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hillbillyoracle · 7 months

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How to Have Better Conversations

I’m writing this at the request of my partner. She shared she’s really been struggling with making conversation more than usual lately. I shared some thoughts on how I navigate conversations she found useful and asked if I’d be willing to make a resource or write more about it. This is not meant to be a definitive expert guide, it’s built from my observations and experiences as someone who is autistic and has to navigate a lot of social situations completely manually. This is how I break down the individual components of conversation.

When I spelled this all out, one of her takeaways was that conversations actually involve a lot of microdecisions and that’s why they can be so tiring. And I think that’s totally correct. But I think it’s also why some people can thrive with them because it’s actually a lot of difficult decisions that are tricky to pull off well so when you can and do, there’s a real sense of accomplishment that can make talking more appealing.

I have a feeling this post will be overcomplicated and convoluted to a lot of folks but maybe there’s a handful of folks for whom it is helpful. Take what works, leave the rest. Summary at the end.

Types of Conversation

Topics of conversation are decently important in my experience. They ultimately let you know where the conversation will go - whether it’s likely to end in a dead end, what sorts of things it will allow you to learn about the person you’re discussing with. In my experience, just about all conversation topics fall into one of four camps.

While I talk about Best Use and Don’t Use here - most conversation in the following topics will fall somewhere in-between. They’re just sign posts, not rules.

The focus is on you. Me topics are ultimately about telling a story about yourself with some amount of conscious intent.

Best Use

The best use of this is setting expectations and conveying preferences. This allows your talking about yourself to serve a purpose that ultimately assists the other person in knowing how to understand and interact with you best without necessarily demanding certain treatment front. They might change or not change how they interact with you and this can show how responsive you might expect them to be.

Examples:

“I’m a writer so I don’t work 9-5. If I reply at odd times, that’s probably what’s going on.”

“One of my favorite ways to get to know someone is to grab a hot drink and go for a walk with them.”

Don’t Use

The worst use of this is look a certain way - knowledgeable, impressive, interesting. Basically any use rooted in getting another person to like you. Genuine connection doesn’t start from a place of elevating one person over another. Plus honestly 90% of people just do not care about why you think you’re interesting, important, etc and hate feeling pressured to validate you.

Examples:

“My boss was even stumped by the issue but I figured it out on my own.”

“All my friends say I’m the best at baking.”

“I keep a bunch of tools in my car, I’m ready to fix anything anywhere.”

You

The focus is on the other person. You topics are ultimately about letting the other person share the story of themselves.

Best Use

The best use of You topics is to better understand how a person understands themselves. Open ended questions that invite them to show their thinking as well and shows you how they reason. The common acronym FORD (family, occupation/occupy time, recreation, dreams) is a decent

Example:

“So how did you find yourself in this city? What was that journey like?”

“Why did you take up [your hobby]? What drew you to it?”

Don’t Use

Don’t use you topics to actively try to find fault with someone else. It’s great to have standards and hard no’s for your friendships and relationships. But poking around for them upfront can alienate people who you’d otherwise like - suspicion is not a desirable quality in a friend or potential partner. Ultimately you have to let a person show you who they are and make a personal call. There’s no short cut.

Example:

“So why did you and your ex break up?”

“So you get angry easily then?”

Both

The focus is on a shared expertise/language, not on the story of either of you.

Best Use

The best use of both topics is to notice things about them they wouldn’t think to explicitly share necessarily and to connect in a way that only people with your shared interest or expertise allows.

Example:

My partner and I both have a background in academic medical research. However when we talk about it, it becomes apparent that my focus is on the practical and researcher side and hers is on the data and compliance side. It’s interesting to note where our similar interests compliment and diverge.

Don’t Use

Don’t use both topics to try one up or show you know more than the other person. The minute you do that the shared aspect - and therefore connection - is gone.

Example:

I once went on a date with a man who spent a half hour explaining how GIS systems work in a very “look at me” way after I mentioned I had used them when I was studying forestry in college. It was boring as hell.

Neither

The focus is on a topic without a shared expertise/language, not on the story of either of you.

Best Use

The best use of neither topics is a shared exploration/experience. One person will usually know a little more about a topic than the other person. The person who knows less benefits by learning about a topic they’re curious about. Their questions and observations invite the other to think about this topic in a new light so the experience winds up being somewhat shared.

Examples:

A woman in line at Lowes let me know I could overwinter mums in this area. I proceeded to ask her about how she’d taken such good care of hers and whether the effortwas worth it. She thoughtfully answered my questions and I learned a lot.

I mentioned to my partner a personal project I’m considering undertaking. She asks about my motivations for it and in doing so I have to further clarify them. She learned a little about what my project was about and I learned what I was really after, seeing it fresh.

Don’t Use

Don’t use neither topics to soapbox about things that are of solely personal interest. If someone makes it clear they’re not interested pivot to something more interesting. Even neither topics require at least a little bit of common ground.

Examples:

I regularly talk about group hypocrisies I’m trying to make sense of before realizing that people outside of that group don’t really care.

Ideal Ratio

In general, in reflecting on my own conversations, I think a ratio where more than half the conversation is on either both or neither topics are the most rewarding. It’s where neither party walks away feeling like they talked too much about themselves and when meaningful and interesting topics still have been discussed.

I think it’s a common mistake to try to get the conversation to be 50% you, 50% me. That’s where conversations feel like a job interview and get exhausting real quick. They also have an appearance of depth as people disclose more to keep the conversation going but with out a feeling of connection after because little time is spent on exploration and shared experience.

How to Respond

So knowing what topic you’re currently or want to talk about is one part of this, but the other is choosing a response. I generally let the other person’s response dictate some measure of my response.

Pivot

If someone seems negatively engaged - leaning back, looking around a lot, arms crossed, giving short answers - I pivot to a neutral topic. I find neutral topics work best because the focus is not on either of you - they don’t feel like they’re under pressure to disclose or act interested in you. Neutral topics also allow them to lead the pace - asking questions and making observations at the level they feel comfortable. If they continually seem negatively engaged, it’s usually best to bail from the conversation, especially if asking questions about the dynamic itself seems like it might not be welcome.

Matching

If someone seems neutrally engaged - mostly looking in your direction, not leaning toward or away, giving input on what you’re saying - I match and continue with the topic.

FOOL

Being a little like the Fool in the Major Arcana is actually a great way to be a good conversationalist - genuine, curious, brave, and receptive. Bellow are some concrete ways how.

Follow up questions - Good follow up questions come from a genuine place of curiousity. They also tend to either fill in gaps in your own understanding or encourage the speaker expand the discussion into a new but related area.

Observation - Observations on the topic itself are great but not your only option. You can oberve how a person seemed to feel when talking about the topic. You can observe that they’d touched on a related topic before. Comparison is a fruitful ground for observations as well - “That’s similar to…” and ”That’s very different than….”

Opinion - Offering an opinion or requesting their opinion is a good way to keep a conversation going. In general, it’s best to avoid generalizations, soften them a little to start with, and make sure there is some measure of compassion in the opinion you’re sharing. Rigidity leaves little room for discussion and exploration.

Levity - Where appropriate, make a joke, share a meme, craft a pun, tease them a little. Laughter is a shared experience that connects us.

Building

If someone seems positively engaged - leaning forward, making eye contact, coming closer to you for neurotypical people and actively engaging with the content of what you’re saying regardless of stims or eye contact for neurodivergent folks - I build on what we’re talking about. I self disclose my feelings and personal connections to the topic one step further than what the person I’m talking with has.

It’s important not to disclose a lot more than the person you’re talking with has. It leads to a vulnerability hangover for you and can be quite awkward and uncomfortable for them. If you disclose just a little more than the person you’re chatting with, then it’s much more easy to recover and match their level if they seem uncomfortable with what you shared.

Decision Tree

“What topic are we talking about currently?”

Me - Set expectations, share preferences; you focused

You - Understand you as you understand yourself; other person focused

Both - Connect over a shared language; idea focused

Neither - Connect over a shared exploration; idea focused

“What cues am I getting from the other person?”

If positive, build on current topic - be vulnerable

If neutral, match on current topic - be a FOOL*

If negative, pivot to a different topic - preferably neutral or in ratio**

*FOOL

Follow up questions - genuine curiousity - “I wonder…”

Observe - conversation, feelings, topic - “I noticed…”

Opinion - cautious, concise, compassionate - “I’ve often thought…”

Levity - make jokes, share memes - laughter connects

**Ratio

51% Both/Neither

<49% Me/You

#social anxiety #social skills #conversation #how to #life hacks #I have a feeling this might not be useful #to anyone but me #but just in case #here it is

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theyhavetakenovermylife · 3 months

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Tech Troubles (Fluff)

1987!Donatello x reader

A/N: We are keeping it short and lighthearted today. I’m starting my internship at a kindergarten tomorrow, so I have a lot of things to get ready. Enjoy some fluff in the meantime💜

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Warnings: None💜

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It was another busy day in the lair beneath the bustling streets of New York City. Donatello was hunched over his workbench, tinkering with an intricate piece of technology that had annoyed him for several days, not letting him do as he had intended. The lair echoed with the clinks and whirs of his tools as he focused intently on his latest project, frustration slowly growing inside of him. So focused was he, that he did not notice you enter the lab.

You entered the lab and halted in your step, watching Donatello work with fascination with a focused expression, his brow muscles frowning deeply. As the newest member of the team, you were still adjusting to life surrounded by ninjas and the way of the ninja turtles, still finding yourself mesmerized by the fact that they even existed. Yet Donatello had taken it upon himself to show you the ropes, and you could not complain. You had found yourself drawn to his intelligence, kindness, and of course, his charmingly nerdy demeanor ever since the day you met him and his brothers and their rat mentor. It was not too much to say that you had developed a crush on the smart turtle.

"Hey, Donnie, what are you working on?", you asked, breaking the silence that had settled in the lair.

Donatello looked up from his work, his frown disappearing and a smile spreading across his face when he saw you.

"Oh, hey there", he greeted, setting down his tools. "I'm just trying to fix up the communication system. It's been acting up lately, and I want to make sure we're always in touch with Master Splinter and the others. But…”. He looked down on the bundle of wires on the table, irritation making its way onto his face once more. “... It has not been working the way I’ve wanted it to. Actually, it had been putting up a fight with me".

You nodded. "Need any help?", you offered, eager to lend the purple clad turtle a hand. Anything to help the guy you had developed a crush on.

Donatello's eyes lit up with appreciation. "Actually, that would be great", he said with a smile. “Fresh eyes usually help a lot. Well, that’s when those eyes know what they’re looking at”, he added, nodding towards his brother's rooms on the other side of the wall, causing you to chuckle. Donnie could not deny how much he liked that sound.

You moved closer, peering over his shoulder at the intricate wiring and circuitry spread out before him. Together, you examined the faulty component, brainstorming possible solutions.

As you worked side by side, a comfortable space and sweet conversation formed between you and Donatello. You found yourself laughing at his jokes and sharing stories from your past, while he opened up about his passion for technology and his dreams for the future.

Hours passed in a blur as you lost yourselves in the task at hand. Despite the occasional setback and technical glitch, you refused to give up, determined to see the project through to the end.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity of troubleshooting, you and Donatello managed to fix the communication system. A sense of pride and accomplishment washed over you as you watched the screen light up with a clear, stable signal.

"We did it!", you exclaimed, high-fiving Donatello in celebration.

He grinned, his eyes sparkling with admiration. "Couldn't have done it without you, (Y/N). Thank you", he admitted, his voice filled with gratitude.

As you basked in the warm glow of success, you found yourself getting lost in Donatello’s eye. His bright eyes shining with the same care and understanding as they always did whenever he looked at you, making butterflies emerge in your stomach.

That was when you noticed you and Donnie’s hands, still connected by the palms in the air, his fingers not letting go of yours, but instead slowly entwining themselves with yours. Donnie’s eyes followed yours, noticing the thing that had caught your attention. This caused a blush to make its way on to Donnie’s face, as he quickly retracted his hand, bringing focus back on the communication system with a stammer. You smiled with the new knowledge that was presented to you. You might not have been the only person in the lab with a small crush.

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copperbadge · 1 year

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Oh god I got a discussion of therapy all over that poor person’s post about ADHD.....did not mean to spill quite that many personal beans but I queued it when I was tired and it posted before I noticed it was inappropriate.

I wanted to reply to the comments individually but I felt like I’d be disjointed about it and maybe some people don’t want their comment on one post blasted to 30K people on another post, so in a general sense...

I know there are different modalities to therapy -- I have no idea what mine were but I doubt it matters since it was twenty-five years ago and I was a child. Part of the problem is that the modalities which are clear-cut in theory seem unhelpfully loose in practice. I’ll look through a directory of therapists and a half-dozen will give different modalities from each other but talk about the same handful of therapeutic techniques, or address the same family of issues, or both. And most of the modalities both in the clinical and practical sense seem extremely unpleasant, so that is perhaps a Me Problem.

I end up asking myself, “What’s my goal in doing this?” and I picture myself sitting down with a therapist who asks what I’m looking to address, because that would help narrow down my options. But I never have a good answer. So I think, “That seems like an hour a week that could be spent doing something less expensive” and close out of the search window. Then a few weeks later I think “Well, that might be useful, I’ll look around” and the cycle starts again.

There are so many good uses for therapy, but a lot of what people say they use therapy for, I've done on my own for years, or am working on now and don’t feel like I need help. I don’t really have any problems identifying therapists who aren’t going to work for me for one reason or another, but it’s an issue if I can only tell a therapist what I don’t want to do. Saying “I’m not interested in doing roleplays” is fine as boundary-setting but if I can’t say “Because I want to accomplish this different thing” then all I’m doing is insulting someone’s profession, really.

So what’s left? Just the vague sense that other people I like and admire find it useful, and my experiences were very much outlier, so maybe I should try it again. But if I can’t identify why I should try it again, and if I’m going to be aggressively combative about it (which...I don’t want to be but I do know me) then all I’m really doing is paying someone to be insulted by me for an hour, and I can do that to people who deserve it more, for free, on the internet.

niennanir

The thing with therapy, speaking as someone who was a counselor for a period of years, is that it is a tool that supposes a baseline function. Going to Therapy when you have ADHD is very similar to being handed a hammer and told to use it when you have no arms.

I did want to respond to this comment specifically because a) that’s very validating and b) it means that if I do want to continue looking I guess a good place to start would be asking my meds psych, because he at least deals with adults with ADHD on the reg and can be like “Well, first we gotta get you some robot arms.”

I just like the idea of having robot arms, really. The hammer’s a bonus!

...my meds psych is a very nice man but he’s also super earnest and will probably not understand why I find the robot arms thing so funny.

#ivylaughed #justforfollowingpeople #ladymordecai #magpiemood #catchandelier #niennanir #therapy

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tricktster · 2 years

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so i’ve been baking bread pretty regularly since sayyyy april 2020. you know, when we were waiting for this whole kooky covid thing to die down in a few weeks, but in the meantime some people had taken the very rational step of buying out every store’s supply of EXTREMELY PERISHABLE goods, including the extremely sad 100 calorie sandwich rounds favored by my parents.

now me? I’d read enough zombie very serious survival books to have ventured to the co-op on March 10 to stock up on dry bulk ingredients, and I’d included yeast and bread flour among the necessities - not because I thought that they’d ever get used, really, it just seemed practical if things got a lot worse than anticipated. And then? Well. You know.

So I joined the club of the tens of thousands of americans who had always viewed leavened dough with a healthy skepticism and the deep sense that these things were best left to the professionals. With the circumstances now unimaginably altered, we were now very cautiously dumping yeast into bowls of warm water, all the while doubting that this would actually work. So, obviously, that sense of accomplishment I felt when, after all the proofing and kneading and rising and punching down and rising again and venting and egg washing and etc etc etc, I actually pulled two relatively respectable loaves of bread out of the oven? Fucking intoxicating.

I’ve gotten medium good at bread over the intervening years, insofar as I can produce a sandwich loaf without needing to find a recipe, I’m pretty comfortable with adding cheese or garlic or raisins and nuts or whatever if I’m feeling like an Interesting Bread, i’ve forced a few loaves of sourdough into existence (though both I and the dough were kicking and screaming the whole way), and I recieved the ultimate tool of convenience for my birthday last year, when my parents gave me the dutch oven that finally permitted me to finally skip kneading altogether (if I so desired).

Except like.,. I didn’t ask for a dutch oven. I actually asked for something much cheaper and by all accounts more convenient: A bread machine. When I did, though, my mom (who has baked precisely 0 loaves of bread in her life) said “oh, you don’t want a bread machine.”

“I don’t?” I asked, already halfway swayed by her confidence on the matter.

“oh, no, nobody ever actually uses bread machines, they just take up space on the counter.” my mom, a woman who owns two instapots, assured me.

I considered her reasoning, and very firmly replied with a defiant “oh, okay, yeah. that makes sense, and I guess I’ve gotten this far without one, so like, it’s silly to get one now.”

I know. I have a will of steel.

So like, another year has passed since that exchange, and a week or two ago i finally decided that since counter space is no longer at a premium at my new place, i could at least try out a cheap bread machine? I went on ebay, got an open box deal on a decent entry level model, and took it for a spin yesterday.

And, for what it’s worth, uhhhhhhh HOLY FUCKING SHIT IT COULD HAVE BEEN THIS LOW EFFORT THE WHOLE TIME?????

LIKE I COULD HAVE BEEN JUST DUMPING INGREDIENTS IN A PAN AND WALKING AWAY THIS WHOLE TIME?????!?!?!?

it’s making brioche for me right now. It’s almost too easy. I’m actively furious.

This feels exactly like the day I finally bought a game genie so i could get Mew to finish out my red dex. I’ve been grinding and learning helpful strats from youtube and there was a fucking cheat code that would have let me skip the bread making side quest while still gaining xp this whole goddamn time.

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littjara-compleated-sage · 9 months

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Hey could I ask you to talk about Ixhel for a moment? I’m doing research for the next chapter of Steel and Oil by going back over the original story and looking at other people’s interpretations of her and figures you would be a good place to start, as tumblr’s resident Phyrexiaposter.

Oh absolutely! I'm honored :3

To see firsthand how I write her, I have two Ixhel fanfics at the moment:

Deeper Than Faith, Higher Than Hope is about Ixhel's compleation day, her glimpse of a less-than-perfect Phyrexia, and the shame that follows. It shows a lot of the self-gaslighting and subtle reinforcements of hierarchy that Orthodoxy life runs on, as well as Ixhel's need for her family to be proud of her. Deep down, she never stopped being a newt who yearned to see her mother smile.

These Ichorous Bonds is from Vishgraz's perspective, but sheds some light on Ixhel's sources of joy and how she loves. There's also discussion from Vishgraz's much more black-aligned viewpoint about what he thinks would help Ixhel (prioritizing herself, primarily).

I care deeply about Ixhel as a character and I'm really invested in portraying her in a way that does her justice (Aysha U. Farah knocked it out of the park, god damn). Some key points:

She is a child made to grow up too fast. Physically she is a compleated adult Phyrexian, but her narration consistently points to naivety. For example, she doesn't fully understand how humanoids work (calling Belaxis's tears "clear oil") and finds it genuinely difficult to conceptualize meaning outside of Phyrexia. The Orthodoxy tightly curates the information allotted to its members and it shows. Human-equivalent-age wise, I've put her at about freshly 18, but that doesn't correspond one to one.

She will never express this naivety or uncertainty openly if she can help it. She's been taught to cover up her uncertainty with Orthodoxy platitudes and the praise she receives for being a good little cog in Phyrexia's machine.

When we first meet her, she is desperate for praise and affirmation, which Norn and Atraxa drip-feed her in order to keep her on the hook. She commits incredible violence in their names in order to earn that praise and feel useful, which she, as a white Phyrexian, has been taught is the most important thing in life.

Her mother Atraxa now reinforces Ixhel's position as a tool, giving her orders and demanding to be called "Commander". She is deprived of parental love, but consistently craves it, while feeling like direct loving expression would be sinful and shameful.

She has a lot of internalized shame, but hasn't fully repressed her emotions. She will feel hurt or yearning or joy in a "forbidden" circumstance and then immediately chastise herself for it, possibly followed by some expression of pro-Phyrexia violence in order to convince herself she's still being a good obedient Phyrexian.

The feelings of freedom Ixhel gets when she is alone, being creative, are thrilling and shameful to her. She knows they are forbidden. She tried to justify Vishgraz's creation as a way to impress her mother, but I think deep down, it was for herself. She wanted to feel that accomplishment.

She feels a lot, but needless to say she has been starved of healthy expression mechanisms. The only form of expression "allowed" for her as her mother's tool is directed violence. (Even in trying to save and keep Belaxis, whom she knows she likes, she only thinks of killing him first.) After Vishgraz, she starts to realize that creativity is another outlet.

The most important aspect of Ixhel's character development and eventual rebellion, imo, is her growing black mana alignment and focus on herself. She needs to learn that she does not exist solely for others, despite what she's been taught; sometimes being a little selfish is a good thing. This is what Vishgraz wants to teach Ixhel in These Ichorous Bonds.

I hope this is a good overview! If you have any more questions, do reply or DM me. I love talking about my girl Ixhel <3

#ixhel #mtg #magic the gathering #phyrexian #phyrexia all will be one #atraxa #elesh norn #new phyrexia #askbox #chefwhatnot

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ros3ybabe · 8 months

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Daily Check In September 15th and 16th, 2023 🎀

I was a bit stressed on Friday. And really tired. Like crying on the phone talking to my dad about how tired I was. I did not want to go to work, but I did and had a goodnight regardless. Everything worked itself out and I stopped stressing so hard. I was gonna rest before I had to go to work but my friend decided to talk my ear off for an hour about her family woes, even after I told her I wanted to rest my brain for a bit. I love helping my friends when I can but sometimes I just need a break from socializing.

there’s not much to update on but I’ll give an update regardless!

🩷 What I Ate Sept 15th -

Breakfast - bagel sandwich and a coffee

Lunch - bagel w whipped cream cheese and another coffee

Dinner - Alfredo pasta w spinach and chicken and a small salad w egg, cheese, and a little ranch dressing

Extra - morning coffee at home and not near enough water. Also some mini mint chocolate candies, like three

I was really feeling bagels. They were so good.

🩷 What I Ate Sept 16th -

Breakfast - Scrambled eggs on brioche style bread with slices of cheddar cheese

Dinner - Two bowls of spaghetti with marinara sauce and grated Parmesan cheese

Snack - macaroni cup, three cups of coffee

I just realized I didn’t take a break to eat lunch at work today. That is the first time I’ve ever forgotten to do that.

🩷 What I Accomplished Sept 15th & 16th -

Worked a total of 13.5 hours at my job

A lot of self compassion and rest

Morning skincare and night skincare routine (sept 16th)

Studied Japanese 10+ minutes each day

Reorganized my desk with my new desk supplies

I received some new acrylic desk organizers, stationery, and Japanese study books today! I bought two writing workbooks and I bought the Genki I and Genki II textbook + workbook + answer key bundle off of Amazon and I am so excited to start using them all soon! In my Japanese studying so far, I’ve memorized almost the entire hiragana chart and started keeping a physical list/anki flashcard set of hiragana vocabulary off of Duolingo and have been practicing my writing on Renshuu. Renshuu is surprisingly such a great tool for me right now, like it’s the complete reason I memorized the hiragana so fast. My plan is to start using Genki I right after I memorize (most of) the katakana. I’ve been listening to Japanese music a lot and talking out loud to myself on occasion. I’m just super excited about this language.

I think I’m quickly approaching the edge of burnout right now and I’m desperately trying to find a way to delay the burnout or stop myself from burning out altogether because I have too much on my plate to just lose myself now. Like I’m genuinely enjoying everything I do in a day but it’s tiring me out. I don’t sleep very well right now, I’m not working out, my nutrition isn’t the best, I over-consume caffeine and I’ve been neglecting my self care. I am working to regain balance because I don’t want to tire myself while trying to build the best life for myself. Todays first step was keeping my promise to do skincare and study Japanese. Tomorrow will be skincare, weekly planning, and completing my due assignments and notes. If I can rebuild trust with myself, I have a good feeling I can get back on track with my daily ideal routines. Just need to take it one step at a time.

I know my blog appears that everything is so great and girly and perfect for me but my life is not like that entirely. I do romanticize my life in the way I live it, I am the main character if my own story, but life is life and stuff happens. I don’t have the perfect body or health, I don’t have the best discipline or motivation sometimes, and yeah, my life isn’t perfect. However, I am still so grateful for the life I am currently living, a life that I never thought I’d be so content with. This blog has helped me determine the direction to go in and keeps me motivated often, and I am so at peace and proud of all that I’ve built and have had help creating for myself. Thank you to everyone who reads this. It is the little interactions, the daily notifications, the pride I get from my consistent updates that keeps me level. This is therapeutic for me in a way. Like an online diary. And I absolutely love the space it’s given me to be my true self, my most comfortable self. I am not perfect but i am happy. Happy with my progress and my journey and my community.

Sorry for the little joyful ramble. Again, I appreciate this community so much. I wouldn’t have driven my life in this path without this community.

🩷 Song of The Day - The Greatest by Sia

One of my all time favorite motivational songs. Just listen to the lyrics. Absolutely simple and amazingly powerful.

that’s all for these last two days! Will be getting more detailed in my daily accomplishments, and am working on a stationary review though I did order more so I might way until it gets here to complete the review post!

Til next time, lovelies 🩷🤍

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skania · 11 months

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Last ask anon sent reminded me of this one tweet Akasaka made in 2021 about Akane and Kana. (I can’t send images so I’ll copy and paste the link here).

https://twitter.com/akasaka_aka/status/1423096723358973953?s=46

I’ve seen a few people say that it’s talking about how Akane is the one that is super involved with helping Aqua with his revenge and finding his father, and they predict at the same time that Kana will be the one to save him from the state Aqua’s in rn. Personally for me, I’m not super keen on how Akasaka is going to convince me that Kana’s going to be able to save him just because Kana has just started to be included in Aqua’s revenge plot.

But I’m not too sure how else I’d interpret that tweet myself and I was wondering what you would think about what the tweet said.

Ah yes, I've heard about this tweet! So I checked the date and Aka tweeted this the very day chapter 52 released, so it does seem to be referring to Aqua's revenge.

So either Aka was simply addressing the chapter and how different Kana's reaction would've been from Akane's, or he was foreshadowing the manga as a whole.

If we assume he was doing the latter, this is indeed the kind of thing that makes the execution of Kana's character in the manga (so far) so deeply underwhelming. The narrative tells you she's supposed to do something, but it makes no effort whatsoever to give her the tools to accomplish it or to make it believable. You're just told it's going to be that way and that's that.

This is why I, too, have my issues with the thought of Kana being the one to single-handedly save Aqua. Not only because she's spent more than 100 chapters not knowing a thing about Aqua's struggles and his darkness, but also because it diminishes Ruby's role as Sarina and Akane's goal.

What is the point of Ruby being Sarina if this won't have a big (positive) emotional impact on Aqua? What is the point of Akane working so hard to save Aqua and of gaining so much insight into him if Kana's just going to sweep in and do the job?

No, to me it feels like some teamwork will be involved. I think that Kana may shine a proverbial light that will allow Aqua to realize he can't keep living for revenge, because he has people who love him and Ai would've wanted him to live for love instead.

But I digress! To get back to the tweet, I think it's interesting to dissect what that means for Akane. Yes, Akane did lead Aqua to the truth and yes, she was even willing to go to hell with him if needed. But the thing is, for Akane it's always about respecting a choice at the core of Aqua's needs. If Aqua tells her that he needs to carry out his revenge, Akane will walk that path with him to help him carry the burden. If Aqua deliberately overlooks the truth in order to give up on his revenge, Akane will walk that path with him and shoulder the burden in his stead.

But if Aqua takes a wrong turn and starts doing things not because he needs to, but because he feels like he has to—and if these things will bring him nothing but pain rather than potential freedom—then Akane will also walk down that road with him, in order to get in his way.

This approach won't work for every reader though, and Aka's tweet kind of summarizes the reason why certain readers will prefer Kana while others will prefer Akane.

#fandom: onk #me: onk #onk asks convos #their different approaches would be even clearer if aka actually allowed kana to do anything though #poor kana has been sidelined for so long that at this point she feels more like a placeholder that reads 'I'll be important in the end!!'#I can see Aka working to change that this arc though so good luck to him #he's got a lot of work to do to organically make kana catch up with all the stuff she has no clue about #my aquakane meta #me: aqua and kana

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ninacchis · 5 months

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HI hi Nina!!! Can I ask you about your Rinharu AUs??? 👀💙❤️ I want to hear about them!!

hiii dragon, thanks for giving me an excuse to ramble hehe >:3c

a lot of the aus i have in mind are just broad ideas like several mermaid aus, rinharu as parents, an idol/celebrity au and so on. these one’s are a bit more in depth (the violet au especially) though, so i’m sorry if this is kinda lengthy lol

breaking bad au - the tachibanas are struggling financially so haru who wants to help them (and is pestered by rin) turns to cooking meth. it’s been a while since i last watched the show but i imagine haru starting out bored with his life and feeling stuck. it’s after he begins cooking with rin that he feels a sense of accomplishment and he wants more. this one’s not too focused on romance, but there’d definitely be moments between rin and haru if i ever decide to do anything with it.

grey’s anatomy au - instead of swimming everyone is a surgeon with haru specializing in general and rin in neuro. they’re some of the best in their field and have built a name for themselves as well as their hospital. they’re constantly pushing one another when it comes to their work, sometimes get into heated arguments when discussing what’s best for their patient, and spend a lot of time in the on-call room together 😏

pokémon au - again, pretty much the same but instead of swimming, it’s all about pokémon. rin convinces haru to become a trainer like him with the goal of one day being the regional champion, he leaves to get stronger, hits a wall and quits after losing to haru. of course they reunite and after they’ve reconciled, the two work toward their shared dream of becoming champions. i don’t know too many pokémon so i can’t say for sure what their teams would look like but for haru i like to imagine that he had an eevee as a kid that eventually evolved into a vaporeon. also he has a thing for the ugly and/or useless pokémon like feebas and magikarp.

maid dragon au - haru works a typical office job and on his way to work, he’s greeted by a dragon outside his apartment named rin who is shamelessly head over heels for him. the two start living together with rin taking care of all the household chores and smothering haru with his affection. as time goes on and other dragons from rin’s world come over, haru finds himself enjoying the company and even begins to return rin’s feelings. while they’re adults in this au, their dynamic is similar to when they were in elementary school and over time becomes what it is now.

violet evergarden au - ever since she was young all haruko has ever known is to kill. as a young adult she’s given to rin to use as a tool and nothing more, but he wants more for her and dreams of showing her a life outside of the military. after the end of the great war and losing both arms, haruko is taken in by the nanase family and begins working as an auto memories doll at a postal company owned by makoto. it’s through writing letters for others that haruko slowly learns the meaning behind the words “i love you” and begins to better understand rin’s feelings as well as her own. debating if i want their reunion to follow the light novels or the movie, either way the two do end up together in the end. this one’s my personal favorite so i’d love to draw out some more stuff for it in the future! i’ve even gotten somewhat into floriography because of it and have a list of flowers to associate with each character for this au

#there’s also a pikmin au i wanna work on though that one is even less romance than the brba au 😅#i hope some of these sound at least a little interesting #thanks again for letting me go off about these dragon!! love you!!!#rinharu #凛遙 #asks

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dailyadventureprompts · 2 years

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Drafting The Adventure: Hitting a Wall

I know the signs before I really start to feel them, I start trawling through my notes looking for validation, I find it hard to concentrate on anything even if it’s pure entertainment, my thoughts become slippery and recursive as I think through the same few phrases or sensations on loop.

By the time I realize that I’ve hit a creative block I’ve usually been spinning my wheels for two or three days, letting everything else in life distract me from the fact that I haven’t put words on the page or made progress on one of my current projects. Then I feel guilty for not being productive and angrily stare at a blank page for the remainder of my freetime slowly making myself worse, and still getting nothing done.

It’s a cycle that I’ve been fighting for years, and one of the predominant sources of despair in my early life once my brain had associated creative accomplishment with self worth. I now know mostly that I’m not any better or worse a person because of my rate of output, but that doesn’t change the fact that I really LIKE the feeling of being creative and clever and creative blocks stand in the way of that feeling.

Lets use my most recent block as an example: I wanted to write a player home type adventure prompt where after doing a solid for the local nobility the heroes are suddenly bestowed with a knighthood and a keep overlooking the town they’d been adventuring out of. I found a really solid piece of art that captured the mood I wanted for the prompt ( sometimes the hardest part of running this blog) but when it came to actually detailing ideas for what the castle was like my brain just sort of... stopped. Sure I had a couple of ideas but they didn’t really form into anything actionable, and those concepts that managed to make it into the page were long, rambling, and frankly uninteresting.

I’d hit a wall, and it wasn’t until I was honest with myself that I had an actual problem that I could start doing something about it. Lets look at some of my solutions:

Back to the Drawing Board: While I’ve now spent several years attempting to surmount my creative blocks, it’s only recently that I’ve come to realize that blocks occur not because I’ve just run out of creative juice/have gotten stupider/angered my muse, but because I’ve committed to a flawed idea and I need to back up and plot a new way to act on my inspiration. if I’m having problems finishing a sentence, I go back to the start of the paragraph, if I’m having trouble with a paragraph I go back to the start of the whole document, If I’m having trouble with the idea, I go back to what made me think that Idea was going to be fun in the first place.

Recognize the learning opportunity when it hits you in the face: No one is born inherently creative, it’s a process of refining your skills over time so when you encounter challenges in the future, you’ve already developed the tools needed to overcome them. Each problem then becomes an opportunity to improve, until you can gladly flaunt the things that would have stopped a younger version of yourself dead in their tracks. In this instance, figuring out how my creative blocks affect my brain will not only let me avoid them in the future, but get past them when I inevitably make a misstep.

Give your brain something else to chew on: I was already half way through thinking “maybe I should analyze why I run into walls and how I get out of them so I can implement that strategy on a wider scale” when I realized I was drafting this post in my head. Making it has not only helped me formalize a few strategies I’m going to use going further, but given me enough distance from the project that was stonewalling me that I can begin to rethink it, rather than try to “solve” what I’d already put down.

Why isn’t this working?: I’ve asked myself this question many times when I feel like I’ve run into a creative dead end, but it wasn’t until this most recent hurdle that I realized I’d never defined what “working” meant. comparing this prompt against several others that HAD worked made me realize that when I’d given the party a place to stay, I’d always paired that with a significant quest that came before/after, which I neglected to do for this particular prompt because it was already intended as a followup. Using the fort as a launching point for a new story is going to give me all the inspiration I need.

#it's a process #dnd #dungeons and dragons #adventure #5e homebrew #homebrew adventure #DM advice #dm tips #dm tools #dm tip #drafting an adventure #writer's block

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charmedreincarnation · 1 year

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Hi Maya,

I came across your blog when looking for shifting accounts and I’m so glad I did because your posts on shifting are invaluable!

I was wondering if you had any advice about shifting again after the first time.

I shifted about a month ago, with pretty much intention only. I was tired and whilst I knew I believed in shifting, I just wanted to experience it first hand for confirmation that I could do it. So I was really lazy and just affirmed over and over that I would shift and that I would wake up in ‘a bed’, and that I was shifting.

I woke up in my bed, but without my boyfriend or my pet beside me, everything was pretty much the same in my room except I didn’t have my pet’s cage and after a minute I realised I shifted. I kept just looking around, and I could feel the bed beneath me, i was truly awake there with my lucid thoughts and everything. I always sleep with my door shut but it was open and I checked my phone and everything was the same except I didn’t recognise any of the names in my contacts. I thought about going outside my room but I knew I wasn’t in my desired reality and in all honesty I was slightly scared to leave my room. So I just laid back down, said my safe word repeatedly and went back to sleep.

Anyway it was such an incredible experience, but I haven’t done it since and not for lack of trying. I know 100% that it’s real and that I can do it and I know that it’s me that controls if I do it or not and that I’m completely capable, but every morning when I wake up and haven’t shifted I just feel a bit confused because I literally know that it’s possible and that I can do it.

I’ve tried to address any doubts I might have, but I honestly do know I can shift and at any time I want so I’m just not sure what’s holding me back.

Do you by any chance have any advice on shifting after the first time and anything you did to shift again after your first time.

Thank you so much!

Congrats bae! The same thing happened to me when I was doing lucid dreaming and it all comes down to this principle. It sounds like you have a strong belief and know that you can make the shift. To further help you with your intention, you could take a few minutes to meditate and really focus on what it is that you want to accomplish. By utilizing the power of visualization, try to focus on the outcome that you desire and use affirmations or mantras to remind yourself repeatedly that your goal will be achieved. Additionally, journaling can also be a great tool to track your progress and celebrate any small victories along the way. Don't forget - every shift is unique, so keep experimenting until you find something that works for you!

Additionally, it could be helpful to experiment with different shifting techniques, such as visualizing a dream scene before falling asleep or taking more time to relax and focus on the moment. There unfortunately is no one-size-fits-all approach - so I can’t tell you exactly what the problem is, but I know you got this so just go for it and don’t give up 💗

#manifesting #law of assumption #manifesation #reality shifting #shiftblr

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workingmomsofsanantonio · 1 month

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Beyond Busy: The Art of Time Management for Working Moms

Beyond Busy: The Art Of Time Management For Working Moms Time Management Tips

Jan 15, 2024

If you often find yourself caught in the whirlwind of managing work, family, and everything in between, you're definitely not alone. I get it—the juggling act of being a working mom is no small feat. But fear not, because today, I’m diving into the world of time management. Let's uncover some small, totally doable techniques to help you reclaim control of your schedule and make the most out of every precious moment!

The Art of Time Management

Time management isn't about fitting more into your day; it's about making the most of the time you have. It's a skill that, once mastered, can transform the chaos into a well-orchestrated symphony. Start by acknowledging that you are an amazing working mom managing multiple roles, and you deserve a strategy that works for you.

Creating Daily and Weekly Schedules

Get that planner ready (oh man, this is my favorite part), because we're diving into the nitty-gritty of scheduling. Begin by outlining your priorities for the day and week. Assign specific time blocks for work tasks, family time, self-care, and those unexpected mom duties. Having a visual roadmap can be a huge when it comes to time management, and if it makes it into the planner, you're so much more likely to commit to getting it done!

Setting Priorities and Goals

Prioritization is key. Identify the tasks that truly matter and most importantly, the ones that align with your goals. Whether it's a work deadline, a school event, or your much-needed 'me' time, knowing your priorities helps you allocate time where it matters most!

Delegating Tasks

Meet your sidekick—delegation. If you’re anything like me, it may be a struggle to admit this, but it's okay not to do it all! It’s important to delegate tasks at work and home, whether it's assigning chores to the kids or partnering with a colleague on a project. Remember, you're not relinquishing control; you're smartly distributing the workload, and hopefully acknowledging other’s strengths in the process!

Overcoming Procrastination

Procrastination is the arch-nemesis of productivity. Kick it to the curb by breaking tasks into smaller, more manageable steps. Set super realistic deadlines and reward yourself when you achieve them. Small victories pave the way for significant accomplishments!

Pro-Tip: When you make a to-do list, put everything on there—big or small! There’s something so satisfying about checking things off that list, even if it’s something as small as making your bed, and it will help motivate you to tackle the bigger, less desirable tasks!

Time-Saving Tips for Busy Moms

Let's talk about efficiency hacks. Embrace technology—use apps for grocery shopping, meal planning, and task management. Batch similar tasks together, like responding to emails or tackling household chores. And yes, saying 'no' is a powerful time-saving tool...a good friend of mine recently reminded me that “no” is, in fact, a complete sentence and can be used as such! It really is about preserving your energy for what truly matters!

Remember, time management is a journey, not a destination…and it will help you craft a life that aligns with your values and goals. Embrace the process, be kind to yourself, and celebrate the victories, big or small. You've got this, and I’m here cheering you on every step of the way!

About the Author:

Erika Radis is a Co-Founder of Working Moms of San Antonio. She is a real estate agent, graphic designer, podcaster, office supply enthusiast (is there anything better in this world than a good pen?)and San Antonio area Working Mom. She has owned and run her own businesses for the last decade, all while raising her 3 daughters and enjoys providing valuable resources for Working Moms in the San Antonio area! You can follow Erika on Instagram or on Facebook.

www.workingmomsofsanantonio.com

#working moms #entrepreneur #business #networking #blog #san antonio #time mamagement #satxlocals #satx #follow #instagram #facebook

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kinocomix · 2 months

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devlog 18: doo dads, inventories and recycling like responsible authors.

The script for TSTW is 17 scenes long so far, still in progress. I estimate it will be around 30 to 40, which is a welcome change given that my last comic was around 110. with that in mind…

would you believe me if i said i spent an entire day looking for an extremely specific book that i used to own- well two actually now that i think about it. I didn’t find them. One of them was a book with a bunch of electronic crafts for kids, the other was this book where you’re supposed to tear the pages to make everything from a chessboard to a cup. Not important, the point is Brandon Sanderson said something very insightful about writing characters that are smarter than you: being smart, often, is a matter of how much time you have to solve a problem. We consider someone as being smart when they very quickly have a good answer to a given question. The reason I was looking for two random ass books I owned as a kid is because I have the time to figure out how the kids are going to channel their inner bear grylls to improvise, adapt, overcome. they do not.

today, we’re going to be figuring out what we can realistically get away with as far as child inventions go, as well as talking about how as artists, reusing work is normal and shouldn’t be something to be ashamed of.

So first things first: what do the kids in our story have access to? this was the easiest to figure out because I know what living situations most of them experience, so here’s a list:

killouette: stationary and a camera. I’m still unsure which time period the story takes place in, so it’s unsure whether or not the camera is digital. It's objectively more fun if it’s a polaroid camera, because then all her pictures are physical. This is a plus because the only person with a computer in the group is talbas. On the other hand, setting the story in the mid 2000s means she probably has a small digital camera that she could connect to a bigger screen. alternatively, if i choose to set the story in the present, she could have both. unwanted old cameras left in a drawer somewhere.

bata tete: fun craft tools (paint, glue, string, ribbons, a big pile of magazines), a basket and a printer. you can’t go wrong with paint and pictures if you’re writing a story about kids, and this is also helpful because it introduces additional things to bata tete’s character: a more artsy side to complement the mission impossible stuff. instinctively i’m thinking the strings are definitely going to serve as trip wires at some point or another, and paper mache is definitely going to be involved in some way.

falefil: a po box, a piano and an electronic voice recorder. My current headcanon for falefil is that he doesn’t really like toys, so minus getting aluminum foil from his mom’s kitchen, he can probably lend his electronic voice recorder to accomplish something. maybe a makeshift MP3 player?

zmik: toys and objects intended to be used with other kids. all unused. I’ll admit this the saddest one by a longshot but it hits home a bit too hard to not include. I remember the piles of old board games, slingshots, marbles, even -the irony- a pair of walkie talkies I had that just… sat there. I like to imagine Zmik is finally in a place where he can share these things with people he likes.

motsik: broken knick knacks, pieces of mirror, detergents, bent spoons, a lot of wooden kabab skewers. It should come as no surprise that most of what Motsik has to offer is broken to some capacity, because of his violent household. the things he brings are broken because he effectively fishes them out of the trash, figuring his friends might have something they could do with them. note: motsik could also try to make stuff himself, but given his character this would be infrequent.

talbas: her uncle has an electronic equipment store, he teaches her stuff and low key is in on some of the shenanigans the kids do. despite the neglect from her parents, talbas loves spending time with her uncle whose store is nearby. he loves the fact that she’s interested in soldering and making fun doodads, so he has a budget set aside just for her. it’s pretty obvious that talbas’ uncle is the only person tethering her to a sense of purpose and a feeling of love.

claude: a lot of organic things and the knowledge thereof. Claude has little in the way of possessions, but she has a lot of street smarts. Claude keeps track of inventory across the 6 kids’s houses and frequently is the first to suggest solutions to problems.

with that being figured out, all we need to do to try to combine what they have with what the problem is and we see what comes out the other end. for example:

let’s say they need all hands on deck for something but that means ignoring a hallway where someone could come see what they’re doing. we know they would have access to stuff like strings, empty spools, simple electrical components and tin foil, so they could for example make a small trip wire using one of several methods i thought up:

this one is a pressure pad you can hide under a carpet that sets off a small light or beeper.

this one is a single use tripwire that would not require miles of electrical wire lol.

two things to note: the actual schematics in the book are going to look much nicer but also i’m approaching writing this book with publishing in mind, so I’m steering clear of actually dangerous things like blades and anything stronger than a small battery. which is a shame- i have a very funny story about how i personally once nearly set my building on fire trying to make a lamp when i was like 11, but that’s not the kind of stuff that will get published for middle grade/early young adult readers. I hate having to squash my book into a category like this, but if i’m to have any hope of doing what i love for the rest of my life, this feels like a necessary sacrifice.

now, as an aside, let’s talk about something I personally do that I think might be helpful to others and I’m going to illustrate my point by sharing spoilers for a project I won't get to for another couple of years.

Around 2014 was my very first attempt at writing something. it was a story called “Last of the Predators”, a very angsty attempt at something serious written by a version of me with no connection to the subject matter whatsoever. it had no plot outline, end in mind or clearly defined characters. Everyone spoke in the same monotone calm way and every paragraph had way too much description of the person’s emotional state. I eventually lost interest and dropped it, even deleting the blog I had been using to document the updates on.

shortly after I started making comics, i came up with the ice cream men: a story that follows two aliens kicked off their planet who arrive on earth. In their boredom, they decide to follow the recipe for something called ice cream, inevitably bringing up a million other topics along the way. This might sound fun, but when I came up with it at the time it didn’t feel enough to justify the commitment it would require. it initially focused too much on jokes and really didn’t have much to offer in the way of depth. so i shelved the idea for a while and this is the piece of advice i have:

don’t throw ideas away, just shelve them.

around this time is where my studies got in the way. When you’re just starting out trying to make art, everything stops you dead in your tracks. It wasn't until I started working on illustrating almost home that the creative gears started turning again. I came up with a whole bunch of things, but some of what I did is revisit my folder of abandoned projects. Sometimes when a project feels dull, it can be helpful to merge it with another one. This doesn’t always work but when it does it can lead to very interesting results. This is what I did with the ice cream men. I took the philosophical premise of the ice cream men which suffered from an underdeveloped plot and bad setting that didn’t suit the theme, and I combined it with the idea that survived after I cut all the slack out of Last of the predators which is the following:

The world LOTP is set in suffered a cataclysmic event that killed all the animals. Humans being how they are, they quickly built a religion around this and decided that some people have “predator souls” while others have “prey souls”, even going as far as to genetically engineer the way people look to introduce animalistic features to faces and bodies. The story is very political in nature and revolves around this role reversal that happens many many years after the cataclysm… and that’s where all the bullshit comes into play that I cut out.

As a side note, what I just told you is the polished version of the lore I rewrote for this devlog- it’s not the one I decided to settle on for the ice cream men but I'm sharing it regardless for the sake of documentation. point is: the reason this felt relevant to me is because combining this with the ice cream men added a layer of intrigue to the story which i really liked:

two aliens are kicked off their planet and arrive on a deserted planet which the reader knows is earth. In their boredom, they decide to follow the recipe for something called ice cream, inevitably discovering more about this strange planet and its past…

That past is the yet untold story of LOTP, with a less shitty name and more consideration given to the themes and mechanics of the things at play. so effectively we have several narrative layers at play:

the ice cream thing which could be a commentary on purpose or the creative process in addition to being a fun jumping off point for comedic relief

the past of the planet which could offer some mystery to the story, and maybe encourage some more serious topics to be brought up

and a third secret one, that i’m not willing to share just yet.

which i think is a story more worth telling. Here's another example more immediately relevant to our devlog. two years ago, I was thinking about how funny it would be to have unnecessarily complicated contraptions in the kitchen. the type of stuff you see unemployed engineers do for social media instead of benefiting mankind. I asked myself how would you go about making those contraptions useful: maybe someone could benefit from them if they were for example disabled, cool. too straightforward for my liking. What if they were small? like… as small as a bug? a very small chef.

how to cook when you’re 2 inches tall. that sounds fun i like it. What if it was a cookbook where part of the instructions were these complicated instructions on how to build and solder electronics? fun! I need a chef and an engineer to do that. I am neither.

don’t throw ideas away, just shelve them.

I kept thinking about that for a while. I imagined our protagonist Claude, a small hercules beetle who loves to cook. I wrote three versions of the script of a comic and even discussed making it a short animation at some point, but it didn’t feel right. it’s not the vision. It needs to be a cookbook.

queue Killouette and the fact that I’m really annoyed at how the camera can see everything. I remembered the idea I had with the cookbook, so I thought why not borrow some of that and make it a diary? Let’s add Claude in there as well for good measure. Maybe then how to cook when you’re 2 inches tall can be the one that comes after Killouette if I’m lucky enough to get funding. A grown Claude who made it big as a cook. By combining the two projects into two parts of the same series, I fixed the problem I had with the camera and added continuity to two otherwise one off projects.

So maybe that’s something to keep in mind. don’t throw away ideas, shelve them instead.

Next week we’ll be looking into the supplementary children’s book attached to killouette.

devlog updates on tuesdays.

#comic #webcomic #kinocomix #devlog #graphic novel #journal comic #writing

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aries-rp-corner · 7 months

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They’re kinda done ^^; I am working on a post with extra info of the Characters with their Pokémon Teams, it’s gonna be awhile so stay tuned. For now, story time!

Veda & Lamont Sherdion Aivat

The two brothers are from the Kanto Region, young scientists that vowed to help people and Pokémon…well, Veda didn’t. He saw science as a way to improve power and use Pokémon to test the improvements. While Lamont saw it as a path to help heal and to protect people and Pokémon. The two will have arguments over the paths they saw and wish to accomplish…that will be put to the test as they were captured by Team Rocket to help with the Mewtwo Project. Lamont was very horrified that he was forced to create something that defies the law of nature while Veda saw this as an opportunity to show the world and his brother that with the power of science, humans can be gods of creation. That will soon change, as Lamont was trying to figure out a way to put an end of the project for good and get himself and his brother out, but was stopped by his brother as the two fought each other, despite Mewtwo asleep it was able to hear the man say: “We are no gods in creating something like this! This is wrong and you know it! This Pokémon will forever be in pain for what we humans have done! I don’t want any blood on my hands if something happens! Veda, my dear brother! Please, stop!”

“You are the most weakest human being that I know Lamont! We can be gods! You are afraid of the very truth that is in front of you! Now enough of this weakness and finish our project, “Dear Brother” of mine!”

Lamont was in pain after hearing those words from his own brother, he once again pleaded with his brother to stop, but it only made Veda angry as he now fought Lamont. During the fight, some fellow scientists tried to break the two up unaware that Mewtwo heard just enough. Awakened with full power, destruction broke as Veda’s ear had been clipped and Lamont received an X scar on his face knocking him out. Veda and the other scientists escaped, leaving Lamont to parish in the fire…or so they thought as the Pokémon looked over to the wounded man who was slowly waking up.

“I never wanted this…feel free to dispose of me…I wanted my brother and myself to get out while we can…not every human is terrible…I’m so sorry…”

Lamont spoke with pain and sorrow, closing his eyes to await his fate…and yet, nothing. From feeling the heat of the flames around him fade to a soft breeze of wind and hearing shouts echoing in his ears, soon he fully blacked out. Only to wake with bandages on his face and worried family members. He told them Veda is alive, but didn’t want to tell that his brother hurt him. He still shares love for his younger brother…but Veda…he didn’t.

After that, Veda escaped to the Orre Region to get away from the law. With the brief belief Lamont is dead and finally free from his brother’s shackles, but upon venturing into the Orre Region he was found by Cipher as they want him to help them create Shadow Pokémon, and with no hesitation, he agreed. Ten Years had passed for the brothers, Veda learned Lamont was alive and was looking for him, an idea grew on how to lure his brother out. Lamont was unaware of the second rise of Cipher, until he got a tip that Veda was in the Orre Region, proving that Veda was indeed alive. Lamont informed his wife and family that his brother is at the Orre Region, and with no time to waste he quickly went over to see Veda again…only to find himself being captured by Cipher who were ordered by his own brother and forced to work with an organization again. Veda grew twisted for the last ten years, tricking Lamont into believing that he was also captured by Cipher as well, but he was so happy to see Lamont was alive after all the time…in reality however, he was angry that Lamont was alive and Veda joined Cipher willingly. Still wanting to prove that Science is a tool and bring power for humans to become gods of creation.

Lamont grew more disgusted from what he was forced to do, while no one was looking he freed some Pokémon that were next to be corrupted…that would soon end as Veda caught his brother freeing Pokémon. Outraged he sent out his Shadow Noctowl at that time to use Hypnosis on Lamont…to this day sadly, Lamont doesn’t remember what happened, all he could remember was the feeling of fear and sensing something he did horrifically wrong…Veda made his brother to become a Cipher Peon instead, to deal with a Pokémon Ranger…Aries’s Uncle at the time.

After the second fall of Cipher, Lamont returned to his family in Kalos. Watching his daughter grow and become a mother with a healthy little girl. For a while he felt peace…yet there are nights he will wake up in a cold sweat of him committing a slaughter to someone while seeing Veda watching with a dark and twisted grin on his face. For some time it was haunting him, until a year ago, a group of Peons found the man and threatened him to return to Cipher or something will happen to his family. As much as he didn't want to, he was forced to join to protect his family from Cipher’s harm. He sadly has to play by their rules, acting as a cold stone soldier just to keep trainers out…but once alone he tries to warn anyone who could hear him out…but being a member of Cipher, he knows that person will end up dead.

Veda once again joined Cipher, this time as one of the Ace Commanders. Pillar of Science. He quickly noticed that Lamont had returned, and Lamont took notice of his brother as one of the Ace Commanders. The brothers began working in the Science district again to create Shadow Pokémon once more and research for the suitable legendary to become the new XD Project. Veda was very excited in looking for the right candidate while Lamont was scared that if they succeed the world will be in trouble. The brothers worked day and night in creating Shadows, Lamont was afraid that the world was never going to know…that is until the brothers and Commanders heard news that Kane Tori Cobalt returned wounded from Area Zero, a venturous trainer was now aware of their existence. Veda was very furious that someone noticed that Cipher is back and they’re probably gonna tell the world, Lamont however, was very relieved to learn not only the trainer survived, but there is a possibility that she is coming after Cipher…and that’s what she did.

Lamont managed to track the trainer down while providing proof he isn’t like Cipher and he wasn’t a threat, informing Aries that Cipher is going through Region to Region to capture the right legendary, and told her the information she never knew before. In time, Aries and Lamont trusted each other to take down Cipher…that was until he heard news that nearly broke him. Word spread that the Witch perished from the Queen’s attack, believing there was no hope left…until some months later, a group of Peons returned injured and petrified with a wounded Veda with a now permanent scar on his face, as he shouts out: “The Witch! She’s alive!”

The rest of the Commanders and their two leaders were furious, the Peon Guard however; was so relieved. Veda was quickly patched up by his brother, as Veda told Lamont the Witch came after him with an unknown rage…a Primal Rage he had never seen before. Lamont was surprised to hear that for the first time, as he was able to see Aries again he was curious on how she was able to get his brother wounded and spooked. To his surprise sadly, she doesn’t remember. All she does remember is her getting very angry as she woke up with a new wound on the right side of her stomach. At the end at least, he was just happy she was alive.

Months past, Veda ordered Cobalt to spy and collect data from Team Neo Plasma. Despite Cobalt’s annoyance, he agreed as the Commander ventured into enemy territory. Unfortunately, Veda made the horrible mistake in rushing Cobalt to do his job “Faster” as he desperately seeks the knowledge of Kyurem to see and know if was the right candidate to become the new XD Subject… He would soon realize the horrible mistake he made for Cobalt as he was found out, Kane was able to get the information Veda needed…at a cost with himself getting hurt and captured by Neo Team Plasma, making Veda shocked. He had informed his leaders and remaining Commanders, Mira was of course angry as hell at Neo Plasma while she smacked Veda in the head. To make up for his mistakes he volunteered to help with the rescue mission by being their navigator to get Kane Tori Cobalt back, Veda was able to redeem himself and deeply apologized to his fellow Commanders for rushing Kane and will continue to redeem himself as he will join in them in the field. And that’s what he did, after time had passed he, the Commanders, and Leaders took notice that the Witch was running low on energy marking that she is ready to give up…but it wasn't the case. The mad scientist was unaware of the power Aries now poses to make sure he knows his place, Veda isn’t aware of what and how Aries can do to Capture and Heal Shadow Pokémon…Especially he is unaware she joined Team Neo Plasma…all except one.

Lamont heard the news that Cobalt was captured, he was very relieved that Kane was finally caught…unfortunately he wasn’t aware that it was his brother who accidentally helped get Kane caught and what fully happened within the Plasma Frigate, until Kane was brought back. Before the rescue mission, he learned that Mira and Archie went to Orre to collect Kane’s Pokémon Team back and the two finally destroyed both The Relic Stone and Purification Chamber, including they threatened the Shaman who was helping the Trenya Family…leaving the girl fully stranded. Upon learning everything, he told Aries for what they have done…yet he wasn’t aware three lives were lost and taken only after he returned to hear that Archie took out two grunts, while Mira took out one. Lamont was very furious at the Commanders taking lives away and laughing about it…he was about to tell the Witch…only for her to find out from Archie. Both Lamont and Aries were in high tension for what transpired, until one Full Moon night, Aries informed him that she may join Team Plasma temporarily to protect the people she calls her friends and to protect Kyurem. Lamont was worried that she won’t have the freedom to be out alone anymore, but at the same time, he can see she was extremely exhausted and as much as he wishes to deny her from doing that…he couldn’t fully stop her. The two were able to see each other luckily, but he soon learned she has to be with another Grunt for her to see him while he passes down the information; he honestly doesn’t mind it, the more eyes and ears, the better. He continued to help her and wishes to help Plasma further with the information he shares to them…especially, when she informed him that she found a way to cure Shadow Pokémon as well as Capture them. The man couldn’t been more relieved as he learned about this information; although he was curious on how she did it…he was surprised to learn she was now capable in doing magic through Glyphs…in his honest opinion: “If it gets the job done and save the corrupted Pokémon…I’m all there for it, Lass.”

Now the brothers continue their work, but Lamont will continue to Spy on Cipher to share more information to Aries and Plasma as best as he can… only in time, he and Aries will learn the horrific truth for what Veda has done to the both of them…What he truly has done to Lamont and the pain Veda has brought upon not only his brother, but to the Trenya Family all those years ago.

Wholesome Fact: The headpiece on Lamont’s head was made by both his Daughter and four year old Granddaughter. Since then, he hasn’t taken it off, despite Veda being annoyed from the sight of it. (Which is why you should go and eat dirt, Veda.)

#no rp here just rambling #pokémon #pokemon #pokémon oc #pokémon original character #team cipher #making characters is agony…especially writing stories ;u;

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atlasira · 1 year

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Just started S2E1 and while the Trespian court is very corrupt and shady… ngl they kinda have a point. NOT in how they’ve been ruling over the common folk, but regarding the queen’s behavior so far.

Like, I definitely sympathize with Ellaire wanting to find out what’s going on in the kingdom, and not trusting the council to be honest. And she actually did good!! She accomplished a lot in very little time!

Her Departure

However, the council is absolutely right in that the way she went about things was extremely irresponsible. She just became the queen and, without any regard for her new duties, left the castle behind. She was gone for several days and the court had no idea where she ran off to, when/if she’d return, and what they were supposed to do in the meantime. There were kings and queens from other kingdoms currently “in her care” and she literally just ditched them. She’s lucky they didn’t feel disrespected, despite it being very improper.

While it’s sad, I’m not that surprised the court interpreted Ellaire’s absence as an abdication. I mean, she literally ran away — yes, with the intention to return, but as the queen she can’t just sneak off whenever she wants to like that. She was no longer a princess with lots of free time, she had become a queen with vital obligations.

Her “Solutions”

Not to mention that her solutions, while nice, did feel a bit… idealistic. When she was “on tour”, she banked a LOT on her privileged position. “When I return to my throne, I’ll be able to fix this, and fix that, and tweak this, and tweak that” etc. Those were some big promises to make, despite her inability to comprehend the political mess she left behind.

And like most people, I agree taxes suck, but Ellaire’s solution to overtaxation being ZERO taxes was pretty silly. When done fairly, taxes do serve a purpose in helping out a territory. Plus I do agree that she should’ve at least waited to get back to court before spreading word about it. She essentially made a promise she had no idea if she’d be able to keep. And a broken promise is worse than no promise at all.

Like, overtaxation is disgusting and definitely needed to be fixed, but the way she went about it was just so hasty. I’m American, and if the President randomly came to my town, shouted in the streets “hey everyone no more taxes ever! :D” and then immediately got impeached, I’d think they were nothing but an idiot (no offense Ellaire, I still love you!)

They Were Right

It really hurts to admit it, but the council was right. Ellaire’s behavior SCREAMS she was not ready to be Queen. I can’t remember the exact line of dialogue, but in S1 a character asked how she thought the court would react when she returned. The fact she believed she’d be the equivalent of “just grounded for a week” was insane. I didn’t know what the exact consequences would be, but “grounded”???? God I love her and think she’s so cool, but one of her biggest flaws is that she’s been spoiled her entire life and it SHOWS.

Further Into Season 2

While I think Ellaire definitely dropped the ball here, I believe this massive failure will be a life lesson. She has to know her actions have consequences and that being an effective ruler requires a lot more than just good intentions. Since the story is already on its 3rd season, I’m sure a lot of people have already seen her develop. I haven’t yet and this post is me just brainstorming.

But I do believe this rock-bottom-outcome will have the effect of also being an important tool. That she will learn from this and develop into the effective, just, and responsible queen Trespia needs.

#romance club #heart of trespia #s: heart of trespia #babbles #I just started S2 so these are just my current thoughts rn #long text post //

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warrioreowynofrohan · 2 years

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Three episodes into Exandria Unlimited: Calamity! Thoughts on Zerxus, who I’m finding one of the most compelling characters.

I was hooked on his character early on, especially by the moment in the first episode where he casts Lay of Hands on a mutilated corpse of someone who was involved in something horrific, in hopes of easings its spirit’s pain, and it works. And all the moments where he’s dealing with someone they need information from but the person isn’t saying it because they’re too nervous or scared or don’t want to be in trouble and his response is always to try to be reassuring and comforting. All the times in the information- gatherine phase where Brennan kept asking “Intimidation or Persuasion check?” and it’s always, always Persuasion, and he’s just going, “of course it’s Persuasion, imtimidation isn’t me at all!” and he’s, like, six and a half feet tall and built like a truck, but he’s just hereto be kind and help people! Just incredibly motivated and defined by compassion. *Lots* of saving throws against swooning for me, not making all of them.

And he made a very, very stupid decision at the end of the second episode. I’m going to skip the pragmatic, common-sense reasons why that was a bad call and try to translate my reservations into Paladin:

Zerxus. That dead man whose spirit you eased earlier by using Lay on Hands, you have a detailed understanding of what was done to him. This is someone who was utterly devoted to a being, and that being cared less than nothing about him, and regarded him as a tool to be discarded. You had compassion for that person. The being who did that to him is the one that you are talking to. This is an entity that places no valie whatsoever on anyone aside from their usefulness to him. And you are promising to help him accomplish his goals. This is not a question of guessing whether he’s probably going to do evil things ot has a high risk of doing evil things - you already know what he’s doing, right now, and it’s evil. And the connection between him and that cultist is not a hard one to make. You’re helping someone to who destroying even the people most loyal to him is nothing.

(Anyway, in at least one sense things are less worse for Zerxus than I expected so far, because my running theory midway through episode 3, when we found out that True Resurrection failed, was that one of the things Patia and Zerxus had done to try to save Evandren was the ascension ritual and hés killed and replaced Asmodeus so the person Zerxus was talking to in ep 2 was Evandren as a demon, hence the connection….It’s going to get bad, but it’s not bad in that specific way.)

#exandria unllimited calamity #zerxus #zerxus ilerez #critical role #exandria unlimited #exu calamity

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