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drawing-prompt-s · 2 months

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GoFundMe: Getting the kitten to the vet...

for a rabies shot, FIV testing, and a possible upper respiratory infection!

So someone sent in the last $305 I needed while I was asleep. I'm transferring it to my account now which means I'm a) shutting off the GFM as soon as the transfers process and b) taking in the kitten as soon as the money becomes available to me - so likely by Friday I'll take her in, or Saturday or Monday (they do half days Saturday, and are closed Monday).

GoFundMe Link Paypal Link

Venmo Link Cashapp Link

Multiple payment options available because I am typically asked for alternatives to GFM and PP.

$350 / $350

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INFORMATION + VIDEO UNDER THE CUT!

From the GoFundMe description:

Hello!

So, unplanned, there is a new kitten in the house as of Feb. 22, 2024. (Not Jolene's, she is fixed). When at my friend's house - where I will be moving in a few months - we found out that a cat that comes to visit often is not only owned, but a mom. However, the neighbor doesn't want the kittens, so he always puts them outside and leaves them there. I could no, in my right mind, leave the kitten outside by a trashcan and under a tire in February of all months, so I brought her home.

So far I have treated her for hookworms, given her the vaccines I can do myself, and looked into getting a spay voucher from one of the local shelters. The kitten is roughly 3 months old.

However, current concerns are that she may have an upper respiratory infection (and there is always the concern that she could be FIV+). She has an inflamed eye with a regular and concerning amount of discharge and has for a few days. I have also caught her sneezing and she has started coughing on more than a few occasions. She also has a few other signs of sickness - anemia, the runs, and some blood spotted in it. If it is a URI, I need to catch it as fast as possible because I also have Jolene, my 3 year old cat. She absolutely also needs FIV testing and a rabies shot because of that, and because where we are moving there are other cats.

Jolene and the kitten have both been getting along well. The kitten loves to follow her around and Jolene acts more like the disgruntled big sister (don't let her fool you, I have caught them playing regularly - she just needs her alone adult time too).

I have already altered a bit of my projected finances and removed money from my savings to care for the kitten and help her. But there is only so far that can go as I also need to be able to afford gas, food, and furniture for the upcoming move (I'm going to start buying things soon so I can put it together and move my stuff prior to the official move date). I was trying to put off a full vet visit until sending the kitten in for a spay, but with her eye and the possibility of infection spreading to other cats, it can no longer wait.

I am shutting off this GFM as soon as I reach the goal. The vet said to budget for a little more than $300, between the base cost of a visit, FIV testing, rabies, and potential treatment for an Upper Respiratory Infection- assuming it's nothing too major. And I added a little more to what I am expecting because GFM does take a fee from donations.

If the kitten does end up being FIV+ we do have rehoming options available or I will find someone better suited to handle an FIV+ cat (either already having one of their own or a home with no pets).

I tried to take a video of the eye, but as you can imagine, a 3 month old kitten isn't the most keen on staying still, haha.

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Let me add in the breakdown as well, now that I think about it:

Base cost for my vet to see a new cat (even as a pre-established client with other cats treated there): $100

FIV testing: $40

Rabies (and other vaccines I may be missing I was unable to do myself): $35 - $45

And the vet recommended budgeting about $100 for medications depending on what they find (if she still has worms, if she has other parasites due to being outside untreated, if she has a URI like the current concern is): $100

The rest is tax, the % upcharge for using a card, and to negate the fees that GFM with-drawls from each donation.

#prompt prophet #promphet #gofundme #mutual aid #kitten #cat

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lambertdiary · 8 months

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After All These Years - Chapter One

‎‎‎‎‎Chapter Two ✩ Chapter Three ✩ Chapter Four

Chapter Summary: Y/N and Dalton are childhood best friends who do everything together, but when the Lambert family moves away they are separated and forced to forget about each other.

Word Count: 1.7k+

Warnings: angst, mention of Dalton's coma, allusion to the further

A/N: omg I'm so excited to finally share with you this mini-series i've been working on. The story is entire based on this request by @daltonsqueen so thank you so so much for requesting it!! This first chapter is a little short since I wanted to use it exclusively to describe their friendship when they were kids (hopefully you guys still like it), but I promise next chapter is a lot longer! As always thank you guys for reading and feedback is always appreciated. Also I “accidentally” quoted one of Taylor Swift's songs.

MASTERLIST ✩ SEND ME A REQUEST

Summer days were Y/N’s favorites. Especially when she got to stay home instead of driving around with her parents visiting family or going to boring restaurants, on days like those she could sleep in and beg for more time to play with her best friend, the nine year old that lived next door. His name was Dalton and his family has lived there for a lot longer than she or Dalton have been alive, but they met when they were both seven.

She was an only child so before Dalton she felt lonely most of the time, of course she had friends but she could only play with them at school, so summers were extremely boring for the little girl. And something about her, she loved making friends. Friends were really important to her so having no one during school breaks was… upsetting.

Until one hot summer morning when she heard her parents talking about a kid with a lemonade stand outside of the house next door “Can I go?” She has never befriended someone from her neighborhood, the other kids were older and not very nice to her, so if there was a potential friend living there she needed to know.

“Sure sweetie, I don’t see why not” Her mom gave her a dollar and walked with her outside, staying on the front porch while Y/N made her way to the lemonade stand.

“I’m Y/N” She said as soon as she got there “My mom says you’re selling lemonade”

“Yes! Would you like to try some?” The little boy said happily, it didn’t look like he was selling much.

“I only have one dollar”

“I can give you two for one dollar!”

“Okay” She gave him the dollar bill and watched as he pulled out 2 tiny cups and poured cold lemonade on them “What’s your name?”

“Dalton, this is my house” He said pointing at the house behind him.

“That’s mine!” She exclaimed, happy someone her age lived so close to her.

Dalton grabbed the cups and handed them to Y/N, who took them carefully. They were a little sticky on the sides since Dalton poured too much on them and spilled a little bit “Do you wanna play after you’re done with your lemonade stand?”

“Yes!” He seemed really excited “I have a pool in my backyard, do you wanna check it out?”

“I gotta ask my mom” Y/N replied, looking at her still standing by their front door.

“That’s okay, you can go ask her and come by later!”

“I will” Y/N replied before running back to her house, almost spilling the rest of the lemonade she just bought from Dalton “Mommy, can I go play with Dalton?”

“I don’t know, honey” She hesitated, directing her attention to the little kid, he was waving at her so she waved back.

“Pleaseee” Y/N was pouting and giving her puppy eyes, she really wanted to play with Dalton.

“Okay, why don’t I talk with Dalton’s mom and then we’ll see”

They became best friends that day, seeing each other nearly everyday. Y/N helped him with his lemonade stand after Dalton told her he was saving money to buy a new toy that apparently all the cool kids at his school had, and eventually, they did everything together, they told each other everything, from deep secrets any little kid would consider deep secrets to simple weird dreams. Dalton would tell her about this magical place he could visit every night and Y/N used to get secretly jealous she couldn’t go there.

During school time they couldn’t play as much, but summers were when they would make up for all that lost time. Sometimes, they would even have sleepovers and spend more than 24 hours together so when summer was coming to an end, they would both be really sad. However, this time it was different.

“We’re moving to a new house” Dalton said out of nowhere. They were currently in Y/N’s living room, having snacks under a pillowfort they spent all morning building.

“Why?” Y/N asked, not knowing exactly what he meant.

“I don’t know” Dalton’s eyes were filling with tears “It’s really far away”

“Why can’t you stay here?” Y/N was about to start crying too.

“I don’t know. My parents took us to the new house yesterday and we were in the car for a really long time”

“You can stay here with me” She suggested “We can build a pillowfort in my room and that’s where you will sleep!” Y/N was satisfied with her solution, but Dalton knew that wasn’t an option.

He shook his head, making a few tears fall on his clothes “We are leaving on Friday”

“Before summer is over?”

“Yeah, my mom says we have to settle in before schools starts”

“What about our sleepovers?”

Dalton shrugged his shoulders “Maybe I can still visit you in my dreams”

“But what about me? You know I can’t see you or go where you go”

They talked about that the rest of the day, Y/N asking a million questions and Dalton not knowing how to respond. That’s when they experienced a heartbreak for the first time, two best friends being ripped apart from each other at a very young age.

Y/N’s mom was almost as sad as they were. She knew how much Dalton meant to her and Dalton leaving meant Y/N being somewhat alone during the summer again. They truly loved each other, how could they not? The friendship between two little kids was the purest form of love that could ever exist.

The Lambert family left really early on Friday, but Y/N promised she would wake up on time to say goodbye. So there she was, standing in front of what used to be her best friend’s house, hugging Dalton goodbye.

“It’s not fair” She whispered in Dalton's ear, trying really hard to steady her breathing with all that crying.

“But I will see you again, I promise” Dalton was also crying, and he couldn’t help but feel like his best friend was sad because of him “My mom says we can visit you one day” He said wiping his own tears.

“Will she talk to my mom?”

Dalton nodded before running up to his mom and taking a piece of paper from her hands “I made this for you” He said, giving it to Y/N, it was a beautiful drawing of the both of them. They were in the pillowfort, Dalton wearing his super hero costume and Y/N with her favorite baby blue pajamas.

“I will keep this forever” Y/N said, looking at the paper and bringing it closer to her heart.

All four parents looked at the kids, feeling for them. They were all amazed at the special connection they had and they were of course sad they had to break them apart. But unfortunately that wouldn’t change anything.

The drought was the very worse for the both of them, but especially for Y/N. Dalton had two siblings he could play with (that didn’t mean he wouldn't miss her), but Y/N went back to staying in her room all day. She still played and tried to have fun by herself, but all those games she and Dalton made up weren’t as fun without him.

Weeks went by and Dalton still hadn’t visited. Y/N would constantly ask her mom about him and why he broke his promise. She knew the reason, Dalton was in coma, but she didn’t think telling that to a little girl would be the best idea.

It wasn’t until a month later Y/N found out the truth. It was a mistake, she overheard her parents talking about Dalton and how he still hasn’t woken up from his coma. She didn’t know what that meant, so later when she confronted them about it they tried their best to explain it to her without making it sound as tragic as it really was. The last thing they wanted was for her to think he was dying, even though that’s what it looked like. So instead they just told her something like “He’s really sick so he has to go to sleep a lot, that’s why he can’t come visit you”

“Can’t we go visit him?” She asked crying, scared that her best friend was really sick.

Her parents at some point did consider the possibility of visiting him and his family, but discarded the idea when they realized what someone in a coma really looks like. They didn’t want little Y/N to see her best friend in such a… lifeless state “I’m sorry, honey. But we’ll have to wait until he gets better”

That was the last time she talked about him with her parents, any other time she tried to ask they didn’t really say anything and with time, she stopped asking. So her memory of him gradually faded away somehow, she stopped wondering about him, wondering if he was okay or if he was now gone. Maybe it was easier for her to block everything they lived together than to recall how painful losing him was.

But it was hard for Dalton too. He had a pretty rough few years after he moved. Being in a coma, forgetting a whole year of his life, having a complicated relationship with his dad, seeing his parents fight all the time and eventually get divorced. For years, he did think about Y/N a lot, he didn’t stop wondering about her but with so many things flooding his mind, he never really made time to reconnect.

In the end, the memory of her stopped being so constant and with time it went away almost completely, just like everything else from his childhood. Except that he would occasionally remember her existence, anytime someone asked about his early years her name came to his mind, their friendship being the only distinct memory before everything went downhill. Dalton never talked about her though, he thought bringing up a childhood friend he moved away from years ago was a little weird, so he just didn’t. It seemed like everyone around him forgot about her, so maybe he should too.

#after all these years #dalton lambert #dalton lambert x reader #dalton lambert fluff #dalton lambert fic #dalton lambert imagines #dalton lambert imagine #dalton lambert fanfic #insidious #insidious the red door #insidious 5 #ty simpkins

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puckrph · 1 year

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TALLAHASSEE SENTENCE STARTERS

taken from the mountain goats album. tws for toxic relationships and mentions of alcoholism. feel free to change pronouns, etc.

TALLAHASSEE

"i pray to summon the destroying angel." "there is no deadline, there is no schedule." "there is no plan we can fall back on." "the road this far can't be retraced." "there is no punchline anybody can tack on." "there are loose ends by the score. what did i come down here for?" "what did i come down here for? you."

FIRST FEW DESPERATE HOURS

"bad luck comes in on the back of a truck." "we try to keep our spirits high, but they flag and they wane." "let the good times roll on through these first few desperate hours." "the sun peeks in like a killer through the curtain." "we keep up the good fight. we keep our spirits light."

SOUTHWOOD PLANTATION ROAD

"i've got you. you've got whatever's left of me to get." "our conversations are like minefields: no one's found a safe way through one yet." "i'll spend a lot of money, i'll buy you white gold." "all night long you giggle and scream." "i am not going to lose you." "i am not going to lose you. we are going to stay married in this house like a louisiana graveyard, where nothing stays buried." "the dead will walk again, put on their sunday best, and mingle with unsuspecting christian men."

GAME SHOWS TOUCH OUR LIVES

"that stuff tastes like medicine, but i'll take it. it'll do." "i'm in the mood for you." "i held onto you with a desperate strength, with everything in me." "it's a drink of the lovely little thing on which our survival depends." "people say friends don't destroy one another... what do they know about friends?" "everything's gonna be okay soon. maybe tomorrow, maybe the next day." "cars are headed down to oblivion up on the expressway." "your drunken kiss is as light as the air." "maybe everything that falls down eventually rises."

THE HOUSE THAT DRIPPED BLOOD

"look beyond the broken bottles, past the rotting wooden stairs." "not everyone can live like billionaires." "tear up the floorboards." "grab your hat, get your coat." "dig up the laughing photographs, they're here somewhere or other." "take what you can carry, but let me tell you: still water's going stagnant, bodies bloat, and the cellar door is an open throat."

IDYLLS OF TKING

"this day is full of promise and potential." "our shared paths are unraveling behind us like ribbons." "i dreamed of vultures in the trees around our house." "how long will we ride this wave out?" "how long till someone caves under the pressure?" "my dreams are haunted by armies of ghosts. faces too blurry to make out, numbers far too high to measure." "your eyes are twin volcanoes, bad ideas dancing around in there."

NO CHILDREN

"i hope that our few remaining friends give up on trying to save us. i hope we come up with a fail-safe plot to piss off the dumb few that forgave us." "i hope the fences we mended fall down beneath their own weight." "i hope it's already too late." "i hope the junkyard a few blocks from here someday burns down, and i hope the rising black smoke carries me far away and i never come back to this town again." "i hope i lie and tell everyone you were a good wife." "i hope you die." "i hope you die. i hope we both die." "our friends say it's darkest before the sun rises. i'm pretty sure they're all wrong." "i hope it stays dark forever. i hope the worst isn't over." "i hope you blink before i do, and i hope i never get sober." "i hope when you think of me years down the line, you can't find one good thing to say." "i hope that if i found the strength to walk out, you'd stay the hell out of my way." "i am drowning. there is no sign of land." "you are coming down with me, hand in unlovable hand."

SEE AMERICA RIGHT

"the radiator burst." "i was three sheets to the wind." "your love is like a cyclone in a swamp, and the weather's getting warmer." "you said you'd hop on one yourself and meet me on the way down." "i'm shaking way too hard to think." "i'm dead on my feet." "if we never make it back, i want you to know i love you." "my love is like a dark cloud full of rain that's always right there up above you."

PEACOCKS

"grab hold of the morning."' "i fear for my safety. you can see it in my eyes." "sun's all prickly on my neck." "seize opportunity right where it lies." "the sky will fall, we will rise."

INTERNATIONAL SMALL ARMS TRAFFIC BLUES

"my love is like a powder keg." "my love is like a powder keg in the corner of an empty warehouse, somewhere just outside of town, about to burn down." "our love is like the border between greece and albania." "there is a shortage in the blood supply, but there is no shortage of blood." "the way i feel about you, baby, i can't explain it." "you got the best of my love."

HAVE TO EXPLODE

"someone's gonna do something someone else will regret." "i speak in smoke signals, and you answer in code." "something here will eventually have to explode." "name one thing about us two anyone could love." "we roll out the red carpet when rotten luck comes down the road."

OLD COLLEGE TRY

"the warning signs have all been bright and garish, far too great in number to ignore." "our love has never had a leg to stand on." "but i will walk down to the end with you if you will come all the way down with me." "i want to say i'm sorry for stuff i haven't done yet." "things will shortly get completely out of hand: i can feel it in the rotten air tonight." "in the weak last gasp of the evening's dying light, those eyes i've always loved illuminate this place." "your eyes illuminate this place like the trashcan fire in a prison cell. like the searchlights in the parking lots of hell."

OCEANOGRAPHER'S CHOICE

"i don't know why i'm so persuaded that if i think things through long enough and hard enough, i'll somehow get to you." "would you look at that, we're throwing off sparks." "what will i do when i don't have you to hold onto in the dark?" "everybody's gonna need a witness." "everybody's gonna need a little backup in case the scene gets nasty." "i don't know why it's gotten harder to keep myself away." "i thought i'd finally beat the feeling back, but it all came back today."" "we knocked the dresser over." "i don't mean it when i tell you that i don't love you anymore."

ALPHA RATS NEST

"we do our best vampire routines as we suck the dying hours dry." "the night is lovely as a rrose." "if i see sunlight hit you, i am sure that we'll both decompose." "some day we'll both wake up for good, and i will try hard not to scream." "i've got something hateful on my mind." "sing for the dying of the day." "sing for the damage we've done, and the worse things that we'll do." "open your mouth up and sing for me now, and i will sing for you."

#mountain goats sentence starters #the mountain goats starters #rp memes #sentence starters #askbox memes

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an-aura-about-you · 1 year

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It's probably worth talking about the No-Buy Year I've been attempting for myself since the start of October since I spent a good part of yesterday looking at a townhouse that I would very much like to live in. Got long so under the cut.

I had been suggested the youtube channel The Financial Diet after they did an interview with Dan from Folding Ideas about his video on NFTs, and I started watching their videos and liking what I see. (It is always so refreshing to see anything finance focused talk about wage stagnation and how it's not the individual's fault that things are so much more expensive and we're so much more broke now.) It's from this channel's guest spots with Hannah from The Beautiful Budget that I learned about the concept of a No-Buy Year.

The idea that I took with me was to cut out most of my extraneous spending for a year. If I didn't need it, and I didn't need it right away, I wasn't going to buy it. No overstocking on things or buying something new to try if I had a perfectly good equivalent at home. I had in mind allowing myself some pleasures because every life should have some, but that's along the lines of going out for a coffee once a week or getting takeout, and I made a coffee budget for myself in the form of a gift card and made a rule that if I got takeout I would put some money in my savings at the same time.

And then, the same month I decided I was going to start my No-Buy Year, I started having trouble walking on my right leg. I went to the doctor and the x-rays showed that some of the screws from my original surgery 10 years ago had broken.

And suddenly I was reliant on expensive grocery delivery and frequent takeout because I couldn't cook for myself and couldn't necessarily count on others to be present when I was hungry.

I do not count this as a slip because, quite frankly, we all need to eat. I tried to make it count as much as I could every time I ordered, though. I remember one time I ordered from a place that makes a soup I really like and got like a quart of it with the rest of my food. It was initially pricey, but no more so than if I had ordered two meals from the get-go, and the meal I ordered combined with the soup lasted for a total of six meals.

But even with all of this going on, something started happening to my buying mindset. Now that I've recovered enough that I can cook again, I am thinking more about my food choices and not buying extra food that could potentially sit and rot in my fridge. I started a Never Buy Again list of foods and things that I keep thinking might be good but I never end up liking or using them. And I'm already seeing the effect this is having on my grocery bill in a good way.

The surgery also made me think about where I live, which is Not Great for my bad leg, and the things I wanted to do to change the place. And I started ping-ponging the idea around of what would be best for me, what would be most cost effective for me, what can I do to improve my situation?

Not for the first time since the Pandemic started, I began looking at houses on Zillow to see if there was anything more accommodating.

And that's when I found the townhouse I'm thinking about getting. It already has the things I wanted to put in my house anyway, there would be maintenance for things I just don't have the ability to take care of, and it's not on a fuck-off steep hill like the house I currently live in. If I wanted to stay where I am now, I would seriously have to consider things like landscaping, ramps, redoing my floors, and redoing my bathrooms. This place already has all of that done and ready for me.

So I'm thinking that my No-Buy Year is shifting more into a Marie Kondo Year. What are the things that spark joy for me? This townhouse is going to be able to help with my needs in a way my current living situation doesn't, and that definitely sparks joy. Not to mention I am ready to get some stuff out of this house that I'm not using, stuff that's just sitting here going to waste.

On top of all of that, it's very possible that selling my house will result in more money than what the townhouse costs. While I would indeed be buying, it might end up being a net positive for me. Granted, I'll probably use any extra money I might end up having to cover the costs of moving, but I think this is moving in the right direction.

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batpupboy · 8 months

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I've got a lot of stuff going on in my life right now and I just need to vent. If anyone likes this post I will take it as a hug and please if you need to reblog to share your point or offer advice or something just go ahead.

So my ex and I broke up yesterday because we just weren't working anymore after some crossed boundaries within a polycule and consent issues showed us the problems in our relationship and she realized that she could not be with someone who was not solely involved with her after she picked me up from one of my other partners homes and saw that they had left hickeys in a visible place. So we agreed to take a break which we discussed was us breaking up and we would see about the possibility of getting back together in the future after we had both worked on ourselves but when I tried to discuss logistics she couldn't handle it and that's understandable but today we discussed rebounds and stuff like that and she said that she didn't want a rebound but she had a date tonight and I can now hear them fucking in what is now her bedroom (we live together but it's a two bedroom house so after the break up we agreed that she would take the spare room). We had previously discussed if we brought someone home that we would make sure that we played music or something to make sure that the other couldn't hear what was going on and while she said that she did turn on music it was not loud enough to block out this sounds coming from her room and since we just broke up yesterday it hurts to hear her screwing someone else. I can't even go into the kitchen without hearing them because it's a small house. This is exactly the kind of situation in which I don't want to be sober but we don't have the money for me to buy any alcohol or weed or anything to take my mind off of everything. I have even tried to budget and figure out how long it would take us to pay back the debt that is keeping us together and potentially for me to start saving to move somewhere else like the city where one of my partners lives because even without them in the equation I do like the environment much more than the town where I live. And it hurts so bad that I kind of feel sick to my stomach.

Part of the reason that we broke up is that all of my other partners have pointed out that during the consent issues and broken boundaries and the reactions that followed she is displaying a lot of emotional manipulation and this just feels like a reinforcement of what they were already telling me.

But yeah she wasn't ready to handle the logistical concerns about us breaking up and she told me she didn't want to rebound but less than 12 hours later I hear her fucking someone else who while I have not seen him what I have heard of him is strikingly similar to me in a way that's reinforcing her type and making it just feel like she's rubbing salt in the wound.

My mental health has already been a very fragile state and I have a history of self-harm but I'm trying so hard not to go that route and the only other alternative my mind can think of is basically taking enough Benadryl to make me sleep and completely lose consciousness from everything that's going on but I know that that's just as unhealthy.

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psistillteach · 9 months

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Let's Get Personal

Okay, so this whole blog is just for me, but I need to rant and potentially let someone else hear it.

I really feel like my current living situation is causing me depression and anxiety. I know it's causing anxiety, but I haven't really focused on the depression.

I live with my grandparents. I am very grateful for them to let me live here rent free while I save up money to one day buy a house. I am grateful to spend this quality time with them. HOWEVER, living here feels like it is destroying my mental health. Specifically with my grandfather. I have always looked up to him. He is my person. I know that as you age, you lose some of the things you did when you were younger, but over the past little bit of living here, I have had to see it every day and it has been so HARD. He has a lot of scarring on his lungs and some heart issues. Over time, he's gotten weaker and his endurance for tasks around the house has gone down. He also doesn't take care of himself as well as he should. It breaks my heart to see him down. Here lately, he's also been a little sick too with cold like symptoms. It worries me tremendously when he gets sick. Last year, he got sick and was hospitalized for a week with pneumonia. Then, he was put in a rehab to help him regain strength, but they didn't give his medicine to him as they should and he got sepsis and went back into the hospital. This whole event traumatized me... Possibly because I was also watching my Nanny on the other side of my family slowly go downhill before passing away a few months later.

While I love the quality time with my family and enjoy helping them out as much as I can, I feel like this is affecting me fairly negatively. The stress and anxiety towards his health and also being a support to Granny who is trying to take care of him is a lot on me. I want to be here for them, but also need to be my own person. I am 26 and should be living as an adult... on my own. This market right now does not make it easy to move out. I just looked at renting and everything is either working off of a ridiculous waitlist, super expensive, or both. I feel trapped.

I feel like I could afford something if I didn't tithe in church. I have been battling that demon for a bit now too. I know that tithing is a sacrifice and that's why I do it, to give back to God but also help the ministry of my church. I know that it is not a Christian requirement, but in a sense it is. I'm still learning and praying for discernment on what to do with this, so I am hoping for answers soon.

I am also hoping that my next therapy appointment will help me out too. There has been a lot of stress on me here recently and I am really hoping that jumping back into therapy after not doing for 2 months will be beneficial.

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friendofgum · 1 year

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I have some money that I have been diligently squirreling away for a few months, and I now have enough for either a shitty used car or a deposit on a new apartment. Both are things I need within the next few months. Both are things with abysmal choice right now, and I'll be going for "first one that I can afford that's still somewhat useable" for both as well. Looking for a used car has always been frustrating, but looking for a new apartment in the middle of this housing crisis is crushingly depressing. I'm sorry, you're telling me renting a studio is gonna cost me more than what I'm currently paying in my 2bed apartment? Fucking hell, I hate this!

And this money I have saved is the ONLY saving grace I have right now, so I have to be so incredibly strategic with it and spend it on absolutely the right thing, and that is also stressing me the fuck out.

If I spend it on a car, I can get a second job as a delivery driver and potentially use the extra money to get an apartment later. But if I spend it on a car that dies on me, I'm left with nothing. Or if I can't find a delivery job and can't afford a new apartment, I'll be sleeping in the car by the end of the summer. But if I spend the money on an apartment that I can already barely afford, I can't buy a car and will struggle trying to find a second job with the limited transportation I have available to me (and delivery will be out of the question)

I DONT KNOW WHAT TO DO

#personal

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qractus · 1 year

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Ok I may have spent enough on comics today and I may need a break from ebay now... 😅

So, I used to spend sometimes $100 a month on comics. I collect DC mostly Batman and Harley Quinn but will jump on the occasional others as well. I cut back in my monthly pull and in how much I was buying simply to try and save money. Now usually I'm pretty good about not letting my pull sit at the shop for too long before dropping in to pick it up. However, during this past month I was living in a house with someone who had covid with a fever that lasted 2 weeks. I didn't want to expose others if I was potentially carrying it being that I had the ability to stay home. It ended up where I was unable to make it to pick up my pull for 1 month. The total came to $34 and some change. I'm pretty proud that I've lowered my monthly to something manageable. Sometimes, it's your birthday month and you just need to go on ebay and treat yourself to some stuff you missed... and I added an additional $30 to my comics for today. 😅

To be fair a couple of the ebay purchases were to fill in some missing pieces in my collection and a couple others I plan on eventually using as decor... just need more frames. 😎

Ps.

Can we just take a second to geek over Jenny Frison's cover art? Like seriously I found her because of the Ivy series but oh my God! I'm really trying to not jump right into collecting Catwoman just because I noticed she's done a solid amount of covers for the series. 🤡👍

#dc comics #comics #batman #harlivy #harley quinn #poison ivy #jenny frison

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ttukseomtarot · 3 years

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pick a card - what to expect for the month of september

hello! i'm ttukseomtarot, and this is my first tarot pick a card: what to expect for the month of september!!

disclaimer: All of my tarot readings are for entertainment purposes only. Please only take what resonates, and leave the rest.

please choose an image based off of your intuition. try to limit your selection to only one pile, but if your heart is calling for you to choose another, then feel free to do so.

pile 1: the butterflies 🦋

your cards - the star, ace of cups, six of pentacles reversed, two of cups, four of wands, the high priestess reversed / South Node: Don't let your past hold you back! | Wall: Misunderstanding., Windchimes: Peace and harmony., and Leg: Stepping into a new experience.

My pile 1s - on a scale of 1-10, how shitty was the month of August for you? I'm feeling as though this weight has just been lifted from my shoulders and I can finally breathe - how many of you resonate with this? You're feeling new and improved, and the hope and faith that you thought you lost in yourself and/or in the Universe is coming back this month. I'm sensing that some of you have been feeling burnt out with life, but not to worry - you are very quickly coming into a period of time where you feel an almost persistent sense of renewal. You're going to genuinely feel like yourself again, or perhaps even a better version of it. Many of you may meet somebody in September who is going to be a positive light in your life - it could be a new friend, or perhaps somebody who will blossom into a love interest, and they're going to be quite the genuine individual who helps instill that sense of excitement within you again. Or, if it isn't somebody new, you will be strengthening the bond you previously have with somebody! You're going to be feeling more creative and inspired with the world around you, despite any circumstances. At the same time, do be sure to pay attention to yourself - you might find it beneficial to treat yourself to something this month, even if it's just a little solo date to get coffee or go shopping for something small. I am also getting to take greater care to listen to what the people around you are saying in order not to come into a misunderstanding, as well as making sure to articulate better how you feel and what your thoughts are about something in order for people not to misunderstand you. Do watch over your finances and think through any potential opportunities for financial loss. Regardless, I just...really feel so much joy radiating from this pile - September is going to be a really good month for you, and something for you to look forward to. Rest and relaxation is something you should celebrate and accept with open arms.

things that may resonate: 6th house, 5th house, virgo, taurus, south node, 1010, 1111, butterfly symbolism, painting, lakes, palm trees, doorbells, floral clothing

song: Save Me by BTS

pile 2: the cat 😸

your cards: ace of swords rx, four of cups, the tower, knight of wands, the empress rx, king of pentacles | North Node: Step out of your comfort zone. | Frying Pan: Trouble, accusations., Barrel: You feel something is lacking in your life, perhaps love, money, or goals., Tulip: Great passion.

Pile 2s - if I could buy you a ticket to go break shit at a rage room, I would do it for you in a heartbeat. There's a strong need to allow whatever anger that may be boiling up inside of you to just completely flow out - let it burn forests, and let it burn bridges. I think many of you that chose this pile have the tendency to bottle up your emotions, and I don't need to tell you how unhealthy that is lol (now, now...I do the SAME thing). Ultimately, expelling your negative emotions will help you to find the clarity and logic of the situation that is bugging you at this time. I have to say that I think you also need to rest - I'm getting control freak vibes, for lack of better word. Don't feel that you have to constantly be making decisions or taking opportunities. It's okay to say no if you do not want to do something. With this being said, however, perhaps consider opening your mind to things that you perhaps wouldn't usually do and step out of your comfort zone. Something feels empty in your life, and taking a new approach to things can open up new opportunities, thus allowing you to fill the "void" within you. This month is a great opportunity to shake up your life and figure out what truly would give you great passion. It might not be the easiest change, but there's a fighter energy emanating from this pile - you guys can and will roll with the punches of life. Although this month may be tumultuous emotionally, you are quickly approaching the next exciting phase in your life, so plan accordingly. Take your power back and make sure to put yourself first - don't allow yourself to get burnt out due to your work/schooling. Allow practicality and logic to take place after you have fully expressed your emotions - this will help you in the end.

things that may resonate: pluto, south node, 10th house, sagittarius in the 5th house, capricorn, 101010, virgo moon, nightmares, blackout curtains, a single flower, an orange cat

song: Ancient Dreams in a Modern Land by MARINA

pile 3: seulrene 👩‍❤️‍💋‍👩

your cards: three of swords, wheel of fortune rx, knight of swords, nine of swords, ten of swords, three of pentacles | First Quarter Moon: Your commitment is being tested. | Apple: Temptation will test you., Tiger: Doing something risky - taking a chance., Bell: Announcement.

This pile is at the end of a major cycle. Some of you need to break up with that partner that is not treating you well, or separate from your toxic family, or leave that shitty job. But I also feel very strongly that, for many of you, there is somebody in your life that you cannot trust - this person could also be somebody that you once considered a close friend. And you know that whatever this is needs to end - the signs have all been there, but you've definitely been in that "this sign can't stop me because I can't read!' energy for the last little while. Don't ignore what needs to be ended - yes, it may be painful, but ultimately, it will serve you in the long run. I'm sensing I have some artists in this pile - channel this pain into creativity. I know, I know - it's the age old, stereotypical trait for artists, but it's true, and we both know it. Because of this situation, you've been feeling stuck - it is up to you this month to break out of this pattern. Your commitment is being tested, and I think it's specifically to yourself. Put yourself first. Understand that that job, or that person, has been holding you back from connecting with your true self. Break old cycles and let new ones in. Has anybody played Life is Strange? Because I'm seeing that little message that happens whenever you make a life changing choice pop up in my head. This action will have consequences. But understand that not every consequence has to be bad. You guys in this pile - take the chance and make the risk - it's what needs to be done. Defend yourself and keep going through this stormy period that you are going through - you can and will make it through. Whatever this is, it's been keeping you up at night and causing you to feel as though you have the weight of the entire world on your shoulders - it doesn't have to be like this anymore. You have the power to change this, and rest assured that you will get the help and guidance you need. You will end up in the right place, at the right time - with the right people and the right mindset surrounding you. This change is for the better.

things that may resonate: the influence of saturn, 5th house, libra, cancer, uranus, 8th house, 222, 666, pine trees, the color grey and the color brown, school buildings, the color brown, ladybugs, horses

song: forever rain by RM

I hope you enjoyed this reading! Please let me know if it resonated and feel free to leave any suggestions in my asks or comments if there's a specific reading that you would like me to do!

#ummm so is everybody just burnt out??? is this what this is???? lol #tarot #tarot pick a card #pick a card #september reading #free tarot reading #free pick a card #pac #tarotblr #tarot community #divination #ttukseomtarot

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irawhiti · 2 years

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Shit, did the person who was gonna give you your moko take the money or was it someone else? Either way that's fucked. Is there anyone else who you might be able to go to? Maybe people could donate to help fund it?

oh no it wasn't the moko artist, it was someone else. i've called my bank and got told they'll let me know what's happening in four weeks (not that they'd get it back, just that they might be able to lmao <3) but the issue is i'm moving out of this house in a bit over a week since it went to racist shit here very quickly and my moko is this month so even if they get it back in four weeks i don't really Have four weeks right now. i'm able to borrow money from a few people (already had to so i could pay rent and get out of the negatives since the guy drained my account and then put me nearly a hundred in debt) and i'm getting some help with the physical part of moving out from my dad but it's still a huge fucking financial blow for me and the timing really really sucked with me getting sick on my birthday, there being covid in the house and the guy refusing to self isolate until after the test came back positive, getting outed etc :|

so i'm able to borrow money and pay it back over time and it should be okay if they do manage to recover the money or even just some of it, i'm just pissed because i already had to reschedule my moko once (it was meant to be around my birthday lol) and some asshole decided to steal all the money i'd saved up for over a year on christmas, right after the covid test for someone in the house came back positive which sealed that i'll be stuck quarantining with a huge racist since she was visiting. everything kinda just hit all at once so it's been weighing on me but i should be okay. i'm trying not to ask for donations since i get really fucking nasty messages when i do and paypal also froze my account and i wasn't able to open it again anyway + since i've got no card to buy anything since it got cancelled, i'm not able to set up a new one and would have to use a friend's paypal and potentially fuck them over too. ty for your concern, i appreciate it! i should be okay, just angry to say the least

#i really do not want to reschedule my moko again because i don't think the deposit will reach that far and i'll lose another hundred lmao #it should be okay i'm just. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa #anon

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stop-breaking-my-heart-telltale · 3 years

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One quick question, why do you hate Before the Storm? I actually really liked it. It could be because I'm a hopeless romantic, but I just want to see your opinions on it

Oh boy, where to even begin...? I cannot stand bts... it actually hurts my insides to think about how much I hate this game haha.

[note: yeah hi uhhh... this is long because of course it is, it's coming from me but listen, my feelings for this game are not nice and I have a lot to say so.... my bad]

One of the bigger reasons, though not the biggest, is Chloe... I'm not exactly a big fan of Chloe. At all. Not in the first game, nope. I understand that so many people love her and they have their reasons for that, that's fine, she's just a character who doesn't appeal to me. If anything, she pisses me off because I can see the foundation for such a compelling character, but it all gets thrown away for the sake of bullshit.

So then they plop bts in front of us with Chloe as the playable protagonist in a prequel story about her and Rachel Amber. This is an opportunity to expand on her character, to tie into the first season and make me feel more positive feelings about her character, to do what the first game failed to do..... and to be fair, they DO have a few of them sprinkled in... but then they're overshadowed by the garbage.

It's just... the ideas are there, and they're ideas that I like but they're executed so poorly. I want to like Chloe Price, I can see that there's something good here.

Like okay.... lemme do a thing:

Chloe Price. She's going through some serious shit after her dad dies. He died unexpectedly in a car accident, something Chloe had zero control over, it's not fair, and even though it's not like the universe singled her out and said "fuck you," it feels that way to her.

On top of that, her best friend who she adores? She moves away. Not something that's in either of their control, they're kids at this point. However, Max stops contacting her and that hurts Chloe. Chloe tries to stay in contact, but eventually Max stops responding.

Then you have her mother, who's also grieving after losing her husband and dealing with her daughter pushing her away and on the wrong path. She meets a man and falls for him after realizing she still has a long life ahead of her and that's too long to be miserable over her husband's death, William wouldn't want that, and David is a source of comfort for her... something she's not getting from her daughter. The problem is that David and Chloe don't get along in the slightest... which leads to Chloe feeling like her mom is trying to replace her father by moving on, not understanding why Joyce's timeline of grief isn't the same as hers, y'know?

Oh, and can't forget that Chloe has fallen onto a not so great path of drugs, booze, bad grades, lying, staying out late without letting her mom know where she is, pickin' fights, making friends with drug dealers, stealing money and other items, all that. She's bitter, angry, unable to understand most of her own complex emotions and that only makes her even more upset. She's unable to express them in a healthy way, she doesn't ask for help, and denies it whenever offered.

So... Chloe's starts out as an extremely entitled, rude, obnoxious character. She insults the bouncer in the cringiest way possible because these adult men writing her don't know how teen girls talk, she steals money and a t-shirt from a dude who works for the band because $20? how dare? even though bands don't make a lot of money and a lot of profit comes from their merch but who cares about supporting artists you like, right? Chloe sure doesn't. She probably buys some weed from Frank because yeah, she's got a dependence on the stuff now. She gets into a fight with a couple of dudes after spilling beer on them.... but what's this?

Oh look, it's Rachel Amber. Y'know, the pretty, popular, talented, smart, perfect, charismatic girl from Chloe's school?? yeah, she's at the concert and saves Chloe from the dicks who attacked her, and the two girls spend the rest of the concert together.

Now, for some reason, Chloe isn't sure but Rachel has taken a special interest in her. Rachel is flirty, she wants to know who Chloe is, she asks her to skip school with her, and the two take a ride on a train to a park and... honestly? pretty romantic, and it plays into that escapism fantasy thing of having the pretty girl who everyone likes single you out, making you feel special.

Over time, the girls grow close. Rachel has some family problems and seeks comfort in Chloe. They spend nights walking together down empty streets at night, holding hands. They hang out and talk about the stars, they discuss Shakespeare and what it's like to actually be your true self, if there's actually such a thing. They get tattoos together, and Rachel helps Chloe color her hair. They have a special hideout they decorated together in the junkyard. Rachel spends the night at Chloe's enough that she ends up leaving a lot of clothes there. They daydream about running away together, long road trips and living big in LA.

Chloe starts to see Rachel as her angel because for the first time since Max, she feels like she has someone she can be open and honest with. Rachel almost seems too perfect to be true, y'know?

And hey, over time Chloe actually starts to kinda get her life on the right track, if not in an unconventional way. Sure, she's still dealing with losing her father. that's not something she'll just get over... but she does start making an effort with her mom, and yes, even David after he told her about his time in the army and gave her that photo. They both know they'll never be friends, and they'll still have arguments, but they'll at least keep the peace for Joyce's sake.

It's not all perfect, though. Chloe's still smoking and Rachel isn't always the best influence. They get into trouble here and there, but nothing super serious.

She dropped out of Blackwell so that her mom didn't have to keep paying her tuition and because she's fixated on this fantasy of running away with Rachel. Chloe's feeling good about herself, about her future, for the first time since her dad died.

Until Rachel disappears.

And everything goes to shit pretty quick after that. Rachel's gone, she's not answering calls or texts, and everyone keeps saying that she probably ran away, but Chloe knows better. She knows Rachel wouldn't leave without her, so something must've happened. She makes posters and puts them everywhere, but things only get worse.

Money is tight. Joyce isn't making as much as she needs at the diner, David isn't making enough as a security guard, and hey... they might lose the house... the house that was once Williams, that's a piece of him he left behind. Not only that, but where will they go?

Chloe doesn't want them to lose the house, or for her mom to be this stressed out over food and bills. Chloe borrowed money from Frank in hopes of using it to run away with Rachel, but with her missing... Chloe decides to give it to her mom in order to save the house. Joyce is alarmed that she has this much, but Chloe manages to lie her way out of it to give her mom some peace of mind.

Except now she has another problem- she can't pay Frank back and he's getting more aggressive about it as the weeks go on. Rachel's still missing, Frank's breathing down her neck with threats toward her mom, money is still an issue at home, and she's not in a good place. Chloe's desperate enough to steal... so when she makes it into a bar that doesn't card her and she sees rich boy Nathan Prescott drunk off his ass and flashing bills, she thinks it'll be an easy score. It's wrong to do this, it's dangerous, but Chloe justifies it to herself. She needs that money.

She didn't expect Nathan to drug her drink, and she wakes up to him taking pictures of her. She manages to get the hell outta there, but she still has no idea what the hell happened to her. Like.... that reeeally fucks with her, it doesn't even feel real. She can't tell anyone, she can't tell her mom, and the police won't do anything since they're under the Prescott thumb.... and well, she decides to blackmail him.

And we all know how that goes.

So... we have the highs and lows of Chloe Price. She's flawed, even starting out as unbearable, but over time she becomes more nuanced and you're invested in what happens to her. You want to see her better herself, you want her to work through her grief and get help, you understand why she hates David but when you see him and Joyce happy together and him make an effort to be better, you want to see them make amends. You know David doesn't want to replace William, hell HE knows no one ever could.

You want Chloe to keep going, to find purpose in her life and realize her own potential. You saw her at the beginning when she was broken, when she was lost and didn't see a future for herself, and it's satisfying to see her come this far to where she knows she has a future... something that becomes all the more tragic when you remember her fate in the first game.

You're invested in Chloe and Rachel's romance, you get giddy watching them flirt and do dumb, romantic, cliche things, and you're just as compelled by Rachel as everyone else. No, she's not perfect, she's not a stereotype, she's much more layered than that and it only breaks your heart when you realize that she's killed later on, that of course she's going to go missing... you already know that! So you're watching Chloe, who has gotten pieces of her life back together and is genuinely happy.... fall back down the pit, fall back into the habits she had at the beginning, and you know it will lead to her downfall.

.....TOO BAD BEFORE THE STORM DID FUCK ALL WITH THAT RIGHT?

Nope, you don't get any of that. Well, except Chloe being cringy. You get a lot of that.

No, no, we got edgelord, flanderized Chloe who thinks her wit is much greater than it actually is, whose terrible moments outweigh the good, and who doesn't grow or change no matter what influence you try to have over her.

Rachel could be replaced with a literal barbie doll and little would change. She has no charm, she's nothing like what she was described in the first game, and she's just so fucking unlikable. When she finds out that her mom isn't actually her birth mom, she claims that her whole life is a lie and her parents aren't real and she wants to meet her druggie mom who chose drugs over her for 15 years because she's the one who actually squeezed her out.

Which, by the way, WHY is this the goddamn plot?? Why did they feel like they had to shove in this "oh hey Rachel's dad is the bad guy, oh wait now this drug guy is the bad guy because he stabby Rachel, no wait now her dad is the super bad guy because he put a hit out on Rachel's REAL mom, oh no wait it's fine because Frank murdered drug man off screen" WHY YOU DO THIS??

You have three episodes. THREE. And in those three episodes, you have the opportunity to explore Chloe as a character, and her relationships with Rachel, Joyce, and David. But instead of dedicating the story to that, something you could've created a compelling narrative out of, you threw in this dumb mom plot and fire-

HOW THE HELL DID I FORGET THE FIRE????

What- why did- does she have- Rachel just- RACHEL SETS THE FOREST ON FIRE??? WHY THOUGH???

I get it, "Rachel is the fire" yeah yeah and it's dumb.

Oh and because we didn't have enough going on, here's a side mission where you gotta deal with getting money from this other kid who's running drugs for big bad drug man because he wants to help his dad who lost his job.

But WAIT, there's more- In a series where several girls were drugged by Nathan and Jefferson, forced to pose for pictures, and some even killed or driven to try and take their own life? something taken so seriously...? Victoria gets drugged and it's treated like a joke. Even worse, there is a path that has Rachel drugging her, and no one cares.

ALSO.... Rachel cheated on Chloe with two adult men, remember? One of which fucking murders her?? and we're just... we're just not gonna do anything with that??? Nothing??? Maybe a little stinger at the end but that's it????

I just..... I hate this game so much.

It had so much potential. Not only that, but it had the first game to look at and learn from. Learn from the mistakes that game made and improve upon.... but instead, they fucked up even worse. It's just a game of fanservice that has way too much going on, is trying to do too much, and loses focus on the most important things.

Three episodes could've been enough to explore different points of Chloe's character before the events of the first game. They could've crafted a story that gave more insight into her life that make sense of the choices she made, that turn her into the Chloe we see in the first game. You don't need a forest fire, you don't need evil lawyers. I know the first game had the storm and time travel and big dumb Jefferson, but you wanted to tell a story that's grounded without shit like that... y'know, before the storm.

I could probably go on and on if someone doesn't stop me, so I'll stop myself here... I hate bts because it's potential was there, I could see it in a few key moments, and it was wasted.

The romantic ideas fall flat because being pretty and gay isn't enough for me, I need more than that. I don't care if they kiss because I don't care about their relationship, and frankly, they've done very little to make me care about them as individuals.

UGH

.......does that answer your quick question? haha sorry for the not so quick answer, but like I said, this game makes my brain mad and once I get going, it's hard to stop.

#asks #this game makes my brain mad #ugh

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adventuresloane · 4 years

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"i know it hurts, i'm sorry" or "look at me- you're safe." with taako and lup??? theyre v e r y good siblings and thats a relationship that doesnt get explored as often in fandom as it should

((F*ck it I know it's late but I wanna post this now.))

"I know it hurts," Lup says almost at the same moment he lets out another pained hiss. "I'm sorry." Both of his cheeks are scraped, and the disinfectant turns the constant dull burn into a sharper sting. This wouldn't be the first time his face has gotten scraped up like this. It isn't even the first time he's gotten his face scraped up after being dragged around by the hair by someone who'd caught him red-handed in a con. He knows it's got to feel worse before it feels better. That doesn't stop the tears from rolling down his face, mixing with the gritty dirt and the blood and the stinging stuff.

She's saying something else now. "Sorry," she whispers with every other dab of the cloth. "Sorry."

"I know you're hungry," Taako murmurs as she feels the familiar scrape inside her belly. The hurt is low and deep, like shame. Lately, she's been turning tail on more fights than she would have liked--or, rather, Taako's been dragging her out of every potential scrap, even when she's primed to charge in screaming. It's terrible. It's humiliating, to receive parting blows to her back as they run away, and she sulks at Taako for it every time. But she knows he's right even in those moments. She couldn't very well fight when sometimes just standing up made her vision go dark.

He's sitting with his back to the fire, hunched over and turned away from her. She knows what he's doing, though, because it's the same thing he's been trying to work on for weeks. It makes her feel useless just lying there, but all the same, each one of her exhausted limbs anchors her to the ground. He's brandishing a scavenged wand that he threw together from a broken yew branch and a tiger's-eye bead that had "fallen" (been knocked) from a jeweler's stand. If he can just get the gesture right, the precise flick of his fingers, he could use transmutation magic to turn the bark in front of him to a meal for them both. She knew he could do it. She hoped.

In the past, he's succeeded some. The food he crafts from magic fills her. That's all it has to do at this point. But that doesn't stop him from doing what he can to make it taste less like cotton in her mouth. Wild onions and berries that they'd found in sparse patches, not nearly enough to make a meal but suitable for flavoring. Grasses and herbs from the roadside. A single acorn. He tries it all. They both do whenever they're able, stirring ingredients in shoulder-to-shoulder. They dip small fingers into pots together, making faces at each other in unison when the experiment ends up tasting like shit, relishing quietly when it doesn't.

"I know when you're cold, Taako," she says with not a little exasperation. For probably the eighteenth time that night, she's just asked him whether he needs to share the blanket with her, and he's promptly denied it.

"What part of 'Taako's good out here' didn't you get?" he grumbles. She doesn't have to be so insistent. He hasn't even been shivering--he learned long ago how to stop himself from doing it. It pisses him off, sometimes, how she just assumes shit about how he's feeling all the time. It pisses him off more that she's usually right.

"Yeah, sure." She pulls the thin wool blanket over to where he lies on the floor of the abandoned house that they've found for the night. Then she lies down and pulls it over the both of them before wrapping her arms around his waist and pressing up against him. The wool cloth is barely enough to fully wrap around one of them. The cold starts to lose its teeth, though, pulling away from his chilled skin.

Only the warmth isn't coming from the blanket. It's too immediate. It soaks into him and settles somewhere deep inside, like it's making a home, like it's always belonged there. It's centered on his belly, where her hands rest. He looks under the blanket, and it's only because of the darkness underneath that he can see her fingers, just faintly, glowing. "Lup?"

"Something new I'm working on," she says quietly against his back, and even turned away from her, he can hear the smile in her voice.

"Dope," he whispers back. On the other hand, it isn't always bad, her assumptions.

"Okay, I know you're tired, but listen, I finally figured it out." The slap of books on the table echoes through the floor of the library, earning him several shushes that he ignores.

"You'd better have," she groans, forehead still pressed to wood grain. "If I spend another hour staring at this equation, I'm going to meld with this chair." It feels ungrateful even saying that. The IPRE Academy's dorm is both the most permanent and the most comfortable of homes they've had in years, and even if they've taken to doctoring up the bland cafeteria food with magic, they wouldn't trade their meal plan. The least she can do is put more effort into keeping the scholarship they've earned.

"Don't worry, I'll walk you through it, since as we're all aware by now I'm a goddamn genius. Hey, by the way, you look like death."

"Thanks for that," she mutters.

"You should skip class tomorrow. I'll tell the professor you were puking or something."

She sighs and finally lifts her head. "No, I should go, I'll just..." She trails off when she sees the cardboard Fantasy Starbucks cup that had been silently placed beside her. It smells of caramel and just the right amount of whip. She doesn't have to take the lid off to know that he got her order right.

"Koko...thanks."

"What?" he says, though she knows he heard her. "Here, let me show you how to solve this."

I know you want it, is what Lup says with the look she gives him. Her brows are arched and there's a smirk on her face and that's all the prompting he needs. He pulls the furry, five-colored, gloriously hideous jacket off the store rack and adds it to the heap he carries in both his arms. It's not like they'll have much time to shop for the two months that they'll be in space. Might as well get it in now.

Their coworkers at the IPRE will poke fun at both of them later for blowing their money on ugly crap. Let them. The only thing that matters is that the pair of them get it. Lup never asks why he needs a third pair of holographic pants. The whole point is that he doesn't need them at all, the same way she doesn't need a sequin dress she'll likely never wear--it's novelty, still, buying what they don't absolutely need. They'll surround themselves with absolute unnecessaries, to assure themselves that they're really and truly here, that they've made it to this place.

Lup also doesn't ask why he mends the same holes in shirts four times in a row, when he has so many others and it would be far less of an effort to just throw the old ones out. She doesn't ask why he saves everything, just like he doesn't have to ask why she dives for change she sees on the sidewalk. Nothing needs to be said.

I know you're out there, he thinks as he and Barry search yet another dripping cave. She's not here. He knows that they have to check anyway, leave no stone unturned and all that, but his gut tells him that it's yet another waste of time, that they'll hit the stone wall before long and find nothing. He would know if she were near, the same way he knows that she's not gone forever, yet. He thinks he would know right away if she were. He would cease to exist in his current form as soon as she left this world.

I know you're out there, she does not so much think as feel, because complete and coherent thought has not yet returned to her in this black place. She's a planet at the time of its birth, still formless and shifting unshaped in a lightless and soundless void. She doesn't know much yet--so little she knows, so little has come back to her--but she knows that she isn't who she was. She can't be, out of context. She can't be who she's supposed to be when she's not part of a system, when she's alone. The rest of her is somewhere among the stars that she can no longer see.

These people just don't get him. This old dwarf and beefy human he's traveling with, they ask him why he's so hellbent on stealing and raiding all the corpses for goods, why he needs to sleep near the fireplace even though the Bureau's rooms are well heated. He doesn't like questions, especially when they're about himself. He can't answer them. Why should he have to answer them? He doesn't have to explain himself. He's Taako, From TV. He's got needs.

He shouldn't get mad at them. It's not like he knows them either, or cares to. It's wrong, maybe, to expect that they should anticipate his needs, or that anyone should. But he feels like someone should. Just once, he thinks, he shouldn't have to ask before someone knows what he needs.

I know you, comes a voice from some dark place. Taako, I know who you are.

#taako #lup #taz balance #taz #the adventure zone #taz fanfic #the zone cast #fan fiction #taz fan fiction #ask meme #lup taaco #food cw #anonymous

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sarcastically-defensive17 · 4 years

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Times Like These - lrh Chapter 4 - Luke is shit. Shit luke.

Luke was livid.

No, he was beyond livid. He was fuming so much that he was convinced he was running a fever.

Never one for tact, Luke released his outburst in the middle of the crowded cafe.

"What the fuck did you just do?" He seethed. He couldn't fathom how they could make such a big decision without consulting him. "You do know that I pay the rent too, right? Don't you think I should have a say in 16-and-pregnant moving in?"

"Woah, watch your mouth," Michael snapped, fixing Luke with a glare that he reciprocated.

"Am I wrong? What is she? 17?"

"I'm nearly 20," she mumbled, focusing more on wiping the smooshed muffin from Alexis' face.

Calum rolled his eyes at his friends petulance, "what does it matter? All you do at that house is shit and sleep so who cares if Audrey moves in?"

"Because maybe I don't want to live with a kid and her kid," Luke snapped. He didn't hate the girl, he just would like to avoid living with her and her small child at all costs.

He's a 22 year old man who has an active sex life (with a less than intelligent bimbo) and who enjoys coming home to sleep his hangovers off.

How can be so that if the blueberry bitches at him for waking her kid up?

"You're unbelievable," Ashton mumbled to Luke as he pulled faces at the little girl. Luke will never admit it to anybody but himself, but the child was calm, and manageable.

If it wasn't for a matter of principle, he would be somewhat okay with the two moving in. But for them to not even ask him? He was fuming.

"I'm unbelievable? At least I ask before inviting two whole humans to enter the house!"

His voice was raising but he didn't care.

"Oh, like when you invite your screechy fuck buddy over without consulting any of us?" Michael snapped back at him, earning a smack across the ear from his sister when he cursed. "Sorry, your snuggle buddy. Happy?"

She nodded with a smirk, finding amusement in the sarcastic tone her brother took. "You know I don't like her hearing those words. She's impressionable."

"Can't be worse than what's tattooed on your hip," Calum giggled around his coffee cup. "Bye bye bikinis for the sake of Alexis, am I right?"

Audrey's face went red, and she fixed Calum with a glare that could kill a man. Or two.

The tattoo had been a drunken mistake from before she was pregnant, and she had grown fond of it by the time she planned to get it covered up.

Luke was interested in the ink, but couldn't bring himself to let his curiosity derail his anger.

He had a point to prove, and he was determined to get some acknowledgement for his presence in their shared house.

"All in saying is, maybe you should have asked me before-"

"Before what, Luke?" Michael shifted in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. "Before asking my sister and her daughter - who, might I add, do not have a stable home to live in - to move into the spare room we will have so that they are safe and happy?"

Luke knew it was a challenge, and he was prepared to put all his chips on the table as he glared his nostrils at his best friend, "Yes. You should have consulted me first."

Tensions had been brewing between the two friends for long enough, Calum and Ashton were first hand witnesses for both the strained relationship and Luke's growing attitude and narcissistic behavior.

"Okay, you know what-" Michael was on his feet now, bringing the attention of majority of the cafe to their table, and Audrey couldn't help the deep red flush that covered her cheeks.

"Okay, enough!" She snapped, using the same voice she would when Alexis would start biting or hiring. Stern, but careful to upset. "Thank you for the offer but I don't have the energy to deal with this so, no thank you. I'll text you later Mikey."

She lifted Alexis from the high chair, before dropping money on the table and gathering her things.

She could hear the faint sound of flesh connecting with flesh and Luke whined faintly in the background accompanied by Michael calling him a "cockwaffle with narcissistic personality disorder."

Alexis, from her position situated on her mother's wide hip, turned and aggressively waved her arms at the four men still at the table.

Despite the high tensions, they all stopped their bickering to wave at the small girl. Even Luke, who - even though he wouldn't admit it out loud - found the child to be rather bubbly and entertaining.

He watched the pair retreat, noting the way they took off in the direction of the tattoo parlor not far from the cafe. The same place he had an appointment for later in the day.

He just hoped he wouldn't run into her again, for he wouldn't know how to deal with the guilt that is beginning to overwhelm him.

"Is there seriously something wrong with you lately, or are you just being a dick for the fun of it?" Ashton spoke up.

Luke gaped for a second, not used to Ashton sounding so aggressive when he lectured him. Usually Ashton was a soft touch, preferring to give a soft but stern talking to rather than a growled scolding.

There was a fury in the mans hazel eyes that Luke had not seen many times before, and it made him wonder just how much the girl meant to the three of them.

It had its downsides, being the least present inductee into the group of friends. Even more so, when he knew that Ashton, the last inductee, had more of a connection with Michael's sister than he did. And he had known Michael as long as Calum had.

Michael held such anger in his expression that Luke visibly recoiled at the sight. Calum stared blankly at him.

It was silent for a beat, none of them saying a word as Luke felt the guilt begin to creep up his spine. He ran his fingers through his hair, brushing the flat blond hair back from his eyes.

"Do you really not want to know how bad she has it at home, that she needs somewhere else to go?" Calum questioned the taller man, leaning forward on his elbows. He seemed to be the calmer of the trio, the only one able to explain Audrey's situation without wanting to rip the mans head off.

Luke nodded, not trusting his voice.

Calum sighed, "she's a near twenty year old, uni student who works countless amount of hours to be able to afford to take care of her daughter and herself while dealing with her asshole cousin who is hell bent on making her life hell."

"Not to mention our asshole father who has been set on reminding Audrey of how she has wasted every bit of potential she has by choosing to keep Lexi," Mike growled. Like knew the relationship between the siblings and their father was strained but he knows he will most likely never get the extent of it.

He had never met Daryl Clifford, not had he met Jason but Michael and Calum had told him enough for him to not like either.

"Is it really... that bad?" Luke winced at his own words, knowing the insensitive syllables will not cause a positive reaction in his friends.

Michael scoffed, not lowering his glare from his friend, "You want to know if it's that bad? The phone call she had when she threw your coffee on you, that was dear dad telling her she needed to fork over money to fix damage that Jason blamed her for. She handed over nearly 3 grand of savings she had to move out just to fix the shit he broke and buy him a new tv because he and his friends broke his when they were high."

"So they get high and carry on like assholes with a baby in the house?"

All three men nodded at him, and he dragged a hand down his face. He had ducked up. Big time.

Hell, if anybody deserved to get out of there, it was the pair.

"Shit."

"Yeah, you're damn right shit. There's a hair in my coffee," Ashton cringed, not realizing the intentions behind Luke's words. The three looked at him with confused expressions and he turned slightly pink as he noticed their gazes. "Oh, yeah, no. Luke is shit. Shit Luke."

Michael face palmed, trying to stifle his laughter at the lack of attention Ashton had put into the conversation within the past few sentences exchanged.

#luke hemmings #luke hemmings x oc #times like these #book #michael clifford #ashton irwin #calum hood #audrey clifford #alexis clifford

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harusha · 4 years

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Hey so I'm debating buy the new fire emblem and i was wondering to get yoyr opinion on it?? This is the first one I'm gonna get or would get of the fire emblem franchise. Do you think its a game that is worth buying?? What are some downsides?? What about upsides?? If I play as a female can I have the option to marry whichever girl I want or is it only a selected few??

I think it’s worth buying! It’s a fantastic addition to the FE series. However, where it excels, it excels, but when it’s lukewarm, it’s really lukewarm imo. You can marry 5 potential woman as F!Byleth (Edelgard, Rhea, Sothis, Mercedes, and Dorothea). If you choose to buy the game, don’t listen to people and play whichever route interests you; there is no “ideal” order to play them in

For me, the pros are

Characters- the characters really benefited from all that Fire Emblem: Heroes Gacha money. Due to the higher production value, all the characters have more supports (ie. more characterization) and feel really well-rounded overall. Unlike the previous entry, Fates, there are rarely any “superfluous” or “useless” character supports.

Setting- The setting has a lot of history imo, and you’ll learn about Fodlan as you progress through each route.

Routes- Both a pro and a con imo, but I’ll just list it here. The routes give a lot of replayability, and cross-house supports even more if you wanna complete the logbook. However, the routes also created a rather “incoherent” at times narrative for each route. It’s like...why didn’t this organization intervene after their appearance in the Blue Lions route? What happened to this character after their disappearance? It’s like they saved content so all the routes could be “unique,” but at the cost of making the routes’ stories questionable at times. As much flak as Fates gets, it did much better on this front than FE3H imo. While Hoshido, Nohr, and 3rd path all have their questionable decisions, they at least felt self-contained enough to where I wasn’t scratching my head trying to figure out who approved this.

Story-I’m told the story is really good so I’ll just put it here. Imo, the story isn’t the greatest imo, but it’s definitely up there for FE. For me, the incoherence caused by the route splits is what’s making not enjoy it as much. And the refusal to seriously approach the outcomes that you could expect from the endings (ie. they’re all rather happy overall imo). But this is also a heavy personal taste thing.

Limited Free Roam on maps-Minor thing but it really adds immersion. It’s kinda wonky to use, however.

On Cons,

Poor gameplay- I might get knifed for this one, but I found FE3H’s gameplay to be drab after the glamour wears off. The maps are frequently reused in their own routes and between routes with few changes to terrain. It creates a repetitive experience at times unless you keep upping the difficulty. There’s good chapters ofc like a particular one in the post-skip. It’s better than Echoes of Valentia’s maps imo, but that’s not high praise considering Valentia is a faithful remake (and its OG version didn’t exactly have great maps). Not as fun as Shin Monsho no Nazo’s, Conquest’s, etc. maps for me. Also put everyone on a mount or suffer in this game because this game is where movement counts (just like FE4).

Poor Gameplay (again) but in relation to classes- The class system is wonky. Some classes don’t have upgrades, others are sidegrades, and some don’t have a coherent pathway to follow (ex. early-game fliers).

Underutilized mechanics and archaic character development method- FE3H may have excellent characters, but you have to seek out their development. This wouldn’t be a problem if the game had more cutscenes/required events for characters pre-skip, but as it is, it makes it to where their (potential) deaths in postskip don’t have impact. That is killer in a game where it emphasizes the brutality of war and killing your students (and thus your bond with them).. It’s particularly noteworthy because this game uses a calendar system, but there are barely any meaningful events on it. They could have certainly attached more events in there, AND had supports for you to seek out. Basically give development to characters outside of your chosen house, and allow you to seek and recruit them if you liked what you saw. Requiring the player to play badly (ie. spread out time for people they aren’t gonna recruit) so they can feel the full impact of their decisions is poor design imo.

Poor LGBT+ options for M!Byleth-Not as noteworthy (and also subjective) since you want to play F!Byleth who gets five gay options but I thought I’d mention it anyway, but 2 out of 3 of M!Byleth’s are actual gaybait (ie. you marry a woman or end up alone) and the new one is free DLC which wouldn’t be “bad” if he wasn’t route locked. It kinda stings because outside of 2 options, all of F!Byleth’s aren’t locked. Also, she gets a lord romance and M!Byleth doesn’t.

Attack animations-Minor again, but for a Switch game, the attack animations are pretty bad imo, but most 3d (and 3ds) titles for the series are that way imo. There’s just nothing as exciting as the GBA animations were.

Overall, fantastic game, but I wouldn’t call it perfect or even the “best” FE game (which is a hefty and subjective title; personally, my favorite is Shin Monsho no Nazo). The story is certainly up there with the Jugdral duology and Tellius, but I wouldn’t say it outpaces them in that department. And on gameplay, it isn’t great, but it isn’t the worst. What makes the game, however, is the characters, setting, and the fact that none of the routes are purely ideal. It’s no SMT on that front, but it’s a very good try on Nintendo’s part.

Sorry for the late reply as well. I had to type this up, and I went to go make beans with toast before this since I was kinda hungry.

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justin-chapmanswers · 6 years

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I'm helping my (internet) friends make an object show, and I'm unfortunately not that confident about it, as we're all under 18 and don't have the money to really afford good quality mics or animation software. I'm wondering if you have any tips for people on a budget trying to make an object show for the first time?

Working under a tight budget is tough, that’s undeniable. I think the important thing to keep in mind is that having expensive utilities available does not guarantee success in the first place, it simply makes the process easier. Having the best equipment and software in the world isn’t going to do all that much for people who aren’t familiar with the basics in the first place. If you are incredibly passionate about this work, I would consider investing your money into equipment over time, but for the time-being take your time in that department and really focus in on proving that, as artists, you can make do with what you have.

I am far more interested in consuming media that is bare-bones in its visual and audio presentation but has masterful storytelling than the reverse, and I think much more of your potential audience will agree than the average person assumes. Know your story. Know your characters. Whether or not you will have full control over when your characters come and go (per your decision), it is imperative that you treat each and every installment as its own distinct collection of story and character arcs. If you set up your show in a manner in which you can play every detail out ahead of time, even better! Within an episode, an arc of episodes, or a full season/series you are able to construct interesting narratives in which characters are given obstacles: physical, emotional or otherwise. Especially in an object show you are given a set of obstacles, be it through challenges or the emotional burden of competition. On a budget or not, this is the heart of your show. No matter how the technical presentation comes across you can garner and audience through excellent storytelling. Anyone can do it with practice. ESPECIALLY you!

As for the technical department, itself, let’s talk audio. Back in early 2009 I picked up a ‘lil $10 Logitech microphone at Target and got started on my first voice performance (as Lakitu found here) and I wouldn’t say it’s all that bad. A little bad. Tiny bit. But it worked! Plug in a cheap mic, download Audacity for free, and you’re already well on your way. Audacity isn’t top-of-the-line, but as far as free programs go it works really well, and is probably your lowest priority for upgrading beyond if you choose to bump up your equipment/software. The focus here comes down to putting in a strong, meaningful performance as your character, working around your mic limitations through setup and Audacity editing, and being open to re-recording. It happens!

I’m going to skip over talking vocal performances for the time being (I can always return to that upon request) and stick the practical here. With any microphone set up you’re going to want to do as much as you can to keep your accosting integrity in good standing. What I mean by that, firstly, is recording in a location that absorbs noise. Typically being in echo-y locations, we’re trained to ignore our own voices reverberating (unless it is to an intense extent), so sometimes noticing whether a voice echoes in a recording takes a lot of focus. It’s often not as intense as an echo you’d hear in, say, a cave, just ever so slight to break the illusion of a character being right there on screen and not someone speaking through a microphone. This is solved low-budget quite simply in recording in tight spaces with as much sound-absorbing material as possible. The best option would be hanging up clothes, blankets, or simply recording in a closet- so long as it’s safe. (The higher-budget alternative is buying acoustic foam or utilizing, specifically, a sound booth.) Watch your recording program, find your balance of recording as loudly and clearly as you can while also not getting too close to your audio peaking (the little soundy wave bois not hitting the top/bottom of your recording strip pal). The audio can be made louder or softer later, but peaking is much tougher to fix back up.

It also helps to have any sort of make-shift pop filter you can get together. They’re foam or a screen that you can typically buy cheap that will catch some of the plosives and other weird noises your mouth makes without you noticing before they hit the microphone, which is very helpful in the longterm. And, if you don’t feel like buying them, I know Adam used a sock for a while early on and it worked just fine. Just throw that boi right over the microphone and listen back to how the quality changes. If it’s roughly the same, you’re in the clear for your early, low-budget project.

There’s also plenty that can be done in Audacity to set your audio apart from the rest. I’d say top priority is dealing with background noise. I’m not speaking to parents chatting or the house’s floorboards mysteriously creaking in the background (because that should not be heard whatsoever in your area of recording, listen back to a dialogue-less track of your audio to make sure none of that is coming through), here I am talking to the consistent track of buzzzzz or variation that will come across in any cheaper microphone. The world makes noise, some you can’t hear, and your microphone eats it up. It’ll be in the back of your recording track, and getting rid of it goes a long way. Here the simplest means of going about fixing that is to, at the very start or end of your recording session, record a solid fifteen seconds of background noise without aaaaany noises on your part. Listen back, grab just the few seconds of bg noise that has the most consistent sound without your breathing or other interference, go to effects and hit “noise reduction” (or “noise removal” in other versions), hit “get noise profile,” now highlight eeeeeverything you’ve recorded, go back to “noise removal,” start by setting your noise reduction to around 10-15, and hit “okay.” Listen back and see if that did the job, you may need to make the number a bit higher (I try my best to avoid the 20s). The job here is to use as little of it as possible to get the job done, as the more you use the more of a chance it has at diminishing the quality of your recording. You can also use “equalization” in this process, lowering or boosting very specific frequencies, if you are willing to experiment and get a feel for it. Some others use “compression” to get a much fuller-sounding voice, although if anything I keep this to a minimum and save it more-so for non-narrative pieces where a single voice needs to be dominant.

In the case of audio peaking, clipping, or any plosives/pops/background sounds coming through, you have to be comfortable with re-recording. Going back into your recording spot for a minute goes a long way for a product that you’ll be putting up alone for a forever. This also goes for potentially going in for a strong performance, but that is more subjective and up to a standard you must set, yourself. After that it is your job to bring all the audio from all characters together and balance all of them out neatly volume-wise, pace the recordings out, add in sound effects and music as necessary and balance them out too (a common mistake is making music too loud for the audience to understand what the characters are saying because the sound editor already knows what the characters are saying, so there’s a disconnect). With enough time you will have an excellent audio skeleton for your animation, even with a low budget.

I’ll be honest in that I am much less experienced in animation than I am in audio so I cannot offer all the advice in the world, but here’s what I can say. With the technology available today you are able to create a lot of striking imagery. Whether you use a cheap animation program (do people still use Anime Studio?), Powerpoint, or a more typical program acquired through illegal means (which I would not say here that I condone, but I am aware it happens and people do what people do), there is no stopping you from coming up with unique visuals. I think in the object show community people get pretty caught up in keeping up standard animation conventions, simply making smooth motions and a good frame-rate and making sure everything looks “professional.” That is a luxury, and especially when you are starting out it is far from necessary.

What you want when you are starting out are visuals that are striking. Creative. Memorable. You’re working in animation, the most fluid and fun medium out there! You can spend all day getting bogged down in the basics of movement, which can be important down the line, but what is unique to you is the style that you bring to the table. Make characters do what only animated characters can do. Make characters pose in ways that people can think back on in wonder. As an object show, think of challenges that make characters do the absurd or push them to physical limits. Inanimate Insanity does not get to hit on this often but it is something I value in animation. You can impress people with or without the best animation program in town, it’s just more trying. But far more rewarding.

So much of the magic of object show community is that it works as a training grounds. Create create create! This is the time to do the weird and meaningful things that you might not have an opportunity to create far down the line when responsibilities get in the way. It doesn’t matter in the slightest if your work is perfect, so long as you are creating something and getting it out there and, above all, expressing yourself- I am impressed.

I know that most of this has been more to general show production and not more specifically to object show production, but I think it is important to note that it does work the same as any other show. People will always appreciate good, strong stories, as well as the bare minimum put into your audio and visuals. Effort means the world.

You got this.

#inanimate insanity #jay rambles #jay tutorial

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