

Do you write crossovers?

I don't, no. I might write fics inspired by another piece of media, but I wouldn't think I would ever write a proper crossover.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not direct hate? I once received some criticism that was DM'd to me that was definitely not asked for and unnecessary, so that sucked. It was really a big blow to me, and I considered taking down that fic after receiving that comment because it made me super insecure about the entire format of the fic. It came from a person who had been very supportive of my stories for a long time, which made it even worse. Thankfully, my best friend convinced me not to take the fic down, and my critic has now been exposed for not being a good person, so it all worked out in the end.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I don't write it and I won't be writing it.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yep, I have had my fics scraped and posted on other websites at least twice, either by bots or by another user.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have not! Someone offered to translate Like Father, Like Son, but my coauthor on that story was not keen on the idea. It's something I would have to consider because I think I would worry too much about my style and plans for the story being lost in translation and I wouldn't be able to really tell. I wouldn't totally write it off, though!

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Ohhhh yes! Like Father, Like Son was my first collaboration, and I write probably about half of my fics these days with my best friend @brendadaaedestler. We have something in the works for NaNoWriMo as we speak!

What's your all-time favourite ship?

Definitely Erik/Christine, I love writing with them and reading about them so very much.

What's a WIP that you want to finish but don't think you ever will?

It's not one that I don't think I will ever finish, but I think it will be a while before No Need For Goodbyes ever gets finished. I would love to go back to it, but I've been away from that cast of characters for so long that it can be hard to slip back in. My coauthor also no longer has the time to work on it with me, and it is a very time-consuming project, so I'm not sure when I will get back to it.

What are your writing strengths?

I think that dialogue is definitely my strength. It comes very easily to me and it's something that I always enjoy getting to write.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Getting lost in the dialogue! Sometimes I get so caught up in what the characters are saying and the emotions that they're expressing that the writing can get dialogue-heavy. I always have to make a conscious effort to include scene descriptions, settings, and descriptions of the character's bodies and expressions.

What's a fandom/ship you haven't written for yet but want to?

This is an interesting question that I honestly don't think about a ton lol? I've always been pretty content writing Phantom fic and don't really have the inspiration to jump into other fandoms. Shipwise, I've only written sporadic Meg/Erik fic and only a long time ago, so that one could be fun to explore. There is angst there.

What's your favourite fic that you've written?

It was Like Father, Like Son for the longest time because it was my first Phantom of the Opera fic, my first long fic, I loved the characters, etc. I'm still super proud of that story, but I think Sticky Notes and Serendipity takes the cake. It's my first true multi-chapter fic since LFLS, and I can just see how much my style has changed, how much my writing has improved, and it makes me feel really good about myself. I am in love with the versions of the characters that we wrote, and getting to work so much with Erik's anxiety and making it feel so authentic was a crowning achievement for me. Also, seeing all of the love for the story that Chloe and I have written together makes me feel so amazing. Sticky Notes is my favourite for so many reasons.

Tagging: @starlitexpress @intothemertensverse @sloanedestler @ablatheringblatherskite @shinyfire-0 @paperandsong @jennyfair7 and anyone else who wants to play!